I must admit to not pulling punches when I edit. That attitude comes partly from my experiences with editors whose brutal honesty I have come to respect and appreciate, and partly from their admonition to return the favour when my time came. And, like our Senior Editor Dr. Robert Runte, I have also received comment from colleagues who are surprised I am so blunt, and have been called mean as well. I was once asked…
It is interesting to note in recent sales stats which were released by the publishing industry, that although both print and digital book sales have continued to decline markedly with the Big5, sales with retailers, particularly Amazon, have increased. That caused the traditional publishing industry to sit up and ask the question to which every small and indie publisher and author knew the answer five years ago: The increase in sales come directly from said…
Five Rivers’ editor, Robert Runte, recently posted the following very cogent article on his blog at SFeditor.ca. We’re reprinting it here with his permission. Reading a “review” of Five River’s new Dave Duncan release on Amazon, I was taken aback by someone rating the book was one star because it was priced at $4 for a novella. The reviewer made it clear that he hadn’t actually read the book, but was merely incensed at the price.Leaving aside…
In 2005 Prime Publishing released a collection of short stories by Canadian author, Derryl Murphy, called Wasps at the Speed of Sound. While the collection went on to receive positive critical and reader response, and hit academic required reading lists, Wasps eventually ended up unavailable and sidelined. Because of the visionary and edgy nature of Murphy’s writing, we thought Murphy’s stories worthy of rebirth. So it is we’re very proud to announce the return of Murphy’s…
In an almost unprecedented move, a conclave of The Super Evil convened last year at a secret lair in North America to create a guide book for aspiring ne’er-do-wells. The result? A collection of papers known generally as A Method to the Madness: a Guide to the Super Evil, a collection destined to become the handbook globally of every evil genius. It was agreed such an undertaking required hiring of minion editors, as such a…