Note from the Publisher - 04/22/2017
Hey guys, welcome to the new DarkRegions.com. We hope you take some time to look around. Based on feedback from our customers, team and others we have consolidated our website into the most important categories and have a much more stable and fast platform to enjoy. A staggering 70% of our visitors are now on mobile devices, so this website was designed specifically with mobile in mind. You should find it much easier to navigate and shop from your mobile device on this website. Truly excited to offer our customers this stable and streamlined way to purchase Dark Regions Press products and the products of other publishers.
If you have any questions on the new website/your customer account etc. please read our front page article on things you need to know about the new website.
Also, we have a New DarkRegions.com Website Launch Sale running right now based on our popular $5/$50/$500 off deals... sincere thanks to everyone who joins us for the launch sale.
Besides the new website, there are a few other important matters I wanted to touch on to give everyone an update on where things are moving with Dark Regions Press:
1. Consolidation and Focus
After some consideration, we have decided to discontinue the Dark Regions Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Weird Fiction imprints. Please note: this does not mean we will not publish titles in these genres, it simply means the imprints and the numbering sequences for each will cease. Originally these imprints were created with the intention of being open to submissions, but when this overwhelmed us we turned them into by invitation only, but the sheer amount of projects that these imprints were creating ended up overwhelming our team and operations.Moving forward we will be focusing less on quantity and more on quality. As some of you may have noticed, we released no new publications in terms of preorders/new launches for the first five months of this year. This was intentional as we work through several projects that need to be moved along in various stages of production. Many products are still in production and we're working hard to get these moving more quickly and into the hands of our patient collectors.
In the future you can expect less publications from DRP, but bigger in scale. We want to focus our energy and efforts on projects that will appeal to many and make big impacts in the industry. We will still publish debut novels and some smaller projects, but they will usually be grouped together like in our upcoming May 2nd Cthulhu Mythos Books Kickstarter campaign.
Other imprints may be discontinued/shortened/limited as well in our ongoing efforts to consolidate and focus. If/when these decisions are made another update will be posted. We feel strongly that if our energy and resources are focused on six high-caliber projects per year instead of 20+ small to large projects per year, our business, team and customers will have a much higher-quality experience that will yield better results for the growth of the press. We are planning out 2018 accordingly.
2. Preorders from Other Publishers
Soon we will be changing our model to only accept unpaid reservations for products from other publishers in advance of their shipping date. Once the product(s) are with our fulfillment provider and ready to ship to customers then confirmations will be sent and payments collected. Due to the unpredictable nature of preorder products from other publishers, this system will ensure our customers that their funds will only be taken once the product is ready to ship to them.Right now we still have the same preorders from other publishers that we previously had on the website, but we will not be offering any new preorders from other publishers until we get this new unpaid preorder system put in place. Stay tuned for updates on this system.
3. A Preview of What's Coming from Dark Regions Press
Usually I like to give a preview or some exclusive DRP information in these publisher notes, so here we go...
Brian Keene is almost finished with his rewrite of The Motel at the End of the Earth, a post-apocalyptic novel/novella. Assuming I receive the manuscript by the end of May, we're still aiming to have this book in-stock and launching by the end of this year, likely in November. Since it's a new Brian Keene novel that no one has read yet, the print run on the signed limited edition will likely be larger than normal (possibly as many as 1,000 copies) but the deluxe edition will be limited to 26 lettered copies. Soon we'll be offering an early preorder of the book to our Collectors Club members. For the general public Keene's new book will be available to purchase hopefully in Q4 2017, but Q1 2018 by the latest.
The Cthulhu Mythos anthology featuring cover artwork by Richard Luong (based on one of three concepts) will be edited by yours truly. This anthology will only be created if the Kickstarter reaches its funding goal, and the anthology will most likely be the first of a new series/setting that could lead into other mediums. Very excited about the plans for this project. Hope you join us for the Cthulhu Mythos campaign starting May 2nd on Kickstarter.
Since we want to have the books in our hands before offering them for sale, the new Clive Barker project from Dark Regions Press will almost certainly be a 2018 release at this point. We're going to work hard to make sure it's the first half, and details on what exactly the project is about will be released sometime in the 2nd half of 2017.
Another change that we'd like everyone to be aware of: the Tuesday Dark Regions Press e-mail newsletter will now be sent at 6AM PST instead of 12PM PST, the same time as the Friday e-mail newsletter.
Finally, our patient collectors can expect a deluge of signed limited editions and preorder items coming their way this summer/fall. In the coming weeks we are making a huge effort to get ~10 signed limited editions complete in production and into the hands of our customers. Thank you to all for your patience, and please know that we are proactively limiting preorders on all levels moving forward to avoid delays/buildups like this again in the future.
Thanks to everyone who visits our new website and supports Dark Regions Press by participating in the launch sale. As always, our direct customers are the lifeblood of the business and we sincerely appreciate your continued enthusiasm and support.
Hope to see you all at StokerCon. Until next time!
- Chris
