It’s no secret we’re living in something of a golden age of independent horror fiction. From authors such as Eric LaRocca, Brian Asman, and Duncan Ralston enjoying humongous booms in sales due to viral word-of-mouth campaigns that let them top Big 5 authors on the best-seller charts to writers such as Gabino Iglesias and Catriona Ward crossing over into mainstream success with books in Barnes and Nobel; from publishers such as Clash exploding onto the scene with material worthy of the best major publishing houses and Encyclopocalypse resurrecting trade-paperback tie-ins from the 1980s, indy horror publishing has carved out a wonderful niche for itself in a particular corner of the fandom, offering readers an endless smorgasboard of frights and thoughtfulness in equal measure.
Though he’s been around for a while, in recent years, it’s been Max Booth III who’s been one of the big figureheads of the horror indy pub world. His Perpetual Motion Machine/Ghoulish Books imprints aren’t quite like any other publishers in this arena: You’re just as likely to encounter the expected Mothmen (Laurel Hightower’s BELOW) and cursed snuff films (Todd Kiesling’s SCANLINES) as you are, say, Georges Méliès-inspired romps about Victorian-era space missions (Danger Slater’s MOONFELLOWS) or Jean Rollin-esque psychosexual sagas about amnesiac women going to battle against pervert psychiatrists (Betty Rocksteady’s graphic novel SOFT PLACES). PMMP/Ghoulish, then, is less a standard horror publisher and something more akin to the literary equivalent of the grindhouse operations of 1970s Times Square: If it’s off the wall, dark, mordant, strange, weird, and most importantly interesting, they’ll deliver it. To open a Ghoulish book is to take a magic carpet ride into the unknown.
What’s more, Ghoulish can boast not only a publishing house but its own dedicated literary convention, The Ghoulish Book Festival, which became a resounding success in its inaugural year and which is coming back in 2023 with an even bigger slate. Currently one of the few genre writing cons dedicated to the Southwest (alongside Killercon), it also serves as demonstration of the power and talent of the writing scene here. Not content to rest on his laurels, Booth is looking to up the ante in ’23, and to that end, he’s dubbed this the Year of the Ghoul and launched a kickstarter (check it out here) to help level the company up, so to speak, to become bigger, more exciting, and more diverse than ever before.
A sampling of the brilliant literary maniacs of the ’22 Ghoulish Con
“In 2023, we are publishing 10 books and three issues of two different magazines,” Booth says. “Via Kickstarter, we are allowing our fellow ghouls to pre-order our line-up for the entire year. We are including exclusive merch and other cool bonuses. Every book pre-ordered through our campaign will also ship with a signed bookplate from the author.”
In the interest of transparency, I’ve known Max professionally for several years now, and, in an industry that can and often does tend to attract the predatory, arrogant, and exploitative, Max is just a genuinely really fucking decent person, and that’s a sadly rare specimen in the genre industry. We hope to have a conversation with him here on the site soon, but in the meantime, please consider checking out that Kickstarter, and ordering a couple of Ghoulish titles for yourself or a friend.
Follow Max/Ghoulish on Twitter at-
@pmmpublishing
@GhoulishBooks
@GiveMeYourTeeth
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