[Publisher] Night Shade Books

[Silverhand]

They are a local publisher I was referred too by the writing organization I belong too. Here is there site: http://www.nightshadebooks.com/contact.aspx

Has anyone ever heard of them before? Are they reputeable?

 

[rugcat]

Night Shade Books is an entirely reputable and growing small press. They started out re-issuing classic SF/F and horror books and have gone on to publish both new and established writers. Their cover art, binding, format, etc. are top quality. I have met and talked with one of the partners, Jeremy Lassen, on several occasions. He is clearly a stand-up guy. Be advised though, like all reputable presses, they are swamped with submissions. I don't know if they are currently taking new stuff.

 

[eqb]

They are taking submissions, but they are somewhat behind in responding. (I know because I queried them recently.) And yes, they are quite reputable.

 

[CaoPaux]

Their discussion board is a great place to lurk and learn, too. Just beware of richocheting opinions.

 

[CaoPaux]

And now they're big enough to go agented-submissions only. Alas.

 

[Gary Clarke]

Are you sure Cao? Thats not what it says on thier site at the moment...

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/contact.html

 

[RoccoMom]

do they give advances, or do they pay on books sold as e-publishers? It doens't give any info on that on their site.

 

[Moon Daughter]

Are you sure Cao? Thats not what it says on thier site at the moment...

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/contact.html

Here's what their site says now:

Authors

Night Shade is not accepting unagented manuscripts as this time. We're simply getting way too many manuscripts for us to keep anything resembling a reasonable turnaround time.

 

[CaoPaux]

Are you sure Cao? Thats not what it says on thier site at the moment...

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/contact.html

Note the .html on your link; that's an old page. Here's the current home page to start from: http://www.nightshadebooks.com/index.aspx.

 

[Gary Clarke]

Caopaux and Moondaughter... aw poop :0)

How did I get that old page? I only searched for them this morning and got the page fresh from google! Does that happen often?

 

[badducky]

NightShade is no small, local operation.

They are a well-respected bunch of people who win bidding wars against houses you've definitely heard of...

They were giving out Jay Lake's latest book in the gimme bags at WFC 2007, in Saratoga Springs.

 

[triceretops]

They do pay advances and are well respected in the industry.

Tri

 

[astonwest]

They are taking submissions, but they are somewhat behind in responding. (I know because I queried them recently.) And yes, they are quite reputable.

Just for my own information, is there a page somewhere that shows where to query them at and what they want in a query? I didn't see anything on their web site.

I just saw one of their books in my local Borders today, so that's always a good sign...

 

[DeadlyAccurate]

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/contact.aspx

"Night Shade is not accepting unagented manuscripts as this time. We're simply getting way too many manuscripts for us to keep anything resembling a reasonable turnaround time."

 

[CaoPaux]

Caopaux and Moondaughter... aw poop :0)

How did I get that old page? I only searched for them this morning and got the page fresh from google! Does that happen often?

Not often, thankfully. But if Google sends me to a sub-page, I habitually confirm access from the home page Just In Case.

 

[Gary Clarke]

That's a great tip Cao, thanks!

 

[J. Weiland]

Here's an interesting article about Night Shade Books.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6423139.html|

They are not so small a press anymore.

 

[astonwest]

And for those of us who write short stories, it looks like Night Shade Books also puts out some anthologies, one of which (Eclipse Two) has an open submission period for an upcoming edition.

 

[Saundra Julian]

New addy...

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/

 

[DeadlyAccurate]

I recently bought both the Wastelands anthology and The Princes of the Golden Cage. Princes is a fantastic debut fantasy novel set in a pseudo-Arab culture, and I really enjoyed it. (I've been enjoying Wastelands, too, but that has the likes of King, Card, etc. in it. Names that need no introduction.)

 

[eqb]

Unsettling post about Night Shade Books, by author Liz Williams on her LiveJournal:

http://mevennen.livejournal.com/777134.html

 

[astonwest]

Yikes!

 

[HapiSofi]

Unsettling post about Night Shade Books, by author Liz Williams on her LiveJournal:

http://mevennen.livejournal.com/777134.html

Yes, I saw that. It sounds disturbingly like a small(ish) press in trouble, and I don't want that to be true. Jason and Jeremy have come too far, worked too hard, and produced too many good and beautiful books. So have their authors.

I've been lucky enough to get to sit in on some long, expansive conversations with J&J. You never saw two guys ask so many searching questions about publishing. They already knew a lot, but they had no apparent interest in posing as experts. What they wanted was to know more so they could do it better.

They've weathered some tough breaks not of their own making. Maybe they can pull through whatever's happening now.

 

[triceretops]

Gak. NS was always one of my target pubbies. Just like Snow Books. Never could bust a move with NS, though. I think they're small enough to cater to a good genre readership, but large enough to where they can suffer competition from the bigger-ups and take some hits. Their solid track record and rep seems to be keeping them afloat. We haven't heard their side of what's happened to this author, either. You never know.

Just saying...

Tri

 

[eqb]

We haven't heard their side of what's happened to this author, either. You never know.

Just saying...

It's not just this one author, apparently. Other authors have had similar problems: no communication, delayed royalty payments, books sold on pre-order and never delivered to the customer.

Like Hapi said, these are two smart guys who did everything right in launching their business. They produced a lot of really cool books. I sincerely hope they can fix whatever is wrong. (And it would be great if they said something publicly to reassure readers and writers that they were actively addressing the problems.)