Onyx Neon Shorts in 2016/17
We’ve been silent for a while now. There are a lot of reasons for that. First off, we had an issue with someone we are no longer working with and wanted to lay low after all that. Secondly, and more importantly, we’ve been deciding what and how we’re going to move forward as a publishing entity.
As we stand now we’ve been doing monthly releases for a year and a half, and while the quality remains high, the reality is: they aren’t selling. Even when the stories do sell relatively well Amazon takes a majority of what we and the authors COULD make. It’s just not economically viable when they take 70% of the profit at the .99 payment threshold.
What we’re seeing is a need to change course. So, we’re restructuring how we release. We’re switching to short story collections. The fact is that our Horror Collection – 2015 sold better than anything we’ve released to-date and has made more money than everything else we’ve sold put together. What this shows us is: this is where our focus should go. It’s not all about money, though, really, that’s not the point. Sales indicate interest. People buy what they want more of. That’s how this works.
Moving forward, we’ll have collections that fit together for a thematic reason, whether that’s a single author, genre, topic, or location (more Cifiscape, anyone?).
We currently have one definite release planned for this year and possibly two more.
Tree Bomber & Other Stories by Aaron M. Wilson
Release: April
A collection of short stories by Midwestern author, and long time collaborator, Aaron M. Wilson. He’s inspired by green activism, bike and bike culture, and possesses a love of Cthulhu, as you saw in his Rising of Cthulhu’s Cultist.
Possible Sci Fi collection
Release: September
We’ve done science fiction collections in the past, but never a general one. They’ve always been very niche, and while we loved them, we are looking into doing a more open-ended one.
So if you are a sci fi writer, and have been looking for a place to have your short stories published, we may just have a collection coming.
Possible Horror Fiction Collection
Release: November/December
After the success of Horror Collection – 2015 we are looking into the possibility of releasing another collection of the wildly popular horror fiction genre. We are still discussing what it will focus on, and whether it will be a sub-genre focused collection, such as Weird Fiction. Keep checking back for more information and more specific details as we solidify those plans.
We are also, and this is not for this year, looking into the possibility of doing:
- A collection from authors here in The Pacific North West (where I am based),
- More Cifiscape stories, with the hope that what we’ll get out of it is a collection of stories similar to Ursula K. Leguin’s The Lathe of Heaven.
- A book of bike culture based fiction, with the help of our constant companion, Aaron M. Wilson.
If you have an idea for a collection, whether you’re an author or reader, we’re always looking for clever, new ideas, and we’d love to talk with you more.
Thanks so much, and we can’t to share all these collections with you. Hope you love them as much as we do.
