Preditors and Editors ™
A guide to publishers and publishing services for serious writers since 1997.
2001
An opinion by Barry Hunter, Editor of Baryon Magazine.
I've just had a wonderful weekend at LibertyCon 14 in Chattanooga and Tim Bolgeo and his team made it happen with charm and dignity. The layout had everything close in and the two-track programming made it easy to see or hear everybody you wanted. All the guests were available and mingled with the fans and were available for autographs and pictures. There were a good many unannounced guests that really added to my enjoyment.
Perry A. Chapdelaine, who put together the invaluable volume of John W. Campbell's letters, that guarantees him a premier place in Southern Fandom for sure. Charles L Fontenany related some stories of other conventions that show that fans really haven't changed too much over the years. Timothy Zahn, SF's "man in black" entertained everyone with his readings and maintained decorum as Toast Master. C. J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher, and Sharon Green were the Grand Dames of the convention and we spent a lot of time on panels and just talking about the state of publishing and how the Internet and ebooks will make a change on the marketing of books in the future. Jerry Page, Rick Shelly, James P. Hogan, David Weber, and David Coe added to the enjoyment.
The art show was small but had some marvelous pieces by Jon Stadler and Kenny Waters, who were the art guests. Several other artists sent in art for the show and auction.
One of the more interesting panels that ended up running for three hours and blended the other topics into it as well was "Let's Put Science Fiction Back in the Gutter Where It belongs". The major point of contention is that there are a lot of "Best Seller" books out there that carry the label of Science Fiction, but are they really sci-fi. A majority agreed that the era of Political Correctness has put a damper on the true spirit of Science Fiction. A majority of our premiere writers do not have their books available on backlist and many are having a hard time actually getting a well written book looked at, much less published.
If you were to go into a Waldenbooks or Barnes and Noble and pull out the Star Wars, Star Trek, TSR, and movie/TV tie novels-how much space would real Science Fiction books take up? Two feet maybe. The new readers are missing the classics. They are missing the entire category of Young Adult titles that brought people like me into the field. Where are the early Lester Del Rey, Andre Norton, Bob Silverberg, Jack Williamson, and Isaac Asimov books hiding? Add to them some of the award winners of the past twenty years like Michael Bishop, Greg Bear, James Morrow, Harlan Ellison and others. And to think I didn't even mention Pohl, Sturgeon, Kornbluth, Wollheim, Burroughs, and Tiptree.
Another topic we blended was "What books do you need to read to be a fan and the results were surprising. There are a good number of folks out there who are readers and fans but have never read DUNE, THE STARS MY DESTINATION, and STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, anything by Howard or Burroughs or Lovecraft. Is it due to political correctness or the idea that the old stuff won't sell anymore? I realize the number of publishers is decreasing and committees make decisions. If you are looking for profits, try some of the older stuff already in your inventory.
We also discussed the value of a good cover to attract a reader to a writer they may be unfamiliar with. Everyone agreed that the Frazetta art brought about the explosion of Burroughs and Howard in the sixties, but then as now, it was the quality of the material inside the cover that brought the reader back for more. Sharon Green had the Tom Canty cover proof for her fifth book in "The Blending" series and stated that they were now in the fourth printing of some of the series. That is a tremendous statement about the quality of writing that will bring people back for more.
There were panels about how to get your book noticed, picking out an agent and some of the mistakes made in doing both. The growth of the Internet and personal desktop publishing were mentioned as alternate methods of getting your book out. There was also a lot of discussion about the Small Press being able to help a new author get that first novel published. The Internet magazines are also ways to get short stories and novelettes published although the pay may not be what you want it to be.
As is usually the case we came up with more questions than answers. At least hopefully, we got some people to thinking and possibly an article or two like this or a letter to a publisher might be a start in resolving some of the issues we came up with.
I just wish the concepts of 2001 and the predictions of the early Science Fiction writers weren't still fifty years away from today. I so much wanted to see it in my lifetime. Let's get together and try to make it so.
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