Atomic Fez Publishing

Welcome to the world of Atomic Fez Publishing. This may be a new thing to your ears, but one thinks it’s unlikely as the creation of this publishing house seems to be one of the worst-​​kept secrets in the Small Press Community of late. If you’ve not heard of Atomic Fez before now, please don’t feel ‘left out’, as this merely proves you have a real life, something for which you are envied.

Those of you who have known of this for some time can count yourselves among the group who needs to get out among the populace more often. Perhaps a few more visits to the local library on Saturday afternoons may be a place to start; the possibility of conversing with someone other than the 87-​​year-​​old men reading every newspaper in the Western World might terrify you, but rest assured that no one will wrestle you to the floor and electrocute you (that’s saved for story time in the Children’s Area… well, that’s what happens when I show up for the event, at least).

In addition to the “dead tree” variety of books using ink, paper, and bits of glue, Atomic Fez will be making available all titles in the “electronic book” format for those who wish it. The concept that either form is a bad way of getting a story into the hands of a reader is anathema to a logical mind. If you hate e-​​books, we have paper ones for you. If you hate paper ones, we have e-​​books to tempt you instead. In the future, it is hoped that both forms can happily exist side-​​by-​​side as they have individual strengths for differing sorts of readers. After all, both forms of books are equally damaged when dropped in a tub full of hot water.

As you’ll learn from the “About” page, this will be a Small Press House with Large Press notions of inclusivity. ‘Many things all under one roof’, one might say. Few people are exclusively readers of only one variety of fiction, and Atomic Fez proposes to make available as many sorts of books as time and the company ledgers permits.

The principle driving force behind certain titles being selected is simple: Books Are Fun Again! Too often things about books are made Quite Important and Very Serious Indeed, casting aside anything which might be seen as ‘enjoyable’. There are some very important and worthwhile things about books and their rôles in our lives, certainly; and one of the most important is that of the ‘fun’ and ‘entertainment’ they provide. Certainly, dark and serious stories aren’t thought of in the same fashion as light and comedic ones, but both sort can easily be seen as ‘fun’ and ‘entertaining’ at the same time. One can be said to have fun reading something that scares us, just as one can enjoy reading something which makes us laugh aloud. What makes these various forms of stories similar is that they both contain content which is neither dull nor contain plot-​​lines within the well-​​trodden bounds of other writers.

Atomic Fez does not select titles due to them being rejected by other publishers, nor solely due to those works being difficult to market; rather, the catalogue contains titles which were selected despite these facts being true. This is, after all, a business, and there’s no need to make this effort more difficult to break even at than it already is.

Madness and Atomic Power — plus a silly hat or two — are what keeps Atomic Fez Publishing trundling along. Join the crowd and be prepared to be entertained and to enjoy yourself. Toffee-​​nosed, stuck-​​up, sticky beaks can put themselves to good use by getting another round of Martinis for the rest of us. Make mine a double, please.

Tags: Atomic Fez, Canada, Christopher Fowler, Genre, Guy Adams, Horror, Ian Alexander Martin, James Cooper, John Llewllyn Probert, John Travis, Murder, Mystery, publishing, publishing house, Rhys Hughes, Science Fiction, SF, small press, Vancouver

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 00:01 (UTC) and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.