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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector - By Stephanie Howlett-West C.J. Cherryh's older works may be found in Cherryh's world. By Stephanie Howlett-West Technology and Science Fiction have always shared a symbiotic relationship - where there is one, the other will follow; so it should not be a surprise that Science Fiction authors in the internet age have embraced technology in all its dazzling new formats. From the Kindle to the blogosphere, from the podcast to the print-on-demand market, authors are using alternatives and additions to the printed page with zeal. This outreach to new technological innovation is great for the author and for the general reader who follows that author - but what does it mean for the reader who collects an author's work? Will collecting keep up with the changes in technology? Should it? While all authors in all subject matters are dealing with the changes, the Science Fiction community has welcomed them with enthusiasm. These authors keep current on the instantaneous (and sometimes spontaneous) adaptations of technology that appear as if by magic, and then presto-chango, they finagle even more ways of utilizing the medium. Free-on-line first printing SF author Cory Doctorow took a huge gamble for himself and his publisher and convinced his publisher to offer the entire contents of his first published novel (he had been publishing well received short stories and non-fiction pieces for a few years prior) - free of charge - online as a downloadable file - before the print version of the novel was available to the public. Why would Doctorow do such a thing? How could he ever make any money on the print version if his readers had already read the book for free? And where does the internet version fall in the area of collecting? As it turns out, Doctorow's calculations paid off and the print edition sold well and continues to sell. This is great news for Doctorow, and for his fans - but for those of us who collect SF (which, I should mention is my catch-all synonym for SF / Fantasy / Horror and its peripherals), we want the FIRST version of a work... the closest available format to the writer's thought process (depending on how rabid a collector one is) and that version is, be definition, the downloadable format from the internet. Other experimental formats And if a downloadable book (I should mention that Doctorow's book - Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom {Tor Books, 2003} - did not have textual changes made between the online version and the printed version) is an odd duck to collect, there are even newer formats, newer twists to the idea of what is a book / writing that collectors will have to deal with as far as collecting is concerned. For example, Wil Wheaton (best known for his stint on TV as Wesley Crusher in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation), wends his way through the geeky world of the internet as a blogger, sometime journalist and an author (along with continued work as an actor and voice actor). This July he made available a group of short stories he had written - the catch was, instead of going through an established publisher, he decided to offer the short story compilation (offered either as a downloadable file or as a print-on-demand physical book to be mailed out) via an online self-publishing site called Lulu. Now this compilation barely squeaks by for the purposes of this article because there was a limited edition chapbook printed in 2009 for a convention, but the thought counts - and is in the process of rearranging SF collectors views of what exactly is there to collect.
Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector - By Stephanie Howlett-West Reinventing the backlist Let's go a step further out into unknown territory. C.J. Cherryh is a well-established, Hugo Award winning SF author who has been publishing since the 1970's. She continues to write, sell and publish (in physical form) books, generally two a year. In her case, however, she has found that her backlist (the books published in prior years and still available in bookstores) has dwindled dramatically. Some of that is due to waning interest in certain series, but the majority of the books are no longer on the backlist because the publishers have had to make drastic changes in their ways of doing business. In a way to be more proactive with the threads of her own career, Cherryh has decided to either buy back the rights to older out-of-print material, or renew the copyrights on material that had reverted to her. Once the copyright is under her name, she can do what she wants with it - and Cherryh is making a concerted effort to re-edit, or in some cases, re-jigger plots that had devolved during the publication process. She, along with two other published authors, has created a website specifically aimed at making backlist titles available to fans. All the books (and she and the other two authors are adding more books as time allows) include new cover art, and textual changes. The books could be considered as variants or new editions and therefore of collectable value (again, depending on your taste as a collector). As time permits, she has mentioned that she will be posting new material (IE: previously unpublished in any form) to this site as well. All of this material is in downloadable format - NO hardcopies available. Blogging as firsts John Scalzi, (the newly minted president of the SFWA - Science Fiction Writers of America) is highly techno. He has a blog which has won online awards for his blog-ability. He too utilizes the digital domain to help promote his writing, though at present, he only lists material that has already been published in some physical form and generally without textual changes. On the other hand, his blog itself is a wonder of craftsmanship in the art of writing (though generally not fiction). Would fans who collect copies of his books also be interested in keeping bits of the blog? Robin McKinley started working on her blog at the request of her publisher, but the configuration of the blog was up to her. Her blog was put together as a means to help drive sales - it has since morphed into something completely different than a promotional tool and she has, on occasion posted both new material she's working on (in small bits), or parts of novels and short stories that have never been completed and most likely never will be. In past decades, fragments of writing have been collectable, either in manuscript format, or as published pieces - so how do these digital versions fit into a collection? Sci Fi for "i" Even bestselling author Anne Rice has jumped on the bandwagon with digital material with a novella published in paperback format in 1991. The Master of Rampling Gate has now been re-issued for i-pad and i-phone with some additional material including an interview with the author and links to websites which highlight various aspects underlying the story. Again, while there is a physical book already available for collection purposes, the new material included gives this re-issue something unique and of collectable value. The next logical progression for authors and publishers - instead of starting with older material and re-mixing it to be enticing for the modern reader (especially the younger, computer-inundated readers), why not begin with the digital version with added content (say, like some CD-Rom movies) and then possibly, work backwards to the physical book? Print as a retro specialty At some point, it might be that the only books to make it into physical form would be books with special significance which would, in some ways, harken back to the days before the printing press when books in physical form were seen as art objects and items of to be revered. The everyday written word that we take for granted would be switched over to digital format. This process has already begun - just look to the imminent demise of the newspaper industry - as more and more customers read their news online and forgo paying for the printed version.
Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector - By Stephanie Howlett-West Speculation on Speculative Fiction As of now, how the collector will deal with the possible changes in the publication of reading material is mostly a case for speculation. But it is a valid subject for readers and book dealers to consider because the change is coming, and in small ways, is already here. I can't imagine how dealers (myself included) will come to some sort of equitable solution to the digitization dilemma - should we be stocking up on hard drive space to download and store digital material which could then be resold by request in ten, twenty, thirty years time? Would we have a legal right to do so? Does the publisher keep copies of this sort of material for a certain length of time then sell the data to a remainder company? Will the content be stored in a format that will adapt to the inevitable changes in hardware? Who knows? The subject and its permutations are a wide open area for all involved: the authors, the publishers, the customers, and the book dealers. For the time being dealers really don't have many options for dealing with the possibilities of digital book collecting. Dealers must continue to focus on the physical; be it bound books, manuscripts, ephemeral paper items, etc, as it is matter that can be held, touched, examined, passed on. The time will come, however, when the question of collecting and changing technology will have to be addressed, and I predict that dealers, just like science fiction authors, will evolve some symbiotic relationship with the material, in whatever form it takes.

Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector

- By Stephanie Howlett-West

C.J. Cherryh's older works may be found in Cherryh's world.

By Stephanie Howlett-West

Technology and Science Fiction have always shared a symbiotic relationship - where there is one, the other will follow; so it should not be a surprise that Science Fiction authors in the internet age have embraced technology in all its dazzling new formats. From the Kindle to the blogosphere, from the podcast to the print-on-demand market, authors are using alternatives and additions to the printed page with zeal. This outreach to new technological innovation is great for the author and for the general reader who follows that author - but what does it mean for the reader who collects an author's work? Will collecting keep up with the changes in technology? Should it?

While all authors in all subject matters are dealing with the changes, the Science Fiction community has welcomed them with enthusiasm. These authors keep current on the instantaneous (and sometimes spontaneous) adaptations of technology that appear as if by magic, and then presto-chango, they finagle even more ways of utilizing the medium.

Free-on-line first printing
SF author Cory Doctorow took a huge gamble for himself and his publisher and convinced his publisher to offer the entire contents of his first published novel (he had been publishing well received short stories and non-fiction pieces for a few years prior) - free of charge - online as a downloadable file - before the print version of the novel was available to the public. Why would Doctorow do such a thing? How could he ever make any money on the print version if his readers had already read the book for free? And where does the internet version fall in the area of collecting? As it turns out, Doctorow's calculations paid off and the print edition sold well and continues to sell. This is great news for Doctorow, and for his fans - but for those of us who collect SF (which, I should mention is my catch-all synonym for SF / Fantasy / Horror and its peripherals), we want the FIRST version of a work... the closest available format to the writer's thought process (depending on how rabid a collector one is) and that version is, be definition, the downloadable format from the internet.

Other experimental formats
And if a downloadable book (I should mention that Doctorow's book - Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom {Tor Books, 2003} - did not have textual changes made between the online version and the printed version) is an odd duck to collect, there are even newer formats, newer twists to the idea of what is a book / writing that collectors will have to deal with as far as collecting is concerned. For example, Wil Wheaton (best known for his stint on TV as Wesley Crusher in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation), wends his way through the geeky world of the internet as a blogger, sometime journalist and an author (along with continued work as an actor and voice actor).

This July he made available a group of short stories he had written - the catch was, instead of going through an established publisher, he decided to offer the short story compilation (offered either as a downloadable file or as a print-on-demand physical book to be mailed out) via an online self-publishing site called Lulu. Now this compilation barely squeaks by for the purposes of this article because there was a limited edition chapbook printed in 2009 for a convention, but the thought counts - and is in the process of rearranging SF collectors views of what exactly is there to collect.

Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector

- By Stephanie Howlett-West

Reinventing the backlist
Let's go a step further out into unknown territory. C.J. Cherryh is a well-established, Hugo Award winning SF author who has been publishing since the 1970's. She continues to write, sell and publish (in physical form) books, generally two a year. In her case, however, she has found that her backlist (the books published in prior years and still available in bookstores) has dwindled dramatically. Some of that is due to waning interest in certain series, but the majority of the books are no longer on the backlist because the publishers have had to make drastic changes in their ways of doing business.

In a way to be more proactive with the threads of her own career, Cherryh has decided to either buy back the rights to older out-of-print material, or renew the copyrights on material that had reverted to her. Once the copyright is under her name, she can do what she wants with it - and Cherryh is making a concerted effort to re-edit, or in some cases, re-jigger plots that had devolved during the publication process.

She, along with two other published authors, has created a website specifically aimed at making backlist titles available to fans. All the books (and she and the other two authors are adding more books as time allows) include new cover art, and textual changes. The books could be considered as variants or new editions and therefore of collectable value (again, depending on your taste as a collector). As time permits, she has mentioned that she will be posting new material (IE: previously unpublished in any form) to this site as well. All of this material is in downloadable format - NO hardcopies available.

Blogging as firsts
John Scalzi, (the newly minted president of the SFWA - Science Fiction Writers of America) is highly techno. He has a blog which has won online awards for his blog-ability. He too utilizes the digital domain to help promote his writing, though at present, he only lists material that has already been published in some physical form and generally without textual changes. On the other hand, his blog itself is a wonder of craftsmanship in the art of writing (though generally not fiction). Would fans who collect copies of his books also be interested in keeping bits of the blog?

Robin McKinley started working on her blog at the request of her publisher, but the configuration of the blog was up to her. Her blog was put together as a means to help drive sales - it has since morphed into something completely different than a promotional tool and she has, on occasion posted both new material she's working on (in small bits), or parts of novels and short stories that have never been completed and most likely never will be. In past decades, fragments of writing have been collectable, either in manuscript format, or as published pieces - so how do these digital versions fit into a collection?

Sci Fi for "i"
Even bestselling author Anne Rice has jumped on the bandwagon with digital material with a novella published in paperback format in 1991. The Master of Rampling Gate has now been re-issued for i-pad and i-phone with some additional material including an interview with the author and links to websites which highlight various aspects underlying the story. Again, while there is a physical book already available for collection purposes, the new material included gives this re-issue something unique and of collectable value. The next logical progression for authors and publishers - instead of starting with older material and re-mixing it to be enticing for the modern reader (especially the younger, computer-inundated readers), why not begin with the digital version with added content (say, like some CD-Rom movies) and then possibly, work backwards to the physical book?

Print as a retro specialty
At some point, it might be that the only books to make it into physical form would be books with special significance which would, in some ways, harken back to the days before the printing press when books in physical form were seen as art objects and items of to be revered. The everyday written word that we take for granted would be switched over to digital format. This process has already begun - just look to the imminent demise of the newspaper industry - as more and more customers read their news online and forgo paying for the printed version.

Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector

- By Stephanie Howlett-West

Speculation on Speculative Fiction
As of now, how the collector will deal with the possible changes in the publication of reading material is mostly a case for speculation. But it is a valid subject for readers and book dealers to consider because the change is coming, and in small ways, is already here. I can't imagine how dealers (myself included) will come to some sort of equitable solution to the digitization dilemma - should we be stocking up on hard drive space to download and store digital material which could then be resold by request in ten, twenty, thirty years time? Would we have a legal right to do so? Does the publisher keep copies of this sort of material for a certain length of time then sell the data to a remainder company? Will the content be stored in a format that will adapt to the inevitable changes in hardware? Who knows?

The subject and its permutations are a wide open area for all involved: the authors, the publishers, the customers, and the book dealers. For the time being dealers really don't have many options for dealing with the possibilities of digital book collecting. Dealers must continue to focus on the physical; be it bound books, manuscripts, ephemeral paper items, etc, as it is matter that can be held, touched, examined, passed on. The time will come, however, when the question of collecting and changing technology will have to be addressed, and I predict that dealers, just like science fiction authors, will evolve some symbiotic relationship with the material, in whatever form it takes.