Cheap Books

[james_davis_nicoll]

Night Shade Books to have 50% off sale.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

When did the bulk of F&SF short story collections start coming out from small presses?

Single-author anthologies, I'd say 9 out of 10 are small press. And that includes some serious authors. Not just dead guys like Wellman and Clark Ashton Smith -- you'd expect that, sure -- but people like Kage Baker and Alastair Reynolds.

When did that happen, and why? Do anthologies sell so badly?


Doug M.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It's a post-1970s thing (maybe even post-1980s) and I think in part it's driven by the fact that on average, SF fans are affluent enough to afford hardcovers now and because the internet makes it a lot easier for people to hear about Night Shade or Subterranean Books than it was to hear about Gregg Press or Bluejay.

That and the perception that Elwood poisoned the MMPK market for short material. You have to sell fewer hardcovers for the same absolute profit level.

If I recall my factoids correctly, a single author collection generally sells about one fifth as many copies as a novel by the same author.