Ravenous Romance, the e-book erotic fiction publisher owned by Literary Partners Group, has made the jump to thrillers with the launch of Ravenous Shadows, with John Skipp on board as editorial director.

"It was always our plan to expand our business model to other fiction genres, and when we had the opportunity to work with John Skipp, we decided to start with horror/mystery/thrillers. Skipp provided us with a clear vision and strong point of view for the line, and really is the heart and soul of Ravenous Shadows,” said Literary Partners CEO Holly Schmidt.

Skipp wants readers to be able to finish the line’s titles in the time it takes to watch a movie, and he wants them to be better than the movie you could’ve been watching instead. Ravenous Shadows e-books are 30,000 to 60,000 words and are priced between $3.99 and $6.99). The four titles that werein the launch list were an Ira Levin-style mystery (House of Quiet Madness by Mikita Brottman), an “ultra-violent 80s-style Italian cannibal horror (Tribesmen by Adam Cesare), a “Hitchcockian take on a modern suicide cult” (The Devoted by Eric Shapiro), and a sexual abuse/revenge story “somewhere between Misery and Last House on the Left” (Die, You Bastard! Die! By Jan Kozlowski).

Skipp said the goal is to publish 30-40 titles per year, and some titles soon to be published include The Dark, a metaphysical thriller by Scott Bradley and Peter Giglio, and Unwanted, a supernatural story set in both pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans by RJ Sevin. Said Skipp: “We’re competing in a multimedia-verse, where time is of the essence. Most books I read these days are too long by half. I want short, powerful novels and novellas that pack as much punch, personality, and plot as books three times their size. And that’s exactly what we’ve got.”