Comments on: Eclipse discussed…

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:57:25 +0000

That’s consistent with what I do. Although I’ve been around the peripheries of the field for a while, I’ve only been editing original anthologies for the past three years. During that time I’ve learnt: you need solicit a lot more than you need. Life gets in the way and people often just can’t deliver, which is cool. I also get a lot of non-responses etc. When you come across a writer whose work you love, and who does deliver, you tend to go back to them regularly.

By: Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:29:00 +0000

As I commented on another blog, I solicit about twice as many contributors as I need for every anthology I edit. If I’m lucky, half of those writers come through for me. There are writers (male and female)who I’ve asked for stories multiple times who have either not replied or have no written stories to deadline.

After awhile an editor gets tired of nagging and stops asking. We come to rely on those whose writing we love and who write what we can use for a specific venue and who actually finish the story on time.

This is known as developing a “stable” of writers. However, I know that I (and I assume most editor other editors) are also eager to add new writers to their stable. Which is what I do when I discover another writer whose work I love.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:16:11 +0000

Mystickeeper –

I can’t comment on what was said or took place at Wiscon. I didn’t attend the convention, didn’t provide any material or information for the panel before hand, and have only seen comments about it online over the past few days.

I think it is reasonable for you to ask for some clarification on what was said at Wiscon, but I think you need to direct your question to Jeremy. In terms of what was likely to be IN the book rather than ON the cover: the book was due to be delivered to the publisher on 15 June. Contents were finalised at that time. I did provide the publisher with a *tentative* list of contents several weeks earlier, but it was only tentative, listing accepted stories, stories likely to be accepted, and a couple stories that were being worked on. I need to recheck the list, but from my recollection there were three stories on the list written by women, including the story by Nancy Kress (which was the first one accepted for the book).

– Jonathan

By: SMD

SMD — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:24:19 +0000

I think unless there is a clear indication that the editor is holding a gender or racial bias, it’s silly to make any sort of assumption that he or she is. I don’t think Mr. Strahan sat down and said “Ohhh, I’m going to get them this time…only one woman in this book now”. And he can’t be blamed for authors not delivering. If the women authors he approached didn’t give him anything, what do people want him to do? I can’t force writers to write. His job is to put together a book of good stories, and if it just happens that they’re mostly stories by men, so be it.
The problem now is that people that threw a fit over Strahan’s two anthologies are going to react badly to anything else he does because they are too narrow minded for their own good. They don’t want to accept that he is simply doing his job and happened to pick one woman this time or that his previous anthology didn’t highlight female authors on the cover. If his next anthology is 100% female, it won’t matter, because they’ll throw a fit over that too. It’s all pointless. Unless he were writing on here that he hates women, there’s just no basis for the criticism.
I’ve never seen so much controversy over a book that didn’t intend to touch on controversial issues before…

By: mystickeeper

mystickeeper — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:58:18 +0000

I am still failing to see a response to my question (in a comment here: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/006777.html), as to “What gives!” with Jeremy coming to Wiscon, sitting on the Eclipse One Cover Debate panel, and telling us that “things would go [our] way” for the second anthology. He made it very clear that Nightshade had not changed the way it determined which authors to put on a cover, but he ALSO made the statement of assurance that, for the second anthology at least, we would be “pleased” with the cover.

In my mind, this would mean at the very least that more than ONE AUTHOR would be female, or a person of color (or both!).

Could you please explain what he meant?