Pros
It seems overly sentimental, but they really do impressive and brave work as a press—publishing debut authors and challenging writers of all kinds, moving the needle on Amazon discourse, and bringing a blunt and plainspoken style to an often-stuffy industry. They strongly advocate for the value of the book and the industry in ways few publishers do or can. Additionally, the staff is composed of incredibly smart, hard-working people who genuinely care about what they do and are willing to work long hours for low pay to pull it off. They are what’s behind the Melville House brand and they deserve the credit for the company’s success.
Cons
Publisher/owner Dennis Johnson is an abusive narcissist whose management “style” alienates almost everyone who comes to work for him. He swings wildly from temper tantrums to acting like nothing happened, ignoring how much damage he’s doing to employee morale and hiding behind the guise of being an outspoken and honest person (which is not true—he often lies). Whether it’s belittling employees verbally and over email and then stealing credit for their work, claiming that employees should be thankful for company-provided health insurance, screaming and throwing things, expecting a level of dedication (i.e. lots of angry late-night emails which demand an immediate response) that far outpaces the compensation, or insufferably micromanaging employees depending on his mood that day, his behavior as an employer is deeply unprofessional and shameful. He is the number one liability at Melville House, and this is why most employees last 2 years or less. Raises and promotions are rare, and employees are tacitly expected to accept being a part of “the company mission” as compensation enough. He has alienated multiple authors by engaging in childish and avoidable conflicts, and he and his co-publisher then rely on their employees to smooth over or pick up the pieces of the relationships they destroy. Additionally, they have a “good cop/bad cop” routine that they pull where Dennis chews out an employee and Valerie tries to smooth it over, and it would be sadder if it wasn’t so cynical and familiar. This is especially pronounced when Dennis gives employees the silent treatment once they have the audacity to put in their notice—he will do his best to ice you out of meetings and the company culture if he feels like you’ve crossed him, and he treats almost every employee departure like a personal insult. Unsurprisingly, this is really bad for morale! Then sometimes he makes rare exceptions and treats departing employees well, which makes the whole charade even more infuriating. He has a breathtaking lack of self-awareness, a massive and fragile ego, and he has built a company that is increasingly being used to nurture and enable all of this. It’s certainly not unique in the small press world, but it is repugnant. Anyone who is interested in working with Melville House in any capacity should know this.