Month: July 2012

Sci-Fi Worlds: The State of the Publishing Industry

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The State of the Publishing Industry

Does anyone know what the publishing industry will look like twenty years from now? The business is still going through so many changes that it’s too early to tell.

There are a few things we do know though and are fairly evident:

– Ebooks are here to stay and will gain an increasingly larger part of the market

– Amazon used to have a dominating position in the market (90%) but that has changed and they are in danger (60%)

…

Click here to read more: Sci-Fi Worlds: The State of the Publishing Industry.

Witch Hunts signing with Rocky Wood and Greg Chapman

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Notions Unlimited Bookshop, Shop 9, Chelsea Beach Arcade, 426 Nepean Highway, Victoria, Australia.

Saturday, 4 August 2012 @ 4:00pm

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Rocky Wood will join artist Greg Chapman for a signing of their graphic novel “Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times. Bookplates will also include signature of co-author and Bram Stoker Award winner Lisa Morton

via Witch Hunts signing with Rocky Wood and Greg Chapman.

From the Goblin Office « Midnight Echo magazine

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The print copies of Midnight Echo Issue 7, the taboo issue edited by Daniel I Russell, have sold out!

Digital copies are still available for only $1.99–although we are taking orders for a second print run. If you want a print copy, place your order here before the 16th of August.

Midnight Echo Issue 8 is coming together well, too. Edited by AJ Spedding, Mark Farrugia, and Marty Young, this issue features all new stories by Joe R Lansdale, Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee, interviews with Jack Ketchum and Glenn Chadbourne (as well as new artwork by Glenn!), and a whole lot more!!

We will announce the full Table of Contents as soon as possible, so stay tuned. And as soon as that comes out, we’ll open for pre-orders. You don’t want to miss out on this issue!

In the meantime, why not check out the Guidelines page? We’ve put up the new guidelines for Issue 9, to be edited by GN Braun. The theme is mythical horror–but remember, we’re not taking submissions until October 1.

via From the Goblin Office « Midnight Echo magazine.

Midnight Echo Issue 7 « Midnight Echo magazine

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UPDATE (26 July, 2012): The print copies of ME7 have sold out, but we are taking orders for a second print run up until August 16. To place your order, click here.

Cover Art

Edited by Daniel I Russell, Midnight Echo Issue 7, the taboo issue, features all new fiction by Graham Masterton, Lee Battersby, Andrew J McKiernan, G. N. Braun, and more, disturbing art by Joshua Hoffine, Jason Paulos, and Greg Hughes, interviews with Joe R Lansdale, Graham Masterton, and Joshua Hoffine, the comic series Allure of the Ancients by Mark Farrugia and Greg Chapman, and a special tribute to Paul Haines.

130 pages of fiction, art, interviews, book releases, and more!

So if you like your addictions, your fetishes and all the other things you’ve been told not to like, slip on your latex gloves and take a peek inside. We’d love to indulge in your secret pleasures…and terrors.

Available formats: Digital (epub, mobi, and PDF – all included for the one price) and Print.

via Midnight Echo Issue 7 « Midnight Echo magazine.

Jack Daniels Sends the Most Polite Cease-and-Desist Letter Ever

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Jack Daniel's Sends the Most Polite Cease-and-Desist Letter Ever

 

My good friend Matthew Revert designed the cover for this one. Check out his website.

“When Patrick Wensink was commissioning the cover for his book, Broken Piano For President, he probably wasn’t expecting a cease-and-desist letter from Jack Daniel’s Properties — the owner of the Jack Daniel’s trademarks.

Looking at the cover for the book, it’s easy to see why the Jack Daniel’s people might take issue with the design. The typeface isn’t exactly the same, but the border and presentation is a dead-ringer for the classic black label of that sweet, sweet Tennessee whiskey.

Usually when we write about trademark disputes, one party claims that another party is using its size to “bully” to get its way.

Not this time.

In what might just be the nicest cease-and-desist letter we’ve ever seen, the people at Jack Daniel’s Properties not only politely explained the situation to Wensink, the company even offered to help pay for the cost of designing a new cover.

Jack Daniel’s Properties isn’t even forcing Wensink to take his book off the shelf. Instead, the company just wants him to change the cover when it’s reprinted.”

via Jack Daniel’s Sends the Most Polite Cease-and-Desist Letter Ever.

Life…

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Empty coke bottle, syringe wrappers blowing in the wind.

I sit and watch as junkies stagger past, either stoned or hanging out; morphine stare or desperate for it.

I live in a daze as people die around me; fast or slow, I’m not sure which is worse. Nadia vomits raspberry soft-drink in a bilious puddle, pale and drawn out of her mind. Shane struts; he’s off the gear right now, but only for a while. Money talks and bullshit walks.

I hear the furious call of an ambulance, racing to help someone who doesn’t want to help themself. I remember watching a body tumble from the sky, twirling in the wind like a screaming kite, hitting the ground like a dying swan, limp and rigid at the same time. Burst open for the entire world to see.

I wonder if any of it is worth living, worth dying for.

I sit and feel the same as I always do. I want to score, I need to score, and I want to score again. Life as a junkie is life in a circle; stoned, not, stoned, not; locked up, not, locked up, not.

Aren’t we always locked up, locked in?

Locked in the cycle, locked in the desire, locked in the need.

I feel locked in, locked up, locked out…

Piracy: an ongoing problem

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Stephen L. Wilson brings attention to another piracy site that is blatantly offering free downloads of books.

There is a Facebook page for this site, so I ask you all to report it on that particular social network.

https://www.facebook.com/tuebl

“I am getting the word out – your work as an author may be compromised. There is a website and facebook site which operates much like Napster did with music. They are blatantly giving copyrighted works away free, without the author knowing. I have posted this to my blog, and have been diligently getting word out through facebook. This is a serious threat to indie authors. Please take the time to have a look. All information is in my blog post. Thank you, and have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Stephen L. Wilson

http://stephenlwilson.blogspot.com/”

via ATTENTION: Authors, Publishers and Friends.

Meet the Author: Australian Geoff Brown, and his memoir, Hammered. – IAN WALKLEY » IAN WALKLEY

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Welcome Geoff, would you like to tell us a little about your background?

I grew up in a working-class suburb west of Melbourne, Victoria. I’m an only child, and made some bad choices early on in life. I spent over twenty years as a drug user, and only just got clean in my late thirties. I’ve always read a lot, and written as well, although I didn’t take writing seriously until I’d cleaned up my act. I started networking online in the horror genre (a genre I’ve always loved), and quickly made a few friends among the horror community in the US.

I joined the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) in 2009, as I wanted to network more in Australia and saw the group as a great opportunity. Social-media sites gave me the chance to interact with writers, editors and publishers all over, and I quickly made many friends in the writing industry. In 2010, I became the vice-president of the AHWA when the committee change-over occurred. This networking was instrumental in my rise as a writer. In late 2011, I was asked to take over as the president of the AHWA, and this has helped even more. I now deal with people in the major publishing houses around the world, as well as world-renowned writers.

via Meet the Author: Australian Geoff Brown, and his memoir, Hammered. – IAN WALKLEY » IAN WALKLEY.

Female ‘Vampire’ Had Brick Jammed In Mouth

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The remains of a female “vampire”, buried with a brick jammed between her jaws, have been found in Venice, Italian researchers say.

Female 'Vampire' Had Brick Jammed In Mouth

The brick is thought to have been used to prevent the woman feeding on victims of a plague which swept through the city in the 16th Century.

Experts said the discovery supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.

The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 – in which the artist Titian died – on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon.

via Female ‘Vampire’ Had Brick Jammed In Mouth.