The Fantasy Authors Handbook Interviews Viii Ethan Ellenberg

THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEWS VIII: ETHAN ELLENBERG As a part of the method of writing The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction, I interviewed a couple of key players in the SF/fantasy group. Their wisdom and generosity is liberally sprinkled throughout the e-book, but I couldn’t use each wordâ€"and needed to do some observe-ups. What follows is an expanded interview with Ethan Ellenberg, a successful literary agent who, since 1984 has headed the eponymous Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency in New York. Ethan represents authors throughout many fiction genres, as well as non-fiction and kids’s book authors. His SF/fantasy clients include John Scalzi and Karen Miller. Ethan Ellenberg, Photo by Norman Glick. Philip Athans: Please outline “fantasy” in 25 phrases or less. Ethan Ellenberg: Fantasy is a style or story telling conference that creates imaginary worlds in the course of its narratives. Athans: Please define “science fiction” in 25 phrases or less. Ellenberg: Science fiction is a genre or story telling conference t hat speculates about man through the use of “hard science” as its main element. Athans: When you’re reading a manuscript from a brand new author, is it a positive or negative if the novel is solid as first in a trilogy or ongoing sequence? Ellenberg: It’s neutral with the next caveat. The first book should be a completely satisfying stand alone novel. Too often I’ll read a primary in a trilogy guide that will be “saving” plenty of the plot for the future books and it mars the first book. As its understood that any successful fantasy novel will have sequels it’s pointless to specify that. If you create nice characters and an excellent world, your readership will want to go to once more quickly. Karen Miller’s Prodigal Mage, Orbit, August Athans: Do you learn critiques of novels you’ve represented? Have you found any evaluation to be particularly useful or destructive? Do you encourage the authors you work with to read evaluations? Ellenberg: I do learn evaluations as a result of they're necessary as credibility builders in the marketplace and so they cross my desk regardless. Some evaluations are insightful and helpful, some simply misguided or even wrong. I think authors ought to read critiques, it’s necessary to understand how your work is hitting folks. Writers could be harm by a stinging evaluation however that’s part of the job, football linemen may be hurt by stinging tackles too. Athans: What is the most common mistake that aspiring fantasy authors make in their writing? Ellenberg: Great writing has a certain magical vitality that elevates it above the mundane. It’s very onerous to be good when you don’t have that. After that it’s all the essential stuffâ€"neglecting your major character, letting the story peter out, pacing. Athans: What is the commonest mistake that inexperienced authors make in their professional lives? Ellenberg: A actual expertise that you should have is the talent to simply accept criticism, evaluate cr iticism and let criticism make you a greater author. How do you get higher, isn’t that the #1 objective? Authors aren’t ruined by disenchanted editors or bumbling brokers, they’re ruined when they don’t progress as writers. MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead & Unfinished, Berkley, July Athans: Give me some common words of encouragement for the aspiring fantasy creator. Ellenberg: The story remains essential to human beings. It’s a better organizer of life than philosophy or ethics or almost some other human endeavor I can consider and I see the storyteller as a personally spiritual person. So the world is open to you, but you’ve obtained to deliver something particular. Athans: The so-called Great Recession has been notably hard on the publishing industry and the retail e-book business. How a lot more durable is it for a brand new writer to “break in” at present than it was, say, 5 years in the past? Ellenberg: I don’t imagine it’s that much harder now. There are two factors here, the variety of “slots” that every writer has to publish a new writer and the quality of your book. The “slots” at the main homes haven't shrunk that a lot and there are some new faces and new alternatives outdoors the core group of publishers. They nonetheless need expertiseâ€"as a result of each novelist that excites the general public creates his/her own market, the alternatives are in a way, fixed. Athans: And following up from there, what do you suppose of the present state of the publishing enterprise? Is it getting higher, getting worse? And what are your predictions for the commerce fiction publishing business within the brief term, say the following two or three years? Ellenberg: It’s very a lot a blended image. The giant publishers have gone by way of a making an attempt period of no progress or sluggish progress. They have a bevy of fixed issues that will not go away, the most important one of which is the health of the retail market for bodily boo ks. That mentioned, they are holding their own. The promise of ebooks will help them in the end but they're balancing that in opposition to the potential risk ebooks have on the retail distribution community and cover worthâ€"the per unit value any shopper will pay to own any e-book in a format. We reside in a knowledge pushed society with great quantities of leisure time, and I consider the e-book business shall be fantastic, but it is going via a making an attempt interval of adjusting to a large amount of revolutionary adjustments. Sharon Shinn’s Quatrain, Ace, September Athans: In my interview right here with veteran writer Mike Resnick, he advised me that promoting your fourth guide is at all times harder than promoting your first one. Do you agree with that? Is it harder to launch a profession as a genre author or keep one? Ellenberg: I would agree with Mike’s insight. If you haven't begun to build an viewers by your third book, many publishers will feel its time for a new face. Maintaining a profession is way harder that touchdown a first contract. And an skilled, talented, and artistic agent helps enormously, as Ethan Ellenberg’s clients can attest. Thanks, Ethan! â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Fill in your details beneath or click an icon to log in: