Wild West eMonday - those Black Horse eWesterns

My own Arkansas Smith now available in eBook

For the last few decades the western's been kept alive in the UK by one publisher - Robert Hale Ltd with their Black Horse Western imprint. The traditional model for these westerns is that they were primarily aimed at the public library market with any direct sales to readers considered a bonus.

In many way this is still the case with Hale providing libraries with westerns, both new and reprint, on a monthly basis, but the books are also on sale at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and just about everywhere else.

And moving with the times many of the Black Horse books are now available as low priced eBooks - and many more will follow as titles are added each and every month.

So what is it that's so good about the Black Horse Western?

In order to answer that question, we  repost the following article from 2009

ROBERT HALE LTD, the publishers behind the Black Horse imprint have been champions of the western genre for longer than most people care to remember. They were founded in 1936 and although the Black Horse imprint didn't come about until much later, they have always published western fiction.

Indeed when the genre vanished from British bookshops during the mid-Eighties, Robert Hale continued to publish classic westerns as well as publishing scores of newcomers. Some of these new voices have gone on and become masters of the genre. Indeed it was during the Eighties, a decade when the western truly seemed dead, that the Black Horse imprint was launched.

Black Horse Western are no nonsense, all action western novels - usually around 40,000 - 45,000 words but the writers don't skimp on that all important characterization and indeed the best Black Horse titles can stand up alongside the best the genre has to offer.

AMERICA IS SECOND TO LONDON'S ROBERT HALE LTD, WHICH LEADS THE GLOBAL RACE IN PUBLISHING NEW WESTERN FICTION - TRUE WEST MAGAZINE AUGUST 2009

Without the Black Horse imprint we would have had no Lance Howard, Chap O'Keefe, Jack Giles, Ben Bridges or Ross Morton- all legendary names with western fans.


You won't find many Black Horse titles in the shops because the primary market has always been the libraries. However with the Internet and on-line book selling, the imprint is enjoying a new level of success and today the books are much more visible than they have ever been. Many of the titles ride high in online retailers books charts.

So what can new readers expect from a Black Horse title?

Well take a look at the covers on this page -none of them would be out of place as a poster for any 1950's western but don't let that lead you into the impression that the books are old fashioned. Whilst it is true that the books firmly model themselves on the Golden Age of the genre (and is there a better period to look to ??) the themes and issues woven into the plots are as up to date as, tomorrow's newspaper.


Find links to several interviews with some of the bigger Black Horse Western authors Here


There are no pretensions with a Black Horse western. You know what you are going to get and the book's deliver with each and every title - James Thain.


Older titles are always turning up on Ebay and sites such as Amazon and the Book Depository regularly offer good deals on current and forthcoming titles. Black Horse are quite unique in that the name of the publishing house is every bit as important to that of the author. Readers know that any book with the Black Horse logo is going to provide a good, fast paced and thoughtful read.Black Horse westerns are fun to read and surely reading should first and foremost be fun.

I myself am proud to be a small part of the Black Horse range - as a lifelong western fan it's amazing to see my own books and my pseudonym, Jack Martin on the shelves alongside some of my favourite western writers.

So go on treat yourself to a Black Horse western this Wild West eMonday - you won't be disappointed.

NOTABLE WEBSITES:
BLACK HORSE EXPRESS
BLACK HORSE EXTRA
BLACK HORSE COMMUNITY