We recently connected with James H. Longmore and have shared our conversation below.
Hi James H., thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
When we (my business partner, Xtina Marie, and I) made the decision to launch our own indie horror publishing house, we made our mission: “To provide independent authors with the very best service possible.”
Having suffered at the hands of some less than professional, unscrupulous small publishers, it was important to me that HellBound Books give all our authors the very best experience possible. Sadly, I experienced first-hand the crushing disappointment at my fist published book being well below the standards I’d expected – it turned what ought to have been a wonderful, exciting experience into a negative one.
From involving our authors in the creation of their cover art to providing each one with a page on the HBB website, to garnering their input in selecting the perfect narrator for their audiobook, we make the whole process of publishing a book – be it their first or tenth – a terrific experience!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Mine is a simple story – I got into publishing because I am a writer. I have 9 novels and novellas published (initially by other publishes, but all now back under the HellBound umbrella) and myriad short stories out there.
My aim was to create an publishing company that would not only provide up-and-coming and established authors alike the very best service, but one that would rise to the top of the indie publishing world and by synonymous with terrific quality books, outstanding anthologies, and the very best covers in the biz! We also created our very own podcast radio show (The New Panic Room – live Thursdays at 9:30 Central), which has the reputation of being one of the very best!
Having worked in sales and marketing for the likes of Toyota, Duracell, and Lo-Jack, as well as running my own companies back in my native UK, I have a strong sense of “brand” and just how important that is to any business. Hence HellBound’s “unofficial” mission statement, which is to “steer clear of drama”! Everything we do is with a close mind upon how it may impact our wonderful authors, and that has served us well in an industry where small publishers come and go with startling regularity.
Having grown up reading horror, I am endlessly humbled by the quality of the authors on the indie scene, and I must confess to being a tad starstruck that we now publish some of the great horror authors I’ve idolized over the years (legends such as Ramsey Campbell, Guy N. Smith, Jack Ketchum, Graham Masterton, and Bentley Little).
If I was to name one thing that makes me infinitely proud of what HellBound Books has achieved, it would be that not only have we survived almost 8 years in the indie publishing world, but that we have gone from strength-to-strength and are now knocking on the doors of the publishers we set our sights on way back in 2016.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Not too long after HellBound Books was launched, my marriage fell apart (a long story all in itself – but one for another day) and I was left with very little and two kids to raise.
With the company in its infancy, I was faced with two solutions: (1) Get a ‘proper job,’ or (2) make the most of what I could do best.
I knew I could write.
So, I signed up with a couple of ghostwriting agencies and kept the kids and me fed while I built up HellBound Books!
Ghostwriting (along with “pimping out” the skillset I developed through running HellBound Books) not only got me back on my feet, but provided the much-needed funding that any fledgling business requires. It was a rocky start, to be sure, but meant HellBound Books grew organically and without the need for the yolk of expensive business loans!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
It took me many, many years to realize that not everyone’s brains worked the same as mine – a creative brain. The biggest part of a creative’s journey is coming to terms with all the thoughts, ideas, and voices (yes – we hear “voices,” where do you think dialogue comes from!?) floating around in our minds each and every day. We creatives “create” mainly to give those things an outlet (you’ll often hear us say “we write (paint, make music, etc.) because we HAVE to”) – that such wonderful works of “art” are the result is often a happy side-effect.
Personally, I write not only to get those pesky things out of my head, but because I enjoy every single fraught, self-doubting, tortuous moment of the process. There really is nothing quite like getting to the end of a project – be it a short story, novel, or something in between – and thinking “this really is crap,” even though everyone loves it and it actually sells out there!
Yes, Imposter Syndrome is alive and well in the creative community!
If I have one message for everyone who has ever “thought about writing,” it would be to just sit your ass down and write! The world is full of folks who procrastinate – there’ll be plenty of time for that once you start writing!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hellboundbookspublishing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellboundbooks
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hellboundbooks
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-longmore-6441a21/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HellBoundBooks
- Other: https://vimeo.com/channels/1571918 (podcast radio show archives) https://www.tiktok.com/@hellboundbooks?_t=8USBizWiOcM&_r=1