Just in time for the gift-​​giving season, Atomic Fez Publishing has signed a distribution deal with Canadian book distributor Author’s Choice Publishing Group. This means all its titles will be available from Chapters.Indigo.ca and from Amazon.com as well as directly from its web site. Ebooks – now priced between $4.99 and $6.99 – are still available for Kobo and Kindle download in DRM-​​free format. Further information available here.

News from Simon Marshall-Jones:

Spectral Press is a new imprint, devoted to presenting single-story chapbooks, in the ghostly/supernatural vein, in a high-quality format. Each will be in strictly limited quantities of 100 only, signed and numbered by the author. Among the writers signed up so far are Gary McMahon, Gary Fry, Paul Finch, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Alison Littlewood, Thana Niveau and others. Each copy will retail at £3 each and can be bought singly; alternatively, a subscription service is available.

The first chapbook, Gary McMahon’s What They Hear in the Dark, will be ready in January, with Gary Fry’s The Abolisher of Roses to follow in May.

More details about Spectral Press, other publications due in 2011 and 2012, orders, subscriptions, etc., from the Spectral Press website or via email spectralpress@gmail.com .

The book review and news site The Fiction Desk is to venture into publishing with a fiction imprint. Also titled The Fiction Desk, the imprint’s first endeavour will be the publication of quarterly anthologies of short fiction from both published and unpublished authors, with submissions now open on the website. The first title Various Authors will be published in April 2011.

According to the Bookseller, the titles will be published as trade paperbacks. The imprint is aiming for a 3,000 print run for each title, with a “continuous Granta-style” printing schedule. The imprint is aiming for direct sales, plus a focus on independents. Visit The Fiction Desk for further news of this project. 

Angry Robot Books is to launch Nano Editions, short stories in digital format to be sold through the publisher’s online shop. 

Stories will cost 59p, with customers able to buy a collection of any 10 for £3.49. The service will be launched on 1st December, with at least 30 Nano Editions and more to be added at regular intervals. The files will be DRM-free and without territory restrictions. If demand is high enough, Angry Robot plans to sell the editions through other e-book retailers.

Quercus Publishing is delighted to announce that Jo Fletcher is joining the company in January 2011 to launch a new fiction imprint, Jo Fletcher Books.

The new imprint will enhance Quercus’ award-winning fiction programme and is expected to quickly become a leader in the field of SF, fantasy and horror. Jo Fletcher is Associate Publisher of Gollancz, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, where her authors include Sir Terry Pratchett, the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Charlaine Harris, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Rankin, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joe Hill, and Polish superstar Andrzej Sapkowski.

More on the Quercus website

Orbit, the science fiction and fantasy imprint, has appointed Anne Clarke as its UK editorial director. Meanwhile, James Long becomes editorial assistant.  More here.

Chômu Press has announced forthcoming publications of some of the “best authors currently writing in the English language.” Authors include Justin Isis, Reggie Oliver, Daniel Mills and Brendan Connell. Keep an eye on the Chômu Press website for up-to-date news.

To quote from PS: “Hey, we’re excited. And who could blame us. We’re counting down to the new website and we’re all very excited, in fact… particularly Paul, cos it’ll mean we’re going to be letting him leave the house again. [If I haven't developed chronic agoraphobia due to excessive screen-time, natch. - PGR] But it’ll all be worth it, just wait and see. And you won’t have very long to wait.

The current steam-driven PS Publishing website will quit creaking and groaning, and be closed down for good sometime on Thursday 28 October. Paul is aiming to load up a countdown page that’ll sit there until we open up the new site for business… and that will happen on Hallowe’en. And from there on in… well, you’re on your own.

To mark the launch of the new site, we’re running an entire week of special offers that we reckon will pretty much blow your mind… seven day-long deals involving free books and a cumulative prize at the end of it all that’ll reward the three top customers (and those, dear Chauncy, are the ones who shell out the most loot in our direction – hey, you think we’re in this for the benefit of our health?) with major prizes. And we really are talking major here.”

To discover more migrate over to the PS website.

News from Atomic Fez: “As of this moment, all Atomic Fez electronic book prices have been permanently reduced by 33% of what they were earlier. This applies to electronic books purchased through Amazon’s Kindle Stores (Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) and KoboBooks.com, as well as the multi-file *.ZIP archives purchased directly through the Atomic Fez site.

The two Nightjar Press chapbooks launched at Fantasycon are Mark Valentine’s A Revelation of Cormorants and RB Russell’s The Beautiful Room. Copies are available from the publisher (email nicholasroyle@mac.com) at just £3.00 each plus p&p. According to Royle, they are selling steadily — so don’t delay too long.

“Lured into a dangerous no-man’s land, the protagonist goes to the edge of his known world and peers over the brink” — Stephen Gregory on A Revelation of Cormorants

“RB Russell’s poignant and fantastic story narrates how ordinary house-hunting can take us into the beautiful room of our dreams and nightmares” — Jennifer Clement on The Beautiful Room

There may still be a few copies left of the two spring 2010 chapbooks by Joel Lane (Black Country) and Alison Moore (When the Door Closed, it was Dark).