Small Press Publishers, On-line Distributors, and E-books

Introduction

I cannot explain why exactly the fine category lines of the large publishing houses have pretty much vanished in the last few years. It is of course based on economics -- high production and distribution costs for standard paperbacks, fewer outlets of the traditional sort where inventory backlogs were tolerated. It is not directly due to author royalties, since most of these authors, or their estates, would not now charge large fees; however, considering what is paid to a Grisham, say, in advances, this would drastically reduce the 'pool' available to other authors. Often, too, a traditional mystery is just too short, compared with your modern book produced on a word-processor, to justify what the public thinks of as a rip-off retail price for a 'throwaway' paperback.

The best source still remaining for the Golden Age Mystery aficionado is the classic used book store and/or garage and library sales. In high-price cities such as New York, where few second-hand bookstores can afford to stay in business, and in benighted places where there never was a bookstore (and forget your mass outlet Barnes and Noble or Borders at the local mall), the best source is the Internet. There are many sources for used books, but by far the best and easiest to use is ABE Books, which is a clearing house for most of the second-hand bookstores in the US and Great Britain, not to neglect Canada and Australia. Go to this web site by all means. But for 'keepers' in a relatively inexpensive and well-constructed format to fill out your library, please consider the following sources.

The Sources

• Crippen & Landru
  • Specialty: Short Stories not readily available in anthologies, or never reprinted since their appearance in a magazine
  • Web site: CrippenLandru.Com
  • Comment: Well-produced trade paperbacks and hardcovers ranging from $17 to $40, organized by a selected editor well qualified on the subject, which is always by a single author, and often with a single series detective.
  • MysteryList web page, with reviews: Crippen & Landru
  
• The Rue Morgue Press
  • Specialty: Novels of the Golden Age of Detection that were once popular but are long out of print, often British mysteries never published in the USA
  • Web site: RueMorguePress.Com
  • Comment: Well-produced trade paperbacks under $20, often involving a series detective, policeman or amateur. An editorial policy is to avoid smut, gore, and racism, with the emphasis being on a well-constructed puzzle mystery. (They also have a very good catalogue of traditional second-hand mystery books for sale.)
  • MysteryList web page, with reviews: Rue Morgue
  
• Poisoned Pen Press
  • Specialty: Detective novels of the Golden Age of Detection type by modern authors, including 'cozies' set in the 1930s and historical detective novels set in ancient times
  • Web site: PoisonedPenPress.Com
  • Comment: Well-produced trade paperbacks under $20. The authors tend to be contemporary writers ignored by the 'big-house' publishers.
  
• Blackmask Online
  • Specialty: Scanned E-books of no-longer-copyrighted classics of detection. Available in several formats (html, Acrobat, text, etc.) depending on one's preference. Upholders of the modern Gutenberg convention, meaning FREE to those who download them. Under new copyright laws, public domain does not yet apply to most books published after about 1920; that is reprehensible!
  • Web site: BlackMask.Com
  • Comment: Many people (such as myself) have trouble with the E-book format, as it is hard to read from a computer screen (and one misses the smell and feel of a genuine old book). This is a prejudice one must overcome if one is to access most of these books at all now. There are a few for which a minor charge is made, and contributions are always welcome. Volunteer proofreading is also appreciated, since scanning is still an imperfect method, although it has improved over the years.

Mail Recommendation to grobius@sprynet.com