OK, one last question for Jeff Gerke, whom I’ve been interviewing for several days now. Next October, Jeff will be launching a new small independent publishing house, Marcher Lord Press. We’ve been discussing his plans to market his books and Jeff has spilled most of his secrets.
After today, we’ll be on our way to a new topic next week.
Q: Jeff, I know you have plans to reissue Christian speculative fiction that’s gone out of print. Tell us about that.
A: From the beginning I’ve wanted Marcher Lord Press to become the premier go-to publisher for Christian speculative fiction. Part of that vision has always included reissuing selected Christian speculative novels that have gone out of print.
Fans of this kind of fiction, as I’ve mentioned, are fabulously devoted. They don’t care how long ago something came out, so long as it maxes out their cool meters (coolometers?). A number of fantastic Christian SF and fantasy novels came out before their time and never got a fair chance. They surfaced when no one knew to look for them, and before anyone started looking, they slipped back below the surface. I’d like to give some of these novels a second chance.
I will repackage these resurrected novels with new covers and added content–like “deleted scenes,” new short stories, author’s preferred editions, etc. And because I’ll be using POD technology, it’s no problem to keep these books in print indefinitely.
I’ve talked to numerous Christian speculative novelists, many of whom I’m honored to count among my friends, who tell me of the frustration they face when fans ask for copies of their old books but none are to be found. By bringing back these worthy stories I can provide a service not only for these fans but also for these authors.
Look for my first rez titles to appear in the second or third year of Marcher Lord Press’s operation.
Randy sez: Thanks, Jeff, for all your answers. I know that not all my blog readers are interested in your niche, but they’re ALL interested in some niche. And the marketing methods that work for one niche will work just as well for another.
Tune in on Monday for a new topic, one which scored high in interest in my recent poll of my readers.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few days of your blog, Randy. What Jeff is doing is very interesting to me, and I hope it is VERY successful for him!
I agree, this has been interesting.
I have a question about publishing rights for the author. Is it a given that the publishers keep the publishing rights indefinitely on the books they publish or is there the ability for the author to keep rights to republish it say ten or twenty years down the line?
It seems unfair that what you wrote is no longer yours once its published.
I’m still busy being overwhelmed by the number of Christian spec-fic writers Jeff has listed on his site. I haven’t gotten any farther than that.
Great topic, Randy!
Thanks to Jeff for joining your blog for the past week, Randy. It was interesting, and I join everyone else in praying and pulling for Marcher Lord Press!