Publisher Deborah Layne has announced that her Wheatland Press will be on hiatus for 2009, “due to current financial uncertainties.” Thus, Wheatland will publish no new books this year, though she will continue to fill orders on existing titles, which will remain available through Amazon’s and Barnes and Noble’s web sites.
Layne said “if authors of existing titles wish to reclaim their rights and ask me to pull their titles from inventory. I am willing to do that.”
The hiatus also affects the previously announced Polyphony 7. The Polyphony anthology series was the book on which the publisher was founded in 2002. The seventh edition, which was edited by Layne and Forrest Aguirre, had already announced its table of contents, but now it, too, will be held up. (Previously announced contributors to the volume included Jerry Oltion, Bruce Holland Rogers, Steve Rasnic Tem, Howard Waldrop, George Zebrowski, and 18 others.)
While taking this break, Layne will be “exploring ways to put Wheatland Press on a firmer financial footing including, but not limited to, seeking external funding via arts councils, seeking partnerships with other presses, etc. I hope the break will allow me to return to a regular publishing schedule in 2010.”
Wheatland published “high quality trade paperback editions of literary science fiction and fantasy, primarily anthologies and single-author collections. In 2004, Wheatland Press was nominated for a World Fantasy Award.”