What's Missing in Science Fiction at the Moment?

[Rosie Oliver]

From Werthead: SF has been in the doldrums for a few years now, particularly in the United States, which has been very surprising, with no new authors arising to replace the semi-retired heavyweights like Bear and Benford (who have moved on to tedious near-future thrillers). The most notable SF novels in the last year or two from this quarter have been from the established names like Brin and Robinson, or the British contingent of Baxter, Banks, Hamilton, Reynolds, Asher and McAuley. Where are the new hard SF authors driving things forward? Rajaniemi needs a few more books to prove himself, but beyond him there seems to be little else out there.

Which brings me back to my point I made earlier in this thread - there are good SF novels out waiting to be published. I've seen them (and I'm excluding my own from this particular point because I would have a natural bias). But are there publishers willing to publish them? You won't need any guesses as to what the answer is to this.

So what is the way around this? Any ideas?

[Steven L Jordan]

Which brings me back to my point I made earlier in this thread - there are good SF novels out waiting to be published. I've seen them (and I'm excluding my own from this particular point because I would have a natural bias). But are there publishers willing to publish them? You won't need any guesses as to what the answer is to this.

So what is the way around this? Any ideas?

If you've seen these novels, it suggests that they have been published... self-published by independent authors. If the question is whether there are major publishers interested in publishing the books, the answer is: Yes, but only if the books have already proven to be big moneymakers. The major publishers are as averse to risk today as they ever were... maybe more, considering the tightening profits in their industry.

But if these books are already published... who needs them to be republished? Buy the independently-published book, and support an author directly. Tell others about them. Let the major publishers fend for themselves.

[Rosie Oliver]

From Steven L Jordan: If you've seen these novels, it suggests that they have been published... self-published by independent authors.

Actually no... I have seen the drafts before they were sent off to agents or publishers for various reasons... nor have they been self-published. They are waiting to find a publisher that will take them on! All three ladies (it's coincidence they happen to be ladies) have been in contact for different reasons with me...

Hope this clarifies...

[psikeyhackr]

Is there any degree of sci-fi saturation?

There is so much out there already the problem is filtering. How do publishers decide what more to put out there.

That is why I wanted a means of evaluating books' characteristics. To me it made sense to do the science first since that is what makes SF different from other fictional literature. Other characteristics should be similar in other forms of fiction.

http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34214

So if we had a faster method of filtering the market could sustain a larger number of books and more people could find WHAT THEY LIKE faster. Now that I have a Google Nexus 7 tablet I will probably start reading more e-books.

psik

[Steven L Jordan]

From Steven L Jordan: If you've seen these novels, it suggests that they have been published... self-published by independent authors.

Actually no... I have seen the drafts before they were sent off to agents or publishers for various reasons... nor have they been self-published. They are waiting to find a publisher that will take them on! All three ladies (it's coincidence they happen to be ladies) have been in contact for different reasons with me...

Hope this clarifies...

I once tried to find a publisher... until I realized I could do it myself. If they're writing new and needed SF, I'd tell them not to wait on publishers finding them.

[Rosie Oliver]

From Steven L jordan: I once tried to find a publisher... until I realized I could do it myself. If they're writing new and needed SF, I'd tell them not to wait on publishers finding them.

It may come to that for any one of them, but I hope not.

As for my novel, which has quite a few innovations... well I've received yet another rejection from an agent today.

I long ago made the decision that if I didn't get an agent from the list I've made up, then I'm not going to pursue getting it published. Why, you may ask? Well if a whole set of agents is not willing to take it on, then they clearly believe there is no profit to be gained by publishing it. So why should I gainsay a whole bunch of people who know the trade better than I do? They are clearly saying that science fiction does not like innovations (please bear in mind that I got a distinction for my novel assignment from one of the top five MA Creative Writing Universities in the UK, so we are not talking about the quality of writing here).

And yet we have people in this column wanting innovative science fiction... so you'll have to excuse me if I feel very confused about the publishing trade at this moment in time...

[orly]

One of the few sf stories I've completed is titled Citizen 100010011-0. With this story, my intention is to warn readers about our world becoming, in the not-so-distant future, ravaged by climatic changes wrought by pollution. In Citizen..., I
also portray a dehumanizing totalitarian government that is controlled by Global Bank. ( 'surprise,surprise' -I wasn't able to find an interested publisher )

In my limited reading of science fiction stories, I've found next to nothing of forecasting the future with a caveat.

[Steven L Jordan]

It may come to that for any one of them, but I hope not.

Why? I mean, other than the obvious additional work that would be involved with self-publishing, is there another reason?

I long ago made the decision that if I didn't get an agent from the list I've made up, then I'm not going to pursue getting it published. Why, you may ask? Well if a whole set of agents is not willing to take it on, then they clearly believe there is no profit to be gained by publishing it. So why should I gainsay a whole bunch of people who know the trade better than I do? They are clearly saying that science fiction does not like innovations (please bear in mind that I got a distinction for my novel assignment from one of the top five MA Creative Writing Universities in the UK, so we are not talking about the quality of writing here).

I've said elsewhere that publishers are averse to risk, especially in this profit-tightening market; so their disinterest in your work only means they don't want to try selling it (they don't expect their desired profit margin to come of it)... not that it's no good, nor that you can't find an audience on your own.

I wouldn't abandon the idea of publishing because publishers show no interest. The first publishers I contacted didn't even want to look at my novels; they dismissed me out-of-hand. I self-published, and the books sold. You can do the same (hopefully better than I have).

[Werthead]

I'd say there is still plenty of material for SF to delve in, and most of it is right here on Earth.

Our climate and resource problems, pollution, overcrowding, political and social divisiveness, health and welfare, and near-future are all ripe for exploration. Computers are still evolving new uses and new interfaces, as well as integrating more deeply into daily use. Communications, commerce and language are evolving to keep up with a faster lifestyle, global access and computer use. And that's just the starter's list.

Science Fiction needs to embrace the fact that mankind's greatest adventures are still talking place on this planet, and stop treating Earth and the present as a mundane and forgotten stage with no stories left in it.

Good points, and again we've seen some recent SF tackling these issuses The Wind-Up Girl, the peak oil book Charles Wilson wrote a few years back, some of Ian McDonald's recent work as well. There's certainly some fertile areas in SF which are just now being explored in depth. It's good to see the genre beginning to become relevant again.

Which brings me back to my point I made earlier in this thread - there are good SF novels out waiting to be published. I've seen them (and I'm excluding my own from this particular point because I would have a natural bias). But are there publishers willing to publish them? You won't need any guesses as to what the answer is to this.

They are. Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief is a good example of a publisher taking a chance on a 'difficult' SF idea and finding that it's paid off (the book has sold well). The problem for SF is that, as a very rough rule of the thumb, fantasy outsells SF three-to-one, so that genre publishers will always have to be convinced a little harder about an SF novel rather than a fantasy one. However, the success stories - Peter F. Hamilton's immense sales success in recent years - means that genre publishers are indeed looking for good SF works right now. There's some movement in the genre that we haven't seen for a few years, and the right authors in the right place could do well.

[Valerie]

I long ago made the decision that if I didn't get an agent from the list I've made up, then I'm not going to pursue getting it published. Why, you may ask? Well if a whole set of agents is not willing to take it on, then they clearly believe there is no profit to be gained by publishing it. So why should I gainsay a whole bunch of people who know the trade better than I do? They are clearly saying that science fiction does not like innovations (please bear in mind that I got a distinction for my novel assignment from one of the top five MA Creative Writing Universities in the UK, so we are not talking about the quality of writing here).

And yet we have people in this column wanting innovative science fiction... so you'll have to excuse me if I feel very confused about the publishing trade at this moment in time...

Why are you think it in profit terms? Between profit only and vanity publishing there a lot of flavours. From other posts seems that you are working in publishing area.
If I consider Harry Potter, one name shorter the list and one of biggest sucesses would have never happened. If I remember well the winner was the twenty something contacted editor.

[Rosie Oliver]

Many thanks, Valerie, Orly, Werthead and Steven L Jordan for your sympathy and kind words. Both Harry Potter and Rannu Rajaniemi are indeed the exceptions to the rule. It gives us 'more normal' writers hope. They must have had a lot of help to publicise their books. And self-published books in general don't get even a tenth of that kind of publicity, which all goes to help selling the book.

Reading this thread, there seem quite a few people interested in SF... so the question is how can publicity be targeted towards these people. I sure don't know. I would further add this is the same problem for other SF strands, so innovative SF is not unique in this respect.

Hence I would prefer to get a publisher to do 'the biz'.

[Steven L Jordan]

It's true, promotion is such a major part of publishing, and without that promotion, it's incredibly hard to get noticed and get ahead. A commenter on another site recently described it as being prepared to "run down the road naked to promote" your book, and I'd say he wasn't exaggerating by much. I've been trying to find ways to promote my books for the past 2 years, with no luck.

Of course, I haven't tried streaking yet...

[fritzthefox]

You know what's missing from today's science fiction? Optimism.

[psikeyhackr]

A commenter on another site recently described it as being prepared to "run down the road naked to promote" your book, and I'd say he wasn't exaggerating by much. I've been trying to find ways to promote my books for the past 2 years, with no luck.

But whatever promotional method you use other people will be doing the same thing. So if you find a new method there will soon be imitators.

It is the basic consumer problem. People do not really buy products they buy the marketing. The product is merely included in the purchase.

Wait a minute, tis is starting to sound like The Space Merchants. That's science fiction.

psik

[Steven L Jordan]

But whatever promotional method you use other people will be doing the same thing. So if you find a new method there will soon be imitators.

Yes. It's become clear to me that only the first few to try a new promotional method will succeed; once the word is out, and everybody else tries it, the public is already aware and treating the new method, and all the newly-arrived promoters, as "also-rans" and "bandwagoners" and largely ignore them.

As always, promoters are hard-pressed to do something so unique that they will stand out in the crowd, but they must do it fast and make it count, because the moment is fleeting.