For years Dan Moon judiciously tinkered away at his memoir. The story of a lawyer and single father who worked as an escort named “Mitch”, his memoir was about a clientele of middle-aged women seeking pleasure, including Sam, recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, who wanted a final, no-strings-attached lover. Dan Moon, who wrote about his alter ego Mitch Larsson, an escort.
He is now suing his own publisher over the book. “I poured everything into the book, literally my blood, sweat, tears and soul. I’d been knocked back by the major publishers, they didn’t want to take a gamble on an unknown .
.. the book industry is like that, unless you have connections or a profile, they’re not interested,” Moon told the Herald and The Age .
Moon estimates thousands of copies were sold, but says he has only received a fraction of the royalties he claims he’s owed after signing with “hybrid publisher” Shawline Publishing. Moon is one of more than a dozen angry authors, many of whom have commenced or are engaged in legal disputes over publishing contracts signed with a man named “Brad Shaw”, listed as the managing director of the modest Ballarat-based publishing house. The furore has exposed a dark corner of the Australian publishing industry where would-be bestselling authors are signing restrictive contracts and handing over thousands of dollars to self-styled “hybrid publishers” to have their “passion projects” launched into the marketplace, but with little chance of ever making decent money.
Brad Shaw at his now defunct bookshop in Ballarat. Credit: Australian Community Media A Herald and Age investigation has revealed Brad Shaw’s real name is Edwin Jason McBride, who according to company records is the owner and director of Shawline Publishing. EJ McBride is also listed among Shawline’s “bestselling authors”, including one book billed as “tales from the mind of a self-confessed nutter”.
Company records also reveal Edwin Jason McBride was formerly known as Brad McBride. Shaw, or McBride, has been bankrupted three times. A decade ago, he collapsed in an Adelaide courtroom after pleading guilty to a criminal charge of distributing pornographic pictures on his website.
.
