Indie/horror/LGBT/classics. HWA Specialty Press Award. 'Valancourt's publications may be just what you're looking for.' - Michael Dirda, Washington Post
In all our years of doing this, we have never been stumped like this. This woman, Margaret O'Donnell, wrote one book, THE BEEHIVE (1980). We've tried everything to find her estate. It's like she's a ghost, like she never existed. Anyone who can help us trace her wins a prize.
We've signed a deal with
@quirkbooks
, publishers of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, to publish a PFH series of reissues of titles featured in the book, edited by
@grady_hendrix
and
@toomuchhorror
. Official announcement and list of titles coming soon!
Most of us associate vampire stories with Transylvania, but the earliest vampire tales in English were set in Greece and are now rediscovered and republished for the first time in this new anthology. Check it out here:
We're thrilled to report that one of the key horror fiction collections of the modern era, the long-unavailable IN A LONELY PLACE (1984) by Karl Edward Wagner will be one of our 2022 releases! This is one we've been after for years, so we're very excited!
Coming 2023, a new edition of this sought-after collection. It'll join two other landmark collections of the era, Karl Edward Wagner's IN A LONELY PLACE and Michael Shea's POLYPHEMUS.
Elated to announce we'll be publishing 6 classics by one of the great American horror writers of the 20th century, Robert Bloch! A career-spanning selection of novels & story collections from the '40s-80s by an all-time great. More soon once we sort out cover art & introductions!
We're pretty psyched about this one! Rare stories from the the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES by Everil Worrell, Greye La Spina, Eli Colter and Mary Elizabeth Counselman. It'll be
#2
in our MONSTER, SHE WROTE series. Preorder details coming soon!
We're very excited to welcome '70s/'80s horror great Thomas Tessier to the Valancourt list! THE NIGHTWALKER will join our line of classic horror, while RAPTURE and FINISHING TOUCHES will be
#PaperbacksFromHell
, introduced by
@grady_hendrix
&
@toomuchhorror
! More info soon!
The first in our new series of Robert Bloch reissues is up for preorder on our site! THE OPENER OF THE WAY (1945) is Bloch's first book, a collection of 21 tales, mostly from Weird Tales, including classics like "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper".
A revolutionary idea: Barnes & Noble's new owners plan to stock the stores with "books that customers actually want to buy, as opposed to the ones that publishers are eager to sell".
Still finalizing our 2nd wave of
#PaperbacksFromHell
, but we can now confirm that one of them will be a great book we've gotten a *TON* of requests for. Very rare & expensive and never before published in the U.S. (And yes, it'll have that glorious Nick Bantock painting too.)
Everybody must be busy reading
@grady_hendrix
's new book tonight or something, because this cover we posted a few hours ago deserved more than 13 likes. A classic 1961 haunted house tale in a lovely new edition, up for order now:
A lot of requests for this one, so we're pleased to announce Harry Adam Knight's CARNOSAUR (1984) as forthcoming for 2022. A rich eccentric clones a zoo full of killer dinosaurs using DNA found in fossils, with bloody consequences. And it was published 6 yrs before Jurassic Park.
Thrilled to have signed worldwide rights to Margaret O'Donnell's THE BEEHIVE (1980), a book compared to Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, which came out some yrs later. If you'd like to keep up with this & other releases, please sign up for our email newsletter on the front of our site!
Book Depository is gone, taking our international sales with it. Barnes & Noble has stopped stocking indie horror books. Amazon has scaled back its ordering by about 75%. Now more than ever, we could use your support! Check out our site & grab a book or two for summer reading!
Be among the first to get these hotly awaited new titles! We expect to include preorder links in the email newsletter that goes out to subscribers on Sunday. Not a subscriber? It's super easy, just enter your email in the box on the front of our site! (We don't spam.)
Preorder now! Harry Adam Knight's CARNOSAUR (1984) features a crazy old man who clones dinosaurs from fossilized DNA with horrifically gory and deadly results. And 6 years before Jurassic Park!
@LynneHansenArt
has given it the great 80s cover it never had.
I'm told the contracts are in the mail to us for six titles by one of the major American horror writers of the 20th century, most of whose books have long been out of print. Looking forward to announcing more details soon!
Our first three MONSTER, SHE WROTE titles will be Elizabeth Engstrom's Nightmare Flower, a new collection of Lisa Tuttle's short stories, and an anthology featuring tales by the women of Weird Tales magazine. More details coming very soon!
Here they are! Your second wave of
#PaperbacksFromHell
! On our blog we answer every question you might possibly have about the series here: If you're the unquestioning type and just want to buy them, NOW!, go here:
Ok, ok! You win! You told us loud and clear that you didn't want STAGE FRIGHT to be the final
#PaperbacksFromHell
. And we listened. We'll have some news soon that should make PFH fans happy! Stay tuned....
Excited about this from
@quirkbooks
about women who helped shape the horror genre. Bunch of Valancourt authors in it, like Ann Radcliffe, Regina Maria Roche, Eliza Parsons &
@LizCratty
. What do you think? After
#PaperbacksFromHell
, should we do a Monster She Wrote book club?!
Our next two Paperbacks from Hell will be shipping soon and can still be ordered on our site at a preorder discount. Orders for these two have been pretty slow to trickle in -- we'd really love to see some interest in these so that we can keep the series going.
Happy birthday to Michael McDowell, who would have turned 71 today! When we published THE ELEMENTALS in 2014, the book had 298 ratings on Goodreads; now it's at close to 11,000. It's been a huge honor to help make his great work available to so many new readers!
Also we're puzzled why more preorders aren't coming in for this one. She's a master of the genre, her last book was a Stoker Award finalist, she's had two popular entries in our Paperbacks from Hell series & it has a great Vince Haig cover. These should be flying off the shelf!
Our forthcoming
#PaperbacksFromHell
series is getting a lot of buzz, but did you know we've already published new editions of a ton of paperback horror gems, including all of these?
We can't officially announce it until the contract shows up in the mail, but we're expecting to have some good news for
#PaperbacksFromHell
fans very shortly!
It never ceases to amaze me that some of the packages we send to the UK get delivered. I mean, the entire address will be something like "Bleak House, The Moors, Devon", and that's it. No street, no number, nothing, and yet it gets there. It's uncanny.
Happy birthday to our best-selling author, Michael McDowell, who would have been 72 today. Through our reissues, his novels like BLACKWATER & THE ELEMENTALS have finally gotten their due recognition as classics of modern horror. If you haven't read him, what are you waiting for?
A lot of people have told us our
#PaperbacksFromHell
series was one of the things that helped get them thru an otherwise dismal 2020, and we've had tons of requests for more. We have good news! We can confirm there will be a great new PFH title later in 2021. Full details soon!
Working on something exciting: an anthology of lost Gothic fiction, 1798-1827, written by women and published in an early magazine edited entirely by women, The Lady's Monthly Museum. Coming later this year!
This is probably the cruelest sneak peek we've ever done. A snippet from the cover of our next
#PaperbacksFromHell
release, full cover & details coming soon!
🎨Today, The King unveiled a new portrait by
@RealJonathanYeo
at Buckingham Palace. The painting - commissioned by The Draper’s Company - is the first official portrait to be completed since His Majesty’s Coronation. It will hang in Draper’s Hall in London.
Shocked & saddened to learn that Valancourt author Stephen Gregory, author of THE CORMORANT, THE WOODWITCH & other very fine macabre novels, has passed away. Besides being one of our favorite contemporary writers, he was also a lovely person. Our thoughts are with his family.
We're very pleased to be adding another rare Gothic thriller from Rohan O'Grady to our list, BLEAK NOVEMBER (1970). Her PIPPIN'S JOURNAL (1962) is now up for order on our site as well. We think our readers are going to enjoy these as much as we did -- make sure not to miss them!
We've had a number of requests for Michael Shea's out-of-print Arkham House volume POLYPHEMUS, and we're pleased to announce that a new edition will be out from us sometime in 2023, introduced by
@LairdBarron
. More details soon!
More Paperbacks from Hell on the way! Including Jere Cunningham's THE ABYSS (1981), w/intro by
@grady_hendrix
& feat. the original Terry Oakes cover painting. Preorder option & the final cover for our edition coming soon! Grab the rest of the series here:
Exciting news! We've signed our first
#MonsterSheWrote
title, and it will be Elizabeth Engstrom's NIGHTMARE FLOWER (1992). "This is a genuinely imaginative and diverse collection; if one story doesn't seduce and horrify the reader, the next one surely will." (Publishers Weekly)
Lisa Tuttle's stellar new collection RIDING THE NIGHTMARE has gotten starred reviews from Publishers Weekly & Booklist. Website orders are shipping now! 13 chilling tales by a master of modern weird, featuring intro by
@neilhimself
. HC $5 off, PB $2 off:
We love this Valancourt display at the Barnes & Noble store here in Richmond! Not many publishers get their own dedicated shelves in a B&N store, especially not tiny indie presses, so this is pretty cool!
We've seen some despairing tweets from folks who've received the final book in our
#PaperbacksFromHell
series and aren't ready for the ride to be over. Never fear: we'll be announcing a second wave soon, which will include these two amazing (and rare) '80s horror titles!
Just a few of the '80s horror novels we've signed rights to lately. If you're a fan of vintage horror fiction, 2019 is going to be a very good year for you!
Welp, looks like word of our next
#PaperbacksFromHell
title has leaked out on Facebook, so for those who didn't hear already, we'll be reissuing FAMILIAR SPIRIT (1983) by Lisa Tuttle, whose NEST OF NIGHTMARES many of you have enjoyed. Preorder details coming soon!
Any Shudder subscribers out there? They just added Valancourt author Philip Ridley's classic THE REFLECTING SKIN, a haunting film that's well worth watching.
Michael McDowell, Manly Wade Wellman, Lisa Tuttle, Elizabeth Engstrom, Karl Edward Wagner, and so many other great horror writers we were shocked and baffled to find out of print before our editions. What '70s/'80s/'90s horror authors can you not believe are out of print?
Time was, we'd post something like this and our Twitter feed would blow up with likes and retweets. Maybe everybody's finally jumped ship from this site?
The first in our new series of Robert Bloch reissues is up for preorder on our site! THE OPENER OF THE WAY (1945) is Bloch's first book, a collection of 21 tales, mostly from Weird Tales, including classics like "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper".
If you haven't noticed, we've implemented a kind of two-tier pricing system to encourage people to buy direct from us, with prices on our website usually cheaper than Amazon ($1-3 less for most pbs, $5 less for most hcs). In case you're looking to save a few bucks on books....
OMG! OMG OMG OMG!!! We just found out WORLD HORROR STORIES made the World Fantasy Award final ballot for Best Anthology! We are totally blown away to be nominated alongside some truly amazing editors. Thanks to everyone who read the book and supported us on this wild ride!
Two highly sought-after collections coming very soon in affordable new editions: Michael Shea's POLYPHEMUS (1987), feat. "The Autopsy" & new intro by
@LairdBarron
and Manly Wade Wellman's complete JOHN THE BALLADEER tales, intro by Karl Edward Wagner. Preorder now on our site!
We were very surprised & tremendously honored to receive this award at AuthorCon III this weekend! We were co-recipients, together with Grady Hendrix, for the Paperbacks from Hell series & our efforts to bring classic horror back into print. Thanks
@BrianKeene
&
@ScaresThatCare
!
We get a lot of questions about whether there will be more
#PaperbacksFromHell
. At long last, we're pleased to be able to answer that question with a resounding 'Maybe!'
I usually don't check our monthly bestsellers, since the top three are always Michael McDowell, Michael McDowell, and Michael McDowell, but happened to glance this morning and he's been knocked out of the top spot by another terrific book. Great to see people picking this one up!
In a rare instance of good news, the UK has abolished its ridiculous 20% tax on ebooks. With the reading tax gone, we're in the process of lowering all our UK ebook prices on Kindle. We hope this makes them more affordable & accessible to those who need good quarantine reading!
BIG new title announcement! We'll be publishing an entire volume of tales by Spain's "Queen of Terror", Pilar Pedraza, whose tale "Mater Tenebrarum" appeared in our first World Horror Stories book. More info to come on what promises to be an amazing volume!
The literary detective work we posted about yesterday got far more interest than anything we post about our books. Maybe we need to launch a spinoff business, like an escape room where we don't let you out until you've unraveled some complicated publishing rights situation.
OK, so we can't officially announce anything yet. But if you were getting ready to shell out your entire life savings for a copy of Manly Wade Wellman to read, you might want to hold off, just for a bit.
Now up for preorder! Michael Shea's POLYPHEMUS (1987), featuring "The Autopsy" (filmed for Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities) and other brilliant tales of horror/sci-fi, plus a new intro by
@LairdBarron
! Order now and save $2 on the pb/$5 on hc:
Congrats to our friends at
@quirkbooks
and
@LBKroger
for their Bram Stoker Award for MONSTER SHE WROTE! Once our
#PaperbacksFromHell
series wraps up, keep an eye out for details on our line of
#MonsterSheWrote
reprints of neglected horror by women authors!
Thrilled to be adding Tim Lucas's sought-after literary horror novel THROAT SPROCKETS (1994), the story of the narrator's deepening obsession with a mysterious erotic film, to our line of rediscovered classics. More details soon on this special 30th anniversary re-release!
Our latest Facebook post only displayed to 6 people, and Twitter doesn't do much better. If you're interested in keeping up with our new releases, sales, etc., the best way is to sign up for our twice-monthly email newsletter, signup box on the front of our website. Thank you!
Every year on June 1 we remember our most popular author, Michael McDowell, who would have turned 74 today. In honor of the occasion, we've marked two of our favorite McDowell titles down to just $2.99 on Kindle worldwide, now through 5/15!
My new favorite Goodreads reviewer - and to be honest, I'm not sure how anyone will top them - is the person who gave one of our books one star because the author bio didn't specify what subject his bachelor's degree was in.
Was looking for some good seasonal reading, so I picked up a copy of "The Turn of the Screw" we had lying around that came from god knows where, and opened it up to this lovely previous owner's inscription.
Trying to figure out where we're going in 2024-25 in an increasingly challenging publishing environment. Our Paperbacks from Hell and world horror seem to get by far the most interest of anything we do. Is that what you'd like to see more of? Or something else? Let's hear!
Putting together the lineup for our new MONSTER, SHE WROTE series, inspired by the Bram Stoker Award-winning book by
@LBKroger
& Melanie Anderson. Which out-of-print female horror authors would you love to see included?!
WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK!!! Our next two
#PaperbacksFromHell
, both with intros by
@grady_hendrix
: Ken Greenhall's classic HELL HOUND and Peter Tonkin's KILLER! (Cover art not final, preorder option & more details coming soon!)
One of the many casualties of the digital age has been these lovely little slips in the backs of library books. This book from 1956 showed up in today's mail and might become a future Valancourt edition. Who knows, you might be the first to read it since 1970?!
Now up for preorder! Hardcovers $5 off, paperbacks $2 off. The long-awaited reissue of the *complete* JOHN THE BALLADEER stories by Manly Wade Wellman, edited by Karl Edward Wagner, with cover art by Ilan Sheady. Details & links here:
In "better-late-than-never" news, we've spent 12 years writing to a literary agency trying to get the rights to Simon Raven's macabre short fiction, and the contract finally arrived today. We (almost) never give up on going after books we love.
Now up for preorder at a discount! A new
#PaperbacksFromHell
! Hugh Zachary's GWEN, IN GREEN (1974), a vintage horror classic with gorgeous original cover art by George Ziel & new intro by
@toomuchhorror
. Estimated shipping date Dec. 2021. More info here:
A slightly belated happy birthday to us! 15 years ago yesterday, we published our first book, the rare Gothic novel THE ANIMATED SKELETON (1798). Here's to hoping for 15 more great years of publishing great weird and obscure books!
A little something we're working on, an anthology of Victorian & Edwardian stories and poems about prehistoric monsters, edited by
@dr_r_fallon
. The design is our first from a new artist, Josep Lledó from Spain. Coming later in 2020!
A customer wrote the other day in outrage to demand a refund because a book's 9-1/2 page intro was "too short". Today we noticed someone left a nasty Goodreads review because a 10-page intro was "too long". Maybe we should go with 9-3/4 page intros from now on?
Oooh look what
@Ilanimator
just sent us! We think he's really outdone himself this time. We'll have this one up for preorder very shortly, full cover and ordering link to come, stay tuned!
Following the success of our
#PaperbacksFromHell
series, we're teaming up with
@quirkbooks
once more, this time for a tie-in with MONSTER, SHE WROTE! Unveiling the series design and the first book,
@LizCratty
's NIGHTMARE FLOWER, introduced by
@LBKroger
! More details soon!
It's here! The proof for JOHN THE BALLADEER has arrived! We're aiming to get any corrections made and the books printed and shipped by Halloween to those who preordered. If you haven't got yours yet, they're discounted on our site, $2 off pb, $5 off hc:
Speaking of Michael McDowell, we noticed that THE AMULET has never had a hardcover edition. Would anyone be up for one? Maybe with some glorious Mike Mignola cover art....?
Today's exciting book find. How on earth is this one out of print? This seems like it should be a Valancourt reprint. Maybe
@StephenKing
or
@RichardChizmar
can give us a tip on who to contact to make that happen?
After all these years of doing this, one thing that still baffles me is when we write to somebody and say we want to republish some totally obscure book their mom or grandma wrote that's been out of print for 50 years, and.... they don't respond.
Just received
@NeilHimself
's intro to Lisa Tuttle's terrific story collection RIDING THE NIGHTMARE, the follow-up to her Stoker-nominated THE DEAD HOURS OF NIGHT. You can still preorder on our website at a discount, and preorders should ship by June:
Cover reveal! André Bjerke's THE LAKE OF THE DEAD (1942) is a Norwegian classic. More info soon, but let's just say it's set deep in the dark Norwegian woods at Dead Man's Cabin, there's a brutal murder, a curse & a lake that seems somehow to suck victims down to their doom....
An unfathomable amount of work went into translating & editing this terrific edition of André Bjerke's THE LAKE OF THE DEAD (1942), a brilliant Golden Age supernatural/crime novel from Norway. We'd love to see some orders come in so we can keep publishing this kind of stuff...
Jeez, judging from the huge deluge of orders today, we obviously need to be publishing more Karl Edward Wagner books. Or more killer whale books. Or both. Thanks to everybody who's been ordering!
Our friends at
@quirkbooks
have a special treat in store for
#PaperbacksFromHell
fans this September -- special trade paperback-sized editions of four titles will be available exclusively from Barnes & Noble. These are up for preorder on the B&N site now, in stores 9/19.
Oooh we love this photo of our
#PaperbacksFromHell
line on display at The Book Loft in Columbus, Ohio! They just got a huge shipment of Valancourt titles, so if you're in the area, stop and browse their great store!
One of the best horror novels of the 1970s is coming soon in a new
#PaperbacksFromHell
edition introduced by
@grady_hendrix
, featuring the original cover art by Wendell Minor. This will be available in the PFH mass market size for a limited time only:
Yesterday we tweeted that
@AmazonKDP
is censoring our books again. We asked what, specifically, they objected to in the book (a 50-year-old British horror novel). Their response: "We're not going to tell you."
@Amazon
's dominance in the book market is a danger to free speech.
So this is slightly weird. On the way to see the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Roanoke, we stopped at a junk store and found an old copy of Ambrose Bierce’s CAN SUCH THINGS BE? for $8. Not super valuable, but not something you see everyday either. (1/2)
Website orders ship soon! One of the key modern horror collections, IN A LONELY PLACE features the author's most famous story, "Sticks" (a possible influence on The Blair Witch Project), in which a man finds strange & sinister stick figures hanging from trees in the woods.