A new publishing house has been launched which will give esoteric writers a chance to keep their books in print.
Lord Manticore House is a 21st-century author-driven print-on-demand publishing house for occult and esoteric titles. It has a unique vision in that it specialises in non-commercial titles or books that have been abandoned by commercial publishers and are challenging to find.
Lord Manticore House is a division of Thoth-Hermes Communications whose CEO Nick Farrell’s titles are the first to be published by the new label.
“We will be seeking to recruit esoteric writers, old and new, to Lord Manticore in the coming months and eventually expand its operations to 12 titles a month,” Farrell said.
Farrell believes that the esoteric book market mostly can be divided into commercial products pitched only for beginners, New Age rubbish, or overbound expensive “dark fluff” for those who think magic and the occult is about repackaged fantasies about demons.
Meanwhile technology in the print-on-demand market has been wasted by those who put out hugely over-priced ten-page books to market their more lucrative “workshops” or “courses.
“Meanwhile, there are many good books that their original publishers have abandoned due to not being commercially viable because they are too advanced and cannot meet a target market,” Farrell said.
Sometimes authors, in desperation to get their message out, have put out their books that fail to attract attention due to poor production values, covers and layouts and rarely attract interest outside their students and friends.
Another issue has been pricing. Distributors, notably Amazon, take a considerable cut of profits, followed by publishing companies. This leaves authors with a fraction of overall profits (ten per cent is considered generous). While this might have been acceptable a century ago when print runs were at least 10,000 copies, today, print runs are less than 4000, with most books selling only 1000. An author can spend years writing and researching a book and end up with much less than $900 over ten years. After ten years, the books are often dropped and forgotten.
“Lord Manticore sees a place for advanced magical books with reasonable production values to stay in print for as long as the author wishes and where they collect half the profits,” Farrell said.
The company will layout, edit and design books and provide advice on content to ensure the book reaches the broadest possible market.
The company’s operations are entirely online. While we will approach esoteric bookshops for each title for traditional sales, our books will be offered for global distribution through Amazon, Ingram, Book Depository, and our Lulu production partner.
“Since the most significant slice of profits for the author come from Lulu, we will emphasise this distribution channel,“ Farrell said.