July 2011 Editorial

The Incredible Shrinking Genre Presence

 

I would like to think that there is good news in science fiction

and in the associated genres, if you know where to look. But you have

to look harder than you used to. I recently attended the BEA (Book

Expo America, the largest gathering of publishers and booksellers

in the U.S.) and found to my dismay very little overt evidence of

the f&sf marketing genre in the displays. There were in fact many

fantasy books being featured, but without reference to genre, as if

the shame of genre had been somehow washed clean from the books.

There were many offsite events and private parties focused on

genre that were meant to attract the booksellers and occasional

librarians attending the big event, with some success. I particularly

liked the readings at the New York Public Library curated by Gavin

Grant. But the Javits show was a far cry from the big cover displays

on the floor of the BEAs featuring the genre imprints, and the

writers hanging around booths, of the not-too-distant past. The

Ballantine segment of the Random House booth did not, as far as

I could see, mention Spectra or Del Rey. At least on the floor of the

show, the battle for genre respectability has been mostly lost. The

forces of “it’s either too good to be merely genre—or it’s not good

enough to waste time on” are quite apparently in the ascendant in

high places. I brought my camera to take pictures of sf displays, and

found only a couple: Tor had one, and Orbit had one, each a small

part of a bigger corporate booth.

And yet the show was full of works that borrowed heavily from

genre, that could have been presented as genre, or that simply were

genre, without the marketing label. Tor alone sponsored an on-site

genre sf/fantasy panel with John Scalzi, Vernor Vinge, and Carrie

Vaughn. The Horror Writers of America, and the Mystery Writers of

America, and of course the Romance Writers all sponsored booths

with nearly hourly signings throughout the three days, but there

was none from SFWA, the week after the Nebulas.

There’s a picture of me here, in front of a steampunk art

book in a mainstream booth, having fun.

But I anticipate the sf conventions of July and August to be

more fun than BEA. We’ll see you at Readercon, Confluence,

and Diversacon in July. And then Reno in August. *

—David G. Hartwell

& the editors*

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A PDF copy of the NYRSF issue in which this editorial first appeared is available for purchase at Weightless Books.