Ex Occidente Press

[yellowish haze]

I just did a small search for writers whose books are in the "Future Titles" section of Ex Occidente. Some of these titles sound very promising. I noticed that the translation of Max Blecher's short novel Adventures in Immediate Unreality is available for download in pdf here.

[Jeff Coleman]

Evans,

I recommend emailing Dan Ghetu (at the Ex Occidente site) and asking him when your book was shipped. I emailed him about a month after ordering Madder Mysteries, and he wrote back and told me when he shipped my copy, which was a few weeks after I placed my order. My book arrived about a month after the shipping date.

[nomis]

Alberto, the reason you don't see the cheap paperbacks is two-fold

1) as has been suggested, most of these authors don't have of a draw to sell more than a few hundred book. The pool of readers is quite small, and past attempts to expand that pool has been met with failure. This is the reason why most supernatural fiction is not sold in the large bookstores any longer (barring exceptions, of course).

2) the economics of printing is that the difference to print paperbacks in small numbers is almost the same as printing hardbacks. That being the case, it's easier for a publisher to sell a hardback because the perceived value is higher. Why, as a reader, would I want to buy a $20 paperback? It seems high. But a $30 hardback seems reasonable. And to answer another question, the economics of printing 300 is not much different than printing 1000. You have to get into much higher numbers before printing inexpensive paperbacks becomes cost-effective, and the small presses that are publishing these books don't have authors like Stephanie Myers helping by their sales to off-set the cost of gambles.

It's safer all around for the publishers of these books to sell less copies at a higher price. At least they've a better chance at recouping their cost and making a little bit of money (though even that is not guaranteed).

[damo]

cheers for posting this – mark samuels and reggie oliver ordered post haste. anyone read this christopher barker character? sounds intriguing but its a few bob to pay for someone youve never read before. again, thanks. keeps me in the loop. damo

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by damo

anyone read this christopher barker character? sounds intriguing but its a few bob to pay for someone youve never read before.

I've ordered the Chris Barker book, because I want to read the stories of a fellow member on TLO (Chris Barker = 'Julian Karswell').

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Mamatas]

There's no particular reason that these books cannot be published in paperback in the future. Some of the recent inexpensive paperback titles mentioned in prior posts are printed either POD (as ordered in quantities as small as one at a time) or in digital short runs of fifty to a couple hundred at a go.

In the US at least, unsold inventory is both a real cost (storage) and a taxable asset at once, which influenced a number of changes over the years. The more "upscale" books are produced in trade rather than mass market paperback for example in when it comes to big publishing, print runs are lower, and books go OP more quickly. And the small press has long catered,and to a certain extent created, a hyper-specialized market of collectors.

If buying expensive hardbacks were that much of an addiction, however we'd see higher print runs without a concomitant reduction in price. Small 100-300 copy runs at high prices are for collectors who want objects as well as texts. But because there only perhaps a few thousand serious collectors and a periphery of dabblers (I'll buy the occasional expensive book but have no hardcore collection anyway), I wouldn't extrapolate too much about human nature or the acquisitiveness or North Americans from the existence of a tiny specialty market for weird fiction.

Both cheap paperbacks and expensive limited hardcovers are tricks of marketing and development of different audiences. One competes on perceived value, the other on price. Luckily, there's no reason why a book cannot first appear as a limited hardback and then later as a digitally generated paperback.

[Russell Nash]

Quote Originally Posted by Mamatas

I wouldn't extrapolate too much about human nature or the acquisitiveness or North Americans from the existence of a tiny specialty market for weird fiction.

I'm sorry if I said North Americans only, but yes, you are right. From a mathematical viewpoint I was totally wrong. My conclusion was inductive reasoning and it always (almost always) proved to be wrong. However, I still think that most of the buyers of these books are investors. But, again, I'm doing inductive reasoning, and I could be wrong. This phenomenon, is seen everywhere, not only in North America. A cheap softcover first edition of Borges' "Dr. Brodie's Report" in Spanish, is in the order of hundreds of dollars. A signed copy of his collected stories is probably around three hundred, and if you see it my way, who cares if it is signed or not after all? Unless, of course, if the author dedicated this book to you, and in that case, you wouldn't sell it.

Quote Originally Posted by Mamatas

There's no particular reason that these books cannot be published in paperback in the future.

I read Giovanni Papini's stories because Borges spoke excellent about him. In fact, Papini's stories can mostly be found thanks to Borges' idea of publishing them again. I read Remy de Gourmont's stories because Papini spoke excellent about him. See, Borges -> Papini -> Remy de Gourmont. Good writers recommending good writers. Remy de Gourmont's stories were published by Dedalus, in 1992, "The Angels of Perversity", in softcover edition (I think, I would add "only"). So, for those who value hardbound books over cheap and non-prestigious softcover editions, what would you suggest to me? Not to buy the book because, although with stories by de Gourmont, it is a cheap edition? Well, my answer is: Papini himself recommended de Gourmont, and Papini was recommended by Borges, not by writers that who knows if they are going to be in the market in two years.

Some writers by being published in expensive and rare hardbound editions know that just because of this simple reason they are going to be bought. Independently of whether they are good or bad writers. Who doubts that Jean Ray's edition from Ex-Occidente Press would cost hundreds in a few years? But, publish the same authors in softcover editions, and will see how many sell two copies.

Quote Originally Posted by damo

anyone read this christopher barker character?

Some of his stories can still be found online.

[Evans]

Quote Originally Posted by damo

cheers for posting this – mark samuels and reggie oliver ordered post haste. anyone read this christopher barker character? sounds intriguing but its a few bob to pay for someone youve never read before. again, thanks. keeps me in the loop. damo

Hang on, Karswell is your website still online? I can't seem to find The Tableaux link anymore.

Quote Originally Posted by Nemonymous

Quote Originally Posted by damo anyone read this christopher barker character? sounds intriguing but its a few bob to pay for someone youve never read before. I've ordered the Chris Barker book, because I want to read the stories of a fellow member on TLO (Chris Barker = 'Julian Karswell').

I fear you may have some what of a headstart on me there Nemonymous. I was reading your thoughts on Cold To The Touch the other night. (by the way have you reviewed any of Quentin S Crisp's collections?)

[qcrisp]

I just thought I'd let people know that All God's Angels, Beware! is definitely on its way. I know because I'm doing some final proofreading for it now.

Some of the information given about the collection on the website is not quite right. Hopefully the website will be updated soon, and all the information will be made correct.

Regarding the discussion above about hardback and paperback books, I'd love to have cheap paperbacks out sometime, too, although I'll certainly be very pleased with these luxurious hardbacks. Unfortunately, I'm not very enterprising and have very little energy. I've pretty much put everything else in my life on hold - including other writing projects - in order to do this proofreading, for instance. After actually writing the stories, I'm not very good at anything else. I've very much relied on publishers doing the rest of the work for me, to be honest. I've been considering the idea of self-publishing for ages, to get out some unpublished (or published) stuff of mine in cheap POD paperback. But I simply never seem to get round to it. Administration, design, promotion, techy stuff, etc., have so far proved beyond me.

[Evans]

Quote Originally Posted by qcrisp

Regarding the discussion above about hardback and paperback books, I'd love to have cheap paperbacks out sometime, too, although I'll certainly be very pleased with these luxurious hardbacks. Unfortunately, I'm not very enterprising and have very little energy. I've pretty much put everything else in my life on hold - including other writing projects - in order to do this proofreading, for instance. After actually writing the stories, I'm not very good at anything else. I've very much relied on publishers doing the rest of the work for me, to be honest. I've been considering the idea of self-publishing for ages, to get out some unpublished (or published) stuff of mine in cheap POD paperback. But I simply never seem to get round to it. Administration, design, promotion, techy stuff, etc., have so far proved beyond me.

Any chance of somewhere like Centipede Press picking up the contents of your earlier volumes for a massive collection?