In celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of Tachyon Publications, we invited publisher Jacob Weisman to join us in a fascinating exploration of the independent publisher whose list of authors includes classic tales from Stanley Weinbaum, A.E. Van Vogt, and even Mary Shelley, as well as major work from contemporary writers like Peter S. Beagle, Patricia McKillip, Michael Swanwick, Terry Bisson, Jane Yolen, Ellen Klages, Eileen Gunn, Joe Lansdale, Nalo Hopkinson, James Morrow, Lavie Tidhar, and Daniel Pinkwater, and newer writers such as Mary Thompson, Austin Habersahw, Martin Cahill, and Josh Rountree.

We touch upon the challenges of building an independent press in a rapidly changing marketplace, the importance of anthologies in identifying and preserving trends in the field, and what to expect next from Tachyon.

This week Gary and Jonathan are joined by long time friend of the podcast, Joe Abercrombie.  We last spoke to Joe  during the pandemic when he was working on The Age of Madness series. He joins us this week to discuss his brand new novel The Devils, which launches a new series and a new set of characters.

As always, we’d like to thank Joe for making time to join us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

As we try to return to some sort of regular schedule, we’re delighted to welcome back Joe Monti, vice president and editorial director of Saga Press, to discuss the current state of the publishing business, the effects (if any) of the current economic stresses, and what to look forward to in the coming months (Joe is particularly optimistic about SF and space opera).

Along the way we touch on the trend toward glitzy “special editions” of new novels, and various corners of the publishing world, from horror to romantasy and cozy fantasy to audiobooks, ebooks, and what makes a book a breakout bestseller.

With apologies for an unplanned hiatus, during which Gary traveled to Florida to attend the International Conference on the Fantastic, we’re back with a discussion that touches upon awards (again, but briefly), SF writers who are also good nonfiction writers, books whose 25th anniversary is this year (including Perdido Street Station), tribute anthologies such as Jonathan’s forthcoming Revolution in the Heart, and, of course, what we’ve been reading.

This week’s episode features a few news items, but as usual you have to listen closely to find them among our usual free-association digressions.

Awards season is underway. Nominations/and or votging for the Nebulas, Locus Awards, and Hugo Awards (once again we are eligible in the Fancast category, and Jonathan in the Editor Short Form category) is underway, and just closed for the BSFA Awards. There’s also, news from a major distributor in the US that may mark the beginning of the end of the mass-market paperback, while other publishing news involves the consolidation of three major print magazines—Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF—under a single new publisher.

While at this point we don’t know more than anyone else, this leads us into discussions of romantasy (and the growing SF or space opera equivalent), how the way readers have discover new writers has changed over time, the value (if any) of promotional letters and blurbs (which Gary is not very good at, it turns out), the growing popularity of premium and collectors’ editions, and the difference between casual readers, fans, collectors, and simple accumulators of books.

Other topics pop up as well: Jonathan’s forthcoming anthology of stories in honor of Ursula Le Guin raises the question of which authors should be recognized with such anthologies, for example, and which have already been recognized and why.