July 2012 Bestsellers lists

Quiet Houses, by critically acclaimed British writer Simon Kurt Unsworth, has been simmering away on our Top Five lists for the last couple of months, and in July it appears to have reached full boil, topping both our e-book and paperback bestsellers lists for the month. Andy Taylor’s e-book short story collection The Drunk and The Dead and Sylvia Shults’ literary mash-up The Taming of the Werewolf make their debut appearance on the e-book list, an occurrence that I attribute to their smiling faces having been front and centre on Dark Continents’ dealer’s table at FandomFest early in the month.

Top Five Bestselling e-books for July 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
3. The Taming of the Werewolf by Sylvia Shults
4. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
5. The Drunk and the Dead by Andy Taylor *

(* = from the Darkness and Dismay series)

After being eclipsed in May by new releases, horror short story readers’ favourite, Phobophobia, reasserts itself on both charts. An interesting development is seeing The Caretakers in the top five paperbacks alongside more recently released titles. The Caretakers, by Dark Continents’ founding member Adrian Chamberlin, was one of the titles with which we launched the company over a year ago. What with electronic and POD publishing, we are no longer constrained to the old model of publishing, which limited many titles to a limited print run and brief shelf life. Now, high quality novels can remain available to readers indefinitely.

Top Five Bestselling Paperbacks for July 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Snareville II: Circles by David Youngquist
3. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
4. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
5. The Caretakers by Adrian Chamberlin

 

 

June 2012 Bestsellers Lists

Non-US authors continue to dominate our top places. In e-books, Campfire Chillers holds its number one spot from last month, and Snareville slips from its number two spot, supplanted by recently added e-book titles Quiet Houses and Inkarna, both of which are enjoying critical acclaim. Daniel I. Russell’s Critique enters the top five this month to represent our popular Darkness and Dismay series, launched in January this year.

 Top Five Bestselling e-books for June 2012

1. Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery
2. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
3. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
4. Snareville by David Youngquist
5. Critique by Daniel I. Russell *

(* = from the Darkness and Dismay series)

Unlike last month, the bestselling paperbacks list for June closely resembles the e-book charts.  A good-sized order from a zombie-themed online retailer gives the list a strong zombie slant – but the zombie hordes can’t catch Inkarna, number one for a second month in a row.

Top Five Bestselling Paperbacks for June 2012

1. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
2. Snareville by David Youngquist
3. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
4. Necropolis Rising by Dave Jeffery
5. Snareville II: Circles by David Youngquist

May 2012 Bestsellers Lists

Our first birthday celebrations have just drawn to a close, and what a year it’s been.  We’ve been adding to our stock list at an average rate of one new title a month, plus we launched the first of our Darkness and Dismay e-book series, so we’ve now reached the point where a Dark Continents Bestsellers List has some significance.

So for those kindred spirits who like numbers and lists, here they are:

Top Five Bestselling DCP e-books for May 2012.

1. Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery
2. Snareville by David Youngquist
3. A Gentle Hell by Autumn Christian *
4. Were-wolves, Apocalypses, and Genetic Mutations, Oh My! by Suzanne Robb *
5. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel

(* = from the Darkness and Dismay series)

 

 

Top Five Bestselling DCP Paperbacks for May 2012

1. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
2. The Collector Book One: Mana Leak by Daniel I Russell
3. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
4. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
5. Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery

The paperback bestseller list is an interesting one.  Inkarna does not officially launch for another couple of weeks, and it has rocketed to the top of the charts on the strength of Amazon pre-orders. The list is dominated by non-USA authors; Nerine is South African, Dave and Simon hail from the UK, Dan is a British ex-pat now living in West Australia, and Phobophobia, edited by British author Dean M. Drinkel, features authors from all over the globe.

What does it all mean?  I’m neither a market analyst nor a statistician, so I don’t know for sure.  All I can say is that I love my numbers and lists.

Happy first birthday to us

By D.M. Youngquist

Hello all. Hope everyone is well. We’re finally getting our March weather. Too bad it’s almost May. In May, the flowers are supposed to be blooming, the gardens are supposed to be safe from frost. Baby plants are supposed to be thriving. But things are just a little weird this year. Comes and goes in cycles I guess. We’ve had to replant a few parts of the garden, but it’ll survive and come back. This fall Fay and I will be canning up salsa and putting away beans and carrots. And since I tilled in truckload of manure from the folk’s place, we ought to have a pretty successful garden this year.

Something else about May 1 this year: It’s our birthday at Dark Continents Publishing. One year ago in Austin, Texas we got together and launched 13 titles from the World Horror Convention. We took people on a bat cruise on Lady Bird Lake. We met a lot of great folks, some of whom have become part of the DCP family.

Now I know statistically, most businesses don’t make it through their first year. But with a lot of support from the writing and artistic community, and other indie publishers like us, we have made it to the one year mark. I know there were people out there betting we wouldn’t make it, and to be honest, at times I didn’t think we were going to. But we made it. We’re here. We’ve got a strong group of writers, and we’ve learned a lot.

So, we wanted to celebrate and say thank you to our fans and the people who have supported us through the year. The first year of a business is special. Something goes bad, or the managers just don’t know how to do their job, and it fails. But like our garden this year, now that we’re past the rough weather, we’re going to have a darn successful season.

When I talked with the rest of the board about what we wanted to do to thank everyone for their support this past year, we bounced around several ideas. Finally what we’ve come up with is a dual purpose event. We’re going to have a sale through the month of May. We’re going to knock ten percent off the price of our books, and shipping will be free. This is on sales from our website only, though, so don’t look anywhere else for this.

On top of that, we’ve wanted to do something to support cancer research. Many of us here in the DCP family have been touched personally by this scourge. My father has fought skin cancer. Last year, I lost my uncle, Harry DeVrieze to lymph cancer. Recently Tracie’s dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which is one of the reasons her thirteen year old son Declan shaved his head. Willie Meikle’s dad Barclay is fighting the good fight against this monster. Personally, I’d like to see this monster beaten.

So, what Dark Continents Publishing will do through the month of May, is donate ten percent of our website sales to The American Cancer Society. I took it as a goal to reach $1,000 to donate to cancer research from the company. If we get that much coinage, I’ll shave off my mustache for the first time in twenty seven years. Neither my wife or daughter have ever seen me without it. Even my mom, when I told her, said she couldn’t remember a time in my adult life when I didn’t have the lip crawler. Maybe if we’re lucky, we can get some of the more hirsute members of the DCP family to join in the fun. If we get that $1,000 to donate, I’ll post up a video of me taking it off. Adam Agushi has already volunteered to do the filming.

Now you may ask yourself, why should I buy a book when I could just donate a few bucks myself? Good question. You could do it that way, but we’ve also put together a few prize packages as an incentive to buy from us. If you simply purchase one book you’ll get a discount, and the warm feeling of having saved money and donated to cancer research.

But if you pick up two books, you’ll be in the running to win our second place prize. This includes a hand turned and fired coffee mug created by Jeffrey Goard, the artisan potter at The Prairie Arts Center in Bishop Hill, Illinois. You’ll also get a pound of custom roasted coffee from Bishop Hill as well. We’ll throw in a DCP tee shirt, and a Zombie Fiend “Fiend it like you mean it” T-shirt as well. In addition, you get another book of your choice from our catalog.

If you buy three books, you’re entered into our first place drawing. This includes the mug, the coffee, the shirts and the book. But then we’ll add a zombie chopping kukri knife for use after the Z-Poc (or just chopping wood and clearing brush), a Mitch Foust print of “Out With the Boys,” and a signed copy of one of our covers done by James Powell.

If you buy four or more books, then you’re entered for the big drawing. Our Grand Prize winner gets the mug, the coffee, the shirts and book. We’ll also include a bug out bag from the US Army and two signed covers from James Powell. But then you get something truly unique. You get to be famous. One of our authors will name a character for you in a book. Now, I can’t guarantee your character will be a hero or mass murderer, but you’ll have an interesting piece of history you can show off to your bar buds.

We’ll be adding stuff to the goodie bag as well as the month progresses, so keep watching the site. Maybe by the time we’re done, we’ll need a U-Haul to deliver everything.

Thanks for the help, folks; we do appreciate your support through the year. Look for us on other blogs, and watch our Facebook page and blog for updates. I’ll be doing a follow up blog with Nerine Dorman after the event, and like she says, I hope it’s sans moustache.

Calling All Readers

From D.M. Youngquist

Hello folks. Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve put up a blog or a note or anything else. To be honest, I’d gotten away from the writing end of things somewhat, but now that I’m back, I’ll be contributing more as often as I can.

Let me give you my definition of a small press. A small press is usually comprised of people either crazy enough or ballsy enough to try to be publishers on their own. Probably a little of both. I believe we here at Dark Continents Publishing are made up of folks like that. We got our start as writers, and got tired of putting up with all the industry BS, and set out to do it better.

I’ll let you in on a little secret though: When your muse leaves you, and give you the cold shoulder, you’re going down the wrong path. My muse clammed up weeks ago. Writing was pretty much gone from my life. I was stagnant. Why? Because I let the business take the fun out of writing.

Now don’t get me wrong. Business and industry are important. People have to know about you, They have to know you’re out there. They have to know you actually publish books.

Guess what? The industry and the business know we’re here. From the other publishers to our printers, “the business” knows we’re here. Seems like most of the people who don’t know we’re here are you folks. The people who buy and love books. The end consumer.

Confession time. My day job is working in one of the ACE Hardware warehouses. I sling freight all day. Looonnnggg days now that we’re well into spring. If you live in the Midwest, and shop at ACE, there’s a good chance I’ve handled your merchandise at one point.

And one thing about ACE, is it consistently wins awards for customer service and satisfaction. Not Menard’s, not Lowe’s. Your little ol’ corner hardward ACE store.

So, since we’re a small, indie press, and the industry knows about us, what I want to do this spring and summer is for all of us at Dark Continents to get to know our customers better. Our readers. We want to hear from you. What you like, what you don’t like about our books.

“Well, they do that with their purchases,” industry would say.

This is true, to an extent, but don’t we as writers devour every review of our book by the hundreds of reviewers and bloggers out there? We live or die when we read someone found a missed comma or a misspelled word.

But what about the true critics? The ones that matter? The people who buy and read the books? Are we telling them a good story, or are we trying to produce what the industry wants?

That’s why I’m going to start trying something different. We’ll be running weekly questions about books, the industry, and other various issues, but we’ll be putting up reviews by friends and people who have read our books. Not just mine and the board here, but all our books, from Quiet Houses to Campfire Chillers to Blood Curry.

Some of the advance copies we have coming for Dan Russell’s The Collector will be going to readers as well. It sounds strange, but who do you go to for your movie and music reviews? I’d rather know what my buddy Rick Clancy thinks of a movie than Rex Reed.

We’ll mix things up. Don’t worry. We’ve got some great reviewers who look at our work, and I don’t want to miss Andy or Jim, but for the last few months we’ve been too wrapped up in what some folks call the incestuousness of the industry (I’ve got another phrase for it, but my Momma taught me to be polite in public) and we’ve lost track of our true goal.

And what is that? Bringing quality stories to the readers out there from great talent. Simple as that.

Now, speaking of the salt mines, I have to head for work. People need garden hoses, by golly, and I’ve got a warehouse full of them.