Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

As Quentin suggests, I'd rather a book be read than stored away (especially in the case of my first book that shipped at a stunted 100 copies, many being bought by family and friends being polite), but your question presupposes too much. Not all books published go on to increase in value. I still believe that the bulk of small press book sales are not to investors, but rather those who are fans of the books, and who tend to buy only the one copy to read. Are there some that might be investing in Reggie Oliver's newer books? Possibly, but I also think you're confusing value of a book with it's contents. Just because you don't own a first edition Lovecraft doesn't mean you can't read his fiction. If Reggie Oliver's star really rises, there will be demand enough that the books will eventually be reprinted. If he never reaches that level of acclaim, if he stays at a 300-copy level, then the investors will disappear. For example, Terry Lamsley's first Ash Tree book sells for a higher price on the used market. The third, not nearly so.

A publisher ought to publish the numbers they feel they can sell of an author. If I object to anything, it's the micro-print runs of some items that serve no purpose but to irritate 90% of an authors fans. Case in point, the limited copies of "This Degenerate Little Town" which I would have loved to have owned but vanished immediately.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I just spent 45 minutes typing a response to the various issues raised here but the blasted TLO board suddenly went funny and lost the post.

Grr!!!!!!!!!!!

JK

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

This is a great discussion, gentlemen. It's given me a lot to think about and consider, including my personal buying habits and motives. It also occurred to me that perhaps the horror/weird fiction small press could learn something from the occult/metaphysical small press, especially publishers who print "talismanic" books. Take Xoanon Press for example: they print extremely high quality books in limited editions for a fair price. But here's the thing; one has to prove they're worthy to purchase said books. One has to write them a letter for approval; no email, no phone number -- you have to physically take the initiative to write them a letter. Only then will you be put on their mail list, maybe. Their mild screening process weeds out most would-be collectors and makes sure the books find their way into the hands of people who truly want to read the material, not just turn a profit. In addition, they reserve the right to deny sales to anyone and usually have a one copy limit per individual.

Even with these hurdles, all their books sell out pre-publication.
Of course there are still individuals who decide to sell their copies once the prices become astronomical, but that's a judgment call the individual has to make, usually after they've already read it.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I personally know how frustrating that can be. I suggest hitting save draft occasionally when entering lengthy replies. The peculiarities of servers, browsers and cookies between can break a login if the page remains dormant for too long. If you have a draft, simply reply to the same post again and the text should reappear. I believe this problem is not as common as it has been in the past, however, though it may only seem so as members embrace brevity over time.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

It happened to me twice before, while I was writing but in other threads, I didn't mention it because I thought I probably touched something on the keyboard. Now, I first write somehing on MS Word and then "copy" and "paste". And, guess what, I'm happy. If anything happens ever again, I'm safe.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I agree with "The New Nonsense". I really dislike the idea of "birds of prey", smelling an investment, and buying books just to make a profit that doesn't go to the writer's pocket. There is a bookseller, on eBay, who after selling me copies of several Arkham books (different titles), still has more copies available online. He has Midnight House's Jean Ray, and now he is offereing Reggie Oliver's Madder Mysteries. Who knows how many copies of these books he acquired just to resale them at a higher price? There are two copies: for $ 55 and one more for $ 62.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Joel,

Much as I respect your opinion on weird fiction and other matters (and without wanting to risk having this thread veer too far off course), I just want to interject and say I disagree with your analysis of the meltdown and the market. It's true that a good deal of greed created little monsters all across the world, as in the famous Madoff case recently concluded. However, in my opinion, the whole thing was caused by an institution wholly outside any notion of the free market: the Federal Reserve. This cabal of private bankers artificially sets interest rates, administers huge bailouts, and creates money out of thin air. It's also an incredibly secretive monstrosity that operates with governmental powers, but isn't a part of it, and thus not subject to any oversight what so ever. Ben Bernanke routinely tells Congress to shove it when the few reps bold enough to ask demand to find out where the bailout money went or to see its records. And unfortunately, since the same people seem to own most of the Congress and possibly the Presidency, there aren't enough politicians asking to actually find out the extent of what this thing has done to the American economy, and the world economy by extension.

As another aside, in my opinion, the government pumping huge amounts of bailout money into the banks and other groups "too big to fail" through the Fed is also entirely anti-free market. It's quite the opposite: they're too big to save. And in any case, the bailouts amount to a weird sort of inverted socialism, redistributing the wealth of the people to corporate entities, rather than party bureaucrats or the poor as in previous historical examples. Whatever it is, it isn't free market, and I don't think the meltdown can be laid at the feet of capitalism.

You could be right about booksellers trying to hawk some rare stuff (or making it rare) just to save their dying breed of businessman. For better or worse, I agree that there is going to be a huge decline in the amount of professional booksellers who are able to make a full time living of it. On the other hand, we might see more small presses pop up that cater exclusively to online consumers.

Unfortunately, this probably means the internet will be just about the only place to go for weird fiction or anything approaching quality horror (as is already mostly the case). If most of the small booksellers go under, we'll be left only with the large chain outlets who cater solely to popular tastes, and even their days might be numbered.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

To continue to veer off course in a direction not only off-topic but also one about which I'm terribly under-informed, it seems to me that had the nineties not seen a rush of companies going on a buying spree, consolidating the world into a few mega-companies, we might not be in this situation now where the USA government has to intervene to keep companies afloat. Greed destroyed the variation in the market -- the megabookstores killed the smaller shops -- now that those goliath companies are failing, there is nothing around to fill the void when they fall.

My hope is that we see the rebirth of a heterogeneous economy worldwide, but I'm not holding my breath that lessons have been learned.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Starrysothoth – that's just one manifestation of corporate capitalism, typical but not special, replicated in worldwide trends. I'm not even offering an 'analysis', just stating the fairly obvious.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

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.