Goodbye Dreamspinner Press. You are now not anywhere near my Top ePublisher list.
I put you on because I was hearing really good things from writers and readers that you were new but you were treating writers and readers with a quality service and good products.
The problems began with your webpage which frankly sucks. I honestly had issues putting you on the same list as Loose Id a company from day one who spent the money necessary to proudly display their eBooks on their front page and who have seriously supported Gay Romance since they began.
It was a Loose Id trade print book I first saw in the gayest bookstore in the gayest neighborhood in the gayest city on the planet… A Different Light in San Francisco on Castro Street and the book was J.L. Langley ~ The Tin Star. Samhain actually followed the next year. Loose Id proved itself to me from that day that they were serious about getting their books out there to be read not just by “straight women” as was strongly suggested as “the only customers” at the time but also by gay men and women.
With my latest purchase from you reviewed here Lyn Gala ~ Gathering Storm representing what you now consider to be Gay Romance. I am sorry but you have stepped beyond a line I am willing to go. So maybe as Wave said you choose to trust in your editor’s definitions of Romance rather than listen to your readers but well that just will not fly here.
I feel ripped off as a reader who spent my hard earned money on a very disappointing eBook you recently published and I cannot support sending readers looking for Gay Romance to you with such lackadaisical non-standards.
Romance is a defined genre with standards, like it or not. Gay Romance is simply another flavor of that defined genre. You do not get to redefine it at will to pad your bottom line by misrepresenting such things to Gay Romance readers of which I am one.
Buh bye!
PS For those of you who insist I just don’t understand…
Here is the Dreamspinner Press Genre page
They have never had a category labeled “Gay Romance” and you know why? Because it was a given that was what you were buying. So no, on their messed up website using their messed up category system you will never find anything labeled Romance because it was all supposed to be Romance. For anyone to argue otherwise you would have to purposefully ignore a huge amount of Gay Romance reviews they have promoted to even begin to justify anything different. In any company I would label a Top ePublisher there should be no question as to what is being sold to the customer at the point of sale.
Tags: Dreamspinner Press
Jason wrote,
Admittedly, I haven’t read the book that you refer to in this post and I have to admit that I have seen a slight slip in quality from Dreamspinner but I’m confused what line was crossed that made you walk away from an entire publisher over this one book. Help me understand.
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Wave wrote,
TP
See my comment on the Lyn Gala book.
I think this publisher is doing a good job – I just have a problem with a few of the books they classify as M/M romance which I mentioned in an interview, and they provided their explanation.
I have read and reviewed many of DSP’s romances and the majority of them (except for a few exceptions) stick to the defined Romance designation. Maybe they are stretching things a bit but so are a few other publishers, except they make it clear when a book is not strictly an M/M romance, so the reader is not surprised.
DSP has only been in business for 3 years and has come a long way during that time and of course they will make mistakes. However, it’s your prerogative to decide to take them off your list but I feel that they are just experimenting and it’s up to us to hold their feet to the fire.
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
The key thing I have to rely on is my experience…
To explain my reasoning I have bought junky Romance books from many ePublishers like say Ellora’s Cave who you will also note is not on my list…
I never faulted Ellora’s Cave for this particular problem though you have good days and you have bad days. I have to admit in the end I bought them as Romance and they have always been even poorly written… Romance. Even if I hated them with a passion beyond belief I still had to admit they were Romance.
When I start buying things from an ePublisher that are not even Gay Romance but are also just plain bad.
I am pulling this one and I have no problem doing so.
It’s not like I won’t go over there and get my K.Z. Snow fix just like I still go and review Ellora’s Cave books when they rate a mention or Samantha Kane puts out one of her eBooks but I am not sending folks over to a poorly presented, poorly organized, BAD experience like that.
NO NO NO
Top ePublishers do not pull this type of junk. You can buy all those same books at All Romance eBooks if they look any good and well, not feel the least bit like you are missing out not going to their website.
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
kel wrote,
It seems to me that DSP’s problem is two-fold – poor organization/display of titles and lack of proper categorization. The site is a mess (as we’ve discussed before), and based on the dialogue between you and Wave, if DSP really wants to branch out, they need to change their categories to reflect reader expectation, like Samhain, which has categories for GLBT as well as GBLT romance.
I haven’t read Gathering Storm, but would you have felt as disappointed with it had it been marketed strictly as a mystery? Or would you have removed DSP from your list anyway just for their craptastic website?
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Actually it should have been labeled Thriller or something like that.
That labeling business has turned into a huge thing with me. Remember the whole thing about rape not being labeled on a book properly? Well how about the whole book not being properly labeled?
But the thing is it did not really work well either way you looked at it and you would probably need an experienced editor in whatever those other genre you really wanted to branch out with.
It’s not like Romance has the only rules.
Quote me on this… You can’t be all things to everyone or you please no one.
As I said before this is simply “the last straw” situation. Or three strikes you are out or whatever you want to call it I am sure people will say whatever they want.
I have not seen things get better with these guys sure they have some good intelligent authors there but after that lineup the rest is basically a gamble and their website is not about to help you find anything and as I said people would be better off checking out whatever hits All Romance eBooks and rises to the top in this case if you know what I mean.
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
kel wrote,
I do know what you mean. I,too, generally get DSP stuff on ARe due to the DSP website. But I do go over there to check out the shorts, which often don’t make it to ARe.
Speaking of all things to all people, did you see that Samhain is developing a horror line?
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 5:51 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Well Samhain has published books other than romance but they know better than to mislabel genre to make a quick buck.
Link | January 19th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Kassa wrote,
A little late to the party but I’d agree that DSP has some major labeling issues. I’ve long, long, long called them out on the problems with their books NOT being gay romance books at all. Now many of their books are enjoyable and quality fiction, but they too often fall into gay fiction or gay literature (depending on your definitions).
I recently read Alan Chin’s Butterfly’s Child. That is not a romance story at all. It’s about the relationship between a father and son. Yet there is no disclaimer for such anywhere on the product description.
DSP also has on page m/f sex in some of their romances. As you are no doubt aware of TP, this is unlikely to go over well with more purist readers. Yet DSP refuses to add disclaimers. When asked I believe the publisher responded that warnings are not necessary since you don’t have warnings on other genres.
Well other genres don’t leap the shark like this and lie about their products like DSP. I still buy from them but I will not buy without reading reviews first so I know what I’m getting. They’re totally untrustworthy from their descriptions and the flat out lie about the type of company they are. That doesn’t mean their books are low quality but they are misleading.
IMO anyway.
Link | January 25th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
My thing is if you do not value the customer enough to label your product properly so as to not disappoint them what does that say about your true feelings for what you are selling.
No, not good at all.
I think everyone involved could do better including myself.
Link | January 25th, 2011 at 1:30 pm