Night Shade/SkyHorse Link Roundup

The SF world has been buzzing with news of a possible deal between Night Shade Books and Skyhorse Publishing/Start Publishing. Rather than writing yet another summary of the issue, we’ve collected some of the posts from agents, NSB authors and other publishing professionals.

i09.com’s basic run-down of the situation.

The Locus write-up.

An open letter from Nightshade owner Jeremy Lassen.

Some information on Start Publishing.

Agent Andrew Zack unpacks more of the issues.

The Night Shade Writers of America: An agent’s perspective

Nightshade Books: What Went Wrong

Michael Stackpole’s take on why he won’t be signing the new deal.

Kameron Hurley’s take.

Tobias Buckell has an excellent write-up.

Nathan Hall has some excerpts from NSB letters.

Cat Rambo examines some of the problems faced by the parties in this deal.

Phil Foglio’s perspective.

SkyHorse defends itself.

Jason Sanford weighs in.

Theresa Frohock’s post.

Our best wishes are with the people tied up in this deal. It’s never fun, and never a good thing for the industry when a company goes under.

If you know of any good links we missed, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Dispatch by Lightsaber Light

Shoshana Kessock is a freelance blogger for Tor.com.


Power went down here in the Greenville section of Jersey City, NJ around 9 p.m. this evening. I’ve been holed up with my friends at their apartment since the beginning of the storm, prepared with candles and groceries. We were just finishing dinner when the lights went out and moved into the room downstairs that have the least amount of windows.

Three hours later we’re still without power. There are trees down outside on the street but we have had only minimal damage. However, a friend of mine Sean Jaffe took his dog for a walk and witnessed a billboard flying down Bentley Street nearby. Many blocks in the surrounding areas have trees down with damaged cars and there is damage to local businesses with front windows smashed and awnings ripped down.

More information has been coming to me over Facebook from friends across the New York/New Jersey area. One friend had a tree down in their backyard destroy windows in three cars and block them into their house. Another friend in Astoria, Queens passed along word that their neighbors entire roof was ripped off and landed in the middle of their street, narrowly missing cars.  Still another friend reported power outages in downtown Manhattan just before power went out here and later reported seeing the explosion at the ConEd power station on Manhattan’s East Side. The only way to keep in contact seems to be by Facebook and Twitter right now, and the reports out of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan are nerve wracking to a NY native.

In the meanwhile, we are parked in the dark eating Halloween candy by candlelight and playing Fiasco, a storytelling roleplaying game, while listening to the wind howling outside. Folks are out in their cars outside, providing the only light in the neighborhood at the moment. I am choosing to stay inside with my friends, telling spooky stories in the Halloween tradition and lighting the room with toy lightsabers.

Hurricane Sandy sweeps publishing capital of the US

Sandy, now classified by the National Hurricane Center as as a post-tropical cyclone, made landfall the evening of Monday, October 29th, on the southern coast of New Jersey. The arrival of the cyclone has already been felt by several states on the east coast, in addition to areas of Canada. Numerous publishers and professionals in the publishing industry live in New York, and a number of the surrounding states facing severe weather conditions tonight. Booklife Now will be following the short and long term impact of Sandy on our industry.

The thoughts of the staff of Booklife Now are with everyone impacted by these events.

Obituary: Janet Berliner-Gluckman

We regret to inform our readers of the death of author Janet Berliner-Gluckman earlier today. Born in 1939 in South Africa to Thea Abraham-Berliner and Manfred Berliner, who fled Germany and the growing power of the Nazi party in 1936, she went on to become a Bram Stoker Award winning author (Children of the Dusk), and worked as an editor, writer and journalist during a career that spanned more than twenty years and multiple genres. May her memory and works be a blessing to all who miss her.