Raising funds for a critically acclaimed small science fiction publisher to create a novella market

Dario sez, "SF and Fantasy micro-press Panverse Publishing tested its engines last October with its acclaimed first title, Panverse One. Publisher Dario Ciriello's goal is to provide a permanent market for novella-length work, actively promote new writers, and restore the genre's core values of story and wonder. He believes Fantasy and SF are vitally important and essentially subversive literatures. With the help of Kickstarter, Dario wants to take Panverse into orbit and become a force for excellence in the field."

Wonder. Story. They're Back! (Thanks, Dario!)

• [Notary Sojac]

  There does not seem to be any shortage of a market for fantasy. I’d love to see a new imprint show up for SCIENCE FICTION. No spells, no vampires, no magic swords, no #&$*@!! dragons. And get off my lawn.

• [GuyInMilwaukee]

  OT but…. Speaking of raising money for/from SciFi… Harlan Ellison is doing a book sale!

  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/07/harlan-ellison-reluctant-book-sale.html

  I just picked up a signed copy from his collection of “Vic and Blood”

  Full list here:
  http://harlanellison.com/heboard/visitors/brochure.htm

  • [Notary Sojac]

    I wonder if Harlan would sell a signed copy of a printout of one of his books which had been downloaded from usenet.

• [suz roach]

  I do love the classic SF novels and original fairy tales- there are a lot of thought provoking elements in them that are not dulled down or glamorized for society. I would like to see more of it produced and hope to contribute to the field one day if I can ever become a more proficient writer. Don’t worry, I won’t attempt to crowd future shelves with slavering vampire romances or fairy porn (which i believe the fantasy field has been producing too much of lately). But if I do manage to pen something clever and inspiring, I would love to have the help of such a publication as Panverse to help me get it out there.

• [rawdiant]

  It’s nice to hear of a publisher open to novella-length work. A few years ago, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), along with a zillion other people who churn out 50k words in 30 days. It’s a fun and rewarding experience that I highly recommend, but 50k words technically produces a novella, not a novel. The majority of book publishers seem to want traditional novels, which seems to mean roughly 85k (minimum) words. So, for NaNoWriMo participants, there really isn’t much of a chance to publish unless you either expand your 50k manuscript or use Lulu (which is what I did). But, for those who produce a nice SF manuscript during that contest, this is great news.

• [Doom-Kitten]

  I am excited to see that a market for novella length sci-fi and fantasy is being promoted. My dream job, when I finish school, is to work with science fiction short stories/novellas.

• [ZDepthCharge]

  Fantasty is subversive? Elric granted, but..? Anyway, good luck to this.

• [Dario]

  Thanks, everyone. On the subject of Fantasy as subversive genre, I’d say, um, China Mieville, Charlie Stross, maybe a few others? Norman Spinrad, a year or two ago in a column suggested that ONLY Fantasy can get away with being subversive is post-9/11 times.

  And Panverse doesn’t do High Fantasy, though when fairy/vampire porn is both hilarious and edgy (see Panverse Two), we may just print it.

  It’s about STORY.

  • [ZDepthCharge]

    Stross himself has pointed out repeatedly that his dimensional hopping merchants saga is NOT fantasy and was never intended to be taken that way. Haven’t read China Mieville and if it’s fantasy I wouldn’t give it the time of day.
    It would truely be a better world if Science Fiction could be surgically separated from that eternally mind-numbing prefix “Fantasy &”.