Leisure Books

About Leisure Books

Leisure Books was a New York mass-market paperback imprint founded in 1957 by Harry Shorten, best known in its later years as Dorchester Publishing's horror line.

In its early decades Leisure published fantasy, science fiction and Westerns, including reissues of Max Brand. Around 1982 it became an imprint of Dorchester Publishing, a New York mass-market house dating from 1971 that was known chiefly for romance, and its focus moved towards horror. Don D'Auria was its executive editor from 1995 to 2010, and by 2000 Leisure was the only American publisher with a dedicated horror line. Its horror authors included Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum, Brian Keene, Douglas Clegg, Ray Garton, Edward Lee, Graham Masterton and Sarah Pinborough, and it also kept a Western list with titles by T. V. Olsen and Zane Grey.

After two years of falling sales, Dorchester announced in August 2010 that it would stop printing its mass-market lines, Leisure included, and move to e-books and print on demand. Protests from authors over cancelled and unfulfilled contracts followed, including a 2011 boycott led by Brian Keene, and Leisure ceased operating. In August 2012 Amazon Publishing bought the contracts for more than 1,000 Dorchester titles at auction, with authors given the choice of joining Amazon or having their rights returned.