There had to be at least one bad indie publisher out there.

[David Brzeski]

I'm currently reading a volume of 'The Worlds Of Philip José Farmer' & it reprints a fascinating article about how in 1953 'Science Fiction Plus' magazine printed a story under Farmer's byline which just simply didn't bear much resemblance to the story he submitted. The heavily "edited" version they printed was really bad & garnered Farmer some terrible reviews. I put "edited" in inverted commas, because we're not talking about editing here. We're talking about rewriting, adding stuff Farmer didn't write, in fact totally changing the story (and not for the better) without bothering to even inform the author, let alone asking permission.

It's an odd & depressing coincidence, that I then come across this story of how a current indie publisher has given a new author the exact same treatment in 2012.
http://mandydegeit.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/when-publishing-goes-wrong-starring-undead-press/

[Stephen Theaker]

A horrid story. In the comments I pointed her in the direction of the Berne Convention:

“Independently of the author’s economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation.”

I was once at a FantasyCon panel on editing and heard an editor working for a biggish UK publisher say he'd done something very similar. A character was trapped in a cell without a plausible way of escaping and he didn't have time to go back to the author so he rewrote the book to make the character gay so that he could seduce his way out. My jaw literally dropped.

You'd be amazed how many authors I've worked with on TQF and Dark Horizons have never received proofs of their work before, often people with several previous credits.

[Stephen Theaker]

By the way, +1 on the PJF article - fascinating article, and a very good book.

[CarolineC]

Disgusting treatment of that poor writer. Well done to her for speaking out like that on a public blog.

[Ray]

That is shocking.  I mean, the character could have still seduced his way out without actually being gay - what an unnecessary rewrite.

Oh, I'm focussing on the wrong bit.  (Feel free to edit...)

Yeah, this is terrible and as I've said elsewhere on a forum, I'd be furious not only on moral grounds but because of false representation.  That work is now associated with that writer for better or worse.  And it sounds worse.  Very worse.

[David Brzeski]

She's by no means alone, both in the sense of not being the only writer that guy has screwed over & not being the only one to speak out in public about him. Even well-known authors like F. Paul Wilson have been warning about him online.
Apparently, he's the guy behind more than one imprint. Not only Undead Press, but also Open Casket Press and Living Dead Press.

[DavidJHowe]

It sounds like the MO of that well known plagiarist and rogue Mr Dave Byron/Iron Dave to me ... very similar responses, aggression, threats of legal action and a total disregard for the author (or indeed the readers) ...

http://www.sfwa.org/2010/10/cold-iron-david-boyer-plagiarist/

http://www.thehorrorzine.com/Beware/Boyer/DavidBoyerPlagiarist.html

Wonder if he's reinvented himself again ...

David

[Stephen Theaker]

It gets worse... http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1763027.html

[David Brzeski]

Interesting interview with the editor in question, Vincenzo Bilof, who comes over more naive & inexperienced than anything else.

http://www.booksofthedeadpress.com/2012/05/more-when-publishing-goes-wrong.html

[Stephen Theaker]

Very self-serving. All that talk about hypocrisy, how he didn't get paid much, making it sound like other publishers are kicking up a fuss so that they can gain financially, "everyone with fingers can twist these words into a blog of some sort"... Ugh.

All his responses boil down to this: no one told him that he was supposed to respect the author's work, so he didn't.