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New Pulp Bestseller List (Based on Amazon Sales Ranks 12/31/12)

It’s that time again! Before I unveil the Top Ten, let’s go over a few of the ground rules, shall we?

1) This list only tracks sales through AMAZON. It does not keep track of sales through Barnes and Noble, face-to-face or anything else!
2) This list only tracks PRINT sales. We do not currently track e-books. Exactly how Amazon calculates these things is mostly a trade secret and they vary wildly from day to day. If I checked this tomorrow, the list could be very different. This list reflects sales ranks as of Monday morning December 31, 2012.
3) In order to keep the focus on new releases, eligible works must have been published within four months of the current date. So, since this list is being done in December 2012, I’m only looking at books published since September 2012. Please keep that in mind before complaining that Title X is not listed. Also, keep in mind that for the most part, I’m tracking sales from smaller press publishers who actively publishing New Pulp material. I don’t generally track sales from Simon and Schuster or places like that — they have the New York Times Bestseller List for that. If one of the major publishers starts doing The Shadow or something, I’ll track that… but I’m not tracking Hard Case Crime or similar publishers any longer. The playing field is simply not level enough.
4) I am no longer tracking pre-release orders. Some publishers never actually release their books and when they do, it’s months after they were supposed to be released. Everything listed in the Top Ten is currently for sale.
5) Like the name suggests, we’re tracking “New” pulp — I’m not tracking sales rankings for reprints of classic material. In order for something to qualify for this list, it has to be at least 50% new material that has not been printed in book form before.
6) I am human. I make mistakes. If you are aware of a title that should be listed below (keeping in mind all the rules above), please let me know and I will make sure to remedy the situation.
7) I get most of my information from All Pulp, New Pulp, the Pulp Factory mailing list and a few other sites. If you think I might miss your release, let me know in advance — drop me a line and tell me when it’s being released.

Without further ado, here’s the completely and totally unofficial New Pulp bestseller list as of right now (title, then publisher, then release date, then sales rank):

1) Doc Savage: Death’s Dark Domain by Will Murray (Altus Press, September 2012) – 103,269
2) Prohibition by Terrence McCauley (Airship 27, December 2012) – 148,953
3) The Spider: Shadow of Evil by C.J. Henderson and J. Anthony Kosar (Moonstone Books, October 2012) – 216,331
4) The Golden Age by Jeff Deischer (White Rocket Books, October 2012) – 662,132
5) Pro Se Presents # 15 by Various (Pro Se Press, November 2012) – 720,438
6) Horror Heroes by Various (Pulp Empire, October 2012) – 915,497
7) Sentinels: Metalgod by Van Plexico (White Rocket Books, December 2012) – 982,642
8 ) Helmet Head by Mike Baron (November 2012) – 1,325,594
9) Sha’Daa: Pawns (Volume 3) by Various (Perseid Publishing, October 2012) – 1,613,151
10) Monster Aces by Various (Pro Se Press, October 2012) – 1,793,787

Just missing the list were: Secret Agent “X” – Volume Four by Various (Airship 27, October 2012) – 1,868,564, Pro Se Presents # 14 by Various (Pro Se Press, October 2012) – 2,028,244, Doc Claus by Various (Pulp Empire, December 2012) – 2,159,426 and The Spur: Loki’s Rock by Mark Ellis (Fortuna Books, September 2012) – 2,262,348

Welcome to our final list for 2012! It’s fitting that Doc Savage has returned to the top spot since Will Murray’s new adventures have dominated the list ever since their debut. Last week’s top book, Sentinels: Metalgod, tumbles to # 7, while Prohibition from Airship 27 continues to look very impressive near the top. This is the current Doc book’s last week of eligibility on the list, by the way. Mike Baron’s Helmet Head is at # 8 — he has another new release, Whack Job, that was released on Christmas day but it has no sales rank yet. Now, Helmet Head was originally solicited by Airship 27 as being a print release from their company. But something must have changed because it was released with no press announcement from Airship 27 and they’re not listed as the publisher on Amazon. I can only assume Baron decided to skip the middle man and self-publish it. White Rocket has to be thrilled by the continued success of Jeff Deischer’s Golden Age.

From a publisher standpoint, we have eight publishers represented. Pro Se and White Rocket Books have two titles each, while Airship 27, Mike Baron, Perseid Publishing, Altus, Moonstone and Pulp Empire all have one each.

Take it all with a grain of salt, folks.

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Random Stuff

Currently reading Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe. It’s been a great, fun read. I’d love to see something similar with the golden age pulp era.

Recorded new episodes of Ubergeeks and The Shadow Fan this week so check them out.

Torn between working on The Phantom Detective or finishing Liberty Girl.

Really enjoying Dynamite’s Shadow and Masks series. Nice to have some good pulp comics out there. Also read the Fear Agent Omnibus and would recommend that!

Have a great day, guys!

20121228-083913.jpg

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The Work Never Ends!

die_glocke_cover_LOW_RES_mockup_croppedGot a good plot in mind for my Phantom Detective story (“The Iron God”) and also got some feedback on my Liberty Girl story — my editor really liked it. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish off LG soon and then I can focus on getting this Phantom Detective piece finished for Airship 27.

I’m pushing hard for George Sellas to repeat as Best Interior Artist in the Pulp Ark Awards and I also think he should win for Best Cover — in both cases, for The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume Two: Die Glocke. George is a tremendous artist and deserves the recognition. I think he’s made my books the best looking in all of New Pulp. Please consider nominating him in those two categories.

Got my Rook and Lazarus Gray figures from Marshall Made Collectibles. They are GORGEOUS. If you’re a fan, please consider buying one for your home. You won’t regret it and will be just as blown away by the quality as I was. Trust me.

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A Bloody Good Year

rabbit_heart_smallAs we slowly approach the new year, all of us are looking back over the past twelve months and wondering what the next 12 will bring. For me, I hope it’s continued good health (I’ve lost 71 pounds this year), much happiness with my family and more writing opportunities. I know I’ve got gigs lined up with Airship 27, Pro Se and Moonstone but maybe I’ll branch out to some other publishers this year – I’ve never done anything for Pulp Empire or White Rocket, for instance, so maybe it’s time to send them a pitch. We’ll see — I have enough projects already lined up that it’s dangerous to commit to anything new.

I recently looked back over the 10,000+ words I wrote on the Rabbit Heart sequel a few years back. It’s damned good stuff but it’s very intense — if you’ve read Rabbit Heart, you might be shocked to learn that this one is far more violent and sexual. That’s why I’ve held back on it. But maybe I can tweak it… maybe it’s time for Fiona to slash her way back onto readers’ shelves (and eBook readers!).  We’ll see… What say you, faithful readers?

Wild Cat Books seems to be mostly out of business — it’s been awhile since they’ve published anything and I’ve seen no announcements about more things coming so any sequel would probably come through Reese Unlimited… maybe it’s time for a reprinting (with a fresh coat of editing) for Rabbit Heart, too?

 

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From The Vault: My Favorite New Pulp Covers

A good cover can certainly help sell a book — and a bad one can bury it.

So what are my favorite New Pulp covers? Read on!

Four Bullets for Dillon by Derrick Ferguson. I know some folks don’t like “comic book” style covers for New Pulp books but I think it depends on the quality. In this case, Anthony Castrillo perfectly captures Dillon and I love background. Good stuff and it makes me want to read the book (which I have and it’s excellent!)

How The West Was Weird, Volume Two by Various. A great, fun cover that really captures the feel of the weird west. Everything from robots to dinosaurs to plucky saloon girls. A genuine new pulp classic cover.

Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell by Derrick Ferguson. Another Dillon cover and one that looks completely different from the Four Bullets one. The design by Tamas Jakab mimics an old pulp, with cracking along the edges. I love the design.

The Halloween Legion by Martin Powell. A wonderfully eye-catching cover by Danny Kelly. I love the colors, in particular. This makes me think of Dan Brereton and that’s a big compliment.

Captain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City by Ron Fortier and Chester Hawks. I love the retro-look of this cover! Looks like it could be an old movie poster.

The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files by Various. A relatively simple image compared to some of the others but it looks like an old Avenger cover and is very well done. Sometimes simple works.

Pro Se Presents # 7 by Various. Speaking of simple designs… this one, put together by Sean Ali, pops with the color choices that were made. I like it.

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective Volume One by Various. Mark Maddox delivers a solid portrayal of Holmes and Watson on this one. Again, it is a simple design but the strength of it carries it onto the list.

Green Lama – Unbound by Adam Garcia. Mike Fyles did the cover here and it’s a real standout. Not only is it an exciting cover but the colors chosen make it really pop.

Through the Groaning Earth by Joel Jenkins. Not only is it a great title but Damon Orrell really comes up with a solid cover design. The tentacled horror at the bottom really gets you interested in checking out the book.

There are many other effective covers out there but these are the ones that stick out in my mind the most. Kudos to all the artists and writers involved in their creation!

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Pulp Ark Nominations — Get Those Emails In, Folks!

Scarlett Johansson - Masked Beauty
Scarlett Johansson – Masked Beauty

Note from Barry – my eligible works are listed under each category below!

Nominations for the PULP ARK 2013 Awards are now open and will close at 5 PM CST on January 15th, 2013. The awards are given in conjunction with Pulp Ark, the convention/creators’ conference and the official New Pulp Convention to be held in Springdale, AR, April 26-28, 2013! The Awards are given for excellence in the field of Pulp, including books, stories, comic books, magazines, and characters as well as creators.

To determine if a work or creator qualifies for these awards the definition for works that qualify is as follows-New Pulp is fast-paced, plot-oriented storytelling of a linear nature with clearly defined, larger than life protagonists and antagonists, creative descriptions, clever use of turns of phrase and other aspects of writing that add to the intensity and pacing of the story.

Tommy Hancock, Coordinator of Pulp Ark explains something that has become a tradition of the Pulp Ark Awards-adding categories for which awards are given. “There will be one additional award this year added to the Pulp Ark Awards roster. A point that is often debated within fiction circles is just what qualifies as a short story, a novella, and a novel. Usually this argument centers around word length. It has become increasingly apparent that stories that are longer than short, but not quite novel length are a primary part of New Pulp. To that end, Pulp Ark will be adding an award for Best Novella of the Year as of the 2013 awards.”

“For the purposes of the Pulp Ark Awards,” Hancock continued, “A Short Story is any tale consisting of 17,500 words or less. A Novella is any tale consisting of 17,500 words to 40,000 words. A Novel is any work of 40,000 + words. As with all Pulp Ark award categories, these works can be print or in ebook form or both.”

Hancock also states, “We will also give a Lifetime Achievement Award again this year as well. A Ten Person committee selected from well-known Creators in New Pulp currently will decide the recipient of this award. This award is given to someone who has contributed to Pulp, not necessarily just New Pulp, but to the continuation of the interest and promotion of Pulp in all its forms.” Last year’s winner of the Pulp Ark Lifetime Achievement Award were Tom and Howard Hopkins.

The only works eligible for the Pulp Ark 2013 Awards are those produced between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012. Anyone can make a nomination and anyone that makes a nomination will receive a ballot on January 15th, 2013 and voting will be open until 5 PM CST on February 15, 2013. The only people voting in these eleven awards will be those who made a minimum of one nomination. Also, each individual is allowed only ONE NOMINATION PER CATEGORY. A person may nominate someone in all nine categories, but may only nominate once in each category. All nominations are confidential and sources of nominations will not be revealed. All nominations should be mailed to Tommy Hancock at proseproductions@earthlink.net.The categories open for nomination are (in no particular order and this can be cut and pasted for your nominations ballot):

1. Best Novel (This includes E-books as well as print books and length must be 40,000 + words)

Die Glocke

2. Best Collection/Anthology (This includes single author story collections and multi author anthologies. This includes E-publications as well as print books)

The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume Two: Die Glocke
Tales of The Rook
The New Adventures of Thunder Jim Wade
Monster Aces
The Family Grace: An Extraordinary History
The New Adventures of Richard Knight
The Rook Volume One Special Edition

3. Best short story (this includes stories that appear in short story collections, anthologies, magazines, and e magazines. If from an e-mag, the story must appear on a site identified as an e-magazine, not simply be posted on a site or blog. It includes e-publications as well as traditionally printed works. Length must be 17,500 words or less.)

“The Stones of Heaven” (Richard Knight)
“Making of a Hero” (Lazarus Gray)
“The Swamp People” (Monster Aces)
“The Killing Games” (The Rook)
“The Hellmouth” (Thunder Jim Wade)

4. Best Novella (this includes stories that appear in short story collections, anthologies, magazines, and e magazines. If from an e-mag, the story must appear on a site identified as an e-magazine, not simply be posted on a site or blog. It includes e-publications as well as traditionally printed works. Length must be 17,500- 40,000 words)

None

5. Best Cover Art (This is restricted to prose book publications, including e-books)

I recommend:

The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume Two: Die Glocke cover by George Sellas

6. Best Interior Art (This is restricted to prose book publications, including e-books)

I recommend:

The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume Two: Die Glocke art by George Sellas

7. Best Pulp Related Comic (This refers to a series, complete run, one shot, etc. This award is for art, writing, and all other work associated with the nominated comics and the winner. This includes e-publications as well. )

8. Best Pulp Magazine (This award is for art, writing, and all other work associated with the nominated comics and the winner. This includes e-publications as well, but the e-publication must be identified as an e-magazine on the site supporting it. )

9. Best Pulp Revival (The Revival nominated must be published within the calendar year of 2012 and relates specifically to characters featured in Pulps when they were originally created. This includes epublications as well.)

Thunder Jim Wade

10. Best New Character (This must be a character that debuts in a New Pulp work published in 2012. This included e-publications as well)

11. Best Author (This reward refers to the author and any author with work published in 2012 is eligible, including novels, short stories, etc. This includes e-publications as well).

Barry Reese

12. Best New Writer (To be nominated, a writer must have been published for the first time in the pulp field in the calendar year of 2012. This includes e-publications as well).

Send all nominations to Hancock via email at proseproductions@earthlink.net

For More information on how to attend Pulp Ark 2013 as Guest, Vendor, or fan, go to http://www.pulpark.blogspot.com for regular updates!

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Merry Christmas!

rook_v2_kaslov_smallMerry Christmas to all my fans and friends! Take the day and cherish those who are close to you!I hope that you guys find some pulpy goodness under the tree — and, as Leonid Kaslov shows in this image from The Rook Volume Two – Special Edition, if you confront evil today, kick its ass!

Regular postings will resume tomorrow!

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New Pulp Best Seller List (Based on Amazon Sales Ranks 12/24/12) – Christmas Eve Edition!

It’s that time again! Before I unveil the Top Ten, let’s go over a few of the ground rules, shall we?

1) This list only tracks sales through AMAZON. It does not keep track of sales through Barnes and Noble, face-to-face or anything else!
2) This list only tracks PRINT sales. We do not currently track e-books. Exactly how Amazon calculates these things is mostly a trade secret and they vary wildly from day to day. If I checked this tomorrow, the list could be very different. This list reflects sales ranks as of Monday morning December 24, 2012.
3) In order to keep the focus on new releases, eligible works must have been published within four months of the current date. So, since this list is being done in December 2012, I’m only looking at books published since September 2012. Please keep that in mind before complaining that Title X is not listed. Also, keep in mind that for the most part, I’m tracking sales from smaller press publishers who actively publishing New Pulp material. I don’t generally track sales from Simon and Schuster or places like that — they have the New York Times Bestseller List for that. If one of the major publishers starts doing The Shadow or something, I’ll track that… but I’m not tracking Hard Case Crime or similar publishers any longer. The playing field is simply not level enough.
4) I am no longer tracking pre-release orders. Some publishers never actually release their books and when they do, it’s months after they were supposed to be released. Everything listed in the Top Ten is currently for sale.
5) Like the name suggests, we’re tracking “New” pulp — I’m not tracking sales rankings for reprints of classic material. In order for something to qualify for this list, it has to be at least 50% new material that has not been printed in book form before.
6) I am human. I make mistakes. If you are aware of a title that should be listed below (keeping in mind all the rules above), please let me know and I will make sure to remedy the situation.
7) I get most of my information from All Pulp, New Pulp, the Pulp Factory mailing list and a few other sites. If you think I might miss your release, let me know in advance — drop me a line and tell me when it’s being released.

Without further ado, here’s the completely and totally unofficial New Pulp bestseller list as of right now (title, then publisher, then release date, then sales rank):

1) Sentinels: Metalgod by Van Plexico (White Rocket Books, December 2012) – 142,343
2) Doc Savage: Death’s Dark Domain by Will Murray (Altus Press, September 2012) – 242,911
3) Prohibition by Terrence McCauley (Airship 27, December 2012) – 311,087
4) Pro Se Presents # 15 by Various (Pro Se Press, November 2012) – 569,273
5) The Spider: Shadow of Evil by C.J. Henderson and J. Anthony Kosar (Moonstone Books, October 2012) – 589,952
6) The Golden Age by Jeff Deischer (White Rocket Books, October 2012) – 620,860
7) Sha’Daa: Pawns (Volume 3) by Various (Perseid Publishing, October 2012) – 1,329,848
8 ) Monster Aces by Various (Pro Se Press, October 2012) – 1,409,707
9) Secret Agent “X” – Volume Four by Various (Airship 27, October 2012) – 1,546,298
10) Doc Claus by Various (Pulp Empire, December 2012) – 1,719,223

Just missing the list were: Pro Se Presents # 14 by Various (Pro Se Press, October 2012) – 1,765,917, The Spur: Loki’s Rock by Mark Ellis (Fortuna Books, September 2012) – 1,973,242, Horror Heroes by Various (Pulp Empire, October 2012) – 2,174,994, Mystery Men (& Women) Volume Three by Various (Airship 27, November 2012) – 2,293,426 and Three Against the Stars by Joe Bonadonna (Airship 27, November 2012) – 2,714,022.

A very nice Christmas present for White Rocket Books, which snags the # 1 spot with its long-running Sentinels series. Last week’s # 1 tumbles a bit to the fourth spot while Airship 27’s newest, Prohibition, debuts at # 3. The rest of the list looks a good bit like it did last week, though we see Doc Savage fight his way back up to # 2 while Santa slips a bit to # 10.

From a publisher standpoint, we have seven publishers represented. Airship 27, Pro Se and White Rocket Books have two titles each, while Pulp Empire, Perseid, Moonstone and Altus have one each.

Take it all with a grain of salt, folks.

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Phantom Musings

ProSeChristmas is just around the corner and for all of you who celebrate it, I hope you have a wonderful time with your family. For me, this week has been a good one — I sent off my edits to Moonstone for my G-8 story (we’ll see if they want more changes); received the last interior art pieces from Will Meugniot for Gravedigger and got the color cover for Gravedigger from George Sellas.

I’m currently reading some Phantom Detective stories before starting writing my own for Airship 27. This is one seriously vanilla character but I’ll try to find some hook that will let me write him. I always try to stay true to the original version but sometimes… sometimes I have to find some element that really appeals to me. For example, I’m not a fan of aerial pulps but with Richard Knight, I discovered that I really liked the friendship and interplay between Knights and his buddy Doyle. So I focused on that and played it up while writing “Richard Knight and the Stones of Heaven.” With G-8, I tried to focus on the hero’s optimism and confidence, which seemed somewhat refreshing in the usually gritty world of pulps.

That’s what I’ll do with the Phantom Detective, too. I won’t change him but I will focus my attentions on the aspects that appeal most to me and work for the story I want to tell.

See you guys tomorrow!

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Looking Ahead to 2013

Gravedigger & Mitchell from 2013's Gravedigger novel. Art by Will Meugniot
Gravedigger & Mitchell from 2013’s Gravedigger novel. Art by Will Meugniot

So yesterday we talked a lot about what stories had been published in 2012 — now let’s talk at length about what’s coming up in 2013! I have no idea about dates on any of this, sadly — I’m at the whims of my publishers!

Moonstone

I should have three stories coming from Moonstone in 2013 – a Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar tale; my second Avenger story and a G-8 story.

Pro Se

A bunch of stuff! The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume 3 – Eidolon; Gravedigger; Tales of The Rook Volume 2, The Rook Special Editions 2-4.

Airship 27

I’ll be doing a Phantom Detective story for Airship 27.

So you should have quite a bit from me stocking the shelves next year.

Our art today is by the amazing Will Meugniot and will be featured in Gravedigger!