I remember the first time I noticed the Megapacks popping up on the bookstore pages among the science fiction and fantasy, because the Megapack covers are…cute, at best.
At first I thought it was some fly-by-night shonky operator trying for a quick buck or two, using stories that were now in the public domain, or outright ripping off classic SF authors, bundling a bunch of old stuff together and publishing it with slapped together covers.
So I did a bit of research. It turns out that Black Cat, who publish the Megapacks, is owned and operated by Wildside Press, which is in turn owned by John Gregory Betancourt and his wife. Betancourt is a SF writer himself, but he founded Wildside Press specifically to preserve the old, classic SF stories that were falling out of print, or that had languished in long gone magazines.
Since then he has also negotiated with the estates of deceased SF&F writers, and helped families and heirs re-publish stories and novels so that readers can still access them.
The Megapacks are fantastic bundles of shorts and novels, grouped together by theme, and nearly all the Megapack are a crazy 99c USD.
They’re a great way to catch up with classic and Golden Age SF. Wildside Press also puts out first edition fiction, too, but not usually inside Megapacks or for 99c.
I have been slowly working my way through the SF Classics Short Stories megapack series and the Space Opera series, as well as dipping into author collections like Leigh Brackett’s.
Which reminds me of the reason I’m explaining all this. Wildside/Black Cat Weekly have just put out a bunch of “new” Megpacks, including the Leigh Brackett collection. You can find the new Megapacks here.
The links will take you to the Black Cat/Wildside Press store. You can also buy many of the Megapacks on retail bookstores, but I like to buy direct, because that leaves most of the 99c in Wildside’s account, instead of handing more than 30% of it to bookstores.
Enjoy!
Cam