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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 19, 2021 20:55:44 GMT
Who is buying them? They are not inexpensive. Is it a print-on-demand operation? Fans of weird fiction, I guess (maybe there are more of those than we think). Compared to most paperbacks of similar page counts, I'd say they are relatively inexpensive. I don't think they are POD.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Dec 19, 2021 21:09:38 GMT
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Dec 19, 2021 21:21:17 GMT
I like the period settings. They are windows on a lost world, and because they aren't trying to be literary, it's a different viewpoint to more respected authors. Of course often they do conform to a formula, being crime fiction.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Dec 19, 2021 21:59:32 GMT
Who is buying them? They are not inexpensive. Is it a print-on-demand operation? Maybe it's done as part of the British Library's remit. Maybe they don't have to make a profit as such on them, and it is budgeted, but I'd imagine the crime books do quite well and produce an income stream. I think the idea is to print obscure and forgotten texts.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Dec 19, 2021 22:04:37 GMT
Who is buying them? They are not inexpensive. Is it a print-on-demand operation? Maybe it's done as part of the British Library's remit. Maybe they don't have to make a profit as such on them, and it is budgeted, but I'd imagine the crime books do quite well and produce an income stream. I think the idea is to print obscure and forgotten texts. Obviously the weird fiction won't be obscure to you, or the other people on here, but for most people these books will be opening up new horizons.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 19, 2021 22:21:05 GMT
Here's another one, due for release in April and already listed for pre-order on Am*z*n (along with the other 3 above) - The Night Wire & Other Tales Of Weird Media - ed. Aaron Worth. Blurb - A mysterious radio signal reports cosmic doom from an otherworldly location. Photography and X-ray evidence suggests there may be some truth to a sculptor’s claim that he has created a god. A spectral projection sows terror amid the flickering light of the cinema. From the whispering wires of the telegraph and ghostly images of the daguerreotype to the disembodied voices of the phonograph and radio, the new technologies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries gave their users miraculous new powers – and new nightmares. After all, if Graham Bell’s magical device could connect us with loved ones a half a world away, what was to stop it from reaching out and touching the dead – or something worse? Tracing this fiction of fear from the 1890s to the 1950s, this new collection brings together the best tales of haunted or uncanny media from classic – and unjustly neglected – writers of the supernatural.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 19, 2021 23:13:14 GMT
This be the list -
1. From The Depths & Other Strange Tales Of The Sea 2. Haunted Houses: 2 Novels by Charlotte Riddell 3. Glimpses Of The Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories 4. Mortal Echoes: Encounters With The End 5. Spirits Of The Season: Christmas Hauntings 6. The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales Of The Railways 7. The Face In The Glass: The Gothic Tales of Mary Elizabeth Braddon 8. The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson 9. Doorway To Dilemma: Bewildering Tales Of Dark Fantasy 10. Evil Roots: Killer Tales Of The Botanical Gothic 11. Promethean Horrors: Classic Stories Of Mad Science 12. Roarings From Further Out: 4 Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood 13. Tales Of The Tattooed: An Anthology Of Ink 14. The Outcast & Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson 15. A Phantom Lover & Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee 16. Into The London Fog: Eerie Tales From The Weird City 17. Weird Woods: Tales From The Haunted Forests Of Britain 18. Queens Of The Abyss: Lost Stories From The Women Of The Weird 19. Chill Tidings: Dark Tales Of The Christmas Season 20. Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-Bending Tales Of The Mathematical Weird 21. Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales Of Stranger Climes 22. Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales Of Spectral Youth 23. Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales Of The Insect Weird 24. Cornish Horrors: Tales From The Land’s End 25. I Am Stone: The Gothic Weird Tales of R. Murray Gilchrist 26. Randall’s Round: 9 Nightmares by Eleanor Scott 27. Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales For The Longest Nights 28. Shadows On The Wall: Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 29. The Ghost Slayers: Thrilling Tales Of Occult Detection 30. The Night Wire & Other Tales Of Weird Media 31. Our Haunted Shores: Tales From The Coasts Of The British Isles
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 72
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Post by toff on Dec 20, 2021 0:05:15 GMT
Over 700 entries but the list of unique stories would be somewhat shorter with all the reprints of the same stories weeded out. In doing my own collections, I'd made a spreadsheet of the stories included in Christmas ghost/horror anthologies by other publishers. Hi Toff. I love it when people take the time and effort to do things like that. I'm guessing that runs to a few hundred stories at least? Echoing Swampi, I hope you enjoy your time here and please keep us posted on any forthcoming BL antho's.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 20, 2021 12:52:53 GMT
Who is buying them? They are not inexpensive. Is it a print-on-demand operation? Fans of weird fiction, I guess (maybe there are more of those than we think). Compared to most paperbacks of similar page counts, I'd say they are relatively inexpensive. I don't think they are POD. I'd say they are reasonably priced, too. The reprint of Dorothy Scarborough's Humorous Ghost Stories is RRP £29. 90 (!) and doesn't look as if too much effort went into the production beyond printing a file direct from gutenberg. I love the uniform design, too. Obviously the weird fiction won't be obscure to you, or the other people on here, but for most people these books will be opening up new horizons. Very true. Can't speak for anyone else, but along with the ubiquitous Poe/ Benson/ MRJ contributions, most if not all of the compilations include stories new to me.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 20, 2021 13:22:14 GMT
What is noticeable with the BL Tales of the Weird books is how often the editors are university-based academics (when they are not Mike Ashley). I suspect this helps keep their overheads down, as academics are likely to do this job for free (or some nominal sum) as they don't rely on it for income, and it adds to their publications list (= prospects of promotion) anyway. In a few cases the editors are recent English Lit. PhDs, and the stories are ones they found when researching their theses - so all that work has already been done and paid for.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 20, 2021 19:55:07 GMT
Fans of weird fiction, I guess (maybe there are more of those than we think). Compared to most paperbacks of similar page counts, I'd say they are relatively inexpensive. I don't think they are POD. I'd say they are reasonably priced, too. They are not inexpensive like the Wordsworth books were (are?).
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Dec 20, 2021 21:13:00 GMT
I'd say they are reasonably priced, too. They are not inexpensive like the Wordsworth books were (are?). They are nice quality. The Wordsworth ones I have are fine to read, but not as well printed. Maybe the new ones are better, as the print on demand don't seem any worse than the ones from a professional publisher. I love you Jojo.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 20, 2021 21:51:08 GMT
I'd say they are reasonably priced, too ... I love the uniform design, too. I agree--they're good value for money, and they look nice on my shelf. I've bought a dozen of them so far. Can't speak for anyone else, but along with the ubiquitous Poe/ Benson/ MRJ contributions, most if not all of the compilations include stories new to me. Same here. Of the forthcoming books, I'm particularly excited about Ghost Slayers and The Night Wire. My one ongoing gripe is how difficult the publishers make it to find the contents of the books. What is noticeable with the BL Tales of the Weird books is how often the editors are university-based academics (when they are not Mike Ashley). I suspect this helps keep their overheads down, as academics are likely to do this job for free (or some nominal sum) ... Painfully true, I'm afraid.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 21, 2021 8:21:37 GMT
I'd say they are reasonably priced, too. They are not inexpensive like the Wordsworth books were (are?). I'm not sure we'll see budget prices quite as low as Wordsworth editions again. If I remember, their classics range sold in great number to Uni and college students, enabling them to keep costs to a minimum. The BL Tales of Weird are RRP £8.99, but you'll usually find them cheaper on the hated A*m*azon. Was fortunate to find copies of Into the London Fog, Queens of the Abyss and Spirits of the Season for £1 a time on friend back of the van's market stall (and a pristine The Arsenal Stadium Mystery from the crime series), but initial joy dampened on learning they were acquired in a job lot from another bookshop gone bust. Lee Brown Coye H. Russell Wakefield - The Third Shadow: ( Weird Tales, Nov. 1950). Roped together were two mountaineers on the treacherous cone — but three shadows on the snow. Arthur Brown may not have deliberately caused the death of abominable wife Hecate Quorn's in a climbing accident, but the unanimous verdict is that he is well rid of her. Arthur may even have recovered from his traumatic marriage, made a fresh start, had not Sir Andrew bullied him into an assault on Mont Blanc. W. J. Wintle - The Black Cat: ( Ghost Gleams: Tales of the Uncanny, 1921). Sydney, an Egyptologist is terrified of cats. You just know his luck is out when he chances upon a casket containing mummified feline remains in an antiquarian bookshop. As first revived by Vault legend Michel Parry in his debut anthology, Beware of the Cat.
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Post by humgoo on Dec 21, 2021 10:39:32 GMT
Can't speak for anyone else, but along with the ubiquitous Poe/ Benson/ MRJ contributions, most if not all of the compilations include stories new to me. But won't you struggle: "Should I get the book just for that particular story?" I've been tempted many times already (thanks to your and others' synopses). "Sunless Solstice" certainly looks decent, and I may finally give in (just to have Wakefield's tale in book form)!
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