UglyTown Slows Down

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 10/17/2005

Mystery and crime publisher UglyTown is temporarily suspending operations, making the small Los Angeles publisher a late victim of the bankruptcy of Bookpeople/Words Distribution and conditions in the current book market.

Tom Fassbender, co-owner of UglyTown, said the press will "go on hiatus" until spring 2006, when he plans to publish Hung Out to Die, a first novel by Brett Battles. The book will be distributed by PGW. Fassbender said UglyTown has been plagued by cash-flow problems after the Words bankruptcy in 2004 and the house's switch to PGW for distribution.

"It's been hard on smaller publishers," said Fassbender about the soft market conditions. "We're slowing down our plans. Bookstores are just not ordering titles in the quantities we expected." Fassbender said he was pursuing a number of financing possibilities for the press. Founded in 1998, UglyTown has published about 14 books.