Blog

The details for our event at the Annapolis Barnes & Noble have finally been decided. The Horror of Writing, The Thrill of Success & Failure: A Workshop on Horror Fiction & the Writing Life Barnes & Noble in Annapolis Harbor Shopping Center 2512 Solomons Island Rd, (410) 573-1115 Thursday October 14th, 7 pm The format…

The Women of Persephone mass signing was great. Each of the women had a lot to say about writing, horror and life in general. Barbara Ferrenz kept the discussion going with lots of thought-provoking topics. I was particularly interested in Tina Jens’ comments about how horror helps us cope with life, deal with fear and…

I’ve been spending a lot of time scoping out printer’s websites and getting estimates for both the custom playing cards and for possibly doing Play Dead as an offset title. It’s exciting but at the same time scary because I know it’s going to be a lot of money up front. Just how much still…

posted by rdsp Yes, it’s been a while since I outlined promo techniques for publishers and authors. But I return from the book wars with new and improved methods of attack to share with you. Behold: * PRweb.com — Who could turn down free exposure to thousands of online viewers? And, at it’s cheapest ($10),…

Today I’m going to try not to be so controversial. Usually it’s John who causes all the ruckus. There is an absolutely KILLER review of Bare Bone #5 up at Horror-web. Read it if you dare. Any review that starts out, “Damn that crew at Raw Dog Screaming Press, Damn them all!” is tops in…

As usual the con stirred up quite a hell-storm of possibilities. RDSP could go in a lot of directions from here and it’s hard to know which way to turn. One thing that we’ve heard from some other publishers is that you need to release a lot of titles. Apparently we can even get a…

The biggest surprise of Horrorfind was meeting Alyssa Sturgill. I had no idea that she was coming and when she came up to the table I thought she had the coolest dress on but I had no idea it was her. We’ve published several wild stories by her in The Dream People so it was…

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting more dirt on HF and I have been frantically working on getting pics online. I swear it really has taken the whole day to get this one page done. Here are the PHOTOS. I have to give a special shout out to blindsidepubs for the awesome pics…

So we’ve been back from HF for a few hours now but we’ve still got that darkly luscious stink on us. Spent too much time trying to make the sales sheet match up with the copies we brought home and the cash we had. It’s been a bit like trying to force your own hand…

I remember last year at Horrorfind the hotel didn’t allow people to put anything up on the walls which sucks because I could have made some great posters, especially for Dirge. Instead I spent most of yesterday coming up with a 3-sided triangular stand alone piece. It’s not as big as a poster but I…

Horrorfind is only a few short days away so things have been a bit hectic trying to get ready. I’ve already packed up all the books we’re taking and made up a price list. I spent too much time making the price list look pretty but this is the nicest looking price list we’ve ever…

I was talking to John last night and I asked him if he thought I’d been more unhappy since we started the press. It might seem silly to have to ask someone else but it’s hard to get perspective on something like that because when you’re frustrated everything looks bleak and when you’re elated everything…

OK, so I finally got something DONE over the weekend. The Fall of Never interior layout is complete! I’m still working on the cover though. Also the new issue of The Dream People is now up. Struggles with the computer continue. I’ve now conquered the PDF problem and re-enslaved the cd writer to do my…

We spent most of the day yesterday getting the new desk in place and rearranging everything. Whew! It was harder work than I thought it was going to be and you should have seen the dust. But now it’s great that we each have our own workstations and everything is organized. Over the weekend I…

The office is progressing nicely. I put the new desk together last night but haven’t set the computer up on it yet. Also called up Apple support to get some help networking the computers. It turned out my old machine was missing some important pieces necessary for file sharing which required a reinstallation of the…

Heather Cox just posted a cool interview she did with Mike Arnzen for Bella Online. Here’s the link: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22279.asp/zzz I’ve been working on getting a bookplate designed for the Everybody Scream! special edition. If you don’t know what I’m talking about bookplates are like name tags that people put inside their books to say they…

The file cabinet and computer desk came yesterday. I spent most the evening setting up the hanging folders and labeling. It’s great no longer having all those piles of paper on the floor! Didn’t get to the desk yet though. I finished reading nihilistic_kid’s book Move Under Ground a few days ago and, as promised,…

Yesterday I updated the web site to announce that we will be publishing an anthology edited by Forrest Aguirre. We’re really excited about this project. There are not many people who get a reputation as excellent editors but Forrest is one of them. Leviathan 3, which he edited, was received very well and #4 is…

Yesterday we were lucky enough to meet up with Matt Warner & Deena Warner and Val & Diane (www.reallyscary.com) for dinner. After a frustrating day of wrestling with databases and Amazon.com it was good to get out and get my mind off all these stinkin’ details. It was a great time and funny to find…

I’ve been diligently inputting info into this publishing financial software program. It’s been tedious but I was under the impression that information added to the trial version would still be there if we decided to buy the program. Then yesterday I tried to restore a backup copy of the database and wound up wiping out…

Got some great news yesterday from Darren Speegle. Ellen Datlow has recommended his story, Illusions of Amber, for the next Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror! The story was originally published in Underworlds but is also included in Dirge. I guess she still has to make her final decision about which stories will be reprinted and…

I knew before we ever got involved in this publishing thing that distribution and getting books into the stores was going to be difficult. But it really is frustrating. We’re trying to set up this event at Barnes & Noble but unfortunately they can’t order RDSP titles because the titles are either marked as POD…

Mike Arnzen’s eye-opening article, “What Corrupted Me” is now up on ReallyScary.com. It amazes me that Mike’s non-fiction is just as fascinating as his fiction. For example his essays in The Goreletter are filled with disgusting tangents and sick images but his point is always well argued and unique. He’s put a lot of thought…

We had so much fun at the Gallery Neptune reading/exhibit. First of all it was great to see D. Harlan Wilson again. We were lucky enough to meet up with him, his fiancee Christine and his sister Jane before the reading to eat dinner. Though we’d never me his sister or fiancee it was like…

I’ve been trying to be more active on message boards lately partly as a means of spreading the Raw Dog word and partly just to keep up with who is doing what but sometimes it’s overwhelming. Plus I’m an inveterate lurker and don’t usually like to post. But I did post a giveaway on the…