Juno Books

April 1, 2009

For Immediate Release

In a pioneering effort to serve a niche market – male readers – Prime Books will be introducing a new imprint: Jupiter. Publisher Sean Wallace, who was integral in developing Wildside Press’s female protagonist-focused fantasy line, Juno Books (now an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books), said of the venture, “I see ‘male fiction’ as a small but vital market. Besides, in times of economic crisis, you try all sorts of otherwise insane ideas.”

Industry statistics consistently show that women read more and buy far more books than men. Modern innovations have only strengthened the female purchasing demographic. “When ebooks were still an untried idea, the predictions were that ebooks would appeal more to men than women. Of course that was stereotypical ‘men like tech/women write of parchment’ thinking. What actually happened was that romance and women’s erotica became the biggest sellers in electronic books. Men are obviously not finding enough product that appeals to them.”

In keeping with his background in fantasy and science fiction, Wallace’s Jupiter imprint will stick to genre. “We did the research. It was that or NASCAR, football, and beer. We just didn’t find a lot of quality writing with those themes,” said Wallace. “With sf/f, we can always build on the pre-established tropes: racing to the stars, big strong men battling other big strong men for no reason, mind-altering…well, you know, NASCAR, football, and beer for people who can read. And, of course, we will keep to the tradition of underdressed, busty, mindless women characters kept to the sidelines.”

Stephen Segal, managing editor of Weird Tales, will head up the design of the books. “With Juno, we got a lot of criticism that we were putting attractive women on the covers. Oddly, the negativity came exclusively from men. We then realized this was based on the fact that ‘manly’ books often featured oversize, overcompensatingly large typeface on the covers; massive vertical towering structures; or scientifically impossible machinery. In other words, men really want attractive women on covers, too. They were just jealous. So, we are using a lot of women on the covers—we’re just making sure their swords aren’t bigger than the guys’.”

Both Wallace and Segal are currently nominated for the Hugo, the physical award for which has frequently been described as a “phallic symbol.”

“Sheer coincidence,” said Segal.

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;-)

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