The Crow Bar

My dear fans,

As you know by now, I’m a writer living in South Africa – and for over twenty years I’ve been struggling to get a foot in the door as a writer, having worked the self-publishing route for thirteen of those years.

I write a peculiar blend of sci-fi/fantasy/horror, sometimes using vampire characters in sci-fi situations. I also write some LGBT characters since I am part of that community as well. As I’m sure you also know, getting published while writing material of that nature in today’s world is not as simple or easy as people may think!

In late 2014 I was lucky enough to sign with a small press (traditional publisher) based in Texas, who agreed to re-release all of my completed works under their label. The publisher was fairly new and popular and grew quickly – too quickly perhaps, to be able to handle the workload.

Some of you may have noticed over the past year – as I have – the output from that press seemed to diminish, perhaps as a result of the staff becoming swamped with work. Something had to give, and apparently, something finally did.

A few days ago, I received news from the publisher that they are downsizing their stable of authors and also the scope of their genres. They plan  on narrowing their focus to publish “pure horror” material only. As a consequence, they are letting all their non-horror writers go, including me!

As part of the termination agreement, they are releasing all our (the writers) contracted works back to us, including use of the covers our works were published under.

This morning, I returned the signed release form for “Blachart“, “Demonspawn“, “Dead Beckoning” and my dad’s anthology “African Assignment“.

What this means for me is… well, it’s pretty devastating really. After all that hard work and all that hopefulness… it’s like having the rug ripped out from under your feet at the top of a tall staircase!

Anyway, as per the agreement, my books as released through JEA will be taken down from Amazon.com soon (meaning they will go ‘out of print’) while I negotiate with another publisher to take me on or look at other alternatives. They are still up for now, and I have no idea when they will come down, or when the master material and cover templates etc. will be forwarded to me.

As you can imagine, having to make alterations to each cover and each manuscript to reflect a change in publishers and editions etc, takes a little time. There is also no guarantee I will be able to just find another publisher, albeit a ‘small press’ again easily, or soon.

Like those of you (however few you may be) who follow my postings and are truly interested and supportive of my writing and career, I will be waiting impatiently to get everything up on again in order to get back in the game!

I apologize to those who enjoy my writing, for the inconvenience and for the disappointment – believe me, I am disappointed as well! This isn’t over – this is just a slight setback. I will keep you all informed of progress in this matter.

All the best!

Christina Engela