My experiences with Donald M. Grant Inc.
Below are the reasons that I don't want to see DMG get another SK book--especially a new novel involving new material and doubly so if that edition would be the world first.
I remember people criticizing Scribner regarding their S/Ls but they did an incredible job in comparison to what Grant did with The Wind Through The Keyhole.
Please feel free to share your experience as well--good, or bad.
To Mr. Stephen King and anyone else it may concern,
As a preface, I am a fairly new collector compared to some—though I am seasoned enough that I have dealt with a good number of publishers. My first dealing with DMG involving a new release was with the release of The Wind Through The Keyhole.
When I first heard news of the new Dark Tower novel I was enamored with the idea of being able to purchase a brand new S/L of the series from the legendary company that started it all. I look back now and see that I had put the company on a bit of a pedestal and I guess that was naïve of me but I just thought it would be a lot of fun to buy these special editions of a brand new novel.
After months spent hunting down a copy of Little Sisters Of Eluria which would allow me to purchase a TWTTK S/L, I was so excited when I placed my order mid-December of 2011. I ordered the S/L, an Artist Edition, and a few other things.
I ordered the AE as many did in order to be able to read this new novel as Grant’s publication was going to be the World First Edition. Friends ordered it as well so we could all get it as soon as possible, and discuss it among ourselves etc.
What actually ended up happening in the end was much disappointment and the feeling of being cheated.
The release date of February 21, 2012 came and went. Weeks passed by and reports of people receiving their Artist Edition were trickling in on fan forums. Grant released a newsletter asking customers not to bother calling or emailing regarding orders as that only slows down the process. This newsletter was very rude in tone and disrespectful. It became apparent that no copies of the S/L had yet been shipped--even weeks after the official release date--and it was generally assumed that the S/L was as yet unfinished. Those who ordered an artist edition along with the S/L were having to wait to get their AE because Grant wanted to ship them all out together. Customers were never warned of this shipping procedure when placing orders and many who ordered the very expensive S/L were greatly disappointed by this.
More weeks passed by. The Scribner trade release date of April 24 came and still no word from Grant and no order received. It’s safe to say that many anxious readers ordered the AE for the sole purpose of being able to read the new stories as soon as possible, so this was extremely disappointing for them.
I stubbornly refused to email or call Grant regarding my order. They don’t want annoying customers calling them? Fine. Let’s see how well they operate with this unprofessional policy theirs. Of course all this time I’m wondering if maybe there was a mix-up with my order. Still, I kept my mouth shut and did not bother the people at Grant with my concern regarding my order—now nearing 10 weeks past publication date, 2 weeks past trade release date, and 5 months past the original order date…
It is the second week of May when members of TheDarkTower.org are gleefully reporting the receipt of their AE which they had ordered less than 2 weeks beforehand… and with that news I could maintain silence no longer. I emailed Grant asking where my order is and TWO weeks later I finally get a reply from Karen claiming that she had been waiting for me to provide a picture of the limitation page of my book (which I had already done way back in January).
So there was a problem with my order after all—something that a simple moment of communication could have cleared up if not for this ridiculous request of theirs that basically said DON’T BOTHER US.
A few emails bounce back and forth between myself and Karen and I bite my tongue, don’t complain and finally on May 29 she tells me that she has the clarification she needed [she found the email with the attached image after I provided the date and time it was sent], so I assume I will be receiving my order soon then, right? Not quite…
On June 9, with no more emails from Karen and still no order I email her again, now demanding to know where my order is. I tell her how ridiculous it is that other people are receiving orders that they placed 6 MONTHS after mine. 2 days later I get an email stating nothing more than that my order is going out that day via Media Mail. 11 days after that I finally received my order… and it was not a happy day.
My S/L had a dogeared dust jacket corner and the damaged endpapers that some reported and posted pictures of online. Knowing that such a scenario is the reason that Publisher Copies are produced, I explain the defect and request a replacement. [If I pay hundreds of dollars for a new book after I had to pay $800 for the copy of LSOE just for the rights to buy this book, it had better be NEW…]
17 days pass before I receive a reply from Robert Weiner stating that Karen is on vacation. He tells me that he cannot send me a replacement because all of the S/L books were damaged in this way (which I know to be false). He also tells me that if I send the book in they can use markers to try to repair the damage. [Markers?!?]
Shocked by this lie and appalled by the idea of using markers to “repair” the book I flat-out tell Robert that I know at least one other customer has received a replacement copy for a damaged book and I would like a replacement copy.
7 days pass before I receive a reply from Karen telling me that I would be receiving a replacement. 8 days later I receive an AE rather than the S/L replacement. I email Karen explaining I needed a replacement S/L, not a replacement AE and by some miracle only 2 days pass before Karen gets back to me--apologizing for the mistake and promising to get a replacement S/L out to me right away. A week later—now August 1—I receive an email from Karen stating that the replacement would be one of these “fixed” copies that were “repaired” with markers.
Finally, acknowledging the truth that I would never receive my new condition copy that I had to shell out over a thousand dollars for, I replied to this email by simply stating that any marker technique would only further damage the book and I declined this offer.
On October 10 a newsletter was sent from Grant, advertising a number of Deluxe PC and AE copies of TWTTK that had been remarqued by Jae Lee. I don’t know if any or all of these were “fixed” copies but I never saw a report that they had been damaged at all. Did management at Grant decide to use undamaged PC copies to further profiteer? Who knows, but it’s certainly a possibility. Not long after the sale of these remarqued copies, another Grant newsletter was released explaining that Karen French had been fired from DMG. Apparently it involved Paypal money transfers but I know no additional details.
If that wasn’t all, I was also informed by a very keen member of TheDarkTower.org that on June 26 Karen French had posted in the Collectible Classifieds thread letting people know that she had put one of the S/L TWTTK on ebay for sale for nearly three times issue price. It was #716--not a simple PC copy--meaning that one less copy would be available for people who should get a shot at a copy via the lottery.
In doing this, Grant violated their own policy regarding the distribution of these editions. To be clear: one must own a copy of LSOE #800 or less to be able to purchase a copy of TWTTK Deluxe edition. Anyone with a S/L numbered higher than 800 would be allowed in the postcard lottery for unclaimed copies. So Grant ignored their own policy, choosing to sell on ebay for their own personal gain.
I wish that I could stop there—I really do. But it’s also fairly well known among collectors that the above wasn’t the first occasion in which employees of Grant demonstrated the lacking of an ethical compass.
When Little Sisters Of Eluria was released, the description page on the Grant website told of a number of Artist Editions of that title that had been remarqued by Michael Whelan and with the purchase of said title, one may be lucky enough to receive one of these. The author of this text even went as far as to suggest that one of these rare remarqued books may be worth a thousand dollars… and thus, a treasure hunt was born.
Collectors and fans ordered this title hoping to get one of these special books and amazingly there were no initial reports of anyone receiving one. Eventually some did surface—and the source? Karen French.
Karen sold some to collectors on the secondary market for many, many times the issue price, and now that the LSOE AE has sold out there is much doubt that these remarqued books were ever randomly distributed among those sold to customers at issue price.
Now that Karen is no longer with DMG, maybe the unethical element of the company is gone as well but there is much that is still unknown. Why was she able to sell these items? Was she given a directive by management to do so?
I have dealt with Robert Weiner directly and he does seem like a very kind and authentic professional, but that’s only how I perceived him through email communication. I have never asked him about any of these matters and don’t plan to. It’s not any of my business. But it should be the business of Mr. King if any contract is being violated by the unethical distribution of some of these books when they are intended for customers.
Maybe DMG should not publish anymore of Mr. King’s books if they aren’t making enough profit by the production alone, when they feel the need to nickel and dime customers regarding shipping expenses; when they refuse to payout a small amount to hire help so that they get orders to customers in a timely matter; when they—on more than one occasion—have taken it upon themselves to sell some of these books for many times issue price on the secondary market against their own company policies and which may or may not be in violation of the contract of distribution agreed to with the office of Mr. King.
I write this letter because I truly would not like to go through this again. DMG does not deserve the privilege of publishing another Stephen King book when they choose greed over integrity; when they demonstrate such a low level of professionalism and bad business decisions.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Adam Worden
Originally Posted by Cutter
