Last year the Mystery Writers of America de-listed the publisher, writing: “We have been hearing an unusually high number of reports from our members of unpaid advances and withheld royalties on their Dorchester books.” The publisher switched to an eBook and print-on-demand model in August, and a number of authors have complained about payment and rights problems. Keene has added the graphic embedded above to his Twitter feed.

Here’s an excerpt from Keene’s boycott essay: “someone asked me why we (the authors) didn’t just seek legal means. Well, I can’t speak for any of the other authors involved, but I’ll tell you why I haven’t — because I’m broke. I’m broke because Dorchester didn’t pay me what was owed, and then I gambled to get my rights back, and then they continued to f*** me. And yes, I’ve got a nice new deal with Deadite and Ghoul starts filming next month, but I won’t see checks from either of those until a few months from now, and until then, I can barely pay the rent and eat anything more than Ramen noodles, let alone hire an attorney. So I’m asking you to boycott Dorchester Publishing and Leisure Books. I said above that I can’t speak for my fellow authors, but I can tell you that many of them are in the same situation — or worse.”

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The New York Times reports: “One particularly big target is manga comic books that depict pubescent girls in sexual acts. It a lucrative segment of the $5.5 billion industry for manga … The new Tokyo law, which applies to anyone under 18, bans the sale of comics and other works — including novels, DVDs and video games — that depict sexual or violent acts that would violate Japan’s national penal code, as well as sex involving anyone under age 18. ”

Japanese publishers, lawyers, and manga artists will fight the ordinance. Ten publishers, including Japan’s largest publishing company Kodansha, intend to boycott the Tokyo International Anime Fair in protest–arguing that the law hinders free speech. What do you think?

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