Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Publishing' Category

Major league no-no

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

So, one of my editor friends just got a partial manuscript that she liked: she took time out of her busy schedule to read it, think about it, talk it over with her colleagues, and ask to see more (and her response time was rapid by the standards of our industry). And what did the […]

Book design

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

I’ve been meaning to rant about this for a while, but haven’t found the time. But the topic came up in conversation with a good friend today — a brilliant lady who had done a book with a small press, and had cringed when she finally held the finished product in her hand because the […]

Realms of Fantasy resurrected

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Realms of Fantasy is coming back, it seems. SF Scope — as is so often the case these days, first with the news — has the scoop here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Rocky Mountain News folds

Friday, February 27th, 2009

The Rocky Mountain News, a major daily newspaper in Denver, Colorado, one of the few US dailies to routinely and intelligently review science-fiction novels over the years, is gone. Mark Graham, the usual SF reviewer there, had been very kind to me. For instance, on Calculating God, he wrote: “I always look forward to Robert […]

To serialize a sequel?

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Over in my Yahoo! Groups newsgroup, Martin Bennedik wrote: I read Wake on my phone by downloading the ebook version of Analog from Fictionwise. Not only was the novel excellent, but I found this was a good way to get the book early and in a format which allowed me to take it with me […]

How much do novelists make?

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

I’m lucky, and I know it; most of my colleagues aren’t. Gary Karbon discussed this last year in the blog Culture Feast: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

There goes the Canadian small-press magazine industry

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Quill & Quire Online just reported: The Harper Tories have promised to maintain existing funding levels for the country’s magazine industry ($75.5-million annually), but guidelines announced this week for the new Canada Periodical Fund could put Canada’s small-run literary magazines in jeopardy. The new Canadian Heritage-run program merges two other federal funding bodies – the […]

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my! Trilogies everywhere you look!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

My friend Melody Friedenthal asked me an intriguing question this morning: At what point in your creative process did you decide that Wake et al., would be a trilogy? And was it the same point for your first trilogy (or 2nd) or was the first one more of the publisher’s choice (as in “this is […]

It begins

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

We just lost one of the big-four US science fiction and fantasy magazines: Realms of Fantasy, edited by Shawna McCarthy, is closing down. SF Scope (which more and more these days is first with breaking news) has the scoop. Meanwhile, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction recently switched from 11 issues a year to […]