@“edward”#p83620
>
Ghosts of East Baltimore by David Simmons
this book sounds like a must-read for me, but it seems like the only way i can buy it is via Amazon? was that your experience as well? i try not to give Amazon any of my business...
@“whatsarobot”#p83669
Yeah, sadly only on amazon and will probably remain that way.
Amazon being an effective monopoly, it‘s very difficult for independent publishers to not lock themselves into the amazon ecosystem. Especially because if you fuck with amazon, they can just delist you. Since 80% or more of book sales happen on Amazon, small independent publishers don’t really have a choice.
I mean, even the major publishers have to play by Amazon's rules.
@“edward”#p83678 giving this a like because of your helpful explanation, not for the way Amazon operates or the effects it has on book publishers 
i just finished The Maid by Nita Prose, which is a book that has been getting a lot of praise this year.
i found the story to be pleasant and engaging, and even a bit exciting in the middle third, but the main character appears to be an offensive and selective stereotype of people on the autistic spectrum. also, the narrative veered crazily from twee and apparently intentionally unbelievable slice of life to edgy crime drama and back again in a way that made both styles less palatable.
the other recently-released and much-celebrated book i read before that, however, was a bit more successful. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. imagine the generation-spanning gimmick from Cloud Atlas mixed with gentle near-future sci-fi and reflections on life with Covid. i found it particularly interesting because it's the first novel i read to be published since the pandemic which is clearly commenting directly on the pandemic and what it means for our lives.
I‘ve been interested in Sea of Tranquility even though I seem to be alone in thinking Station Eleven was terrible. So bad that I couldn’t even finish it! But the reasons I feel this way may be too specific to me.
i just finished Ghosts of East Baltimore and i can’t understand how David Simmons pulled that off. the elements shouldn’t work together, especially with such a short page count, but the chaos and shocking violence are balanced with moments of genuine human struggle and insight. i’ve never read anything like it before. no one has.
@"edward"#1011 can i ask how you found out about that book? i never would have heard of it had you not mentioned it here. unless you have like a newsletter i can subscribe to for similarly cool book recommendations, please let me know the good resources to find out about exciting, weird indie stuff like this. it ruled.
of course if anyone else has recommendations for places to stay up to date on good, under-the-radar books being published, please share. i only know how to find out about new books by authors i don’t already know from word of mouth and the “it’s your lucky day” section on my public library app.
EDIT: that being said, word of mouth remains a totally fun and rewarding way to find out about new books to read! it’s just not the most dependable resource, because you never know when and where it might present itself.
@“whatsarobot”#p83922
The short answer is that I've been involved with small press independent publishing for a long time.
The long answer is because of J David Osborne. His first novel is a weird and wild nightmare set in a gulag: [By the Time We Leave Here, We'll Be Friends](https://www.amazon.com/Time-Leave-Here-Well-Friends/dp/1940885442/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2HIS6FU6Y088E&keywords=j+david+osborne&qid=1662425673&sprefix=j+david+osborne%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1). After another novel, Osborne started a small press called Broken River Books, which mostly published crime and crime adjacent fiction, usually with a slap of surrealism or Lynchian tones. About five years ago, Broken River Books sort of went quiet, along with many other small presses (the long and short answer is a mix of Amazon and Big 5 poaching). Then last year, Broken River Books started quietly releasing books by [Kelby Losack](https://www.amazon.com/Kelby-Losack/e/B00GO3ASAE?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1662426014&sr=1-1) and [Osborne](https://www.amazon.com/J-David-Osborne/e/B004G4S8KU/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1). I call what they're doing Walmart Noir, which I've been meaning to write a whole thing about.
So I was poised to notice when this came out and was just kind of gobsmacked by it for all the reasons you mention.
If you're interested in J David Osborne, you can always start with his debut, but Black Gum is my favorite. His booklength essay about Death Stranding is also great. Kelby Losack's debut Heathenish is great as is his most recent Letting out the Devils, but Hurricane Season might be my favorite for how odd it is.
I do have a newsletter where I write about books, among other things. I've written a few posts that are basically just recommendations, [here](https://radicaledward.substack.com/p/books-i-love) and [here](https://radicaledward.substack.com/p/more-lovely-books) and [here](https://radicaledward.substack.com/p/top-threes).
Sadly, much of small independent publishing has disappeared in the last few years. A few writers have gone on to become very famous (like Roxane Gay) while others have become sort of famous (like Stephen Graham Jones) and a few have become respected but relatively unknown except in specific kinds of circles (like Amber Sparks or Matt Bell), but many, many writers have sort of just kept publishing with presses that only last for a few years, dooming their back catalogue to the void (I put my three novels out of print a few years ago for what some may call _stupid reasons_, but that seemed like good enough reasons at the time!).
But, yeah, I'm always happy to talk about books and to recommend books! Ghosts of East Baltimore is honestly unlike anything I can think of, which makes finding similar books pretty difficult. Peter Tieryas wrote a [trilogy of mech novels](https://bookshop.org/books/united-states-of-japan/9780857667229) inspired by Philip K Dick that made him a bestseller in Japan but nowhere near a bestseller here (he had a contract for books 2 and 3 in Japan long before he had an American deal, which is funny since he only writes in English). Richard Calder wrote one of the wildest trilogies I can think of called [Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things](https://bookshop.org/books/dead-girls-dead-boys-dead-things/9780312180782). If you can look past some of the sexism and male-gaziness and possibly inadvertent misogyny, these books are really unlike anything else I've ever read. A mix of cyberpunk and vampire and thriller and Orpheic epic science fantasy.
If you're looking for something quieter, I've always loved Berit Ellingsen's [The Empty City](https://bookshop.org/books/the-empty-city/9788299873604) and Molly Gaudry's [We Take Me Apart](https://bookshop.org/books/we-take-me-apart/9780988732889). If you can find any of JA Tyler's books in print, I definitely recommend him as well. But his are slight experimental novels that I personally find incredibly moving.
@“edward”#p83967 thanks so much for taking the time to write this thoughtful reply! you‘ve generously given me a lot to dig into here, and i suspect i’ll find a lot to enjoy just off the strength of this post.
i'm definitely not hoping to find anything like Ghosts of East Baltimore, because i don't expect that anything exactly like it exists. but i am excited about the idea of supporting small-press or independent authors, precisely because they seem to be doing things that the major publishers aren't interested in supporting, because it is often _too weird_. and it's that weirdness that intrigues me, even if it isn't always successful or totally coherent.
i will check out your newsletter for sure!
on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Stephen King has a new book out today, called Fairy Tale. it's meant to be his response to the boredom induced by the early-ish days of the pandemic, and is getting good reviews.
i'm still a sucker for King when he's at his best. i also happen to think he's done a lot of his best work in the past 10-15 years, which is not what people generally seem to assume about him.
and David Simmons cited him as an early influence in Ghosts of East Baltimore, so reading Fairy Tale next feels somehow appropriate.
@“whatsarobot”#p83969
>
precisely because they seem to be doing things that the major publishers aren’t interested in supporting, because it is often too weird.
This is definitely where the best of independent publishing is. The stuff that takes big, weird risks with narrative, style, or subject matter. Sadly, it's difficult for these to compete with The Big Five, let alone Amazon. They survive on the enthusiasm and dedication of the founder and often at a loss or just breaking even enough for them to not have a budget to hire people or really do marketing.
Publishing is a hard business and while certain things about the structure of the internet caused a small press boom to happen between 2005 and 2013, the way the internet has changed has ensured that almost all of those publishing ventures failed.
[Two Dollar Radio](https://twodollarradio.com/) is probably the most successful one that's still around that's not directly tied to a university or set up as a non-profit. They've changed a lot since their founding, but they still put out fascinating books.
in the midst of my semi-annual tradition of re-reading all of Love And Rockets in order. I hope to 1) form a more positive opinion of Jaime’s “Love Bunglers” - present writing and 2) finally understand what the fuck Gilbert has been doing for the last 10 years
reading the individual issues you see how out of control great L&R was. “Wig Wam Bam,” “Poison River,” and “Love And Rockets X” all running concurrently it’s kind of overwhelming.
Never even heard of Love and Rockets. Who wrote that?
@“edward”#p84695 Jaime and Gilberto “los bros” Hernandez. Best work of american fiction since idk 1980 maybe earlier
https://blog.fantagraphics.com/how-to-read-love-and-rockets/
@“yeso”#p84707
Very cool. Will check it out!
@“yeso”#p84707 Go back in time and post that link in your thread
I‘m re-obsessed. it’s so good. Rewarding to pick up details I hadn't noticed before like how did Steve wind up in Palomar? turns out it was because RiRi laughed at his small dick
Hey @RubySunrise, are you by any chance reading Nona the Ninth? Would be cool to exchange DMs as we read along if that‘s something that you’d be into.
@“JoJoestar”#p84782 I would be very much into that! I‘m so glad you posted- I had lost track of that book and didn’t realize it had come out.
@“RubySunrise”#p84789 It did precisely yesterday, so you didn‘t miss the train at all. Happy my message made you aware it’s already available then 
It's honestly been a while since I was this excited for a new release I have to admit!