Juno Books

As they did last year, Orbit books put a summer intern to work looking at (some, but not all) fantasy covers. This year’s results note, among other things, fantasy cover clichés (“castles”, “glowy magic”, and “swords”) are in decline, but dragons held steady. Damsels are rarely found in distress these days, but they found ‘more than 70 bad ass women — and that’s with a really strict definition of “bad ass” (must be either armed, in a fighting stance, or riding a motorcycle). Thanks to to the rise of urban fantasy (also known as paranormal fantasy) 2009′s covers were dominated by tough, well-armed women who are more likely to glower than cower.’ A futher report concentrated on “changing fashion in urban fantasy heroines”. Among the “findings”: “Abs are in: Fantasy’s heroines are spending less time at the tattoo parlor and more time at the gym, as toned midriffs overtook tattoos as the favored accessory”…and stiletto heels are out.

So, looking at Pocket Juno’s covers, we guess we do not have many “bad-ass heroines”. In 2009, only the cover of Amazon Ink met the Orbit definition. We don’t get much “badder” in 2010, either: Only Amazon Ink, Shadow Blade, and Shadow Chase meet Orbit’s definition.

And we still have—intentionally—not a single tattoo or gun

Juno has certainly gone through a lot of changes since the first blog post on 06 May 2006 02:51 pm. And it is still evolving.

I’ve thought long and hard about what this 1000th post should be. I still am not sure I should be so open about our biggest news. I’ve noticed editors don’t really say all that much publicly about a lot of stuff. There are good reasons for that. But Pocket Juno is different and so am I, so…

Instead of a-title-month for 2011, there will be six Pocket Juno books (and all are super—of course, I will soon be telling you more):

• Jan 2011: Arcane Circle (Circle Series #4), Linda Robertson
• Mar 2011: Rogue Oracle (Oracle Series #2), Alayna Williams
• June 2011: Shadow Fall (Shadowchasers #3), Seressia Glass
• Sept 2011: Concrete Savior (Blood Redemption #2), Yvonne Navarro
• Nov 2011 Blood Sacrifice (Bloodlines #5), Maria Lima
• Dec 2011: Virtual Virgin (Delilah Street #5), Carole Nelson Douglas

Beyond 28 November 2011—what I assume is the release date for Virtual Virgin—I don’t know.

All I know is that I continue as editor of Pocket Juno, that this is the full schedule for Pocket Juno 2011, and that I’m not offering contracts at the moment for future titles. (So, right now, no need for submissions.)

Yes, there are authors and books whose series have hooked you and characters you already love missing from that list. You wanted to see more and soon. And you wonder what the future will be for those on that list too. I know, I feel the same way—except more so.

I think we all understand that the better the sales, the brighter the future for any author.

One thing most readers—and writers and even some editors and many publishers—don’t understand is just how little control one (whether that “one” is a corporate entity or an individual) has in this business these days over so many factors. Publishing is in the middle of some very interesting times, so that makes it even more unpredictable. And Pocket Juno is just a tiny part of publishing.

Steve Wasserman (literary editor of Truthdig; former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review; former editorial director of Times Books at Random House, as well as editorial director of Hill & Wang at Farrar, Straus & Giroux; currently a literary agent) wrote on the impossibility of predicting the future of publishinga s a whole:

The predicament facing the publishing industry is best understood against the backdrop of several overlapping and contending crises: The first is the general challenge confronting publishers of adapting to the new digital and electronic technologies that are increasingly rendering traditional methods of production and distribution obsolete, and undercutting profit margins; the second is the profound structural transformation roiling the entire book-publishing and book-selling industry in the age of conglomeration and digitization; and the third and most troubling crisis is the sea change in the culture of literacy itself, the degree to which our overwhelmingly fast and visually furious culture renders serious reading increasingly irrelevant, hollowing out habits of attention indispensable for absorbing long-form narrative and the following of sustained argument.

There are ideas percolating for Juno, but they haven’t completely brewed yet. I can’t be pessimistic because the future may be even more exciting and fulfilling; but I can’t be overly optimistic either, one never can be in such “interesting times”.

I’m striving for a sort of zen balance right now.

If you notice the little counter to the right, I’m coming up on post #1000 soon. I’d like to make it something *Special*. Anyone have any ideas? What should the thousandth Juno Books post be about? Let’s get some ideas in quickly!

That’s the question The Boston Globe has posed, complete with the subtitle: The Nordic bad boys have pillaged their way into our hearts. Reporter Alex Beam claims “the ferocious, globe-trotting rapists, pillagers, and marauders who traveled the known world of the Middle Ages…may be popular culture’s latest object of fascination.”

Although a bookstore owner credits Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy with helping to reawaken interest in Scandinavian literature, the Globe citations of of Viking popularity include Charlaine Harris’s Eric Northman, but gives credit for his invention to “the HBO script scribblers”. Feh. Supposedly Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan is working on a Viking script for Leonardo DiCaprio. Then there’s Brian Wood’s Northlanders graphic novel series; the reissue of Frans Bengtsson’s 1954 “The Long Ships”, and news that Bernard Cornwell “plans to start writing the fifth volume of his best-selling Saxon Tales shortly.”
”
Also mentioned are two classic H. Rider Haggard novels and “Thief Eyes” by Janni Lee Simner (Which is quite good. Read this review from Cynthia Ward for Fantasy Magazine.

NOT mentioned, however, is our own Maria Lima’s 1200-plus-year-old hot Viking shapeshifter Tucker Kelly of the BLood Lines series! And if you want to see a Viking go berserk–Tucker does in BLOOD HEAT, coming this October! You want a Viking? We got a Viking!

Other Norse-based fantasy not mentioned: Kim Wilkins’ “Giants of the Frost” (2004) places a modern scientist female protag in what’s left of the realm of the Norse gods. NEil Gaiman used Norse myth in the Sandman series, “American Gods”, and “Odd and the Frost Giants”. I haven’t read Greg van Eekhout’s urban fantasy “Norse Code”, but I know it is based on Valkyrie mythology. There’s Diana Paxson’s “Brisingamen” (1984); Harry Harrison’s “The Hammer and The Cross”, “One King’s Way”, and “King and Emperor” (mid-90s); Poul Anderson’s “Hrolf Kraki’s Saga” (1977), “War of the Gods” (1997) , and “Mother of Kings” (2001). There is an even earlier Anderson, too, “The Broken Sword” in the 50s. L. Sprague DeCamp’s “The Incomplete Enchanter” (1941). David Drake’s “Northworld” (1990), “Vengeance” (1991), and “Justice” (1992) trilogy retells Norse mythology as military SF. And, uh, Tolkien’s trilogy is pretty darned Norse-influenced.

Any other ideas about sf/f based in Norse mythology?

Man, this Viking has a huge…tentacle!

Art by the fabulous Daren Bader.

Use this link to vote for Shin-Soo Choo as an All Star. (If you don’t know. He’s a baseball player for the Cleveland Indians. A very good baseball player.) If you click on the link above and vote, then Choo gets more All Star votes (Choo plays right field so look under “outfield” to find S. Choo) and my son gets points. Enough points and he gets free tickets and takes me to the game. (And, yes, he already took me to one game already this year.)

And he really didn’t think I would do this…hehehe.

But what’s a mother for?

This is Choo. Not my son. I’m sure his mother want you to vote for him, too.

GalleyCat reports from a Stephenie Meyer blog tour that the author is having trouble completing Midnight Sun, the next entry in her mega-bestselling vampire series:

What’s true is that I’m really burned out on vampires. And, I don’t want to write it badly. So I want to wait until I’m excited about the material again, and I’m excited about Edward, and that it’s something that’s motivating. You know, when a story is keeping me up at night, and I’m waking up at 4 am in the morning and thinking ‘Yes! That is what is what should happen in this moment!’ Then that is when I can write with happiness! So, right now it feels like homework … it really does. And when things feel like homework they go very, very slowly for me.

Ms. Meyer has discovered what most authors already know: Writing is HARD WORK! It’s made even harder when you have deadlines and real life to worry about. Meyer has neither, really. I’m sure she’s still a good mom and all, but I’m thinking, one way or another, she really doesn’t need to worry about paying the bills, providing helth insurance for her family, carpooling, or clipping coupons before going grocery shopping these days. (For one thing, her husband retired to take care of their three sons.) Instead, she has a different type of burden: she’s a franchise, a brand name. Other people’s jobs and incomes depend on her performing her JOB.

Yup. Writing is her job now. To expect to be excited and happy about your job day in and day out is probably a bit unrealistic, even if you love it most of the time.

Thing is, Meyer has a choice: Even though she’s only 36, she and her family are set for life (probably for a couple of generations if they are fiscally responsible and well-advised). She can quit. She can give up her job and do whatever she wants. Hachette/Little, Brown and Company would not be happy about this, but they’d survive. Hollywood would survive. Her fans would live, too.

Meyer has always been honest about her initial publishing naivety. She also knows she has been very lucky (although, personally, I don’t think she realizes just how lucky, but then most people in her position wouldn’t). Maybe she’s now learning she was pretty naive about writing as a career, too.

She has options. Most folks don’t.

Me? I’d be more than happy to sell only a few million books (instead of tens of millions), maybe make one lucrative film deal (instead of multiple deals and licensing), and then do whatever the heck I wanted. If I still wanted to write — I would write whatever I wanted to write.

How about you?

So–thanks mostly to my daughter-in-law who explained the pro game to me last year on a big screen TV (she still plays and refs near Chicago), but also because two of my sons played soccer, and the local university (Akron) being #1 in the US last year (losing, unfortunately, the championship) and, not incidently because, well, gosh those are handsome lads out there dashing around in shorts and tight shirts–I became a soccer fan.

Naturally, the USA win was great yesterday, but today we are also celebrating Slovakia’s win over Italy. My kids are one-fourth Slovak. Guran, if you ever wondered (and I am sure you didn’t) is a Slovakian name. I know exactly two words in Slovak: čierny and pivo. The first means “black” the second means “beer”.

BEA is going on in NYC and I should be there.

WISCON is going on in Madison and I should be there.

But I am not.

And if I were, it would just put me further behind on any number of things that should be done already that aren’t.

Grumble.

Grouch.

The official release dates for BOTH books are now October 26, 2010.

BTW, sometimes a Web site will post a cover they aren’t supposed to. For one thing, what they may find online may not be the final version. For another, it’s technically illegal for them to do so. Just because you can find something online doesn’t give you the right to display it. There still may be minor changes even to these covers, but at least I’ve been given permission to post them.

“I love Akron. Since I was a little kid, I always said I was going to find a way to put this city on the map. And I’m going to continue to do that.'’

Weird Tales editor emeritus George H. Scithers passed away yesterday at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, from complications following a heart attack suffered the morning of April 17. He was 80. He had been in declining health for the last few years, due to complications from diabetes and a heart condition.

Scithers first became active in the SF field in 1959 as editor of two-time Hugo winning fanzine Amra. (In which Fritz Leiber proposed the type of adventurous stories Amra was devoted to be called “Sword-and-sorcery”.) He was the founding editor of Asimov’s when it launched in 1977, continuing there until 1982. He edited Amazing Stories 1982-86. In 1987 he revived Weird Tales with Darrell Schweitzer and John Betancourt. In 2007 stopped editing the magazine actively, becoming editor emeritus.

He founded specialty publisher Owlswick Press in 1973 and also edited numerous anthologies and also wrote fiction.

He was nominated for seven Hugos as a professional editor, winning in 1978 and 1980; was fan guest of honor at the 2001 Worldcon; won a special professional World Fantasy award in 1992 (with frequent collaborator Darrell Schweitzer); and received a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2002

Personal condolences may be sent to Larry Fiege, 218 Blandford St., Rockville, MD 20850-2629. Remembrances of George’s life in the SF community may be sent to letters@weirdtales.net for inclusion in an upcoming tribute issue. Further details regarding memorial plans will follow.

The picture you see here, which I didn’t know existed until last night, was taken when George received his Lifetime Achievement award at the World Fantasy Convention. That’s my hair in the background as I was sitting next to him at the table. We just happened to sit at the same table. We’d met before, but he didn’t really have a clue as to who I was (and I was pretty much nobody he would know anyway). It was the first time I ever really talked to George. He was a legend to me. I was a new audience for him to tell stories to. George had lots of stories. Always.

When I started working for Wildside and got to know George better, but since I worked from home in Akron, I only visited the Maryland offices a few times a year. I still liked to hear the stories. He accepted me as a peer, a fellow editor, someone to talk shop with.

There are literally hundreds of people involved in the sf/f field who knew him better than I, who he mentored, edited, taught. I didn’t even know him in his prime. But what I did know about him (and from him indirectly) guided my concept of what an editor (at least a genre editor) should be—not that I could ever live up to the ideal.

George felt finding new talent and nuturing it was an important part of the job. I know in the 80s with Asimov’s, he intentionally had a high profile and attended conventions to meet new writers and simply be known as an accessible person. He also used to give insightful replies/critiques—handwritten—to many who submitted stories. He genuinely wanted to help writers.

And when he found someone with talent, he made sure others knew about them.

George once dropped Robert A. Heinlein a postcard asking: “What happens after the Hero wins the hand of the princess and half the kingdom?” Consequently, Heinlein wrote Glory Road and dedicted it to George. Editors, see, are supposed to inspire, too.

George H. Scithers inspired me and countless others.

His was a life well-lived.

It’s Monday and despite having no time to muse, I’m musing anyway…some recent sales news piqued my interest. As much as I love the books I’m editing, they *are* one type of book. Sometimes I think, when reading of recent fiction sales, “Hmmm. Now there’s something I wish I’d had a shot at.”  You know, if I ruled the (publishing ) world and all that…not that I have any idea these will turn out to be good books. But the descriptions intrigued me…

• Kate Williams’ debut novel THE PLEASURES OF MEN, a historical thriller set in 1840s London, amid a sexual, obsessive underworld of murder, body-snatching, wrong science and torment that the Victorians tried to hide, pitched as reminiscent of Suskind, Faber and Kostova…
• Mark Lawrence’s PRINCE OF THORNS, introducing a compelling new anti-hero and his ultra-violent world, pitched as the best of Brent Weeks and George Martin…
• Rochelle Staab’s HOLLYWOOD HOODOO, the first book in a series of supernatural themed murder mysteries, featuring a pragmatic shrink and a broad-minded occult expert…
• Matt Beynon Rees’s MOZART’S LAST ARIA, set in 18th-century Austria, where Mozart’s estranged sister is determined to uncover the truth about his suspicious death, in a world of powerful secrets, powerful men, soaring music and brilliant performers…
• Karen Miller’s THE TARNISHED CROWN series… love and hate, treachery and power, the rise and fall of dynasties, and the remaking of a world. The theme of this fantasy saga is contained in its title: nobody is innocent. Every crown is tarnished. Redemption is possible but at a great price.
• Ben Aaronovitch’s RIVERS OF LONDON series, focusing on 20-something police constable who finds himself seconded - much to his surprise! - to a secret and arcane branch of the Met specializing in crimes of a supernatural nature, and thus apprenticed to the last wizard in Britain
• Steven John’s untitled thriller, set in a city shrouded in an unnatural permanent fog that covers an unspeakable crime…
• Stina Leicht’s OF BLOOD AND HONEY… fantasy exploration of the conflict between Ireland and Britain…against a backdrop of Anglo-Celtic fantasy, a secret Roman Catholic sect of assassins, fallen angels, and the fey…plus an untitled sequel which will also explore the rising punk rock movement…
• [YA] Gabrielle Zevin’s first three books in the BIRTHRIGHT SERIES, set in a dystopian future where chocolate and caffeine are contraband while water and paper are carefully rationed, the series relates the ascension and ultimate downfall of a 16-year-old girl, the heir apparent to an important and dangerous New York City crime family
• [YA] Ari Marmell’s HOUSEHOLD GODS, a Renaissance-style fantasy adventure about a brilliant but reckless teenage thief who happens to have an invisible god living inside her head…
• [YA] OR Melling’s THE CELTIC PRINCESS, a mythological adventure series in which the 16-year-old daughter of the High King strives to become a warrior to avenge her father’s murder — with the help of a young and charismatic slave, and together they make magic happen…
• Steven Harper’s THE DOOMSDAY VAULT, first in a new series of steampunk novels in which two people join an underground police force in Victorian London, where they fight zombies, mad scientists, and air pirates in an attempt to save the British Empire from a terrible plague, only to discover that the cure may be worse than the disease…
• Piper Maitland’s ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT, a spellbinding tale of vampires and forbidden love, a quest for an ancient book that has the power to shake the world, and a perilous race against time through ruined temples, clifftop monasteries, Venetian lagoons, and the Sinai Desert…

Passover Potato Kugel

Ingredients
6 tbsp vegetable oil
6 large potatoes, peeled
1 large onion (peeled, chopped/grated finely)
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
6 tbsp matzoh meal

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Pour the vegetable oil into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Grate or shred the potatoes. Transfer the grated potatoes to a colander and run cold water over the shreds, rinse thoroughly (toss the grated potatoes as you rinse). Drain and squeeze the shredded potatoes by hand. Gret as much water out as possible. Place in a large mixing bowl. Add onion to the potatoes.

In separate bowl, deat the eggs with the salt and pepper. Add to the potato mixture along with the chopped parsley and matzoh meal. Mix thoroughly.

Place the baking dish containing the vegetable oil into the preheated oven and let it heat for about 5 minutes. Remove the baking dish from the oven and pour about half of the hot oil into the potato mixture, stir well, then spoon the potato mixture into the hot, oiled baking dish. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the top of the kugel is golden brown and crisp.

Makes about 12 servings.

My email this morning (happy Easter) offered me: Amazon Kindle: FREE Kindle for Mac Download. I downloaded it right away. (It was announced March 18. An iPad ap has just been announced. (And there is a other Kindle aps.)

For one thing, it means I can now check Kindle files and see how they look to the rest of the world. Working for a small press I’ve actually made Kindle books — and had no way to view the finished product. And, right now, as one of my “side jobs” I am prepping some other files for ebook publication. (I also do what used to be called typesetting — and is now called compositing since type isn’t involved these digital days — for print books and a lot of other publishing-related jobs to earn extra cash to pay for extravagant things like health insurance. Yes, Juno is a more than full time job. Sorry if I just destroyed your illusions about how glamorous and financially rewarding editing is as a career.)

Anyway…Finally, I’ll be able to see a Kindle version and make corrections if needed.

And, if I do need to read an e-book, this expands my ability to do so.

As I’ve said before, I think ebooks are keen and have long recognized them as an important part of publishing. (Albeit one that, at first, circa 2000, elicted an over-reaction and is still is viewed somewhat askew in various ridiculous and/or serious ways by the publishing industry. Things will, eventually, work out. One hopes with no loss of blood — after all, In the last “book revolution” Johann Gutenberg never profited from his invention and died in poverty and, well, in the history of the book since then, authors often have gotten the shaft.)

BUT — (1) I spend 8-12 hours a day in front of a screen as it is and (2) I have no intention of spending a small fortune for a single-use electonic device that needs a battery or power cord. Further (3) I’m a bibliophile. We all have our fetishes.

Am I interested in an iPad? You bet. (Yeah, I’ve been a Mac addict for 25 years.) When I travelled a lot, I needed a laptop–primarily for email, ftp access, wordprocessing, and occasionally to display cover art and the like. But when my youngest son went to college and needed a laptop, instead of a new one, he got mine (that money thing again). Right now, I’m not travelling much (money…again), so it’s not too bad. An iPad probably will be better for me than a laptop when/if I ever get around to making another tech investment. But the primary reason for getting one would not be ebooks.

But, no, I don’t see myself ever buying a Kindle; $260 buys a lot of print books (and actually own them, unlike Kindle ebooks that are just licensed to “purchasers”.) But I’m glad I finally have access to the books.

This is the official release day for Embers by Laura Bickle. I’m suppossed to just tell you that and fling some virtual confetti and get on with the rest of the show. Maybe mention that Sparky, the heroine’s salamander familiar) is having a virtual birthday party on laura’s blog (There’s even virtual salamander cake!)

But…

Let’s chat.

Embers is a debut novel from an unknown writer.

And it’s a good book.

Yeah, it is a “first novel.” Like most of those, there are flaws–although not as many as you will find in many a debut novel that’s gone on to bestsellerdom. It’s sequel, Sparks, is even better than Embers and I’m sure that more books in a series feauring Anya Kalinczyk, her salamander familiar Sparky, and friends would continue to be winners. If it gets a chance.

There are way too many “urban fantasy/paranormal” novels being released each month right now. (Publishing has a history of killing genres this way.) Even if you live, breathe, and eat the stuff…even if you just get the best of it: there’s no way you can keep up with it all, let alone buy it or read it. Bookstores and other venues that sell books can’t even stock it all. Publishers try, but can’t publicize them all well enough. Reviewers are burned out. And there are all sorts of other factors about distribution and economics affecting especially mass market paperbacks as a whole that come into play, now more than ever.

This is not the best time to be a debut author in this genre, especially one who has no personal acquaintance with bestselling authors to push the book. Sincere thanks must go to two authors — M.L.N. Hanover and Jeri Smith-Ready — who did take the time to read Embers and provide lovely quotes:

“Bickle has something great in Anya. Embers has everything: demons, ghosts, dragons, love, sex, police, and murder.” — M.L.N. Hanover

“Gritty but never grim, Embers is a truly urban fantasy, where the soul of a city haunts every page. I can’t wait for more of Anya and the unforgettable Sparky!” — Jeri Smith-Ready

Oh, not everyone will love Embers — it fits the formula for this “urban fantasy/paranormal” genre, but it also shakes it up a little. (You readers who want your romance to be something out of a perfect fairy tale may not, for instance, care for it.) And it’s truly an “urban fantasy” because it’s locale, a Detroit that is both fictional and fantastic while remaining grounded in grim reality, is integral to it. But it’s not China Mieville or John Crowley and it’s not meant to challenge you; it’s “commercial”: meant to entertain you because it’s a good story with interesting characters that maybe makes you think a bit but doesn’t stress your brain cells.

It’s got a great cover, but it’s not of a half-naked woman in a “strong pose”. Anya, its protagonist, is an arson investigator. Having her tramp around with her boobs hanging out or her trim tummy exposed would have been ridiculous. So we actually have a strong cover that is appropriate to the book. (Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against beautiful women scantily clad on covers. That’s another topic.)

And it seems to be getting good reviews. Good reviews never hurt, but when it comes to mass market paperbacks, they also don’t have the magical power to produce phenomenal sales.

It’s author, Laura Bickle, is doing everything she can to promote the book herself.

But still, I worry. I worry that Embers isn’t going to get the chance it deserves. Maybe Embers (and Sparks when it comes out in six months) will set the world on fire or at least ignite a small part of it. Maybe not.

And you know what? In this business, I’m not supposed to care. It’s not just this book. It’s all books. I’m supposed to just accept that some books make it and some don’t. That the whims of store buyers (or lack there of) can make or break a book. I’m supposed to understand that due to bad timing or bad cover art or a negative snark or mindless stupidity somewhere or a lack of support from whatever or a myriad other things I have no control over or input on that, oh well, these things happen.

Well, fuck that. I still care.

I’m probably not supposed to say that either.

Evidently my post about Wildside’s need for in-office help paid off.

You’d think with all this snow (at least in some parts of this country) that writers and agents would have nothing better to do than submit to us editors. Maybe everyone is watching the Olympics?

Hey, I’d rather be watching the Olympics, too. But (among a bunch of other chores) I’m looking (and re-looking and often deciding) at submissions *right now*. So, here’s a mission for those of you perspicacious enough to read this blog:

1. Read or re-read the Submission Guidelines
2. Ask yourself: “Do I have a completed or near-manuscript that would work for Pocket Juno?”
3. If the answer to #2 is “yes” then (for a limited time) skip the part in the guidelines about sending a synopsis and three sample chapters. Send me a short synopsis in your email and the full manuscript attached.
4. If the answer to #2 is “No, but I have a friend who could answer “yes”, then clue them in.
5. Make sure you (or your friend) otherwise, adhere to #1 including the proper eddress to email.
6. Act now! This is a limited time offer!

Special Bonus Hint #1: I wouldn’t mind seeing some steampunkish novels, but they still would have to fit within the context of what Pocket Juno publishes. Still, you might take a chance…

The recent Sherlock Holmes movie provided motivation for a Sherlockian revival in publishing (The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes edited by John Joseph Adams, The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures edited by Michael Ashley, reissue and–well-warranted–renewed interest in Carole Nelson Douglas’s Irene Adler series, and much more etc.) and now BBC Worldwide and PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre “will present a 21st-century spin on the classic detective stories” in a series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Someone once postulated there was some sort of “idea cloud” hanging over authorial humanity and that sometimes those ideas would drift down into more than one writer at a time. Maybe so.

I realized at one point that hints of ancient Egyptian mythology suddenly appeared in several Juno Pocket books. Now, I was fully aware of the underlying mythos in SHADOW BLADE when I bought it. But it also popped up unexpectedly in the second of the Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, series BRIMSTONE KISS (and continued in the third, VAMPIRE SUNRISE. Minor ancient Egyptian references also surfaced in VICIOUS CIRCLE and HALLOWED CIRCLE.

Now it is spontaneous human combustion.

Months ago Laura Bickle emailed me with this cool idea to use spontaneous human combustion (the burning of a living human body without an apparent external source of ignition) in SPARKS, her follow-up to EMBERS. Considering her heroine, Anya Kalinczyk, is an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, this was an interesting concept.

Then, as I was editing Maria Lima’s BLOOD HEAT (the fourth of her Bloodlines series following MATTERS OF THE BLOOD, and BLOOD BARGAIN, and BLOOD KIN) — up pops a little reference to spontaneous human combustion. Even more oddly, toward the end of Yvonne Navarro’s upcoming HIGHBORN, spontaneous human combustion occurs and is explained in an entirely different way than in SPARKS.

I don’t, however, see this as a new “trend” in fantasy

Today’s Wall Street Journal article article on “The Death of the Slush Pile” made me go, well, at least “Aaarrrgh!”

Before I vent specifically, allow me to point out:

• *I* take unsolicited manuscripts (aka slush).
• So do Tor and Ace/Roc Science Fiction & Fantasy. Maybe others.
• Genre magazines take slush, too.
• Of the current Pocket/Juno line-up Stacia Kane, Linda Robertson, Maria Lima, Laura Bickle/Alayna Williams (yes, yes, she’s the same person — more on that later) all initially came from slush. Carole Nelson Douglas was/is represented, but our first contact was personal and not through her agent. As for the original small press line-up, almost all came from the slush pile.

Now, to the WSJ article:

1) They mix screenwriting and book publishing. They are comparing apples and oranges and shouldn’t have. I won’t address the Hollywood side of things.

2) The article completely ignores that there are simply more submissions these days than ever. Wordprocessing and the Internet have made a great many more people think they should be authors. So has the “starification” of popular authors — since the media play up blockbuster authors, huge advances, and the tiny minority of writers who make big bucks, folks think becoming an author is an easy road to riches. Nothing could be further from the truth.

3) WSJ: “As writers try to find an agent—a feat harder than ever to accomplish in the wake of agency consolidations and layoffs…” Is this true? I don’t think it is in publishing.

4) WSJ: “Book publishers say it is now too expensive to pay employees to read slush that rarely is worthy of publication. At Simon & Schuster, an automated telephone greeting instructs aspiring writers: “Simon & Schuster requires submissions to come to us via a literary agent ….Company spokesman Adam Rothberg says the death of the publisher’s slush pile accelerated after the terror attacks of 9/11 by fear of anthrax in the mail room.” Okay, treading softly here since Pocket is part of S&S and Juno is part of Pocket. Yes, I am sure that it is not worth paying employees to read the amount of slush they get. No arguing. However, as many smaller publishers are learning, you can automate email submissions and avoid even compute viruses, so anthrax and mailrooms need not be a concern.

In fact e-systems make considering and tracking submissions easier than ever. Take a look at what Clarkesworld does for submissions: Clarkesworld Submissions System.

5) WSJ brings up rejections of Rowling, Meyer, etc. What articles like this never point out is that often many rejections come because the manuscript is submitted to the “wrong” publisher or editor. You may have a wonderful YA novel — well, don’t send it to me. Pocket Juno does not publish YA novels. Or short story collections, or horror novels, or space opera, or thrillers, or novels with male protagonists, or…etc. Want to count that as a rejection? I don’t. I count it as a misguided submission.

One plus for the WSJ article: In a sidebar, a Random House editor mentions that editors “travel, they get around. They look at writer’s conferences, at MFA programs. They look at magazine articles and at blogs. That’s what editors do, they sniff things out from so many different sources.” This is true for me, at least. Especially about personal contact. I wish I still went to as many conferences as I used to. I find it a valuable way not only to meet potential authors, but to make contact with readers and “sniff out” the future vibe.

One more thing: The WSJ article is subtitled: Even in the Web era, getting in the door is tougher than ever. Is it? At least in in sf/f, authors have been discovered online via blogs. Romance and erotica writers are often starting out in ebooks these days. And the networking — what you can learn from others and who you “know”, in any career, is always something to consider — you can now do as an author due to the Web is a whole new universe for authors.

And yeah, that’s where I got started, too, online.

Okay, so she’s not so happy with the hat, but she does like her new sweater. Grandpuppy Doc (aka Duchess) was one year old yesterday.

If you recall, the semi-resident grandpup, Doc, was pictured earlier with Santa.

But I was missing a holiday photo of the other grandpups who live in Chicagoland, Malcolm and Dewie. (Although they have made earlier appearances: here, here last Christmas, and here. But now I can give equal blog time to them too (below).

All pups had very exciting happy Christmas.

We hope you did, too.

I hope this busy time of year is finding you all in good health, good spirits, and feeling celebratory. Obviously I’ve been intentionally taking some time off the blog (and other duties and jobs) myself. Hope you are able to do the same.

This has been quite a year for Juno — moving from the minors to the majors, so to speak. And, gosh, there they are: Pocket Juno books in places like Walmart. Who would’ve thunk?

As old and decrepit as I am, I seem to still have the ability to learn and continue to do so — at least as an editor and in the world of publishing. (As a person I’m probably no longer relevant whatsoever, so it is a good thing I’m rarely around “real people”. One’s children have to tolerate one.) I have been thinking a lot lately about genre and books and publishing and the future. If I have any epiphanies, I’ll let you know

Meanwhile, enjoy the season and help others enjoy it, too.

The art is “A Gothic Winter” by Alexa P. Adedeji from DeviantArt.com.

Doc, the currently resident grandpuppy, visited Santa Sunday…

“Yes, Santa, I’ve been a very good puppy and want lots of treats for my first Christmas!”

Along with doing several other publishing-related jobs in addition to being a more than full time book editor, I review books. In fact, I’m even a member of the National Book Critics Circle (unless my dues have expired). For the last year I haven’t done a lot of reviewing, but I am starting to do so again and editing reviews as well.

More about that another day. I’m just supplying this info as background. The point of this post concerns e-galleys.

First, let me set out my prejudices:

1. I sit here in front of a screen all day. Reading onscreen is “work”.
2. When reading a book for review, I like to relax — as a regular reader would. For me, “relax” isn’t “sitting here where I work all the time”.
3. When reading for review, I often mark up a galley/ARC/book.
4. I also read review books when I go places and have to wait for any reason.
5. No, sillykins, I own no portable e-reading machine of any sort, nor do I imagine I will unless they start handing them out for free. I don’t even have a laptop anymore because the youngest went to college and he needed it.

In general, reviewers are not fond of e-galleys

All this being said there are also very good reasons to welcome an e-version of a book:

• A book that might be published in England and/or is otherwise a high-priced (usually limited edition) hardcover.
• Advance copies of books, especially mass market paperbacks, are quickly becoming a thing of the past — and for good reason. Other than the cost and waste involved, most mmp reviewers seem to want the “real book” and disregard an ARC anyway. But there are still times you need an advance, pre-publication reading (deadlines, advance quotes, interviews, just deciding if you are even interested in consdering a particular book for review, etc.)
• You get it right away.

So, I am not unacquainted with various versions on e-galleys. I’ve always been notified of availability of such by email.

But HarperCollins/Avon did introduce me to something new this week. I got a card– a Symtio card — in the mail along with promotional material for two books: Embrace the Night Eternal and Abandon the Night by Joss Ware. (Okay, there’s at least a name drop for your efforts, folks!) On the back of the card was a scratch strip that revealed a PIN. You go to the proper URL, supply the pin and get your free ebooks. I am warned they are DRM protected and will expire a week before on sale dates. That’s somewhat bothersome, but I also am fairly sure the nice publicity person would, if I requested, be happy to send me a pulp version when it is published.

Today, it is still a novelty. Enough to gain my attention because it is new. The colorful, informative (although, please, could you make the typeface on the the back a teensy bit bigger?) cards might be used promotinally in other ways, too. But they are probably a mite on the pricey side to be handed out like, say, bookmarks.

I was supposed to beta-test NetGalleyfrom both the publisher’s and reviewer’s points of view early on in its development — so early it was time-consuming, bothersome, and I dropped out pretty quickly. (Although I hope I gave their tech people some decent feedback while I was involved.) They are up and running now and I’ve had a couple of e-mail invitations to download e-galleys there. Haven’t yet.

I understand, from news items, that Simon & Schuster–Pocket is an imprint thereof, Juno is an imprint of Pocket–is in beta a similar system. It appears it will be quite awhile before it is the usual way of doing things though.

The card, front and back:

(And, uh, yeah, that one blurb really does say “Zombies May Rule, But Love Always Triumphs.” I bet you were wondering how zombies were getting worked into this )

– The Twilight Saga: New Moon set a new single day record for opening-day box office, taking in $72.7 million on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal. With a box office of $140.7 million over the weekend in North America, the second film in the Twilight series came in third all time, not far behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3.

– Details reports that tourism in Forks, Washington is thriving and gives advice to guys whose girlfriends or wives have the hots for a fictional vampire.

– The Daily Beast reports on Twilight fans who tattoo themselves en homage.

– counts The Twilight Saga: New Moon tweets.

– Security firm PC Tools documents a growing number of malware attacks and scams related to the popular book and movie series. The company expects such attacks to increase with the release of the New Moon sequel.

– The Washington Post discovers that “[g]ood, smart, literary women” have been seduced by the Dark SideTwilight Saga.

…and there has to be more bad feature stories on “why are vampires popular?” and variations thereof than any time in the history of the word “media”. (How long is that? Media was first used in 1927 to connote “newspapers, radio, TV, etc.” “Media” is the plural of “medium” which was derived from the Late Latin “medialis” meaning “of the middle”, a variant of the earlier Latin “medius” meaning “middle”.

A couple of days ago I started to write about Harlequin launching a self-publishing unit. Real work got in the way of finishing. In the meantime, many more folks were heard from: SFWA made a statement as has MWA, and yesterday, in response to RWA’s hissy fit, Harlequin announced they were taking the Harlequin brand name off their new Horizons self-publishing unit.

Whatever other folks and organizations felt about Harlequin teaming up with Author Solutions (who has taken over earlier self-publishing companies AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, Wordclay and Xlibris and has an arrangement similar to Harlequin’s with Christian publisher Thomas Nelson–which evidently caused no noticeable outrage), it wasn’t something I was personally thrilled about. And now calling the horse by a different color doesn’t really change much.

If nothing else, self-publishing is a choice a writer needs to make only after seriously considering it and only if they understand the amount of money they commit may never be recovered. Read the SFWA’s Writer Beware article on he subject for a good idea of what should be considered. The truth is that most self-published books sell very few copies. (Author Solutions’ CEO Kevin Weiss stated in a 2009 New York Times articlethe average sales of titles from any of the company’s brands at around 150. One assumes this includes books sold directly to authors. According to a 2004 NYTimes article, 40% of iUniverse’s books are sold directly to authors.)

All too often impatient and overly optimistic writers feel they will be the exception. They think only of positive outcome.

Your chances of selling a lot of self-published books are slim. If you want to pay the money and take that chance, that’s up to you, I guess. People spend lots of money on hobbies. They never expect to make it back.

And with Harlequin Horizons you won’t even be making much off of being self-published.

As for or being discovered by a “real publisher”, those chances are slim, too. And when the leading publisher of a particular genre — a genre that probably has more aspiring writers than any other — decides to profit from exploiting writers dreams? That’s where the ethical ick comes in. The initial Harlequin Horizons Web content read: “Reach the stars and prove dreams do come true. Titles published through Harlequin Horizons will be monitored for possible pickup by Harlequin’s traditional imprints.”

You are paying to be in a new kind a slushpile. In fact, Harlequin plans to make authors they have rejected aware of their service.

You pay your $600-$1600 to get your book published. You can put lots more into it, of course. There are also “extras” you can add on to basic packages. (Like editing, a $5,400 marketing package, the $4800 trailer with voiceover, etc. You are also going to be paying them for more copies of your book than are provided in most packages.

Oh, yeah, trust me, this is a profitable set-up for both Harlequin and Author Solutions. They not only profit from you paying to be published, they profit from every book you sell.

Of course, my favorite part of this whole scheme is the editorial services. Obviously your material wasn’t good enough to start with, so editing is sure to improve it. Line editing is .035 per word; content editing (”all the features of a Line Edit for grammar, punctuation, word choice, sentence structure, capitalization, and spelling, as well as added focus on restructuring sentences and streamlining your work style”) is .042 per word. Developmental editing is .077 per word. (Whoa! I should be making a LOT mot than I make…)

(Psst! Aspiring Authors! Send me $10,000. I’ll see what I can do for you! No promises, of course.)

If you want more on all this: Author Jackie Kressler brings up a lot of other ethically icky points and provides a summation now that Harlequin has blinked.

Not that this is over.

No matter what an editor ever responds to you, don’t write back with:

Dear Editor - [Blank] is not a teen novel as the most cursory glance at the first page would have disclosed. Sorry your’e [sic] too busy to do your job. We’re all busy but that’s hardly an excuse for incompetence. Try harder.

Yeah, that’s real.

BTW, although I obviously can’t give an example of the material in question, I did read it. It was bleak, gritty, and featured a 14-year-old protagonist. I could have called it a lot of things in my response. I didn’t. I said we didn’t publish teen novels and suggested a look at our guidelines.

I usually ignore such responses. But lately, well, when you get submission after submission from writers who are so far off base from what the guidelines request, when a few take it upon themselves to insult you when they are rejected, or even lecture me about how we are misguided in limiting ourselves by wanting only female protagonists or questioning why we are so stupid as not to want something other than fantasy…

Aargh.

So next time you wonder WHY most editors take only agented or solicited manuscripts: keep this in mind. For all of you nice folks out there who do things the right way, thanks. But the rotten apples and even some of the somewhat innocent ignorance does start wearing you down.

Understand this is all conjecture based on my minimal knowledge of chain stores and personal buying experiences, but…

Closing 200 Waldenbooks, Borders Express, and Borders Outlet stores (leaving about 130 open) will hurt, but it may not hurt book sales as much as one might expect. Yes, it will hurt the 1500 or so part-timers who the staffed the stores — especially when there aren’t other jobs to go to these days. And, true, as Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said, “when retail stores close, those stores do not necessarily get replaced” and “that will put some strain on our sales.” (Quoting Publishers Lunch.) But will that strain be permanent?

So how can I guess that the lost of sales of $320 million (which the BGI mall stores generated May 2009-April 2010) not hurt? Barnes & Noble is also closing all but two of the remaining 52 of B. Dalton’s by January– so there’s about $50 million more in lost annual revenue for publishers. How can the loss of $380 million not hurt?

The mall stores carried books for the masses. Popular titles — a typical Walden carried about 13,500 titles compared to 80,000 carried by a Borders superstore. Will those book buyers stop buying books simply because the mall stores are not there? I don’t think so.

Mall stores were at least part of the reason (although far from the only reason) that most newsstands — once the places where the masses served — disappeared. Now the mall stores disappear. Did buyers stop buying books? Nope.

How do I know book buyers still buy? Publishers sold 3.13 billion books last year, compared with 3.1 billion in 2006, an increase of 0.9 percent, according to Book Industry Trends 2008 [1]. Publishers sold 3.08 billion copies in 2008, down 1.5 percent from the previous year, according to Book Industry Trends 2009 [2]. According to Book Industry Trends [from The Book Publishing Industry, 2nd ed. Albert N. Greco (2004)], yearly net unit sales were:
2002 - 2.45 billion
2001 - 2.4 billion
1999 - 2.5 billion (highpoint for years 1989-2002)
1989 - 2.1 billion

I don’t have a comparable figure for 2009, of course, although total books sales are currently projected to decline .5% which, if it proves true, isn’t bad for this recessionary year. [3].

For all the doom and gloom in publishing people are still buying books.

* * *

The last time I actually bought a book in a Waldens or their mall rivals Barnes & Noble’s B. Dalton, I had a child in a stroller. Since my baby is now a sophomore in college, that was some time ago. Although we still have a very nice, updated mall nearby, I’ve avoided it for a long while. I dash into department stores or a specialty store and then leave. Evidently a lot of people do that these days as enclosed shopping malls have been in decline for some time and the current economic climate is quickening their demise.

Borders didn’t arrive close to my home until around 1993. I bought a lot of books — thousands of dollars worth — there until around 2000 or so. After that I still shopped there, but it was very rarely. Barnes and Noble finally opened a store here in 2000, I didn’t set foot in it for several years. I go there now occasionally. My shopping at Borders has dwindled to next to nothing. I can think of only one book — an oversized British “bargain book” that was too good a deal to pass up — I’ve purchased at Borders in the last three years. I’ve bought more than that at B&N. When I finally started going there, I found it a much more pleasant shopping experience with a larger selection.

(Before anyone jumps my case for not supporting local booksellers — there really aren’t any nearby. The closest is a 30 minute drive in a direction I seldom go; there are two Joseph Beth stores 45 minutes away.)

I still buy books. I buy mostly online. I bought my first real e-book the other day (non-fiction: a book I needed for research for an encyclopedia entry I was writing.)

I’m betting lots of book consumers are like me and that $380 million in sales aren’t disappearing.