Jonathan Strahan
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BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (519)
Vincent Chong
Julie Dillon
Dan Dos Santos
Chris McGrath
John Picacio
BEST SEMIPROZINE (404)
Apex Magazine
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
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BEST FANZINE (370)
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BEST FANCAST (346)
The Coode Street Podcast
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BEST FAN WRITER (485)
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BEST FAN ARTIST (293)
Galen Dara
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JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER [NOT A HUGO AWARD] (476)
*Zen Cho
Max Gladstone
*Mur Lafferty
*Stina Leicht
*Chuck Wendig
*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.
There were 1,343 valid nominating ballots (a new record) – 1,329 electronic and14 paper – were received from members of Chicon 7, LoneStarCon 3, and Loncon 3. The deadline for online ballots and the receipt of paper ballots is Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (11:59 p.m. EDT). The Hugo Awards will be presented on Sunday, September 1, 2013, during LoneStarCon 3, the Worldcon in San Antonio TX.
SLATTERY WINS DICK AWARD
Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor) is the winner of the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award, announced March 29, 2013, at Norwescon 36 in SeaTac WA. Lovestar by Andri Snær Magnason (Seven Stories) received a special citation.
Winners and Nominees: Ryan Boudinot (nominee), Andri Snær Magnason, Nancy Kress, Brian Francis Slattery, Moira Crone (nominee)
The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. The 2012 judges included Bruce Bethke, Sydney Duncan, Daryl Gregory, Bridget McKenna, and Paul Witcover. Next year’s judges have been announced as Elizabeth Bear, Siobhan Carroll, Michael Kandel, Jamil Nasir, and Tim Sullivan. For more:
BANKS DIAGNOSED WITH TERMINAL CANCER
Iain Banks, 59, who writes SF as Iain M. Banks, has announced that he is ‘‘officially Very Poorly.’’ He has been diagnosed with late stage gall bladder cancer and is not expected to live more than another year. He has withdrawn from all scheduled appearances and asked his partner, Adele Hartley, if she would do the honor of ‘‘becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps).’’
Iain Banks (2000s)
From his online statement: ‘‘I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I’d started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn’t gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March….
‘‘I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.’’ He is still considering chemotherapy to give him more time, but has to wait for the jaundice to clear up regardless.
He and Hartley have married and are currently on a short honeymoon. He intends to spend ‘‘however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us.’’ His publishers are working to move up the publication date of his forthcoming novel The Quarry, to give him a better chance of ‘‘being around when it hits the shelves.’’
Banks, who made his literary debut in 1984 with The Wasp Factory, writes both award-winning SF – including the beloved Culture series – and bestselling literary fiction.
His statement can be found on Banksophilia: Friends of Iain Banks at
2012 BSFA AWARDS WINNERS
The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards winners were announced at Eastercon 64 in Bradford, England, March 29 – April 1, 2013.
Adam Roberts (2008)
Novel: Jack Glass, Adam Roberts (Gollancz). Short Story: ‘‘Adrift on the Sea of Rains’’, Ian Sales (Whippleshield Books). Artwork: Blacksheep for the cover of Adam Roberts’s Jack Glass (Gollancz). NonFiction: The World SF Blog, chief editor Lavie Tidhar. The awards are given annually, with winners chosen by members of the BSFA and Eastercon. Donna Scott is stepping down as awards administrator to take over from Ian Whates as chair of BSFA in June. For more information, see the official website at
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CLARKE AWARD SHORTLIST
The six titles on the 2013 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist have been announced.
Nod, Adrian Barnes (Bluemoose)
Dark Eden, Chris Beckett (Corvus)
Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)
The Dog Stars, Peter Heller (Headline)
Intrusion, Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
This year’s judges are Juliet E. McKenna and Ruth O’Reilly for the British Science Fiction Association, Nickianne Moody and Liz Williams for the Science Fiction Foundation, and Rob Grant for SCI-FI-LONDON. Andrew M. Butler is chair of judges. Tom Hunter is award director.
The winner will receive a £2013 prize and a commemorative engraved bookend. The winning title will be announced at the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival, May 1, 2013, in London. For more:
NIGHT SHADE FOR SALE
Night Shade has been struggling financially for several years, and in recent months laid off editor Ross Lockhart and lost several high-profile authors. SFWA began working with Night Shade to find an alternative to a seemingly inevitable bankruptcy. In early April, letters were sent to authors and agents describing the proposed asset sale and asking authors to agree to allow Night Shade to sign over their contracts to Skyhorse and Start. This would allow Night Shade to pay their authors and potentially avoid bankruptcy entirely.
As Night Shade had suspended operations, SFWA delisted the company as a qualifying market: ‘‘As of Apr 3, 2013, Night Shade Books is no longer a qualifying venue…. We are aware of current negotiations by Night Shade with other companies to continue the brand name under other ownership. If in the future that new company meets SFWA requirements, we will be happy to consider it becoming a SFWA qualifying market.’’
SFWA reportedly worked closely with Night Shade and Skyhorse/Start to help shepherd this deal along. While SFWA does not endorse the deal unreservedly, they urged affected members to discuss the matter carefully with their agents and lawyers, arguing that the acquisition was likely in the best interest of many of their members.
The proposed terms were soon leaked online: Skyhorse and Start offered to pay all outstanding advances and overdue royalties in full, and asked for authors to give up audio rights and second serial rights (if not previously sold or in negotiations), and
to accept reduced royalty rates for both print and e-book sales, among other concessions. Jeremy Lassen and Jason Williams of Night Shade would work for Skyhorse and Start as consultants, and an established genre editor would be hired to run the line. An undisclosed number of Night Shade authors had to agree to the deal by the April 16, 2013 deadline (two weeks after letters were first sent) in order for the deal to go through at all.
Many Night Shade authors and agents complained about those terms, notably Phil Foglio, who wrote on Facebook, ‘‘This other publisher… is perfectly willing to buy Night Shade’s assets (our contracts). However, they will rewrite them and everybody now gets paid a flat 10% of net sales. Let me put this another way; If I was a monkey, I’d be throwing this.’’ Author Michael Stackpole also harshly criticized the deal, as did Neal Asher, and agents including Joshua Bilmes and Andrew Zack.
Jeremy Lassen of Night Shade posted an open letter (which may be read in its entirety at
In looking for a buyer, our first priority was to find someone who would make sure all of our authors got paid in full…. Our second priority was to find buyers who could do justice to the diverse and talented stable of writers that we have at Night Shade. And we wanted someone who would ensure that books under contract would come out and be sold and promoted well, and that books already out would continue to be sold and promoted.
Those were our requirements, and we feel that we found buyers who could fulfill those requirements. One of THEIR requirements is to make back their investment. And part of that is to put some things in place that authors need to sign off on. I always knew this would be difficult, but Night Shade worked closely with SFWA to ensure that the terms our buyers were asking for were fair and equitable to the authors involved. And frankly, this is the best I could do. I tried very hard, and this was the best solution I could come up with to ensure that ALL authors are paid ALL of the money they are owed…. The buyers need a certain amount of the authors to sign off on the deal, or the deal doesn’t happen. I can’t say exactly what will happen if the deal doesn’t go through, but if it doesn’t, there will long period of uncertainty, for Night Shade, and for our authors.
Lassen also suggested that many authors and agents who dislike his company were ‘‘using this deal as a whipping rod, publicly lambasting Night Shade…. I simply ask that you view their opinions in the proper context. Are those opinions about the relative merits of the deal, or is there a personal axe that is being ground?’’
Skyhorse and Start responded to the online criticism by improving their boilerplate contract, offering better royalties for print (and promising to pay royalties based on retail price, not net, as previously proposed) and escalators for e-book royalties, along with improved reversion language for the new rights they hoped to acquire. This mollified some critics, including Michael Stackpole, who decided to sign after all, saying, ‘‘The agreement isn’t perfect. I still have my royalties cut, but not nearly as drastically as before…. While I do have to make some concessions to allow the deal to go through, I’m okay with that. It saves me the time of dealing with a bankruptcy court.’’
On the April 16 deadline, Skyhorse and Start reportedly agreed to extend the deadline to April 24, to allow authors and editors to continue discussions and negotiations. They seemed confident the deal would work out.
Of course, the writers aren’t the only ones owed money by Night Shade. Marty Halpern, who has done copyediting for many Night Shade titles, publicly asked how the deal would ‘‘affect artists, editors, other freelancers owed money by Night Shade?’’ Artist Todd Lockwood also posted, ‘‘Not only authors were harmed by [Night Shade’s] business practices…. I cut my rates in order to paint covers for them. It took over a year and a half to be paid for one. Another dribbled in in bits; the last check bounced, and I have never received full payment. I understand that other cover artists were never paid at all. I would be surprised if Skyhorse et al. felt any need to make those repairs, but I’d love to know what, if any, plans were made in that regard…?’’
Rose Fox of Publishers Weekly reached out to Jarred Weisfeld of Start about those issues, and Weisfeld replied, ‘‘Night Shade is responsible for paying those debts, but all creditors of Night Shade will be taken care of if the sale goes through, and freelancers who are owed money would be considered creditors. Nobody’s going to be left high and dry. The deal is contingent on those individuals getting paid.’’ Weisfeld later clarified ‘‘that if the deal goes through, settlements for creditors will likely be in the 30%–50% range.’’ Whether those creditors will be satisfied with partial payment, given that authors stand to be paid in full, is unclear, and bankruptcy proceedings may be in Night Shade’s future even if the asset sale succeeds.
For more, see writer Tobias Buckell’s excellent roundup of links about the situation:
Night Shade Books is in negotiations with Skyhorse Publishing and Start Publishing to sell its backlist and any unpublished titles under contract. Skyhorse (a print publisher best known for nonfiction titles) and Start (a digital publisher) have committed to building a genre list, and recently acquired Underland Press (see story in ‘‘The Data File’’).
Return to In This Issue listing.
THE DATA FILE
Bookseller Class Action Update • Amazon Buys Goodreads • Underland Press Sold • Eclipse Online Closes • B&N Cuts S&S Orders • More E-books in Libraries • Petition for Asimov Historical Marker • Stephen King News • Announcements • World Conventions News • Legal News • Magazine News • Publishing News • Bookstore News • Awards News
BOOKSELLER CLASS ACTION UPDATE
In April, Amazon and the Big Six trade publishers separately moved for a dismissal of a lawsuit brought by three independent booksellers accusing them of ‘‘unreasonable restraint of trade and commerce in the market for e-books.’’ The plaintiffs filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York in February, accusing Amazon of monopolization and violations of sections one and two of the antitrust Sherman Act, and want the court to order removal of Amazon’s digital rights management (DRM) software from their e-books, to be replaced by ‘‘open source DRM’’ that would allow indie stores to sell e-books readable on the Kindle. They also want Amazon enjoined from selling e-readers that make use of ‘‘device-specific DRM.’’ They’re suing the Big Six because none of them ‘‘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.’’
The Big Six jointly filed to argue that the plaintiffs’ attempt ‘‘to draw the Publishers into their dispute with Amazon’s unilateral design of the Kindle ecosystem fails for at least two reasons.’’ First is the lack of an agreement between Amazon and the publishers regarding ‘‘device-specific DRM’’ (a term the publishers argue is ‘‘legally meaningless’’), and that any such agreement would be counter to the publishers’ own interests. They also say the booksellers failed to show ‘‘actual adverse effect on competition as a whole in the relevant market.’’
Amazon’s motion to dismiss says the bookstores can’t prove any antitrust claims, and says their ‘‘true grievance is that Amazon is attracting consumers with low prices and popular products…. Because Amazon is not alleged to have done anything apart from engaging in proper, healthy competition, the… Complaint must be dismissed.’’
The booksellers responded with an opposing motion, asking the court not to dismiss their suit. They argued that, ‘‘Having developed and successfully exploited its Kindle e-book reader, which dominates the e-reader market, Amazon entered into written contracts with the Big Six that facially blessed the use of an Amazon controlled digital rights management technology (‘DRM’) on the Big S
ix’s e-books…. The restrictive DRM, in conjunction with the contracts with the Big Six, operates to protect Amazon’s e-reader monopoly. In addition, independent brick-and-mortar bookstores have been foreclosed from effective entry into the e-book market. As a result, consumers of e-books have been deprived of the benefits of choice and of the innovations that would surely have evolved had Amazon’s monopolies been challenged.’’ In responding to the motions to dismiss, the booksellers argue that the defendants are either misreading or deliberately misrepresenting the complaint.
The named plaintiffs are the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza of Albany NY, Fiction Addiction of Greenville SC, and Posman Books of New York City, but they are seeking class-action status to represent all indie booksellers. Oral arguments are set to begin April 25, 2013.
AMAZON BUYS GOODREADS
Amazon.com has purchased popular ‘‘social cataloging’’ site Goodreads for an undisclosed sum. Goodreads was founded in 2007 and has about 16 million active members, who use the site to catalog books they own, have read, or want to read; to review books; and to socialize online with other readers.
With this acquisition, Amazon now has a stake in all the major social cataloging sites, with its own site Shelfari and a minority ownership share of LibraryThing.
Reactions to the announcement have been mixed, with some Goodreads users excited by the possibilities of the partnership, and many others worried about potential changes to the site.
For more, see the announcement of the sale at Goodreads:
UNDERLAND PRESS SOLD
Skyhorse Publishing and Start Publishing have purchased Underland Press. Founded in 2007 by Victoria Blake, Underland has published titles by Brian Evenson, Elizabeth Hand, Matthew Hughes, Joe Lansdale, John Shirley, Jeff VanderMeer, and others. Their most recent publication is anthology Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Evolution, and Revolution, edited by Blake (February 2013). Blake will remain in her position as publisher of nonfiction line InFact Books.
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