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Hart to Hart
Publishing guru David Hartwell, currently filling the hotseat as a senior editor at Tor, chats with Stephen Hunt about why only one per cent of the SFF slush pile is of publishable quality, the joys of running The New York Review of Science Fiction, and the contribution made by the Philip K. Dick Awards to the field. As we mentioned above, David owns and publishes the rather good New York Review of Science Fiction, bringing a rare touch of class and respectability to a genre crowded with magazines like, well ... us here at the 'Nest, I suppose.
Basic writing skills, wide reading in the genre, a strong desire to write in the genre and not bend its rules, the intent to entertain readers. What type of science fiction and fantasy is selling well at the moment for Tor? Hard SF and genre fantasy.
If a current author became available at the right price, whom would you love to sign? Stephen King, Iain Banks What kind of size is Tor's slush pile at the moment? Too large to contemplate. In your experience, what kind of percentage of a slush pile is of publishable quality? Less than one percent. Do you have any stories on regrets you have on authors you turned away, who later went on to be become famous? (Kind of: drat, and we told JK Rowling that boy wizards at school would never sell). Early in my career I rejected a 2500 page manuscript by the unknown Stephen Donaldson. Lester del Rey later bought it and edited it into three volumes. What's Tor's attitude to print-on-demand? Do you think the technology will ever amount to anything? The technology has already revolutionized the small press. What are your thoughts on e-books? We make tens of dollars a year on e-books. What trends do you think will dominate SFF publishing for the next few years? Basically, nothing will change. Nothing has changed for the last decade except the distribution system, which keeps discouraging small-sales books. What books are you reading at the moment for your own enjoyment? Haruki Murakami, After the Quake What improvements would you implement for the industry if you could wave a magic wand over it? (We understand the returns-free, fast-moving record industry is often held up as the model to emulate). I would have all the international conglomerates sell off the publishers piecemeal, and restore the editorial identities of the publishing imprints. What are you current gripes about manuscripts currently being submitted? Most of them lack ambition, talent, or knowledge of SF or fantasy. The most usual flaw in the almost-publishable is inadequate attention to setting. How has the likes of Amazon and the online world impacted your life at Tor? We make hundreds of dollars a year from Amazon, etc. Many good jokes are derived from Internet business models. Most online reviews show no signs of being edited for clarity, grammar, or logic. I love the world wide web and wish the Internet were better. How much science should be included in a SF novel? Enough to underpin the setting and the story. How has the franchising of novels set in TV and film universes impacted the world of books and authors? It has clogged the distribution systems with mediocre to terrible writing and marginalized much excellent writing. One does not look for the one fine media tie-in novel of the year.
Growing in circulation and making a small profit. How much does Tor copy-edit your authors' works? As much as is necessary after normal editing for structure, logic, and consistency. Varies with the writer. Do you notice a difference between novels where the author makes it up as they go along, versus the breed of author who need to have an encyclopaedia detailing their world and its maps, characters and universe before they can put pen to paper? Actually no essential difference, although much difference in feeling. The authors who make maps, etc, usually choose to have characters and stories that require the information be used overtly in the text, which makes for somewhat more didactic exposition. But not always. How do you think the Philip K. Dick Awards contribute to the SF genre? I am mildly surprised at how much writers value the PKD awards, and truly pleased that the fans support them (the Philadelphia SF Society and The Northwest SF Society both contribute substantially). I think it is a good idea to reward quality in a publishing format that is both popular and despised by the literary establishment. Even in the SF field, there are many fewer reviews of paperback original SF, and often an original is published with not a single review. The publishers no longer value the award because it does not effect sales much, but editors, agents, writers, fans support it. Which science fiction and fantasy magazines -- if any -- do you read? Because I do a Year's Best SF and a Year's Best Fantasy, I read all of them that I can obtain in the English language. By which I mean that I start to read every story in every issue. Often I do not finish. How important are author tours and bookstore signings to how many novels an author manages to sell? They don't hurt, but may or may not help. It depends upon the charm and charisma of the writer. Unless you are Clive Barker, Pat Cadigan, or Neil Gaiman, it is not cost effective for publishers to spend any money on tours or signings. This is something writers can and should do for themselves. No one knows how much it can help until it is tried, and the writer needs to know. But do the math: How many books need to be sold to cover the real costs? Have you noticed the number of reviews in magazines, newspapers and other media having any impact on sales of SFF novels? Very hard to assess. I have seen piles of reviews for a book that appear to have no effect on sales, and one single comment in a single review that seems to double the sale, or triple it. It is certainly better to have reviews in print than not. If you have few print reviews, the sales are generally low. There is no quantifiable effect on sales of online reviewing in the US market to date, but it is good to have credible reviews, even in small fanzines.
Are we ever going to see a sequel to your brilliant history of science fiction, the Age of Wonders? I am devoting my spare writing time to essays and to NYRSF. I am thinking about a book of essays on SF. With the consolidation of publishing power in the hands of fewer publishers, wholesalers and retailers, do you think any new imprints will emerge to challenge the existing players? No. Sadly, no. Without a complete economic collapse and rebirth, not much will change. As a genre, how do other editors in genres like crime, history, modern literature etc regard SFF? Although we are less classy, we have more fun. Mentioning no names, do you ever get star tantrums and diva behavior from the superstar novelists? Yes. And also from those who are not stars. As authors become more successful, is it harder to point out and get them to rectify flaws in their work? In my experience, if a writer begins as easy to edit, he or she stays that way. In your opinion, what makes for a good jacket design? Clear, readable type, and genre art What made you more excited, winning the World Fantasy Award or winning the Milford Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction? I like to win awards. It doesn't happen every year, or even every few years. I like it a lot when it happens. I prefer awards with great public pomp and circumstance, a ceremony, applause, and a cash prize. But I haven't got one of those yet. What's the best way to scout new SFF talent -- the slushpile, agents, short story magazines, or other routes? I get the majority of new writers from reading short fiction and from talking to other writers at conventions. How do publishers filter the slushpile? We give it to high school volunteers to reject almost all of it. This gives the high-schoolers a taste of unpleasant reality. What's a good mid-list print run for a SFF novel these days? One that sells more than 50% of its print run. What's your attitude to agents -- would you prefer your authors agented or unagented? I would prefer most writers unagented. But I like agents and am not about to get my wish. And there are writers with whom it is better to communicate through an agent. What would the typical (e.g. not JK Rowling) SFF author expect to earn out of a novel these days? $3-7,500 dollars. Distribution is going down in the last five years and price increases do not help. Do you attend SFF conventions, and what's your experience of them been? For forty years I have lived a major part of my adult life at conventions. See you there. Are the fans at Cons different from the Joe Reader who goes into Borders and forks over money for the latest SFF novel? Depends upon the convention and depends upon the book. Which of your authors gets the most fan mail in the Tor stable of writers? We get no fan mail. Gene Wolfe gets the most fan discussion of my writers. I do not edit Card or Robert Jordan, though, and I expect he and Scott Card get as much or more. What changes do you think the SFF publishing world has seen over the last few years, and do you think they have been for the better? I am writing an essay or two on this subject, so the short answer is that the SF publishing world has changed more in the last five years than in the previous forty, and mostly for the worse. The mass market is dying, not because of lack of audience or writers or publishers, but because distribution companies prefer the business model of magazines to books and discourage all books that are not branded as bestsellers (Tom Clancy, Stephen King, etc.). All SF lines in the US depend upon hardcover sales for profitability.
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OTHER CONTENT - March 2003
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In
your opinion, what talents contribute to successful SFF authoring
these days? 
How's
The New York Review of Science Fiction doing at the moment?
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