This week's Nuts & Bolts interviewee is Lawrence M. Schoen. "One of the world's foremost authorities on the Klingon language" (as his website proudly proclaims), he is also the author of numerous speculative short stories and poems, and two years ago he founded Paper Golem Press. I asked about Alembical (November 2008), an anthology of four novellas by Jay Lake, Bruce Taylor, James Van Pelt, and Ray Vukcevich, which Lawrence co-edited with Arthur Dorrance and published through Paper Golem. I especially recommend that anyone thinking of starting a small press read this interview.
Genreville: Where did you get the idea for Alembical? What attracted you to that idea?
Lawrence M. Schoen: Paper Golem was conceived as a "pay it forward" press. A great many writers have been very patient with me and generous with their time, and I found myself in a position where I could return the favor. That started with our first book, Prime Codex, a reprint anthology showcasing some of the talent of the amazing members in an online writing community founded by Luc Reid. The plan was to use Paper Golem to address some underserved niches, providing voices for authors at the early end of their careers. I learned a lot doing that book, particularly from my co-editor Michael Livingston, and I wanted to expand the press's breadth. I'd been toying with the idea of an annual series of novellas, inspired in part by Deborah Layne's Polyphony and a project my friend Keith R. A. DeCandido had attempted a while back, an anthology of original novelettes. As I was puttering along, imagining how I might get started on such a project, Jay Lake approached me with a project of his own. He'd assembled four authors, each with an original novella, and they were looking for a publisher. Yes, sometimes it's just that easy.
I've known Jay for years now. We came up through the digital pages of the Rumor Mill together, and in addition to being a friend and fellow writer, he's also been my editor on several occasions. And here he was, bringing me the very thing I'd been wanting to publish, all wrapped up in a bow (or nearly enough). We started up a discussion with the other authors involved and I began reading their respective novellas. I'd known James Van Pelt, and long been dazzled by his talent, but Bruce Taylor and Ray Vukcevich were names I knew only by reputation. As for Jay, he was in the midst of transforming his writing style, further refining his process as he worked on this novella. All four works were astonishingly different, some of them not at all the sort of thing I usually like to read, but all of them bowled me over. It was a fantastic opportunity, not only to bring four brilliant novellas to the public, but also to establish a solid foundation for the series I hoped to build.
GV: What challenges did you face when editing, publishing, and promoting it?
LMS: If you ignore the work I've done with Klingon, I'm very new to being a publisher. But as a writer myself I'm well acquainted with editing, both my own work and the writers in various workshops and groups I've been a part of. My goal as an editor is always the same: how do I help the writer to better tell the story. A lot of that is easy, identifying where as a reader I lose interest, or get derailed, or find myself noticing the writing instead of the story. It's not my place to tell the author how to write, or to impose my style or preferences on the work. The worst experiences I've ever had with editors is where they try to tell me how they would write the story in my place. Ugh. If any of my authors ever catches me doing this, you have my permission to hit me in the head with a shovel. I'm the editor, not the co-author; if I have a need to write, I can go do my own fiction, thank you very much. What I should be doing as editor is giving meaningful feedback, providing a fairly objective evaluation of what's working for me and what isn't, and why. Anything else is just succumbing to ego, at least for me.
Publishing and promoting are my weaker points. I've benefited greatly from people who have gone before me and have been willing to share what they've learned so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel. With Prime Codex I was just eager to get the book out, to be able to hold it in my hands and point at it, and say "look, I published a book!" That's all good, but it's not terribly effective. It's not how it should be done. So as Alembical began to take shape I called in some favors and asked people if I could pick their brains. Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke were especially helpful. As one example, they really beat into my head the value of getting ARCs out to the major reviewers in advance, which of course required me to get my act together so that I had an ARC ready to send out three or four months ahead of time. They also inspired me to come up with the collectors' edition of Alembical, which will only be available from our website.
GV: How did it inspire or discourage you? How is that experience affecting your current and future projects?
LMS: I learn so much with every book. Partly because I find, in hindsight, that there are a myriad things I could have, should have, done differently, or simply done better. Another part is because I get to work with some great people. This was true of my working with Michael Livingston and Mary Robinette Kowal on Prime Codex, and it proved true again on Alembical with my co-editor Arthur (Buck) Dorrance. Buck and I have been members of a monthly workshop for more years than I can remember. He's a phenomenal writer and my fiction has benefited from his critical eye. Going through these four novellas with him has been a tremendous learning experience, one which will have repercussions far beyond this book.
I'm looking forward to falling into a rut with Paper Golem. I'd like to edit and publish at least two books a year. Ideally, one of those will be the continuing series of original novella anthologies that we're beginning with Alembical. I'll be opening to submissions for the next volume very soon, and the goal is to come out with a new anthology every fall. The second part of the pattern I'm pursuing is to publish a single author collection each year. The first of these will feature the work of Cat Rambo, and we're aiming at a spring '09 release for that. I spent a chunk of time at Denvention talking with authors about both of these projects and my plans for Paper Golem, and the reactions were universally positive. Somewhere in there I also managed to negotiate the sale of my first novel, with fellow small press publisher Eric Reynolds of Hadley Rille Books. It was a very odd feeling, constantly swapping out which hat I was wearing, editor or publisher or author, but I'm finding that each feeds into and provides insight for the others. All in all, I think I'm going to be quite busy for a while, but for me busy is good.
Next week's Nuts & Bolts will feature artist J.K. Potter discussing his illustrations for James P. Blaylock's The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives (Subterranean, November 2008).
October 8, 2008 In response to:Nuts & Bolts: Lawrence M. Schoen Jim Van Pelt commented:
As a sidebar, I have to say that Lawrence and Buck were very conscientious editors, really working with me on the story. It reminded me of the stories of the mythical days in publishing where the editors were more involved in the shaping of the work.
Genreville: Where did you get the idea for Alembical? What attracted you to that idea?