Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Glorious!

We are absolutely ecstatic to announce that Livia Llewellyn, author of the amazing collections FURNACE and ENGINES OF DESIRE, has signed with us to deliver a brand new Charitable Chapbook titled "Glorious" to be released in mid to late 2020! GLORIOUS will contribute one third of all physical chapbook proceeds and 40% of all eBook proceeds to First Book

"First Book aims to remove barriers to quality education for all kids by making everything from new, high-quality books and educational resources to sports equipment, winter coats, snacks, and more – affordable to its member network of more than 450,000 educators who exclusively serve kids in need."

During the hot, quiet middle days of summer, four junior high school girlfriends looking for a secret place to smoke and drink stumble upon a monstrous, priapic statue of a demon inside the remains of a half-built house within an abandoned suburban construction site. Repelled at first, at the youngest girl’s suggestion they begin constructing a fantastic story around the statue, creating silly yet complex rituals to see which of them will be worthy enough to be declared the statue’s “queen.” But the rituals turn violent as the girls begin turning on each other, all of them insisting that the demon is real, visiting them in terrifying, wondrous sexual encounters that each girl wishes to make hers alone. By the summer’s end, only one of the four will be left standing to complete the rituals, capture the crown, and make the demon lover her own.

Friday, October 18, 2019

The Future of Nightscape Press

Dear friends,


This is Robert S. Wilson, Co-editor in Chief of Nightscape Press. Before I get started, I must warn you this is going to be a long one, so feel free to read the bolded portions and bulletin points to get the TLDR version. I’m reaching out to you all about something very important. Nightscape Press is about to start a huge new chapter. I was recently informed that my day job employer’s contract with our client will not be renewed and, as such, my employment upon the end of our current contract will be coming to an end. While this was unfortunate news to receive, it comes at a very interesting time for my family as my wife, co-owner and Co-editor in Chief, Jennifer, has just started a new day job, and other things within our household are shifting in such a way that we have decided, as a result of this news, for me to transition into focusing on Nightscape Press full time.

What does that mean for our future and for the future of our projects? Quite a lot. It means that I will be able to put the kind of focus into this company that it deserves. It means that we have the opportunity to start putting in place some of the strategies we’ve been working on for literally years toward making us a successful and fully independent publishing company. It also means that we could be at some financial risk in the process of working to make that happen.


We think we’re doing something really special and we’d like to share that with more people. We want to become a fully independent company with our beautiful books distributed in bookstores everywhere. And we know we have charitable projects on the horizon that can far exceed what we’ve done so far. But we need to have a more solid foundation going forward. Now that I will be able to fully focus on this company, a major part of that foundation will already be in place. The biggest hurdle now is that we still have some financial gaps that need filled.



And some of you already know that we’ve been struggling a bit as it is. And that making the kinds of changes that we need to make requires a certain level of funding. So, in order to get us through this transition, we’re putting out a call to action with a number of options for how you can help us…

  • Get our current books out on a reasonable schedule and not have to push back any currently scheduled releases
  • Successfully kick off our first charitable event in the summer of 2020: the Nightscape Press Caribbean Cabal Writer’s Retreat with special guests Ellen Datlow, Laird Barron, Stephen Graham Jones, and John Langan
  • Move to the next phase in our publishing model which has the potential to raise exponentially more money for charity
  • Distribute our non-limited books in physical stores
  • Start paying advances upon contract signing instead of upon publication or relative to publication
  • Stay in business for the long haul
  • Become fully independent

For those of you who are new to us or could use a refresher, here is a little bit more about what we’ve accomplished in the past, what we’re doing now, and what we have planned for the future. 


Here’s some of our previous projects that have raised money for charity:


        FantasyFor Good edited by Richard Salter and Jordan Ellinger (including stories by George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Katherine Kerr, Piers Anthony, Michael Moorcock, Carrie Vaughn, Alan Dean Foster, Nnedi Okorafor, Todd McCaffrey, and many more) Published in 2014. Contributes all net proceeds to The Colorectal Cancer Alliance. Has raised over $10,000 so far.)


        Charitable Chapbook #1 The Broker of Nightmares by Jon Padgett (Contributed $1,000 to the ACLU via the limited physical chapbook run and will continue to contribute 40% of each sale to this greatly needed charity via the eBook edition.


        Charitable Chapbook #2 If It Bleeds by Matthew M. Bartlett (Contributed $1,000 to the Dakin Humane Society via the limited physical chapbook run. Its eBook will also continue to contribute 40% of its proceeds to Matthew’s chosen charity the Dakin Humane Society with every sale.)


Here’s what we’re working on right now:


        Nox Pareidolia edited by Robert S. Wilson (including stories by Laird Barron, Brian Evenson, S.P. Miskowski, Michael Wehunt, Gwendolyn Kiste, Kristi DeMeester, doungjai gam, Carrie Laben, David Peak, Kurt Fawver, Christopher Ropes, and many more) is in pre-production and the eBook will be available this Halloween with the paperback edition scheduled in the near future


        After some delays, Charitable Chapbook #3 “watch the whole goddamned thing burn” by doungjai gam is finally in the formatting phase of pre-production


        Charitable Chapbook #4 Origami Dreams (Expanded Edition) by Jon Padgett is currently delayed due to some artwork issues


        Charitable Chapbook #5 Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Bad Can Ever Happen Here by Michael Wehunt is currently being printed and, upon selling out, has the potential to contribute $2,500+ to The Southern Poverty Law Center


        Secret Gateways (A Leeds/Dunnstown and Beyond Limited Hardcover Box Set) by Jon Padgett and Matthew M. Bartlett is currently scheduled for release on November 24th


        Charitable Chapbook #6 The Invention of Ghosts by Gwendolyn Kiste is in pre-production with a scheduled release date of November 26th and has the potential to contribute $1,000+ to the National Aviary


        We’re currently waiting on a highly anticipated contract for Horror For RAICES edited by Jennifer Wilson and Robert S. Wilson (including stories by Poppy Z. Brite, Paul Tremblay, Laird Barron, Livia Llewellyn, Ramsey Campbell, Elizabeth Hand, Gwendolyn Kiste, Matthew M. Bartlett, Nadia Bulkin, S.P. Miskowski, Kurt Fawver, and many more) which will contribute all net proceeds to RAICES the wonderful charity helping immigrants and refugees with legal services. We currently have a GoFundMe that gives directly to RAICES in which anybody who donates $10 or more will get an early eBook edition of the book as soon as it’s ready. Once we receive the contract we’re waiting on, we’ll be heading into pre-production


        Lynne and I are currently reading stories for Best New Weird 2018 edited by Lynne Jamneck and Robert S. Wilson which is slated for a December 2019 release


And here are some of our projects planned for 2020:    


        Weird Whispers is a different kind of monthly digest which will take a deeper look at each story and contributor. Weird Whispers will be published for free online and in a monthly chapbook edition that will be available for purchase.


        The Bleeding Rainbow: A Spectrum of Weird Fiction edited by Robert S. Wilson and Maxwell Ian Gold. This will be an anthology of stories by LGBTQ+ authors themed around the colors of the Pride Flag and is slated for release during Pride Month in June of 2020.


        Charitable Chapbook #7 Do You Mind If We Dance With Your Legs? by Michael Cisco is scheduled to be released on February 18th of 2020 and has the potential to contribute $2,500+ to the Los Angeles LGBT Center


        Our first scheduled charitable novel, The Fertile Clay by Dennis Mombaur is slated for release early to mid 2020 and will contribute one third of all proceeds (a potential total of $5,000+) to autismus Köln/Bonn e.V.


        Our first scheduled charitable collection, Chaos Engine: The Kaodraze Cycle by Gemma Files is slated for a mid to late 2020 release and will contribute one third of all proceeds (a potential total of $10,000+) to the Autism Self Advocacy Network


        Weird For Good edited by Jon Padgett, Lynne Jamneck, and Robert S. Wilson is slated for a late 2020 release and will give all net proceeds to RAICES.


        Best New Weird 2019 edited by Lynne Jamneck and Jennifer Wilson is slated for a late 2020 release

As you can see, we’re working on a lot of projects with more in the wings, some of which we can’t talk about just yet, and as we move into full length charitable books, we have the potential to raise a lot more money for charity. So, let’s get into the different ways that you can help us.

  1. The first option for how to help almost entirely goes without saying. We have books for sale and you can buy them. You can buy or pre-order them directly from us on our webstore. Or, with the exception of our limited physical titles like our Charitable Chapbooks and the Secret Gateways box set by Jon Padgett and Matthew M. Bartlett, you can buy our books from Amazon, and you can buy them from other online retailers like Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Books-A-Million, and more.
  1. You can donate to our fundraiser on GoFundMe. We have several milestone goals for the fundraiser that, if we meet them, will allow us to open submissions to things like our upcoming Weird Whispers monthly journal, our Charitable Chapbooks book line that gives the majority of proceeds to authors and the charity of their choice, and, at certain milestones, we’ll be able to publish more stories through these projects which will mean more open slots for submissions. And speaking of Weird Whispers…
  1. You can purchase ad space in our upcoming Weird Whispers monthly journal launching in 2020 which will be both freely available to read online and available in a monthly physical chapbook for purchase. These would be full color ads online and black and white in print, with the possibility of upgrading to color in print at a higher cost.
  1. You can help sponsor the 2020 Nightscape Press Caribbean Cabal Charitable Writer’s Retreat with special guests Ellen Datlow, Laird Barron, Stephen Graham Jones, and John Langan.
  1. You can reach out to us about how you can become a private investor in our company.
  1. You can make a kind donation to us through PayPal.
  1. And finally, you can join our Patreon and contribute to our cause on a monthly basis and in return get perks like video interviews with our authors, early access to Weird Whispers online, and more.


That’s it really, though sharing this around with other readers and writers of horror and weird fiction could give us a good boost too. Word of mouth is always a great way to help out the publishers, editors, and authors who create great content that you enjoy. We’re no different. The more people talk about our books, share pictures of our books, share links to our books, review our books, and so on and so forth, the more of a chance we have at keeping the lights on and making more great books. Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting Nightscape Press!


Sincerely,
Robert S. Wilson
Co-editor in Chief
Nightscape Press
www.nightscapepress.pub

Saturday, February 2, 2019

So, they arrived! And by they, I mean the book proofs for Ashes and Entropy! These are unbound proofs, so they are loose pages and covers. It saves money to order proofs this way as the cost for binding adds a good chunk to the overall proof cost. Also, they do not laminate the covers for proofs so you won't get the full effect. These will be matte covers and let me tell you, this printer's matte is extremely gorgeous. Anyway, without further ado!












The interior pages are a bit dark here. My camera isn't the greatest. I'll try and get better pics of these later. I took these in a rush before I had to go to my day job yesterday.





So there's a few pics to give you an idea. After some small adjustments, we gave them the go ahead and they have since started the print run. The current estimated ship (to us) date is February 8th and the estimated shipping time is two days. And as soon as these arrive, we'll start shipping them out. Keep in mind though that we do have 200+ copies to ship though so it may take a bit of time for these to all make their way out but we'll do our best to get them to folks as fast as possible!


Some other news of import:




Jon Padgett's THE BROKER OF NIGHTMARES is now available for Amazon Kindle pre-order with a release date of April 30th! Though, if you'd like to read it sooner, we have some super exciting news. We've actually decided to release the eBook early via our webstore! We'll be uploading the files so the book is instantly downloadable upon purchasing there on this coming Tuesday! And of course those who have already purchased the eBook edition there will receive theirs sometime between now and Tuesday. 
Luke Spooner created this fantastic poster for our upcoming writers retreat with Laird Barron and John Langan!

And last but certainly not least: one of our Kickstarter backers for Ashes and Entropy and a rising star of weird fiction publishing, Charles P. Dunphey, has a Kickstarter that kicked off yesterday for his company's novelette and chapbook lines.

Gehenna & Hinnom is the name of the company and the novelette line will include authors like Christopher Ropes (a personal favorite new author of mine who you might be familiar with if you've read the first issue of Vastarien which included his amazing story "Singing the Song of My Unmaking." And, full disclosure, I've accepted a new piece of Christopher's myself for my late 2019 forthcoming anthology Nox Pareidolia!), S.L. Edwards, Kurt Fawver (who also has had a couple of phenomenal pieces in Vastarien among other places), and more. Their chapbook series will include pieces by Dennis Mombauer (whose amazing first English novel Nightscape Press just accepted for a late 2019/early 2020 release!), Ashley Dioces, and more.

You can also pre-order their first two upcoming collections Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts by S.L. Edwards and Strange Company and Others by Peter Rawlik! Both of those are available there in eBook, trade paperback, and limited hardcover! So, go show this project some love please!



Anyway, that's it for this update. Take care and have a great weekend!

Monday, January 21, 2019

Nightscape Press is Growing!

It is our great pleasure to announce that we have recently recruited new blood at Nightscape Press! Introducing: Lynne Jamneck, our new Acquisitions Editor! We're excited to have Lynne aboard and feel strongly that she will make a most wonderful addition to our editorial department!

Lynne Jamneck has been nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel and Lambda awards, and holds an MA in English Literature from Auckland University, New Zealand. Her fiction has appeared in Ashes and Entropy, Jabberwocky, H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, Something Wicked Magazine, Fantastique Unfettered and the collections So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, Tales from the Bell Club, Unconventional Fantasy: A Celebration of Forty Years of the World Fantasy Convention, Black Wings of Cthulhu V and Black Wings of Cthulhu VI. She is the editor of "Periphery" (2008), "Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror" (Dark Regions Press, 2015), and "Gothic Lovecraft" (with S.T. Joshi; Cycatrix Press, 2016).


Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Nightscape Press 2019: What's Coming and How You Can Help

Happy New Year (... now that January's halfway over)! A lot's been going on and a lot is coming up. So hold on tight, because this is going to be the biggest info dump since that novel I trunked back in my early twenties!

First of all...



...you might recall that in late June, early July, we'll be doing a pretty fantastic charitable writers retreat in Costa Rica with special guests Laird Barron and John Langan! There are still registration slots open for that so if this is the first you've heard about it or you've been thinking about registering, you'd better get on that before time runs out. It's shaping up to be a real blast for sure. And all of the proceeds that would go our way will instead go to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project!

Our little operation, as of right now, consists of myself (Robert S. Wilson) and my wife, Jennifer Wilson. Some of you already know, but for those of you who don't, there is a very personal reason we have chosen the Sylvia Rivera Law Project as the charity to contribute the proceeds of this shindig to. Last year, our youngest child bravely came out as a transgender young woman and we couldn't be more proud of her for having so much courage.

So, when we found ourselves in a position to do something huge for one organization, we decided to choose a charity that we knew from the personal experience of transgender friends would be able to do something wonderful with the money we raise. And with this event, that could end up being as much as $10,000! So this really means a LOT to us and we hope folks will help us make this as successful as possible.

In other news, we've also reworked our Patreon that we launched at the tail end of 2018. We went from a super limited quantity at a high price to a larger quantity at a more affordable cost. You can now get in on our quarterly Classic Chapbook subscription of Patreon exclusive titles that we'll be launching this year along with a bunch of other perks for only $25 a month. The first chapbook, A RAVEN IN MY VIEW, a collection of poetry by Edgar Allan Poe curated by myself and Jennifer Wilson, will be fully color illustrated by Luke Spooner and limited to 100 copies and we'll also be doing a deluxe edition of each of these chapbooks limited to 23 copies via some higher tiers on there. You can check out the cover for that one below on our release schedule.

Before I get into our release schedule though, I want to talk about the paperback release of ASHES AND ENTROPY. While the eBook edition is currently available from our website and from Amazon, unfortunately, we are still running behind on the paperback release. At this point, it's looking like the A&E paperbacks will be a late January/early February release.

But... for those of you who were Kickstarter backers or who pre-ordered from our website, we will be doing everything we can to make that up to you. For instance: for those of you who bought the black and white edition... you won't be getting it. Instead, you'll be getting the color edition! It has been decided that the black and white edition will be retail only!

So, you've all been upgraded at no extra cost. For those of you waiting on the color edition, you'll also be getting a very lovely Matthew M. Bartlett Witch Cult postcard and everybody who backed the KS or pre-ordered a paperback copy of the book will get a very significant discount code for our webstore.

As to why we're running behind? Well... there are a lot of reasons. A lot of little reasons and a couple big ones. I received way more story submissions than I expected for my open call and it took me longer than I intended to decide on the final two stories. I received a couple of final stories from solicited authors late which unfortunately happens sometimes. Authors are humans with families and complex lives just like the rest of us. And speaking of being human... We're actually just about done fixing some formatting errors that managed to sneak into the galleys. And unfortunately, the way in which we format is a bit more complex than most companies and so that has been quite a process.

And one of the bigger things that became a problem early on is that our printer was absolved by another company. And we've had nothing but bad experiences with the new company so we had to find a whole new printer.

We gave them a test run with The Broker of Nightmares by Jon Padgett and for those of you who grabbed up a copy of that book, you know that the level of quality they produce is absolutely superb. Way better than anything we've produced in the past. And working with a new printer means working with new guidelines and a different cost structure. So... while there has been a delay, there will be benefits to that delay.

But onward.

The following is in no way complete as there are TBAs and some things without definitive release dates yet that we left off, but we have the beginnings of a 2019 release schedule! Behold:
































































    (Artwork forthcoming) September 24th: Charitable Chapbook #5: EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING BAD CAN EVER HAPPEN HERE - Michael Wehunt (pre-order coming soon! Contributes to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society)




    October 30th: Classic Chapbook #3: TBA




    November 26th: Charitable Chapbook #6: TBA




    December 10th: Classic Chapbook #4: TBA



    And speaking of schedules and our Patreon, we have a round about schedule for our Patreon exclusive author reading/Q&As:

    • Matthew M. Bartlett: late February/early March
    • Doungjai Gam: late May/early June
    • Jon Padgett: late July/early August
    • Michael Wehunt: late September/early October
    • And of course more to be announced!

    We have to work out some details but we're hoping to have an extra special reading/Q&A related to the release of the SECRET GATEWAYS box set. Speaking of, we'll be updating the product page for SECRET GATEWAYS with some artwork and further details. As mentioned above, we have a release date set now, but it's also safe to mention a couple of the artists involved! 

    Sam Heimer is designing the slipcase artwork for this beauty! And Harry O. Morris is working on the cover and interior artwork for THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM! As soon as we have the artist for GATEWAYS TO ABOMINATION locked down, we'll announce them as well. As for the third and final book, we're still working out details but there will now be FOUR collaboration stories by Jon Padgett and Matthew M. Bartlett within its pages! We're super excited about that!

    And a few of you have been waiting for... our open submission details! They've now been posted on our submissions page! Folks that are patrons at the $5 level on our Patreon got this news almost two weeks early so if you'd like to keep up on the latest and get the earliest shot at say... Weird For Good edited by myself, Lynne Jamneck, and Jon Padgett, you might want to join us over there. We also post early artwork and will be posting exclusive behind the scenes info and media and more. 

    So, if you can't tell, it's going to be one hell of a year! And that's not showing any signs of changing, so we'll be looking to expand a bit this year. We're in talks with some folks about taking on roles with us and we very well may put out a call for a couple more in order to fill various positions that are needed. So, keep an eye out. 

    What we're doing is new and different and with it being as charity-driven as it is, it's not exactly profitable. So, I wanted to leave you all with some ways you can help out and get some wonderful stuff in return:
    For those of you who made it this far, thank you for your support and your patience in reading this super long update. We think 2019 is going to be a really awesome year and we hope you agree!