Egaeus Press

[Zaharoff]

Rotary dial in the background.

I ordered this.
Must confess I am also intrigued by the "Sea" collection Egaeus has tentatively scheduled for 2018.

[Michael]

Ordered!!!

[Gnosticangel]

Yes, ordered here also! John Howard's work is wonderful.

[Jeff Matthews]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Rotary dial in the background. I ordered this. Must confess I am also intrigued by the "Sea" collection Egaeus has tentatively scheduled for 2018.

Yes, the sea collection should be great.

I've ordered the Howard collection, and am particularly excited to see "Numbered as Sand or the Stars" rescued from Ex Occidente obscurity.

[Ucasuni]

I really like the aesthetic of Egaeus's books, and its catalog is chock-full of first-rate authors. However, I confess I find its heavy reliance on ex-ExOx publications a little... unseemly?

It'd be nice to see Mr. Beech develop his own stable of authors; I mean, he has plenty of new voices to choose from, if his excellent anthologies are anything to judge by.

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by Ucasuni

I really like the aesthetic of Egaeus's books, and its catalog is chock-full of first-rate authors. However, I confess I find its heavy reliance on ex-ExOx publications a little... unseemly? It'd be nice to see Mr. Beech develop his own stable of authors; I mean, he has plenty of new voices to choose from, if his excellent anthologies are anything to judge by.

Would you invert this and require writers to remain with one press?

[Ucasuni]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Quote Originally Posted by Ucasuni I really like the aesthetic of Egaeus's books, and its catalog is chock-full of first-rate authors. However, I confess I find its heavy reliance on ex-ExOx publications a little... unseemly? It'd be nice to see Mr. Beech develop his own stable of authors; I mean, he has plenty of new voices to choose from, if his excellent anthologies are anything to judge by. Would you invert this and require writers to remain with one press?

I'm confused. What you are proposing isn't an inversion of what I said. For the record, I wouldn't require writers to remain with one press.

[Zaharoff]

Developing a stable reminds me of the old "studio system."
Most authors I now see published across diverse presses.
If an author can resell a story, sometimes errors corrected or the sequence rearranged ... or ... cause they can, I think that is fine.
For readers, a subsequent publication is ofttimes the only route they have.
I was fortunate enough to buy a copy of Ligotti's Agonizing ... Frankenstein when it came out on Silver Salamander. I am sure not going to think it unseemly of Subterranean for releasing a later edition. I missed the boat on the Egaeus run of Samuels' Written In Darkness. Luckily, Chomu has published a PB version and I am fine with that.
Meanwhile, I am thrilled Egaeus has announced a new John Howard!

[Ucasuni]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Developing a stable reminds me of the old "studio system." Most authors I now see published across diverse presses. If an author can resell a story, sometimes errors corrected or the sequence rearranged ... or ... cause they can, I think that is fine. For readers, a subsequent publication is ofttimes the only route they have. I was fortunate enough to buy a copy of Ligotti's Agonizing ... Frankenstein when it came out on Silver Salamander. I am sure not going to think it unseemly of Subterranean for releasing a later edition. I missed the boat on the Egaeus run of Samuels' Written In Darkness. Luckily, Chomu has published a PB version and I am fine with that. Meanwhile, I am thrilled Egaeus has announced a new John Howard!

I understand this view. And I'm in favor of artists' making money and getting exposure where they can. My point isn't about them. It's about the publisher. And I'm dismayed by the degree to which Egaeus seems to lean on ExOx sometimes. Half of the stories in the Cantwell collection are originally published by ExOx. A third of the stories in Watt's collection are. I see several in the Howard collection.

As for Centipede, honestly, I've requested that he do more original publications. I loved Aaronovitz's Alice Walks. But beyond that, Centipede usually adds all sorts of bells and whistles to their publications: commentary, artwork, and signatures. No to mention scale, as in the Masters series. Obviously, this later quality is challenging when you're dealing with more contemporary authors, but there you have it.

And in the case of Subterranean's reprints, I would say that reprints are not a major component of there publishing model, so the comparison is flawed.

I really like Egaeus' increasing attention to its own anthologies. I hope to see more original material in the future. I realize this is a riskier proposition than reprinting works that are in high demand, and can understand using that as a way of mitigating volatility. Ideally, that stability will permit Egaeus to find and develop new voices in the field as well.

Edit: a point of clarification. When I say "stable" it seems that you read that to mean "exclusive ownership". That's a fair interpretation, but not at all my intention. I think of it simply as being a group of authors that you have developed and with whom you frequently work. The late Avalon Brantley is the perfect example of that dynamic. I consider her to be an ExOx author, even though she didn't publish exclusively with them. My hope is that some day soon I'll be able to think of some bright new voice as an Egaeus author.

[Egaeus]

Hullo. I'd sooner not get into a debate; I don't have the energy for arguing, and all are entitled to their views. However, here are the facts, and our thoughts:

Firstly, can I point out that a very quick look at our back catalogue reveals that, of all the writers Egaeus has published, including those in anthologies, 27 were indeed included in some Ex Occidente publication. 20 were not. Is this too high a proportion? You might argue it is. I haven't of course compared any other contemporary publishers of, specifically, weird fiction. (I could also narrow it down to publishers of weird fiction with a European sensibility.)

Ex Occidente - in it's first incarnation - published a lot of books in a short amount of time, and they drew on a great set of authors, who 'got' what they were doing, whatever happened later. (Zagava, can I point out, continues to use your perceived Ex Occidente 'stable', though as I understand it, have no real links with the original Ex Occidente. Relevant?)

Egaeus, however, I believe follows a unique aesthetic, and what we publish is based on a sort of gut feeling, centred on that aesthetic. If we use some of the same excellent writers as Ex Occidente and stories that have appeared in Ex Occidente / Zagava books, I don't for a moment believe these Egaeus Press books in their entirety would have fitted inconspicuously in Ex Occidente's catalogue. Anyway, few writers 'get' Egaeus completely, and we've discovered a hell of a lot of our favourite writers have no interest in appearing in limited editions, narrowing the pool still further.

These days, we don't solicit writers, except for most of the anthologies - anyone can submit their manuscripts, and the writer suggests the contents, or presents a selection. We do of course have input on the final TOC, but we usually do so looking for a unifying aesthetic, and usually without acknowledgements to know where they have previouly appeared. When editing the John Howard book for example we didn't feel that many of the stories from 'horror' anthologies fitted with the best, subtler supernatural stuff, or with the aesthetic we found ourselves following - of impossible architectures and lost maps - some did, and do appear. But perhaps there are a few more Zagava / Ex Occidente stories than there might have been if we had been more careless.

Though I say we do not solicit writers, for the first 4 or so books we did approach them, understandably, but of the 7 or 8 writers approached, all but those we published declined for one reason or another. Quite a few of the writers we approach now for stories for anthologies either decline, or don't wind up in tune with the project or the press. In fact, getting any previously unpublished - or unaffiliated - writer always feels like a coup.

We've made no attempt to tap into anyone else's canon, or to create a 'stable' of writers, though some return of their own accord. We publish what the aesthetic dictates, and what we love!

Of the authors of the next 4 books we have very (very) tentatively pencilled up for publication, not including anthologies, only 1 has ever been published by Ex Occidente. Still too high a proportion? Perhaps it is, but we remain open to submissions, if they are of a decent quality, and fit the bill.

Thus ends the statement.