Locus, April 2013 Read online

  JAMIE SCHULTZ sold first novel Premonitions – ‘‘Stephen King meets Ocean’s Eleven’’ – and two more books to Jessica Wade at Ace via Lindsay Ribar of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

  New writer SARA B. LARSON’s debut adventure romance Defy, described as ‘‘in the vein of Kristin Cashore and Leigh Bardugo,’’ sold to Lisa Sandell at Scholastic Press via Josh Adams of Adams Literary.

  LIZ DE JAGER sold debut YA fantasy trilogy The Blackhart Legacy to Bella Pagan at Tor UK via Juliet Mushens of the Agency group.

  MARY BEHRE’s first novel, paranormal romance Precious Jewels, and a second book sold to Leis Pederson at Berkley via Jewelann Cone of Cascade Literary Agency.

  JACQUELINE KOYANAGI sold first novel Surgery in the Sky to Paula Guran at Prime via Rachel Kory of Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.

  MANUEL GONZALES sold first novel The Regional Office Is Under Attack, ‘‘part high-concept sci-fi, part Shakespearean tragedy,’’ to Megan Lynch at Riverhead via PJ Mark of Janklow & Nesbit.

  ELIZABETH HOLLOWAY sold debut Call Me Grim and a second book to Georgia McBride at Month9Books via Lindsay Ribar of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

  JAIME LOREN’s first novel Waiting for April and two more novels sold to Georgia McBride at Month9Books.

  First novelist M.K. HUTCHINS sold Drift to Stacy Whitman at Tu Books.

  P.C. CAST’s novella Kalona’s Fall, in the House of Night series, went to Jennifer Weis at St. Martin’s via Meredith Bernstein.

  STEPHEN JONES will edit Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth for Fedogan & Bremer, and sold paperback rights to anthologies Shadows Over Innsmouth and Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth to Steve Saffel at Titan Books, all via Dorothy Lumley of Dorian Literary Agency. Jones will edit Fearie Tales for Jo Fletcher of Jo Fletcher Books via Lumley.

  [‘‘Books Sold’’ continues in ‘‘The Data File.’’]

  BOOKS RESOLD

  TERRY PRATCHETT resold his first novel The Carpet People to Anne Hoppe at Clarion via Colin Smythe. This collectable edition will include Pratchett’s illustrations and a story about the characters written when the author was 17.

  Gardner Dozois (2008)

  KARL EDWARD WAGNER’s Kane novels and stories sold to Darren Nash at Orion for digital publication, and hardcover rights sold to Centipede Press, via Dorothy Lumley of Dorian Literary Agency on behalf of the Karl Edward Wagner Literary Group.

  PAT MURPHY resold The City, Not Long After; The Falling Woman; Max Merriwell’s Adventures in Time & Space; Nadya; Points of Departure; The Shadow Hunter; and Wild Angel to Orion in the UK via Greene & Heaton in association with Jennifer Weitz of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

  BRIAN LUMLEY sold e-book rights to all his backlist novels to Darren Nash at Orion via Dorothy Lumley of Dorian Literary Agency.

  MICHAEL G. CONEY sold e-book rights to his entire backlist to Darren Nash at Orion via Dorothy Lumley of Dorian Literary Agency.

  GEOFFREY HUNTINGTON sold his Ravenscliff series to Mary Cummings at Diversion Books via Tara Hart of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency in association with Malaga Baldi of the Baldi Agency.

  JOHN BURKE’s The Black Charade and Ladygrove resold to Borgo Books via Phil Harbottle on behalf of the Burke estate.

  SUSAN GATES resold middle grade fantasy/mystery Zilombo to Stacy Whitman at Tu Books via Random House UK.

  PUBLISHING

  GARDNER DOZOIS has joined Clarkesworld magazine as reprint editor, where each month he will choose two stories from the past 30 years to reprint.

  RACHEL FAGUNDES has been promoted to associate editor at Tachyon Publications.

  MEDIA

  J.G. BALLARD’s The Drowned World has been optioned by Warner Bros. for Heyday Films producers David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford, with Jon Berg of Warner Bros. overseeing the project.

  JONATHAN LETHEM’s Fortress of Solitude has been adapted as a musical, and will premiere at the Dallas Theater Center in March 2014.

  Rachel Fagundes (2012)

  IAN R. MacLEOD’s ‘‘Snodgrass’’, an alternate history in which John Lennon left The Beatles before the band became famous, has been adapted for the UK Sky Playhouse TV series, and will run April 25, 2013.

  TERRY BISSON is co-writing the screenplay for upcoming biopic Robeson, about African-American professional football player, lawyer, activist, musician, and actor Paul Robeson.

  Film rights to KENDARE BLAKE’s Anna Dressed in Blood were optioned by author STEPHENIE MEYER’s Fickle Fish Films via Jody Hotchkiss of Hotchkiss and Associates on behalf of Adrianne Ranta of Wolf Literary Services.

  TONE MILAZZO’s Picking Up the Ghost was optioned by Breaking the Cycle Films, to be produced and adapted by James Charleston, via publisher ChiZine Publications.

  Film rights to LISA DESROCHER’s Personal Demons trilogy were optioned by Ineffable Pictures via Pouya Shahbazian of New Leaf Literary & Media on behalf of FinePrint Literary Management and Suzie Townsend.

  LIANE MERCIEL sold a novel based on the video game Dragon Age: Origins to Tor via Marlene Stringer of Stringer Literary Agency.

  DAVE GROSS delivered Pathfinder Tales novel King of Chaos to James Sutter at Paizo.

  Return to In This Issue listing.

  MAIN STORIES

  Kiernan and Salaam Win Tiptree Awards • 2012 Kitschies Winners • 2013 Philip K. Dick Award Judges • SFWA vs. Hydra • Antitrust Settlement Update • DRM Lawsuit • 2012 Stoker Awards Final Ballot • Riggio Offers to Buy B&N

  KIERNAN AND SALAAM WIN TIPTREE AWARDS

  Caitlín R. Kiernan’s novel The Drowning Girl (Roc) and Kiini Ibura Salaam’s collection Ancient, Ancient (Aqueduct) are the winners of the 2012 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, given annually to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles. Each author will receive $1,000 in prize money, original artwork created to honor the winning works, and chocolate. They will be honored at a ceremony during WisCon 37, May 24-27, 2013 in Madison WI.

  Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kiini Ibura Salaam

  The Tiptree jury released an ‘‘honor list,’’ recognizing other noteworthy works:

  Range of Ghosts, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)

  Rituals, Roz Kaveney (Plus One)

  Up Against It, M.J. Locke (Tor)

  2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

  Jagannath, Karin Tidbeck (Cheeky Frawg)

  Firebrand, Ankaret Wells (Epicon)

  ‘‘The Receptionist’’, Lesley Wheeler (The Receptionist and Other Tales)

  Jurors were Joan Gordon (chair), Andrea Hairston, Lesley Hall, Karen Lord, and Gary K. Wolfe. The 2013 jurors will be Ellen Klages (chair), Christopher Barzak, Jayna Brown, Nene Oremes, and Gretchen Treu. For more: .

  2012 KITSCHIES WINNERS

  Winners for the 2012 Kitschies, awarded to ‘‘the year’s most progressive, intelligent, and entertaining works of genre literature published in the UK,’’ were announced February 26, 2013 at a ceremony held at the Free World Centre in Farringdon, London.

  Red Tentacle (Novel): Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann). Golden Tentacle (Debut Novel): Redemption in Indigo, Karen Lord (Jo Fletcher). Inky Tentacle (Cover Art): Dave Shelton for his own A Boy and a Bear in a Boat (David Fickling).

  There was also a discretionary prize for outstanding contribution to the conversation surrounding genre literature, The Black Tentacle, which was awarded to The World SF Blog ().

  The winner of the Red Tentacle received £1,000, and winners of the Golden Tentacle and Inky Tentacle won £500 each. All finalists received a hand-crafted trophy and a bottle of rum from award sponsor The Kraken Rum. Finalists were chosen from over 200 submissions sent by over 40 publishers/imprints. Fiction winners were selected by judges Rebecca Levene, Patrick Ness, and Jared Shurin. Judges for the art award are Gary Northfield, Lauren O’Farrell, and Ed Warren. For more: .

  2013 PHILIP K. DICK AWARD JUDGES

  The five jud
ges for the 2013 Philip K. Dick Award have been announced. Works of science fiction originally published as paperbacks in the US during the year 2013 are eligible for the award.

  Elizabeth Bear, 10 Common St, Brookfield MA 01506-1618; Siobhan Carroll, 116 Congressional Dr. Apt B, Wilmington DE 19807-2760; Michael Kandel, 240 Norwood Ave., Port Jefferson Station NY 11776-2561; Jamil Nasir, 9956 Lake Landing Rd., Montgomery Village MD 20886-0604; Tim Sullivan, 7720 SW 62nd Ave., South Miami FL 33143-4909.

  Publishers are encouraged to mail copies of eligible books to all judges. Nominees will be announced January 2014. For more: .

  Main Stories continue after ad.

  SFWA VS. HYDRA

  Random House has responded to pressure from authors, artists, and writers groups by altering the contract terms for its digital imprints Hydra, Flirt, Alibi, and Loveswept, following an online interaction with the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

  The controversy began when Victoria Strauss of publishing industry watchdog Writer Beware pointed out problematic clauses in a deal memo from Hydra, an electronic SF imprint from Random House. SFWA investigated the situation, and in March, announced that Hydra did not meet the requirements for an approved qualifying market. SFWA cited problems with ‘‘onerous and unconscionable’’ contract terms, including life-of-copyright terms that include both primary and subsidiary rights; failure to pay authors an advance against royalties; and requiring authors to pay, through deductions from net profits, for normal costs of doing business that ‘‘should be absorbed by the publisher.’’ Outgoing SFWA president John Scalzi devoted multiple posts on his popular personal blog, Whatever , to cataloguing the problems with the contracts and encouraging authors to demand better terms.

  Allison R. Dobson, digital publishing director of Random House, responded to SFWA’s charges with an open letter that reads, in part,

  While we respect your position, you’ll not be surprised to learn that we strongly disagree with it, and wish you had contacted us before you published your posts. We would appreciate you giving us an opportunity to share why we believe Hydra is an excellent publishing opportunity for the science fiction community by posting ours below to them.

  Hydra offers a different – but potentially lucrative – publishing model for authors: a profit share. In the more traditional advance-plus-royalty model, the publisher takes all the financial risk up front, and recoups the advance before the author earns any cash royalties. With a profit-share model, there is no advance. Instead, the author and publisher share equally in the profits from each and every sale. In effect, we partner with the author for each book.

  Dobson also expressed a wish to meet with SFWA leadership to discuss the matter. The complete letter can be found here: .

  SFWA responded with a letter which begins,

  Thank you for your letter regarding Random House and Hydra, and your interest in speaking with us.

  Unfortunately, there is very little to discuss. SFWA has determined to its own satisfaction that Hydra does not meet our minimum standards for a qualifying market, as its contract does not offer an advance. Additionally, your attempt to shift to the author costs customarily borne by the publisher is, simply, outrageous and egregious. The first of these things alone would disqualify Hydra as a qualifying market. It is the second of these things, however, that causes us to believe that Hydra intends to act in a predatory manner towards authors, and in particular toward newer authors who may not have the experience to recognize the extent to which your contract is beyond the pale of standard publishing practices.

  You extol your business model as ‘‘different’’; the more accurate description, we believe, is ‘‘exploitative.’’

  The complete letter may be read here: .

  In mid-March, Random House announced changes to the contract terms for their their digital lines, including Hydra and its sister imprints Alibi (crime), Loveswept (romance), and Flirt (YA/New Adult). They said the changes were ‘‘in response to recent constructive discussions with authors, agents and writers’ groups, including the Horror Writers Association’’ – conspicuously failing to mention SFWA. Under the new terms, authors may choose between two options. The first is a no-advance, profit-sharing model where net proceeds are split 50/50, with production and marketing costs borne by the publisher – except in the event of a print publication, when the author will be expected to cover production costs. The other option is a more traditional advance-plus-royalty model, with 25% net royalties, and all production and marketing costs, both e-book and print, paid by the publisher.

  Under either model, the imprints still require worldwide rights in all languages for the length of copyright, subject to ‘‘out of print’’ clauses ‘‘which provides for the author to request reversion of his or her rights three years after publication if the title fails to sell 300 copies in the 12 months immediately preceding the request.’’ The imprints no longer demand all subsidiary rights. The complete statement can be read on the digital imprint website atrandom.com: .

  ANTITRUST SETTLEMENT UPDATE

  Judge Denise Cote has announced a proposed schedule to review Macmillan’s antitrust settlement with the Department of Justice, 49 US states attorneys, and the civil class-action lawsuit. The DoJ is required to file all public comments by May 30, 2013, with any motions due by June 13; responses to motions are due June 27; and the government’s reply is due by July 8. No hearing date has been set.

  Penguin settled with the DoJ in late 2012, but they have yet to achieve a settlement in the price-fixing lawsuit brought by US states attorneys. They petitioned Judge Cote to exclude them from the upcoming June 2013 trial – despite being named as the lead defendant by the states – and the judge refused. The company has until March 15 to file a motion to ‘‘assert its right not to defend against the lawsuit… and/or to request to hear live direct testimony of two Penguin executives in exception to the Court’s Individual Practices.’’ The states have until March 29 to oppose the motion, and Penguin’s deadline for a reply to any objections is April 5.

  DRM LAWSUIT

  Three independent booksellers are seeking class action status in New York Federal Court on behalf of ‘‘all independent brick-and-mortar bookstores who sell e-books.’’ The plaintiffs – Book House of Albany NY, Posman Books of New York City, and Fiction Addition of South Carolina – accuse Amazon and the Big Six trade publishers of ‘‘unreasonable restraint of trade and commerce in the market for e-books.’’ They also accuse Amazon of monopolization and violations of sections one and two of the antitrust Sherman Act. The booksellers want the court to order removal of Amazon’s digital rights management (DRM) software from their e-books, to be replaced by some unspecified ‘‘open source DRM’’ that would allow indie stores to sell e-books readable on the Kindle. That’s actually possible now, in many cases, but it can admittedly be a cumbersome process for readers who aren’t tech-savvy, with multiple steps required to get the file in readable form onto Kindle readers. The plaintiffs also want the court to enjoin Amazon ‘‘from selling DRM specific, or non-open-source, dedicated e-readers, alternative e-reader devices, and apps.’’

  The suit claims that Amazon has a lock on the e-book market (estimating a 60% market share) because their DRM is ‘‘specifically designed to limit the use of digital content after sale for all of the e-books published by the Big Six…. None of the Big Six have entered into any agreements with any independent brick-and-mortar bookstores or independent collectives to sell their e-books…. Consequently, the vast majority of readers who wish to read an e-book published by the Big Six will purchase the e-book from Amazon.’’ There is a current arrangement between e-book distributor Kobo and the American Booksellers Association, but the plainti
ffs don’t appear to consider the ABA an ‘‘independent collective.’’

  Attorney Alyson Decker of Blecher & Collins says they chose to go after the Big Six because they ‘‘collectively dominate the market share,’’ and further says the accusations that Amazon is a monopoly are limited mainly to their use of proprietary DRM, and not other business practices. They are not seeking monetary damages, just injunctions and attorney’s fees.

  A spokesperson for Simon & Schuster said, ‘‘We believe the case is without merit or any basis in law and intend to vigorously contest it. Furthermore, we believe the plaintiff retailers will be better served by working with us to grow their business rather than litigating.’’

  Writer and technology activist Cory Doctorow complained on website Boing Boing that, ‘‘For some reason, [the plaintiffs are] using ‘open source’ as a synonym for ‘standardized’ or ‘interoperable.’ Which is to say, these booksellers don’t really care if the books are DRM-free, they just want them locked up using a DRM that the booksellers can also use. There is no such thing as ‘open source’ DRM – in the sense of a DRM designed to run on platforms that can be freely modified by their users.’’ He concludes, ‘‘I wish they’d actually bothered to spend 15 minutes trying to understand how DRM works and what it is, and how open source works, and what it is, before they filed their lawsuit.’’

  2012 STOKER AWARDS FINAL BALLOT

  The 2012 Stoker Final Ballot has been released by the Horror Writers Association.

  Superior Achievement in a Novel: Bottled Abyss, Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Redrum Horror); NightWhere, John Everson (Samhain); The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc); The Haunted, Bentley Little (Signet); Inheritance, Joe McKinney (Evil Jester).

  Superior Achievement in a First Novel: Charlotte Markham and the House of Darklings, Michael Boccacino (William Morrow); Wide Open, Deborah Coates (Tor); The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief, Charles Day (Noble YA); A Requiem for Dead Flies, Peter Dudar (Nightscape); Bad Glass, Richard Gropp (Del Rey); Life Rage, L.L. Soares (Nightscape).