Arotrios

Arotrios, 8 months ago

Ok, before anyone asks me, this was the Great Timescape Fiasco:

The most controversial event of the year was undoubtedly the Great Timescape Fiasco, a convoluted affair of almost Byzantine complexity. To simplify: David Hartwell, director of science fiction at Pocket Books’ Timescape line (and probably the premier SF book editor of the seventies), was terminated by Pocket Books in June. (Pocket Books president Ron Busch claimed that the Timescape line was failing to make money; Hartwell denied the charge, citing instead “creative methods of accounting,” according to Science Fiction Chronicle.) But instead of replacing Hartwell with another in-house SF editor, as expected, Pocket Books announced that editorial control of SF at Pocket would be turned over to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, which would package a new SF line called Starscope Books for them. The reaction from the SF world—and the publishing industry in general—was immediate and almost universally negative; intensely negative, in fact. Phrases like “conflict of interest” and “in restraint of trade” were bandied about, lawsuits threatened by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and by several prominent literary agents, and articles discussing the controversy appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, and elsewhere. Ultimately, the plan failed, with the Scott Meredith Agency backing out of it in late June, although representatives of both Pocket Books and the Meredith Agency denied that the widespread protest and media pressure—primarily orchestrated by SFWA—had anything to do with the disintegration of the plan. Later in the year, Jim Baen left the editorship of Tor Books to form a company of his own, Baen Enterprises, Inc., and Pocket Books announced that Baen Enterprises would package a new SF line for them, tentatively named Baen Books. Later details showed that all editorial work would be done by Baen Enterprises, who would also control cover art, cover copy, advertising and promotion, limiting Pocket Books’ role to that of distributor. At year’s end, the contract for this deal had not yet been signed, but Baen Enterprises has announced plans to publish as Baen Books a total of 48 to 60 mass-market SF and fantasy titles per year, plus 20 trade paperback/hardcover SF and fantasy titles, and a line of computer book titles.

As an ironic coda, David Hartwell—in addition to Terry Carr and Ben Bova—has begun acting as a “freelance acquisitions editor” for Tor Books.

And that completely fills my scifi writer drama of yesteryear quota for the day. I have to admit, I was disappointed it didn't involve a time paradox, or at least some shenanigans in the Tardis...

Arotrios, 8 months ago

It is on Kbin. Lemmy doesn't have that capacity yet as far as I know. It's one of the main reasons I recommend the former - Kbin bridges the gap between Mastodon and Lemmy, and includes functionality from both types of instances. Following users increases your feed content here exponentially.

Arotrios, 8 months ago

Hi - got a note from a user that @13thFloor isn't federated over there any more as of yesterday. Looks like @scifi, modded by @inkican, was as well. Was there a reason these communities were defederated?

Arotrios, 8 months ago

Thanks for the update. I'm still getting the following error across multiple browsers when I hit https://lemmy.world/c/13thFloor@kbin.social:

Error!
There was an error on the server. Try refreshing your browser. If that doesn't work, come back at a later time. If the problem persists, you can seek help in the Lemmy support community or Lemmy Matrix room.

Hoping it gets resolved with the update - was worried we'd screwed something up and gotten on your removed list.