![\"PaperCuts-web\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/PaperCuts-web.jpg?resize=468%2C60\")
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Cut (v):\u00a0make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Indie Publishing is the New B-Movies and Here\u2019s Why That\u2019s A Good Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, it\u2019s died twice, actually, but still the term persists.<\/p>\n First of all, we should probably get on the same page and define what we mean by a B-movie, before I start telling you why I think it\u2019s dead. And what I think has replaced it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In its original usage, \u201cB-movie\u201d meant a movie that accompanied an A-picture, it was something cheaper to produce to fill out a double bill. So this first label didn\u2019t denote genre, it just meant economical matinee filler.<\/p>\n As the double-feature distribution model faded away, to fans the term B-movie became synonymous with \u201ccheese\u201d (or \u201cschlock\u201d, a label I find much preferable, cheese has more of that stink of irony on it). What\u2019s important to note for this definition is that the charming shoddiness of a true B-movie is almost always unintentional<\/strong>. This intangible \u201cB\u201d quality is byproduct of a production without enough money, time, know-how, or some combination of the three.<\/p>\n With that second definition in mind, I would contend that the vast majority of today\u2019s \u201cB-movies\u201d disqualify themselves from the title, because they are setting out to earn that B on purpose. Intent makes all the difference. I\u2019ll allow that movies like Sharknado<\/em> are exploitation<\/em><\/strong> films (a term sometimes used interchangeably with \u201cB-picture\u201d), but what they\u2019re exploiting is your desire to watch a movie and tweet at the same time.<\/p>\n For the most part, the more sincere ancestors of the B-movie (Lifetime Originals, action flicks that exist for foreign pre-sales) lack the freedom, audaciousness, or genre specificity of yesteryear. We horror fans want to see horror movies, and as wonderful as a diamond in the rough like Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning<\/em> is, it\u2019s not horror. So where have our <\/strong>B\u2019s gone?<\/p>\n My own personal <\/strong>definition of what constitutes a B-movie\u2014especially in the modern era\u2014is a bit more fraught. Movies are expensive to produce. \u201cYeah, no duh.\u201d I know I\u2019m breaking new ground here.<\/p>\n But<\/em>, since movies are expensive, it can be hard for outsiders, nuts, and legit-visionaries to get access to the money to make them. But<\/em>, if you take an artist with something to say and stick them on a project that\u2019s meant to be a blind money grab (\u201cThese monster flicks turn a profit no matter what, these rubes will pay for anything!\u201d), they\u2019re still going to find a way to smuggle that art into your irradiated rodent picture.<\/p>\n And that method of production was what Roger Corman* turned into his bread-and-butter, forming an impromptu film school out of biker flicks and saucer-men.<\/p>\n That\u2019s<\/em> what draws me to the term: I\u2019m attracted to art that it\u2019s easy for both dummies and snobs alike to scoff at, but actually carries a viral load of intelligence under that slimy surface layer of schlock.<\/p>\n But in today\u2019s industry there\u2019s a diminished need for that model, as today\u2019s genre auteur\u2014for the most part\u2014find themselves working in the genre on purpose<\/em>. Filmmakers no longer need to be assigned genre work as quick-and-dirty first jobs, they want<\/em> to make horror films. With the way VOD has reshaped distribution and turned what would have normally been \u201cfilm festival fare\u201d (movies which, generally, have a way better quality-batting-average than the New World, Cannon, and the other B-farms of yore) into the same movies that fill up Redboxes and Netflix queues.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, I think that the general \u201crising tide lifting all ships\u201d increase in quality of genre film is a good thing, but it does leave me itching for what I love about B-movies: the idea of sifting through blatantly commercial work and trying to parse out where the art is hiding.<\/p>\n And that, after a 600 word preamble, is where books enter this article.<\/p>\n That headline above is a bit misleading. But that\u2019s par for the course on internet headlines, right? Don\u2019t be mad.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t literally<\/em> think indie publishing and indie books are the \u201cnew B-movies!\u201d But I do think they\u2019ve begun to function in a similar way, both through the amount <\/strong>of product flooding the market and how beholden (and in some cases remarkably un-beholden) the market has become to trends and subgenres.<\/p>\n Books are books and movies are movies. Of course. But I think the metaphor of \u201cIndie publishing is making the new B-movies\u201d* offers us a chance to examine how smaller publishers (and some self-publishers) have glommed onto\u2014sometimes intentionally and sometimes not\u2014that special alchemy of art and commerce that only the best B-movies reach. So yes, there\u2019s way more bad stuff out there than good, but that\u2019s why it\u2019s such an apt metaphor.<\/p>\n Here are three of these pubs bringing quality to the indie publishing scene, and some of their filmic corollaries. I clearly haven\u2019t read every book from all of these presses, but hey: I\u2019ve never shied away from generalizations in the past when it\u2019s helped me construct a listicle<\/span>\u00a0 it\u2019s all in good fun!***<\/p>\n Eraserhead Press<\/a>: <\/strong>Along with Raw Dog Screaming Press, Eraserhead is one of the premier publishers of bizarro fiction, a difficult-to-define genre that plays well with horror and horror-folk.<\/p>\n Difficult-to-define but maybe the easiest fit for this article, because the bizarros make the comparison to films on in their own sales materials. The party line is that bizarro is a wider umbrella that\u2019s the book-equivalent to \u201cthe \u2018Cult\u2019 section at the video store.\u201d Which is a pretty good descriptor, if only we still had video stores.<\/p>\n More specifically, many of bizarro\u2019s biggest breakout titles can be compared to the shock-baiting (and sometimes allegorical) B-pictures that Troma has built its name on. Who wouldn\u2019t want to know what The Haunted Vagina <\/em>is about? (A title from bizarro\u2019s high priest, Carlton Mellick III). But since bizarro operates on a sliding scale of weirdness and crudity, some of the genre\u2019s more high-minded titles are probably better compared to the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, or Don Coscarelli.<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s tempting to give Eraserhead\u2019s subsidiaries and associated acts Deadite Press and Lazy Fascist their own entries in this list, we probably shouldn\u2019t for time (how\u2019m I doing, editor? Will I break 2,000 words? Will you disown me if I do?). Deadite functions in a similar way to EH while focusing on extreme horror (Edward Lee, Shane McKenzie, Brian Keene, Monica O\u2019Rourke), and Lazy Fascist skews more literary, but sometimes delivers high-minded B-applicable-goodness like Brian Allen Carr\u2019s Motherfucking Sharks<\/em>.<\/p>\n If those three categories sound oddly specific: they are, but not if you\u2019re one of Severed\u2019s THOUSANDS of dedicated readers, apparently. Chasing trends is nothing new, but what does surprise is how many established authors are game to throw on their waders and attempt to make aquatic horror their own. In a real Boxcar Bertha<\/em> preceding Mean Streets<\/em> move, barrio-noir wonderboy Gabino Iglesias wrote one.<\/p>\n Another such author is Hunter Shea. A former mainstay of Samhain Publishing and current old-school mass market paperback writer with Kensington\/Pinnacle, Shea is of interest to this article because there is probably no novelist working right now who\u2019s as dedicated (pathological?) a monster maker. Guy loves it, and what I like about his work is that it\u2019s never ironic and never a retread. His monsters need an internal consistency or biology or, it seems, that he won\u2019t write them. He\u2019s a natural fit for Severed, because tasked with aquatic horror (the genre-makeup of which seems to be 75% big shark, 20% big octopod, and 5% other) he chose to go with chimera fish as his antagonist in They Rise<\/em>. Which is a kind of poisonous pseudo-shark that I didn\u2019t even know existed. Points for creativity, at the very least.<\/p>\n Word Horde<\/a>:<\/strong> The odd-man-out of these three presses I\u2019m profiling, Word Horde\u2019s releases come at a slower clip and are generally more genre-diverse, but editor Ross Lockhart strikes me as a real Corman-type in his eye for talent (and not to mention his obsession with the classics of the genre). Word Horde may be more of a prestige press, but I see Lockhart is a facilitator of nerd talent who\u2019s very savvy of his fellow publisher\u2019s B-tendencies.<\/p>\n Yes, that\u2019s only three and there are a bunch more publishers on that B-movie frontline that I lack the word count to expand on: Sinister Grin Press, StrangeHouse Books, Perpetual Motion Machine, Bizarro Pulp Press, DarkFuse, Dynatox Ministires, to name a few.<\/p>\n But I\u2019ve got to leave you with one last note. Much like B-movies and their bodacious movie posters, the variance in quality among similar looking-books on Amazon makes blind-buys a complete game of Russian roulette. I can vouch for the books mentioned above, but reader beware: I fully advocate supporting the indie press, but I also advocate using Amazon\u2019s \u201cLook Inside\u201d feature to sample a book before buying. Yeah, read widely and adventurously, but make sure that the author has at least a tenuous grip on the English language.<\/p>\n And that may sound condescending, but I\u2019m really not trying to be. I\u2019m sure an author would much rather you skip their book entirely than have you buy without trying and then torpedoing them with a one-star review after deciding the writing\u2019s not for you, a few pages in.<\/p>\n Until next time: happy reading, film freaks and book geeks.<\/p>\n * imagine I said \u201chot pink is the new black!\u201d You\u2019d understand what I was implying. And you also may be gifted with the mental image of a bunch of goths in hot pink.<\/p>\n ** we mentioned him last time<\/a>, remember? It\u2019s like I\u2019m weaving somekinda rambling metanarrative outta these things or somethin\u2019.<\/p>\n ***And I guess here\u2019s where we put the big bias disclaimer. I\u2019ve worked with these three presses, they\u2019ve put out my work. But it\u2019s work that maybe subscribes to that ethos of \u201ccommercial art with a creamy caramel center of personal art.\u201d So yeah, I\u2019m biased, but so are we all. And I didn\u2019t try to pitch you on any of my own books. If anything I should be applauded for my restraint. Have you met other authors on the internet?<\/p>\n Adam Cesare is a New Yorker who lives in Philadelphia. He studied English and film at Boston University. His books include <\/em>Mercy House,\u00a0Video Night, The Summer Job,\u00a0and <\/em>Tribesmen.\u00a0He has an oft-neglected\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and tweets as @Adam_Cesare<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n![\"sharknado-4-sequel-greenlit\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/sharknado-4-sequel-greenlit.jpg?resize=300%2C300\")
The age of the B-movie is dead.<\/p>\n![\"rise\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/rise-202x300.jpg?resize=202%2C300\")
Severed Press<\/a>:<\/strong> Probably the publisher that operates the closest to the classic AIP production structure, the Austrailia-based Severed Press finds the niches that Kindle readers are craving and then exploits them. They publish all kinds of horror, but they find their greatest success in the Kaiju, aquatic horror, and zombie\/post-apocalypse genres, thus they encourage their stable of authors to write in those sub-genres.<\/p>\n![\"MrSuicide_Cover_small-259x400\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/MrSuicide_Cover_small-259x400-194x300.jpg?resize=194%2C300\")
A good example might be Nicole Cushing\u2019s Mr. Suicide<\/em>. It\u2019s a book that WH gave the royal treatment\u2014sandwiched between releases of \u201cliterary horror\u201d collections\u2014but any other \u201cclassy\u201d publisher would have been too scared to publish. And I think Lockhart knows that, could envision a \u201cless classy\u201d publisher marketing Cushing\u2019s book as abject extreme horror, giving it a blood \u2019n guts photoshop cover, and dumping it on Amazon to compete with books that\u2014let\u2019s face it\u2014should probably get you listed on some kind of government watchlist.<\/p>\n