Encyclopocalypse Dispatch #18
Jim Newport's Five Book Vampire Series, The Vampire of Siam is out today! New Mass Market Title Added! Wholesale Program for Retailers Coming Soon!
Happy Christmas Hangover Day, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with those you love.
I think I only slept 3-4 hours on Christmas Eve. No rest for Santa Clause. The kids had a fantastic morning opening presents, as I nursed myself back to life with a couple cups of Bones Coffee (White Russian flavor). Then we did went to my in-laws house for way too much food and great company. I was in bed by 7:30pm.
We have been hard at work preparing for 2024. Encyclopocalypse has grown so much in the past few years, I’m finally getting to some things that will streamline all of our processes. Dialing in our little publishing company into a lean-mean-machine that can be trusted for only the best in genre fiction, genre non-fiction, new and re-released novelizations, and resurrecting classic horror fiction.
Let’s get to the good stuff, shall we?
Welcome to the Encyclopocalypse Dispatch.
NEW RELEASE
The Vampire of Siam Series, by Jim Newport
The Vampire Of Siam - created by Emmy nominated writer Jim Newport – is an epic tale that spans half the globe and a course of 160 years.
Throughout the series, the fate of the Vampire - Ramonne Delacroix - is inextricably entwined with that of Martin Larue – wealthy American ex-pat. Together they face vampire-hunters, corrupt cops, opium dens, bordellos, blind fortune-tellers, jealous lovers, terrorists, suicide-bombers, smugglers, warlords and soul-sucking demons.
Jim Newport’s film credits include Bangkok Dangerous, Brokedown Palace, The Stepfather and Heart Like A Wheel. In television he has set the “look” for many series by designing the pilot episodes of The Lyon’s Den, The Shield, The Education Of Max Bickford and China Beach. His work on The Piano Lesson for the Hallmark Hall Of Fame was nominated for an Emmy in art direction. He was the production designer of season four of the worldwide hit TV series Lost.
Jim has lived in Thailand for quite some time. He has used his vast experience in Thailand to create this very unique take on Vampires. These novels had been out of print for many years and he asked us to help bring them back into print. We obliged enthusiastically.
Once we got things going, Jim sent us literal suitcases full of his original paperbacks from the previous publisher. Each one signed. We’ve had them for sale on our site for a while, but we decided it would be fun to offer them free-with-purchase to anyone who buys the new paperback edition. You can grab the paperbacks or the eBooks over at our site.
NEW PRE-ORDER
The Odd Job [EXCLUSIVE MASS MARKET EDITION] by Bernard McKenna and Colin Bostock-Smith
We. Love. This. Book. One of our few comedy releases, in 1978 The Odd Job became a film starring Graham Chapman in his first solo role outside of Monty Python.
Arthur Harris is a happily married man whose wife, Fiona, decides to leave him. Devastated by this, he tries to commit suicide. After a few failed attempts, one day the doorbell rings. An “odd job man” asks if there are any odd jobs that he can perform, so Arthur decides to hire the man to kill him.
When his wife returns, Arthur is unable to cancel the contract, with the Odd Job man still on his murderous plot, unleashing an outrageous comedy of errors.
A couple years ago we released the Trade Size version, and even an HILARIOUS audiobook version narrated by Hannibal Hills (I haven’t laughed so hard listening to an audiobook. Ever. That is the absolute truth). I’ve always thought it a no-brainer to eventually add it to our Retro Mass Market Collection. Well, the day has finally arrived! You can pre-order this beautiful new version on our website.
NEWS
Encyclopocalypse Wholesale Direct Distribution Soft Launch happening now!
Since our inception, we have always approached things a tad differently than other publishers. Some things have worked, some things haven’t. But we’ve always wanted to do things our way.
When I first came on board to help Encyclopocalypse, they were mainly publishing via Amazon KDP. Which was working great. But I saw potential in widening our reach outside of the Amazon Marketplace. We found Ingram Distribution to be a way for us to offer our books outside of Amazon to stores like Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart. In my opinion, this kind of reach is valuable for visibility. The more places our books show up, the better.
The one thing that this distribution model has failed at is direct independent retailer relationships. We are cut out from knowing who is selling our books, how they are doing, what we can do to educate the booksellers even more on our books to help them sell better. To me, this is an absolute deal breaker with our current distribution model. There has to be a better way.
I have a background in wholesale distribution. I worked in the Surf/Skate Clothing industry for many years and one of my main takeaways was the relationships I had as the Accounts Manager with every one of the retail stores stocking our product all over the world. Each store buyer had a direct line to me so I could answer questions, help with issues, keep them informed on the status of their orders…etc. The Publishing Industry, at least at our Indie Level, doesn’t seem to operate that way. We chuck our books out into the Distribution Void and hope they sell. If they don’t, we blindly get hit with returns (while the distributor keeps their cut of course) and that, my friends, is a potential Publisher Killer.
We aren’t the sort of publisher whose books are going to be fully stocked in huge Big Box Stores or National Bookstore Chains. We are niche. Our preferred retailers are the weirdos like us. Stores like DiabolikDVD, The Archive (Vinegar Syndrome’s retail outlets), Viper Video Tampa, and other small, independently owned retailers.
So, in that spirit, we’ve launched our Direct-to-Retailer Wholesale Portal. It’s still in Beta Test right now, but we feel like this is a way we can have direct relationships with retailers that are excited about our books. If you know of any booksellers interested in an alternative method of distribution, feel free to send them our way. We’d love to see if our model is a great fit. You can send them to wholesale.encyclopocalypse.com and they can register there.
Thanks for reading this latest newsletter! We have ONE MORE announcement before the end of the year. That will happen on Friday.
Also, a bit of housecleaning, I understand Substack is under some scrutiny and we are keeping an eye on things. Substack was an alternative to the standard Mailing List options out there, but if we have to we will move to another method of communication. What a weird year it’s been for social media, amiright??
As always, thank you all for supporting our authors and what we do as a publisher. Remember, the best way to support us is buying direct from us. This ensures the absolute highest royalty for our authors and helps us continue to expand and always improve what we do.
Until next time,
Sean Duregger
Managing Editor, Encyclopocalypse Publications
www.BuyHorrorBooks.com
www.encyclopocalypse.com