OT: Simon & Schuster to launch SF/fantasy imprint

[Christopher]

From Publisher's Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...o-launch-science-fiction-fantasy-imprint.html

Simon & Schuster is preparing to up its presence in the science fiction, fantasy and horror market with the launch of a new imprint dedicated to the category. The as yet unnamed imprint will be overseen by Jon Anderson, executive v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, but will, S&S said, publish books “for readers of all ages.” Anderson told PW the audience for the new imprint is seen as “YA and above.”

Although S&S has published a range of science fiction and fantasy authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey, it doesn’t have a dedicated imprint for the genre in either its adult or children’s departments. “A lot of content comes our way that we find compelling, but which won’t work in teen sections [of bookstores],” Anderson said. “We don’t want to use that as an excuse to not publish books for a growing market.”

Well, it does have a dedicated Star Trek imprint, but that's pretty much all it's had in SF/F for the past couple of decades. There was an attempt in the early 2000s to diversify into more original SF, including books from Trek authors like Dayton Ward's The Last World War, Keith R.A. DeCandido's Dragon Precinct, and David Mack's The Calling, but that attempt didn't go very far. (TLWW did get a sequel, but KRAD's "Precinct" sequels have been from a smaller press.) It's nice to see that S&S is making a larger effort this time, and I hope it succeeds. Maybe it'll be another opportunity for Trek authors to get original work published.

Since this is a hardcover line, though, and is apparently going to be under S&S rather than Pocket or Gallery, I'd expect that it won't have any impact on the Trek novels themselves. My guess would be that they'll continue under their current imprint. But I don't know for sure.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Well, why not? Pocket, for a time, ran ST under a "Timescape" imprint. And Ballantine has (or at least had; not sure if they're still using it, and all my ADF Humanx Commonwealth novels are at home) their SF under the "Del Rey" imprint from about the time Log Nine or Log Ten came out.

 

[Christopher]

^I said why not -- because this is a hardcover imprint and Trek is principally a paperback line, and because it's under S&S in general while Trek is under Pocket. Timescape was an imprint of Pocket, it was a line of paperbacks, and it was created by David G. Hartwell, who was also Pocket's first Trek editor.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Since this is a hardcover line, though, and is apparently going to be under S&S rather than Pocket or Gallery, I'd expect that it won't have any impact on the Trek novels themselves. My guess would be that they'll continue under their current imprint. But I don't know for sure.

I suspect you're right, that it won't have any noticeable effect. I wonder, though, if this could be an impetus to relaunch the hardcover Star Trek fiction line, outside of the occasional movie novelization.

 

[Christopher]

^That would be nice.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Something for us to pitch to, mind you.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

^I said why not -- because this is a hardcover imprint and Trek is principally a paperback line, and because it's under S&S in general while Trek is under Pocket. Timescape was an imprint of Pocket, it was a line of paperbacks, and it was created by David G. Hartwell, who was also Pocket's first Trek editor.

Uh, not "Why not?" as in "Why would it not affect ST?"; rather, as in "why not create a new imprint?"

 

[Daddy Todd]

I'm pretty sure BDD still publishes the Del Rey imprint. And don't they also still have Bantam Spectra? Or did that vanish long ago, and I'm just behind the times? (A glance at their website leads me to believe they have been merged into something with the ungainly name of Del Rey Spectra.)

S&S doesn't own, but distributes Baen Books' extensive SF & Fantasy line. In fact, Baen was launched to fill the void left behind in Pocket/S&S's portfolio when Timescape was scuttled (and the first attempt at a replacement line was scuppered by SFWA -- something about it being packaged by Scott Meredith, who was also one of the most significant agents for SF & F writers at the time. SFWA protested that it was a conflict of interest. Which it clearly was.).

Penguin Putnam has a number of SF&F lines in its portfolio (including Ace, DAW and Roc.) So I guess S&S can have a third SF&F line (since I definitely count Star Trek as an SF&F line.)

How do they prevent these many corporate children from competing with each other? Or maybe it doesn't really matter, as they're all pretty small fish in the publishing pond.

I think Tor publishes as many books as any half-dozen competitors put together (I might be exaggerating; I haven't done any kind analysis. I'm sure Christopher or Greg will be along to correct me if my misstatement is too outrageous...)

 

[Christopher]

I'd have to defer to Greg on that one. I know Tor is large, probably the biggest SF publisher, but I don't know enough about the industry as a whole to know for sure how it compares.

 

[JD]

I saw a story about this the other day. I'll be curious to see if they pick up any authors I'm interested in. It would be great if they published some original stuff from the Trek authors.

 

[Reanok]

That's great news ,I'm definitely curious as to what kind of Science fiction and fantasy books will be published and who the writers will be doing different scifi and fanstay books I the future.I hope some of Star trek writers will be part of this group of writers doing new and original books.