Cemetery Dance discussion thread

[Jimimck]

Someone tell me again why I chose not to buy the S/L of one of my top three King books ever???????????????????????

(it's ok, I'll say it - cos I'm an idiot!)

Looking good CD!

**EDIT** Just looked through the extra photos. Holy crap, just so amazing.

Love the artwork on the S/L signature page. If I recall correctly, this is to be included in the art portfolio? Glad I ordered one of those at least to go with the ggift edition.

You're welcome to visit the one that will soon be in my collection thread anytime, my man!!!

Spoiler:

LOL. Sorry I couldn't resist!!!!! Bad, Bad, Bad Merlin!!!!!!

I was gonna say might be easier for you to send me your copy to admire for a little while, say 10-20 years?

[neosatus]

I received my "dinged" copy of the remarqued FDNS and it's now "undinged". The one thing that was seemingly wrong with it was what looked like a mistake in the back cover of the book. It was a little raised mark. I picked at it and it peeled right off. It looks like it was some tiny bit of adhesive, and now it's no more. Thanks CD!

[Patrick]

Mine arrived today too. It's beautiful.

[Jimimck]

I've not heard anyone say anything bad about about a CD dinged sale item. Must remember that next time they have some items for sale...

[Tito_Villa]

So glad i grabbed the original artwork for the signature page can't wait to get my S/L to go with it!

[George at C-Springs]

Just wanted to say a public "thanks" to Dan for helping me out behind the scenes. Go CD!

[Jimimck]

Just got notification my Chabourne commissioned artwork has shipped!!!!
Can't wait to see what this looks like!

Thanks CD!

[Merlin1958]

Just got notification my Chabourne commissioned artwork has shipped!!!!
Can't wait to see what this looks like!

Thanks CD!

Way to go, my friend!!!!

[WeDealInLead]

Dear CD,

Please publish the sequel to Mind the Gap. Please and thank you.

[Ben Staad]

Just got notification my Chabourne commissioned artwork has shipped!!!!
Can't wait to see what this looks like!

Thanks CD!

Congrats! Please post plenty of pictures when you get this.

[Jimimck]

Congrats! Please post plenty of pictures when you get this.

Hell yeah I will.
What is also cool about this is my wife actually bought this for my Christmas gift, but when we figured it wouldn't be here in time, she went and bought me something else and now this is my birthday gift (which is in jan) - so I still get the cool painting AND something as a surprise! Nice.

[Brian James Freeman]

Dear CD,

Please publish the sequel to Mind the Gap. Please and thank you.

Unfortunately, we've canceled our (never announced) edition of The Map of Moments and will not be publishing future books in the series.

Brian

[Brian James Freeman]

Just got notification my Chabourne commissioned artwork has shipped!!!!
Can't wait to see what this looks like!

Thanks CD!

I'm not sure which one was yours, I only looked at them real quick while they were being packed, but the 6 that shipped today were awesome!

Brian

[Gris]

I agree with the comments that S/Ls should be restricted to the smaller presses. I just think it should be solely Grant (or at least not CD anymore).

Yes, CD is better with King books because I think the exclusive rights to Blockade Billy set rules for them that they have to follow if they want to continue doing business with him. NON-King books are still woefully late. I have 3 outstanding orders that are all over 2 years old and no sign of a book any time soon. Many of the collectors here can also attest to their shoddy business ethics. How many folks were screwed by buying lifetime CD book clubs only to have almost every S/L of note now published by THEM under the name of Lonely Road Books and denied to CD book club members?

As far as S&S, they handled this like shit, but not because of any malicious intent, it's just not their game. I work for a large publisher and what you have to realize about a company like mine or theirs is that we deal 99.9% with mass market products, HCs, PBs, etc. Limited edition books are extremely rare to come through and even more so for an author as prolific as, and with collectors as zealous as, Stephen King. If S&S is structured anything like HarperCollins then the editors, Customer Service reps, designers, etc... have absolutely no contact with the warehouse that ships the books. They put an order through a digital system and it comes out as a little printout on a screen at a warehouse 100 miles away near a big pre-addressed box that says "put this book in this box".

I'm in no way justifying the way S&S handled the DJ issue, that was just lazy, but overall, they gave a good quality book, both trade and S/L. The issue is logistical in that the $150 S/L was processed by the same warehouse staff that handles $9.99 Mass Market PBs. THAT is why this needs to be handled by small presses. Grant doesn't ship 100,000 books a day and they don't have 200-300 unionized warehouse staff working for minimum wage putting generic books in boxes and shipping them to nameless customers.

[Brian James Freeman]

Yes, CD is better with King books because I think the exclusive rights to Blockade Billy set rules for them that they have to follow if they want to continue doing business with him.

You are absolutely just making stuff up with this statement.

Many of the collectors here can also attest to their shoddy business ethics. How many folks were screwed by buying lifetime CD book clubs only to have almost every S/L of note now published by THEM under the name of Lonely Road Books and denied to CD book club members?.

Yes, Cemetery Dance only publishes lowly, unwanted books like Full Dark, No Stars by some guy named Stephen King and It by another guy who happens to be named Stephen King. Or The Exorcist/Legion by some unknown guy named William Peter Blatty. Or The Passage by Justin Cronin, which sold out about 4 hours after it was announced. Or multiple books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, who may or may not have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list dozens of times over their long careers.

Cemetery Dance has published 50 books in the last 2 years, with a retail value of more than $2500, all of which went to our Lifetime members, some of whom only paid $500 for their memberships over 15 years ago -- and I never hear from any of them saying they feel "screwed" by that deal.

Are you a lifetime member, Craig? If so, please drop me a line via email so we can discuss your membership. It doesn't sound like you are, though. If you'd like to contact me about the books you have on order, feel free to do that as well.

By the way, you seem to be confused about Lonely Road Books, so here's some information about that:

People confuse the relationship between CD and LRB because of my obvious connection to both, but LRB is a side project I started separately with some co-funding from Rich. I take advantage of the established backend CD has in place for processing & shipping orders because it's expensive to get that sort of thing up and running for a new press -- especially when you only publish one or two books per year -- and I'm here 60 to 80 hours a week anyway, so I'd be a fool not to use what's available to me. CD takes an appropriate cut for its services, just like when we sell and ship books from Subterranean Press, Gauntlet, Borderlands, Scribner, etc.

I don't know how much everyone on here collects outside of the world of SK, but if you've watched the horror small press over the last 20 years, you know most new presses fail after one or two books. The three biggest reasons are: funding problems, picking poor projects to publish, and trouble reaching customers in the marketplace. So taking full advantage of this relationship I already have with a company that shipped 65,000 orders last year seemed like the best way to guarantee LRB would be around for as long as I wanted.

I hope this information is helpful.

Brian

[Randall Flagg]

Thanks you Brian for clarifying. It certainly is no coincidence that in the ~1 year that Brian has been active on the board here that satisfaction with Cemetery Dance has significantly increased.
As for Grant doing ALL of King's S/L's, I myself am glad that King spreads the opportunity around. As much as I like DMG books, I also appreciate the variety of styles and materials that can only be achieved by using different publishers.

[Brian James Freeman]

Thanks you Brian for clarifying. It certainly is no coincidence that in the ~1 year that Brian has been active on the board here that satisfaction with Cemetery Dance has significantly increased.

Always happy to answer questions! We've clearly made mistakes in the past, especially in terms of communicating information, but I think we've done a lot better these last two years and I think most collectors understand the difficulties in running a small business like this, so I'm happy to clarify anything anyone has questions about.

Brian

[mistercrowley]

I don't think it should be solely Grant publishing King. That's ridiculous and it cuts out a significant portion of people who aren't long standing customers of Grant. Your also making a very broad sweeping statement on behalf of others regarding CD and that's not fair to CD or those lifetime customers. I rip CD when they are insanely late on books but I don't think they are unethical. They offer refunds to folks who don't feel like waiting. That doesn't sound shoddy to me. I can point you to some shady small presses, Hill House, Full Moon Press, Medium Rare Books. They took people's money and kept it even though they didn't produce what was promised. Can you say the same thing of CD?

[Gris]

Guess I am overreacting by thinking a company owned by the same people using the same supply chain and employees being considered the same company. As far as customers being screwed, I can go dig up the Riding the Bullet thread where it was well discussed how it seemed intentional that the book was published by LRB so CD didn't need to send it to people.

I apologize for getting the thread off topic and will shut up about my personal issues with CD.

Brian, I've sent you a PM to see if I can get some closure on the outstanding issues I have that are not allowing me to change my opinion of CD. Maybe we can work something out to prove to me that I, as a long time customer, have been mistaken for the past 3.5 years of waiting and that a company can change it's ways.

[Brian James Freeman]

Guess I am overreacting by thinking a company owned by the same people using the same supply chain and employees being considered the same company. As far as customers being screwed, I can go dig up the Riding the Bullet thread where it was well discussed how it seemed intentional that the book was published by LRB so CD didn't need to send it to people.

I apologize for getting the thread off topic and will shut up about my personal issues with CD.

Brian, I've sent you a PM to see if I can get some closure on the outstanding issues I have that are not allowing me to change my opinion of CD. Maybe we can work something out to prove to me that I, as a long time customer, have been mistaken for the past 3.5 years of waiting and that a company can change it's ways.

Craig, I see your message and will reply in a moment. Happy to help!

The Riding the Bullet thread is full of misinformation and I guess I should have jumped in sooner to correct it. But Riding the Bullet was the 4th book published by LRB, after being in business for 4 years, so I don't quite get the conspiracy theories of, "Hey, they set-up a second company in 2006 and published three books just so they could screw a few dozen lifetimers out of an unsigned Stephen King book in 2010!" I mean, holy cow...

Again, Cemetery Dance has sent at least $2,500 worth of books -- including 3 Limited Edition books signed by Stephen King -- to our lifetimers in the last two years and I never hear any of them saying they were "screwed" by the deal. If any of them do feel that way, they should contact me right away so we can discuss their membership and what can be done. But considering I talk to most of our lifetimers at least once a month, I would have hoped they would have expressed any concerns to me already.

I will reply to your message in just a moment. Like I said, happy to help!

Brian

[Robert Fulman]

I impulsively signed up for Early Reader's Club 5.0 last month. The main reason I signed up was because it cost $50 and it promised 5 $10 coupons; I didn't realize at the time that the coupons would expire at the end of the year. So, what I've decided to do is actually read the proofs I receive and then post my thoughts in this thread. That'll teach them

Anyway, I started reading "The Doll", a collection of "lost" short stories by Daphne de Maurier. I've only read the first two stories, "East Wind" and "The Doll" and I have found them both to be beautifully written and thoroughly creepy, in a slow-burn skin-crawling kind of way. Just based on those two, I'm definitely going to finish the collection over Christmas break. It looks like the book will be published next month, and I think people should check it out. (I put "lost" in quotes, because the full title of the book is "The Doll: The Lost Short Stories", but it looks like these stories were all published during de Maurier's lifetime; I think it would have been more appropriate to call them "Forgotten Short Stories".)

[Brian James Freeman]

I impulsively signed up for Early Reader's Club 5.0 last month. The main reason I signed up was because it cost $50 and it promised 5 $10 coupons; I didn't realize at the time that the coupons would expire at the end of the year. So, what I've decided to do is actually read the proofs I receive and then post my thoughts in this thread. That'll teach them

Anyway, I started reading "The Doll", a collection of "lost" short stories by Daphne de Maurier. I've only read the first two stories, "East Wind" and "The Doll" and I have found them both to be beautifully written and thoroughly creepy, in a slow-burn skin-crawling kind of way. Just based on those two, I'm definitely going to finish the collection over Christmas break. It looks like the book will be published next month, and I think people should check it out. (I put "lost" in quotes, because the full title of the book is "The Doll: The Lost Short Stories", but it looks like these stories were all published during de Maurier's lifetime; I think it would have been more appropriate to call them "Forgotten Short Stories".)

It's a wonderful book. I agree about the title, but that's the one the trade publishers came up with. And yep, our hardcover edition will begin shipping in January.

By the way, let's just say the expiration date on those coupons are more of a suggestion than a strict date. You'll find them still working well into the spring if needed.

Brian

[ICry4Oy]

There was discussion in the 11/22/63 thread about Cemetery Dance and someone's displeasure with them but I'm putting this here instead.

I've only been buying from CD for about 2 or 3 years now so I can't speak to any past problems anyone may have had with them.

I can say that they have been very AWESOME to deal with. I've never had any problems with any of my orders. Mindy has always been lightning fast to respond to any of my questions and has always been of great help to me.

I cannot thank Brian and Dan enough for the timely information and help they provide here.

Their products are very high quality. One of the smartest and best purchases I made from them was the "grab bag" and I can't wait until they do that again!!!

If anyone has any problems or questions about pending orders I would suggest they send CD an email and if they don't get a quick answer send them a follow-up email - sometimes people get busy and things do get overlooked.

[Brian James Freeman]

There was discussion in the 11/22/63 thread about Cemetery Dance and someone's displeasure with them but I'm putting this here instead.

I've only been buying from CD for about 2 or 3 years now so I can't speak to any past problems anyone may have had with them.

I can say that they have been very AWESOME to deal with. I've never had any problems with any of my orders. Mindy has always been lightning fast to respond to any of my questions and has always been of great help to me.

I cannot thank Brian and Dan enough for the timely information and help they provide here.

Their products are very high quality. One of the smartest and best purchases I made from them was the "grab bag" and I can't wait until they do that again!!!

If anyone has any problems or questions about pending orders I would suggest they send CD an email and if they don't get a quick answer send them a follow-up email - sometimes people get busy and things do get overlooked.

Thank you! Very much appreciated!

Brian

[sentinel]

Sign me up right now if you still have the $500 lifetime subscription! (-: