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Worldcon gives a rare opportunity for a small indie publisher to reach a global audience, as thousands of geeks descend on Glasgow

DARTFORD, KENT – 29 July 2024 – Elsewhen Press, an indie publisher run by self-professed geeks, publishes novels from a wide variety of authors in multiple genres (and often cross-genre). For most small indie publishers, the biggest hurdle to overcome in selling books is ‘discoverability’ – the ability for potential readers to actually discover books that don’t have a large marketing campaign or mainstream media support. Retailers tend to eschew books from small presses, large chains aren’t interested in low volume sales and small indie bookshops often can’t risk their limited shelf-space on an unknown author from a small publisher. So indie publishers rely on online sales and word-of-mouth. At Elsewhen Press, we are keen to promote new, previously unpublished, authors; most of our titles are either fantasy or science fiction, so we attend science fiction and fantasy conventions where we can meet readers, and they can meet our authors. A convention is also a good occasion to launch a new book to an audience of like-minded people who are already gathered together. But, especially since COVID, many UK conventions have as few as 200 attendees, even the largest such as Eastercon may nowadays attract less than 1000.

In August, the 2024 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) will be held in Glasgow at the iconic Scottish Event Campus next to the Clyde. With a likely attendance of around 6000 science fiction and fantasy fans from around the world, it is an ideal opportunity for an indie publisher like Elsewhen Press to launch some new titles and hopefully become more discoverable to an international audience.

Elsewhen Press, while based in South East England, has nevertheless assembled an international roster of authors since starting in 2011, publishing books by writers from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, the US, France, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, even one who claims to be from another planet! Some of our authors are travelling to Glasgow for Worldcon, including the authors of our newest titles. At Worldcon, we are holding a Party to celebrate the 66th Birthday of one of the Elsewhen Press co-founders; as well as hosting two book launch events.

Our Science Fiction book launch is for three new titles: a cyberpunk thriller Her Gilded Voice by K.C. Aegis, a debut author from California; a distant-future mystery, A Voice in the Darkness by Mark Iles, Book II of the Sundering Chronicles series, in which aliens have recreated mythological creatures, such as werewolves, on Earth; and an even more distant-future space opera set on a colony world, Worlds Aligned, the second book in Terry Jackman’s Worlds Apart collective. All three authors will be present to read extracts, answer questions and sign copies.

Our Fantasy book launch is also for three new titles: a gothic thriller Lucifer & Son by Glaswegian author, David Craig, the third book in his Sooty Feathers series in which the living and undead alike fall like autumn leaves as a supernatural war in 1890s Glasgow escalates; The Harlequin: The Draper’s Reel by J.A. Mortimore and Penelope Hill – a master trickster foolishly comes out of retirement for the heist of a lifetime, to steal a reel from the drapers’ god; and LACUNA, the first book in Erin Hosfield’s Chimera series which follows a group of people with some very special secrets they need to keep. Although Erin will not be in Glasgow, we have a video of her in Pittsburgh, reading an extract; the other authors will be present to read extracts, answer questions and sign copies.

All six books are already available as ebooks and will be out in paperback in time for Worldcon, where they will available to buy for the first time, as Elsewhen Press will be selling books in the Dealers’ Hall.

In addition, at the party and the science fiction launch, there will be a cover reveal for a book that is part of an exciting new time travel project, One Million Times, which will be unveiled at Worldcon with some surprising participants.

Notes for Editors

About Elsewhen Press

Elsewhen Press, an independent publisher of Speculative Fiction, is based in the South East of England, and publishes titles in English, in digital and print editions, adopting a digital-first policy. Established in 2011, Elsewhen Press is an imprint of Alnpete Limited.

Contact: Alison Buck on +44 (0) 7956 233402 email: alison@elsewhen.co.uk

About Her Gilded Voice by K.C. Aegis

Lacey has a woman living inside her head … or is it the other way around? Decades from now, technology has advanced, and everyone has a ‘neuro-net’ wired into their brain. This provides each person with a ‘voyce’ inside their head that offers advice that guides and ostensibly protects them; as teen Lacey Clarke puts it: “Voyces help us all make the right decisions. They give us reason, protect us from outside chaos. And in some cases, they protect us from ourselves.” In this republic, Lacey and her older sister, Yadira, barely make ends meet. Their lives are made worse when they discover they must pay off their late father’s debt and that Lacey has been marked to become a Puzzler in a brainteaser competition in which losers are killed. Alina, Lacey’s voyce, reassures her everything will be fine if only they follow the rules, but when an encounter with Ogden Oliver, a powerful Elite, ends with Alina being temporarily deactivated, Lacey is left alone with her own thoughts. For the first time in her life, she is able to perceive the world as it actually is – without augmented-reality illusions. As Lacey navigates the competition, she realizes she may be a pawn but one that has hitherto unknown power.

About A Voice in the Darkness by Mark Iles

A gateway and a changeling on a colony world, prompt a return to Earth to confront the aliens. When children on the colony of Semillion go missing they return changed, the parents even claim they are not their offspring. Sherrif Andrews soon finds himself investigating the bizarre situation. What he discovers leads to him being recalled by the military and sent back to Earth, a place now quarantined and where colonial humans are forbidden to venture. The intention is to recruit ex-commando Seethan Bodell, who’s living with the survivors of The Sundering and the mythological creatures that now inhabit the world. Earth is still ruled with an iron fist by the alien Spooks, but there is something else going on behind the scenes, a new and deadly threat. To succeed, Andrews and Bodell need to call on that grand tapestry of inhabitants: the shapeshifters, elves, the ravening pack of werewolves that Seethan now belongs to, and even the dead; in the hope that it will be enough to prevent an escalating situation that could so easily lead to war.

About Worlds Aligned by Terry Jackman

No longer invisible, Harp finds that fame, and family, 
might mean an even riskier future. In Harpan’s Worlds Harp faced his own personal history, and its repercussions. In Worlds Aligned he must deal with the results. Providing of course that he survives them. So Worlds Aligned is a second glimpse of the humans who survive long after OldEarth is abandoned.

Note: Harpan’s Worlds and Worlds Aligned form a duology, and can be read as two standalones; but together they connect some of the puzzle-pieces of a fractured humanity. And its evolution.

About Lucifer & Son by David Craig

The Devil you know. October 1893. The living and undead alike fall like autumn leaves as a supernatural war ignites in Glasgow. The reclusive vampyre lord, Niall Fisher, rules the city from his crypt through his undead regent, Margot Guillam, and the secret society known as the Sooty Feathers. That rule is now challenged by the city’s former master, Arakiel, a demon overthrown by Fisher two centuries prior. As deaths and disappearances rise, Lady Delaney and her apprentice Kerry Knox gather allies to free Glasgow from the demons and undead alike. Body snatcher Wilton Hunt is one such ally, thanks to the machinations of the corrupt Bishop Redfort who plays his own game. Another is the uncompromising Wolfgang Steiner, a Templar Inquisitor as ruthless as the foe he fights. But one among this band is Lucifer’s son, vengeance drawing him and his father back into the war, risking the revelation of his diabolical paternity. For Lady Delaney and the others, is the hour desperate enough to make common cause with the Devil? From the glittering balls of high society to dung-caked slums, from a decrepit castle to tunnels beneath the city itself, blood is spilled and betrayal reigns. An exhausted stalemate looks nigh as Death’s scythe reaps without discrimination, but Arakiel plots to draw out Fisher for one last, decisive battle. And crucial to this scheme is an unwitting Lucifer, who must face the consequences of an ancient sin.

About The Harlequin: The Draper’s Reel by J.A. Mortimore & Penelope Hill

Question my honesty if you must, but nobody, and I mean nobody, questions my skill. I’ve never paid much attention to the gods, which may be why I foolishly agreed to steal Pardeem’s reel. It seemed a straightforward enough challenge for a master trickster like me, but with things like this you never know. Leaving my cosy retirement isn’t difficult. Wearing the Harlequin’s hat again feels right. However returning to Emor holds challenges. Old friends and enemies wait in the shadows; maybe I can turn that to my advantage. But now my own god seems to be paying me far too much attention. This isn’t going to be straightforward. But that’s the thrill, isn’t it? To dance with peril, to spin with the twists, to confound expectations and to embrace the trick for its own sake. The Harlequin doesn’t give up at the first hurdle. If I can carry this off, it will be the heist of a lifetime. Failure might cost me everything.

About LACUNA by Erin Hosfield

You can abandon your past… but your secrets won’t abandon you. As a tattooist, it’s easy keeping people at arm’s length. Distract them with questions, and when they inevitably ask their own, reply vaguely. Lie. When the lies pile up, disappear. It’s a cycle Lynna’s all too familiar with. Staying guarded is a necessity, but what keeps her safe is also what keeps her lonely. It’s an empty existence, hiding behind lies, and she wishes she was someone else. Someone not burdened with a secret. A year into her most recent move, the loneliness bleeds into her work, and she admits a few truths. At the insistence of a client, she explores the city’s night scene, where she meets the enigmatic Rhys. As the months progress, so do her feelings for him, despite the risks of getting too close. When a dangerous encounter leads her straight into his arms, she abandons her past in exchange for a new beginning, only her secret refuses to be abandoned. With her life hanging by a thread, she’s forced to confess, but the secret that will change everything isn’t hers. Set in an alternate present, Lacuna opens with Lynna’s transition to an atmospheric northwestern city. Derailed from what she’s built, she finds herself immersed in the lush world of medicinal horticulture, enveloped in the kind of close-knit relationships she always craved. Her fantasy has become reality, but not without caveat. As she plunges further into this new life, she begins to expose the conflicting threads holding it together, and what she discovers will bring more questions than answers.