ESCAPE to Now be Published by Simon & Schuster

I am pleased to announce that my debut book, Escape: A Zombie Chronicles Novel, is now going to be published by Simon & Schuster through their Pocket Books imprint!

Here’s the press release that went out today:

New York, New York (July 1, 2009) – Anthony Ziccardi, Vice President and Deputy Publisher of Pocket Books, has announced a new co-publishing venture with Permuted Press, best known for horror, dark fantasy and science fiction novels . The seven book deal was brokered by Marc Gerald at the Agency Group. The books will be Zombie focused, with the first release DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON by J.L. Bourne, slated for October 2009.

“I am excited to be the pioneer author for the Pocket Books and Permuted Press joint publishing venture.  Horror fans are in for an absolute thrill and can expect to enjoy bold, fresh and riveting fiction as a result of this project.  The journey with Permuted Press has been a great success and I know that success will be further enhanced as we shift gears into a new and exciting relationship with Pocket Books. Keep your doors locked!”  –J.L. Bourne

Jacob Kier, Publisher, Permuted Press, said “I couldn’t be more excited about teaming up with Pocket Books to bring some of Permuted’s most exciting and thought-provoking tales of the end of the world to a larger audience.”

Permuted Press began its publishing program in 2004 and quickly became noted in the horror fiction genre.  Bourne’s DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON is Permuted’s biggest seller, with sales of approximately 25,000 copies. Other titles entering the co-publishing venture have sold between 10-20,000 copies. Permuted has achieved unprecedented success for a small company operating from a remote corner of Missouri and, until now, has utilized only a print on demand (POD) centered publishing model.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Permuted Press and expand their very successful brand.”  said Anthony Ziccardi. “We feel the horror genre and zombies in particular, will be a growing category at retail. Even Hollywood seems to be focused on zombie tales and we feel that we are well positioned to capitalize on this trend.”

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Titles to be included in the joint venture are:

* Day by Day Armageddon and sequel by J.L. Bourne
* Plague of the Dead by Z.A. Recht
* Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth
* Down the Road by Bowie Ibarra
* Empire by David Dunwoody
* The Zombie Chronicles: Escape by James Melzer

This is truly amazing news for all of us. I am humbled and grateful to everyone who has made this deal come to fruition. Since beginning TZC as a podcast novel last September, it has been a wild, wild ride and I have met so many others who have been a tremendous support along the way. Thank you to EVERYONE!

So what this means is that Escape will NOW come out in print in 2011 instead of Fall ’09 BUT it will now be in bookstores NATION WIDE! This is a huge feather in the cap not only for Permuted Press but on a more personal level, for podcast novelists.

It just goes to show that with hard work and persistence, your dreams can not only pay off, but end up exceeding your expectations!

~James Melzer

*UPDATE – Pocket Books is now known as Galley Books, after merging with a few other divisions of Simon & Schuster