Stealth Press is a direct-publishing venture that's using e-book promotional material to help sell its list of out-of-print pulp titles by established writers, chiefly in the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres.
Stealth sends out free copies of chapters from its titles in PDF format, with embedded links to its Web site. Stealth has a team of four to six staffers who search the Web for sites, newsgroups and chat rooms devoted to these genres. The team develops e-mail lists of webmasters and content managers. The press has found that people on these lists often forward the e-chapters to other lists.
Stealth is not in the print-on-demand business, stressed Roy Smith, director of marketing. The company maintains an inventory of at least 1,000 copies per title, and prints quality books that are equivalent to high-end limited editions. The list price is typically $30, which includes shipping.
Stealth also offers its titles through online vendors such as Amazon.com, as well as through traditional bricks-and-mortar bookstores and libraries. The company advertises online through banner ads and targeted e-mails. Stealth Press expects to turn a profit in the first quarter of 2002.
Instead of bombarding users with ads, Stealth offers content to an already receptive audience. Authors and e-book evangelists such as M.J. Rose and Douglas Clegg have championed the Internet as powerful tool for building readership, and Stealth Press agrees. "These core communities give us direct access to niche markets. It's peer-to-peer marketing on the most basic level," said Clegg, award-winning horror writer and a marketing consultant for Stealth. "The best way to reach readers is one to another."
Circulating sample chapters of Stealth titles on the Web provides an economical way to create demand for its books and establish a goodwill bond with readers. The technique is used carefully, and samples are not offered for all Stealth titles. The offer for a chapter from F. Paul Wilson's newly released Enemy of the State was sent to 280 Web sites interested in SF.
Stealth is betting that if people like the samples, they'll buy the books. Based on Clegg's experience, that bet is a safe one. Since Clegg started offering free e-copies of his own books through his own site (www.douglassclegg.com), his print sales have quintupled. Stealth can easily track the success of its targeted marketing efforts by counting how many hits to its site any particular link generates, and how much of that traffic leads to purchases.
The folks at Stealth think marketing, rather than standalone publishing, is the real future of digital books. "We believe e-books do provide a place for certain types of material—catalogues and technical material that changes often," said Smith.
Stealth has created a full-service Web site (www.stealthpress.com) that not only processes retail orders, but also brings readers and authors into an online community. The site offers book reviews, industry news, extensive author information and message boards through which readers and writers can communicate directly. Its authors don't receive big advances, said Smith, but they get monthly checks based on royalty rates that are at the high end of the industry norm.
"We're building a brand-new paradigm for publishing," said Smith. "Books that are considered untenable by the major publishers, we would consider extremely profitable ventures." The company released its first titles last November and has published nearly 20 books by such authors as John Shirley, Robert Heinlein and Peter Straub since the beginning of the year. "We have no shortage of material," Smith said. "About 90,000 titles go out of print each year."
Stealth Press is based in Lancaster, Pa. The company is funded by private investors, and is currently in its second round of financing.
