Whisper House Press

A few steps I’m taking to find advance readers to review our collection:

• I’m sending the book in completed form to all of our authors and am inviting them to be circumspect in sharing but to identify reviewers in their circles and offering them a copy in exchange for an honest review.
• I’ve posted the book in BookSirens and have approved the first three requests for an ARC. The listing fee is $10, and each review copy sent to a reader costs me $2. I’ve got a maximum number of 25 spots available to cap my potential costs. There was an easy process to get it posted there.
• I’ve reached out to NetGalley and have learned that posting our book there will be a 6-month deal and will cost $550. Since release isn’t going to happen until 9/1/2025, the 6-month-mark prior to that date is 3/1/25, and there’s no point to posting it now. Beside that, I don’t have $550 to throw at it in addition to my other expenses for the book. So I’ll run my kickstarter, be explicit about hoping to gather funds to pay for NetGalley listing, and I’ll post it there in March if I’m able.
• I’ve posted a link to the BookSirens ARC-request page on my new BlueSkySocial account (follow me—I’ll follow you back!) and am talking about it on TikTok and instagram, offering ARCs outside that platform as well.
• I’ve emailed the agents of several of my favorite horror authors. One has returned with a “sorry, he’s too busy” note. The others haven’t gotten back to me yet. I’m trying not to hope for too much on this path since I don’t know enough people in the community yet to just call someone up and ask.
• I’ve sent an ARC to a friend who’s written academic books about demonology and satanism, and he’s agreed to review it in time for our Kickstarter launch.
• Kirkus has a copy and will be finishing their review by January 13th 2025—two weeks or so shy of the Kickstarter campaign (we’re up to 25 followers there!) so I can use their words of praise (fingers crossed!) on that crowdfunding effort.

That’s all for now. I’m continuing to pore over submissions to Dread Mondays, and I’ve rejected about 30% of them in the first pass. More info about that effort here.

Back to the behind-the-scenes Headquarters.