I am honored to call Hugo my friend. So please sit back and enjoy our interview with Hugo Camacho. Things will get weird but you might just learn something!
First Question: Can you please tell us a little about
Bizarro Fiction?
It's a specific way of understanding genre fiction. We
usually say that it's literature’s equivalent to the cult section at the video
store, but the definition falls a bit short. It's the literature of the weird
and the strange but usually with a fun twist. Imagine Lovecraft, Kafka and
Ionesco put in a blender and spread with some anime. Whereas in regular Sci-Fi
and Fantasy the writer tries to cause a 'sense of wonder' in the reader, the
writer of Bizarro fiction arouses a 'sense of WTF?' in the readers, because
they keep on wondering what the fuck are they reading page after page. The
element of ongoing surprise is quite crucial.
Second Question: Tell us about your publishing company
Orciny Press?
Orciny Press is an independent publishing house cited in
Barcelona. It started as a small press, but since it's getting regular
nationwide distribution now, it has just gone one step further. We publish
Bizarro Fiction and some other edgy genre fiction which is not specifically
Bizarro but that we think it's weird and special. And this year we'll start
publishing non-fiction, too, with the Spanish translation of Angela Nagle's Kill
All Normies.
Third Question: Since you are releasing Bizarro Fiction
in Spain has it been hard to get a foot hold?
Definitely yes. Nobody had done it before so I had to carve
my own niche here, but I think there was a need for this kind of literature and
I managed to drag some new fans to the genre. One thing about Bizarro is that
once you get to know about its existence, you can't live without it any more.
There were a lot of people that were fans of Bizarro and they didn't know yet
that they loved it. And there still are.
Fourth Question: Why did you deiced to become a publisher
instead of an author?
I found about Carlton Mellick III's and Laura Lee Bahr's
work and automatically fell in love and thought that somebody had to translate
them. I was unemployed at the time and decided to give it a try and do it
myself... and here I am, more than 3 years later. I still consider myself an
author, too, and some of my work finds its way into publication, but it's hard
to find time to write your own stuff and decide it's OK to let it go out in the
world when you're working with other writers.
Fifth Question: What has been the hardest part of getting
the company started?
Doing it with practically no money and paying taxes. You
have to pay around $300/month in Spain when you are self-employed, and that's
quite a burden when you usually don't earn it at the beginning when selling
books. And being completely unknown in an already established industry.
Sixth Question: Has the Bizarro Fiction Scene been
receptive to the company?
Absolutely. There's a wonderful community of weirdos around
Bizarro that's very supportive to one another. I think that's the best part.
When I attended BizarroCon last year their arms were fully open for that guy
from Barcelona who's spreading the weird somewhere where it was unknown before.
And now I have a good relationship with other publishers, too, which is also
quite amazing.
Seventh Question: Do you find that people are reading
more books on their tablets than physical books?
I don't really think so. There was this sense in the
industry that paper was going to die and everybody would turn to their tablets,
but that didn't eventually happen. I think that digital readers and paper
readers are two different types of consumers that behave differently. Sometimes
these two types of readers are found in the same person (those who just love
reading and don't care how), but that doesn't happen with all of them. So I
think that ebooks are just one more way to read.
Eighth Question: The music industry sees a lot of online
piracy does the publishing world see the same?
I don't really know what's happening with the American
industry, because I haven't studied about it, but in Spain definitely yes. If
you put out an ebook, sooner or later there's going to be an illegal copy
around. That's why I stopped selling digital books until I figure out what to
do, because I put a lot of effort and time in a book for others to not
appreciating that.
Ninth Question: What advice do you have for someone who
wants to start their own publishing company?
Don't do it. But if you want to do it anyway, be sure that
you're really passionate about it because it's as hard and weary as it is
rewarding. Maybe you don't get this reward at first, but if you're patient, it
will come. I would tell them that they need patience, focus and passion.
Tenth Question:
Do you plan on writing your own book that you would publish?
Absolutely. There's a microfiction book I wrote with my friend
author Sergi G. Oset that will probably see the light in the US in 2018. And
I'm always working on things, so I guess someday I'll finish one of them
(that's the advice I give to writers and don't take it to myself) and hand it
to other editor.
Eleventh Question: Any chance of Orciny Press partnering
with an American Publisher to release books in English?
I'd be open to that. And to publish books in Spanish in the
US. There have to be Spanish readers over there who want to read some weird
books..
Twelfth Question: Where do you see Orciny Press in the
next year?
It's hard to say, but if everything works as planned, I can
see it fully established and running like a regular small indie publishing
house with this non-fiction collection fully rolling and publishing some more
fun and engaging books.
Promote yourself list your websites and social media sites
people can find you at:
And if you're interested in Bizarro Fiction or want to know
what the hell is this all about, you should check Bizarro Central
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