Author fights back Undead!

A few weeks ago, Mandy DeGeit had her short story published in an anthology by the Undead Press. When she received her copy though, the title of her story, as well as the content, had been altered. She had complained about this to her publisher Anthony Giangregorio. This is the response she got:

wow, i truly cant believe that e,mail. you go girl. this one one hell of a story about dealing with unstable writers

lets see
on the contract, it clearly says publisher has the right to EDIT work. you signed it. are you saying you are a dishonest and immoral person and will now try to deny you signed the contract? well i have a copy right here
and as for the story. the editor had a hard time with it, it was very rough and he did alot to make it readable. despite what you think, your writing has a long way to go before its worthy of being printed professionally.
we did what we had to do to make the story printable. you should be thankful, not complaining. ah, the ungrateful writer, gotta love it
the contract also says any disagreements you have about the contract must be filed legally in Massachusetts and when you lose, you must pay all court costs.
so, we are done here. any more correspondences from you must be from your lawyer. i will then send any of those letters to my lawyer and they can hash it out as i dont waste my time arguing with writers over legalities. thats what lawyers are for.
you are so funny. thanks for this email, it truly made my day. (source)

She shortly received three more emails from him over the next few days, all of them showing a disrespectful attitude. After posting about her story on her blog, it was revealed that other authors that were published by Undead Press had the same (sometimes even worse) problems. The anthology has been pulled from all shelves.

They have said it before, and I will say it again: Be sure to check the background of any publisher or agent before you sign on with them. Publishers and Editors should not be allowed to change/edit/alter your story without your approval. It should be stated clearly on the contract.

Mandy DeGeit has self-published "She Makes Me Smile," and will be giving 50% of her sales to the other affected authors of the anthology. She also will be using that fund to pay for a lawyer that will help "deal with contracts and things of this nature." If anyone would like to help support her, please think about buying "She Makes Me Smile" on Amazon.