Bad Dog Books

Two BDB titles on Amazon.com for cheap!

2007-08-02T16:28:00.000+01:00

Sci-fi novel White Crusade and sci-fi anthology ROAR Volume 1 are available for pre-order on Amazon.com at a substantial discount: $13.57 instead of the normal $19.99.

There's no indication how long Amazon.com will maintain this discount, so hurry!

Baddogbooks.com is back online.

2007-07-07T17:18:00.000+01:00

We at Bad Dog Books do not take shit from Russian hackers. The site is back online.

BDB.com hacked.

2007-07-06T11:10:00.001+01:00

Do not visit baddogbooks.com at present; our hosting provider has been hacked and baddogbooks.com yields a blank page which in actuality hosts an iframe which links to the potentially malicious site good-traffic.hk.

If you have visited baddogbooks.com and saw the blank page, please take precautions: install a recent malware and virus scanner, if only the shareware version, and check that your system is secure.

At this point, there isn't any evidence that the site is dangerous, but you can never be too careful.

I've tried everything I can do at my end -- FTP still works and I still have access to the baddogbooks.com cpanel, but no folders can be accessed (even though I can see they exist when I use FTP) and the main page redirects to that good-traffic place.

Be careful, and I'll let you know when all's been restored!

- Alex Vance

Ben Goodridge at Anthrocon

2007-07-05T10:34:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen,

Some astute readers noted a sneaky little code error that had crept into the product 'carrousel' on the webpag, which mysleep-deprived eyes had missed. Fixed!
Other equally astute readers noted that the 'mystery editor' I announced could already be found on the new website. D'oh! The newest addition to the BDB team is the highly regarded (though not, perhaps, reputable) Cinnamon DeWolf, author of a great many pieces of furry erotica. We dragged him out of retirement and lashed him to FANG -- more about and from him soon!
FurNation informed me that El Burrito de los Muertos, the sequel to Everybody Loves Luther, will not be available on their table at Anthrocon. There's only so much they can fit in their truck. Still, André Blaireau, author of both these novels, will be at AC!
Also at AC, and most importantly, is Ben Goodridge. Ben will present the Bad Dog Boot Camp, scheduled for Saturday at 4PM. He'll be providing some keen insights into the editorial process and gives advice on how best to impress an editor. He'll also, of course, be plugging his new novel, 'White Crusade' and I honestly can't blame him. It's fantastic. Do drop by!

All right, that's it for now. More about the novels and the Free Press Program to follow soon!

- Alex Vance
Editor-in-chief of Bad Dog Books

FANG 3 and 4, three new novels, site update, AC

2007-07-05T10:33:00.000+01:00

Folks, it always goes the same way.
You plan months in advance, really take your time to prepare and make sure everything's perfect. You keep quiet about it so you can surprise people with it.
Then, a few weeks before the deadline, something happens, or you discover something, that means that all your work is for nothing and you have to do it all over again. Whether this be book formatting, editing, webdesign, writing -- any and all.
Then, a week before the deadline, just as it seems as if you'll make it, it happens again. Start over.
Le sigh.
But we at BDB are indomitable. We knew that Anthrocon would be a big thing for us, and despite everything the Fates have thrown our way, we're actually ready for it. (This mail will only be a quick sum-up; I'll properly give a blow-by-blow when I've had some sleep. According to my calendar, I'll have time for that in about three years.)

FANG Volume 3 is being published. FI-NAL-LY. It's taken a long time, but it's been worth it.
FANG Volume 4 is also being published -- but it's changing its name, and will be published as ROAR Volume 1. Yeah, I know it's weird, but you'll understand when I get around to explaining it better!
The Hero: a gay fantasy novel by Teiran Dragon, who also the popular High School Days series.
El Burrito de los Muertos: gay erotica novel by Anré Blaireau, sequel to Everybody Loves Luther.
White Crusade: Ben Goodridge manags to juggle his editorial duties at BDB with a healthy writing career of his own. I fought him tooth and nail for the rights to his debut novel, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi White Crusade. He objected because publishing it through BDB would make it look like he was self-publishing. I told him to hand over the damn book or he'd be out of a job.
Website's been updated. I know people say that the baddogbooks.com website is revamped more often than it's actually updated, but you know what? I'm kind of proud of that. Behold: the majesty that is www.baddogbooks.com. Go look.
Free Press Program. I babbled about this in the March podcast, and right after Anthrocon, it'll finally be ready for prime-time.
All the books mentioned above are now available in Trade Paperback format, by popular demand, through BDB directly, and all will be available on the FurNation table in the dealer's room at Anthrocon this weekend while supplies last, so be quick! The usual $19.95, and worth every penny.
All three authors of the BDB novels -- Teiran, André Blaireau and Ben Goodridge -- are going to be at Anthrocon, and may give book signings, so ask at the FurNation table when you can find them there, and keep a look-out! Writers love nothing more than to hear from the people who enjoyed their work.

Well, what do you know. Got it all done before Anthrocon. Only a day or two before, but still long enough to actually tell people about it. I'd like to thank Ben Goodridge, the good folks at FurNation, the new Mystery Editor that I'll tell you about soon, and of course you lot. Writers, readers, you know what I mean. Thank you for making BDB necessary, and helping us strive to make it something amazing.
More to come soon!
- Alex Vance Editor-in-chief of Bad Dog Books

BDB Podcast for February 2007

2007-02-15T11:56:00.000+01:00

Recapping much of the info from the last blog post, the first episode of the new BDB Podcast (RSS subscription available at www.baddogbooks.com, or find it on iTunes by searching for "BDB") also contains the first two of four readings of "The Walking Mountain" by Ben Goodridge, a brand spanking new story set in a more supernatural version of 1899 London, added to the new pocket edition of FANG Volume 2.

Enjoy!

2007: The Year of the Bad Dog

2007-02-14T22:45:00.000+01:00

2007:

The Year of the Bad Dog.

(this message is also available as an audio podcast at Baddogbooks.com!)

When things go quiet at Bad Dog Books, it can mean three things.

One: we're having a party and you're not invited. This doesn't happen nearly as often as we'd like it to. Alas!

Two: we're working very hard on something. This happens all the time. We wish we could have more parties, but between schmoozing, editing, wheeling and dealing we just don't have a whole lot of time to spend just drinking. Usually we end up drinking while working.

But there's a third option, too. That's when we're working very, very hard on things, so hard, in fact, that often we can't even drink. Can you imagine?

You don't have to. This is that eventuality. And we of Bad Dog Books, the hardworking yet comically underpaid Ben Goodridge and the money-grubbing, egomaniacal and always humble Alex Vance, are proud to reveal to you all the sweet, golden-hued fruits of our labours.

FANG For Sale!

After months of negotiating and wrangling, we can finally announce that FANG will be available from FurNation, starting in late February. This will be the pocket edition of FANG, compact and sleek as it always was intended to be -- and thanks to FurNation's cutting-edge equipment, we'll be able to change the price of the FANG books back to their original level.

In order to facilitate resale and ensure FANG's financial future, FANG Volume 1 was rereleased in pocket format at a staggering $29.99. While we at Bad Dog Books were more than a little surprised at the complete absence of complaint (one avid reader gave us the heartwarming confirmation that "It's worth paying for") we still felt it was too much to lay down for a book -- even one of this quality.

We are proud to announce that the FANG line henceforth will be sold for $19.99 per copy!

FANG Presents: Everybody Loves Luther

Alex has made no secret of the fact that "Bitch-Boy" by Badger was his favorite story in FANG Volume 1. In fact, he actually contacted the author for permission to use the story in the volume. This is contrary to FANG's basic principles, but, well, Alex was the editor. The boss, applesauce. He could do what he damn well pleased.

Aaanyway, Badger, also known as André Blaireau, had a few tricks up his sleeve, it turned out. Having long sleeves, Mr Blaireau's tricks were far too big to fit in any volume of FANG... So why kick other talented authors off scarce FANG pages when BDB was already gearing up to launch a line of novels by selected FANG authors?

Bad Dog Books is proud to present Everybody Loves Luther, the story of Adrian Drew, professor at Whiskey University and the young Dalmatian Luther Coachman who breaks him out of his mourning for his decesased lover. Throw in a frisky young couple, the tough queer Jesse Krolik and his easygoing partner Chip Rockwell and the various dramas life can throw at young and old alike... and Everybody Loves Luther is a worthy opening to the FANG Presents line of novels.

Gorgeous cover art provided by the spectacular painting talent of Grimal. Full-sized verison available at the Gallery at baddogbooks.com. Everybody Love Luther is available for $19.99.

Furry Weekend Atlanta

Yes, Further Confusion is just around the corner, but it's FWA where you'll find FANG on the table. FurNation will be stocking a lot of sleek black covers on their table. FANG Volume 1, 2 and Everybody Loves Luther (all for the marvellously affordable $19.99) will be available in decent quantities, so hopefully it won't sell out as it's done at previous cons.

Of course, I say 'hopefully'...

If you're planning to attend, and you're considering picking up a copy, do hop by the FurNation table early and beat the crowd, eh?

That said, if you're going to FWA, we'd love to hear it!

FANG Volume 5

Okay, the poor, hardworking writers among you have been reading all this promotional claptrap, wondering when we'd get to the really important stuff. Who cares about books that they can't write stories for? Who cares if anyone buys them or not? Think about the future, dude.

For those selfish individuals, here's the good news. The future is now, and it's called FANG Volume 5 .

Originally FANG's volumes centered around a particular genre. Partly this was a sneaky trick to ensure sufficient submissions. Alex thought it'd be best to choose a nice broad catch-all; surely some writers would have a story or two lying around that fit the bill.

Of course, that didn't turn out to be at all necessary. Not in the bloody slightest.

Ben, who has a pair of cojones the size of melons, has braved Alex's ego, which is the size of a small planet, and smashed preconceptions to go with something new. It's time to take risks with FANG and it's time to make authors work harder (lazy buggers that they are).

FANG Volume 5 will not have a genre. It will have a theme. You got it? A theme.

And Volume 5's theme will be:

Games.

That's it. Take it as far as you want or as close to the mark as you can. If you've written for FANG before you know that we value good writing even more than we value our own rules. Go nuts. Fly with it.

Just remember that your writing has to be really insanely good to convince us to overlook Obvious Oversights. That's why we've set up a new Advice section on www.baddogbooks.com. Read it, and stack your chances at making the grade.

Submissions will be accepted from February 14 to April 14. As always, submission instructions are available on the BDB website .

You'd better get cracking.

Final words

Was that enough to make up for the silent treatment for the last few months? We at Bad Dog Books sort of believe it is. As always, we're available for questions, comments, or anonymous donations of large sums of money at baddogbooks@gmail.com.

We've been working hard to make stuff happen and it brings us no end of joy to finally be able to reveal it.

FANG goes on sale through FurPlanet, and at Furry Weekend Atlanta. The first FANG Presents novel is coming out with a gorgeous painting by Grimal on the cover. FANG Volume 5 will be accepting new submissions with the theme 'games' from February 14 to April 14.

With kind regards from Alex Vance, head pot-scrubber of BDB, and Ben Goodridge, managing editor of FANG,

Bad Dog Books

www.baddogbooks.com

baddogbooks@gmail.com

(Now go and write a story or buy our damn books)

This Is What We Do When The Deadline's Done

2006-10-28T12:13:00.000+01:00

I'm wading my way through the slush pile, which pretty much doubled in size right on the knife-edge of midnight. And I've just got one message to those of you who decided to deluge our inbox with so much additional heavy lifting just as the deadline passed.

Good job.

I mean it. Good job. Good for you, and you, and you, and all the rest of you. You know the meaning of the word "deadline," you take it seriously, and you work into the wee hours to make sure you meet it. Kudos to the whole procrastinating lot of you for overriding your instincts for postponement and making our needs a higher priority than your spare time. Thank you and thank you some more.

Of course, the extra verbiage will take a bit longer to wade through than originally anticipated. Alex has bought me some time, and I'm determined to have most of the heavy lifting done by the middle of November, but many hours must be worked, many stories must be read, and much pizza must be consumed.

Those of you who might still have stories to send are welcome to go ahead and send them. After all, though submissions haven't officially opened on FANG 5, we're always looking for talent. However, you should know the following about sending in additional FANG 4 material:
- We will laugh at you. Stories sent in after the deadline while the deals are being worked are likely to be handed around the office ("Look how late this one sent his in!") and much hilarity will be shared.
- Our priorities on FANG 4 have shifted from collection and selection to contacting and editing, so the odds that we can read new stories are growing dimmer and dimmer with each passing hour. Your story's chances of being accepted in this atmosphere rely on how good it is, and frankly, at this point it would have to knock me right out of my shoes. If I wore shoes.
- Your story would be going on the bottom of what is now an unexpectedly very large slush pile, and it's more than likely that we'll have the book assembled before we reach it.

Take heart, though; you'll notice that we never close the door completely, and we're always scouting new talent and looking forward to the next FANG. For those of you who missed the deadline and want to sneak in the back door, there's a key under the flowerpot. I won't tell Alex if you won't. And for those of you who made the deadline, I humble and prostrate myself before your mighty mojo. It is from your mighty will to create that greatness is forged. I'm just the editor. You guys have all the talent.

--Ben

Past the deadline

2006-10-18T09:30:00.000+01:00

God people of Planet Bad Dog,

The deadline has passed, and for those of you unaware, it was October 16. We deliberately kept the date vague at first hoping to avert a very common phenomenon, namely the habit of writers to interpret a deadline not as 'submit your work before' a particular date, but 'submit your work exactly on' a particular date.

Nonetheless, that's exactly what happened. Ben had been studiously scanning the slush pile and making a pre-selection and FANG Volume 4 was taking shape. He was preparing acceptance and rejection messages to the authors in question, when the chimes of midnight rang and the BDB mailbox was swamped in a flurry of new submissions.

This continued for several hours, as each timezone's authors seemed to wait for the stroke of midnight before submitting their work. The slush pile is now half-again as large as it was before the weekend, and Ben dove onto the new submissions with a knife and fork.

When decisions of inclusion or exclusion have been made, authors will be contacted directly and privately. An announcement newsletter will also be made announcing the fact that those messages have been sent.

Considering the amount of work still ahead despite our attempt to fudge the deadline; if you have a piece that's alllllmost finished and you just missed the deadline, contact baddogbooks@gmail.com and plead your case.

While I've kept mostly hands-off on this issue, placing full faith in Ben's judgement, I had a chance to look over many of the submissions recently. Ben is going to have a very hard time making the selection, and FANG 4 is going to be a very, very good book.

That said, FANG 2 (horror homoerotica) is nearing its final revision before it's ready for publication and I'll be contacting the authors of FANG 3 (fantasy homoerotica) shortly to start the editing process with them while Ben manages the editing of FANG 4.

The first FANG Presents book will also shortly be presented; Everybody Loves Luther, by André "Badger" Blaireau, is complete and we're now just dotting the T's and crossing the I's in regard to the cover (gorgeous cover art by Grimal!)

It's going to be a busy winter here at BDB, but we'll stoke the fires and keep the cogs turning night and day. Stay tuned for updates regarding the upcoming FANG 5, once we've had a chance to sleep!

Regards,

Alex

Deadline

2006-10-11T09:30:00.000+01:00

Ha, my bad. That deadline I mentioned? October 16. So get cracking!

Deadline and docs

2006-10-11T09:29:00.000+01:00

Hello there!

The deadline for FANG Volume 4, our first non-erotic ventur with a sci-fi theme is fast aproaching. If you want your work to be considered for publication, you must must must submit it either by mail (baddogbooks@gmail.com) or...

As of today, Writely.com, which was BDB's preferred service for submitting and editing stories, is fully integrated into Google. It is now Google Docs and sports a cleaner, more compatible interface without losing any of the functionality.

If you signed up at Writely, your login details are exactly the same and all your stories are still available on the new docs.google.com.

Now, anyone who's still working on a submission needs to get it done fast fast fast -- and *I* need to start reworking all the damn instructions on this site to point to Google Docs instead of Writely.

Peace!

FANG 4 Submission Window

2006-09-27T13:31:00.000+01:00

Quick note to those of you not yet notified: the submission window for FANG 4 closes on October 16. For those of you who used to wait until the last minute to finish your term papers, now is the time to begin. Also to middle and end. It's actually getting quite snug around here.

Also, your esteemed editor is likely to be found blundering aimlessly about the corridors and concessions at Midwest FurFest in November. It's rare that I inflict myself upon society, but it beats working.
--
Ben

Hacked, addendum

2006-09-19T09:29:00.000+01:00

A quick addition:

I'd like to emphasize that it was the *domain* that was hacked, not the site itself. There's no indication that the hack went any deeper than the filesystem, while your account information is stored in a secure database outside that file system.

Even if that weren't the case and the hackers did have access to the database data, your information is encrypted very thoroughly and the database would be of no use to the hackers.

Your information is safe.

And again: I'm on the motherfucker.

Regards,

Alex Vance

Hacked, dammit

2006-09-19T09:28:00.000+01:00

Dear all,

As some of you may have noticed, www.baddogbooks.com was hacked earlier today and a new frontpage (available at www.baddogbooks.com/2index.html) was inserted. I've rectified the immediate problem but I'm working with our hosting provider to find out how this happened in the first place.

According to the uploaded file, the hackers were members of www.roothackers.org, which appears to be a Turkish group.

All precautions are being taken to ensure BDB's continued security and an investigation is underway. If anyone has tips or knows this group, please drop me a line at baddogbooks@gmail.com.

To quote Marsellus Wallace: "I'm on the motherfucker."

Regards,

Alex Vance

Bad Dog Books mass-mailing!

2006-09-07T09:25:00.000+01:00

Hello there!

Osfer here, Alex Vance to some. A canine of many names and great ambitions.

Firstly, my apologies to anyone receiving this who doesn't want it. Drop me a line and you'll never be bothered again -- or sign up at www.baddogbooks.com to receive future info more conveniently. I'm jazzed about some recent news, jazzedd as jazzed can be, so much so that I pulled up every mail address I could remember.

For those of you who haven't been in the loop: earlier this year I came down with an unpleasant condition called repetitive strain injury which caused me enough problems with my fingers that I decided to cut back on my typing, which meant I could no longer do the amount of editing and communicating needed to keep FANG, the Little Black Book of Furry Fiction, going.

Ben Goodridge, whose stories appeared in FANG's second volume, stepped up to the plate and offered his services as managing editor. Having been greatly impressed with his writing and professionalism I thanked my patron saint, said 'sure, hop aboard' with an affected and oh-so-cool shrug, and together we started Bad Dog Books, the new name of this dazzlingly modern publishing venture.

BDB, as it's known for short, is offering our combined experience in print-on-demand publication to the masses, helping anyone who's got a story to tell (i.e. a novel, a collection of stories, or even a comic) get their book published, if possible without it costing them a dime.

Ben is collecting material for the fourth volume of FANG, the first non-erotic collection, which will focus on science fiction in the broadest possible sense.

Meanwhile, I've been splitting my time building the website (www.baddogbooks.com, don't forget to sign up :), finishing up the third volume (fantasy-themed gay erotica!) and reworking the first two volumes in a new pocket format, with a higher-quality cover. I also got some business sense and changed the sales price to an admittedly hefty $29.99 -- yes, I know it sucks, but it means that authors should be getting paid a good bit more as time progresses and BDB's coffers fill, we'll have spare cash to undertake interesting new projects in future, and at this price point we can actually sell to retailers, which we couldn't do before without taking major losses.

Speaking of which, Sofawolf Press (www.sofawolf.com) has ordered a stock of FANG Volume 1 and 2, to be sold through their webstore along with the comics, magazines (let me recommend Heat and Anthrolations) and novels (Volle, Pendant of Fortune and the upcoming Common & Precious are stand-out titles), as well as going on sale at the MFF con in November. Negotiations are underway with Rabbit Valley and Black Paw Productions, so FANG may very well soon grace their shelves as well.

And it's sales that have me jazzed. Yes, folks, it's money that gets this puppy excited -- or more accurately, it's the fact that people are willing to spend it on FANG that excites me. I've always had great confidence that the furry fandom would respond favorably to a new, modern anthology series of quality fiction, but every time a copy is sold I feel that lovely twinge of satisfaction that comes from knowing I was right. I was right that furries want it, and I was right that there are enough furry writers out there to give the audience what they want.

The new pocket-format edition of FANG Volume 1 went on sale two weeks ago. Two of my friends, a wolf and a cheetah -- you know who you are -- volunteered to hawk a bunch of copies at EuroFurence and Feral respectively. Naturally I instantly overestimated them and had a far greater stock of books produced than I could afford -- and you know what?

My wolf buddy goes and sells a good number of the books at EuroFurence, handing out stylin' business cards with the BDB logo (which is awesome!) to anyone interested in getting a copy later.

My cheetah friend then stuffs his bags with as many FANGs as he can carry as he heads off to Feral, leaving me to worry that he'll have to take a whole lot back home again and I'll be stuck with a stock that I can hopefully get sold purely by word of mouth...

The cheetah worked his feline magic and all books were sold out within forty minutes of his table opening.

So yeah, I'm jazzed.

Again, if you dig what FANG is, as a reader, writer or sympathiser or you just want to keep track of this cutting-edge publishing stuff we're doing, head on over to www.baddogbooks.com and sign up to access the forums and receive future newsletters. If you *don't* want to be bothered, drop me a line and I'll remove your e-mail address snap fast.

Now, those of you I haven't conversed with in a long time... by all means drop me a line. It's easiest for me if you use the forums on www.baddogbooks.com for FANG or BDB-related stuff, so I can ration the use of my fingers by answering questions once rather than a dozen times over, but if you just want to have a chat and catch up, my e-mail address is still osfer.kesh@gmail.com

Peace out, y'all.

- Alex Vance, aka Osfer