Black Static

Dark Minds Press has just launched with an anthology entitled, appropriately enough, Dark Minds, containing fiction by Gary McMahon, Carole Johnstone and Stephen Bacon, among others. As I thought that the ins and outs of starting a small press might be of interest to our readers, I put some questions to the two people behind this new kid on the block, Anthony Watson and Ross Warren.

PT: What makes intelligent, reasonable people decide to do something as daft as set up a small press in the current financial climate?

AW: I guess it was the idea that when the anthology was first mooted it was never about the money. The motivation behind it was simply to get some new names in writing out there into the public domain - a kind of advertisement for our work. That said, it's wonderful that such great writers as Gary McMahon, Stephen Bacon and Carole Johnstone have contributed to the book. (And also Vincent Chong, who has produced a stunning cover for us.) We're lucky in that everything has been paid for up front for this edition so any money we make from sales will be ploughed straight back in for any future projects. If it does badly then anyone discerning enough to have bought a copy will be lucky enough to own a rarity - which will be worth a few bob down the line!

RW: My initial involvement was as a contributor and forum poster hoping to get a story into the finished book. Then when the original editor dropped out for personal reasons I volunteered to give it a go. I'm okay now though, the medication is working a treat!

 PT: How did the Dark Minds anthology come about?

AW: It kind of arose organically from the (now defunct) Horrorwriters.net forum. I'd been thinking about it for a while and so - it seems - had a few others. All it took was for one brave soul to start up a thread suggesting the idea for everyone to pitch in. The forum had a board where we could post up stories for feedback and some of the stuff I read on there was miles ahead of some published work I'd read in terms of quality. We all know how hard it can be to get stories accepted and published so I guess there was a bit of a "why don't we do it ourselves" mentality involved - that said, I still stand by the quality of the stories in there - this isn't just vanity publishing.

RW: One of my earliest inputs was to suggest approaching Vincent Chong to do the cover. I had enquired about his commission rates whilst looking at the viability of doing a Black Static style magazine and he had intimated that if it was a project that interested him he would be prepared to offer a reduction in his rates. I love Vincent's work - above my writing desk is a print of his cover artwork to Gunpowder by Joe Hill - and just felt that the cover is an area where a lot of small press titles fall down, particularly on places like Lulu.  

PT: What sort of selection procedure did you use for the anthology?

AW: The offer was thrown open to all members of the forum to submit a story. As with most forums, even though the membership was in triple figures, there were only a few core members who posted regularly and - luckily - they were the ones who sent in stories. I say luckily in that it provided a nice number of stories for the book and also meant that the potential awkwardness of rejecting a story never really raised its head.

RW: One of the great things was that everyone was able to provide several stories which were swapped around for initial editing and then as I neared putting the book together I selected the story for each that I felt fitted the anthology best. This was tricky in some cases, in particular with Shaun Hammel who has an amazing story called 'Human Bridge', which reminded me of Books of Blood era Barker, but it was too short for the anthology and in the end I bowed to the author's preference for 'The Anchorite's Daughter'. Gary McMahon's story was already in place when I took on the project and Carole was a poster on the original forum. Stephen Bacon was the only writer I specifically requested a story from. I've read quite a bit of his stuff and the story that really made me want him to be part of the anthology was 'Room Above the Shop'. The fact that there is yet to be a collection from this writer is, I believe, one of the great mysteries of the UK small press scene.

PT: What were the most difficult aspects of setting up a new small press?

AW: Ross will have more of an idea on this one as it's been him who's done all the hard work. I just chucked a bit of cash at it and did a little bit of editing on a couple of the stories early on. If it's a raging success it's all down to him. Similarly, if it's an abject failure it's also all down to him and he'll be thrown into a wicker man. I'll bring the matches.

RW: Setting up a small press is as easy as saying you're going to do it. The hard part is getting a product together you are happy to put your name to. I developed a new found respect for publisher's guidelines through the process of turning a dozen differently formatted stories into one manuscript. I have to give a shout out here to MPG Biddles who have been extremely helpful throughout the process of getting the book into print.

PT: And what aspects were the most fun/gratifying?

AW: For me it was seeing the end product. Getting the first look at Vincent Chong's amazing artwork for the cover quite early on in the process and then actually holding the finished book in my hand. It would have been awful if the printers had sent back something disappointing but they haven't - the book looks great. Also, I'm still at the stage where seeing my name in print is a thrill - it doesn't happen that often!

RW: I'd definitely echo Anthony's comments here! I was like a kid at Christmas waiting for UPS to deliver the books. Also I recently got a request for a copy from Best New Horror editor Ellen Datlow, who I think is the best at what she does right now, and even though I had already put aside a copy to send her this still had me smiling for most of the day.

PT: What would you say distinguishes Dark Minds from all the other small presses (Gray Friar, Screaming Dreams, Pendragon etc) in the field? What's your mission statement?

AW: We haven't sold as many books as them! Truthfully, I don't think there's anything that unique about us - I don't see the other presses as competitors, just other outlets for the type of fiction we all love. Obviously we're just taking our first steps into the field of publishing so I could be completely wrong but certainly as a reader of horror fiction, my view is that the more publishers getting the stories out there the better. I've bought from those presses in the past and will continue to do so. I'd like to think that our presence - for however long it lasts - won't adversely affect the other presses.

PT: Your first book is a 100 copy limited edition. For the future, what are your feelings about such things as ebooks and PoD? Do they have any part in your publishing strategy? Or, at the other end of the scale, have you thought about limited edition, signed books?

AW: I wouldn't want to dismiss any kind of format for the stories we publish. My own personal preference is for an actual book you can hold and keep (I still buy CDs rather than download) but I guess the market will dictate what we need to do. It's very early days yet, and everything depends on how the sales of the anthology go but I'm keen that we branch out into as many formats as we can, I'd love to see a Dark Minds Press novel at some point. I think that horror lends itself so well to the short story format that that's probably the area to concentrate on until we establish ourselves.

RW: I'm currently looking at re-formatting the anthology for Kindle as I feel this might be a viable way to get some revenue in to share amongst the contributors and would also be a handy tool for sending out to reviewers and award judges.

PT: Any projects planned that you can tell us about? Will you be open to submissions from all and sundry or "by invitation" only?

AW: It would be nice to be in a position where we could have a "by invitation only" policy but there's a lot of hard work to be done before we're at that point. We need to prove ourselves - and the quality of our product - before we would be so bold. That said, there are a couple of names in my head whose work I'd love to see published as collections. It would be great if we find ourselves in a position to be able to approach them.

The anthology was created in the first place to get some "new" names out there and I would certainly like to see that policy continue. It would be nice to be seen as a place where hitherto unpublished writers stood a better than average chance of getting their work into print.

RW: Once we have a certain level of sales achieved and a second project looks viable, Anthony and I will thrash out a plan for going forward. I'd certainly like to do a single-author collection where we can work closely with an author to help them achieve their dream book.

PT: If money was no object, what would be your dream project?

AW: Given the writers I'm currently enjoying reading, a collaborative novel by Gary McMahon and James Cooper would be top of the list.

I made some good friends on the original forum and have had the pleasure of reading their stories and working with them on this collection. It's great that the anthology has finally become a reality and, to be entirely honest, I would love it if one or more of them made a name for themselves and that Dark Minds Press became their publishers of choice.

RW: I'd love to do a kind of Old School/ New School collection with say Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, and Ray Bradbury sharing space with Gary McMahon, James Cooper and Conrad Williams.