The Horrible World of Small Press Publishing

How publishing fringe art can become a success.

Stephen King is one of the most well-known horror authors of the modern day. Novels like It, Cujo, Carrie, and all the other tales that kept us up at night were brought to us by Simon & Schuster, the fourth-largest publishing company in America. They also host contemporary horror hero, Clive Barker, and a childhood favorite, R.L. Stine. These authors bring in millions of dollars every year from the global obsession with all things scary. For megaliths like Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and Harper Collins to achieve record profits off the world of the horrible, we must go back to an 84-year-old micro press: Arkham House Publishing. 

Despite booming popularity, the famous horror master, H.P. Lovecraft, was a no-name “disposable fiction” writer for most of his life. He spent the majority of his writing career publishing in pulp magazines, which had a very limited distribution and were made to be thrown away. The majority of the few readers who subscribed to the magazines that published Lovecraft's short stories tended to dislike his verbose and strange work; those who did enjoy him were nothing short of fanatics. When Lovecraft succumbed to small intestinal cancer at the age of 46, he died widely unknown. He would've stayed that way, and his work would have never seen the light of day again, if not for the dedication of two loyal Weird Magazine readers. 

August Derleth and Donald Wandrei were two friends who shared massive fandom of Lovecraft. The two Wisconsin-based men went through hell and highwater begging publishing houses to take the small collection of Lovecraft's work for posthumous publication. After constant rejection left the grieving friends without any other options, they opened Arkham House Publishing in 1939 with the express purpose of getting more readers for Lovecraft's work. Their passion took money, time, and tribulation, but it worked. Arkham House Publishing gave the world its proper introduction to Eldritch Horror in the form of The Outsider and Others. Derleth and Wandrei sold out of their first print run of 150 books. The responses from readers were overwhelming, and despite the meager revenue, it inspired them to keep going. A year later, they began work on a larger collection of Lovecraft.

Wanting to keep their readership interested and to compile new additions, they needed more authors to fill in the gaps. Derleth and Wandrei went back to the group of fans and friends from the pulp magazines and never looked back. This two-man enterprise put out some of the biggest names in contemporary horror. They brought up authors like Nelson S. Bond, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Fritz Leiber, Lord Dunsany, and Robert E. Howard. They even hold the claim to publishing Ray Bradbury’s first book, Dark Carnival, thus launching his career. As the years passed, Arkham House put book after book all centered around the genre that inspired them in the first place, “Weird Fiction.”

The backbone of the literary world is the independent press. It is in these small, often house-run, spaces that people connect not for profit, but for love of the written word and the community that stems from it. Arkham House is a fantastic example of the power and influence fans and creatives can have on the world, is not unique in giving us our greats. Every day, hundreds of small presses are collecting stories, conspiring with friends and fans, and trying to put more work into the world. At any given moment, the next Lovecraft, Bradbury, or Bloch is getting their start at a small press near you. 

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Maddy Brozusky is a poet born and raised in NEPA coal country. After a brief stint in the army, they are graduating from Kutztown University in the spring, majoring in English with a minor in professional writing. They are a Co-Host of the Popcorn Poetry Open Mic. They’re a long-time reader, writer, activist, and adventure enthusiast.