The Ghoulish Times | 11/13/22

Perfect Union - Publishing Delays - BTS Artwork

Hello and welcome to the latest issue of The Ghoulish Times. This is a free spooky newsletter written by me, Max Booth III, co-founder of several things with the word “ghoulish” in the title, such as Ghoulish Books (an indie horror publishing company), the GHOULISH podcast, The Ghoulish Show, and the Ghoulish Book Festival.

I finally made a linktree account, so please calm down and stop hassling me. Every day, I get emails from you people demanding I make a linktree account. I made one, okay! It’s done!

If you are wondering why you received this email, that makes two of us. This newsletter was meant to remain a secret, sent out only upon the threat of total annihilation.

Yet here we are. It’s been delivered. What could that mean? And why did I enable this newsletter to only send during such drastic times? These are probably not ideal book-buying circumstances.

Let’s be honest. If you are receiving this email, you are probably dead, and so am I. And that’s okay. It was bound to happen eventually, anyway, right?

So let’s just continue this newsletter—together, as the corpses we were always destined to become.

While catching up on royalties, my partner Lori sent me a neat infographic detailing how many paperbacks we’ve sold annually since 2013 (the year our first book, Cruel by Eli Wilde, was released). The stats only covered physical book sales from our distributor, meaning purchases made by bookstores or through online retailers like Amazon, Bookshop dot org, Indiebound, etc. They did not include what we’ve sold at festivals or through our online webstore. They also didn’t include any eBook sales.

So, with that said, here’s what we realized: 2022’s sales easily exceed all nine of our previous years of existence combined.

This has been our best year as a publishing company by an insane amount. I’m not totally sure why, but I can take a couple guesses: 2022 was our first year with the Ghoulish Books rebranding (after publishing solely under the Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing name). The film adaptation of We Need to Do Something was also released late last year, and popped up on Hulu not long after. Plus, we launched an entire goddamn book festival that debuted back in April. I have to imagine that kind of publicity really helped increase our audience.

Other than that…I am not sure. I probably don’t want to know what the secret formula is, to be honest. I think the key is to always be trying something new and ambitious. The moment you repeat yourself, that’s when things start becoming stale.

Our sales for 2022 have been very good, but I am determined to smash those numbers next year, and the year after, and so on.

Thank you for helping make this happen.

Now, let’s address that incessant buzzing in your ear.

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PERFECT UNION, Cody Goodfellow’s horror magnum opus, has reemerged from the woods at long last

We are so dang thrilled about Cody Goodfellow’s horror novel, Perfect Union, which is finally out as of today. Originally published in 2010 through another press, this book has been long sought after by Goodfellow enthusiasts, and it’s about time it was finally made readily available again. If this novel hasn’t been on your radar…oh man, you are in for one hell of a treat. Check out the cover art—painted by the one and only Frank Walls.

We are in love with Frank’s painting. It perfectly captures the terror and pure horror oozing out of Cody’s writing. Goddamn, what a beauty!

Also, this new edition features an introduction from none other than the great John Shirley!

Anyone who pre-ordered a paperback through our webstore, copies are on the way to our office/house right now. They should be getting here early next week, and we will immediately start packing and mailing them out to customers. We apologize for the severe delay on this book. The publishing company experienced a personal tragedy earlier this summer and it has put us significant behind on…everything, but we are slowly catching up. Thank you for your patience. Seriously.

Webstore orders will come with a signed signature plate from the author. Otherwise, the book is available anywhere else you purchase books.

Webstore | Bookshop.org | Indiebound | B&N | Powell’s | Amazon

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HARES IN THE HEDGEROW update

Also coming out this week, which I will spotlight more extensively in the next newsletter, is Jessica McHugh’s Hares in the Hedgerow. Much like Perfect Union, this book was a victim of my dumb personal shit and will be slightly delayed. Digital copies should still be available on time, but the paperback is probably going to be a couple weeks late. Not the author’s fault at all but my own and nobody else’s. I don’t like things being this behind and I am definitely feeling like crap because of it, but I appreciate everybody for understanding and being patient with me.

Until then, you can order paperbacks and/or eBooks directly from our webstore. We are also offering a discounted paperback bundle for both Rabbits in the Garden and Hares in the Hedgerow. Both of these books make up the first two installments of Jessica’s Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy. They are excellent and honestly unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Don’t miss them!

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Behind-the-scenes artwork from SOFT PLACES

Another book of ours that recently came out is Betty Rocksteady’s Soft Places, our first real exploration into graphic novel territory. So far, people seem to really be enjoying it.

I asked Betty if we could have some BTS artwork from Soft Places for the newsletter, and this is what she sent back:

“This is all art from when I knew I was getting ready to make another book but I didn’t know anything about it yet. I knew I wanted illustration to be a major part of it, and I was trying to shake up my drawing style a bit by drawing looser faster pieces. These scenes didn’t necessarily make it into the book but the characters, creatures and mood really set up the foundations of Soft Places in my head.

“Getting a little weirder, before writing the book I did a bunch of meditation where I pictured myself holding Soft Places, a weird little green and black book, and looking through it and letting what it was just come naturally to me, and I built the themes and plot and structure of the book from there.”

Order Soft Places from our webstore. We still have some signature stickers left from Betty, each one containing a unique creature illustration.

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Are your ideas unique enough?

Over on my writing & publishing newsletter, Dog Ears, I wrote a brief piece about coming up with unique ideas. Read it HERE.

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THE GHOULISH SHOW’S spooky Thanksgiving extravaganza

Every month I host a spooky variety comedy show at Radio Coffee & Beer in Austin, TX called The Ghoulish Show. You can watch October’s episode HERE.

The event occurs on the last Tuesday of the month, so November’s The Ghoulish Show is scheduled for November 29th. This month will feature the following performers giving thanks:

Kelby Losack
RJ Joseph
Ryan C. Bradley
Michael Louis Dixon
Lucas Mangum
Andrew Hilbert
John Baltisberger

If you’re on Facebook, here’s the official event page. Otherwise, I hope to see you there!

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Recent episodes of the GHOULISH podcast

ICYMI, here are the most recent episodes of the GHOULISH podcast:

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Zombie of Horror

This weekend, we will be at this Rob Zombie tribute horror festival selling spooky books at the Wonderland of the Americas shopping mall in San Antonio. Come on down if you’re local!

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Okay, that’s it for this week. You can support us on Patreon, browse the books in our webstore, and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter (PMMP | DMD | Ghoulish podcast | Ghoulish Books | personal).

Reserve your ticket for Ghoulish Book Fest 2023.

You can also join us on the Ghoulish Discord.

See you next time, ghouls.