Decline of Alyson Books

Curatorial Statement

This curation focuses on the latter phase of Alyson Books, which switched over from the name Alyson Publications in 2008 (Bajko). We are particularly interested in the company's adaptation to e-books amidst the shifting market dynamics around 2010, as well as an increase in internet-based publications (Deahl). Our selection of published texts that we will discuss focus not on their content per se, but instead the intersection of their publishing timeline with this pivotal transition in the history of Alyson Books.

Introduction

In its final years, Alyson Books faced significant financial troubles, in part due to the struggles of its parent company, Here Media. This culminated in unpaid advances and unpublished books, which the author Michael Musto bemoaned in his Village Voice article in August 2010. 

2003

Miscellaneous Events:
Alyson Books publishes the second version of Leslie Feinberg's novel, Stone Butch Blues.

2009

Miscellaneous Events:
Alyson Books publishes The Silver Hearted: A Novel, by David McConnell, and Mapping the Territory: Selected Nonfiction by Christopher Bram. Though we could not find explicit documentation regarding what Alyson's  final books were, our research on WorldCat.org led us to presume that they were likely these two, due to the fact that their contracts were initiated a year before Alyson Books shifted from codex publications to digital. According to a July 2010 article by Ryan Tedder, the only reason why these two books were able to be published was due to McConnell and Bram both being friends with Alyson's then-editor Don Weise.

In the summer of 2009, Michael Musto's new book, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back, was submitted to Alyson Books for publication.

2010

Spring: Around this time, several freelance writers began airing complaints towards Alyson's parent company, Regent/Here Media, for a failure to pay them in a timely manner.

Nearly eight months have gone by since that letter and still no check. I recently emailed Edwards again and he referred me to the company’s finance department. They checked their computers and saw that, indeed, I was owed $175. They provided no rationale for this negligence and apologetically promised to pay me. Nearly four weeks later the check has still not been mailed. I have called the office of Here Media’s CFO repeatedly over the past few weeks. Each time I receive more promises of payment that go undelivered. In short: The Advocate [Another Regent-owned company] owes me money, they know they owe me money and have refused to pay me for over a year.

Have you been stiffed by The Advocate too? Email us your story. We’ll publish it with as much righteous indignation as your story demands, and probably then some.

- Matthew Fleischer

[You'd] think the seas would be a bit calmer at Paul Colichman’s Regent/Here Media. Well they would, if they didn’t owe freelancers so much money that one is comparing the whole operation to a Ponzi scheme. It would be funny, if it wasn’t affecting people’s livelihoods.

- Queerty Staff

Summer: Michael Musto writes an article that also criticizes Regent Media for "holding [his] book hostage" - referring to how Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back still had not been published.

I’d delivered the entire package in the summer of ’09, but I never received any communication about it in terms of editing or marketing except when I anxiously pushed for info. Occasionally, I’d email my editor, 'Is the book still happening?' 'Oh, yes,' he swore, maybe hoping against hope. 'But will there be galleys as promised?' I wondered. 'Oh, sure,' he’d say, optimistically. 'Probably in two days. It shouldn’t take longer than that.' How was I to know that two days would morph into two weeks, two months, and eventually into the 12th of never?

- Michael Musto

Fall: Here Media announces Alyson Books will restructure into an eBook-only publisher to reduce print expenditures (“Alyson Books”). Authors were provided with two choices: either continue with an e-book publication or cancel the contract and be returned the rights to their book (“Alyson Books”). This decision also involved the departure of Don Weise - Alyson's editor since 2008 who had spent the previous weeks trying to purchase Alyson Books from Here Media. At one point in discussing the purchase, this would have entailed Weise's becoming responsible for the publishers' debts to its authors as a result of unfulfilled contracts. In a statement, Weise had this to say:

It’s heartbreaking that Here Media and I could not reach an agreement. [...] I worked for months to get a deal done—not just for myself, but especially for the many authors whose work has defined Alyson for the past 30 years.

After shopping the press around to several publishers, it became clear that the only way to preserve Alyson was for me to assemble financing to purchase the company myself. But even after offering a price that I believe to be twice the fair market value, we were unable to come to an agreement. [...] LGBT books will continue to perform solidly. [...] The literature is more mainstream than ever with more outlets to reach gay consumers and more public awareness and support around LGBT issues. [...] Alyson is now solely in the hands of Here Media. I wish them the best.

- Don Weise

2012

Spring: After a long legal dispute, Leslie Feinberg regained the rights to Stone Butch Blues, which is now available for free as a PDF on hir website.

I had to work to recover my rights to Stone Butch Blues. When the first publisher [Firebrand Books] went into Chapter 11 court, I had to spend thousands of dollars of my wages on legal fees to recover the right to this novel, and to Minnie Bruce Pratt’s book of poems, Crime Against Nature.

While very ill in Spring 2012, I recovered my rights again.

Once and for all, I hold the author copyright—by law and by labor—to Stone Butch Blues. The novel is not represented by a literary agency. I hold all digital rights.

- Leslie Feinberg

What Caused Alyson Books' Decline?

The decline of Alyson Books as a company can be partially attributed to economic factors surrounding the 2008 Recession and the rise of electronic book mediums. The impact of the 2008 recession placed millions out of work, with unemployment in the United States peaking at 10% in 2009 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Immediately, the effects of the stock market crash hit the writing and publishing fields in the United States as hundreds of magazines and newspapers were forced to shut down (Boog). Approximately eight percent of printing plants closed between 2008 and 2009 (Multimediaman). 

Simultaneously, authors and companies now had to adapt to the evolving ecology of the publishing world. E-reader products such as Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle Direct Publishing, released in 2007 set precedents for digitally accessible texts (BWC Team). The Internet's democratic nature aided authors in self-publishing as the circulation of texts was made easier. While electronic and digitally accessible texts brought about many positive changes, its introduction during an economic recession proved difficult for many publishing companies to manage. Journalist Jason Boog sheds light on the issue, writing, “According to the Department of Labor, the printing and traditional publishing sector shed well over 134,000 jobs during the Great Recession. This was part of a much larger set of losses as digital technology disrupted traditional publishing (Boog). The simultaneity of these two events proved detrimental to the publishing sphere.

Works Cited

“Alyson Books Will Restructure as E-Book Only House; Weise Leaves.” Publishers Weekly, 1 Oct. 2010, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44678-alyson-books-will-restructure-as-e-book-only-house-weise-leaves.html.

Bajko, Matthew S. “Breaking News: Planetout to Sell off Magazines.” The Bay Area Reporter Online, 10 Apr. 2008, web.archive.org/web/20090609115342/ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2894.

Bendix, Trish. “The Fight over Leslie Feinberg’s ‘Stone Butch Blues.’” INTO, 28 May 2018, www.intomore.com/culture/the-fight-over-leslie-feinbergs-stone-butch-blues/.

Boog, Jason. “How Did Writers Survive the First Great Depression?” Literary Hub, 20 Apr. 2020, lithub.com/how-did-writers-survive-the-first-great-depression/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Department%20of,digital%20technology%20disrupted%20traditional%20publishing.

Boyd, Danah. “Danah Boyd: Apophenia.” Danah Boyd Apophenia, 1 Sept. 2003, www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2003/09/01/stone_butch_blues.html.

BWC Team. "The Significance of E-Books in the Book Publishing Industry.” Book Writing Cube, 29 May 2023, www.bookwritingcube.com/significance-of-ebooks-in-the-book-publishing-industry/.

Deahl, Rachel. “Is Alyson Close to Sale?” Publishers Weekly, 19 Aug. 2010, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44209-is-alyson-close-to-sale.html.

“Don Weise Wishes Alyson the Best.” Lambda Literary, 11 Oct. 2010, lambdaliterary.org/2010/10/don-weise-wishes-alyson-the-best/.

Feinberg, Leslie. “Words.” Leslie Feinberg, www.lesliefeinberg.net/words/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2024.

Gonzalez, Antonio. “Breaking News about Alyson Books.” Lambda Literary, 4 Oct. 2010, web.archive.org/web/20101008133053/https://lambdaliterary.org/features/news/10/04/news-about-alyson/.

“Is Alyson Close to Sale?” Publishers Weekly, 19 Aug. 2010, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44209-is-alyson-close-to-sale.html.

“Is Paul Colichman’s Regent/Here Media One Big Ponzi Scheme?” Queerty, 23 Mar. 2010, www.queerty.com/is-paul-colichmans-regenthere-media-one-big-ponzi-scheme-20100323.

Multimediaman. “Print Media and the Great Recession.” Multimediaman, 19 Jan. 2011, multimediaman.blog/2011/01/19/print-media-the-great-recession/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20PIA%20report,falling%20between%202008%20and%202009.

Musto, Michael. “Regent Media Is Holding My New Book Hostage.” The Village Voice, 18 Aug. 2010, www.villagevoice.com/2010/08/18/regent-media-is-holding-my-new-book-hostage/.

Nolan, Hamilton. “Freelancers Say Out, The Advocate Not Paying Writers - Freelancers.” Gawker, 19 Mar. 2010, web.archive.org/web/20100322214857/gawker.com/5497300/freelancers-say-out-the-advocate-not-paying-writers.

Nolan, Hamilton. “Regent/Here Media: Colossal Deadbeats - Deadbeats.” Gawker, 23 Mar. 2010, web.archive.org/web/20100326112352/https://gawker.com/5499957/regent-here-media-colossal-deadbeats.

Schrieve, Hal. “Why Is It so Hard to Find Leslie Feinberg’s ‘Stone Butch Blues’?” The New York Public Library, 10 Mar. 2010, www.nypl.org/blog/2020/03/10/hard-find-leslie-feinbergs-stone-butch-blues.

Tedder, Ryan. “Is Broke Regent Media Unloading Destitute Alyson Books?” Queerty, 23 July 2010, www.queerty.com/is-broke-regent-media-unloading-destitute-alyson-books-20100722.

"The Advocate Says Air America Owes Rachel Maddow $4k. But How Much Does The Advocate Owe Its Talent?" Queerty, 6 Feb. 2010, https://www.queerty.com/the-advocate-says-air-america-owes-rachel-maddow-4k-but-how-much-does-the-advocate-owe-its-talent-20100206.

Thrasher, Steven. “Michael Musto, Author at the Village Voice.” The Village Voice, 27 Aug. 2010, www.villagevoice.com/author/michaelmusto/.

Triplett, Michael R. “More Complaints about Unpaid Freelancers at Regent Media.” The NLGJA Blog, 13 July 2010, nlgjareact.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/more-complaints-about-unpaid-freelancers-at-regent-media/. 

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Recession of 2007–2009. 2012, www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/recession/pdf/recession_bls_spotlight.pdf.