I liked their first album better
Feb 10, 2026 2:06 pm
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
Boy have we got some stuff to talk about this week. First up!
COMING IN SPRING 2027
If you follow us on Bluesky, we told you this story a ways back:
Well, Noah Lloyd and their utterly unhinged, absurdly good novel, IT OPENS DOORS, is what we were talking about. It's a literary, Weird, terrifying-as-all-get-out story set in the Pacific Northwest of the 1920s. And it's so Tenebrous. We can't wait to open these doors with you.
TENEBROUS PRESS LEVELS UP
As some of you may have already seen across publishing news channels. Tenebrous Press is proud to be added to the roster of publishers distributed by INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS GROUP starting June, but including our entire back catalogue.
What does this mean?
For readers: hopefully more places where you can find our books, especially more bookstores and retailers.
For our authors: hopefully selling more books! Where previously we'd been relying on just our own efforts (plus services like amazon, Ingram, etc), we will now have the support of the whole team at IPG.
For booksellers and retailers: better service, faster fulfillment, easier ordering, a dedicated team telling you about our books, and likely a system and distributor you're already working with for other titles!
For us as a press: the world. We've been working towards this goal carefully, cautiously, with much planning and research, for the past two years. We looked into all kinds of distributors and landed on IPG as our "dream agent", and it was nothing short of miracle meets preparation that they accepted us into their program.
Now let's make good of it and enter into the new Tenebrous Cult era together.
FAQ:
Does this mean you're going to sell a billion copies of everything?
Not even a little! But it does mean that if we ever do sell more than we expect, we have the support system to handle that, and it means giving each book its best shot at its best life (which is what we've always been aiming for), whether that means 100 copies sold or 100.0000.
Does this mean the authors get less in royalties?
Nope, because while it's true that there are fees attached to getting books from "document" to "physical book in hands of readers", we were already paying those fees to printing, shipping, amazon fees, paypal fees, ingram fees, returns, etc etc. All it means is all those fees now go to one place, to people with a face who care about selling our books. That has no impact on the authors' end of the deal.
Does this mean the books won't be available in (insert venue here)?
Nope. Our distributor will handle getting the book everywhere, including everywhere we've had them before. This shouldn't negatively impact access at all.
Are you expecting any turbulence with the change?
Possibly! While we don't expect anything major, it will be a year that involves a lot of careful timing and a lot of labor. And we're actively preparing for that and making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
Which is why we're making this small change:
As we shuffle some books around in our schedule and shift our focus to new priorities, we've made the decision to close the 2026 Tenebrous Book Club for the year.
For those who are already subscribed: fear not! You're good to go! If there are any scheduling tweaks that we need to make, you'll be the first to know.
If you were thinking of subscribing and now have a few extra bucks burning a hole in your pocket, we've still got a loaded-up webstore and plenty of preorders for you to browse!
Friends With Benefits, Part One: The Weirdpunk Sub Club
If you're looking for another Book Club to support? Check out our good buds at Weirdpunk!
You can subscribe to their entire 2026 lineup of four books and three zines, plus exclusive goodies to boot, until the end of March. Get on it.
Friends With Benefits, Part Two: UNDERTOW is taking submissions for THE BEST WEIRD FICTION OF THE YEAR until 2/28
Hey, Writers, heads up! Undertow founder and Editor-in-Chief Michael Kelly is back for a new round of their revamped Best Weird Fiction of the Year. Check out the guidelines here, and get those submissions in.
Undertow Publications is one of our favorite presses, period. They've been doing Weird the right way since 2009: that's friggin' living legend status in this industry. You can also preorder their 2026 lineup to help keep them rolling; go do it.
KAYAK is out February 17th
Author Kristal Stittle will join us here next week to talk about her epic alien invasion/survival horror/coming-of-age novel; in the meantime, this is the last week to preorder it!
About KAYAK:
For eighteen-year-old Keith—floating alone on a series of lakes and rivers, lost and without supplies—his kayak is his means of survival. Solid ground means certain death at the scissor-claws of vicious invading creatures.
What he needs is to find more people; but terrible guilt anchors him in solitude. A year earlier, when the creatures first appeared, it was Keith's choices that brought disaster to the island community that took him in.
Now, it's time to take responsibility for his actions, heal his scars, and survive.
Told in two alternating timelines, Kayak is a story of family, the strength we draw from others, and the strength we learn to draw from ourselves.
Cover art by Kerisson Wemerson.
Interior art by Blacky Shepherd.
"Deceptively unsettling, smart survival horror…grips you by the throat and [doesn’t] let go."
- Max Booth III, We Have to Do Something, I Believe in Mister Bones
“A riveting, fast-paced, genre-blending story.”
- Laura Cranehill, Wife Shaped Bodies
"Hypnotically suffocating and immersive. I caught myself holding my breath.”
- J.Krawczyk, It Looks Like Dad
Here's a tasty peek at some of Blacky Shepherd's interior art:
Okay all, we'll see you next week. Bring a paddle; hell, better bring two, because going back to land? Out of the question.
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail New Weird Horror (+ More!)
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Matt + Alex
