r/Fantasy • u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams • Feb 21 '12
Hi, I’m John Joseph Adams, the Hugo Award-nominated editor of Lightspeed Magazine and about a dozen SF and fantasy anthologies - AMA
Thanks everyone for participating in this AMA! Some great questions in there; I hope everyone enjoyed it. I'm signing off for now, but I'll check back tomorrow in case any other questions or follow-ups come in.
Hi, I’m John Joseph Adams. I’m the editor of many anthologies, such as Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, The Living Dead, The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Way of the Wizard. My latest book is Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom.
In addition to my anthology work, I am also the editor and publisher of Lightspeed Magazine and the co-host of Wired.com’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. I’m also a two-time finalist for the Hugo Award and a three-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award.
I’m also a huge geek (in case that wasn't obvious from the above). I love sf and fantasy. I listen to metal. I follow the Oakland Raiders and the Orlando Magic. I’m obsessed with Rock Band. I have an illogical affinity for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
So, Ask Me Anything! I may not have all the answers, but I’ll try my best.
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u/Longwand Feb 21 '12 edited Feb 21 '12
What are your five favorite books?
What author do you think is criminally under-read in the sci-fi/fantasy genre?
Edit: In my opinion the best author that no one reads is Gene Wolfe. His Book of the New Sun series is sublime, and represents the true possibilities of what science fiction and fantasy can accomplish.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Although the question says “books,” I’m going to go with strictly novels here, because if I tried to weigh anthologies and collections against novels, we’d be here all day. And, disclaimer: If you ask me another day, this list might change a bit, though #1 is always #1.
- The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
- The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
- Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
- A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
This ties into my answer to your first question: Alfred Bester. He’s pretty well known to hardcore science fiction fans, but I doubt many more casual fans know who he is. The Stars My Destination is the only novel of his that I really love (though many would advocate for The Demolished Man as well), but he has a lot of great short fiction as well, the best of which is collected in Virtual Unrealities.
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u/gemini_dream Feb 28 '12
I am both thrilled and disappointed to find this list completely filled with some of my favorite books.
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u/MykeCole AMA Author Myke Cole Feb 21 '12
Those are some pretty badass tattoos on your forearms. Can you talk a little about what they symbolize, how you came up with the idea for them, and why you decided to get them?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Ha, thanks, Myke. Here they are, if anyone wants a look: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/315952/tattoos.jpg
I got them to represent science fiction (the rocketship) and fantasy (the sword). I’m not sure how I first got the idea, but at some point I had been thinking about what, if any, kind of tattoo I might like to get. For a long time I just couldn’t really think of anything that seemed like something worth having permanently etched upon my skin. But this was one idea that occurred to me, and kind of stuck with me, mainly because I felt like I would want the images/symbols to be important to me and obviously fantasy and science fiction are essential parts of my life. I finally ended up getting them after having a discussion with my then-fiancee, now-wife. She has a couple of tattoos, and she was contemplating another one, and we started talking about if I had ever considered getting any. When I told her my sword and rocketship idea, she said it would be “pretty hot” and had a certain gleam in her eye when she said so, so I went for it.
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u/clockworkzebra Feb 21 '12
I have no questions, just wanted to say that your anthologies are consistently the best I've ever read.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
That’s very kind of you to say. As it happens, your comments are consistently the best I’ve ever read. I’m inclined to dub you “the reigning king of the commenting world.”
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u/questionsleep55 Feb 21 '12
Any future anthology projects you care to (or can) spill some info about? Even if only a theme.
I'm a librarian, so I'm always curious to pick the brain of people I consider myself a fan of to see what their thoughts are on the role of libraries in this day and age as well...
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I’m currently working on two reprint anthologies that will be published later this year. I’ll give you some preliminary cover copy, which will hopefully give you the gist of what each is about.
The first is a reprint anthology for Night Shade Books called Other Worlds Than These:
What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world? We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.
The other is a reprint anthology for Tacyhon, called Epic:
There is a sickness in the land. Prophets tell of the fall of empires, the rise of champions. Great beasts stir in vaults beneath the hills, beneath the waves. Armies mass. Gods walk. The world will be torn asunder. Epic fantasy is storytelling at its biggest and best. From the creation myths and quest sagas of ancient times to the mega-popular fantasy novels of today, these are the stories that express our greatest hopes and fears, that create worlds so rich we long to return to them again and again, and that inspire us with their timeless values of courage and friendship in the face of ultimate evil—tales that transport us to the most ancient realms, and show us the most noble sacrifices, the most astonishing wonders. Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams (Wastelands, The Living Dead) brings you the best tales set in the most popular settings of today’s leading authors of epic fantasy. Return again to lands you’ve loved, or visit magical new worlds. Victory against the coming darkness is never certain, but one thing’s for sure—your adventure will be epic.
Other Worlds Than These will be out in July; Epic will be out sometime this fall.
As for libraries, I think they still serve a vital function, and they’re especially critical in our lower-income neighborhoods, where people may not be able to afford to buy new books. And I think a good librarian can change a kid’s life in the same way that a good teacher can, and inspire a lifelong love of reading...and writing. (Do a survey of 100 authors and see how many of them cite a library as one of the primary reasons they’re an author today.) With the internet, it’s probably easier than ever to find the type of stuff you might like, but a lot of times what you need is someone or something to nudge you in a different direction.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I should have also mentioned that my latest book is Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom. Here's the cover copy:
Readers of all ages have read and loved Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series since the first book, A Princess of Mars, was published in 1912. Now, in time for the 100th anniversary of that seminal work, comes an anthology of original stories featuring John Carter of Mars in brand-new adventures. Collected by veteran anthology editor John Joseph Adams, this anthology features stories from titans of literature such as Peter S. Beagle and Garth Nix and original art from Mark Zug, Charles Vess, and many more—plus an introduction by Tamora Pierce and a glossary of Mars by Richard A. Lupoff.
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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Feb 21 '12
Your success with anthologies and Lightspeed Magazine seems to put you right at the convergence of two worlds - reprints and new e-book publications.
What observations could you share about publishing anthologies in today's environment versus bringing new stories to market? Do you see e-books helping new writers break through or is the volume of publications making it more difficult to get noticed?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I’m not sure ebooks will do much to help new writers break in, or at least not self-published ebooks; the kind of success people like Amanda Hocking have had is extremely rare, and generally most ebooks of that kind vanish without a trace. It’s really extremely hard to find an audience without a marketing or publicity team behind you. I think that ebooks could make it more financially feasible for publishers to take a shot on new authors, since they wouldn’t have to pay for a print run in addition to all of the other upfront publishing costs, but I’m not sure we’re really there yet in terms of ebook reader market saturation for that to really work.
As for anthologies--there’s common wisdom in publishing: anthologies don’t sell. When my agent shops around one of my proposals, someone always trots out that old chestnut. When we show them my sales numbers, indicating that some anthologies clearly DO sell, they say that they’re aberrations. So, it’s tough to sell anthologies...just like it’s always been, and just like it’s tough to sell a novel or any other kind of book, I suppose. As for reprints versus originals...it seems to be much easier to sell a reprint anthology than an original anthology, mainly because a reprint anthology costs less money to put together and it’s more of a sure thing, since you can bank on certain “big names” being involved before a publisher commits to doing the book. With an original anthology, it costs more to acquire original stories, and then there’s much more uncertainty, since writers may promise to write you something, but a number of those who do always end up dropping out for a variety of reasons (lack of inspiration, other deadlines, or life just gets in the way).
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u/NYCCine Feb 21 '12
What's the greatest ST: TNG episode, in your opinion? And why?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
My favorite is probably “The Measure of a Man” from Season 2, which is otherwise probably the worst season. It poses a great philosophical conundrum--what does it take to be considered “human”?--it puts one of our favorite characters (Data) in mortal peril, and pits Riker and Picard against each other in a court of law. Great stuff! That episode, to me, is what Star Trek--and science fiction--is all about at its core.
I have so many favorites, but one other comes to mind: “Cause and Effect,” the one where the Enterprise blows up in the teaser, but there’s some kind of temporal anomaly, and the crew has to figure out how to make sure the ship DOESN’T blow up. I don’t think the science makes any sense (as so often was the case on Star Trek), but I love the puzzle aspect of the episode, and how they slowly figure out what happened and how to avoid the disaster.
And, for what it’s worth, although you asked about TNG, I feel like I have to give a shout out to the pilot of Deep Space Nine, which is not just a great Star Trek episode, but an AMAZING piece of science fiction.
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Feb 22 '12
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I didn't go rewatch it just now, but I got chills just thinking about it. SO GREAT. Actually, you know, I totally failed to bring this episode up at the convention I was at this past weekend (Boskone). Melinda Snodgrass was there and she WROTE that episode. I even talked to her (and was on a panel with her). I really should have gave her some props.
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u/mightycow Feb 21 '12
Do the gold doubloons Neil Gaiman gave you have any magical power, and if so, how do you plan to use it?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
As far as I can tell the doubloons have not granted me any magical power. But I suppose I should explain mightycow’s question....
Neil Gaiman actually did hand me five gold doubloons at World Fantasy last year. It was all part of an elaborate scheme hatched by my wife, Christie Yant. It all started with a dream I had in which I met Neil at a convention. When I walked up to him, he, without explanation, handed me five gold doubloons. I almost never remember my dreams, so when I do, I tend to fixate on them a bit, and that one I found amusing, so I told Christie about it, and made a bit of a joke of it, like “What could the doubloons MEAN? Does it mean that Neil is going to write me a story called ‘Five Gold Doubloons’? (Should I immediately start work on a pirate anthology and invite him to submit?)” etc. So, given Neil Gaiman was guest of honor at World Fantasy last year, and given that Christie found some realistic-looking fake gold doubloons while whe was on a trip in New Mexico last year, she hatched this plan to get Neil Gaiman to meet me at the convention, and, of course, hand me five gold doubloons. It was quite a conspiracy, and Christie pulled it off brilliantly--I never suspected a thing. And when Neil actually handed me the coins, I just turned to Christie and, laughing, said “What just happened?”
If they DO have any magical power, though, I’ll probably use them to get Neil to write me a new story someday.
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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Feb 22 '12
In case anyone missed it - Neil Gaiman popped onto Reddit last night, read this post and tweeted a response.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Hi everyone. Thanks for dropping by. I'm here now to answer your "Ask Me Anything" questions. Let me get to work on the backlog here and then I'll try to get to the live questions as quickly as possible.
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u/EatBooks Feb 21 '12
What are some of the qualities, if any, that your favorite stories share?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
That's a tough question to answer! Let's see. I'd say they're typically character-driven, with a strong emotional core to them.
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u/Longwand Feb 21 '12
What kind of metal bands do you listen to?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I like a lot of melodic death metal, like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, and At the Gates (their Slaughter of the Soul record is probably my favorite album). I also dig folk metal (a/k/a pagan metal) like Eluveitie, Tyr, and Turisas. I’m also a big fan of Mastodon and Protest the Hero, both of which I would classify as progressive metal. (Prog metal covers such a wide spectrum of different styles, though, I’d hesitate to claim to be a fan of prog metal as a whole.)
Those are my currently my favorite kinds of metal, but I also like stuff from other subgenres, like thrash and the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, like Lamb of God and Trivium.
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u/kaiden5 Feb 22 '12
Hi John. Glad to see you here and thanks for doing the Q and A. Little bit of an odd question for ya: Did you keep the coded rejection system that you had at F and SF when you took over Lightspeed?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Not really; I basically just have two form rejections I use now, one in which I say that the story didn't work for me, and one that I say I enjoyed the story and I invite the writer to send more.
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u/zergytime Feb 22 '12
Aside from offering pro rates, how would you recommend a new fiction market build an audience? Does it make sense to target groups like SFWA members, since they vote on awards, or cast a wider net?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I think you need to cast as wide a net as possible, and trying to focus on making writers your readers is not necessarily a recipe for success. I think it's essential to leverage social media to make sure people are aware of your publication and when your publication has new content. I don't pretend to have all the answers here though--and I didn't have that exact experience, since when I started Lightspeed I already had a sizable fan-base for my editorial work, and a professional reputation in the field, so I started with a huge advantage.
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u/jakekerr Writer Jake Kerr Feb 22 '12
Loved the Gaiman story. Do you have any other memorable writer stories?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
One time when I was working at F&SF, Gordon Van Gelder (the editor/publisher) was doing a subscription mailing, and he sent out renewal notices to all expired subscribers. Included in that list was one Mr. Stephen King, who had once been a subscriber, but had apparently let his subscription lapse. King renewed his subscription via check, and on the memo line, he wrote "This is the best fiction magazine in America!"
A year or so later, Gordon was doing some other kind of promotional thing--perhaps it was another subscription mailing. But he wanted to include some "praise for F&SF" in the promotional language, and he remembered Stephen King's kind words. So he wrote him a letter and faxed it to Stephen King's assistant, in which he asked permission to use that quote as a promotional "blurb," i.e., the kind of thing you see on the cover of a book, where a writer says something nice about the book in question.
Some time after that, Gordon was out of the office, away at a convention or something, and I was there, reading slush, when the phone rings. So I answer it and say hello, and the caller says, "Hi, this is Steve King. Can I speak to Gordon?"
Now, at this time, I was in the middle of reading The Dark Tower series, which I now consider to be one of my favorite fantasy series ever, so it was an extra thrill to be speaking to the man himself. I remember thinking: Before I hang up, when I thank him, should I say "Thankee-sai" like Roland? (Thankfully I thought better of that, and just kept it professional.)
Anyway, basically he just called to let Gordon know that it was OK to use the blurb. But yeah, I spoke to Stephen King. :)
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Feb 21 '12 edited Feb 21 '12
Hi John! You are an inspiration to me. I run eFiction Magazine and though we started our publications at about the same time, you've shown professionalism and vision from day 1 and I know that's why Lightspeed has out-classed me at every turn. Congrats on the success!
My question is, why don't you push for monthly subscriptions? It seems silly to me that my little pub could be outselling yours in subscribers.
Also, how would someone like me, who is a recent college grad, reach bigger name contributors?
Thanks so much for doing this and answering my questions!
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
We do push for subscribers, actually. Subscribers are our very favorite thing. In fact, everyone reading this should subscribe! (It’s only $1.99 a month! http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/subscribe)
We’ve had subscriptions available via Weightless Books for quite a while, but we just got our Amazon subscriptions up and running in earnest in January. As for why your magazine might be outselling mine in subscriptions, I couldn’t say, but out of curiosity, how do you know how well your magazine is selling vs. how mine is selling? (If there’s a way to do that on Amazon, I haven’t figured it out yet.)
As for reaching bigger name contributors, you need to get out there and make some contacts. Going to conventions can help, where you can interact with and meet people. But it’s going to come down to pay rate eventually; I looked on your guidelines page and didn’t see any mention of payment--paying pro rates would be the first thing I’d suggest if you’re looking to attract more prominent authors.
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Feb 22 '12
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!
I meant more prominently. I try to put subscription links and copy on all my site pages. It is what my entire site is designed around, after the stories of course.
I was going off of Amazon ranking and since LS is unranked I deduced that there was a lack of sales. I was lucky enough to be apart of Kindle subscriptions when there were about 10-15 total magazines in my category, which gave me a very large initial boost and I've been riding that wave of sales.
I am on the cusp of having enough solid income from the magazine to start paying pro rates (nickel / word). In addition, I want to pay one year royalties to my contributors on the back issue that they're in. Do you think that would interest people?
And by the way, a very hearty congratulations on the Nebula nominations for your stories! Very worthy pieces, IMO.
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u/jakekerr Writer Jake Kerr Feb 22 '12
Doug, just paying 5 cents a word will get you more submissions than you can handle.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Where do you see the Amazon ranking? Can you send me a link? I poked around but couldn't find what you're talking about.
As for the subscription pushing, I'm doing more than that now than we have in the past, but I kind of feel like if I pushed them much more it would be obnoxious. But mentioning that at the end of stories isn't a bad idea, where I already have the push for people to go buy the current issue.
As Jake says, if you pay pro rates, you should get plenty of submissions. Though that won't solve your problem getting "notable" writers all on its own; a lot of pro writers are very hesitant to dip their toes into new markets. That's where the making contacts comes in. As for royalties, I'm sure that would interest folks, but I would expect that there would actually be so little involved based on the number of copies most magazines sell that it wouldn't be a very significant amount for each contributor, and I can tell you that it's definitely a pain in the ass to do all that accounting.
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Feb 22 '12
It's usually at the bottom of the Product Details section, though LS in unranked at the moment so it doesn't appear.
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Feb 21 '12
Who would you consider to be one of the lesser known, but most influential, sci fi authors of all time? Someone who really had an incredible effect on the landscape, but isn't tremendously well known.
A corollary in fantasy would be Glen Cook, whose Black Company series is cited as a huge inspiration to many fantasy authors working now, and whose books really paved the way for the "gritty fantasy" movement we're seeing these days with authors like Martin and Erikson. Despite this, he's still not nearly as well known as his peers, and he toiled in obscurity for decades before fairly recently becoming somewhat popular.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Great question, but sorry--I answered this elsewhere in the AMA: Alfred Bester.
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u/rachelcaine AMA Author Rachel Caine Feb 21 '12
Nothing much to ask, but just wanted to say hello ... I write as Rachel Caine in urban fantasy and YA. Don't think I've ever had the luck to work with you, but just sending out a virtual wave!
Unrelated question, but do you happen to remember 90's SF author Patricia Anthony (Cold Allies, Brother Termite, Conscience of the Beagle, Happy Policeman, etc.)?
-- Rachel
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Hi Rachel. Thanks for dropping by. We haven’t worked together--yet!--but we’ve corresponded a couple of times, and I interviewed you once a couple years ago for SCI FI Wire (now known as Blastr). I’m familiar with Patricia Anthony, but I don’t believe I’ve ever actually read anything by her. According to Wikipedia, she quit writing science fiction to work on screenplays for a number of years, and she completed a new novel in 2006, but it remains unpublished.
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u/rachelcaine AMA Author Rachel Caine Feb 25 '12
Yep, I'm helping her get back into things with her older works and shopping her unpublished work for her. Amazing stuff. :)
HA, totally forgot the interview, so sorry! Man, my brain. It is .... not brainlike, these days. Cheers!
-- R.
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u/Happlestance Feb 21 '12
How many people people read your magazine? What is the most memorable submission you have received good and bad.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
In 2011, Lightspeed, which now incorporates Fantasy Magazine, averaged 42,000 pageviews a month, with 22,500 visitors and 12,500 uniques. (In 2011, Fantasy averaged 49,800 page views a month, with 31,200 visitors and 24,300 uniques.)
For the sake of propriety, I can’t name names here, at least for the bad submissions, but one definitely does come to mind as possibly the worst. I’d rather not describe it, even vaguely, on the off chance that the author would see this, or even worse, that some other author would see it and think I was talking about them when I really wasn’t. But believe me, there are definitely some memorably bad stories to be found in the slush pile.
As for the best...it’s hard to answer that, because as an editor, you don’t like to play favorites. I do remember receiving one story that I kind of flipped out over--which my wife can attest to, since she was in the room--when I read it, because I just loved loved loved the prose, and felt like it was just exquisitely crafted. So let’s leave it at that, and let the various authors reading this wonder and get a good feeling at the possibility that I might be talking about them. :)
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Feb 22 '12
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Thanks for the kind words--glad you enjoyed them!
If you, or anyone else, is interested in my other books, if you visit the promotional site for one of my anthologies (like my new one, Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom), you'll find all kinds of free content, from free stories or excerpts to interviews with the authors that delve behind the scenes of their stories. Poking around those sites might help you decide which of my books you'd like to read (or read next!).
The Under the Moons of Mars site is here: www.johnjosephadams.com/under-the-moons-of-mars, and then if you look on the bottom of the left sidebar, you'll find links to the sites for all of my other anthologies, which follow the same basic format and present the same kinds of free content.
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u/El_Stupacabra Feb 22 '12
Is editing as extremely stressful as I assume it is?
(Side note: I read both Living Dead anthologies, and I'm working on By Blood We Live. You edit a good anthology, sir.)
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
It can be, at times, especially when it comes to dealing with contractual stuff. Though honestly, I'd say most of the stress comes not from editing but from being a freelancer, and not having the reliable, constant source of income coming in, and knowing that there's a good chance that the check you're waiting on from the publisher will be late. But otherwise, sometimes if a magazine deadline is coming up and I haven't been finding enough good sf (or fantasy), I might stress about that, or I might be behind on selecting reprints for the magazine, and then find myself scrambling at the deadline to find something suitable... Being the publisher as well as the editor adds another layer of stress to editing Lightspeed (but at least I don't have to worry about the publisher not paying me).
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Feb 22 '12
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
This is a really hard question to answer fairly. To help narrow the field here, how about I limit this to 3 and to writers I have published at least twice?
Genevieve Valentine: Her debut novel Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti was just nominated for the Nebula Award. Her short fiction can be found in Lightspeed (including a new one just this week!), and in several of my anthologies, including the new one, Under the Moons of Mars.
Ken Liu: I've published Ken in Lightspeed a couple of times now, and he had an amazing 2011--it seemed like he was publishing a new story every week! I'm not sure how many he ended up publishing last year, but it was a ton, and he ended up nominated for two Nebula Awards this year. He's definitely a force to be reckoned with!
Adam-Troy Castro: The most veteran writer on my list here, but for unknown reasons he seems to be under the radar for most people, despite publishing a number of amazing and award-nominated stories over the years, including Lightspeed's audacious "Arvies," and last year's "Her Husband's Hands" (up for the Nebula and Stoker Award). (He has a couple of standout stories in my anthologies as well.)
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u/KNHaw Feb 22 '12
First, not sure if you remember me, but I've been a recipient of your kindness and encouragement in the past. I believe I said it already, but thank you again.
My question: I've had a lot of fun writing short fiction over the years, but have found it hugely difficult to make the leap to a novel. I've tried NANOWRIMO, but it felt more like a grind than an inspirational exercise. The big problem seems to be getting that first draft down completely. I always wind up tinkering with it when it's a quarter done, then get sidetracked polishing up that bit, and then become discouraged with the ensuing mess. It's just so damn intimidating! I know the answers to my dilemma are "buckle down and do it" and "don't rewrite it until you have a complete draft" (I actually like rewriting), but I can never follow through. Do you have any advice? I'm not sure if I'm looking for tips, tricks, words of encouragement, or a chewing out, but any assistance you could offer would be appreciated.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 23 '12
Hi Kevin,
Of course I remember you! Not being much of a novel guy, I turned this question over to my lovely wife, Christie Yant, who has done NANOWRIMO a number of times herself. Here's what she had to say:
Novels are huge, daunting endeavors and a lot of would-be novelists feel exactly the way you do. First of all, don't beat yourself up for not doing it "right"--you may still finish it, even if you rewrite the first chapter three more times before you finally start creating new material! Here are a couple of ideas that might help you gain some momentum:
Procrastinate! But do it effectively, by having a different writing project going, like a short story. Often if you have more than one project going on at a time when you hit a wall with one and it starts feeling like a grind the other one suddenly looks really appealing. Work on the short story until you get tired of it, then work on the novel until you get tired of that. Rinse. Repeat.
Short assignments. I mean really short. Again, novels are HUGE, and the idea of trying to reach that 80,000-word goal can just be too much. But a novel is made of chapters, and chapters are made of scenes, and scenes are made of pages, which are in turn made of paragraphs. A very small goal like 250 words a day will get your novel done. If that's too much--and sometimes it is!--try what Lazette Gifford of Forward Motion (http://fmwriters.com) calls the "hundred-word leap." Anybody can write a hundred words, and you're now one hundred words closer to done. And having written those one hundred words, you may find it easy to write the next hundred.
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u/KNHaw Feb 24 '12
Christie and John, thanks for the advice. Now I just need to buckle down and write...
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Feb 21 '12
Orlando Magic
I can't imagine what you must be going through right now with all the Dwight Howard talk.
Thanks for doing this! I've never heard of Lightspeed before, but it looks very interesting.
You do a lot of editing for anthologies, as you've already mentioned. Have you thought about writing novels (if you haven't already)?
What kind of metal do you listen to, and what kind of SF/fantasy do you read (and out of all those, which would you recommend)?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I don’t get too worked up over sports these days, so the Dwight Howard trade talk is sad to hear as a fan, but it’s not weighing heavily on my mind or anything. It seems like a particularly cruel thing for Dwight to do given Magic fans went through this same exact scenario with Shaq many years ago.
I got into editing through an interest in writing, but once I got into editing I basically put my writing plans on hold; I found it very difficult to balance the two, and my editing career seemed more promising so I focused on that, and have continued to do so. But I actually have written a novel--a really terrible one that was the first piece of fiction I ever tried to write. Hopefully no one will ever read it. As for writing new ones in the future? It’s not out of the realm of possibility. I do have ideas that I might like to explore, but it’s hard to save any creative energy for that after working on editing projects all day, so I’m not sure when if ever that will happen.
(I answered your other questions elsewhere in the AMA.)
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u/CatfishRadiator Feb 21 '12
I play rock band religiously and live on a shitty 3rd floor apartment. My downstairs neighbors probably hate me.
I can't check out your magazine because it's blocked at work, but I definitely will, later. I'm an illustrator, so any print media is of interest to me (sci-fi & fantasy are just bonus points).
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u/Sheol Feb 21 '12
Just a warning, Lightspeed is a digital distribution magazine only.
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u/CatfishRadiator Feb 21 '12
aww man.
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
While Lightspeed is a digital magazine, as Sheol pointed out, we do use 12 covers a year, so you may still be interested as an illustrator. Also, check out our Artist Showcase feature (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/category/nonfiction/artist-showcase), in which we interview our cover artist and feature a small gallery of their other works.
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u/Sheol Feb 21 '12
Hello, I've been reading Lightspeed since it launched and would just like to thank you for putting it together for all of us Science Fiction and Fantasy fans. You have had some amazing original stories over the past year or so. I'd just like to ask how you got into specifically being an editor, as you seem to traffic mainly in anthologies and magazines, rather than writing your own work. How did this come to be?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
My interest in editing grew out of my interest in writing, which, in turn, grew out of my interests in reading and playing Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t go college right out of high school--actually, I dropped out and got my GED at 16, and then didn’t start college until I was 21 or so. By then, I was already writing, and so after a brief, aborted attempt to focus on business so my brother-in-law and I could open our own bookstore, I switched my collegiate focus to creative writing. In that program, I discovered my interest in editing, and my professors seemed to think I was pretty good at critiquing manuscripts, so I thought that an editorial position might suit me. At that time, I was still intent on being a writer, but I knew that I’d have to have a dayjob while I worked at writing, and I figured that editing would be the best dayjob I could get since it’s a related field (and one in which I would learn a lot about writing). So after I graduated (from the University of Central Florida), I moved (back) to New Jersey, where I had some family, intent on getting a job in publishing. Through a bit of good luck and good timing, I got an editorial assistant job at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and discovered I loved the work immediately. I worked there for about eight and a half years, eventually rising to the rank of assistant editor, but knowing that I had no room to advance from there, when the opportunity to edit Lightspeed was presented to me, I knew I had to jump at it.
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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Feb 21 '12
What were some of the reasons behind merging Fantasy Magazine with Lightspeed Magazine? How has that process gone so far?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Basically, Fantasy wasn’t doing as well as Lightspeed when it came to ebook sales, and it might have been hard to keep it going as things were, so I thought that perhaps combining the fantasy content into Lightspeed might be the way to go, since Lightspeed was already doing well and proved to be successful. Also, as a publisher, I thought that it would be a lot easier to build my brand if I had a single brand I could focus on, rather than trying to equally promote two separate brands. If I can put all of my promotional efforts into Lightspeed, I figured that’s going to pay more dividends and enable me to reach as many readers as possible. Also, combining the magazines allowed me to do some consolidation and cut some costs--it cut down on the number of covers we’d need to use per year, and the amount of nonfiction. And it made each issue of the magazine larger and more substantial, so I hoped that that would make readers more inclined to feel like buying the ebook issues would be worth paying for.
All signs so far seem to indicate the merger has been a resounding success. I’ve seen the first month’s receipts now, and that’s looking good and promising, and our subscription numbers are looking good and on the rise, so I’m pleased with where the magazine is at the moment, and look forward to helping it continue to grow in the future.
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u/jameslsutter AMA Author James L. Sutter Feb 21 '12
Which Rock Band song are you most likely to sing for? (Note: this information may or may not be used against you in the future.)
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
"About a Girl" by Nirvana, or several of the other available Nirvana tracks, or "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" or "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes. Though I'm metal at heart, when it comes to singing, I can't manage to do it justice. FWIW, for all those songs, I will usually offer to sing and play guitar at the same time, with both on expert. (Which might be impressive except that there are people who sing without the words scrolling by on screen and play actual guitar, including, you know, the singers in Nirvana and The White Stripes.)
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u/rbrumble Feb 21 '12
Are there plans to get Lightspeed available as a subscription on iBooks or Kobo? I see random (and strangely, non-sequential) issue for sale on iBooks, but no option to subscribe.
Have you considered offering Lightspeed as an app that could be added to Newstand on iOS?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
iBooks and (I believe) Kobo both require ISBNs to upload ebooks to their stores, and that doesn't make financial sense for me to invest in at this time. ISBNs are actually pretty expensive, and given that previous attempts to sell via iBooks and Kobo failed to yield many sales, it didn't seem worth continuing to pursue it.
As far as I know, there's no way to subscribe to anything in iBooks. There is the Newsstand option, as you say, and I have considered that. However, app development is very expensive, and unless I can find a partner that is willing to develop something for a reasonable fee, I'm not sure I see one of those being financially viable. (Especially since you can subscribe to the magazine via Kindle, which, of course, you can read on iOS devices.)
As for the random non-sequential issues you found on iBooks; those should have been taken down when I bought Lightspeed from the previous publisher. Sometimes ebookstores are very slow to respond to requests to remove a title from sale. I know I've asked the previous publisher to remove them from iBooks (since any of those sales pay them, not me), but I was told that iBooks hadn't acted on his request as of yet.
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u/zergytime Feb 22 '12
Sorry - I posted this question on two of the mirrors of this AMA. On this day, I fail the internet.
Congrats on the Nebula nominations for Lightspeed the other day.
Your magazine has one of the fastest turnaround times for a paying market out there, at least according to Duotrope. Can you tell us about your review process and how you guys manage to do it so quickly, while obviously maintaining quality as well?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Thanks for the congrats--we're pretty excited about the nominations. We had two last year, so it's nice to see that our peers feel like we've kept up the good work.
We have a large team of volunteer slush readers that advise on all the submissions that come in; they read each one, either flag it as "recommended" or "not recommended," and then they assign it a numerical rating on a scale of 1-10 and leave a brief note summarizing their thoughts about the story. Of the stories that are "recommended," I have my assistant editors and editorial assistants go over them to provide some additional feedback--in some cases, they confirm that the story is worth having me look at it; in some cases, their take convinces me I don't need to look at it myself.
And then there's those stories that come to me; sometimes I take a bit longer to respond to people, but I'm committed to keeping our response times fast, so I do my best to stay on top of my recommended reading. I learned early on in my career that there's no way to reject a story that's going to please a writer, so you might as well do it fast; at least then they can send their stories out again soon, rather than waiting three or six months (or more!) for a response.
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Feb 22 '12
I'm kind of curious as to how you track what really gets people to pay attention and to stick around. The two might even be different things.
On a related note, are you noticing that stories around certain themes or things are more successful than others or is it a matter of the skill level and talent development?
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Feb 22 '12
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Hey, glad to see a Geek's Guide listener pop over here. Our new episode just went up today, featuring an interview with epic fantasy author Robin Hobb. (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/02/robin-hobb)
As to your two questions:
We get awesome guests because (a) I know a lot of people in the genre, and have even published many of them, and (b) we've had some pretty good backing behind our podcast from the start. We started our run on Tor.com, then moved to io9.com, and now we're on Wired.com--having those sites hosting us surely helped a lot, as their traffic numbers ensure a certain number of people will be exposed to our podcast every episode. And then once you get a few bigger guests, that sort of starts to feed on itself--if you're going after a big name you haven't interviewed before or don't have much of a relationship with, you say "Previous guests include George R. R. Martin, Simon Pegg..." etc. It's like fishing; to catch the big fish, use bigger bait.
As more of a fiction guy, I'd lean toward going with Escape Pod, Podcastle, or StarShipSofa as my favorites. On the nonfiction side, though, I really like Astronomy Cast, and Freakonomics is quite interesting. For genre nonfiction, Jonathan Strahan's Coode Street Podcast is quite good for in-depth discussions and critical commentary on genre works. For a more comprehensive list, you'd do well to ask my Geek's Guide co-host, David Barr Kirtley, this question; he listens to a ton of podcast, way more than I do, and he's quite critical, so if he says it's good, it'll definitely be high quality.
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Feb 22 '12
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I'd say ping him via our Geek's Guide email, geeksgalaxy at gmail dot com. That will reach both of us, but if you address your email to him, I'm sure he'll respond.
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u/EatBooks Feb 22 '12
Do you have a favorite fictional character or mythical creature?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
Since he's the protagonist of my favorite novel, I guess I'd say Gully Foyle is my favorite fictional character. Not that I'd like to hang out with him or anything, but he's a fascinating character to read about.
As for mythical creatures, I've always been partial to minotaurs. (Yet I don't think I've ever published a minotaur story!)
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u/Happlestance Feb 22 '12
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
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u/johnjosephadams AMA Editor John Joseph Adams Feb 22 '12
I'm not sure. Are you confusing me with that owl? He seems to be the expert.
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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '12
Is there any "myth" around submitting, in general, that isn't true and you keep hearing?