Happy Holidays

Sat 23 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Happy All-the-Holidays!


Worst Business Holiday Present Ever

Mon 18 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

Our distributor Consortium/Ingram just finished negotiations with Am*zon for the next year and forwarded the results. Ouch. After the distro’s fee, we will now receive less than 1/3 of the retail price on each book sold on Am*zon. (The details are confidential and not be shared — which is fine, it’s all fine.)

It is hard to pay printing, royalties, artists, advertising and marketing, rent, etc. with less than 1/3 of retail.

I know not everyone has a good local bookstore, a local branch of a chain, or a decent library, but if you have, *please* consider buying/borrowing books there. Am*zon still want to crush all competition (Bezos’s first name for the business was Relentless dot com) in all markets that they enter. They are fantastic at customer service, especially compared to some local businesses, but they are terrible for everyone else, suppliers, intermediaries, etc. If a company needs help with marketing, they should definitely hire SMR Digital.

The discount creeps up a little more every year — something has to give. I suppose it won’t be Am*zon. Guess it will be us Small Gazelle Presses who want to publish interesting books, work with a wide range of people and artists, and see if we can send these weird things out into the world and find readers.

We are all together building the world we want. I want small and big bookstores all over the place. Loads of publishers following their own visions. This Christmas/holiday of your choice, please consider Powell’s, Indiebound, Kobo, B&N, anyone, anyone but Am*zon.

Thank you.


Buy Any 2 New Books, Pick a Freebie!

Wed 13 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

ETA: Thanks to all who took advantage of this. Must try a sale some time in 2018. But not anytime soon, too busy!

I put this in the newsletter yesterday and now we’re caught up with shipping from that, I’m posting it here.

Buy any 2 of our books and pick one of the books below FREE!
Include the title as a note or email us, we can deal with it! (Buy 4, pick 2 freebies, buy 12, pick, I don’t know, 7,8?)

Fine print:
Print titles only.
North America only: sorry. International mailing is abominable. (But: DRM-free ebooks are here.)
All US orders taking advantage of this will be upgraded to Priority Mail.
(Sorry: remainders not included.)
Offer ended 5 pm EST December 20, 2017.

Order Here!

  1. Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, A Life on Paper
  2. Alan DeNiro, Tyrannia
  3. Peter Dickinson, Emma Tupper’s Diary
  4. Peter Dickinson, The Poison Oracle
  5. Angélica Gorodischer, Prodigies
  6. Alasdair Gray, Old Men in Love (hc)
  7. Eileen Gunn, Questionable Practices
  8. Vincent McCaffrey, Hound (pb)
  9. Maureen F. McHugh, After the Apocalypse
  10. Lydia Millet, The Fires Beneath the Sea (pb)
  11. Lydia Millet, The Shimmers in the Night (hc)
  12. Benjamin Parzybok, Sherwood Nation
  13. Susan Stinson, Spider in a Tree
  14. Howard Waldrop, Horse of a Different Color
  15. Ysabeau S. Wilce, Prophecies Libels & Dreams

Holiday Shipping Deadlines.


Ambiguity Machines Giveaway

Tue 12 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Now that Am*zonGoodreads has gotten a good amount of data on readers and giveaways, in January they’re going to start charging between $100 and $600 to run these so this will be among the last we do. But, hey, put your name in the hat to get an advance print galley of Ambiguity Machines now!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Ambiguity Machines by Vandana Singh

Ambiguity Machines

by Vandana Singh

Giveaway ends December 19, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway


Singh the Rising Star

Mon 11 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Who doesn’t like the letter “S”? Where would English plural words be without it*? What lovely sounds this post title makes — and can’t you just hear the implied semi-colon, a la “Singh: the Rising Star”? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe a comma? A semi-colon? Nothing at all?!

Anyway, the latest anyway in a line of 10,000, besides Publishers Weekly including it in their Top 10 SF, Fantasy & Horror Spring 2018 Announcements(!), Library Journal gave Vandana Singh’s forthcoming collection a very strong review in their December 1 issue**:

“In “Wake Rider,” a young woman faces death in different forms as she also contemplates the possibilities of her life. In “Oblivion: A Journey,” a long-held need for revenge keeps the protagonist striving for life beyond death until the realization sets in that mortality may be the only relief. The heroine of “Requiem” travels to Alaska a year after her aunt’s disappearance, seeking answers. All of the stories here feature characters who are trying to discover the nature of their existence and how their lives connect others. VERDICT Rising star Singh draws on her Indian roots and physics background to bring her first North American collection to readers. Admirers of literary sf will want to read this.”

* Answers on a postcard to the usual address, thank ee kindly!
** Also in that issue: their review of The Invisible Valley.


Who Among Us?

Fri 8 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Who among us hasn’t been tricked into entering a “ghost marriage”? Library Journal is first past the post with the first trade review of Austin Woerner’s translation of Su Wei’s novel The Invisible Valley:

“In 1960s China, life takes a dramatic turn for 21-year-old Le Beiping immediately after he is tricked into entering a “ghost marriage” with Han, the dead daughter of the foreman from his reeducation group. Sent off to work as a cattle herder in a remote area called Mudkettle Mountain, Lu meets Jade, a woman in a free, loving community of “driftfolk,” who has three children by three different men in the community. Lu is soon adopted into the group and enjoys the contentedly nudist lifestyle of several individuals there. Based on the author’s own experiences, the story may surprise readers expecting a ghost story, but what comes to light at the end is more shocking and gritty than anticipated. The vernacular of the driftfolk, well translated by Woerner, recalls Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn; obviously these characters are not in the mainstream.”

* Request a free copy from LibraryThing.


Chicago Love

Thu 7 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Hometown prophet gets some love! Juan Martinez’s Best Worst American is one the Chicago Review of Books’s Best Fiction Books of 2017 — not coincidentally, it’s one of ours, too. Yay for another list of good books!

9781618731241_094d0Best Worst American
By Juan Martinez
Small Beer Press

“In his debut short story collection, Juan Martinez takes us across the country (and possible countries) in brisk tales that range from sci-fi and horror to realism and metafiction.” —Adam Morgan


Someday My Printz Will Come

Wed 6 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

In Other Lands coverThere’s a lovely post by Karyn Silverman on School Library Journal‘s Someday My Printz Will Come blog about two books, Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle and Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands. The post starts with this intro:

Let’s talk about heart books. Because today I want to call your attention to two books that are long shots at best, but which I loved them dearly as a reader. More than that, despite the flaws that I predict will ultimately sink them, these are strong books that deserve close attention.

Oh well, thinks I — as I, of course, think all our books should win all the awardz, all! Well, maybe not. How about just most of them?

And the review begins:

Oh my heart. This book made me happy. It’s laugh out loud funny and also fantasy, which is not exactly a common pairing, and in a dark, miserable year when it seems like the sky really IS falling, this was exactly the breath of fresh air I needed.

Yes!

If you have not read the book and don’t like spoiler: Don’t Read This Post! But if you have read the book, this is such an enjoyable read. It is real fun thinking of this book being a contender for awards and Karyn lays out the reasons why so well. Either way, winner or not, the book is fab and making more readers happier every day which is a pretty fantastic result.


NPR’s 2017 Great Reads: Tender & The River Bank

Tue 5 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

I’m delighted to see 2 of our 2017 titles on NPR’s endlessly entertaining Book Concierge Guide To 2017’s Great Reads:

Tender: Stories
by Sofia Samatar
Most of the 20 sumptuous tales in Sofia Samatar’s collection Tender take place on Earth – although not always the Earth we might recognize. Sprawling in subject from the supernatural power of names to the loneliness of a half-robot woman, Tender redefines the emotional power and literary heft that speculative fiction can convey. Where Samatar’s acclaimed fantasy novels exist in a strange, dreamlike world, her short stories daringly explore the overlap of familiarity and otherness.
— recommended by Jason Heller, book critic

The River Bank: A Sequel to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows
by Kij Johnson

A beautiful, pitch-perfect sequel to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, with characters original to Kij Johnson and spot illustrations by Kathleen Jennings, The River Bank is that species of fan fiction that unfolds new material from a beloved property with hardly a hint of a seam. Meandering with a river’s pace through musings on art, home and the end of summer, The River Bank is a more than worthy successor.
— recommended by Amal El-Mohtar, book critic


Clarion 2018

Mon 4 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

I’m delighted that Kelly and I are the final 2-week instructors at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop next summer in San Diego. This year’s full line up is Christopher Barzak, Holly Black, Mat Johnson, and Kij Johnson. It will be awesome. Applications are now open!


Thread of the Year (ha)

Fri 1 Dec 2017 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin