Change in management!

Hello all, Howl here!

I have some news for all the THPeople. I am stepping down from my position as editor-in-chief to just be an editor for THP, and Cedric G! Bacon, our former project manager and head editor, is moving up to be the new editor-in-chief.

This is not an immediate change: I'll be working with Cedric on transferring site permissions, previous titles, etc. over the next six months.

I know some people will ask why I am stepping down, and it's a story worth telling, I think. I started THP as a charity anthology for the National Wolfwatcher Coalition back in 2014. We still make sales on that first volume of Wolf Warriors. We still send regular checks to the NWC. But in that first anthology, some authors, Roland Jenkins and C.R. Benson, emailed me with their full book manuscripts asking if I could do just as good a job with their works. I said, "Sure." I loved editing. I loved formatting. I loved designing covers. As more queries started to come in, I added another formatter. I added another couple of editors. I developed a team of artists. A year later, there were ten of us. I went from a one-person publisher to a leader of a team. And it kept growing. It became around ten editors, around ten copyeditors, three formatters, countless artists and illustrators, and even some team leaders and marketing people. It's great.

I have loved seeing how this house has grown into something incredible. People came up to me at dealer's dens saying, "Wait, you're THE Thurston Howl? You published Furries Among Us, right?" We have authors who are regular authors who come to us for our anthology ideas. People love that we give beginning authors a fair chance. I feel like THP has done well over the years.

But, all the same, it's gotten too big for me. I'm not talking just staff or even catalog. Its rate of growth is just skyrocketing, and that's great! However, at the moment, I am a PhD grad student working on my dissertation. Along with managing websites, accounting, author emails, queries, plus editing, formatting, and cover design for two houses, two part-time jobs,and my own writing, I also try to pay bills and maintain mental and emotional health.

Not only has it been too much, but I'm no longer getting to do what I enjoy. So, many don't know this, but I don't keep money for any projects I work on, not even projects I edit or books I write. I just don't do that. THP was always a passion project for me. But for me, doing mostly just accounting and marketing makes it less of a passion project and more of job I don't like that I'm still not getting paid for.

I have all the faith in the world that Cedric will do a phenomenal job leading THP to even greater heights, and I will be helping him transition in the coming months. I will still be helping him after in whatever fashion he needs.

HOWLERS will still be an active series.

We will still have both furry and nonfurry books.

And we will still keep growing!

I will probably be in touch with single-author works for contract renewal, but everything should be pretty smooth anyway.

But I do encourage everyone to welcome Cedric as the new editor-in-chief, and if you have any questions, feel free to email us at thurstonhowlpub@gmail.com.