Comments on: SF Book Club

By: Colin Wolfe

Colin Wolfe — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:44:25 +0000

I’m not surprised. Publishing has been suffering more and more under Wall Street financials. I was worried about SFBC seeing all their specials — on shipping or books, as if they had to make more sales NOW. It was not a balanced situation.
An editor in a company taken over by a Dutch conglomerate told me that, in a meeting, an accountant from the new boss company announced that they did not “like people.” As if their earnings came from robots! So it goes.

By: The Infinite Linkness « Torque Control

The Infinite Linkness « Torque Control — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:16:06 +0000

[...] Big changes at Bertelsmann’s Book Clubs, including the SF Book Club; see posts by Jonathan Strahan here, here and here. [...]

By: Kevin Ahearn

Kevin Ahearn — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:17:20 +0000

Don’t blame the beancounters. SFBC is the victim of VHS thinking in a DVD age. Science fiction showed us how contant and unpredictable change is, yet it was a lesson sf publishers refused to teach themselves. The future is here and sf never saw it coming.

By: Blog@Newsarama » Science Fiction Book Club still has life in it

Blog@Newsarama » Science Fiction Book Club still has life in it — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:48:47 +0000

[...] It looks as if reports of the demise of the Science Fiction Book Club may have been premature. SFBCLast week, science fiction editor Jonathan Strahan wrote that the 54-year-old club likely would close or be merged with the Doubleday book club as part of Bertelsmann’s restructuring of Bookspan. SFBC Editor-in-Chief Ellen Asher and Senior Editor Andrew Wheeler were among the 280 Bookspan employees cut. [...]

By: Ali T. Kokmen

Ali T. Kokmen — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:25:47 +0000

I’d also like to note that also among those laid off from Bookspan was Senior Editor Jay Franco. Jay didn’t work exclusively for SFBC–he looked after the Military Book Club as well–but was very much a part of SFBC’s growth, particularly with its “Altiverse” subset devoted to graphic novels.

Ellen, Andrew, and Jay–and the other Bookspan-ers who I’ve also heard were let go–are indeed class acts, and I hope that they land well soon.