Well, it’s been quiet around here because I was really busy with the LetterPress Publications launch of Revival by Stephen King when I got a kidney stone on May 14! Which then went silent until last Saturday when it came roaring back while I was in the mountains camping in the middle of nowhere… and it tormented me until yesterday morning when I finally passed the little bugger! What fun!
So, I missed out on doing a bunch of the promotions I had planned for Revival, and it goes without saying that nothing all that productive (except maybe thinking up some new swear words while dealing with the extraordinary pain) has been done in the past week!
But, that lost time cannot be called back, and all I can do is focus on getting things done in the here and now, so I returned to my laptop yesterday afternoon, ready to catch-up on a bunch of things… only to discover the R key on my keyboard had decided now was the perfect time to just stop working.
It turns out, when your company is called “LetterPress” and the book is called Revival, you use the R key a lot… ha…
For now I’m pasting in my Rs as I need them (take that, Paul Sheldon!) and a replacement keyboard should arrive later today. It’s been a long time since I replaced anything in a laptop, but this is supposed to be easy. We’ll see. 🙂
Anyway, it’s been one of THOSE weeks, but luckily I’m surrounded by very talented people who have kept on working, and thanks to them you can now see the full cover for “So It’s Come to This,” my next signed Limited Edition chapbook that will be published exclusively for my supporters on Level Two and above on Patreon as of the end of the day today! (That means if you’ve been thinking of signing up, today would be a great day!)
As a bonus, I thought I’d also show off the “faux marbled endpapers” that will grace the inside-cover of the chapbook to make it a little different than most chapbooks you see published:
Lots more updates to come in June! Thank you again for all of your support!
The new trade paperback edition of More Than Midnight is shipping to Level Six and higher supporters on Patreon this week, and orders through Cemetery Dance Publications are being fulfilled as well. Orders via Amazonwon’t be signed, but on the other hand Amazon can also have a copy of the book with that amazing Vincent Chong cover artwork in your hands in two days or less, so that’s pretty tempting, eh?
As you might recall, this is actually a newly revised and expanded edition of More Than Midnight. Between now and the end of the year, Weak and Wounded, Dreamlike States, and Lost and Lonely will all receive the same treatment: revised, expanded, and with new Vincent Chong covers for their first appearance in trade paperback.
Here are my advance copies of all four trade paperbacks, so you can see what the complete “set” will look like once completed:
“So It’s Come To This: A Poetry Chapbook” will be my third Patreon-only chapbook. Complete details will be posted here when it’s published in July, although my incredible supporters on Patreon already have a pretty good idea of what they’re getting themselves into! 😉
Here’s the cover artwork:
For those who haven’t heard my spiel before, my first love in life is writing stories, and Patreon allows me to post those stories directly for readers who dig my work, which really is quite awesome.
Because I really like to “make” things, I’ve created different Rewards Levels, for every type of supporter, which you can read all about on the JOIN page. I would love to see you there, if you’re interested. Every little bit helps, and I’m extremely grateful for all of the support I’ve received from readers these past two years. Thank you!
Since October of last year I’ve been putting together plans to do a little more with my personal press, LetterPress Publications, beyond just publishing my own chapbooks and books for my Patreon supporters — although LPP will still do that! — and I want to share some important information with you today since I’ll be making a pretty big announcement for LetterPress Publications tomorrow, May 15.
A LITTLE HISTORY:
I’ve worked at Cemetery Dance Publications full-time since 2002, and I’ll be there for as long as Richard will have me, but something has been missing these past fifteen months.
My wife and I worked together at CD from June 2006 until February of 2018, when she jumped at an opportunity with a company closer to where we actually live that we just couldn’t pass up. (Home is actually 90 minutes from the CD offices — it’s a long commute, and even longer now without my partner in crime!) But with our kids, our future plans, and everything else, this fantastic new job was a no brainer for her.
Yet… no longer working with her to juggle all the books and logistical planning and everything else we face as a team at CD has left a big hole in my day to day work life.
Luckily, unlike a lot of the difficult problems people face in real life, there was an easy solution to this. I like publishing books. She likes publishing books. We even already have a little press all set-up for publishing my rewards for my Patreon supporters, which has been a ton of fun these past two years.
So, starting this month, LetterPress Publications will be branching out from a personal press to an actual small press, publishing deluxe special editions of works by my favorite authors. We’ll be working together again… in the evenings… and on weekends… for one book this year, and then three to four books per year after that, if all goes well.
Although I cannot get into which specific projects just yet (watch LetterPressPublications.com for the big news!), I think you’ll be very pleased with what we have planned.
Maybe even more importantly, if you want to be among the FIRST to be notified about any news and announcements — including of this first book by a New York Times bestselling author who is hugely popular among horror collectors — please go to the LetterPress Publications website and sign-up for our FREE MAILING LIST. Thank you!
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MY PATRONS ON PATREON:
If you’re concerned about the future of my Patreon page or my writing, please know I’ve been juggling the behind the scenes drudgery for officially launching LetterPress Publications as company that sells products to the public (which includes some extremely mind-numbing stuff with the state and local governments, the IRS, my credit union, my accountant, and my attorney that luckily only needs completed once — I hope!) since October of last year.
So I’ve been pretty busy already, but still getting my Patreon work done for the most part. (The serial novel The Echo of Memory is a bit behind schedule, but that’s because I’m too hard on myself about whether a chapter is ready to post! That said, more chapters are on the way soon.)
More importantly, the actual labor of running LPP is the same kind of tasks I’ve handled day in, day out at Cemetery Dance Publications since 2002, just on a much smaller scale since it’ll only be 1 or 2 books in production at a time.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR LONELY ROAD BOOKS:
No changes there. That’s still a side project for Richard Chizmar and me, and we’re still working on books for this year and beyond. The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan to name one, and a final William Peter Blatty signed Limited Edition to name another.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CEMETERY DANCE PUBLICATIONS:
Well, there’s a better than slight chance I’ll get ribbed by Rich, Mindy, Dan, and New Dan for a while. “Oh, there goes Mr. Big Shot Publisher!” That sort of thing.
On the other hand, I can change all of their passwords for the website and the order management software until they stop it, so… 😉
Yeah, this isn’t going to change anything about my work at CD. Everyone there is incredibly supportive of each other’s hobbies, side ventures, creative projects, and the things we do to find personal fulfillment.
If you have any questions or concerns, please always feel free to get in touch! My CD email address remains brianfreeman@cemeterydance.com and my new LLP email address is… well, I don’t know yet. Still working on that, but I’ll post it when I have one!
Best,
Brian
P.S. Here’s the LetterPress Publications Logo, just so something shows up on social media when I share this. 😉
I’m extremely pleased to report the trade hardcover edition of The Zombie Who Cried Human has been published and is shipping now, and it really turned out beautifully. Glenn Chadbourne’s artwork brought Boy Zombie and his entire town to life… so to speak… and I’m really pleased by how this came together.
WHAT AGE RANGE IS THIS FOR?
I’ve been asked what age range this book is for, which is a great question. My answer is simple: it’s for kids of all ages who are prepared for the style of artwork and the nature of the story. If you’re actually purchasing this for a child, give it a pre-read — like you would for any book you get them — and make sure you think it is appropriate based on their interests. If not, set it aside in your forbidden closet of mystery until they can find it on their own!
Just a reminder that anyone who wants to qualify for the next exclusive signed Limited Edition chapbook I’m publishing for my Patreon supporters just needs to sign-up for Level 2 or above by the end of the month!
This chapbook is going to be a bit of a surprise and different from the previous ones, and I don’t want to ruin the fun by saying too much, but I just have to show off the cover artwork because I love it so much:
More updates to follow soon, along with more free chapters of my serial novel, The Echo of Memory.
Yeah, something like this can only be shared down below!
[ppp_patron_only level=”1″ silent=”no”]
I am not a poet.
Yet for some reason, I still try to write poetry from time to time. Same with song lyrics, even though I’m in no way a musician. I figure, as long as it all stays on my computer, it’s not hurting anyone, so what’s the harm… right?
But then something like this happens:
A reprint edition of a book needed a few more pages to hit a stupid mandatory minimum page count.
NOT the publisher’s request or demand, they certainly don’t care, but one of the major venues for eBook advertising has a minimum page count requirement to consider something a “real book” — and even with some creative design tweaks we were still four pages short of hitting that number.
What are you gonna do, right?
We have to be able to advertise the book via this outlet, so I added a “Secret Bonus Poetry Section” at the back of the book, which includes the “lost gem” you can read below, which was jotted down in 2009 and has never seen the light of the day because it’s absolutely nuts and makes not one lick of sense.
This sort of thing should NOT be unleashed on the general public. It’s just not fair to readers who took the time to learn to read!
And yet, here I am, about to subject all of you to it. Might I suggest you just close the browser window now and forget all about this post?
You really aren’t missing anything!
Still here…?
Are you sure…?
Okay…
I mean, you’re only hurting yourself here…
If you’re sure…
In that case…
Without further ado, I present…
________________________________________
“PETA Can Save Your Marriage”
They say
the average house pet
will live longer
than the
average
American marriage;
so clearly the
key to a
long and successful partnership
is to let
PETA
euthanize
your cats and dogs
today
before time runs out!
________________________________________
If the look on your face matches the look on the dog’s face at the top of this post, congratulations… we’re all making the same face right now. 🙂
It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to post an inside look at book publishing and book production, but for those who are curious, here is what an untrimmed, unbound book block looks like:
Shipping early next month to qualifying Patreon supporters is the hand-bound Patreon Stories: Volume One Lettered Edition, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out! These are hand-bound in real leather and my binder used imported hand-marbled endpapers, etc, to take them to the next level. Here are some photos I took real quick yesterday:
