Silent Hill … books?

Years ago I pitched the idea of a Silent Hill book to Smart Pop, a publishing house that produces books about movies, books and TV shows that have a strong fan following. They are series of essays, often written by fans as well as known authors, about the inner workings and cultural influences of things like Lost, Buffy the Vampire Killer, Star Trek, Hunger Games, etc etc etc.

The books are reasonably popular. When I made the pitch, the editor I spoke to said they had never considered doing a book about a video game (they have since done a World of Warcraft book), but would consider it once the movie came out. Then they said, “maybe if there’s a sequel.” And eventually they just stopped responding. The immense body of Silent Hill fandom and critique and analysis was either not enough or too much — or, I hypothesize, no one who worked there was into “that sort of thing” and so couldn’t imagine how to market a book on Silent Hill. Besides, it’s not like they don’t have enough material to work with. I think they even made a Glee book.

So, is the idea not a good one after all? I don’t think so. I think it could be a great idea. So maybe it needs to be a fan-collaboration. After all, in this day and age, self-publishing is easy, and PoD requires no out-of-pocket funding. Get an ISBN and it can be sold on Amazon, B&N, and any major retailer. The fandom itself can do most of the necessary marketing — word-of-mouth is strong.

Do you think there is interest? Do any of you know of any particularly good writers among the fandom that have produced some good stuff? Writers who might be interested in collaborating on a SH book?

Or maybe such a thing already exists?

About me: currently I run a tumblr blog of movie critique. I have ghost-written a self-help book, self-published a novel of my own, and am working on two more. I was a military journalist for four years, and briefly edited a small niche magazine out of San Diego.

Thoughts?

I feel all grown-up now.

Just downloaded ringtones to my new grown-up phone: “Silent Hill” (the mandolin solo) for messages, “Promise” (the piano riff) for calls. Lovely.

Silent Hill Experienced Exclusive Interview with Devin Shatsky and Tomm Hulett!

Xuchilbara – What are your influences that are incorporated in the game? (Besides the obvious previous things like the Omen.)

Devin Shatsky – There’s too many to list… but I’ll rattle off a few. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Jacob’s Ladder, Suspiria, The Walking Dead, Rubber Johnny, Shawshank Redemption, The Fugitive, The Call of Cthulhu… the list goes on.

OMG!

silenthaven:

Check out the much anticipated Interview with Devin Shatsky and Tomm Hulett presented by Silent Hill Experienced!

We were able to snag an email fan interview with Downpour producers Devin Shatsky and Tomm Hulett! We wanted to share this opportunity so we invited fans of the podcast to submit their own questions over on our facebook fan page and on the the Silent Hill Community forums as well.

This interview mainly consists of Downpour related questions but it does touch on the future of the series and a bit of both the HD Collection and Book of Memories. We want to thank Devin and Tomm again for taking the time from their busy schedules to do this. We hope you enjoy!

 

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