Lack of light



In an incredibly stupid and retrograde move some pinty-haired boss type in Simon and Schuster had decided to dissolve their excellent Earthlight SF imprint and move the authors over into their general fiction area. Coming so soon after S&S's humiliating loss of award winning SF author Christopher Priest - who had his book so ineptly marketed by their general fiction imprint instead of being handled by their spot-on SF team - and the ever-increasing sales of SF and Fantasy this decision beggars belief. John Jarrold how founded and built up this excellent and well run and marketed stable of authors has made his displeasure known on the Alien Online, while Mike Cobley, who has taken part in a two pronged attack on the Edinburgh Book Festival with me for their lack of SF, has been discussing this blow on his Shadowjournal. I've sent a very angry letter to the Bookseller and will have to consider one to write to S&S's MD.



My own experience tells me major publishers who don't have a dedicated team to oversee their genres don't get reviews and don't sell as many books. Why anyone would throw away all that they had built to overcome this is beyond me. I wonder if they have some of the Waterstone's senior management team on loan to them?