Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Ah that's ok I seem to have an uncanny ability to accidental derail topics.

Am I right in thinking the author of Bloody Baudelaire is the same R Russel as the co owner of Tartarus Press?

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Has anyone had trouble getting their books?

I was thrilled about the new press, so I figured that I would start with the Reggie Oliver collection and the Jean Ray.I placed an order for both at the end of March, and asked that they be sent together in a box (I asked this before I placed the order). In May, I get a padded envelope with a somewhat banged up Jean Ray, but no Reggie Oliver. I wrote to Dan and explained the situation, and he said that he would send out replacements within 2 days. Wonderful!

Well, a month has passed, and no books. I wrote to Dan on Friday and again on Monday (when I read that the Reggie Oliver collection was down to a few copies), and no response.

So now I am more than a little frustrated about the situation (and not to mention that the Ray Russell and the Mark Valentine collections have sold out in the meantime, which is a shame).

Am I being too impatient? Should it take a month for the books to arrive to New York from Bucharest? Is Dan away on holiday?

Best

DocGriffinStone

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Dan had a bout of illness recently, which slowed him down, but he should be back up to speed shortly.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

It's always worth enquriing again, if it's taken a whole month, I'd say.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Out of interest are the covers of All God's Angels Beware, Trenumborus Tales (apologies to Julian for very probably spelling his collection wrong) and The Man Who Collected Machen definately the same as those on the site? I just though it best to ask since some of them had cover art not yet finalized and I wanted to unleash positive plague of those images on the Horror Cover thread.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

This should not be mistaken for "The Trembler on the Tenebris Malgraph Axis" by Peter Crowther, James Lovegrove, and Tanith Lee. I am always happy to help when I can.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Well, 'Tenebrous Tales' certainly is. They'll be a different illustration by the same artist (Kerry Buck) by way of a frontispiece. KB has created illustrations for mainstream books in the past.

The book title derives from Barry Humphries' introduction to Robert Aickman's 'Night Voices'. BH and I share a similar interest in weird fiction; I just hopes he likes the artwork as much as I do. I'm currently working on another project that BH may be involved in after he's finished his US tour.

I understand that Dan Ghetu spends a lot of time travelling across Romania from his home to consult with his printer re his various projects, and that the complexities of artwork are just one of the issues discussed. Bearing in mind that he is also raising a young family and undertakes most of the publishing work himself, I am surprised that he manages to achieve as much as he does.

People often don't realise that small press publishers scratch by on very modest incomes which in turn keeps the cost down. The average new badly- and cheaply-made hardback in Waterstones usually costs circa £15 - 20 but probably only costs £2-3 to produce. In contrast, you pay a tenner more for a sewn limited edition book printed in small runs because it costs £10 more to produce.

The small presses that have been going for a few years are obviously more efficient at despatching their books but every new small business experiences teething problems in the early stages. Anyone who thinks they can do better should give it a try.

I'm sorry if it offends those who have been waiting X number of weeks for this or that book, but I think that new small presses should be cut quite a lot of slack. People who are prepared to work so hard for so very little return, ostensibly because of passion for the subject, deserve some patience and forbearance.

Having said that, I would clearly differentiate between the delays experienced by the Ex Occ Presses of this world, and the out-and-out fraud committed by vanity presses who deliberately dupe both writer and customer, or the antics of certain publishers formerly based in Seattle, who still refuse to pay writers or refund customers several years down the line whilst maintaining a lucrative sideline in book sales on Ebay. Dan Ghetu is no John Pelan, he is simply someone struggling to cope with a very large workload (and coping very well, on the whole).

JK

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Right thats Mr Samuels book ordered.


Apologies, I only looked at the Tenebrous Tales page a while ago and miss read it. I allways assumed it was derived from Tenebrarum (again; not sure of spelling) so it would be read as "Dark Tales". I've never read any of Robert Aikman's stories so I didn't get the referance.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I can speak for my own collection here and say that the image currently at the site is very probably not the final image. All God's Angels, Beware! is currently going into the layout etc. stage of production, so these things should be finalised soon.

Just thought I'd say that I agree with this. I only have two of the Ex Occidente books so far - Putting the Pieces in Place and Madder Mysteries, but even to have given the world these two volumes is an acheivement. And, of course, the press is giving the world even more.

I do hope any teething problems that might exist do not cause too much distress either on the publishing or the buying side.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I'm afraid I don't know. When it came to the cover of my book, I left the matter entirely up to Dan. His judgement is sound.

However! I remember he asked me for a frontispiece, but I wasn't keen on having a big photo of my ugly old mug plastered inside.

Mark S.