Welcome back to Genreville! I hope those of you who were celebrating a holiday this weekend enjoyed it; and I hope the rest of you enjoyed the weekend even without a holiday.
This week's Nuts & Bolts interviewee is John Joseph Adams. The assistant editor for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and a longtime book reviewer, he has recently turned his hand to editing anthologies. I interviewed him about Seeds of Change (Prime, August 2008).
Genreville: Where did you get the idea for the book, and what attracted you to that idea?
John Joseph Adams: After the success of my first anthology, Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, Sean Wallace of Prime Books approached me about doing an original anthology for him. We batted a few ideas back and forth, and didn't quite come up with anything that struck us both as the right project. Then Wiscon came along, and I attended a panel Sean was on that was about editing anthologies. When he saw me enter the room, he announced to me and all those assembled that he had the theme for the anthology. Turns out he was discussing ideas with his colleague Stephen Segal at Wildside Press (the corporate parent of Prime Books), and it was Stephen that actually came up with the idea--which Sean and I both immediately loved and agreed that it was the right choice.
The basic idea was to get the authors to write stories about future instances of great social and/or technological change, and about the issues that come along with any such paradigm shifts. What attracted me to the idea was my own yearning for change--especially in the political and social realm. I don't know if it's more a matter of gaining wisdom as I grow older, the current state of the world, or some combination of both. Literature--especially science fiction literature--can be, as contributor Blake Charlton put it, a mode of social change, so I thought that if I could contribute in some small way by putting together an anthology like this one, if it can make people consider some of the issues discussed herein, then I'll have achieved at least one of my goals. Of course my primary goal was to put together a book of great short stories; I hope readers will agree that Seeds of Change succeeds at doing both. It's already done some good, at least: Blake donated the proceeds from the sale of his story, which is about cancer research, to the American Cancer Society, and Prime Books matched his donation.
GV: What challenges did you face when pitching, editing, and promoting the book?
JJA: Well, as I said in the acknowledgments (and above), Sean Wallace saved me the hassle of having to pitch the book to a publisher. So there was no challenge there. However, pitching the anthology to authors was--and always is--a primary challenge of editing any anthology. I think that pretty much every author I approached found the theme compelling, but unfortunately we were working on a bit of a tight schedule because Prime wanted the book to be out and available this summer, so that it would be available during the lead-up to the presidential election in November. Since we had this tight schedule, a lot of authors who would have otherwise likely written something for the book had to decline due to previous commitments.
Which leads us to editing difficulties--of which, I can thankfully say, there were relatively few. Which was fortunate, especially since this was my first attempt to put together an original anthology. One problem was that a lot of writers who I was counting on didn't deliver stories, so I ended up with a smaller pool of stories to select from than I'd been hoping for. (Not that I bear any ill will to those who didn't send me stories; it's all part of the process, and you have to plan accordingly for it.) Additionally, I couldn't hold an open reading period for the anthology (i.e., accept unsolicited submissions); this is because my day job is working as the assistant editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the publisher and editor, Gordon Van Gelder (my boss), felt like it would be a conflict if I accepted unsolicited submissions in this particular case since the theme of the anthology is so broad. Which is fair enough, though it did make editing the book a bit more difficult.
We haven't really seen yet any real problems in terms of promoting the book, but our promotional efforts haven't really kicked into full gear just yet. We've sent out review copies, of course, but other than PW and the other trade journals, most venues don't publish their reviews until a book is released (or at least target publication around that time). So if August, September, then November rolls around and reactions to the book consist entirely of stony silence, then we'll be in trouble, but until the book's actually out, it's hard to say where the promotional difficulties lie. One possible problem is that I did many interviews when Wastelands came out, and most of those same venues won't want to interview me again so soon (Wastelands just came out in January). Plus, I've got another reprint anthology coming out later this year called The Living Dead, so some of the publicity for Seeds might be delayed until that comes out so that I can talk about both projects.
GV: How did it inspire or discourage you? How is that experience affecting your current and future projects?
JJA: I'm very happy with the way the book turned out, and really I'm only sorry it couldn't have been longer so that I could have included more stories. Without having the safety net of an open reading period, the entire time I was waiting for the authors to submit stories was a bit nerve-wracking, especially since the deadline was very tight and the book was topical, so a delay would minimize its potential impact. Having never put together an original anthology of this sort before, it was eye-opening in a lot of ways, and I think I learned a lot from this first go at it. Looking back, I'm actually kind of surprised there were no disasters to speak of. (Though I suppose it's not too late for one!)
In any case, I really wanted to push hard to have an open reading period for my next original project, and I'm glad to say that I will. This next book, to be called Federations, is again for Prime, which deals with the implications of living in space-faring, intergalactic societies, with a target publication date of May 2009.
From a non-business standpoint, I guess what editing Seeds of Change really made me want to do is try to get more authors to confront the pivotal issues facing us today when they write SF. Sometimes it seems like the only way we'll ever see great social change is if we read it in a work of imaginative fiction, but here's hoping that technological advances are not the only thing that SF will predict from here on out.
