The Fantasy Authors Handbook Interviews Xiv Jim Minz

THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEWS XIV: JIM MINZ What is it about Wisconsin that seems to breed science fiction and fantasy authors and editors? Whatever it is, West Bend native Jim Minz is a service. He started his career in publishing as an intern for editor/agent James Frenkel however quickly moved to New York as assistant to legendary SF editor David Hartwell. After constructing a powerful record of his personal at Tor he jumped ship to Del Rey, but didn’t stay long, choosing the more independently minded Baen Books over Random House’s “corporate überstructure.” Founded in 1983 by Jim Baen, the eponymous imprint made a name for itself, and its authors, by publishing the likes of Eric Flint, John Ringo, and David Weber. Jim Minz, circa Philip Athans: Define “fantasy” in 25 words or less. Jim Minz: Fantasy is a narrative type that accommodates elements of the “Other” for which there is no underlying scientific rationalization. Athans: Define “science fiction” in 25 phrases or much less. Minz: Science fiction is a story kind that accommodates elements of the “Other” for which there's a attainableâ€"preferably believableâ€"underlying scientific rationalization. Athans: Baen has long been known as the premiere imprint for navy SF, and it nonetheless is, but you seem to be publishing more city fantasy, like Hard Magic by Larry Correia. At the risk of sounding as though I’m accusing you of chasing tendencies, how development-driven are the fantasy and SF genres? Do you even spend much time in any respect suffering over the vagaries of sub-genres? Minz: While there are positively trends, it really isn’t a case of chasing a trend versus a development bringing consideration to an area that has been there all alongsideâ€"after all, there’s nothing new under the solar. Urban Fantasy goes again no less than so far as Gilgamesh, and in terms of more modern times, people like Charles de Lint, Terri Windling, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Caroline Stevermer, and so forth., have been writing Ur ban Fantasy for many years earlier than it exploded when it comes to gross sales. In truth, this isn’t even the first time this sort of story has loved a huge spike in reputation on our lifetimes: back within the ’80s, while it was referred to as “Horror,” much of the best-selling popular fiction of that point was scratching related itches, and positively mining similar source materials by way of mythology, legend, and folktale. There’re some obvious variations (the most obvious being a lot heavier romance components in the latest go round), nevertheless it’s a cyclical development that stretches back literally for millennia (in contrast to such new wave fads like realist fiction, which has been around for only some centuries . . .) Hard Magic by Larry Correia, Available May 3, 2011 from Baen As for Baen, people are noticing our fantasy because of Larry Correia making the New York Times list, but we’ve been publishing city fantasy anthologies by Esther Friesner for mor e than fifteen years, we’ve been publishing fantasy novelsâ€"city and in any other caseâ€"by Mercedes Lackey (and numerous co-authors) for a pair a long time (squeezed in around her greatest-promoting Valdemar novels from another publisher), and plenty of of our authors have written fantasy novels, together with David Weber’s Bahzell novels, and John Ringo’s The Princess Wand. And then there’s Elizabeth Moon, who's finest known for her SF, but her first novels have been fantasy printed by Baen (starting with Sheepfarmer’s Daughter again in 1988). Undoubtedly, Larry Correia has benefitted from the popularity of urban fantasy. But in the end, he’s a terrific storyteller with a keenness for creative violence and mayhem, which suggests he’s a natural for the Baen list, no matter the style. The relaxation is simply good timing. Athans: What is it about urban fantasy, or horror-fantasy crossovers, that have such extensive appeal? Do you feel that there’s a much bigger read ership for “more accessible” fantasy, and in your opinion, what is “extra accessible?” Minz: Urban fantasy does have a distinct advantage in terms of establishing what Tolkien known as “Secondary Belief” in his seminal essay, “On Fairy-Stories.” In different phrases, with Urban Fantasy the readers do not have to make as a lot of a leap of religion to get them to droop their disbelief and enter this different secondary world in the novel, because it’s principally their very own world that’s the preliminary launching point. Authors writing invented-world fantasy and science fiction have much more work in that department, having to do worldbuilding, etc., and make the readers truly imagine it exists, or a minimum of feel like it exists while they’re reading the stories. And then there’s the deeper truth, that stories about what goes bump within the evening, tales that take the world around us and make it into one thing sinister and suspenseful have been with us not simply since we were little kids being frightened by campfire stories, however have been at the cultural core of storytelling itself for the reason that very starting of story. They strike a deep resonating chord with most of us each personally and culturally in a method that nearly no other storytelling can. Athans: There’s an awful lot of discuss now in regards to the submit-recession changes in the publishing enterprise, and the relative ease of self-publishing within the e-book period. Are self-printed novels, or their authors, being taken extra significantly by the mainstream publishing industry? Does having a self-printed e-e-book in circulation assist or hurt in relation to publishing with Baen? Have you printed anything that started off as a self-revealed e-book? Minz: For a really very long time, I’ve loathed the term “self-published,” because generally, the works in query weren’t revealed at all. Printing a e-book and stuffing it in your garage isn't publishi ng. Publishing is advertising, distribution and gross salesâ€"merely printing a e-book is not publishing a guide. With the appearance of e-book self-publishing, it’s become simpler for a author to do advertising and promotion for a piece, and obviously the overhead is tremendously reduced, so the road has turn into more blurred, and it’s easier for a author to actually “publish” by themselves. But when we attain the purpose where actually everybody in the world can self-publish a novel, I assume the position of a publisher/editor becomes much more essential. Spend in the future of your life with a slush pile (the submissions that are available which are unedited, unagented), and also you’ll perceive: you need us standing on the ramparts, holding again the unbelievably big ocean of really unhealthy fiction, sifting via it and finding you the great things to learn. Take blogs: when they first began coming on to the scene, the good ones have been quick and easy to recognize. But then tens of millions of people began running a blog, and it will get misplaced in the great fog, and also you fall again to only following blogs of individuals you realize and trust have one thing fascinating to say. For investing the time to read a complete novel, most readers will appreciate having somebody act as the filter to steer them to novels worth studying. Does that have to be an editor/publisher? No. But for these publishers with a very recognizable brand and a loyal following, they’ll be capable of continue to meet that trust. We even have revealed a few current works that were initially self-published, together with Larry Correia! I am not suggesting this is the route to getting printed. What occurred in both instances is that we became aware of the self-revealed work due to a third celebration within the enterprise letting us know this was the good things (in Larry’s case, we had been made aware of Monster Hunter International by the wonderful folks on the ind ie SF bookstore Uncle Hugo’s)â€"if it hadn’t been for that stamp of approval from an trade pro, we in all probability would’ve never even seen these works. Every career begins with a first book! Athans: What about all those changes to the publishing business? Borders is on the ropes, unbiased booksellers are thin on the ground, e-readers appear to be promoting like hotcakes . . . what does all this imply? Are we witnessing a tempest in a teacup, or a global paradigm shift? Minz: This is a shift that has been a very long time coming. Folks have been predicting this again within the ’90s (in fact, they were saying it might occur by the year 2000). Obviously, with the quickly growing recognition of e-reader units, we’re lastly seeing the transition happen. At Baen, we’ve been an e-book retailer for greater than a decade, and have been getting ready for this transition maybe longer than some other traditional writer out there. And even now, with the large canines like Amazon , Google, and Apple throwing their hats within the ring, I’ll take our sales mannequin over theirs any day of the week. When you buy an e-book from us, you can come again and download it as typically as you like, in no matter format you like. So when you change your e-reader model, you still own all of your Baen ebooks in a readable format. Heck, you can have it on your work laptop, your Nook, your Kindle, and your Sony E-Reader all at the similar time, and that’s fantastic with us. We wish to make it as easy as we are able to for our readers. That’s why there’s no DRM or encryption of any sort, and why we have been using the “cloud” mannequin years before the time period existed. Athans: A lot of style authors, editors, brokers, critics, and so on. have been bemoaning the death of the midlist. Is the midlist book (and author) a thing of the past, or are these new developments in publishing providing a ray of hope to guys who used to be able to make a residing writing bo oks? Minz: While the arrival of cheap, easy self-publishing that can truly obtain some minor positive money move for the writer, it’ll probably mean a lot more folks getting much smaller slices of the overall pie of what of us spend on books annually. We will see the expansion of the Long Tail, and the hump of main gross sales by main publishers will flatten considerably. But that being said, at Baen we’ve discovered the current market an opportunity somewhat than a problem. As the massive houses bemoan the fact that they will’t promote 100 thousand copies of a selected title in mass market paperback, and therefore cut back on the number of titles they publish, and consolidate and get rid of publishing imprints, we've managed to increase our market share. As they pull again, we’re pushing to get our books out there, with aggressive backlist promotions in addition to extra paperback originals, like Larry Correia. And in a somewhat bleak market total, we’ve accomplished very well. Athans: This is primarily a blog for aspiring authors. What is the commonest mistake that inexperienced authors make of their skilled lives? Minz: Not writing enough. You need to put in writing and write and write some extra. And then, write some extra. If you’re not writing thousands of words daily, you’re kidding yourself. Oh, and browse so much. Read a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. Learn to dissect its parts and borrow liberally from others’ writing strategies. There’s no magic method, no particular piece of recommendation, no words of knowledge from any single source. Read widely and write and write and write some more. You try this, and stick with it for years, you'll be published. The Hot Gate by Baen mainstay John Ringo, Available May three, Athans: What’s the most common mistake that inexperienced authors make in their writing? Minz: Not writing quick fiction. It’s foolish to not write short fiction. It lets you experiment and explore the craft so much more than with novels, and when you make a very bad mistake in short fictionâ€"write yourself into a nook you can’t get out of, or no matterâ€"a minimum of you didn’t spend the three months writing a novel with the identical end result and need to chuck out all that work. And there are nonetheless loads of viable markets to promote short fiction in genre. You most likely can’t make a living at it, but consider it as a method of marketing your name, and getting paid while doing it. Editors on the main publishers pay attention to who gets printed in magazines. Heck, I subscribe to several fiction zines (with a particular shout out to Electric Velocipede!!!), a lot less keeping an eye on the larger mags. Of course, in all of this, YMMVâ€"there are many published novelists who’ve never written any quick fiction. But they are extra the exception than the ruleâ€"should you’re severe about writing, you need to seriously think about writing short fiction. Athans: Besides an h onest dictionary, and The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction of course, is there one e-book you think every writer ought to maintain close at hand? Minz: There aren’t lots of “one guide” options: every author has their own strengths and weaknesses, and depending upon these, I’d advocate fiction that does an excellent job with their weakest areas, to allow them to study writing methods to assist them address their weaknesses. But it’s extra essential to learn widely and write a lot, then to spend too much time looking for the one magic book. (From a pure technical standpoint, most likely one of the best work out there is the lengthy-out-of-print-however-not-too-tough-to-discover Revising Fiction by David Madden, but it’s only one tool among many that a writer ought to think about using.) Athans: Do you learn critiques of novels you’ve published? Have you discovered any evaluation to be notably helpful or harmful? Do you encourage the authors you're employed wi th to read critiques? Minz: Of course I read evaluations . . . often for the sake of trying to find a great quote to use on the next e-book, but there’s a stage of egoboo as properlyâ€"you want to see a great evaluation for something you’ve edited. But a sensible, negative evaluate can be quite useful and helpful. As for encouraging authors to read evaluations, it relies upon upon the writer. Thanks, Jim! â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans