Singularity & Co. publisher makes ebooks out of sci-fi cult classics

Right at the edge of the Dumbo tech scene, where the frenetic startup pace gives way to a neighborhood, there’s a little store that’s open Wednesday through Sunday. It’s called Singularity & Co. If you’ve been inside, you know it’s filled with vintage sci-fi books and related media and memorabilia.

What you may not know, however, is that it also contains a technological, literary preservation operation. Presently, that operation is known as Save The SciFi, and it’s a mostly membership based service that releases one digital, out-of-print, nearly forgotten sci-fi novel every month. The company is just about to launch a related project for pulp adventure.

Last year, this reporter did a lengthy piece about the place for the futurism website, OMNI Reboot. 

The company seeks out-of-print books, sorts out the rights to digitally publish them, seeks the blessing of the author or their estate, makes a deal and then takes the original book and moves it into a digital format. The heaviest lift, cofounder Ash Kalb explained, is often building trust with the author and then sorting out rights.

In most cases, the books are released only to members through the club, for legal reasons. In some cases, the books are also released directly to the public for sale as well. They have nine books up for public purchase at the moment.

In an email from cofounder Cici James, we have learned that the first Save The Adventure novel will release to the club on May 15th. That will also mark the date of a revamped website for the company.

Save the Adventure was launched with a Kickstarter campaign that successfully completed its goal of raising  $12,000 in November. Save the SciFi also launched via Kickstarter, in 2012.

Kalb, who is also a lawyer, cofounded the security startup White Ops out of initial conversation in the Dumbo space (though it now works from Manhattan). We linked to a story about them here.

If you want to check the space out, it is hosting the book release of The Klingon Art of War on Friday at 7pm.