The Website is Live

http://www.stygianpublications.com/

Please check it out when you get a chance. As a reminder, we start taking submissions for novellas and novels on November 1st.

Did you miss us?

-->

While many of you only know Stygian Publications because of the short fiction magazine, Necrotic Tissue, we also put out the anthology Malpractice, the novel Samhane by Daniel I Russell and a short play collection with Roy C. Booth. I was mostly testing the waters and what I found out is that while none of this is easy, doing a novel takes less time than putting out a short fiction magazine every three months.

A good friend of mine and former editor for Necrotic Tissue, John P. Wilson, has talked me into restarting Stygian Publications with a focus on novellas and novels. I may at some point start another short fiction project but never again a quarterly unless I win the lottery and no longer need to work. I will be heavily involved with this new direction, but John will be the Editor-in-Chief.

Our plan is the launch the website Stygianpublications.com in October and start taking submissions in November. The first of these novellas or novels should appear in early 2014. No idea yet how many. We have no lofty goals other than taking it as it comes. Details on submissions are still being worked out, but we’re looking at a 50/50 net split with authors. As always, we’re interested in dark stuff but less worried about genre or categories than we are about good writing and unique ideas.

Novellas will be e-book only, but novels that sell well in e-book format will also be made available in print. We’ll also have discounts for print copies for the author and I will send out e-book copies to reviewers. We’ll do what we can to push all books through the regular channels, but it should be no surprise that as a small press we won’t be funding nation-wide book tours. Assuming things go well, I will be bringing Stygian to conventions, but if a writer wants to increase sales they need to be as invested in promotion these days as they are with writing.

While running Necrotic Tissue, I had a few goals. Fast turn around time, pay the writers on time and put out a good magazine. I met those goals for three years. With the novella and novel lines, I intend to do something similar. You won’t have to wait three months to hear from us, but I can’t promise the same turn around time as I did with a 2,500 word short story either. What I can promise is that writers will be treated with respect, be paid their fair share for all sales and you will be able to get hold of me or John or hear back from us in a reasonable time with regard to all issues, be it email or by phone.

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that trust must be earned and that there are far too many examples of shady publishers. Even when they seem to meet all their obligations, writers have suspicions that they are not seeing all the earnings from all sales. I’ve earned the trust of the horror community since 2006 and plan to continue where I left off in 2012 when I had to close NT. 

Who wants to come along for the ride?