Features: a world where people cosmetically alter their bodies to look like Japanese anime characters, cyberpunk assassins hired by electronics corporations, and a 700 pound ninja who uses his grotesque excess weight as a deadly weapon.
Archive for the Uncategorized Category
Why Buying through Amazon.com is the Best Way to Support Writers
Posted in Uncategorized on December 15, 2010 by carltonmellickMany people believe that amazon.com is the big evil of the publishing world. Perhaps they are a bit evil from time to time, but they are an excellent company in a lot of other ways. I love amazon, both as a writer and as a consumer.
In my opinion, I believe that amazon.com is the best thing that ever happened to the small press. The idea that shopping through amazon is bad for publishers and writers couldn’t be further from the truth from my experience as a writer. In fact, I believe that the best way to support small press authors would be to only buy their books through amazon.com. Here’s why: the more copies of a book that sell through amazon.com, the more amazon.com recommends that book and connects it to other books.
In 2001, when my first book Satan Burger came out, I promoted it to readers who were into weird fiction. Due to the also-bought feature on amazon, my book became linked up to a very popular weird fiction book: House of Leaves. For the next three years, Satan Burger was the #1 recommended book with House of Leaves. This launched my career and even though I made less profit per book than copies that were sold at smaller sites like Shocklines.com, I still sold hundreds of copies of the book that wouldn’t have sold otherwise. I’d rather get tons of people reading my books and make just a buck or two per copy sold than make a lot of money per book sold. Ever since Satan Burger was connected to House of Leaves, I was making $500-1000 per month on just that one book, which was enough for a 23 year old with a low cost of living to write full time without need of a day job. My dream of writing as a career became a reality, and it couldn’t have happened without amazon.com.
Flash forward to the current day, Satan Burger is selling just as well as ever because amazon continues to link it up to other products, which keeps it in the public’s eye. There isn’t another bookstore in the country that would keep this book shelved that long. I’ve got 27 more books in print now, many of which sell just as well or better than Satan Burger did. And, due to also-boughts, I’ve become the number one author connected to Christopher Moore. There isn’t a bookseller in the world that would put a small press author’s book alongside a mega seller like Christopher Moore, or Chuck Palahniuk, or House of Leaves. Amazon does this, because it connects things based on what readers buy, not on what the big book industry thinks readers should be buying.
So the best way to support an author, especially a small press author, is to only buy their books through amazon.com. And these days, amazon allows much better discounts so that the publisher and author make more money when books are sold through amazon than anywhere else. This includes books sold directly from our websites. That is, unless we were to charge far more for our books, which would be unfair to the reader. It would also be a lot more work for us, and take much, much longer for the reader to receive the books.
Perhaps amazon.com is a bit on the evil side. They have pulled some cheap tricks to destroy the competition in the past, and will likely continue to do so. But as of now, at this point in time, they are a great company. You should know that the best way to support an author is to buy through amazon.com. At least at this point in time.
OUT NOW: “Whargoul” by Dave Brockie
Posted in Bizarro Authors, Bizarro Books, Uncategorized on December 12, 2010 by carltonmellick
GWAR fans rejoice, the first novel by singer Dave Brockie (AKA Oderus Urungus) is finally here! As somebody who has been a fan of Gwar for the past 20 years it’s cool to see Eraserhead Press releasing a book by this guy.
Here’s more info:
WHARGOUL
by Dave Brockie
I Destroyed Your Life
I Raped Your Wife
I Am the Fucking Whargoul
From the killing grounds of Stalingrad to the death camps of the holocaust. From torture chambers in Iraq to race riots in the United States, the Whargoul was there – killing and raping. It is a beast born in bullets and shrapnel, feeding off of pain, misery, and hard drugs. Cursed to wander the Earth without the hope of death, it is reborn again and again to spread the gospel of hate, abuse, and genocide. But what if it’s not the only monster out there? What if there’s something worse?
From Dave Brockie, the twisted genius behind GWAR, comes a novel about the darkest days of the twentieth century. The modern world is dying and Brockie is here to put a bullet between its eyes and violate the corpse.
This is all-out fucking war!
Get it at amazon.com
New EHP Book: “My Fake War” by Andersen Prunty
Posted in Bizarro Authors, Bizarro Books, Bizarro Fiction, Uncategorized on May 29, 2010 by carltonmellick
This is an Eraserhead Press book I highly recommend. It’s a quick bizarro read that just gets more absurd as it goes. I don’t throw around the term brilliant too often, but this is brilliant. Check it out.
The absurd tale of an unlikely soldier forced to fight a war that, quite possibly, does not exist.
Saul Dressing is a flabby middle-aged librarian who just wants to be left alone to listen to jazz, watch porn, and cultivate his toenails. All of this changes when a soldier in a camouflage sweat suit shows up to draft him into the army of the United States of Everything. His mission is simple: go to a foreign country no one has ever heard of and incite the opposition to strike first. All alone in the middle of a desert with no enemy in sight, Saul must come to terms with the absurdity of his situation. Thus begins a surreal journey into the politics of war, consumerism, and giant robots.
It’s Rambo meets Waiting for Godot in this subversive satire of American values and the scope of the human imagination.
Get it at: Amazon.com
Swallowdown Press 2 books for 1 – HELL YEAH!
Posted in Bizarro Books, Uncategorized on May 13, 2010 by carltonmellick
Cody Goodfellow, one of the best new writers to come out in the past decade, is one of the flagship writers coming out through bizarro publishing house Swallowdown Press. Jeremy Robert Johnson, the editor of Swallowdown, knows good fiction when he sees it. For the next four weeks you can get a free Swallowdown Press book if you buy one of Cody Goodfellow’s books. I highly recommend Cody’s books. “Perfect Union” will flip your shit.
By the way, I’m the one who designed these books so that of course makes them double plus awesome.
This just in from Jeremy’s website:
It’s official, folks! May 13th-June 13th, 2010 will henceforth be known as Cody Goodfellow month (for at least a period of one month)!
In honor of this fine and lovely occasion, Swallowdown Press is offering an outstanding deal on weird shit!
Order either of Cody’s astonishing books (covers shown above) and receive another book for FREE.
This includes Extinction Journals, Siren Promised, Angel Dust Apocalypse, or the giant 37 author Falling From the Sky anthology (though this last is limited 5 copies). Just order one of Cody’s books, then indicate which FREE book you’d like in the Notes to Seller section.
Wait! You want more FREE books? Well, okay.
When you buy one of Cody’s books and love it, do us a favor and pop up an Amazon review. Doesn’t have to be epic; just 4 or 5 stars and a batch of friendly adjectives. Send me a link to the posted Amazon review and I’ll send you another FREE book.
So, that’s a potential 3 great books for the price of 1, and you’ll receive the good karma inherent in supporting the independent press.
Anybody who’s read this blog before knows that I think Cody Goodfellow is a stellar writer, one of the best in the business regardless of genre. But you don’t have to take my word for it…
Check out this great review of SWFQW from Dark Discoveries: “One can certainly see influences of Lovecraft, the New Wave of SF writers of the sixties, the Cyberpunks and Splatterpunks – and even surrealists like Kafka and Borges. Don’t get me wrong though, Cody Goodfellow is one of a kind. Highly Recommended!”
Or the recent acclaim for SWFQW from Black Static magazine: “[Short story] ‘Atwater’ is a tour de force of reckless invention, the prose pyrotechnics and in your face imagery that are a vital component of the other stories here bubbling over like the lava flow from a misbehaving volcano.”
It’s also worth noting that Cody racked up four (!) Honorable Mentions from Ellen Datlow in Best Horror of the Year Vol. 2.
So, Goodfellow Month is a great time to check out a brilliant writer and cop some free Bizarro swag!
Best wishes,
JRJ
p.s. New JRJ fiction dropping shortly. Just waiting to sign some contracts.
If interested, get a book at: Swallowdown Press website
COMING SOON: The Kobold Wizard’s Dildo of Enlightenment +2
Posted in Bizarro Books, Uncategorized on May 4, 2010 by carltonmellick
If anyone out there is reading this, I need your help. I am trapped within a really terrible Dungeons and Dragons campaign and I can’t find my way out. My player is a horny 14 year old loser who won’t stop forcing me to have sex with slutty elf chicks instead of going on quests. The dungeon master has severe attention deficit disorder and skips large sections of description when it comes to the world I live within. Please find my character sheet and bring it to a better dungeon master, preferably a benevolent one with a vivid imagination who actually knows what he’s doing. Please, I beg of you to deliver me from this nightmare, before all of my hit points run out . . .
- Polo Pipefingers, level 3 Halfling Fighter
HP Lovecraft Film Festival
Posted in Uncategorized on October 1, 2009 by carltonmellickThis weekend Eraserhead Press will be selling books at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland. It should be a great time.
For more information, go to: http://hplfilmfestival.com/
EHP also got an ad that will be projected in rotation before the movies. I designed it out of Ed’s artwork from several of my covers:
If you’re in or near Portland you should go.
New blog!
Posted in Uncategorized on May 16, 2009 by carltonmellickI am finally starting a blog. This is a blog where I will talk about:
Bizarro author events such as:
The Bizarro Breakdance party!
or new bizarro book releases such as:
The Cannibals of Candyland!
or just random weird things, such as:
Hamburger turtle!
So stick around …
