2019 Already Feels Like An Enormous January

We’ve got news on top of news and it has been a hot minute since we last posted, so forgive me if this all comes off as a bit like stream of consciousness. Anyway, here we go!

Sara Tantlinger’s second book of poetry, The Devil’s Dreamland, has been officially nominated for a Stoker Award. And for good reason! The book is bloody brilliant and you can tell that Tantlinger put maximum effort into this manuscript. One of my absolute favorites of the titles we’ve released since taking over the press. It’s been a treat to see this book appeal to people who aren’t normally into poetry, and that speaks to the author’s talents. But don’t take my word for it. Grab a copy off of Amazon. Or, get a sneak peek HERE.

And seeing how this is our first title to make the final ballot, you can expect both Don Noble and Nicholas Day to show up to StokerCon in support of the author. This will be the first StokerCon either has attended. They’ll be sure to wear ties.

Speaking of Tantlinger, work on the all-women horror anthology, Not All Monsters, is cruising along. Acceptance letters will be going out as soon as Monday, March 4th, so keep an eye out if you are waiting for a response. We’re taking our time going through this last batch, and we anticipate sending out acceptances over the next couple of weeks. Having said that, I do believe we should officially close submissions. Consider this Friday (March 1st) the last day we will look at any submissions. Any story received after that will be discarded without being read. We ended up with hundreds of stories, and let me tell you . . . this anthology is going to be amazing. We expect an October 2020 release, but we plan on doing quite a bit of promotion between now and then. We’re excited, and we hope you will be, too!

In other news, principal photography has finished on Rooster Republic’s collaboration with Running Scared, a small production outfit located in sunny Massachusetts. HE IS NO MAN now enters its post-production phase, which if you are familiar with filmmaking, then you know post is just as–if not more–time consuming than principal photography. Color correction, sound, editing, music, credits, all leading up to the final product. All this to say, the ball is rolling, but it is going to be awhile before we have anything to show off.

But in the meantime, a feature-film screenplay is being worked on, and we hope to start production this year. If you remember, we had wanted to start production last year, but had to put the whole thing on the backburner once a major location fell through. Time will tell whether or not that happens to us, again, this year. Here’s hoping that is not the case.

On the design front, Rooster has had a hand in dozens of different projects over the last couple of months, mostly books, though some logos have snuck in there, too. And we have begun looking into various printers for possible one-offs for timed or limited edition prints. Feedback on the freelance stuff has been overwhelmingly positive, so there will be lots of focus on those avenues as the year goes on.

We’re also looking into producing limited runs of hardcovers for future releases, featuring exclusive and/or alternative artwork. These wouldn’t be like the POD trade paperbacks on Amazon, and would likely only be available directly through us. Pre-orders will play a bigger part of our business model, going forward. But these are ideas we look forward to exploring more fully throughout 2019. We know what we’d like to do, we just need to see if our ideas are feasible.

TTFN