As a fan of horror fiction I am very curious about writers of my favourite-flavoured prose, and what inspires, or incites, them; but equally it’s the editorial and publishing angle that interests me, whether from a historical perspective, modern day challenges, or guesses at what might occur in the future.
So it is that I’ve managed to secure a Q&A with three editorial/publishing figures in the UK, which I will be running over the next week. The ‘triple-bill’ is intended as something of a snapshot of the now, with a slight dabble backwards and forward too, as regards to three people I view as important in the UK horror, weird and supernatural publishing scene.
Without further ado I’d like to welcome and thank Lee Harris, Editor over at Angry Robot Books. Check back later in the week for further interviews with Jon Oliver of Solaris/Abaddon Books and Jo Fletcher of Quercus imprint Jo Fletcher Books.
Angry Robot, like other publishers we’re looking at, specialises in a number of genres, from fantasy, sci-fi and weird fiction through to horror. Given the blurring in boundaries between genre fiction nowadays, how crucial is it a publisher needs to offer variety, or seed it also – if you will – in order to harvest the best crops?
Like all the very best answers, this one starts with the words “it depends”. Actually, it doesn’t, it begins with the words “Like all the very best”, but let’s just ignore that, for now.
It depends on what the publisher is trying to achieve. Some publishers prefer to specialise and attempt to occupy a specific niche, while others (ourselves included) prefer to offer a wide range of titles and genres. As you state, there’s a great blurring of genre boundaries these days, but that doesn’t appear to be causing anyone a problem. A great story is a great story, whether it’s a cross-genre novel, or the purest example of a particular sub-genre.
What sub-genres of horror are particularly popular with Angry Robot at present?
Frustratingly, I’m going to refer to the previous answer, here. It’ll save pixels in the long run. We’re not looking for any particular sub-genre of horror. The quality of the tale is what matters.
Would you say you’re receiving more or less horror-fiction for the slush pile than before?
We’re not receiving much horror from agents, at all, but when we had an open door month earlier in the year we received a couple of hundred, so there’s plenty still being written.
Stephen Jones, in his prologue to ‘A Book of Horrors’ depicts a genre tainted with horror-lite. Given the Thomas Usher books you’ve published, this obviously doesn’t apply to AR specifically, but would you agree or disagree with his statement? And is the world really worse off for this?
Hang on – before I answer this I’m going downstairs to pick up my copy so I can read it, first. Back in a mo…
Ok, I’m back. I think you’re misinterpreting what Stephen said, there. He mentions that we’re living in a world that’s ‘horror-lite’, and that this (truly awful phrase) is aimed at the dark fantasy end of the market, but he states quite clearly that readers of horror-lite aren’t horror readers. They’re not the sort of people who like to be scared, or disturbed; they’re not readers of traditional horror.
Good horror is still being written. In the Angry Robot stable (we keep all our authors in stables, you know) we have Gary McMahon, Kaaron Warren and J Robert King, but there are plenty of others still active in the genre – Adam Nevill, our lord Ramsey Campbell, Alison Littlewood to name but a few.
And no, I don’t think the world is worse off for the rise in popularity of dark fantasy. As far as novels are concerned, the world will only ever be worse off if we, the editors, writers and readers, allow our standards to drop, and accept poor quality writing, in whatever genres we like to read.
The eBook model has been seized upon by many, and Angry Robot, and similarly with Solaris/Abaddon, and many others, seem to have been attempting different things to captivate a dedicated eBook audience. What challenges do eBooks bring to the table that traditionally published books do not?
Pricing is a bit of a challenge. A small (but vocal) minority believes that a novel should cost less than the price of a glass of lemonade in a back-street pub, simply because it costs nothing to make a copy of a file. What these folk conveniently ignore is the fact that it costs exactly the same amount of money to bring a manuscript to the point at which it becomes publishable, whether it’s eventually published electronically, physically or both. The fact that there are currently two standard formats (ePub and Kindle) is also a bit of a pain, and there are plenty of other minor inconveniences. But you know what? These minor inconveniences pale into insignificance when we look at the opportunities that e-publishing offers. The future has rarely been a more exciting place to head into.
According to Mintel ‘Books and eBooks’ Feb 2011, e-book sales account for 1-3% of print book sales:. That seemed to be quite low to me: is this reflective of your own business model? What tranche of this would you say horror fiction accounts for?
I don’t know what those figures refer to – all books? Fiction? Non-fiction? Academic texts? Specific genres? In the US and Canada, eBooks account for anywhere between 25 and 50% of our sales (they vary from title to title). I’d be extremely surprised if this wasn’t at least 50% within 6 months. The UK is a little way behind, but not that far… Our horror titles tend to follow this general trend.
In early days of the eReader, particular genres were quite popular, a fair few sci-fi titles cropping up for example in higher ratios than other types of fiction. Is there any pattern to suggest that the horror, or other genres, are less, or more popular, in regard to take up of eBooks?
Romance eBooks are huge. Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror are not far behind. Soon, eReading will be the norm, and it won’t be too many years before you walk into your office and exclaim with surprise “I saw someone reading on the train, this morning – and their book was made from paper!” That’s not to say that dead tree editions will go the way of the dodo, but they will get overtaken by eBooks, and soon.
J.K. Rowling made a huge impact with her decision to publish her eBooks independently from her publishing firm. Has this decision ruined any chances authors had in signing ‘paper-only’ rights to publishers for their titles going forward?
Not at all, no. Many publishers have been insisting on eBook rights for years. JK Rowling sold her series at a time when eBooks were an afterthought. Her decision to effectively self-publish will have made no difference to anyone except her.
I’ve discussed with several authors that we’re going through something of a genuine renaissance for horror fiction particularly in the UK. With authors like Adam Neville, Gary McMahon, Sarah Pinborough, Tom Fletcher making strong impact. In some ways it’s like the late 1980s, and early 90s again. What’s your take on this position? And would you argue that it’s more/less dependent on the macro socio-economic picture in the UK?
Taking your last point, first. I don’t think the current political landscape is making much of a difference to the types of genre fiction we read. Horror hasn’t regained the heights of the 80s, but these things are cyclical – its time will come, again (and when it does, you can be sure that there will be plenty of readers saying “I can’t believe that they’ve taken our sexy vampires and made them into monsters!”). There will always be great writers, though.
Is there a danger, in terms of stifling innovation, of publishers wanting to stick with ‘tried and tested’ horror authors in the current business climate?
I have to say, I’ve not seen any evidence of that. If it were true, then yes, it would potentially stifle innovation, but I believe it’s not the case.
Tying in with the 1980s/90s market, and eBooks too: covers were so crucial then, as they may well be today. I’ve memories of entering W H Smiths as a child and seeing Herbert’s Sepulchre adorning shelves. How do you see eBooks affecting the prevalence of book covers and their design going forward?
The whole eBook cover design thing is an important issue, and one which few publishers have addressed properly. A good eBook cover is just as important as a good hardback to paperback cover, but it needs to be recognisable and distinctive at thumbnail size, as that’s how most people will first view it. Despite there being some absolutely stunning covers being created, I’d struggle to come up with the name of a single publisher of horror who gets their eBook covers right on a regular basis.
How do you see the prevalence of self-published authors out there affecting the role of the traditional publishing firms?
Honestly? Too soon to tell. There’s one school of thought that suggests that traditionally published books (ie. those that go through the traditional process) will get so swamped by the ranks of self-published titles, that the titles’ sales will suffer. There’s another school (and this is the one to which I belong) that believes that with so many millions of poorer-quality titles flooding the market, the role of the publisher is more important than ever, and those books that have made it through the traditional channels will be seen to have gone through a more rigorous quality control process.
Does this mean that I think that self-publishing is a bad idea, and that all self-published novels are bad? Hell, no. There are some brilliant books being published in this way, but it’s just too hard to find them, sometimes. Publishers have the resources to make good books better, by paying for editors, copyeditors, proofreaders, and artists, and to get the books into shops (both online and meat-space) and into retailer promotions, and into reviewers’ hands.
There’ve been various controversies cropping up in the blogosphere as regards the role of women in genre fiction. Do you think women are fairly represented in horror fiction?
This is a difficult one. We don’t get many horror submissions coming to us, and of those we do get, only a small proportion are written by women. Of the three authors of horror fiction that we’ve published, one is a woman, but three authors isn’t a large enough sample for us to be able to draw any conclusions. Certainly, there don’t appear to be many new mass market novels published by women, so without any firm statistics at my fingertips, I’m just going to have to go with my gut feeling of: no.
What’s the most exciting development – that you can talk about – which you’ve got lined up for 2012?
Horror-wise, 2012 is going to be a pretty quiet year for us. We have a dark fantasy in March (Carpathia) which will be of interest to some horror fans (vampires; lots of them; and they’re nasty) but we’re going to have to wait until 2013 before we see any more horror from Angry Robot, I’m afraid.
In the finest tradition of Spooky Reads, there’s no escaping the traditional closing question: What’s your favourite flavoured Pot Noodle?
An unopened one, with receipt.
A big thank you to Lee for his time in answering our questions!
