Steph Swainston, New Weird And Fandom

[ninebelow]

There is a brief interview with Steph Swainston in the latest Interzone which inspired this true or false poll:

Poll This Is The Modern World

Comments

[abigail_n]

Wow, when it comes to our perceived infuence on publishers, we sure are a cynical bunch.

(The expanded version of my answer is that it depends on the publisher and on the fan, but given the either/or nature of the poll I thought 'false' was much closer to being the case than 'true.')

[secritcrush]

The expanded version of my answer is that it depends on the publisher and on the fan

So who would be a fan who has a lot of influence with a publisher?

[coalescent]

Patrick Nielsen Hayden. :-p

[secritcrush]

You can see me but I am giving you the eye roll of doom.

[coalescent]

More seriously, while I'm with you on fans not having much influence, I'm interested in why you think they're not very visible.

[secritcrush]

Because there is a great big world outside fandom.

[coalescent]

Of course, but that's why they don't have much influence. Fandom is, pretty much by definition, the bit that talks about books and goes to author events and pre-orders and writes reviews and etc etc. So I would say that to a publisher they're going to be the easiest readers to see.

[secritcrush]

I think you're wrong that they are the only people who go to signings, preorder books, etc. Fandom are the people who do that who hang around each other, that doesn't mean that there aren't loads of people doing the exact same thing.

[ninebelow]

I don't really think any of these activities count as visible.

[coalescent]

So what do you think makes a group of readers visible to publishers? Or are *all* readers invisible?

I admit there's a bit of personal perspective here: I know that people at Gollancz, Macmillan, and various other places know who I am because of what I've done. At least, I assume that's why Orbit keep sending me promotional stuff about their global launch this autumn.

[grahamsleight]

Orbit are launching a planet? Cool!

[ninebelow]

Or are *all* readers invisible?

Pretty much.

You are not just a part of fandom but part of the publishing world and despite being the King of Fandom even you complain that it is hard to get books sometimes. The Clarke notably failed to do so last year.

[coalescent]

part of the publishing world

Hmm. Not sure about that. Not sure that the Clarke's failure to get McCarthy and Pynchon is much evidence, either, since I'm pretty sure Picador and Random House aren't the publishers Swainston was referring to.