Galleycat reports on a panel at the Nebula Weekend (which I’m sorry I missed), in which apparently, former SFWA President Norman Spinrad and Tor’s Patrick Nielsen Hayden got into more than a slight disagreement.

(At the risk of being catty, I believe that Spinrad has had trouble recently selling the books he wants to write into the US market. Problems like that often make particular authors believe the market has shifted in detrimental ways, but…it’s often more the case that a particular writer never had a huge audience, and has moved in directions that the audience is not particularly interested in following. It would be wonderful if every book worth reading had a large and receptive audience clamoring for it, but that never has, and never will, happen.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's going to be hard to be business-like about this one: Jim is one of my oldest publishing friends (I just had lunch with him this afternoon!), and I'm thrilled for his new job. But, let's try to do this in the appropriate news-y tone.

Jim Minz will be joining Baen Books as a Senior Editor in the near future, and will be moving to the Wake Forest, North Carolina area to join the Baen offices there. In his new position, he'll also work on ebook and subsidary rights projects for Baen. Minz was formerly an editor at Del Rey Books, and, prior to that, held various editorial positions at Tor.

SFBC extends our heariest congratulations to Jim Minz...he'll even be at our table this evening at the Nebula Banquet.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publishers Weekly reports on Perseus Books Group's plans to eliminate entirely the Carroll & Graf and Thunder's Mouth imprints as part of their integration of the Avalon Publishing Group. C&G and Thunder's Mouth, of course, were the only two Avalon imprints that had any substantial SFF publishing history -- C&G in particular with the "Mammoth" books and others, usually coming from the UK.

Edward Champion has a round-up of other comments on the changes-- not postive, as you would expect.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publishers Lunch's daily e-mail reported today that Liz Scheier, formerly of NAL and mostly acquiring for Roc Books, has joined Del Rey as a senior editor.

This comes about six weeks after Del Rey shed editor Jim Minz; there is no specific indication that the two events are connected.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The mighty Tor Empire is looking to expand; they're in the market for a new Editorial Assistant. The official declaration is:

We are seeking an Editorial Assistant to assist two fiction editors. In addition to working with the in-house editors, this editorial assistant will also assist one of the editors with the office work flow of an Executive Editor working off-site. These three editors work in a wide variety of genres including thriller, horror, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, western, and historical. Duties include reading and evaluating submissions, writing copy, keeping track of schedules, preparing manuscripts for production, as well as clerical tasks such as copying, filing, and completing routine paperwork. This assistant will have many opportunities to interact with other departments and to correspond with authors and agents. The successful candidate should have excellent written, verbal, and organizational skills and work well in a fast-paced environment. Attention to detail is important and multitasking is essential. Must have good computer skills and be familiar with Microsoft Office. A college degree is required, preferably in English or Communications; office experience is helpful.

Send resumes or queries to David Hartwell at dgh at tor.com. 

[via SF Scope]

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Current Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Vice President Howard V. Hendrix posted, late  yesterday, this rant in the SFWA  community LiveJournal, in which he said:

I'm also opposed to the increasing presence in our organization of webscabs, who post their creations on the net for free.  A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or on non-union terms; more broadly, a scab is someone who feathers his own nest and advances his own career by undercutting the efforts of his fellow workers to gain better pay and working conditions for all. Webscabs claim they're just posting their books for free in an attempt to market and publicize them, but to my mind they're undercutting those of us who aren't giving it away for free and are trying to get publishers to pay a better wage for our hard work. 

Since more and more of SFWA is built around such electronically mediated networking and connection based venues, and more and more of our membership at least tacitly blesses the webscabs (despite the fact that they are rotting our organization from within) -- given my happily retrograde opinions, I felt I was not the president who would provide SFWAns the "net time" they seemed to want at this point in the organization's development, or who would bless the contraction of our industry toward monopoly, or who would give imprimatur to the downward spiral that is converting the noble calling of Writer into the life of Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch.

I discovered Hendrix's post after reading Nick Mamatas's very vehement reply.

I'm not sure this is an issue in which non-writers can have a serious, coherent response (at least, not one Hendrix would respect; the greater public often doesn't care about scab workers, as I'm sure he would point out). So I'll stay out of this for now.

Update, part 1: Howard Hendrix replies to the controversy in a letter to GalleyCat. (But, notably, he is not engaging in debate anywhere that others can reply to him directly.) This was in response to an earlier GalleyCat story about the controversy.

Update, part 2: SFWA presidential candidate John Scalzi has also responded to the issue.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week's issue of Publishers Weekly (which I just got to yesterday) has their annual look at the bestselling books of 2006. Because this stuff fascinates me, I wanted to run through those lists and pull out the books of genre interest -- just to see how we're doing compared with the wider world of books.

The various PW articles are online, for those who want to dive into more context -- "Players Need Platforms" ranks hardcovers, "Media Heavies" covers paperbacks, and "Lemony Endings, Sweet" looks at books for younger readers in various formats.

All numbers are from PW -- they say that these are shipped-and-billed figures, not necessarily after returns (particularly for books published at the end of 2006), not including bookclub or overseas sales, and only include books sold in the calendar year 2006. So these are not anyone's "official" numbers, but they are at least indicative.

To start with the hardcovers, the bestselling books of 2006 were Mitch Albom's For One More Day in fiction (2,735,232 copies) and John Grisham's The Innocent Man in non-fiction (approximately 2,192,000). Nothing on the non-fiction list is of particular interest to the SFF world, but there are 5 books on the top 15 fiction list with some connection to us:

• 4. Next by Michael Crichton (1,232,429)
• 5. Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (app. 1,200,000)
• 6. Lisey's Story by Stephen King (app. 1,200,000)
• 8. Cell by Stephen King (app. 1,000,000)
• 15. Brother Odd by Dean Koontz (app. 650,000)

PW then lists everything that sold over 100,000 copies, and the interesting books there are:

• The Husband by Dean Koontz (app. 430,000)
• Memory in Death by J.D. Robb (app 385,000)
• Born in Death by J.D. Robb (app. 380,000)
• Phantom by Terry Goodkind (258,827)
• Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton (256,008)
• The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (205,374)
• Dark Celebration by Christine Feehan (175,500)
• Mistral's Kiss by Laurell K. Hamilton (170,022)
• Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon (146,112)
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (app. 135,000)
• Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton (110,177)
• Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson (110,134)
• The Ruins by Scott Smith (app. 110,000)
• Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks (101,468)

There may have been a few paranormal romances that I didn't recognize as such, or thrillers with supernatural elements, but otherwise that list should include everything with SF or fantasy content. (This disclaimer applies to all of my lists, actually -- I may have missed SFFnal things I'm not familiar with, but they would most likely be romances or thrillers.)

The next list is trade paperbacks, and the top book there (unsurprisingly) is Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code at 7,500,000 copies in mass and trade paper combined. Of interest to the SFF world:

• Cameras in Narnia by Ian Brodie (app 800,000)
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire (493,369)
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (378,523)
• Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (298,276)
• Halo by Eric Nylund (240,467)
• Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk (238,000)
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (216,000)
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire (another edition, 193,753)
• Perfume by Patrick Suskind (130,000)
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (125,000)
• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (125,000)
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (122,000)
• The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud (110,000)

In mass market, the top book was Nora Robert's Morrigan's Cross at 2,720,684 copies, which is itself of interest, since it's a paranormal romance. Other books with SF/Fantasy elements were:

• Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts (second on the list, 2,417,018)
• Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts (third on the list, 2,403,329)
• Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts (fourth, 1,800,154)
• Cell by Stephen King (1,442,000)
• Velocity by Dean Koontz (1,075,000)
• Forever Odd by Dean Koontz (1,070,000)
• Memory in Death by J.D. Robb (985,458)
• Origin in Death by J.D. Robb (825,528)
• Dark Tower V by Stephen King (810,500)
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (785,719)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate by David Michaels (636,008)
• Dark Demon by Christine Feehan (635,210)
• Dark Tower VI by Stephen King (570,000)
• Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (566,776)
• Dark Tower VII by Stephen King (503,000)
• Christ the Lord by Anne Rice (502,446)
• Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton (502,245)
• Dangerous Tides by Christine Feehan (501,673)
• Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon (app. 500,000)
• Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon (app. 500,000)
• The Vampire Who Loved Me by Teresa Medeiros (app. 500,000)

That list only goes down to the half-million level, or there would probably be another two dozen paranormal romances and even a few books published as SFF.

And then we come into the world of books for people who aren't quite adults yet. PW slices that into quadrants, dividing frontlist from backlist and hardcover from paperback, and I'll follow their lead (just to save myself integrating everything). Here I'm leaving out talking-things-that-don't-usually-talk books (like Charlotte's Web and the various Cars tie-ins), as well as books for really young readers, just to keep the list manageable.

First is hardcover frontlist, where the top title was Lemony Snicket's The End, at 2,089,054 copies -- more than four times the #2 book, incidentally. Also here:

• Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer (app. 500,000)
• Maximum Ride #2: School's Out -- Forever by James Patterson (420,501)
• The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket (360,407)
• Eldest (Limited Edition) by Christopher Paolini (275,558)
• Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (225,000)
• Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean (159,704)
• Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo (158,719)
• Fairest by Gail Caron Levine (155,006)
• Flyte by Angie Sage (149,732)
• Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud (app. 125,000)
• The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (101,896)
• Specials by Scott Westerfeld (101,391)
• The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (app. 100,000)

The top book in "hardcover backlist" is the board-book edition of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, at 806,556. Of SFFnal interest:

• The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket (459.603)
• Eldest by Christopher Paolini (299,749)
• The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (299,359)
• The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket (268,828)
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (258,313)
• The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket (254,934)
• The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket (231,250)
• The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket (227,236)
• The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (203,455)
• The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket (202,599)
• The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket (201,049)
• The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket (199,879)
• The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket (199,854)
• The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket (195,430)

Yes, every single volume of Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events" sold piles of copies last year. Who says kids don't like depressing books?

Next is "paperback frontlist," which are newly-published paperbacks (though these are still almost all reprints of hardcovers). The top book is, unsurprisingly, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling, at 1,328,173 copies. (Which, I note, is less than the new Snicket book.) Otherwise:

• Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson (1,063,944)
• Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (app. 200,000)
• Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer (app. 200,000)
• Magyk by Angie Sage (167,555)
• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (150,000)
• and a whole lot of Pirates of the Caribbean, Over the Hedge, and Ice Age tie-ins.

Lastly, there's "paperback backlist," led by Christopher Paolini's Eragon at 1,675,678. Also:

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (second, 588,775)
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (sixth, 489,076)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (375,487)
• The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis (363,338)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (337,447)
• The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (317,508)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (307,501)
• Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (304,797)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (295,881)
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (286,064)
• The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (284,768)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (277,390)
• The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (276,736)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (238,250)
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (214,480)
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (197,100)
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (159,449)
• The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (app. 150,000)

From that list, I can clearly see that the renumbering of the Narnia books has had an effect -- you'd expect the second-best-selling book in that series to be Prince Caspian, which is the further adventures of the heroes of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but Caspian's sales are below both The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. Only time will tell if this has any effect on young readers' enjoyment of the books, though...

I'm too tired after all of that typing to make any sweeping generalizations; I'll leave that to you folks for now. What do you think it all means?

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has posted a directory of 2006 SF/Fantasy/Horror books, organized by editor, to help people nominating editors for the Hugo Awards.

(And I have to say that -- though I like Lou Anders a lot -- it's a bit sad that he's the one keeping the list from starting with Ellen Asher of the SFBC and ending with Andrew Wheeler (me!) of the SFBC. All your base belong to us and so forth, you know...)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've forgotten to mention this for at least a week, but they're still running the banner, so I guess they haven't hired anyone yet.

Locus magazine, the newspaper of the SF/Fantasy/Horror/Speculative Fiction/Interstitial/Slipstream/Whatever-the-Heck-You-Call-It field, is looking for an Editorial Assistant. They're located in Oakland, California, and probably don't pay well -- no one in publishing does, really. But think of the glamor!

(I was reminded of this since the SFBC is itself in the process of hiring a new Editorial Assistant. We're on the opposite coast, though, and I think we're done interviewing now.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

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