Dorchester Gets New CEO and Returns to Print

Amid author complaints and questions about sales of reverted rights, Dorchester CEO John Prebich has left the publishing house and Robert Anthony has been named as the new CEO, brought in to “revitalize” the company. They have retracted earlier announcements about going entirely digital, stating that they are now planning a full trade paperback line in addition to e-publishing, with five or six reissued titles to be released in print for January through April and new books to be introduced in both trade paperback and e-book formats in May. The projected schedule after May will be five to ten titles per month, to be released under the Dorchester Trade Publishing brand; the company will retain the Leisure Arts and Love Spell imprints for possible future development.

Anthony, previously the CEO and CFO at Backe Marketing, plans to “reorganize and improve the accounting and internal financial reporting structure,” including a review of the royalty process. In response to author complaints about missing and late payments, head of sales Tim DeYoung has stated that Dorchester has sent checks to authors over the last two weeks, with more to follow. Looking forward, Anthony aims for “an atmosphere of transparency and efficiency that was heretofore lacking…. We know people will be watching us carefully.”