f/Fantasy Virtual Con: Future of SFF Panel

[u/lrich1024]

Welcome to the r/Fantasy Virtual Con panel on the future of SFF! Feel free to ask the panelists any questions relevant to the topic. Unlike AMAs, discussion should be kept on-topic to the panel.

The panelists will be stopping throughout the day to answer your questions, keep in mind they are in a few different time zones so participation may be staggered.

About the Panel

Join Catherynne M. Valente, Janny Wurts, Krista D. Ball, Rin Chupeco, and Sam J. Miller to talk about the future of sff and what places they see the genre taking us to.

About the Panelists

Catherynne M. Valente (u/Catvalente) is the NYT & USA Today bestselling author of forty books of science fiction and fantasy including Space Opera, the Fairyland Series, Deathless, and Palimpsest. She’s won a bunch of awards and lives in Maine with her family.

Website | Twitter

Janny Wurts (u/jannywurts) fantasy author and illustrator, best known published titles include Wars of Light and Shadows, To Ride Hell's Chasm, and thirty six short works, as well as the Empire trilogy in collaboration with Ray Feist.

Website | Twitter

Krista D. Ball (u/KristaDBall) is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy author. She was born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada where she learned how to use a chainsaw, chop wood, and make raspberry jam. After obtaining a B.A. in British History from Mount Allison University, Krista moved to Edmonton, Alberta where she currently lives. These days, Krista can be found causing trouble on Reddit when she’s not writing in her very messy, cat-filled office.

Website | Twitter

Rin Chupeco (u/rinchupeco) currently lives in the Philippines and is the author of The Girl from the Well and The Bone Witch series from Sourcebooks, and The Never Tilting World from HarperTeen. They are represented by Rebecca Podos of the Helen Rees Agency and can be found online as u/rinchupeco on both Twitter and Instagram.

Website | Twitter

Sam J. Miller is the Nebula-Award-winning author of The Art of Starving and Blackfish City. A recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award and a graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, Sam’s work has been nominated for the World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, John W. Campbell and Locus Awards, and reprinted in dozens of anthologies. A community organizer by day, he lives in New York City.

Website | Twitter

FAQ

• What do panelists do? Ask questions of your fellow panelists, respond to Q&A from the audience and fellow panelists, and generally just have a great time!
• What do others do? Like an AMA, ask questions! Just keep in mind these questions should be somewhat relevant to the panel topic.
• What if someone is unkind? We always enforce Rule 1, but we'll especially be monitoring these panels. Please report any unkind comments you see.

[u/JohnBierce]

What do you all think of the future of novellas? I've noticed them increasing significantly in number and popularity lately (Murderbot, Into the Vanisher's Palace, the four novella compilation formats we've been seeing from Joe Hill, Cory Doctorow, and other authors, etc, etc), in great part thanks to Tor.com. I'm really excited by that, because I think they're a perfect length for certain stories- I definitely enjoy writing them- but I'm curious how you all think that they'll fit in the future of the SFF market.

[u/catvalente → u/JohnBierce]

I've done very well with novellas, and I love working at that length. Until 6 or 7 years ago, publishing a standalone book of that length was unheard of, now so much innovative work has been done there, and continues to be. Space Opera was originally sold as a novella before it...grew! I'm thrilled to be working at a time when there is room for that, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.

[u/JannyWurts → u/catvalente]

Before Tor.com opened thing up, you really only saw novellas in the old pulp magazine format, or occasionally, very rarely, in an anthology.

Tor rolled some heavily weighted dice to do this: they decided to PAY the authors a really nice rate per word - and it has immensely enriched the field for taking that chance. If they hadn't ??? The field perhaps never would have discovered and appreciated Martha Wells stellar legacy. One has to wonder if Murderbot would have achieved the well deserved reach that it has. Go Martha!

[u/JannyWurts → u/JohnBierce]

I love it - because it enables the chance to 'test the waters' or illuminate a small scale experiment, or relatable work, without investing the massive (years) amount of work in a novel. Writers' incomes (yes they HAVE) have shrunk alarmingly since the implosion of publishing/the shift in paradigm, and the internet algorithms and the outright hijacking of works to fuel pages that make their money on CLICKS for advertising - (yes, those downloads are making some of those sites rich, at the expense of authors, but that's not for here) The impacts have been so many.

Novellas help authors recoup some of that; allow short releases between longer ones to help keep their name current - and enable the richness of a little byplay on bigger themes.

The horrid drawback: sometimes I've seen these works priced in the stratosphere - released at insane pricing, and even, dolled up as 'hardcovers' selling for hardback novel prices. That's infuriating, both as a reader and writer - I'm happy the authors are getting well paid, absolutely, but there's this stubborn little point of getting what you pay for - and I'd rather see a shorter form work priced so that it's easier to jump in and give it a try without a novel sized investment. Publishers need to wise up...my take - hold onto this niche too tightly, they will choke it and kill the freedom of experimentation, both on the authors' and readers' parts.

[u/Sam_J_Miller → u/JohnBierce]

I love a novella! And I hope that they play an expanded role in the future of the market. Right now, unfortunately, there are not a ton of places that publish pieces at that length, but I am grateful for the ones that do, and eager to see new venues and new formats open up to feed our hunger for brilliant work in that awkward adolescent not-quite-short-story-not-quite-novel length range!

[u/JannyWurts → u/Sam_J_Miller]

I see novellas also as a great arena for new talent to try its wings, again, without jumping full bore into the morass of a novel.

[u/KristaDBall → u/JohnBierce]

I self published the first of my Newfoundland fantasy novella series in 2013, after having given up trying to sell it. There was no market at all. Readers weren't much better, with the majority of complaints being "it's too short." Fantasy needed to be 500 pages+. 80-200 pages isn't a story. etc etc. It was discouraging.

I stuck with it and wrote six novellas and short novels in the series before ending it. By then, people were coming around again to the idea of novellas and short novels, and I'd had enough to bundle the stories together into collections, to make it more appealing for the "must have a novel length" readers.

Most of them seem to now be in KU, which is disappointing because I don't read ebooks from Amazon - and converting them is too much effort (if you want the honest truth). Trad novellas are outrageously priced - running as high as $13 CAD at times - and most aren't carried in ebook at my local library. So, despite how much I enjoy the novella format, I rarely get to read them anymore.

I would like to see better collections come out of classic novellas and short fiction. Not the same handful of writers and stories, either, but proper collections of the "forgotten" stuff, Hugo winners and nominees, etc.