Our Publishing Year in Review
We published a record number of new titles in 2022 and expanded into a new medium.
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Input/Output Enterprises began two years ago as a nascent publisher of horror. Since then--and in 2022 in particular--we've grown immeasurably. We published three anthologies, launched a new series, and ventured into new formats and subgenres.
In 2022, We Embraced Serials
Kindle Vella, launched by Amazon in 2021, is a return to the publishing methods of yesteryear--allowing authors to publish stories in serialized chapters. We knew as soon as the platform was announced that we wanted to utilize it and put out a call for story submissions in 2021.
We published four Vella stories in 2022, three from contributing authors and one as part of The Periodical, Forlorn. Tim Bruner's Wandering Blind is a stream-of-conscience weird fiction tale following Walter Stepson as he stumbles between strange alien worlds.
Myron Kukla's When Dorothy Met Dracula in Hollywood is part humor, part thriller and follows a down-on-his-luck Bela Lugosi as he searches for an old friend one Halloween night in Hollywood. But Lugosi--joined on his adventures by a wannabee starlet--gets more than he bargained for.
With Tom Davison's Eternal Prisoners, I/O Enterprises also ventured into a new subgenre of horror: cosmic horror. Set in the Cthulhu mythos, the story follows Doctor Henry Silberhutte and his team of fighters against the agents of chaos as they fight the return of the Cthulhu cult.
Following the success of the first five chapters, I/O Enterprises reached an agreement with Davison to extend the story. Now, trapped in a barren Otherworld populated by unspeakable horrors, hero John Steele fights to return to the real world, Silberhutte and his lover Sierra. New episodes will continue into 2023!
Our fourth serial, The Dunstanmere Affair, deposits readers once more in the world of Carlisle, editor of The Periodical, Forlorn, and his employees Ceilidh Campbell and Danger Callahan. Ceilidh and Cal go undercover at the Dunstanmere estate, the source of rumors about hauntings and strange happenings. Callahan suspects its connected to the mere, which reportedly has unique biological properties. But he uncovers something else strange: there are no birth records for the Dunstan family.
As Ceilidh and Cal investigate, the mystery only deepens. What does an abandoned village in the woods have to do with heir Amyas' strange and moody demeanor? As events become stranger--and more dangerous--Ceilidh begins to fall for the mysterious man. New episodes out regularly!
2022: Year of the Vampire
Our longer-form fiction publications all celebrated our favorite horror monster, the vampire. We enjoy things that subvert established forms and genres and our anthologies follow in that vein, each presenting a different and unusual take on vampire fiction.
In Charlotte Baker's Valor Diamond: The Rhyme and Retribution Killer, a group of vampire sleuths drinks animal blood (frequently mixed with alcohol). watches horror movies and uses their unique powers to hunt down a grisly killer. But will their still-too-human failings be the group's undoing? Can they band together to find the killer before he strikes someone close to them? Even vampires have their failings.
And look for Book 2 in the Valor Diamond trilogy in 2023!
We saluted our favorite creatures of the night again in And the Dead Shall Sleep No More: Volume II. Like the first volume, this second anthology featured original works of short fiction from a slate of contributing authors, all with some element of vampirism in them.
For the past two years, this anthology has been one of our favorites because it highlights just how diverse a set of stories a call for submissions can illicit. From Dracula, to old English detective tropes, to badass vampire hunters in Korea, and vampire myths from non-European cultures, And the Dead Shall Sleep No More: Volume II has a little something for fans of all writing styles and tropes. No two stories are alike, and that's the way we like it.
Closing out the year, we most recently published the second anthology in Scott Harper's Anton the Undying universe. Anton, formerly a Roman slave and gladiator, still lives, having been turned at his death. Now, he resides in sunny California and fights on behalf of the vampiress who turned him, helping Bregit keep the supernatural world in check and protected from humans.
Both The Name of Fear Collection, the first book in the series, and A Cleansing of the Blood were published in 2022. In them, Anton fights an array of supernatural creatures and searches for a cure for his bloodlust. Uniting the two volumes is a growing threat against Bregit. Will Anton stop it in time?
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Check back in a few days to find out where we're headed in 2023!