The Sad Saga of DSP

I read a lot, and I have a lot of on-line acquaintances who write and publish with Dreamspinner Press. There have been problems - big problems - the cracks of which began appearing last year. Several of the authors I know pulled their libraries and moved either to other publishers or switched over to self-publishing. A lot of words and accusations were thrown back and forth from both sides - those who left were condemned, those who stayed were accused of a variety of crimes, not least that of stupidity. I don't think they were stupid, as much as hopeful and putting a positive spin on the situation, liking the public side of DSP. I also heard comments from some of those who stayed that they simply didn't want to be bothered with the extra workload of self-publishing, or were in the process of ending pending contracts they had with DSP. 

The quality of authors and books published by DSP was always
extremely high. Within the genre of GRL, they were the top
of the top. The mighty are falling now. 

It's not often that a publisher gets publicly scolded and scored in a magazine as distinguished in the field as "Publisher's Weekly", but DSP just reached that high (low) status. On January 17th, the magazine published the story "Dreamspinner Press Restructures as Authors Cry Foul" (just follow the link to read the article in full). There are a lot of people I'm in fairly constant contact with who are getting seriously hurt by this. There are books and authors I've looked for on Barnes & Noble or Amazon websites whose books are suddenly not listed because the authors have pulled their libraries away from DSP and are now in the position of having to re-list their books themselves, or find another publisher for both new and older works. These are people who want to write but who are suddenly pushed into self-publishing in a harsh and difficult world. 

TJ Klune's "The House In the Cerulean Sea" will
be released this year and it's already hitting the lists
as a "must read". He left DSP last year, pulled his
books, and has relisted most of them himself as an
independent. He was signed to a six-figure contract
by Tor last year. This book is the first of six he's
writing for them.  

Some of these people won't make it. Their older library of published works will fade into the sunset. ?Some authors will put current works onto their shelves at home and try to manage getting their books back out there. Suddenly checks will be much less, if they arrive at all. Suddenly finances will become a problem for some prolific authors and that chasm of uncertainty about what to do will loom ahead of them. There are a lot of people whose 2020 just became a lot harder. 

My friend Tinnean, who has 63 books on Goodreads,
had her contract renewal declined from DSP a year
or two ago. She pulled her library from them and has
been self-publishing since. It's looking as if she
might have dodged a bullet. 

Even though there are authors staying with DSP, at least to finish books under contract with them, I wonder how long they'll walk the planks of this sinking ship. In the old days (being within the past decade - so not THAT old), Dreamspinner Press was considered the cream-de-la-cream of publishers in the genre. If an author published with DSP, it was almost a guarantee of a well-written, well-edited and well-promoted book that would be sold and promoted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other venues. Now I'm hearing crickets at their dying hearth and I'm angered and saddened by the plight of many friends. 

On that note, I've got to get going. I'm almost running late! I'll be back tomorrow for my "day off" and I wish all of you a wonderful and successful day.