The Business Of Science Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing And Publishing

The Business of Science Fiction This page intentionally left blank The Business of Science Fiction Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing MIKE RESNICK and BARRY N. MALZBERG McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London For Alvaro Zinos-Amaro: scholar, critic, writer, friend The chapters of this book were originally published in the SFWA Bulletin as entries in the column “The Resnick/Malzberg Dialogues.” LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Resnick, Michael D. The business of science fiction : two insiders discuss writing and publishing / Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4797-8 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Science fiction — Authorship. 2. Science fiction — Authorship — Marketing. I. Malzberg, Barry N. II. Title. PN3377.5.S3R47 2010 808.3' 8762 — dc22 2009052946 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2010 Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover images ©2010 Shutterstock Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Table of Contents Preface 1 Section 1: Writing and Selling 1. The Specialty Press 5 2. Foreign Sales 13 3. Awards 22 4. The Marketplace 31 5. Anthologies 40 6. Conventions 49 7. Works for Hire 59 8. Promotion 69 9. e-Publishing Revisited 80 10. Collaborations— Theory 90 11. Collaborations— Practice 99 Section 2: The Business 12. Agents 111 13. Money 123 14. Pseudonyms 131 15. Print-on-Demand 140 16. Professionalism 149 17. Myths 158 18. Really Dumb Ideas 168 v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 19. Abuses 179 20. False Doctrines 190 Section 3: The Field 21. Magazines 201 22. The Clueless (Part 1) 212 23. The Clueless (Part 2) 221 24. Change 230 25. Tailspinning 240 26. Google 251 Index 261 Preface Science fiction writers love to say that the most frequently asked question they encounter is “Where do you get your crazy ideas?”— and when speaking about the reading public, that might even be true. But when writers speak to each other, the subject invariably turns to the profession of writing, and it seems that each new generation of writers comes into the field virtually clueless. Their questions are more along the lines of “What do I look for in an agent, and how do I get one?” or “How do you make foreign sales?” or “An option clause means the publisher wants my next book ... so why do established writers hate them?” And it’s pretty much up to the established professionals (we’re both a little sensitive these days about the term “old-timers”) to answer their questions and point them in the right direction. We both broke into print in the 1960s. We’ve both won major awards. Barry has written two books about the field of science fiction: Engines of the Night (1982, a Hugo nominee), and Breakfast in the Ruins (2007, a Hugo nominee). Mike has written three: Putting It Together (2000, a Hugo nominee), I Have This Nifty Idea ... (2001, a Hugo nominee), and The Science Fiction Professional (200