A few months ago, I made a Facebook update that I was thinking of starting my own magazine. Some of you asked some very good questions that I could only answer with a blank, manquin-stare--which made me fee really stupid, by the way. But it taught me one thing. That I was thinking on the small scale. Who would buy a magazine about everything? So I took that idea and ran with it.
Right now I'm in a class on small-press publishing, and, according to the professor, at the end of the class I will technically have all the information and skills needed to start my own independant press--which will be our final assignment in the class (capital and actual publication not included). So over the last few weeks I've put in some work into researching how things work at a press and have come up with something I like. I've developed a logo, a mission statement, and a target market. I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but this is just a rough idea anyway.
HORRORHOUSE PRESS
Target Auidence: The devoted fans of horror in all its forms, literary readers, and those interested in experimental fiction.
I really like the logo I've created. It is the basic idea of what we know a house to be, but it is constructed of the double-H in HorrorHouse. It is one of thouse simple designs that just happens to work well, I think.
The mission statement took me many drafts and attempts to get it just right. I didn't want to come right out and say that we want to piss on the Twilight Saga or that a lot of this mainstream horror sucks balls because it is all just a copy of what was done thirty years ago during the creative boom--well, acutally it was more of a publishing boom due to the success of the writings of Stephen King; every publisher clamored for horror so they could have that top-selling weird guy on their payroll. Anyway, I tried to find the one thing that I thought was lacking in the horror genre today and say "That's the stuff I want to pulish. The stuff that fills the gaps." I'd like to publish good writing, first and foremost, so it doesn't matter what the subject is, as long as it's good horror. I know that zombies are tops right now and that lots of houses out there have a zombie book or nine on the shelves. But a zombie book that I would publish would be different. It would have to scream at me that the horror isn't in the zombies, but in something else, with the zombies just being another obstacle for the protagonists to overcome. Like in World War Z, where the horror comes from the degeneration of society as told through the eyes of people from all different backgrounds.
As with the mission statement, my target auidence took a little time to craft correctly. Again, I didn't want to just come out and say "My target demographic is ME!" So I had to deconstruct what I like to read and classify that into the categories of different types of readers.
Now, I've read a lot of guidelines for submitting manuscripts to publishers and editors for all kinds of presses: commercial, independant, magazines, literary journals. There are a lot of things that they get right, but even more that they fail to address. Especially to someone like me who has a lot of questions. So here are the guidelines I've come up with for submitting to HorrorHouse Press.
Submission Guidelines:
(Note: all submissions should be sent hardcopy and include a SASE. Submissions that do not follow this important rule will be recycled without consideration.)
Novels: All novels should be queried before submission, and no queries should be sent for unfinished manuscripts. In the query letter, please indicate what makes your novel different from all others in the genre. If you have a literary agent, please include their information in the query letter. Should your query letter gain our interest, we ask that you submit a complete breakdown of your novel, chapter-by-chapter, as well as send three sample chapters; one from the begining of the story, one from the middle, and one from the end.
Short Stories/Collections: Short stories should be submitted via hardcopy to the address provided. Please include an introductory letter that explains who you are, what you are submitting, and where you have previously been published (if applicable).
If you are submitting a collection of short stories for consideration, you will need to follow a similar process as with submitting a novel. Query first, then provide samples should they be requested.
Poetry: Poetry submissions should follow the same guidelines for short stories, unless you are submitting an original epic poem, in which case you should follow the steps for submitting a novel.
Stage/Screenplays: Follow the process for submitting novels, except that instead of sending a breakdown by chapter, please create one that details the action by Acts. Also, if requested, send three scenes instead of chapters.
Okay, so how is this going to get off the ground? Hell, I have no idea. One thought was to hold a contest and charge a reading fee (actually pretty standard procedure for writing contests). The money from the fees could pay for a printing as well as a small prize (including a copy of the completed piece). That's just one idea, though. Everything is subject to change. And this will probably die a quick death, to be buried in the vast potter's field that is my mind.
On a final note, my card:
