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The Business of Science Fiction
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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