Locus, January 2013
Page 4
Ernest Cline with his DeLorean (2010s)
ERIC BROWN sold a quartet of linked novellas, set in the universe of Starship, to Peter Crowther at PS Publishing via John Jarrold.
ELLEN DATLOW will edit an anthology featuring stories by Clarion West Writers Workshop graduates for Hydra House. All proceeds from the anthology will be donated to Clarion West. She will also edit Lovecraft’s Monsters for Jacob Weisman at Tachyon Publications via Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House.
JONATHAN STRAHAN will edit Reach for Infinity for Jonathan Oliver at Solaris via Howard Morhaim. He is guest editing a special issue of Subterranean magazine for late 2013.
SUZANNE COLLINS sold autobiographical picture book Year of the Jungle, illustrated by JAMES PROIMOS, to Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio.
CORNELIA FUNKE sold picture books The Pirate Pig, Emma and the Blue Genie, and Ruffleclaw to Mallory Loehr at Random House Children’s via Jenny Savill of Andrew Nurnberg Associates International.
JENNIFER CARSON of Pugalicious Press is editing YA steampunk anthology Real Girls Don’t Rust.
BOOKS RESOLD
MICHAEL MOORCOCK resold his entire SF and fantasy backlist, his Jerry Cornelius series, and much of his literary fiction to Gollancz, to be published in a series of uniform omnibuses and in e-book form. Moorcock is working with editor and bibliographer John Davey to create definitive editions, and some books will include previously-unpublished associated material. The first books will be Elric novels Daughter of Dreams, Destiny’s Brother, and Son of the Wolf.
GEOFF RYMAN resold The Warrior Who Carried Life to ChiZine Publications via Antony Harwood.
MICHAEL BISHOP resold Ancient of Days to Patrick Swenson at Fairwood Press.
JOE R. LANSDALE resold Deadman’s Road to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon.
ADAM NEVILL’s House of Small Shadows and No One Gets Out Alive sold to Michael Homler at St. Martin’s Press via British publisher Pan Macmillan.
KAMI GARCIA sold UK rights to Unbreakable and a second book to Venetia Gosling at Simon & Schuster UK via Angharad Kowal of Writers House UK.
HUGH HOWEY sold print rights only to his self-published e-book bestseller Wool to Karyn Marcus at Simon & Schuster via Kristin Nelson.
BOOKS DELIVERED
PHILIPPA BALLANTINE turned in Kindred and Wings (sequel to Hunter and Fox) to Lou Anders at Pyr.
MARK HODDER delivered The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi, beginning a new trilogy in the Burton and Swinburne steampunk series, to Lou Anders at Pyr.
BRENDA COOPER handed in The Diamond Deep, second in the Ruby’s Song series, to Lou Anders at Pyr.
PUBLISHING
Devi Pillai (2011)
KAREN BERGER is leaving her position as executive editor and senior vice president of Vertigo, the DC Comics imprint, though she will remain until March 2013 to aid in the transition. She joined DC in 1973, and founded Vertigo in 1993.
DEVI PILLAI has been promoted to executive editor at Orbit, and SUSAN BARNES to associate editor.
MEDIA
Film rights to TED CHIANG’s ‘‘Story of Your Life’’ were optioned by FilmNation Entertainment and Lava Bear Films, with Nic Mathieu to direct and Eric Heisserer adapting.
Film rights to ADAM ROBERTS’s New Model Army were optioned by MUSE Films.
Film rights to GWENDA BOND’s Blackwood were optioned by Lionsgate Television and Grammnet Productions, and MTV has put the project into development. Writer Peter Calloway will adapt and co-executive produce with Kelsey Grammar, Stella Bulochnikov, and Brian Sher of Grammnet. Bond’s agents at Andrea Brown Literary Agency and Gotham Group negotiated the deal.
Film rights to STACEY JAY’s Juliet Immortal were optioned by ABC Family for development as a TV series via Holly Frederick of Curtis Brown.
ROB ZOMBIE & BRIAN EVENSON (writing as B.K. EVENSON) sold The Lords of Salem, based on Zombie’s screenplay for the forthcoming film, went to Ben Greenberg at Grand Central in a preempt via David Vigliano of Vigliano Associates.
TIM PRATT will write a Pathfinder Tales novel for James Sutter at Paizo via Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown.
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MAIN STORIES
World Fantasy 2013 Judges • 2012 Sunburst Awards Winners • First Annual Copper Cylinder Awards • Gaiman Foundation Gives to CBLDF • PW Radio
WORLD FANTASY 2013 JUDGES
The judges for the 2013 World Fantasy Awards have been empaneled. All forms of fantasy qualify; only living authors and editors are eligible; all books must have a 2012 publication date and all magazines a 2012 cover date.
To be considered for awards, all materials must be received by all five judges and the convention by June 1, 2013. Addresses for the judges are: Holly Black, 10 Pleasant Court, Amherst MA 01002, USA; Tom Clegg, 9 rue Arthur Rozier (Code: B9281), Paris 75019, France,
A copy should also go to: Peter Dennis Pautz, President, World Fantasy Awards Association, PO Box 43, Mukilteo WA 98275-0043. Packages should be labeled ‘‘Promotional materials – not for sale or resale – no commercial value – World Fantasy Awards materials.’’
Winners will be announced at the 2013 World Fantasy Awards Banquet and Ceremony during the 39th World Fantasy Convention, October 31 – November 3, 2013, at the Hilton Brighton Metropole & the West Pier in Brighton, United Kingdom. Life Achievement nominees will not be released; the winner will be announced in advance of the banquet.
2012 SUNBURST AWARDS WINNERS
Winners for the 12th annual Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic have been announced.
Geoff Ryman (2011)
Paradise Tales by Geoff Ryman (Small Beer) won in the Adult category, while All Good Children by Catherine Austen (Orca) won in the Young Adult category. Other Adult finalists were Blackdog, K.V. Johansen (Pyr); Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism, David Nickle (ChiZine); Technicolor Ultra Mall, Ryan Oakley (EDGE); Enter, Night, Michael Rowe (ChiZine); and The Pattern Scars, Caitlin Sweet (ChiZine). Other Young Adult nominees were Ultraviolet, R.J. Anderson (Lerner); The Summer of Permanent Wants, Jamieson Findlay (Doubleday Canada); The Dead Kid Detective Agency, Evan Munday (ECW); and Blood Red Road: Dustlands: 1, Moira Young (Doubleday Canada).
Catherine Austen (2010s)
The annual Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a juried award. It is based on excellence of writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection at any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the novel by Phyllis Gotlieb (1926-2009), one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction, the award consists of a cash prize of $1,000 and a handcrafted medallion which incorporates a ‘‘Sunburst’’ logo, designed by Marcel Gagné.
Jurors for 2012 were Douglas Barbour, Zsuzsi Gartner, Daniel Justice, Lorna Toolis, and Halli Villegas. Jurors for 2013 will be Rebecca Bradley, Tony Burgess, Shari Lapeña, Barbara Roden, and Leon Rooke.
FIRST ANNUAL COPPER CYLINDER AWARDS
The Sunburst Award Society has announced the winners of its newest literary prize, the Copper Cylinder Award. The Copper Cylinder Award is an annual award, selected by members of the Sunburst Award Society, for books published the previous year. To be eligible, the work must meet all the criteria for the society’s other award, the Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.
Lesley Livingston (2012)
The winner of the 2012 Copper Cylinder Adult Award is Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor), and the winner of the 2012 Copper Cylinder Young Adult Award is Once Every Never by Lesley Livingston (Penguin Canada).
The award’s name comes from the first Canadian scientific romance, ‘‘A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder’’ by James De Mille. The winners receive a handcrafted copper cylinder trophy. For more:
GAIMAN FOUNDATION GIVES TO CBLDF
The Gaiman Foundation, a charitable organization run by Neil Gaiman and his family, has donated $60,000 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Gaiman was a member of the CBLDF board of directors for over a decade, retiring in 2012. The gift will be used in part to expand the CBLDF’s education program. Gaiman says, ‘‘Part of the CBLDF’s purpose is education, and in dealing with the ongoing emergencies of arrested comics readers and comic store staff, corporate attacks on creators, rescuing people who had run afoul of law enforcement bodies who want to limit their freedom to read and the like, it was too easy for that part of the remit to come in last. From my perspective, educating readers, creators, retailers and publishers is the most important thing we can do, because it gives us long-term change.’’
Gaiman Foundation secretary and administrator Holly Gaiman wrote, ‘‘The Gaiman Foundation was founded in order to Do Good. The initial way it Does Good is by financially supporting organizations like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. My siblings and I, who sit on the board of the Gaiman Foundation along with Neil and Amanda Palmer, have been inspired by our father’s dedication to the CBLDF for the majority of our lives. The First Amendment work of the CBLDF has been close to the heart of our entire family, and it is with great joy and pride that we all, through the Foundation, Do Good through supporting the CBLDF in its educational mission.’’ The foundation was created in 2012 and supports numerous causes, especially those related to free speech and the arts.
PW RADIO
Publishers Weekly launched a weekly radio show, Publishers Weekly Radio, starting December 8, 2012 on SiriusXM Book Radio, Channel 80. The show runs every Thursday at 3 p.m. EST, and is hosted by SF/fantasy reviews editor Rose Fox and senior editor Mark Rotella. Each hour-long episode will feature a discussion of bestsellers and book trends, plus interviews with authors, and guest appearances from other PW staffers.
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THE DATA FILE
Best of the Year Lists • Bookscan Bestsellers of 2012 • Most Powerful Authors in Hollywood • Albee Agency Controversy • Scalzi Writes Morning Star • Tolkien Estate Sues Filmmakers • Magazine News • Bookstore News • World Conventions News • Awards News • Publishing News • Announcements • Legal News • Financial News • International Rights • Other Rights • Publications Received • Catalogs Received
BEST OF THE YEAR LISTS
Time magazine has announced its top 10 lists for 2012. Works of SF/F – or books by authors of genre interest – on the Fiction list include The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel & Friends), The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown), and This is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz (Riverhead).
Kirkus Reviews has published their lists of the best books. Their 100-title fiction lists includes: Kingdom Come, J.G. Ballard (Norton); The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (Orbit); Range of Ghosts, Elizabeth Bear (Tor); City of the Lost, Stephen Blackmoore (DAW); Tarnished Knight, Jack Campbell (Ace); Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins); Caliban’s War, James S.A. Corey (Orbit); This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Díaz (Riverhead); The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit); Edge of Dark Water, Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland); The Cassandra Project, Jack McDevitt (Ace); Something Red, Douglas Nicholas (Atria); The Apocalypse Codex, Charles Stross (Tor); The Coldest War, Ian Tregillis (Orbit); The Hermetic Millennia, John C. Wright (Tor). Their best 100 books for teens includes: The Drowned Cities, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown); The Demon Catchers of Milan, Kat Beyer (Egmont); Black Heart, Holly Black (McElderry); Girls of Nightmares, Kendare Blake (Tor); Above, Leah Bobet (Levine); The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown); Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore (Dial); Radiant Days, Elizabeth Hand (Viking); Seraphina, Rachel Harman (Random House); The Chaos, Nalo Hopkinson (McElderry); Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt); Grave Mercy, Robin LeFevre (Houghton Mifflin); The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan (Knopf); Team Human, Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan (HarperTeen); Every Day, David Levithan (Knopf); Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury); Shadowfell, Juliet Marillier (Knopf); Be My Enemy, Ian McDonald (Pyr); The Broken Lands, Kate Milford (Clarion); Dodger, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins); The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic); The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel & Friends); The Book of Blood and Shadow, Robin Wasserman (Knopf); Dust Girl, Sarah Zettel (Random House).
BOOKSCAN BESTSELLERS OF 2012
Nielsen Bookscan released lists of the top ten bestselling print books of 2012 in adult and children’s/YA, including some genre titles (though they didn’t release sales figures). The adult list includes The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown) in hardcover at #6, with the first four slots taken by E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey erotica trilogy (and a boxed set), of minor interest since the series began life as fanfic inspired by Stephenie Meyers’s Twilight series. The children’s list has The Hunger Games trade paperback by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic) at #1, with hardcovers of sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay at #2 and #3. The Hunger Games hardcover is at #5, with a different trade paperback edition at #6, and a boxed set of the whole trilogy at #8. Rick Riordan’s The Serpent’s Shadow (Hyperion) in hardcover appears at #10.
MOST POWERFUL AUTHORS IN HOLLYWOOD
The Hollywood Reporter published a list of the 25 most powerful writers in Hollywood, limited to living authors (which explains the absence of Tolkien) ‘‘who have been most successful in shepherding their books from page to screen, balancing success in publishing (total output, sales, bestsellers) and in Hollywood (completed adaptations, projects in development, screenwriting and producing credits) while accounting for cultural influence.’’ Unsurprisingly, SF/fantasy authors are well represented on the list: #1 Stephen King; #5 Suzanne Collins; #6 Robert Kirkman; #7 George R.R. Martin; #8 James Patterson; #10 Stephenie Meyers; #11 J.K. Rowling; #14 Charlaine Harris; #15 Daniel H. Wilson; #18 Seth Grahame-Smith; #23 Neil Gaiman.
Erotica author E.L. James came in at #4, and it’s worth noting that her bestselling Fifty Shades series began life as fanfic inspired by Stephenie Meyers’s Twilight series.
ALBEE AGENCY CONTROVERSY
Book publicity company The Albee Agency has been accused of fabricating testimonials from authors who neither worked with the agency nor provided the laudatory ‘‘quotes’’ that appeared under their names on the agency’s website. Writers said to have been erroneously quoted include Myke Cole, Maureen Johnson, and Chuck Wendig. The agency has since removed the testimonials from its site, but has not addressed the issue publicly. They did not respond to our request for comment by press time.
SCALZI WRITES MORNING STAR
Author and SFWA president John Scalzi is writing the story (and helped created the overall concept) for new video game Morning Star from Industrial Toys, a company founded this year by Halo co-creator and Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian. The company specializes in games for mobile devices – tablets, smartphones, and the like – and Morning Star is a futuristic, first-person shooter with artwork designed by Mike Choi. For more:
TOLKIEN ESTATE SUES FILMMAKERS
The Tolkien estate and Tolkien’s publisher HarperCollins are suing Warner Bros., New Line, and the Saul Zaentz company over the licensing of merchandise related to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Zaentz company was granted merchandising rights in 1969 (with amendments in 1975 and ’81), but the Tolkiens and Har
perCollins say the rights only apply to ‘‘articles of tangible personal property’’ and not to ‘‘any grant of exploitations such as electronic or digital rights.’’
The suit alleges that ‘‘in recent years and particularly in the aftermath of the unprecedented financial and critical success of the films’’ the filmmakers ‘‘have, with increasing boldness, engaged in a continuing and escalating pattern of usurping rights to which they are not entitled – rights which belong exclusively to plaintiffs.’’ Those rights include downloadable video games that have no tangible, physical equivalent. The suit further alleges that ‘‘defendants also have asserted and continue to assert that they have rights relating to a wide variety of goods and services beyond ‘articles of tangible personal property’ and have registered trademarks and/or filed ‘intent to use’ applications in those same categories, including without limitation hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, ringtones, online/downloadable games and housing developments – categories of rights which plainly have not been granted to them.’’
The Tolkien heirs take particular offense at a Lord of the Rings-themed online slot machine, saying it ‘‘has outraged Tolkien’s devoted fan base, causing irreparable harm to Tolkien’s legacy and reputation and the valuable goodwill generated by his works.’’ They also note that ‘‘Zaentz has even encroached on the one area of merchandising that has expressly been carved out of all negotiations and agreements between the parties from the very inception of the parties’ relationship in the late 1960s – printed publications. Zaentz has unlawfully registered as the owner of trademarks in International Class 16 (paper goods and printed matter), with the effect thereby of excluding Plaintiffs from registering their own legitimate trademarks in that class.’’ The plaintiffs estimate that damages exceed $80 million, and complain that good-faith attempts at settlement discussions with the other parties have failed.