Booktrope’s Forsaken Label Developing a New Vision in Horror Publishing
Scott Hallam
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Always an innovator in publication, Booktrope now announces Forsaken, a subdivision of the company focusing on horror created and run by a rogues’ gallery of writers and artists known as the Horror Hooligans.
Led by director Maddie Holliday Von Stark, Forsaken recently unleashed two brand new horror offerings. Released on June 6 (or, as the Horror Hooligans see it, 6/6/(1+5)… pretty clever, right?) were Von Stark’s first novel, The Widow’s Game: Another Horrific Adventure of Maddie Holliday Von Stark, as well as the first edition of Forsaken’s eZine, Horror Hooligans, containing six short stories with artwork. This month’s edition of Horror Hooligans is subtitled Girls ROCK Horror HARDER and features work by Jessica McHugh, Leza Cantoral, Dani Smith, Dana LaKat and Von Stark.
“We are a new model of publishing that has extended our middle fingers to the current publishing scene,” Von Stark said. “We are a menagerie of authors, editors, graphic designers, book managers, and proofers that are seeking to redefine our horror art in a savage digital sphere. We are two months old, and we are 74 souls in total. Some of us are refugees of major publishing houses, indie presses, self-published, half-demented insomniacs that are willing to work on the fringe to get our point across. We are mayhem makers in nature so it’s natural we came to call ourselves Horror Hooligans. We recently started our ‘street team,’ and I am looking forward to what might become of our little gang of monsters.”
What lies in the immediate future for Von Stark and her monsters is a second eZine coming in July entitled Dreadful Geographic, which will contain six short fiction stories with art and maps from actual geographic locations known to be haunted. The publication will be designed to resemble a 1942 issue of National Geographic. Clever! You’ve gotta love these Hooligans. They are a creative lot.
But what Von Stark is most looking forward to is an upcoming ongoing author series called #ePennyDreadfuls, which will be 20,000- to 30,000-word horror stories sold individually for just 99 cents apiece. “Of course they will be designed and illustrated with some 1890’s flair and hexa-code bravado,” Von Stark said. “These stories will be made to read on your tablet, iPhone, iWatch, etc., while you are at the DMV, waiting at an airport, or suffering an ADD or OCD situation. Purely digital and delightful during dreadful waiting times.”
Forsaken currently has 27 horror books in process and is accepting submissions for authors, editors, book managers, proofreaders, and artists. If you are interested in submitting work or joining the ranks, visit Booktrope.com for more information.
Also visit the official Forsaken website, which is alive and currently under construction, “like” Forsaken on Facebook, and follow Forsaken on Twitter (@forsakenimprint).
“We are a far cry from the corporate offices of the world; we are on tablets, iPhones, Skype, running from one point to the next, making a publishing network that is universal, transportable, in every time zone, and immediate,” Von Stark said. “People say that the American Dream and innovation and publishing are dying. Fuck that. We are evolving. Want to go for a ride?”
Get on the ride with Von Stark and the Horror Hooligans. Follow the links to purchase The Widow’s Game: Another Horrific Adventure of Maddie Holliday Von Stark and Girls ROCK Horror HARDER.
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