The same sale also saw a French four panel King Kong realise $65,725 and a Ghost of Frankenstein one-sheet sell for $26,290.
In August, one of only 100 known copies of Action Comics No.1 (June, 1938), featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold through an online auction to an unnamed bidder for £1.95 million—more than £600,000 over the previous record realised for that issue. The 9.0 graded copy was initially listed by its owner for just .99 cents.
Earlier in the year, Fred Guardineer’s original cover art for Action Comics No.15 (August, 1939), depicting the Man of Steel lifting a submarine off the ocean floor, sold at auction for £175,000.
In April, Pan Macmillan and the Serendip Foundation announced that they were creating the James Herbert Award for Horror Writing, in memory of the late author. Open to horror novels written in English and published in the UK in 2014, the winner received a £2,000 prize and commemorative statuette. The judging panel, chaired by Tom Hunter, consisted of Herbert’s eldest daughter Kerry, authors Ramsey Campbell and Sarah Pinborough, Total Film acting editor Rosie Fletcher and academic Dr Tony Venezia.
The 24th Annual World Horror Convention was held in Portland, Oregon, over May 8-11. Author Guests of Honor were Nancy Holder, Jack Ketchum and Norman Partridge, Artist Guest of Honor was Greg Staples and Editor Guest of Honor was Paula Guran. Special Guests were John LaFleur, John Shirley and Victoria Price (Vincent Price’s daughter), Edward Gorey was Ghost of Honor, and artist Alan M. Clark made an excellent Toastmaster in light of a convention committee who were barely around.
Brian Keene was the previously announced recipient of the convention’s Grandmaster Award, and the Horror Writers Association presented its 27th Annual Bram Stoker Awards at a buffet meal on the Saturday night, hosted by Jeff Strand.
Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep won for superior achievement in the Novel category, Rena Mason’s The Evolutionist picked up First Novel and Dog Days by Joe McKinney collected Young Adult Novel.
Long Fiction went to ‘The Great Pity’ by Gary Braunbeck and Short Fiction to ‘Night Train to Paris’ by David Gerrold. Eric J. Guignard’s After Death… won Anthology, Laird Barron’s The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories won Collection, and William F. Nolan’s Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing About the Master of Science Fiction won Non-Fiction.
The Poetry award went to Four Elements by Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob and Linda Addison, Graphic Novel went to Caitlín R. Kiernan’s Alabaster: Wolves, and Screenplay went to the ‘Welcome to the Tombs’ episode of TV’s The Walking Dead by Glen Mazzara.
Gray Friar Press won the Specialty Press Award, The Silver Hammer Award for outstanding service to HWA went to Norman Rubenstein, while J.G. Faherty won The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award.
Horror Writers Association Life Achievement Awards had been announced previously for R.L. Stine and Stephen Jones.
The British Fantasy Convention was held in a nicely old-fashioned railway hotel in the city of York over September 5-7. The Guests of Honour were authors Charlaine Harris and Kate Elliott, scriptwriter Toby Whithouse and digital artist Larry Rostant (even though there actually wasn’t an Art Show).
The British Fantasy Awards were presented at a banquet on the Sunday afternoon. The Best Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award) went to A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, and the Best Horror Novel (August Derleth Award) went to The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.
Sarah Pinborough’s Beauty won for Best Novella and Carole Johnstone’s ‘Sign of the Times’ was the recipient of Best Short Story. Stephen Volk’s Monsters in the Heart won the award for Best Collection, and editor Jonathan Oliver’s End of the Road was voted Best Anthology.
Peter Coleborn’s The Alchemy Press received the Best Small Press award, Speculative Fiction 2012 edited by Justin Landon and Jared Shurin won Best Non-Fiction, Clarkesworld was Best Magazine/Periodical, and Becky Cloonan’s Demeter was deemed Best Comic/Graphic Novel.
Joey Hi-Fi was voted Best Artist, and Game of Thrones: ‘The Rains of Castamere’ won for Best Film/Television Episode. Ann Leckie was presented with the Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds Award) for her novel Ancillary Justice, and the British Fantasy Society Special Award (The Karl Edward Wagner Award) went to Farah Mendlesohn.
World Fantasy Convention 2014 celebrated the gathering’s 40th Anniversary in Arlington, Virginia, over November 6-9 with Guests of Honor Guy Gavriel Kay, Les Edwards, Stuart David Schiff, Lail Finlay and Mary Robinette Kowal as Toastmaster.
Unfortunately, for such a prestigious event, the souvenir book was incompetently edited, with features apparently inserted randomly into the publication and typographical styles changing between each contribution. Attendees also received Unconventional Fantasy, a USB Flash Drive containing fiction, artwork and photographs from previous World Fantasy Conventions.
As usual, the World Fantasy Awards were presented at a banquet on the Sunday afternoon.
Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria won for Novel, ‘Wakulla Springs’ by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages received the Novella award and Short Fiction went to ‘The Prayer of Ninety Cats’ by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois was awarded Anthology, Collection went to The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Charles Vess won the Artist award.
Special Award—Professional was a tie between Irene Gallo for art direction at Tor.com and William K. Schafer for Subterranean Press, while Kate Baker, Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace won Special Award—Non-Professional for Clarkesworld.
The previously announced recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards were editor Ellen Datlow and author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
As a writer and editor, I have always preferred to work with smaller, independent publishers…not only does this allow me greater creative freedom with the projects I want to undertake, but it also usually allows me more input on such things as cover design and jacket copy.
However, the world of publishing is changing rapidly, and these days smaller imprints are either being squeezed out of the market altogether or being assimilated into larger conglomerates. In just the past few years, three individual publishing houses that I work with have been swallowed up by the same publishing group.
Whereas I can see how this might make good business sense, it is possibly the worst thing that could happen to the authors who are published by those separate imprints. Not only have we already seen a “streamlining” of such departments as design, publicity, sales—which in real terms translates into good people being made redundant—but for such niche genres as horror, fantasy and science fiction, it means that—even when those imprints are supposedly still “independent” of each other—in real terms it will be more difficult for authors to sell a book to what is, basically, now the same company. It will also be harder for commissioning editors to get their projects passed through acquisition meetings.
None of this will of course affect those working at the top of the food-chain—the blockbuster novels, the celebrity biographies, the self-help guides—but for the mid-list fiction titles (and, let’s face it, that is where much of our genre in published), things have already got worse. Lists are being trimmed, print-runs are being cut back, and advances are being reduced. Add to this the virtual stagnation of the e-book market and the squeeze being put on publishers’ prices by Amazon, and you have the recipe for a perfect storm.