Shocklines.com Closing Down (eventually)

Okay, this is going to be a long post, and one I've dreaded making. But here goes. First, for my customers, let me state this right off the bat:

1) This will NOT AFFECT PREORDERS. Whatever you preordered from me, you will still get, same as you ever have. I'll be filling preorders for the next year or so, if not longer. Whatever preorders you've placed, you'll get, and you'll be fine. Trust me.

2) I'm not going anywhere. Even after the store is gone, I'll be here, and I'll be here to fix any problems with preorders or existnig orders. My customer service will not decline at all. I have NEVER had to deny someone something they preordered, and that will not change.

3) The message board is not closing down. And for those of you who always wondered if the reason I ran the board the way I do is because I have a store -- well, you'll see that I'm just as unfair and inconsistent even when I have nothing to gain

4) All existing orders, or outstanding orders are fine, and orders placed through the site will continue to be fine. I just won't be restocking stuff or taking new items in. I'll be selling stuff for quite a while, I expect. Months, if not longer. I have a lot of inventory.

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Okay, here's the deal. A lot of people are going to comment on this as being some statement on the current state of the genre, or the small press. It's neither. My reasons for having to shut the store -- and my reasons for the store not working to the level that I needed it to work -- are purely on my own shoulders. Publishers are not to blame. Customers aren't to blame. Amazon's not to blame. It's just me.

The genre is damn healthy. Healthier than it has been in a long time, I think. For many publishers, their print runs are going up, their customer base is going up, and they're branching out into new formats and new ideas. My sales have been steady for years, and for many publishers, going up and up with every release.

And yet, financially, I'm in deep crap. It basically comes down to this -- Shocklines.com came to an awkward spot. It became way too big for me to handle by myself, in that I had to hire a warehouse to ship for me (I generally ship about 200-250 packages a week, sometimes more). And yet, it wasn't SO big that I could afford to hire actual other employees. It was still overwhelming to me to juggle the financials and inventory tracking and ordering for more than 100 separate small-press publishers. Organization is not my strong point. And the more the store's been growing, the more mistakes I've been making, and the more it costs me to fix those mistakes. I've gradually gotten into deep shit financially, but that says infinitely more about my ability to simultaneously handle every single facet of a store than anything about the horror book industry.

Additionally, it ultimately can be very expensive to buy and ship a ton of chapbooks and magazines, even losing money on a lot of them with the free shipping. I could stop carrying them and just focus on more expensive books like hardcovers -- but that's not why I started Shocklines.com. I love chapbooks and magazines and new trade paperbacks and think there's a ton of amazing work being done in them.

The truth of the matter is that if I had never taken the Simon & Schuster full-time consulting gig, I probably could spend all 80 working hours a week on Shocklines.com and make it succeed enough to survive.

But something else is going on that's specific to me. I'm deeply unhappy with my life. I love Shocklines.com. I love working on it. I love my customers and many, many of the authors and publishers. But I'm very lonely. And working 10 or 11 hours a day, seven days a week, alone at home with no one around, was just making me very sad. I took the S&S job for two reasons -- I needed the money (since I was botching up things on the Shocklines front) and I needed the human interaction. I like being around people I can live with the fact that I may end up spending life alone. I can't live with the idea that I didn't at least try to make changes that might have prevented it.

I think someone could succeed with a store like this, especially if they had the money to offer a true one-stop shop -- one that carried a full line of mainstream publisher books as well as small press, and one that could possibly expand into some other product lines as well. But I was pretty tapped out after starting the site, and have always been putting profits back into the store to grow the publishers I carry, but never had enough of a cushion to really blow out and start a new product line or offer a full line of mainstream books.

Shocklines.com will continue to exist even when the store is gone. For now, when publishers have a new title, I'll still list it somewhere in the store (not sure yet the way I'll set it up, but I will) and I'll link directly to the publisher's website.

Additionally, my email newsletter will continue, but will gradually become a complete news service just for books in horror and genre, including mainstream book publishers as well. Links willl all be to the publishers and to bookstores whom are in good standing with the publishers. This way, this message board and the newsletter will still be a way that everyone can still be sure not to miss out on announcements of new items, including chapbooks or new small presses that may slip by the radar otherwise. I just won't be selling them anymore.

Why would I bother to keep doing it? Well, for a while now, various authors and small press publishers have come to me asking for help marketing their stuff online.

I can't write. I'm a mess of an editor (tho that Shocklines antho can probably get finished now!). And I'm not an artist. But one thing I do -- and I do it very well -- is that I know how to market and spread the word about something spending VERY little money. Besides the year I sponsored the World Horror Convention, I don't think I ever spent more than $1500 a year in marketing or advertising. And yet I still did about that much EVERY DAY in orders.

I'm good at spreading the word and getting results while spending very little money. And I'm getting better.

So I'm going to expand my consulting to do the same thing for authors and small press publishers. Hell, in many cases, I'll just do it for books (since I still want to read all this horror stuff, and can't really afford the books). And any authors or publishers who use my services can get some extra featuring in the newsletter. And Shocklines.com will ultimately become a hub of content for horror and genre authors and publishers that can be used to help spread the word and build buzz, and the exposure at Shocklines.com will be just be a bonus for using my services.

But that's a story for another time, and for now, I'll just continue to consult for Simon & Schuster Children's/Teen Publishing, and focus on shutting down Shocklines.com and getting everyone paid up and even.

To all my customers and all the authors and publishers who have supported me over the years, I love you all, and will continue to do whatever I can to support your work or needs. In a lot of ways, Shocklines.com has been the best thing I've ever done with my life. Here's hoping I can find some new way of helping the horror book industry.

It's been quite a ride, and while it's not over yet, this part is dying down. But it's been a blast.

Please be patient if you're emailing me -- and again, no customers should worry about their advance orders -- everything that's been advance ordered is safe.

One last thing -- I'll be taking advance orders for 2 more weeks. After that, I'll secure the exact number of copies I need with the publishers and I'll fill those when the books come out. So if there's anything you still want me to get for you as an advance order, get those preorders in now.

But no sweat if you'd rather just go direct to the publisher or to another bookseller (Bloodletting or Bad Moon are great choices).

I'll post more here about updates and changes, and this has been a wild couple of days. There's a lot more I want to say but this has already been damn long. And I just wanted to get it out there before it leaked out.

Thanks again everyone!