Elder Signs Press, Inc (aka ESP) is a

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

-based

book publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

distributed through the

Independent Publishers Group Independent Publishers Group (IPG) is a worldwide distributor for independent general, academic, and professional publishers, founded in 1971 to exclusively market titles from independent client publishers to the international book trade. As per ...

. It specializes in horror,

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

titles.

History

ESP was founded in 2003 by William Jones, a

gamer A gamer is a proactive hobbyist who plays interactive games, especially video games, tabletop role-playing games, and skill-based card games, and who plays for usually long periods of time. Some gamers are competitive, meaning they routinely ...

and

Lovecraftian horror Lovecraftian horror, sometimes used interchangeably with "cosmic horror", is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named a ...

enthusiast. Its initial publications were issues of the '' Call of Cthulhu''

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...

''Book of Dark Wisdom''. The magazine's format was changed with the third issue to focus on horror fiction and poetry. Eleven issues were published before the magazine was converted to an annual book anthology in 2009. As a book publisher, ESP is primarily a

self-publishing Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

venture for Jones, who has written several novels and edited numerous anthologies released under the imprint. However, the company does publish books and anthologies from other authors and editors. Its first book was Stanley C. Sargent’s ''Ancient Exhumations +2'', a collection of Lovecraftian short fiction published in 2004. The company is best known as a publisher of

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an ...

material, but it has also published work in genres such as

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyber ...

and apocalyptic survival horror.

Authors and anthology editors

*James Ambuehl *Tim Curran *Rachel Gray * Lois H. Gresh * CJ Henderson *William Jones *

James Lowder James Daniel Lowder (born January 2, 1963 in Quincy, Massachusetts) is an American author and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works exploring popular ...

*Michael McBride *

Richard A. Lupoff Richard Allen Lupoff (February 21, 1935 – October 22, 2020) was an American science-fiction and mystery author, who also wrote humor, satire, nonfiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he a ...

* Gene O'Neil *Stanley C. Sargent *

John Shirley John Shirley (born February 10, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, ''Wyatt in Wichita'', and ...

*Stewart Sternberg *

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (born September 15, 1942) is an American writer. She is known for her series of historical horror novels about the vampire Count Saint-Germain. Biography Yarbro was born in Berkeley, California. She attended Berkeley schoo ...

External links

*{{official, http://www.eldersignspress.com American speculative fiction publishers Book publishing companies based in Michigan Companies based in Oakland County, Michigan Horror book publishing companies Publishing companies established in 2003 Science fiction publishers Small press publishing companies