I. The Humble Beginnings of Delirium

This one is for all the diehard Delirium junkies out there. I’ve never told this story before, but this is the story of how Delirium Books came to exist.

Early in 1999 I decided to make the transition from author to publisher. My reasons have been stated before, but it was mainly due to the new crop of horror authors emerging in the field. Back then I wrote alongside such unknown authors as Jeffrey Thomas, Brian Keene, Scott Thomas, Michael Laimo, Gerard Houarner and Greg F. Gifune, appearing is some of the same micro-zines. In the late ‘90s, the small press book publishers seemed to be stuck in a cycle of producing the same authors, but I noticed that few new talents were being signed. Looking back, it’s still hard to believe that so many great authors were confined to being published in staple-bound ‘zines. Something had to be done about this, and I had the plan (or so I thought).

My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) had a book of poetry she had bound for her sister. It was a collection of poems her sister had written. She had it bound at a bindery in a town where I had grown up in, about 30 minutes south of where we lived at the time. I was in the final stages of stapling the final issue of The Twilight Garden (a micro-zine published by Miranda-Jahya Press, which would later become Delirium Books). The old issues of The Twilight Garden were actually printed on my Apple Laser Printer. After I had printed the pages to the zine and the cover (made from green laser paper), I used a bulletin board to press the book against while opening up a stapler then stapling it all together into the board. I’d then use a pair of needle-nose pliers to bend the staples. High tech indeed!

Needless to say, it was time to take a step forward. To be a real book publisher. And the model I’d use was the book my girlfriend had made for her sister.

I spent the next week crudely laying out a collection of my short stories I had published in the small press called Dark Times. My plans were simple: publish a test limited edition hardcover of my own work and make money to launch the first real book for the new press I’d begin.

I printed Dark Times on the same laser printer at home on gray paper. 50 copies. 8 1/2 x 11 inches, two column layout, like a magazine. Horrible-looking actually, for a book. I took the pages to the bindery. A month later I picked up the 50 copies of Dark Times and took them straight to work to sell. After a week of harassing and book peddling at the factory, I managed to sell all 50 copies, made more than $1000, enough funds to do a real book.

It’s funny looking back, but that one thousand dollars was the money I needed to launch the 50-copy HC edition of The House Spider. And all the rest, as they say, is history. And a smooth road ahead.

History: yes. Smooth road: not quite.

Without any clue to what I was doing, I published The House Spider. I didn’t have a single bookseller or a website. In the end, the book lost my thousand dollars and left me in the hole by a few hundred dollars which I made up over the next month by working all the overtime I could get at the factory.

Now that’s funny taking into consideration that the book that I lost the most money on is now selling for a thousand dollars per copy on eBay.

II. The Name

Why the name Delirium? I get asked this question a lot, most recently on the Insider comments section of the last post by Dezm (Mark Sylva), so I thought I’d add this bit of trivia to this post as well.

I’m a big electronic/industrial music fan. In 1999 I was listening to Delerium, a side project of one of my favorite bands Front Line Assembly. I didn’t necessarily pick the name of the press due to the band, but it played a part. I really liked the meaning of Delirium:

delirium |diˈli(ə)rēəm|
noun
an acutely disturbed state of mind that occurs in fever, intoxication, and other disorders and is characterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech.
• wild excitement or ecstasy.

The fiction that I wanted to publish was horror which really tied into the “disturbed state of mind” portion of the definition.

So the definition was the deciding factor.

Delirium Books had a certain feel. It just seemed to fit.

Now…no one ask me what I was thinking when I called my last press Miranda-Jahya. I’ll plead the fifth.

III. An Editor’s Pet Peeves

Over the seven years I’ve been Editor-in-Chief, this is the best way for an author to get sent to the back of the slush pile:

Example Cover Letter:

Mr. Shane Ryan Stanley
Delerium Books
P.O. Box 338
N. Webster, IN 46555

Dear Mr. Stanley:

After receiving hundreds of letters to this guy named Mr. Stanley, I’ve actually begun to look around the office for him. There were times I could’ve used the extra hand. It’s now become an identity crisis, of sorts. Am I Mr. Staley or Mr. Stanley? Or maybe both? I had an interview in a magazine not too long ago. I opened the issue to find that the interview gave all the credit to this elusive Mr. Stanley, even making him the focus of the title: “An Interview With Shane Ryan Stanley.”

This guy is taking over my life…my identity!

And I also wonder if some authors listen to the band Delerium, too. As Delirium Books has been spelled “Delerium Books” not just in letters, but in magazines and even on the back of another publisher’s book via a blurb.

I even got a business phone call years ago that went something like this:

Me: Delirium Books, this is Shane.
Caller: Hi, my grandma, she’s 89, and she’s been experiencing delirium for the past few months.
Me: Oh, wow, that’s great to hear!
Caller: (Long pause) Um, well, I wondered if I could buy one of your books to read. What do you have?
Me: How about Mean Sheep by Tom Piccirill?
Caller: Do you have something about humans. I’m not looking for something about animals, nothing like mad cow disease or anything like that.
Me: (Real long pause) The only other book I have in stock right now is Visions Through A Shattered Lens by Gerard Houarner.
Caller: No, she can see fine out of both eyes. Are these written by doctors?
Me: (laughs) Well, Gerard works a day job at a psychiatric facility, but I don’t think he’s a doctor. Why do you ask?
Caller: Patients?
Me: Sorry, ma’m, I’m trying my best.
Caller: I thought this was Delirium Books.
Me: Yes, it is.
Caller: So why don’t you have any books about delirium.
Me: Oh….
(Then the call takes a different direction. The woman is given a free copy of Mean Sheep for the misunderstanding.)

Now I’d like to think I’ve made some sort of impact on the genre in my time. I’ve had a hand in launching some of the most important new talents in the horror genre over the past several years. But as a homage to Rodney Dangerfield, I sometimes find myself pulling on the neck of my shirt and muttering “I get no respect, I tell ya, no respect!” But that’s not entirely true because I get plenty of respect from the people who matter the most. Even the above caller who sent me a personal thank you weeks later for the free book.