Earlier this month, independent UK house Caffeine Nights Publishing announced that they would be publishing the upcoming novel “Monolith” from veteran and highly prolific UK horror writer Shaun Hutson—sometimes know as the Godfather of Gore—and releasing over 30 of his backlist titles as e-books.
“We live in darker times and real horror writing should reflect that. I wanted a publisher who will respect that,” Hutson remarked in Caffeine Nights’s press release.
Darren Laws, director at Caffeine Nights, explained to me that:
“We have been liaising with Shaun Hutson’s agent, Brie Burkeman from Burkeman & Clarke, for around 10 months. They wanted a publisher that would commit to the front and backlist, and where the editor had the power to make the marketing decisions. We persuaded Shaun and Brie that this is part of our ethos here at Caffeine Nights.”
The new title will appear in 2014, preceded in October by four backlist titles: “Spawn,” “Relics,” “Assassin” and “Renegades.”
“We are not only working with the e-books, we are also totally revamping the books with a fresh new and contemporary cover design to attract a new generation to Shaun’s work, as well as enticing the hardcore Shaun Hutson fans to have a look at some of their favourite titles again,” Laws told me.
Hutson is the kind of writer who could really benefit from a backlist revival. His website lists over 60 works, published under his own name and some 10 other pseudonyms, and he asks astute readers and fans to help run down any other titles or editions he may have lost track of. So in the circumstances, why not self-publish?
“What we bring is experience, access to more than just Amazon and raising Shaun’s profile to re-establish him as the UK’s number one horror writer,” Laws answered. “Self-publishing gives great access to many authors who choose to go down that route, but it’s not the panacea for the ills of the industry, nor the right solution for all authors—far from it. Shaun wants to concentrate on writing. He doesn’t want to act as his own publicist, agent, bookkeeper, designer, or tech head, or the many other roles that are carried out by the support team an author needs.”
As for the advantages of digital disruption for the horror genre, Laws added, “I think it’s an extremely exciting market for horror titles in general. The age [groups] of the majority of horror readers are those using eReaders. Bookshops today have a hard time stocking all backlist titles, and when you’ve written as many successful books as Shaun has, the possibility of having all of them, over 30 books, available again is an exciting aspect of e-publishing.”
Hutson has “written over 30 bestselling novels as well as writing for radio, magazines and television,” as well as writing Internet-only titles available exclusively from his website. He is also a self-confessed passionate Liverpool supporter. So obviously he knows what true horror means.
