Warren Lapine and Fantastic Books

After a two-year hiatus, editor and publisher Warren Lapine (formerly of DNA Publications) has returned to genre publishing. You can read the full press release courtesy of Ian Randal Strock on SFScope. What I respect most about Lapine's return is that he is taking care of previous business (which legally he is not required to do), and making good on money owed and subscriptions cancelled with the demise of DNA Publications. I bring all of this to your intention because of my new working relationship with Warren Lapine; here is the press release that Warren sent out:

Wilder Publications is pleased and excited to announce that Marty Halpern has accepted a position as a freelance Acquisitions Editor for Wilder Publications genre imprint, Fantastic Books. Marty brings close to a decade of editorial experience with him. He has twice been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, bringing the number of World Fantasy Award nominees currently on staff to two. Books edited by Marty have won the prestigious Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, and have been selected to Publishers Weekly's Best of the Year List.

So what does this mean for you, the author?

I am currently acquiring out-of-print backlist titles -- sf, fantasy, horror, slipstream, etc. If you have an oop book that you would like to make available to today's readers, so that they don't have to search the used bookstores for a copy (the purchase of which doesn't make you, the author, any money), then please do contact me. Please contact me personally, not by leaving a comment here. My email addy is marty dot halpern at gmail dot com. I would be open, however, to responding to any general comments posted here.

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Welcome to More Red Ink

I've been debating whether or not to actually begin blogging for a number of months now -- the primary point of contention being the amount of time involved to blog consistently, and to blog with intent/content. Regardless, here I am!

I first want to thank author Bruce McAllister (whose first short fiction collection, The Girl Who Loved Animals and Other Stories (2007), I acquired and edited for Golden Gryphon Press) for suggesting the blog title "More Red Ink." It's an intriguing title to use in these current economic conditions, when "more red ink" implies yet another financial loss to one's bottom line. With the extreme hit all of our retirement savings have taken over the past year (and which will unfortunately continue through this year), well, Warren Zevon's words, "I'll sleep when I'm dead," take on greater significance for most of us, in that we'll all have to continue working 'til we drop, with no retirement in sight. My intent, however, with this blog title, is that "more red ink" potentially improves the bottom line, so to speak, of any particular written work in which I am involved. But that's really for the authors and the publishers to judge.

I also wish to thank author Jeffrey Ford for allowing me to use his "Marty/Moses and God" quote in the header -- even though Jeff specifically expressed that it not be used in the header. Sorry, Jeff -- really! -- but this is where the quote belongs.

I first met Jeff at the 2000 World Fantasy Convention in Corpus Christi, Texas. I attended his reading, during which he read the yet-to-be-published story "Creation" (which won the 2003 World Fantasy Award for best short story). I was so knocked out by this story that I went up to Jeff after the reading, introduced myself, and told him that I would like to publish his first short fiction collection. I was only familiar with about four of Jeff's other stories, but after hearing "Creation" I knew that he was a writer to watch, and I wanted to be the editor to snag his first collection. It took a number of months for the collection to come together (Jeff's NY publisher had "first look," so we had to wait for the publisher to pass on the collection), and The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories was published by Golden Gryphon in 2002; it won the 2003 World Fantasy Award for best single-author collection. For Jeff, that made two World Fantasy Awards in the same year: matching bookends!

So, welcome to "More Red Ink"!