Saturday, October 6, 2007

Michael Moorcock Podcast

Just listened to a podcast interview with author Michael Moorcock from "Adventures in Science Fiction Publishing". Some of the highlights include his early influences and favorites, (favorite scifi novel "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester"), a nice discussion of his time editing "New Worlds" magazine, and a really interesting commentary on publishing, critics, and book sales.

I found the last part especially interesting. Most of this line of thought revolved around how a very few critical reviewers of science fiction and fantasy influence the awards circuit but have little actual effect on sales. Paraphrasing Moorcock "I'd rather have dedicated readers who by all my books and recommend them to their friends than a good review by a well known critic. I like to think that myself and other online reviewers are sort of like the latter. We don't always get the audience and level of respect that the classic print reviewers get but what we do talk about what we read and what we like and I like to think influence at least a little what our friends and readers go out and buy.

To listen to the full interview go to Adventures in SciFi Publishing

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