Six weeks ago, I wrote a piece here about the tragic collapse in fiction readership. I blamed much of it on the Big Five publishers’ rejection of stories for real men and traditional women — the same agenda-driven kamikaze missioning that has destroyed Hollywood. It’s too late to save the burning entertainment carrier, but there’s still a chance for literature. Because unlike independent producers which are cost-prohibited from seriously challenging the film industry, independent publishers are pulling more than their weight in the less expensive book trade.
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“You should be running Simon & Schuster instead of the feminist harpies at the gate,” I told Karen. “You’ve got bigger stones than all the male publishers I dealt with.”
I learned this firsthand over the last two weeks. In a recent American Spectator article, I recounted how the publisher of my political thriller series featuring DC private-eyes Mark Tristan and Neil Cork balked at the second novel for being “too political.” (READ MORE: “Fahrenheit Zero: The Freeze on Conservative Novels) They gave me the choice: tone down the politics or take back the rights to the series and characters.
Since the plot revolves around the detectives bodyguarding a rising conservative Christian movement leader — who has to make his viewpoint persuasive — and UK Islamization and repression, Option One was off the table for me. And so, it appeared, was having a timely thriller out by this Christmas. Or any thriller, since the first book in the series, The Washington Trail, got unpublished, the already printed copies the only evidence of previous existence.
Under pressure befitting the suspense genre, I contacted several other independent publishers about taking over the series. Several were interested but trepidatious. “How political is it?” asked one CEO. “That depends,” I said. “To the Left, everything is political. Like the hero rescuing a damsel in distress rather than her kicking butt and saving herself, or just a seductive femme-fatale.” “Hot super-villainesses are sexist,” laments a comic-book shop owner in The Washington Trail. The publisher agreed and after reading the manuscript, he said he didn’t have the necessary fight for it left in him.
I sent the American Spectator article to Karen Fuller, CEO of World Castle Publishing, the publisher of my third novel, The Christmas Spirit. I had bypassed World Castle even though they’d done a superb job publishing and promoting the book into a Yuletide gift favorite. My reason was that they specialized in great women-driven romantic fiction and romantasy, like The Christmas Spirit, and I thought a hardboiled thriller series a poor fit for them. So, I went with the male-oriented (mostly science-fiction) house Aethon Books to my and their ultimate regret.
Karen Fuller not only agreed to have World Castle take over the series, she fast-tracked book two, The Camelot Trail, for a December publication, and the reboot of The Washington Trail to September 8th. “You should be running Simon & Schuster instead of the feminist harpies at the gate,” I told Karen. “You’ve got bigger stones than all the male publishers I dealt with.”
So, Tristan and Cork are back on the case, saving America from evil — and some sexy — forces, while providing a fun read for a mainstream-disdained audience. And we’re not alone in this work. My recent deep dive into independent publishers yielded a treasure trove of great books, authors, and companies literally keeping the reading light on in the woke void. You can benefit the culture and yourselves by patronizing them. Here are some top recommendations:
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Aethon Books. Yeah, they went full Rick Blaine in Casablanca over my political thriller Trail series (“I stick my neck out for nobody.”), but they offer a fine selection of macho pulp sci-fi that would melt down modern Star Trek and Star Wars writers by giving boys heroes to root for.
Baen Books. Editor Gray Rinehart was sympathetic to my conservative politics as a military and religion author (Elements of War, A Church More Like Christ), but he couldn’t bend Baen’s all sci-fi rule. That said, their book library offers a wealth of old-fashioned manly space war fun.
Three Ravens Publishing. A great little company with a diverse, selective genre catalog for readers of all ages. While awaiting their decision on The Camelot Trail, I read a smart, intriguing noir mystery with a supernatural touch, The Dead Don’t Pay, and there are other good choices.
Dusty Saddle Publishing. The Western isn’t dead despite its banishment from the feminist screen and page, it’s just riding with people who love it, like the folks at DS Productions and their dedicated authors. Fans of the Great American Mythology can relish frontier justice from the rich choices. I highly recommend Scott McRea’s exciting, delightful U.S. Marshall Ezra Flint novels.
Kruger’s Korps by H. W. Crocker. It requires a deep knowledge of history and writing skill to fashion a good historical thriller, and Harry Crocker demonstrates both in his new World War II action suspense tale. Crocker gives the old impersonate-an-enemy officer bit a fresh smart twist, with the hero posing as the right-hand man to a Rommel-like German military hero. Real bigger-than-life figures like OSS “Wild Bill” Donovan turn up the way they might have been.
World Castle Publishing. My new publisher has been an indie industry leader in romantic fiction, with talented author friends such as Hermione Li, Barna Donovan, and Judith White elevating its output. My first novel for them, The Christmas Spirit, fit right in as a haunting Yuletide love story. Now I’ve added some tough guy thriller appeal — still with romance — to hold the women readers while bringing in a wave of hero-deprived male detective action fans.
You don’t need to have read The Washington Trail to enjoy the second book in the series, The Camelot Trail (pre-order link soon), this Christmas, but you’ll dig both more. And you’ll help turn around the reading decline and the culture with it.
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READ MORE from Lou Aguilar:
The Demonic Possession of Liberal Women
Fahrenheit Zero – The Freeze on Conservative Novels
Only Real Men Can Save America, and Hollywood
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