Red Wheel Weiser is doing a new series of e-book originals, featuring out-of-print stories. The publisher is planning on releasing 10 e-originals, ranging in price from $2.99 to $9.99, on October 25 under two different lines: Paranormal Parlor and Magical Creatures. Both lines, which will be available on Kindle, Nook, iPad and other devices, will feature fiction and nonfiction ranging in length from 40 pages to 220 pages.
The first batch of stories from Paranormal Parlor and Magical Creatures will be public domain works, but a rep at Red Wheel said the publisher is adding new material to some works, and also plans on featuring backlist titles from its own library in future releases. Weiser Books author Varla Ventura edited the titles from Paranormal Parlor and Magical Creatures, and the publisher plans to release five titles per month, from each line, moving forward. Red Wheel also intends to do new e-book lines in this vein, covering other topics.
The publisher said the lines grew out of the house's roots, namely that Red Wheel founder Samuel Weiser, who had a New York City bookstore, was known for selling occult and esoteric books. The lines are intended to bring "forgotten and out-of-print" material to readers, One of the works in the first line us John William Polidiri's short story "The Vampyre," which was published in 1819 and penned by Lord Byron's physician.
