Science fiction's star is fading. Not in the movies or on TV or in the gaming universe, but the books are selling less and less. Of course this has been evident for some time, but it's more obvious with each passing year. Fewer titles are being published, and print runs are smaller than ever. Lou Anders, editorial director of Prometheus Books' science fiction imprint Pyr, was editor guest of honor at this year's OryCon, and I saw and heard a lot from him. He's smart, articulate, and very frank.
He says he's not attending the World Science Fiction Convention next year. His convention-attending budget is limited, and WorldCon just isn't worth it any more -- it's gotten too small. World Fantasy Convention attendance has also dwindled to the size of a regional convention. He says both conventions should try having a YA guest of honor (sounds good to me!). On the other hand, DragonCon and Comic-Con International are much more worthwhile, and Anders said he was delighted to find how receptive the attendees of these conventions are to books.
Anders is very enthusiastic about books and literature. At the Sunday morning "Coffee with the Editor" gathering, someone asked him what he's looking for. Anders replied that he's looking for the person who can translate urban fantasy to a historical setting. Well, it made sense when he said it, but now I'm thinking: Isn't that already being done? I guess I missed something there.
By the way, if you're wondering what urban fantasy is, the below-average urban-fantasy setup generally runs something like this: I'm a vampiress with a tattoo and an attitude, and my boyfriend is a werewolf, and the CIA needs our help to combat some unspeakable evil, but a bunch of personal issues are in the way. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like real life for a lot of people -- if you leave out the part about the CIA and the evil threat.
The readers of UF are mostly women; guys are reading less of everything than they used to. This in part explains the sorry state of written SF, which historically has had a high percentage of male readers.
More on OryCon.
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1 comment:
Hey,
Thanks for the love. OryCon was fantastic.
I should clarify - WorldCon is in Australia in 2010, which is why I won't be attending. I am worried by its shrinking numbers though, and was very happy with the numbers of "book receptive" people at DragonCon. I expect to be at WorldCon in 2011 when it is in Reno. But I would like to see the convention take steps to rebuild its attendance levels.
As to urban fantasy - it IS migrating into historical. I was wondering how big a leap that would then be into secondary world fantasy and/or sword & sorcery.
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