31 Days of Horror: Day 29 Paperback From Hell by Valancourt Are Tailor Made For Libraries

With the current resurgence in the popularity of horror in mainstream media, there is also a concurrent rise in interest in retro horror fiction. Forbes wrote about the phenomenon last month here.

That article quotes Grady Hendrix whose Paperbacks From Hell was one of my favorites reads of 2017 and it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Nonfiction [I got to present the award to Grady on stage].

Now Valancourt Books [a publisher who specialize in the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out of print fiction] is working with Grady and Will Errickson to reprint some of the very best of those classic horror titles. And here is the great thing for us, they will not only be easily available for libraries through our normal purchasing channels, but you can also get them ALL on Overdrive as ebooks too-- for only $16 print and $8 ebook!

While the line doesn't get going until Spring 2019, you can explore the links in this post for more information because you are going to want to order these. It's a line that is tailored made for libraries. The titles will be curated by experts, the covers will be gorgeous for displays, and the price is point is fantastic.

Grady and Will will also be appearing on my small press panel at StokerCon Librarian's Day to discuss the line and buzz the titles for you. But first, I asked Valancourt Books for an official statement on the line:

Valancourt Books, an independent publisher specializing in the rediscovery of neglected and out-of-print fiction, is teaming up with Quirk Books, publisher of Grady Hendrix's bestselling history of paperback horror, PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, to release a limited series of long-unavailable '70s and '80s horror novels featured in the book.  The series, which will be curated by Hendrix and Will Errickson, author of the popular TOO MUCH HORROR FICTION blog, with introductions by them, will feature at least five highly sought-after horror titles, of which the first four have been announced.

Elizabeth Engstrom's WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US (1985), much praised by Theodore Sturgeon and others when first published, is the chilling story of a woman trapped in a labyrinth of subterranean caverns in pitch darkness.  Bari Wood's THE TRIBE (1981), a bestseller in its day, tells of a series of brutal killings in modern New York that may be connected with strange and supernatural happenings in a Nazi death camp decades earlier.  Gregory A. Douglas's terrifying THE NEST (1980) features an army of mutant, man-eating cockroaches.  And Thomas Page's THE SPIRIT (1977) is a page-turner featuring Bigfoot.  Other titles in the series are expected to be announced soon.

Publication date for the series will be in Spring 2019.  All books in the series will be available in trade paperback and ebook formats, priced around $16 for the paperbacks and around $8 for the ebooks.  The paperbacks will be available for order direct from the publisher, or via Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and other suppliers; ebooks will be available for purchase by libraries via Overdrive.

Thank you to Valancourt for not only working with Grady and Will to bring these excellent titles back in print, but to do it in a way that makes them easily available to libraries. Library workers, let's show our appreciation by making sure we order the books from this line for our patrons as soon as they are available.

And, if you can join me and Grady and Will at StokerCon in May, you can hear all about the titles form the curators of the line themselves.