This month I'm thrilled to bring you an interview with Greg Gerding, the founder and managing editor of University of Hell Press, whom I met at Wordstock earlier this year. Greg has been gracious enough to take some time out of his busy schedule (and around the holidays, no less!) to candidly answer some questions about his press, the publishing process, and selling books.
Welcome to the blog, Greg!
I think I remember from our conversation at Wordstock that you started the press to self-publish some of your own books. Why did you decide to expand to publish other people's books, too?
Yes, I decided to self-publish so I could represent my work the way I envisioned. I then came up with “University of Hell Press” to publish that work. As my books got around, I was often asked about “the publisher.” Who are they? Where are they from? There is a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the name.
It wasn’t until Eirean Bradley asked me about University of Hell Press and said to me, “I would kill to be published by a press with that name.” I told him that if he ever completed a manuscript and sent it to me and I liked it, I would publish it under University of Hell Press. He did, I LOVED it, it was the I in team, and the first book published by UHell Press not written by me. It grew from there.
