Wildside Press: Latest News

What's new at Wildside?

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 11:07:22 +0000

The pandemic has been tough of many small businesses, and Wildside Press was not immune. Wildside began as a hobby, with just one part-time worker (me) almost 30 years ago, and we are pretty much back to that state now (Sam Hogan, the contracts manager, is also still aboard. Other staff members who worked on new books have been let go).

Luckily I have always tried to diversify our business (ebooks, audiobooks, used books and movies on eBay and amazon.com), so when one segment of the market goes down, there are others to keep us going. Amazon — about 85% of our market for "new book" sales — pretty much stopped shipping books for 2 months, which had a devastating effect on that area of our business. Luckily Ebook sales rose slightly, and used media sales doubled.

As things begin to reopen around the country, we are facing new challenges. Although new book sales are picking up, our primary printer (lightningSource) is having problems getting paper. They are now taking 22 days to print paperbacks...not good for "on demand" printing. And they seem to be having cash-flow problems, since they are trying to force new fees and charges on their clients. (We are fighting those fees, but may end up taking our business elsewhere. Luckily there are competitors—and I have now started setting up our new books there, "just in case"...)

Wildside Press has slimmed down, but we are in no danger of shutting down. We can continue indefinitely, producing just a few books every week. But when things pick back up, or perhaps settle into a new normal, we will be able to better judge what the future holds. Rest assured, though, Wildside Press will be there, with more of the great new and classic books you've always enjoyed from us.

This week, I will be adding about 50 new titles to Wildside's store. Some just went up today (Jim Glass's new science fiction collection, Strange Worlds, Near and Far, is one I particularly recommend). And look for our MEGAPACK® ebook collections starting to appear in paperback — the first four Ghost Story MEGAPACK®s are now available, for example. I found a way to generated the paperback text from our ebook files, which sped things up enormously. Let me know what you think about them.

Lastly, we have been having trouble with spammers using our "contact us" web form to send ads instead of valid questions. If this continues, we will have to shut it down. You can always reach me through Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media if the web form goes missing here.

Lastly, if you read ebooks, don't forget to check out our ebook site, bcmystery.com — lots of fun things are happening there.

Wildside Press nets 2 Agatha Award nominations!

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 10:53:29 +0000

Wildside Press nets 2 Agatha Award nominations!

The 2016 Agatha Award nominations have been announced, and I'm delighted to see two Wildside Press books on the list! Congrats to Best Short Story nominees Barb Goffman ("The Best-Laid Plans" in Malice Domestic 11: Murder Most Conventional) and Art Taylor ("Parallel Play" in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning).

Here's the complete list of nominees:

Best Contemporary Novel

Body on the Bayou by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
Quiet Neighbors by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
Fogged Inn by Barbara Ross (Kensington)
Say No More by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge Books)

Best Historical Novel

Whispers Beyond the Veil by Jessica Estevao (Berkley)
Get Me to the Grave on Time by D.E. Ireland (Grainger Press)
Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
The Reek of Red Herrings by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur Books)
Murder in Morningside Heights by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

Best First Novel

Terror in Taffeta by Marla Cooper (Minotaur)
Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon (Henery Press)
The Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn (Henery Press)
Decanting a Murder by Nadine Nettmann (Midnight Ink)
Design for Dying by Renee Patrick (Forge Books)

Best Nonfiction

Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats by Jane K. Cleland (Writer's Digest Books)
A Good Man with a Dog: A Game Warden's 25 Years in the Maine Woods by Roger Guay with Kate Clark Flora (Skyhorse Publishing)
Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Margaret Kinsman (McFarland Books)

Best Short Story

"Double Jinx: A Bellissimo Casino Crime Caper Short Story" by Gretchen Archer (Henery Press)
"The Best-Laid Plans" by Barb Goffman in Malice Domestic 11: Murder Most Conventional (Wildside Press)
"The Mayor and the Midwife" by Edith Maxwell in Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 (Down & Out Books)
"The Last Blue Glass" by B.K. Stevens in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
"Parallel Play" by Art Taylor in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning (Wildside Press)

Best Children/Young Adult

Trapped: A Mei-hua Adventure by P.A. DeVoe (Drum Tower Press)
Spy Ski School by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster)
Tag, You're Dead by J C Lane (Poisoned Pen Press)
The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos (Balzer & Bray)
The Secret of the Puzzle Box: The

Mary C. Jane

Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:16:49 +0000

Wildside Press has acquired the rights to the complete backlist of classic children's mystery author Mary C. Jane. The family of one of Jane's original illustrator, Ray Abel, has granted permission to use his work on the reprints. The first two books released will be Mystery in Hidden Hollow and Mystery in Old Quebec...two classic mysteries for kids!

Wildside Press assumes management of the John W. Campbell, Jr. estate

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:16:56 +0000

Wildside Press and John Betancourt have been retained to manage the literary estate of John W. Campbell, Jr., author of the classic novella "Who Goes There?" (filmed as The Thing from Another World and The Thing.) Wildside takes over from agent Barry Malzberg and will be working on projects in many media—including games, audiobooks, and of course books. First on the drawing board is a sequel to "Who Goes There?" (working title: The Things from Another World), a direct sequel set in the contemporary world.

Wildside Press acquires publishing and audiobook rights to the works of Vincent McConnell

Tue, 09 Feb 2016 11:24:06 +0000

I am pleased to announce that Wildside Press has acquired all publishing and audiobook rights to the works of Vincent McConnell, an Edgar Award finalist for his first novel, Fall Girl. He also wrote 7 other mystery novels, including I am Vidocq and The Man Who Knew Hammond.

We will be digitizing his work this year and bringing everything back into print.

-- John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press

Settling into our new home

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 13:40:03 +0000

We have a few notes on the new website (very glad we did a soft open so this stuff got caught!)

User accounts from the old website will NOT be transferring over to the new one, now or in the future. So you'll need to register for an account on the new site. If you tried to log into your account from the old site on the new site and ran into trouble, that's why! (Very sorry!)

Thank you all again for being so patient and helping us improve the new website.

If you have any other questions, comments, or problems, please don't hesitate to contact us.

—John Betancourt
Publisher

Welcome to the NEW Wildside Press Website!

Tue, 09 Jun 2015 14:50:57 +0000

Welcome to the new Wildside Press Website! We have been eager to launch our new website, which we hope will be an improvement over the old one.

We do have a large catalog, so please bear with us as we work out the kinks in the new site.