Talk about what makes you decide to represent an author. What do you look for most? Commercial viability? Unique voice? Something else?
I take on the books that captivate me. Growing up reading Analog, I’ve always been more a ‘‘plot’’ person than a ‘‘prose stylist’’ person, but you need to be able to write to tell a good story. I’ve learned over 20 years running JABberwocky that you can’t substitute for voice, and you can’t substitute for ideas. There are a lot of authors who can put words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs, but making magic fresh and consistent in a fantasy novel or voicing a YA in a way that makes you want to spend all your after-schools with the character – those are hard to substitute for.
What’s the most rewarding part of being an agent? What’s the most frustrating?
Joshua Bilmes
The thing I love most is when I feel like there’s something I’ve done for someone that somebody else maybe wouldn’t have. That can mean selling a first novel, especially after helping the author editorially to make that first novel as good as we could get it on our own. Or maybe it means fighting for something that is worth fighting for, like some new audio editions in the UK for Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle novels. Or advocating for something that not too many people would have fought for at all. I can go on at great length about the things that frustrate me. There’s a lot of ‘‘regulatory capture’’ in publishing business: i.e., sales people who spend all day talking to major accounts like B&N tend to identify more with B&N than with the authors I represent, just like a government regulator who identifies more with the industry being regulated. For example, today we’re spending more time than we should because a publisher won’t ’fess up that it doesn’t make sense to do a simultaneous paperback release of the first and second books in a series, and have the first book available in fewer stores than the second. In any rational business, you’d see push-back with the retailer, not push-back with us for pointing out the problem.
Your agency is known for its strong foreign rights desk. What trends are you seeing in international publishing?
The international business is currently suffering a delayed after-effect from the economic crash of 2008/2009 and the increased growth of e-books in global marketplaces, after being surprisingly resilient for a few years. Especially in the Mediterranean markets, things have become a lot tougher. On the other hand, as the e-book business grew in the UK, and publishers realized SF/F did very well in e-book, the SF/F market there has gotten a lot larger, with more publishers wanting to be in the same space with e-books as the consumers. Even after some shaking-out, that market will still end up bigger in 2015 than it was in 2010.
Any especially exciting new books coming out from your authors?
I first started working with Joshua Palmatier in the late 1990s, and thought he had the potential to be a huge new voice in SF/F. I think he’s realized that potential with his new novel Shattering the Ley, which is just out from DAW. There’s also a lot of buzz building for Sylvia Izzo Hunter’s The Midnight Queen, a fall release from Ace.
And, contrary to all the people who say it’s no longer possible to build an author or have a book build via word of mouth, we’re seeing just those things happen at Pyr with Jon Sprunk’s Blood & Iron.
–Joshua Bilmes
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SPOTLIGHT ON: GINGER CLARK, AGENT
Ginger Clark has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown LTD (New York) since 2005. She represents science fiction, fantasy, horror, middle grade, and young-adult fiction. In addition to representing her own clients, she also represents British Commonwealth rights for the agency’s children’s list. She attends the Bologna and Frankfurt Book Fairs every year on behalf of her agency. She sits on the Rights Committee of the Book Industry Study Group. In addition to sitting on the Board of Directors of the Association of Authors Representatives, she is a member of the International Committee, and the Chair of the Contracts Committee. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
Tell us about how you became a literary agent.
I was working as an editorial assistant at Tor Books many years ago when I heard (from the late Jenna Felice – man, I still miss her) that there was an assistant position opening up at Writers House for the agent who handled SF and fantasy. I was wondering if agency work would be a better fit for me, so I interviewed and got the job. After a couple of years working as an assistant, I started handling my own clients (Tim Pratt, of course, being one of my first!) and when I left Writers House in 2005, nearly all my clients came with me.
Ginger Clark
Talk about what makes you decide to represent an author. What do you look for most? Commercial viability? Unique voice? Something else?
Commercial viability is key – but a strong, unusual voice can be very commercial. I don’t want to take on a book I cannot sell. I don’t want to take on a book nowadays that I am not sure at least a handful of editors are going to be very interested in buying.
What’s the most rewarding part of being an agent? What’s the most frustrating? (Is the answer to both ‘‘International Book Fairs’’?)
The most rewarding part is when a client has success – getting an offer on their book, hitting the bestseller list, selling in a foreign country, or being shortlisted for an award. Everything that is good for my clients is great for me. The most frustrating – those are the instances where a book can be absolutely brilliant and it still doesn’t sell. That’s frustrating. Yes, that’s a very lackluster answer – the most rewarding parts are success! The most frustrating are failures! So, you know what? That day before the Frankfurt Book Fair where all the foreign rights agents and editors rush around the bar at the Frankfurter Hof trying to find each other and then find a spot to sit (and I have done meetings standing at tables in hallways outside bathrooms) – that is frustrating. It’s more exhausting than a day of meetings at the Agents Centre itself.
What kind of trends are you seeing? What are SF/F publishers looking for now, and what are they sick of seeing?
There’s a lot of demand for epic fantasy (yes, we have GRRM to thank for this). There’s also a demand for military SF or space opera. I think right now everyone is full up on urban fantasy and paranormal romance. The boom is over.
You’re chair of the contracts committee for the Association of Authors Representatives. What’s the most important detail for authors to look out for in contracts these days?
If I have to pick just one, it remains the out of print clause. You want to make sure that the criteria for keeping a book in print is very hard for a publisher to meet. The harder it is for the book to stay in print, the easier it will be for you to get your rights back. But there are plenty of clauses in contracts that seem boring and straightforward but can be very important and tricky. The accounting clause, for instance – put aside whether you have separate or joint accounting in a multiple book deal. Do you have a contractual right to audit the publisher? You should. What about the first proceeds clause – the clause I call ‘‘everything has gone to hell editorially and it’s time for a quickie divorce?’’ How much has to be paid back, and when?
Any especially exciting new books coming out from your authors?
NY Times bestselling legend Richard Kadrey’s sixth Sandman Slim novel Getaway God is due out in September, and then his first novel Metrophage is being reissued in November. Tina Connolly’s final book in her trilogy that began with Ironskin is out this fall. It’s called Silverbind and it’s going to knock your socks off. It features my favorite fairy tale. Drew Karpyshyn’s The Scorched Earth is out in July, book two in his Chaos Born trilogy. Ursula K. Le Guin has some new stuff we’re working on, but most notably The Lathe of Heaven is now available in e-book for the first time.
Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about you or your work?
Curtis Brown is 100 years old this year! Yes, we look
fantastic for our age, don’t we? A centennial is a huge accomplishment, so we’re celebrating it the whole year round, which includes tweeting from our agency’s account here:
–Ginger Clark
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INTERNATIONAL REPORT FOR MEXICO
INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR OF MEXICO by Gay Haldeman
The Fifth International Book Fair of Azcapotzalco, Mexico (5a Feria del libro internacional de Azcapotzalco) took place April 26 to May 4, 2014. Azcapotzalco is a suburb of Mexico City. My husband Joe Haldeman and I attended the first weekend with Joe as one of the international guest writers, and it was wonderful.
The point of the fair is to put inexpensive books into the hands of readers and to introduce them to real writers. It’s a literacy movement, spearheaded by a group that calls itself ‘‘To Read in Freedom’’ (Para leer en libertad). The leaders are well-known writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II and his wife Paloma Saiz Tejero, ably aided by their daughter Marina and son-in-law José Ramón Calvo, as well as a hardworking group of readers and writers. They publish several inexpensive anthologies of the work of the guests and hand them out to the audience for free each day.
Joe & Gay Haldeman, José Carlos Somoza; Joe Haldeman, Armando S. Salinas, Francisco G. Haghenbeck, José Luis Zárate, and Gerardo H. Porcayo present one of the free books; Marina Taibo
There were panel discussions, interviews, autograph sessions, and book presentations all day under two large tents. One tent was full of tables covered with books to be sold at a discount. The other tent had a stage and seating for spectators. The Feria was free and open to the public and people came from all over Mexico. More than 300 people passed through while we were there. Every evening there was a different concert performance, ranging from folk music, to the traditional music of China, to Tomato Jazz.
The main guest writers this year were North American Joe Haldeman, Spaniard José Carlos Somoza (author of Zig Zag and The Art of Murder, both available in English), Venezuelan Luis Britto Garcia, and Spaniard Cristina Fallarás. We didn’t get to meet Fallarás, since she arrived the day we left, but we thoroughly enjoyed the company and presentations of los señores Somoza and Britto. Both of them have written science fiction.
Luis Britto García; Francisco G. Haghenbeck, Armando S. Salinas; Alberto Chimal, José Luis Zárate, and duck; Paloma Saiz Tejera & Paco Ignacio Taibo II
There were lots of Mexican writers on the program, too, most of them SF writers. One of Joe’s panels was a fine discussion of his life and work with writers José Luis Zárate and Gerardo H. Porcayo. Writer Armando S. Salinas was conscripted to be translator and did an admirable job. Joe was also on a panel on science fiction with Alberto Chimal and Bernardo Fernández (known as BEF), as well as with Zárate and Porcayo,
Other panels included ‘‘Genre literature and its crosses’’, ‘‘Press, don’t shoot!’’, and ‘‘The novel as history and history as novel’’.
The Feria was well organized, joyful, and fun. The organizers learned they’d succeeded when one of the candy vendors who wandered the area asked if someone would teach him to read and write. Arrangements were being made when we left.
–Gay Haldeman
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WisCon 38 was held May 23-26, 2014 at the Concourse Hotel in Madison WI, with Hiromi Goto and N.K. Jemisin as guests of honor. Attendance was capped at 1,000 people, and there were simultaneous tracks of programming, focusing on science fiction literature, feminism, race, disability, criticism, writing, and related topics.
GoH: N.K. Jemisin; GoH: Hiromi Goto; Eileen Gunn, Andrea Hairston, L. Timmel Duchamp
The Tiptree Auction raised over $4,000 for the award. Traditional auctioneer Ellen Klages was not available, so Pat Murpy and Karen Joy Fowler led an all-star cast of authors and scholars to take her place. Other highlights of the convention included the dessert salon and guest of honor speeches; the Tiptree Award bake sale, which raised over $360; the Gathering, with a popular charity galley sale, a clothing swap, Tarot readings, and hair braiding, among other enticements; two gaming tracks; the art show; and the ‘‘SignOut’’ mass signing.
The Tiptree Award was presented to N.A. Sulway for Rupetta (Tartarus), and she was crowned with the Tiptree tiara by 2011 winner Alaya Dawn Johnson.
WisCon 39 will take place May 22-25, 2015 at the Concourse Hotel in Madison WI, with Alaya Dawn Johnson and Kim Stanley Robinson as guests of honor. More information can be found at
A selection of photos from the convention follow.
David Edison, Emily Jiang, Lisa Lou, Marco Palmieri; Haddayr Copley-Woods, Karen Meisner; Valya Lupescu, Nancy Hightower
Lara Donnelly, Ruby Katigbak; Meghan McCarron, Liz Gorinsky; Mikki Kendall, N.K. Jemisin, Chesya Burke; Nene Ormes, Mary Ann Mohanraj
Eleanor Arnason, Sarah Tolmie, L. Timmel Duchamp, Jenn Brissett, Nancy Jane Moore; K. Tempest Bradford, Benjamin Rosenbaum
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The 2014 Nebula Awards Weekend was held May 16-18, at the San Jose Marriott in sunny San Jose, California, for the second of two years on the West Coast. There were 244 people registered online, with 20 at the door, for a total of 264 registrants, significantly up from last year’s 210. SFWA offered day memberships this year, selling 25 total. Discounts were also available for badge-holders from the neighboring Big Wow! ComicFest convention.
Grand Master: Samuel R. Delany; Steven H Silver, Toastmaster Ellen Klages; Vivian Perry, Gregory Benford, Cynthia Geno; Co-chairs: K. Dawn Plaskon, Cindy Scott with awards
Registration seemed to go smoothly, with attendees receiving the usual sturdy tote bags stuffed with books and promotional materials. The centerpiece of the hospitality suite was the robot bartender, the martini-making brainchild of Kevin Roche and Andrew Trembley. In addition there was a good selection of fresh fruits and gourmet cheese and crackers along with the usual con fare. There was some confusion with the schedule, with two versions available on the website, but generally people seemed to figure out where to go when, and enjoy the events. The SFWA-organized tours to the Tech Museum of Innovation and other local landmarks were all cancelled due to insufficient signups. The local resource that seemed to attract the most attention was Psycho Donuts, with many folks spotted carrying a variety of baroque bread products from the nearby bakery.
The San Francisco-based SF in SF reading series kicked off the weekend on Thursday night with a dynamic reading from featured authors Samuel R. Delany and Daryl Gregory, hosted by Rina Weisman and introduced by Terry Bisson, with a Q&A session and signing after.
Official programming began on Friday, with panels and presentations addressing both the business and creative sides of the industry. Highlights in the programming included “Writing Workshops: From Alpha to Clarion” with Eileen Gunn, Susan Ee, Naomi Kritzer, Henry Lien, and Rachel Swirsky; “What Can All Writers Do to Increase Diversity?” with Sunil Patil, Nalo Hopkinson, Emily Jiang, Anne Leonard, Sofia Samatar, and Samuel R. Delany (which still managed to attract attention despite the 9:00 a.m. Saturday slot); and, for a change of pace, a slideshow presentation by forensic scientist Cordelia Willis about her work.
Rina Weisman and Terry Bisson host a reading and signing at SF in SF with Daryl Gregory and Samuel R. Delany; Larry Niven, Bud Sparhawk, Charles E. Gannon
Friday night was packed with events, starting with a reception honoring the nominees, with nominee gifts presented by SFWA. The traditional mass autographing followed, with books available for sale from Borderlands Books. Sixty authors participated in the signing, which was open to congoers and the general public. Then for those still on their feet, Writers with Drinks, a San Francisco-based spoken-word variety show hosted by Charlie Jane Anders, boasted excellent readings by Sofia Samatar, Nicola Griffith, Ken Liu, local poet Daphne Gottlieb, and comedian Bucky Sinister. Despite illness and a missing shoe, the ever-witty Anders introduced each speaker with alternate-history SF/F
bios, accusing authors of everything from criminal masterminding to magical origins, and keeping the evening hilarious and on point.
The Nebula Awards Ceremony was held on Saturday night, starting with a large cocktail reception held in the foyer area outside the ballroom. A crowd of authors, publishers, editors, and others in their evening best mingled with drinks in hand before being ushered into the banquet room. There were 173 people seated at the banquet.
After the meal concluded, departing vice president Rachel Swirsky presented a number of gifts to those who had devoted so much time and effort to SFWA over the course of the last year, including handsome MOVA globes honoring the weekend’s co-chairs, Cindy Scott and K. Dawn Plaskon.
Connie Willis, Tad Williams; Diana Paxson & Jon DeCles; Nicola Griffith & Kelley Eskridge
After the SFWA gifts were handed out, there was a pause in the programming due to technical issues with both Ustream and the audiovisual display. Ustream began with 15 audio-free minutes, but still managed to attract approximately 180 unique offsite visitors over the course of the evening. In the meantime, Stephen Gould introduced toastmaster Ellen Klages, and mentioned in passing that there was an infamous Klages family story -– about a ham. “The Scary Ham”. Klages, of course, couldn’t leave an opening like that hanging (especially with time to fill due to technical difficulties), and launched into the epic and raunchy tale of her father’s Smithfield ham, aged “in a damp Ohio basement for 20 years” either to perfection (according to her father) or to putrefaction (according to his children). Her father insisted that the ham was perfectly all right, but no one who went down into the cellar could agree with him. After her father passed, Klages and her sisters inherited the ham. Her sister Mary proposed a Viking funeral, where the ham would be “put on a raft… out on a lake, and set on fire”, or a ritual disposal at the country club (“put it on the eighteenth green and run”). Ultimately the pair held a “funeral” of sorts for the ham, complete with three stuffed monkey toys, a box of used birthday candles dowsed in lighter fluid and set on fire, a red velvet ham shroud, and a five foot long hunting horn on which Klages attempted “to play taps…[but] kind of ended up playing the Ohio State fight song.” Klages and her sister took the ham down to Alum Creek in Ohio and, in front of “400 families having a picnic,” threw it into the water with some final “words in Episcopalian.”
Locus, July 2014 Page 9
