Darkside Digital Growth & Guidelines For Publishers And Authors

I’ve just finished posting guidelines for both authors and publishers for getting your work sold through the shop. I’ve received more than two dozen queries in the past few weeks which tells me that digital is growing quicker than most would have imagined.

Sales at Darkside Digital have really spiked in 2010 and I attribute this to having quality control. Darkside Digital isn’t a one-stop shop for all horror e-books. I’ve implemented a standard that is higher than other sellers and have been rather selective about the e-books I sell here. I’ve come to HATE the Amazon model, where anyone who thinks they are an author can submit their work and have it online to sale within a few days. What this ultimately becomes is a fiction sewer where good authors and publishers become lost in the waste. It’s become easier to win the lottery than to casually browse these stores and find a decent read.

Also, I’ve found the new digital age has really led to poor quality in the layouts of new e-books. E-book conversion is an art form in itself and it’s not an easy thing to do. I’ve even known technically savvy people to pull their hair out when tackling the e-book conversion process. This is something we are watching closely. I want to avoid our customers downloading sub-par e-books. A bad layout or conversion can really take the joy out of reading.

I’ve worked extensibly with publishers behind the scenes to help to make some of their offerings of a higher quality and will continue to do so. I truly believe in the digital movement and want to see it done right.

Also, it’s important that our customers realize that we do watch reviews closely. If you download something from Darkside Digital and you get a bad layout from the publisher or other problems, please post your review. Be honest and also provide fair feedback with insight and we’ll take these into consideration for stocking titles by each publisher.

Publishers who want to see their titles listed at Darkside Digital can bookmark the following page:
http://www.horror-mall.com/submissions/view.php?id=3

Author who want to submit their original manuscripts for consideration can find the guidelines and submission form at the following URL:
http://www.horror-mall.com/submissions/view.php?id=4

Also, one last request for those of you who have found Darkside Digital and who have grown to appreciate what we offer: please help spread the word about the store.  We’re the little guys fighting to reform the digital movement and are often shadowed by the corporates such as Amazon. Your referrals will be glad they discovered that bigger is, in fact, not better.