Dorchester Publishing

Dorchester was the original publisher of the Hard Case Crime line of pulp-style mysteries. In addition, Dorchester distributes the Family Doctor series of health guides in the US and Canada. Their Love Spell imprint handles the newer types of romance, and complements their more traditional Leisure Books imprint. They also have an imprint for thrillers, the Smooch imprint for young adult literature, and Making It for trade paperback chick-lit novels.

Dorchester also publishes romance magazines such as True Confessions and True Story. Dorchester offers book clubs, fan registries, and a comprehensive website for readers. Dorchester books are featured in their "Dear Reader Book Clubs", which allows readers to read a chapter a day from the book for a week.

Dorchester Publishing was founded in 1971, and claims to be the oldest independent mass market publisher in America.

Dorchester acquired Leisure Books in c. 1982,{{cn|date=November 2018}} making it into a Dorchester imprint and eventually transitioning Leisure into a horror line.

They added the Love Spell imprint in 1993, and new thriller and young adult imprints in 2003. In 2004, they launched their trade paperback chick-lit imprint Making It, and with Charles Ardai they co-founded the Hard Case Crime imprint.

Also in 2004, Dorchester purchased magazine publisher Sterling/MacFadden, acquiring with it several romance magazines.

In August 2010, after two years of big drops in sales, Dorchester announced a temporary shift from printing books on paper to e-books and print-on-demand services.{{citation|title=Mass Romance Novel Publisher Going All in On E-Books|first=Jacqui|last=Cheng|date=August 11, 2010|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/mass-romance-novel-publisher-going-all-in-on-e-books/}}.{{citation|title=Dorchester Drops Mass Market Publishing for E-Book/POD Model|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44085-dorchester-drops-mass-market-publishing-for-e-book-pod-model.html|journal=Publishers Weekly|first=Jim|last=Milliot|date=August 6, 2010}}.{{citation|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44131-confusion-backtracking-at-dorchester-after-all-digital-headlines.html|journal=Publishers Weekly|first=Rachel|last=Deahl|date=August 11, 2010|title=Confusion, Backtracking at Dorchester After 'All Digital' Headlines}}. At the same time, they announced that they would be setting new royalty rates for their authors. However, in October 2010, the Mystery Writers of America removed Dorchester from their list of Approved Publishers citing failure to pay authors their advances and royalties.{{citation|title=Dorchester Publishing De-Listed by Mystery Writers of America|first=Jason|last=Boog|publisher=GalleyCat|date=October 28, 2010|url=http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/dorchester-publishing-de-listed-by-mystery-writers-of-america_b15390}}. In November, Dorchester's former CEO, John Prebich, resigned and was replaced by Robert Anthony; Anthony promised that his first step would be to review the publisher's royalty process.{{citation|journal=Publishers Weekly|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/45199-dorchester-hires-new-ceo-sets-new-plan.html|title=Dorchester Hires New CEO; Sets New Plan|first1=Rachel|last1=Deahl|first2=Jim|last2=Milliot|date=November 16, 2010}}. In October 2010, Dorchester announced that publication of the Hard Case Crime imprint would be transferred from Dorchester to Titan Books,{{citation|title=Hard Case Crime to Relaunch with Titan Publishing|first=Jason|last=Boog|url=http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/hard-case-crime-titan-publishing_b14592|date=October 20, 2010|publisher=GalleyCat|access-date=March 30, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028221612/http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/hard-case-crime-titan-publishing_b14592|archive-date=October 28, 2010|url-status=dead}}. and in January and February 2011, Dorchester offered to sell off the names of several of its discontinued magazines.{{citation|url=http://www.foliomag.com/2011/dorchester-media-puts-entertainment-select-romance-mag-assets-block|journal=Folio|title=Dorchester Media Puts Entertainment, Select Romance Mag Assets on the Block|date=February 8, 2011|first=Stefanie|last=Botelho}}.

At the end of 2011, BroadLit purchased the subscriber databases and content of True Romance and True Love magazines—including more than 12,000 stories, photos, and illustrations from the 1920s to 2011. BroadLit is publishing both print and e-book compilations of stories from the magazines, grouped by themes, under the TruLOVE Collection umbrella.{{citation|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/51636-trulovestories-vintage-romance-meets-electronic-distribution.html|journal=Publishers Weekly|title=TruLOVEstories: Vintage Romance Meets Electronic Distribution|date=April 23, 2012}}.

In March 2011, horror author Brian Keene announced a boycott of Dorchester over claims that it was still not paying its authors and that it had sold books to which it did not own the sales rights; Keene was joined by dozens of other authors, editors, artists, and organizations.{{citation|title=Dorchester Publishing Boycott Launched|first=Jason|last=Boog|publisher=GalleyCat|date=March 25, 2011|url=http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/dorchester-boycott-publishing-boycott-launched_b26375|access-date=March 27, 2011|archive-date=January 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150111035623/http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/dorchester-boycott-publishing-boycott-launched_b26375|url-status=dead}}. Dorchester responded by promising to suppress sales of reverted books and to pay its authors what they are owed.{{citation|title=Dorchester Promises to Do Right by Authors |first=Jim|last=Milliot|date=March 29, 2011|journal=Publishers Weekly|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/46657-dorchester-promises-to-do-right-by-authors.html}}.

In August 2012 Amazon Publishing announced that it had acquired at auction the publishing contacts of over 1000 books from Dorchester Publishing. Dorchester authors were offered the opportunity to join Amazon Publishing and receive the full back royalties that Dorchester indicated were owed. Under the terms of Amazon's bid, any former Dorchester Publishing authors that chose not to work with Amazon Publishing will have their rights revert to them to pursue other publishing opportunities including self-publishing via the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.{{citation|title=Amazon Publishing buys 1000 Titles From Defunct Dorchester|first=Laura Hazard|last=Owen|date=August 30, 2012|url=http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/30/amazon-publishing-buys-1000-titles-from-defunct-dorchester/}}.

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• {{Official website|https://web.archive.org/web/20070106195303/http://www.dorchesterpub.com:80/}}

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Category:Book publishing companies based in New York (state)

Category:Publishing companies established in 1971

Category:American companies established in 1971

Category:1971 establishments in New York City