THE ICE PICK

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction, by Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder. Indianapolis, Alpha Books, 2000. 360 p. $16.95. Includes: bibliography, index, model contracts, online resources, and publisher and agent listings. ISBN: 0-02-863918-9.

I was disappointed with this book. Aimed at the beginning science fiction writer, the book’s emphasis is, as the title says, on submitting and publishing your work, particularly science fiction. All well and good. And the book seems to do the big stuff right, but I have a lot of quibbles with it.

To begin with, although they mention fantasy, it is given little attention, which may be just as well considering that the authors’ definition of high fantasy varies from page 30, where The Lord of the Rings is praised as the place "to start reading high fantasy" to page 125, where LOTR is considered not to be among the fantasy classics and is criticized as being "the direct source of most of the pseudo-fantasy that is written today."

In fact, according to the authors, "most modern ‘high fantasy’ novels are actually science fiction, though the author may not know it." They argue their case rather well, but I doubt that most fantasy readers or fantasy authors will buy into it.

Still, a lot of the book’s advice is good. For example, that about attending a convention as a published author is excellent, except that most people reading this book are going to be far more interested in just meeting a published author at a convention than attending as one.

And that was the problem with a lot of their advice. It is a very uneven book, with some things aimed at beginners and other things at professionals, as if the authors threw a lot of stuff together without considering their target audience.

I was also surprised to learn that SASE is supposed to be pronounced to rhyme with "mace," since everyone I know calls it a "sassy," but that’s minor, and maybe the people I know are the ones off the beaten trail.

There are many worthwhile hints and tips scattered throughout the book, and if you have it already on your bookshelf, you may profit from much of the advice. But you do need to apply a lot of common sense to some of the things said.

For example, in the chapter on submissions, the authors say, "you should NEVER [their emphasis] use a cover letter to explain or summarize your story." This may be true in general for short stories, although even there you should carefully follow editors’ guidelines. But for novels, you are nearly always asked for a brief explanation in your cover or query letter.

Such things made me lose confidence in the authors, and I don’t feel it’s a book you can trust very far. Not recommended.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Sept. 2004.}