Notes from the desk of the editor are offered in the interests of personal posterity and transparency for writers and other potential editors who wish to learn from my experience.
– the editor
First: Our Kickstarter ended successfully on 21 Feb. 2025…
… and I am thrilled. (Late pledges are still open.) This means I don’t (read: my family doesn’t) eat all the startup costs for Costs of Living: A Whisper House Press Horror Anthology.
I’ve said it before: I am lucky to have the flexibility and family support in starting a business that has no hope of seeing any income (let alone profit) in its first year of operation. In fact, this Kickstarter represents Whisper House Press’s first income. Double yoi!
Second: Indie Horror Publishing Consortium
I’ve been toying with this idea for a little while now: a consortium of independent, small / medium publishers, authors who target these indie presses, and agents who want to play middleman to help authors find publishers and vice versa. I have a ton of experience organizing / running conferences and events, so I can put that experience to use to help other publishers, authors, and agents.
IHPC Squad Goals:
(1) Connecting indie presses w/ agents and then both w/ horror writers
(2) boosting one and all’s visibility
(3) building lists (of agents, presses, working authors)
(4) sharing draft contracts, workflow notes, and other advice
(5) community building
(6) Marketing tactics, strategies, and experience
(7) Common access points of distribution for the work produced by indie authors and independent presses
(8) Establishing codes of ethics for membership that will help all parties to know and trust one another without having to know and trust one another completely blindly.
I even mocked up a simple logo for this potential, new group:
Finally: Contributing Author Updates (Dread Mondays)
I created a survey asking questions like “What pronouns do you want to have included in your bio?” and “Do you want a copy of a four-story preview of Costs of Living?” along with “Are you interested in being interviewed for our youtube channel?” and a few others, besides. I’ve emailed a link to that survey in an email to our authors, as follows:
Hello Contributors!
Itemized, a few updates and requests:
1. Feel free to share the news of your forthcoming publication in Dread Mondays. I am so proud to be associated with each and all of you.
– Here’s the announcement page that isn’t going to get a ton of traffic at this point but that I’ll use to push out some info in the coming months.
2. I know we may be extra proud to share a table of contents with so many phenomenal humans. You should also feel free to mention the preferred publishing names of your co-contributors.
3. If you haven’t had a look at your own bio and added links for signal boosting [link redacted], please do so.
4. ACTION ITEM: Here’s a general information-gathering survey [link redacted]. I’d really appreciate your time (~5 mins, I’d expect) completing it.
5. I’m ISO a cover for this book. Notes on this:
– My budget doesn’t allow for fully customized cover, and as I did with Costs of Living I’m looking at premade covers. I’m attaching the COL cover so you can see how truly top notch this can look and don’t want you to be bummed about not having a fully customized cover.
If you have suggestions and find a cover I should consider, send that stuff my way!
– I’m currently examining all the options listed for Don Noble’s outfit Rooster Republic Press, JD&W (where I got my last cover), and “the cover collection” (if anyone knows anything of this last option, I know nothing and am all ears).
– In short: I’d love to hear what y’all have to say about a cover. Maybe we could vote if we get competing covers that are equally excellent.
6. Now that the Kickstarter is over, I’m going to get into editorial comments and start laying out the book. My goal is to get those comments to you by mid-April, as indicated in my last email.
Questions? Did I forget anything?
With gratitude,
Steve
post scriptum:
Great news: the Kickstarter campaign for Costs of Living has concluded successfully. I might run a smaller one (goal of $250 or so, hoping for overage) to cover some of the costs of this book (I fear dipping repeatedly into the same barrel) in August. I’m open to opinions and experience about this consideration.
Whisper House Press 
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