Notes From Coode Street

There have been a lot of wonderful observations in the comments thread responding to my comments on this week’s changes at the SF Book Club. They’ve prompted a few thoughts. First, the SF Book Club isn’t dead yet. It’s my speculation that it will be folded into the main club, but that’s not been announced by the company. So, if you are a member, please don’t give up yet. I know of at least three original anthologies in process at the Club, all of which deserve your support. And, no doubt, there are some fine omnibuses to come too. These are all books that were set in motion by Ellen or Andy, so supporting them seems like a worthwhile thing to do. Second, I’d love to hear more about what the Book Club has meant to you. I’ve never been eligible to join (being located outside the US), but it’s always looked terrific to me. Given that it’s been mailing out great fiction since 1954, I’m sure it’s been important to countless readers and writers, so I’d love to hear what it’s meant to you.

On Monday Publishers Weekly reported that Bertelsmann would overhaul its Book Club business, restructuring a number of specialty book clubs and eliminating 280 jobs. It also announced that it would close Madison Park Press, its 18-month-old original publishing arm, to focus on its book club business.

The impact of these decisions on the science fiction community was immediate. While there have been no official announcements, it appears that both long-serving Science Fiction Book Club Editor-in-Chief Ellen Asher and Senior Editor Andrew Wheeler have lost their positions with the company. Given that they were the only editors working for the fifty-four-year-old SFBC, it seems likely that Bertelsmann will ultimately combine the SFBC with its main Doubleday Book Club.

Bertelsmann’s decision to close Madison Park Press will also impact on the SF community. Although the SFBC has primarily reprinted existing trade books, it has a long history of publishing exclusive omnibus volumes, and has recently published a number of original anthologies edited by the likes of Marvin Kaye, Mike Resnick, Gardner Dozois, and Jack Dann, one of which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology last year. Although Bertelsmann’s announcement makes it clear that it will honor existing commitments (and my own queries have confirmed this), it seems certain that the books currently under contract will be the final original books to be published by the SFBC for the forseeable future.

It’s too early to say what the long-term impact of these decisions on the science fiction field will be. Certainly, losing highly respected and knowledgeable editors like Asher and Wheeler has got to be a bad thing for the industry, and any contraction of the SFBC, which has a history of providing access to economical editions of new science fiction and fantasy direct to readers that stretches back to 1953, would be enormously disappointing.

On a more personal note, I have been working with Andrew Wheeler at the SFBC since 2003, when we worked on the first volume of the ‘Best Short Novels’ series. During the past four years we’ve assembled four books (BSN: 2004; 2005; 2006; and 2007) that I’m incredibly proud of, and were in the midst of preparing another one (an original anthology called Godlike Machines). Andy, Ellen, Mike McCormack, and the various other people that I dealt with in design, accounting and so on were all highly professional and a pleasure to deal with. I can only hope that things will work out well for all of them. I’d certainly be happy to work with any of them again, and hope that I get the chance to do so.

Andy Wheeler has posted about the recent changes at the SF Book Club. I don’t know what the changes mean, but the news is bad. I can only hope that things work out for Andy. He’s really one of the good ones, and has always been a delight to deal with.

GaryWhitehouse has given The New Space Opera a really nice review over at The Green Man Review.  The book was such a big project that it’s reallly gratifying to see it getting great early responses like this. And, of course, Gardner and I are really hopeful we’ll get to do a second volume in a year or two.

No photos here. There should be. But, I don’t carry a mobile phone and never remember to carry an actual camera. Still, yesterday morning Marianne and I had breakfast at a little cafe next to our hotel, and then wandered through the markets on Grote St. How come we don’t have these in Perth. The fresh produce was incredible.  There were four cheese stands, three nut specialists, a plethora of astounding fruit and veg stalls, beautiful meat and fish. And the prices! It was so much cheaper. Walking through the market was like a glimpse into another, simpler, better life. After we’d marketed, M & I met up with Dave, Karen, Scott, Justine, Rob, Cat, Simon, and a friend of Dave and Karen’s, who took us to a good dim sum place. Lunch and conversation followed. We then wandered through the Rundle St mall (honestly, just another Australian shopping mall), had a coffee, then back to the hotel. The guy from The Cook and the Chef works here, but we didn’t know (damn you Stephen, you didn’t say), so we’d eaten elsewhere.

Then it was off to the wedding. The Jade Monkey is a cool little performance venue located close to where Sean used to live. It’s very local, intimate, and kind of ‘arts and crafts-y’. The whole feeling was warm and casual, and the crowd seemed to really fit well into it.  We’d barely arrived, when we began to see all of the people who we never see enough of: Nick and Adrian (I’d not met Adrian, but what a lovely guy), Bill and Michelle, Deb and Chris, Marian, Pat, and on and on. This kind of thing can’t happen often enough. Then the bride and groom arrived. She was lovely, he was handsome, and I swear she was giggling through the vows.  After that it was all champagne, conversation and dancing till late. A wonderful wedding.