What Happened To

[Raptor Rex]

Delirium Books does anyone know? All I have been able to find is a Wiki....Been out of touch with the small press horror genre for a while and I just happen to think about them. If this is in the wrong section or not allowed feel free to move it or delete it.

[dannyboy121070]

Last I knew, Shane had announced his retirement and closed up shop.
This might shed some extra light:
https://edwardlorn.wordpress.com/201...fuck-yourself/

[slayn666]

Delirium Books does anyone know? All I have been able to find is a Wiki....Been out of touch with the small press horror genre for a while and I just happen to think about them. If this is in the wrong section or not allowed feel free to move it or delete it.

Basically Shane Staley is a terrible businessman, a liar, and a fucking thief. Good riddance.

Also here's the letter Lorn mentions in that blog post.

Every business has one thing in common: it’s destined to fail in the end. It’s much the same with people, as one day we all cease to exist, to produce…to contribute to the world. No one is immune to this.

Definitely not me.

This past Friday DarkFuse has officially filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. This stems from a budget shortfall we began experiencing in January. As it’s linked to me as an owner, this will fall back on me, and I will ultimately take the hit personally as well. As it should be.

In truth I’ve been taking the hit since the recession. Constantly filling gaps in money with personal contributions, not taking salaries just so authors could get paid advances and royalties on time. Twenty years in the publishing business and I was one of the few who consistently paid authors their royalties like clockwork, issued advances on time, paid my artists and staff monthly on the same day. I said if there ever came a time the business wouldn’t allow me to do this, that would be the end.

And that’s what happened here. After reports came in January that showed a budget shortfall I couldn’t once again plug with my own money, there was nothing left to do but liquidate debt and hopefully restructure in order to continue to contribute to the genre we love so much.

I took quick action, let authors know the situation. Allowed them to make a decision: take back their rights or stick with us and fight so we could restructure, get a second wind and start fresh, all the while with the focus on catching up on our debts to everyone in the business during the hiatus with a goal to start with renewed vigor around November.

Twenty years in paying authors on time (with a great track record), we all expected the majority of our authors to see the bigger picture, ride through with us across a bump in the road, but what happened was 80% of our authors decided to pull rights and we accommodated this by the end of June and removed their titles from the market. I really don’t blame them, as it’s tough to be an author in this industry, especially this genre, and when a company begins to struggle, everyone assumes the worst. And in this case, assuming the worst has brought about the worst.

With only 20% of our back catalogue now bringing in revenue, and us not producing titles till debt is caught up after hiatus, there’s really no hope in setting out to do what we intended: to start over, curtail our business to meet the financial strain on the current market, and forge ahead to see what kind of a difference and impact we could make in the future.

I could go into a myriad of frustrations I have with the business, the corporations consumers and authors are turning to and the people who are making business decisions for this market, but it wouldn’t matter. Twenty years in business in doing the right thing, supporting authors with timely compensation, and fighting for new and upcoming authors ultimately didn’t make a difference in the end.

So what will happen going forward is simple: everyone who we have a debt to (including customers, authors and others) will be receiving a notice of the bankruptcy filing. The authors on our roster who reaffirmed their relationship with us (kept their titles with us) will be paid in full any amounts we owe to them by November (hopefully sooner). Those authors that pulled rights will be included in the liquidation process, filed with the courts.

My final hope is to make up any debt to customers (who we still owe books or credits to) after this process is over. We are in talks with a book design group to transfer existing store credits to them in exchange for marketing, editorial, publishing consultancy and web design work.

My future with this company has ended, as it’s in the hands of court trustees to make the decision on whether the company can go on (restructure without me), be sold, or be terminated.

Sadly, we live in a world where your value is judged on what you have done for someone lately. I know this all too well. So the fallout of this situation will likely resinate in negativity towards me or the company, but that’s a part of business I’ve accepted.

I’ve been proud of my work and career over the past 20 years, despite how it ends. We launched the careers of many profoundly talented authors. We won awards. And till the very end we fought for new and upcoming authors almost exclusively…knowing that profits would be hard to come by, but believing in their works and helping them get discovered to a broader readership, which we were one (if not the best) in the world at. Every few years I would plug a hole in the budget with personal investments, allowing us to continue our work. There were years in which profits were amazing (pre-recession), but since then it’s been an uphill battle just to stay in operations. And since 2003 I’ve made this my full-time job, employed a staff and paid authors on time till this past January.

So here we are. My resignation from DarkFuse.

I’d like to thank all of our supporters and readers who stuck with us over the years and who get that our current struggles were never due to bad intentions, but just the nature of the market and industry. I’d like to thank all of the authors we published (even the ones who pulled rights), but even more so the ones who stuck by our sides to this point. I’d like to thank Greg F. Gifune, Dave Thomas, Zach McCain and all other staff members of DarkFuse for making it the great publishing company it came to be.

I believe as years go by any knowledgeable person associated with this genre will look back and really see what an impact we’ve had. And I’ve been honored to have the career I’ve had—they told me it was never possible to make a living doing what I do, and it was fun to prove everyone wrong for the past 14 years.

Best wishes to everyone in our genre who fight every day to make ends meet.

I apologize for not contacting everyone personally who might be reading this now, but I’ve been inundated with matters in so many areas relating to this business that it’s become impossible to keep up.

I will make a final update in November as to the state of ownership of the company, its transfer and what happens next. Meanwhile, I’ll be inaccessible company-wise till the liquidation process is completed and I have further direction.

Thanks for everyone’s support and understanding!

Take care.

Shane Staley

YOU HEAR THAT, RICH? YOU'RE DESTINED TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS BECAUSE IF SHANE STALEY CAN'T MAKE IT, NO ONE CAN!

[Ranger]

Basically Shane Staley is a terrible businessman, a liar, and a fucking thief. Good riddance.

Also here's the letter Lorn mentions in that blog post.



YOU HEAR THAT, RICH? YOU'RE DESTINED TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS BECAUSE IF SHANE STALEY CAN'T MAKE IT, NO ONE CAN!

Unfortunately, the story of Delirium Books is the story of most small press publishers. The ones that survive are few and far between. Companies like Delirium, Necessary Evil, Bloodletting Press etc. enjoyed a few boom years in small press publishing and things seemed took a major downturn after the last major recession.

That boom period was a fairly crazy time with many presses offering lifetime subscriptions and numerous new publishers springing up offering ludicrously priced books from fairly minor authors (anyone remember Cargo Cult Press?). From what I recall Delirium offered lifetime subs. and then decided to sell books under another imprint (Altar 13?). This left lifetime subscribers high and dry as they weren't entitled to books under the new imprint. A fairly shitty business practice.

I remember Shane Staley slating many of the 'traditional' small press publishers on the old Horror Mall forums. He especially seemed to have a major grudge against Cemetery Dance. Those traditional publishers are still going strong and the publishers offering 100 copy print runs of authors nobody else would publish have bitten the dust. Kind of ironic.

[Dan Hocker]

IMO 100 copy print runs (of any author) isn't really sustainable under almost any circumstances. Especially if you have lifers.

[RonClinton]

IMO 100 copy print runs (of any author) isn't really sustainable under almost any circumstances. Especially if you have lifers.

Thunderstorm Books seems to be doing quite well over the long haul with their business model of sub-100-copy higher-end limited editions. But then again, they’re charging about twice (~$80) what Delirium/Dark Fuse did for theirs.

[Dan Hocker]

Thunderstorm Books seems to be doing quite well over the long haul with their business model of sub-100-copy higher-end limited editions. But then again, they’re charging about twice (~$80) what Delirium/Dark Fuse did for theirs.

I can't really speak to what Thunderstorm is doing as I don't really know much about it. What I do know is that with a 100 book run, even at $80 a book, minus printing costs, minus author royalties, artwork fees, and what not. You'd have to sell an awful lot of titles to run more than a 1 person company. Those profit margins drop too with every lifer you add as that's $80 less per lifer that you still have to pay full royalties and printing costs on.

Like I said though, I don't know anything about Thunderstorm and how it's run. Just from personal experience here at CD I think it would be really hard to make a living like that. It's not so much the idea of 100 book run as it is just how the math works out.

[slayn666]

I'm about 99% sure that Paul never offered lifetime subs as I've seen guys that I KNOW would have purchased one paying for books on a monthly basis.

He's also not trying to do it as a full-time job, so that helps tremendously.

Shane Staley remains human garbage, though.

[Brian James Freeman]

I remember Shane Staley slating many of the 'traditional' small press publishers on the old Horror Mall forums. He especially seemed to have a major grudge against Cemetery Dance.

Yeah, a lot of people started presses in the '00s with the intention of "showing" the established publishers "how to do it right..."

Brian

[bsaenz24]

Yeah, a lot of people started presses in the '00s with the intention of "showing" the established publishers "how to do it right..."

Brian

Have you learned your lesson Mr. Freeman!!!