Pete Crowther of PS fame writes: “Christmas is breathing down my neck as I write but the usual celebrations (and present-buying!) must take a back seat while we perform a few last-minute (heck, it’s all last-minute!) preparations for the upcoming titles.

(We’ve had a few mishaps and slip-ups to recover from, too; pop over to the website where we explain and apologise for the signing-sheets mishaps with The Company He Keeps, and with a few dropped orders from last month’s website switchover.)

Yes, even at Christmas–in fact, particularly cos it’s Christmas!–we just can’t resist the opportunity of availing ourselves of some of your spare cash. Thus here are a couple of recent titles, a few titles due in this week, and even some titles due to appear very early in the new year.

 First off, two recently-arrived titles:

• Transparent Lovers by Scott Nicholson
• A Princess of the Linear Jungle by Paul Di Filippo

Books due in this week or early next:

• Christmas With The Dead by Joe R. Lansdale  
• Ventriloquism by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Colorado Kid by Stephen King (a 300-copy reprint which features all three of the original PS covers but none of the interior art-pieces)
• The Lives Of The Savages by Robert Edric
• Insinuations by Jack Dann
• Tomorrow Revisited (the first PS ArtBook, a celebration of the life and work of Frank Hampson, creator of Dan Dare)

And books due in January:

• Ventriloquism by Catherynne M. Valente (signed traycased edition)
• Home Fires by Gene Wolfe
• The New And Perfect Man: Postscripts #24/25
• A Woman Of Mars by Helen Patrice

And watch out for these forthcoming titles:

• Greentown Redux by Ray Bradbury
• The Excesses Of Youth by Steven Erikson
• Trapped In The Saturday Matinee by Joe R. Lansdale
• Slave Girls of Gunpowder by Joe Hill
• Ghoul Warning by Brian Lumley

… and many many more! “

For details on prices, ordering, etc, visit the PS Website – you know you want to.

John Jarrold writes:

“Hannah Whitaker, Senior Rights Manager at Orion, has sold Turkish rights to highly-praised SF debut The Quantum Thief by Finnish science fiction novelist resident in Scotland, Hannu Rajaniemi, to Pegasus.

World rights in The Quantum Thief, plus two further books, were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz (who published in September 2010) from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter.  Rights have also been sold in the USA, Germany, Spain and Finland. And a remarkable fourth reprint of Gollancz’ trade paperback edition has just been confirmed. 

Hannah Whitaker has also sold Estonian rights to Suzanne McLeod’s debut urban fantasy The Sweet Scent of Blood to Varrak, who will publish in spring 2011. World rights in six novels by Suzanne have been acquired by Jo Fletcher at Gollancz from agent John Jarrold. Rights have also been sold in a number of other markets, including the USA, Russia and Germany.

Michael Homler at St Martin’s Press has acquired US rights in the horror novel The Ritual by Adam Nevill from Harriet Sanders, Rights Director at Pan Macmillan in London. Julie Crisp acquired World Rights in the book from agent John Jarrold. This is the seventh translation deal for Adam Nevill via Macmillan’s rights department, following on from Germany, China, France, Russia, Spain and Turkey. The Ritual will be published by Macmillan in 2011, following on their success with Adam’s previous novel Apartment 16. ”

News from Subterranean Press:

“One of the projects we’ve been working at behind the scenes is a nifty hardcover of Orson Scott Card’s 30,000 word novella, Hamlet’s Father, with a dust jacket and four interior illustrations by Tom Kidd. The signature pages are currently en route to the author, while we’re putting the book through one final proofing. We’re well ahead of our projected April publication date. The print run will be one thousand signed copies, a very limited number for one of our Card projects.

[Meanwhile] Our new Philip Jose Farmer collection, Up the Bright River, is waiting until we clear enough room in our warehouse so we can take delivery.” In other words, it’s shipping soon.

For a lot more news visit the Sub Press website.

Lee Harris writes: “H&H Books is a new eBook publishing company, specialising in science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. The brainchild of writer Scott Harrison, and editor Lee Harris, H&H is a non-profit organisation, and will publish works to benefit a number of charitable causes.

The company’s first project is an anthology of flash fiction, entitled Voices from the Past. Over twenty authors have already pledged their support, including Alastair Reynolds, Paul Magrs, Jasper Fforde and Paul Cornell. The anthology – which will be edited by Harrison and Harris – will be sold for just 59p/$0.99 through all major eBook outlets, with 100% of proceeds benefiting Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Voices from the Past will be published in April 2011 to coincide with the Illustrious SF convention in the UK”

Visit the H&H website for further information.

Titan has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to publish US author Jack Campbell’s fantasy Lost Fleet novels. The six-strong series charts the adventures of the stranded Alliance fleet as it retreats across an enemy star system under the command of Captain John “Black Jack” Geary.

Source: The Bookseller.

The Infinity plus ebook imprint launches with six titles:

The Angels of Life and Death by Eric Brown, a new collection of short fiction

The collected short fiction of Keith Brooke, in five volumes (Liberty Spin, Embrace, Faking It, Segue and Memesis),  with two original stories and specially written afterword for each story

Each book is available in the Kindle ebook format, priced $3.44 / £2.18. Covers for the first six books are by Dominic Harman and Debbie Nicholson.

Soon to follow the launch titles will be books from Eric Brown, John Grant, Anna Tambour, Molly Brown, Garry Kilworth and others.

Founder of infinity plus, Keith Brooke, says: “We settled on the Kindle format because it has emerged as a market leader and we want to test the market. If the infinity plus ebook imprint proves to be viable we’ll move into other ebook formats and possibly even good old-fashioned hard copy publishing. We’ll also be putting out work by other authors who have been associated with infinity plus over the years, publishing new books and making older titles available again.”

News from Dark Horse comics:

“Launching in January 2011, download the Dark Horse Bookshelf app from the Apple app store for your iPhone or iPad or go to digital.darkhorse.com to read comics from your laptop or home computer. New titles and reprinted material will be appearing on a weekly basis, and in February expect to see select issues of your favourite comics appearing online the same time they’re released in stores! It’s that easy!”

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.