Thursday, October 27, 2011

New venture offers classic crime e-books

Otto Penzler, the man behind Mysterious Press and the Mysterious Bookshop, has started MysteriousPress.com, a "21st-century publishing house is digitizing classic works of crime, mystery, and suspense fiction by the most distinguished crime writers in the world."

The new enterprise offers an impressive list in a number of e-book formats, and one lucky reader can win three of the titles by becoming a follower of its Twitter account. The Twitter address is @eMysteries, the prize will be awarded Nov. 2, and the books are:

The City When It Rains by Thomas H. Cook

Rilke on Black by Ken Bruen

The Mordida Man by Ross Thomas

Other authors available or soon to be include James Ellroy, James Grady, Ellery Queen, Donald E. Westlake, Christianna Brand, George Harmon Coxe, Andrew Klavan, Wendy Hornsby, Jack O’Connell, T.J. English, David Stout, Charles McCarry, David Housewright, John Harvey, James Carlos Blake and Joseph Wambaugh.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

Labels: ,

4 Comments:

Anonymous I.J.Parker said...

One wonders how their royalties compare to self-publishing the books. And what does the "press" do to earn their share?

October 28, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I.J., publishing is still largely a closed book (or a turned-off e-reader) to me, and I have no details of the business arrangements this venture has with its authors or their estates. It does seem to be making an effort at promoting itself (and, hence, its authors).

I will say that MysteriousPress.com, like its non-electronic predecessor, appears to publish classics rather than new books, so I don't know how fairy one can compare its operations to those of a publisher of new titles.

October 28, 2011  
Anonymous I.J.Parker said...

I've been really underwhelmed by the socalled "promotion" offered by the big houses. Smaller publishers tend to do none at all.

October 28, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Yeah, I do know enough about publishing to know that publishers do less and less for their writers, and I don't know what sort of promotion MysteriousPress.com will do as time goes on. More generally, I would think that a line of classic novels, some of whose authors are dead, will require different sorts fo promotion from a line of books by living, breathing authors champing at the bit to go on promotional tours.

October 28, 2011  

Post a Comment

<< Home