Once upon a time, there was a publishing house called Samhain Horror, helmed by the mighty horror editor, Don D’Auria.
While I was in a creative writing class, the instructor mentioned that this new press was having an open call for horror novels. I happened to have a finished manuscript and was using the class for tips on polishing it up. Over the previous several years, other works of mine had been rejected or ignored by agents and publishers. But I hadn’t been rejected by anyone famous yet, so I thought that would be a nice accomplishment. So I submitted it.
Months later, to my shock, Don bought the book and DARK INSPIRATION became my first published novel and the third from Samhain. Over the next few years, Samhain would publish five more of my novels.
My seventh manuscript was called THE PORTAL. In it, Satan returns to a small island in Long Island Sound to find a missing device that creates a permanent portal to Hell. Two former high school sweethearts end up being the only ones who can stop Satan, a coven of witches, and a gang of thugs from opening that gateway. Lots of serious horror fun in it, a decent love story raises its head, and there might be a moral that accidentally got included. I was excited about it. Don got excited about it as well, and it was signed to Samhain. I felt like I was hitting stride.
Then Don was let go from Samhain. I knew nothing about the publishing business, but all the veteran authors told me this was the equivalent of the first fire alarm that sounds before a building ultimately burns down. Mark their words, Samhain Horror was about to go under. A new editor was named, but the veterans were right. A few months later, Samhain was no more.
Where was THE PORTAL? It was scheduled to be released the month after Samhain’s doors closed. It had been proofed, formatted, and given a cover. But it was not going to see the light of day. I went from hitting stride to a face-plant in a split-second.
To the credit of the owner of Samhain, all our rights were immediately returned to us. Which meant that THE PORTAL was available for another publisher.
If only I could find one. I shopped it all around and got some nibbles, but no bites. I started other projects. One of them was a serial killer thriller called THE PLAYING CARD KILLER.
Meanwhile, Don landed a job as an editor at a new imprint from Flame Tree Press in England. I got in touch with him and he signed THE PLAYING CARD KILLER. After that hit the book shelves, I pitched him two different projects. The one he liked was, surprise, THE PORTAL. I’d gone back through it, cleaned out a few thousand words, added a few twists, and gave it more heart. He signed that and on October 20, 2020, the rest of the world will be able to give it a read.
Samhain was a good small press, but Flame Tree is a magnitude better. It’s distributed by Simon and Schuster, it has its own in-house audiobook creators, it publishes in hardcover, as well as paperback and digital. Their books go in real live bookstores. So my crushing disappointment at THE PORTAL being orphaned by Samhain worked out to be unwarranted. The book has found a much better home after all. All it took was five years and a re-write.
And as an amazing coincidence, the other book released by Samhain the same month as DARK INSPIRATION was THE LAMPLIGHTERS by excellent author and amazing filmmaker Frazer Lee. Now Flame Tree is releasing his splendid novel GREYFRIARS REFORMATORY the same day as THE PORTAL.
Lessons for authors:
- Work with multiple publishers. I know everyone says that, and I know that most authors are lucky to get ONE publisher, but I have to say it.
- Burn no bridges. It’s a small world in publishing and just as I was lucky enough to find Don at a new home, people you work with in one situation will probably be in a future one as well.
- Don’t give up on a work that you believe in. Someone else will believe in it as well. Just keep putting it in front of new sets of eyes.
You can check out THE PORTAL at this link for Amazon.
Or this one through Simon and Schuster.
