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Halcyon Press Ltd. / Kingsley Literary Services

Sheryl Nantus

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I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, so mods - feel free to yank this around to the proper forum.

Recently I've discovered a series of books out for the Kindle and for the Nook under the publisher name of "Halcyon Press". These "Halcyon Classic" books are usually anthologies of short stories by various authors.

Now some of them are obviously public domain... but others I'm nervous about. Especially the Science-Fiction Anthologies that have a lot of fabulous authors and stories.

Right up front I want to say that I'm not accusing Halcyon Press of anything - but I can't find a web page for the company and with all the concern about authors and copyright I'd like to be sure that if I purchase any of these that I'm not giving pirates any money.

Can someone in the know confirm that these stories are legitimately up there on Amazon/B&N? I see some up there by Ben Bova, Marion Zimmer Bradley and I just want to be sure that it's on the up and up.

Thanks in advance!
 

CaoPaux

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The cache of Halcyon Press Ltd's website leads us to Kingsley Literary Services http://www.kingsleybooks.com/. It does look like an effort to republish public domain works, but how successful they are in vetting which are PD is more research than I've time for now. :hat:
 

Jamiekswriter

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So if the stories they publish are in the public domain, is it true that the author/author's estate no longer receive royalties? If that's the case, does that mean Halcyon is getting full profits less cost to produce?
 

CaoPaux

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Halcyon site's back up: http://www.halcyonpress.com/

Neither site's been updated since '09, but Halcyon is still pumping out PD books to Kindle, and Kingsley has a couple new books, too.
 

CaoPaux

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Kingsley site is gone, Halcyon remains un-updated, and last books for either name were pubbed '11.
 

CaoPaux

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Halcyon site gone now, too, but resumed publishing PD to Kindle in '14.