We’ve just finished up recording a new Horror Mall Radio segment called Music Spotlight and the first episode is focused on the band Midnight Syndicate.  This half hour feature contains some commentary and 6 tracks from their The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates CD.

You can listen to this Music Spotlight by clicking HERE.  Also, with any Horror Mall Radio program, you can surf the storefront, forums and auction site while listening.

And don’t forget to check out Midnight Syndicate CDs at Horror Mall…

Horror Mall is getting in a limited stock of autographed copies of the new Bella Morte CD, Beautiful Death.  Due to an extremely limited supply, we wanted to get this up on the blog and let interested customers know that these will be it…once they are gone, they’re gone.

The new Bella Morte CD is amazing and really is an attractive item to horror fans due to its dark, gothic nature.  Please take the time to check out this amazing band whose vocalist, Andy Deane, is also a horror author and is currently working with several small press publishing companies including Delirium Books.

Deane’s first novel, The Sticks, will be released in trade paperback through Delirium Books next year.  Horror Mall will also be distributing the digital download of this novel through HM Press.

For more on Bella Morte, please check out Horror Mall Radio, as there will be a future Music Spotlight episode on the band, including tracks from their new album.

To reserve your autographed copy of Beautiful Death, click HERE.

What I have come to realize is that tomorrow may very well be the most important day in my 10 years of publishing.  I feel the genre is at the crossroads and we’re about to choose which road we travel upon.  We could very well be leaving the old dusty roads of this genre behind and finding ourselves a freshly paved genre highway leading to where all highways eventually go: to bigger places.

Tomorrow, the first major digital project produced by Horror Mall (HM Press) will be released.  It’s an exclusive novella written by myself and Brian Keene.  Although Brian and I have been working together for the past 8 years, this will mark the first time we’ve collaborated together, both as authors.

And I couldn’t be more proud of the result.

Tomorrow will see the official announcement.  $4.95 will get you the exclusive novella in digital format (PDF).  It will be printable, secured by an access login key which you’ll need to register for (unless you’ve bought Gina Ranalli’s Skin Flowers), as you would already have your login credentials.  But you will still need to wait until your access key has been paired with the new Redemption file.  This could take up to 24 hours after you purchase the file, but in most cases this will take only a few hours or less.

For those of you who don’t yet feel comfortable reading the digital format, most of our novellas and novels will see a Digital Print Companion for sale, as will Redemption.  What is this, you ask?  Well, I’ve spent the last week working out a deal with Delirium’s bindery who has officially agreed to produce an ultra-bound hardcover of our digital downloads.  Each hardcover will be custom made, as orders will be put into production as soon as you order (the order goes straight to the bindery in real time).  The book will be very simple.  Each of these editions will be matched with the same cloth.  The books will be foiled stamped with the title and author and on the front will be a customized foil stamped line that says “Specifically bound for…” and the customer’s name.  This will make them a keepsake, not a stock or bond to resell on the secondary market.  On the spine will be the title, author and the book edition #.

The benefit to this is to provide readers with an alternative to the digital format, but we’ll be matching the look and stamping of each new title to become sets which we’ll offer slipcases for.  The slipcases will include foil stamped artwork to make each set unique.

But these will NOT be limited editions, nor will they be autographed.  No dust jackets either.  Think trade hardcover, but more personalized and collectible in sets.  You can even mix and match which titles you want to buy in hardcover.  You might even find it beneficial to purchase the PDF download and at some point order only the titles you really love and want to keep in a printed format.  There are some interesting ways you can go about purchasing these.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with the artwork and a little teaser about the book…

Shane Ryan Staley and Brian Keene team up to bring you one of the year’s most shocking and emotionally-charged tales.

Redemption is a novella about how the balance the life affects us, in death and on God’s terms.

John wakes up to the fact that the balance in his life is horribly wrong.  While neglecting his family for work, he suffers a terrible loss. His son has disappeared. During the months that follow, his life is ripped apart.

The mystery of his son’s disappearance is slowly unraveled as part of a plan to rid the world of evil.

In order to get redemption, John realizes that there is only one road he can travel.

A road that twists through Hell.

Why is horror failing as a genre?  I’ve been asked this many times, especially in the past year or so.  So here’s my own definitive list of answers with explanations.  Of course, please keep in mind that I’m only focused on the indie perspective of why horror is failing.  This might save a future argument on the forums by some idiot pointing out that the latest horror flick, I Know What You Did To My Soul Last Summer After You Cut Up My Mom And Had Sex With My Poodle, made 22 million the first week at the box office.

Target #1: ‘For The Love Of It’ and ‘Fly-By-Night’ Publishers

Just stop it, will you?  Quit fucking throwing that ‘For The Love Of It’ phrase in everyone’s faces.  That particular phrase, when translated to reality, means ‘In The Process Of Failing.’  Publishing is a business, UNLESS you distribute your product for free, do not accept donations and have yet to spend a single dollar in production costs.  That narrows it down quite a bit I would think.  The problem is that publishers often use that phrase as a scapegoat.  It allows them to act unprofessionally, be unfair to their authors and to not do a single damn thing to help grow this genre, let alone their own company.

I’ve always held myself to one principle as a publisher: Be a successful business. Not just for myself, but for the fans of my press, the readers, collectors, the authors and other contributors.  The best way I can give back to the genre is by staying around, growing as a business, and becoming a stable home for fans of the literary horror scene.

Here are some cold, hard facts to digest.  I live in the US and the last time I checked it was still a capitalistic country.  Most of the world is.  Once that first dollar changes hands, you’re running a business whether you want to admit it or not.  So TREAT IT LIKE ONE!!!

Since 1999 when I became a publisher, there has easily been more than 100 presses start up and fail in our genre alone.  Why?  Because I swear to fucking God that most new publishers are bi-polar.  One day the refill on their medication just runs out and they get the life-changing notion that starting up a horror press is a damn fine idea.  Due to this widespread phenomena, I’m going to call my example press in this post Lithium Press just to be a smartass.

So Lithium Press doesn’t have the money to start up in the first place (they didn’t even have enough money to get a refill on their meds, remember?).  Oh, but that’s easily fixed: Lithium Press suckers in a dozen or so collectors to cough up a grand or so in ‘lifetime subs’ to launch the press.  They do this because at the height of their mania, they convince everyone they’re the next big press.  And they seem to be good guys, which, in fact, they may be, but…(And the BUT is what most of us have to worry about, which I’ll get to shortly.)

OK, so LP has jumped the first hurdle and raised the cash.  Mr. Valproate, editor-in-chief of Lithium Press, now thinks: this publishing business isn’t so hard afterall!

Now onto the first book.  Generally speaking, Mr. Valproate knows nothing about the business except that horror is cool and that a book is rectangular and is bound on the left side.  He doesn’t really care to learn anything because he’s American and our motto is “Why do something yourself when you can pay someone else to do it.”  So LP outsources their layouts, their copy editing, their webmastering.  Using Valproate’s business savvy, he contracts a mid-list author, sets a hardcover print run at 500 copies, expects it to sell out fast, get a quick return on his lifetime subscribers’ initial investment, and then proceed to launch his publishing “empire.”

Little does he know that there are, in fact, no publishing empires.  Sadly, only small huts and outhouses.

Now we’re at the stage where the first LP title fails, but it doesn’t matter because Mr Valproate can always go to his guns and shoot off several “For the Love Of It” bullets, shooting himself in the head (which, of course, has no effect), his author’s Muse in the heart, and each one of his lifetime subscribers right square in their puckered-up assholes.

Unless you’re a magician, you cannot sell 500 copies written by a mid-list author on the merit of the story alone.  The first mistake a publisher makes is generally thinking that since the story is the greatest thing since string cheese that it’s going to sell well.  In a perfect world, sure, I’ll give you that.  But we’re not in such a world, are we, Spanky?

To move a book, it takes a far greater gimmick than a good piece of fiction (that gimmick has been used on every title ever produced, so you’re too late to spring that piece of ingenious copy on the front or back of the book and expect it to fly).  It won’t sell, especially since you know nothing about marketing and have no ISBN, no distribution, no common sense.  And speaking of common sense, before the first book is in the hands of readers, Lithium Press has already contracted and announced 15 new titles by midlist authors to round out their publishing schedule for year one!!! Whoo-hooo!  Kudos!  Good move!

But, on a positive note, Mr. Valproate figures, At least it’s not my money I’ve just squandered, right?

Let’s skip ahead. The first book’s layout gets fucked up and the author wants to do a re-write days before it goes to the printer. Then there are problems at the printer.  There are problems at the bindery.  Finally, after all the turmoil, twenty boxes of hardcovers show up on the doorstep and now it’s time to ship them to customers.  At least, all 100 copies that have sold (which includes 12 lifetime subscribers).

Right about now is about the time Mr. V. realizes that publishing isn’t as easy as he had first thought the night his meds ran out.  Especially since he just lost 2-3 thousand dollars or more on LP’s first title.  And he will soon find out because he can’t pack books worth a shit and several boxes eventually come back damaged and the ones that do arrive in good shape to booksellers, well… unfortunately, a great deal of booksellers don’t always pay on time.

But those extra 400 copies will eventually sell, right?

Nope.

Because Lithium Press has no marketing in place, no distribution, all because they wanted to rush their first book to the printer.

Luckily, they’re only doing it for the love it and not as a business which they remind their author while letting him or her know that the book was a total flop and didn’t sell worth a crap.

You can see the cycle that is about to begin, but I’m not going any further.  Because it gets uglier and most of you know how it always ends.  How many ‘active’ publishers are really active?  In truth, there are already many on their last leg or they’re twirling around on their dicks right now, but you’ll never hear a formal announcement.  No one likes to post a news release that they’re a total failure.  That is an unlikely Endeavour.

Instead of progressing further into that ugly cycle, let’s look at some popular excuses indie publishers use and my answers to them:

Excuse 1: I have a real job and can’t focus my time on my press.
Answer: Too fucking bad.  Sleep less, spend less time with your family, ignore your friends, and spend more time growing your business.  Or give up!  You said you loved it, right?  Prove it!  You get nowhere in life without sacrifice.  If the sacrifices aren’t worth it, then give up NOW.  And be sure to refund your lifetime subscribers’ money back while you’re busy going under.

Excuse 2: My Uncle died.  (Believe it or not, most of these fly-by-night / for-the-love-of-it publishers use personal crisis as excuse).
Answer: How many fucking Uncles do you have?  You’ve had at least 7 die in the last few months alone.  And I don’t care if all of them really did die.  I’ll send 7 cards.  Now run your fucking business.  If I worked for a corporation and on payday they said they couldn’t pay me, ship books, pay invoices or pay back money owed, I’d go postal.  If you’re running a business, no matter at what level, this should be no different.  Tip: If your Uncle’s passing affects your business, he’d better be the fucking SEO or your partner, not just a relative.  If he IS just a relative, than that is the first sign you’re not cut out to run your own business.

Excuse 3:  It’s the printer’s fault.
Answer: Sorry, but who chose the printer?  It’s an extension of your business and it reflect on you, so you’re the (wo)man to really blame.  Working with printers and binderies is time-consuming and oftentimes frustrating, not to mention costly, but in my 10 years in this business 90% of printer blame I hear publishers using really should be directed right back at the publisher.  They use it as a scapegoat.  Publishers can’t miss deadlines they don’t set, so why set a release date and take preorders only to find you’re in a bind?  Work out the details and samples with your printer and bindery BEFORE the book goes up for sale.

Let’s face it, this rant is endless, so let’s just end Part 1 with more cold, hard facts.

When was the last time a press launched itself, lasted a year or less (maybe even longer) and made any type of difference in this genre?

Never.

The only impact a new publisher can make is to build its business model and adapt and grow to be one of the few that has an actual history.  Without a history spanning several years, there’s little a publisher can give to this genre.  Unfortunately, they end up taking a lot more, including trust of authors, customers and many others.

Sure, there have been presses established that put out a few good books, maybe even pay their authors and not fuck a lot of customers, but they make no real impact on our genre.  They become a mere footnote, mostly a sour one, even the brunt of a good joke every now and then.

Anyone currently a publisher or thinking about becoming one, remember one thing.  The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

It takes more than a mere intention to become a publisher.  And a publisher is synonymous with business.  I’m sorry, but having a passion for books doesn’t make you an ideal candidate to become a publisher.  Because being a publisher has more to do with business than art.  And most often true artists make lousy businessmen.  There are only a few that can walk that line.

Ten Tips For New Horror Publishers

• Never take money up front
• Plan on losing money for the first 5 years, maybe longer
• Have the cash flow established to pay up front for everything and a reserve that will last you till your business takes off
• Treat authors and every other business relationship like you’d want to be treated if you were in their shoes
• Research everything.  From printers to binderies to booksellers to distributors.
• Learn the business yourself.  From laying out your first book, running your own website, handling sales, etc.
• Before you announce your first book, you should already have went through the process of book layout, production, including manufactured samples from your printer/bindery to shipping sample product.
• Set goals for your company.  Where do you want to be in 5 years?  10 years? And most importantly, how are you going to get there?
• Network.  With authors, other publishers, booksellers, artists.  The more you know and the more contacts you make, the easier it will be when the business begins.
• Pray To Whatever God You Worship (or get a lucky rabbit’s foot) because even if you do everything right, remember that, in the end, you’re selling books.  Horror books.  Overpriced books (from a general reader’s POV).  And hardly anyone reads these days anyway.  Best case scenario: you make enough money to get by.

As promised, I’m back to post a little about what we’ve set up for Horror Mall’s new digital distribution for authors.  The security issue of distributing digital content was first and foremost on my mind before we started this.  As some of you might remember, before I became a publisher or bookseller, I was an author.  And there were 2 main reasons I didn’t want to see my work in a digital format:

1. Nobody was reading the digital format
2. Security Concerns

As for #1, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.  I’m convinced by recent trends and the economy that if I, as an author, don’t get my foot in the door in the digital market, I’m going to be losing ground.  Simple as that.  With the Kindle and Sony Reader and the development of Adobe Acrobat (which, in my opinion, is the best software ever created), this market is now wide open.

And the biggest reason why now is the time to go digital is the economy.  Reading is down.  Less people have the time to read.  Some of the ones that do, just can’t afford books, especially small press books which generally consist of high end limited edition hardcovers or pricey trade paperbacks.

The small press needs to go digital.  Not completely digital, but we need to represent our niche in this new market.  And more importantly, we need to grow our genre.

Now on to concern 2: security.  I’m not an author who wants my work distributed freely.  I’d at least like to have the option of securing it, so that when a book sells, I get royalties.  And I don’t have to worry about receiving royalties for one book that is e-mailed to 40 people who then get it for free.  Whether you like it or not, being an author is a job; you are running your own business.  You are not only selling your work, you’re selling yourself.

The Horror Mall download system has the following security system in place for all new digital content.  To secure you and your work…

• Customer downloads are IP-bound and links are valid for only 72 hours.
• Files are watermarked with customer’s IP and account and date-stamped.
• Files are password protected to customer’s Horror Mall accounts.  They cannot be shared unless sensitive passwords are shared between readers of the files.
• Files are track-able.  Horror Mall knows when each PDF file is opened and by what IP.
• Documents can be locked on a user to user basis.  Even after PDFs have been downloaded.  Documents can be shredded remotely, so any customer violating your Digital Content Rights or involved in Piracy will lose their file permissions and the files they have shared or copied will be destroyed.
• Piracy warnings will be issued in text with every file.  Violators’ Horror Mall accounts will be suspended and users prosecuted (depending on the offense).

If an author wants to distribute their work freely, without security measures, then we can do that to.  It’s all in the setup and contract.

There are many major benefits to having your work published digitally, but here’s the 2 that I really think stand out:

1. You make more money per unit.  My publishing company, Delirium Books, can actually pay more in royalties to authors per digital unit sold than with a print unit sold.  And we’re talking vastly different price ranges.  Trade paperbacks sell for $16.95 and limited edition hardcovers for around $50.  Almost 50% of that cover price is already taken by print costs.  Instead of paying a corporation to print my books, I’d rather pay my authors.
2. Cheaper price for digital means a greater chance to gain readership.  If you think you’re going to set the world on fire and make a name for yourself with your $50 limited edition hardcover, you’re wrong.  The “world” can’t afford you.  Even trade paperbacks at $15 and, yes, disposable mass market paperbacks now at $8.

Horror Mall will be opening to digital submissions in the coming weeks, but it will only be (during the first few months) for authors who have categories at the storefront.  Those authors will be contacted by me in the next week in regards to more information about digital content at Horror Mall.  If you’re an interested author who has a section at Horror Mall, please feel free to contact me if you have not received an e-mail from me.

Unsolicited manuscripts will be accepted beginning in January.

Lastly, two things of importance.  We’re currently finalizing two major additions to this program.  One is a printed book option for digital downloads.  So if a customer just doesn’t want to read your work in a digital format, they will have the option to purchase a customized trade hardcover.  The other one is more tricky, but it looks like we’re making ground and that is to get these to the Kindle crowd.

I’m not just going to sit here and preach.  As an author I’m already committing myself to the project.  I’ve spent more than six months working on my latest novella (Redemption) with Brian Keene.  It’s by far the best fiction output in my career and pre-readers have stated that it’s one of the best pieces of fiction they’ve read all year, which is encouraging.  So I’m eager to make it one of the first digital downloads available at Horror Mall.  It’ll be available in the coming weeks.

Behind the scenes, I’ve really been working hard and am passionate about making digital content available in the small press and growing this genre.  There are still many people out there that say this will never work, that it will never take off.

Where have I heard that before?

Oh yeah.  1999.  They said that about Delirium Books.

January is Delirium’s 10th anniversary and it’s never been stronger.

So I’ll address the negativity about digital downloads the same way I addressed it back in 1999 with Delirium Books…

It’ll happen.

1. INJUSTICE by Steve Gerlach
2. BOOK OF SOULS by Jack Ketchum
3. MARQUEE by John Paul Allen
4. GUNPOWDER by Joe Hill
5. THE GARDEN OF GHOSTS by Scott Thomas
6. THE DAMNED by William Ollie
7. HORROR STORY AND OTHER HORROR STORIES by Robert Boyczuk
8. VOICES FROM PUNKTOWN by Jeffrey Thomas
9. LOST TRIBE by Gene O’Neill
10. UNDERTAKERS MOON by Ronald Kelly

1. PASSENGER by Ronald Damien Malfi
2. THE NOBODY by Tom Piccirilli
3. REDEMPTION ROADSHOW by Weston Ochse
4. LEFTOVERS by Steve Vernon (Signed)
5. DYING TO LIVE: LIFE SENTENCE by Kim Paffenroth
6. LITTLE BOY BLUE by James A. Moore
7. CLICKERS by J.F. Gonzalez & Mark Williams
8. PATCHWORK by James A. Moore
9. SUICIDE GIRLS IN THE AFTERLIFE by Gina Ranalli
10. HARD ROADS: Two Novellas by Steve Vernon

Like it or not, this post is about the future of literature being digital.  Before I go into any more, please remember where this is coming from: a publisher who supports his family for the past 10 years in producing the printed book, someone who is so entwined with the physical product of literature that even posting such a statement is borderline blasphemy.

Blasphemy is something I’m good at, so is business.  Remember that the rest of this article.

How can you sell this to a customer based made up of mostly book collectors.  I realize that, for most, is equivalent to preaching Biblical Prophecies to an Atheist or trying to sell a wide-screened high definition TV to a homeless bum or perhaps even attempting to persuade Brian Keene to hop on a two-seated bicycle with Roy Robbins on a path traveling up the side of a mountain with no Knob Creek.

But someone has to do it and it might as well be me.

Delirium Books, Bloodletting Books, Cargo Cult Press, and HM Press are just some of the many publishers who will be releasing books in digital format through Horror Mall in the coming weeks, months and throughout 2009.

Since Horror Mall started almost a year ago, Priority #1 of mine is to begin to crack the digital market and make it ’small press friendly.’  These steps throughout the past 11 1/2 months have finally led to this post.  That and also are unfortunate economical situation most are in which is ultimately looking to kill some good small press publishers in the coming months.  It’s already taken a good chunk of collectors due to financial difficulties.  It’s tough to buy a new small press horror edition hardcover for $40 or $50.  It’s even hard for some to buy trade paperbacks in the ranges of $12-$17.

So how do we keep horror and the small press thriving through these dark economical times?

One of the answers may very well be digital downloads.

Look at some of the benefits we’re about to offer readers:

• Economically-friendly. They sell for a fraction of the cost of a printed book
• No shipping costs
• You receive your books within 24 hours
• Cross platform. Any computer can read files with a free software.
• Build a virtual library of the best the small press has to offer. Your files are yours for life and stored in your Horror Mall digital library for download any time anywhere.
• Easy to read. Adjust font sizes to fit your viewing pleasure.
• Original and EXCLUSIVE fiction you can only get at Horror Mall.

I’ve been listening and have had numerous phone conversation with customers I’ve been dealing with for 5-10 years and even some of the best of them are finally ready to turn the corner into the digital realm of literature.

So we begin.

Check out our FAQs on digital downloads for more information.

Also, the first Digital Download has been posted for sale.  Gina Ranalli’s Skin Flowers.

I’ve worked on a new novella with Brian Keene for the past 4 months called Redemption.  It’ll also be available exclusively as a digital download in the coming weeks.

Authors: stay tuned to this blog as I will be discussing security features and much more from which you might benefit.

Disclaimer: Before there is a riot, let me address this: NO, Delirium, Bloodletting and other presses mentioned are not going exclusively digital.  In fact, limited editions are still being scheduled.  Tomorrow there will be printed books when you wake up, and the day after that and so on.  Not sure about a week from next Thursday, but surely they’ll come around again the following Friday.