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Questions about Sea Lion's publishing preferences

Talwar

Well-Known Sword
I don't see an obvious place to post this, so I'll post it here. Then I'll probably see where I should've posted this immediately afterward.

1. Does publishing focus on novels, or is there consideration of novellas and short stories (stand-alone or in collections)

2. How does Sea Lion feel about the "Interview" format (ala World War Z) for a story/novella/novel?

3. How does Sea Lion feel about fantastic/speculative elements in alternate history?

4. Noting that Sea Lion takes sci-fi, does it prefer hard sci-fi to soft?

Thanks...
 
Hi Talwar I've moved this to help and support as it seemed more appropriate.

@Meadow is probably best to answer but I'll try my best as someone who doesn't work for SLP.

1) I believe that there has been at least one collection of short stories released (themed around the EU) and Bearfish by John O'Brien (Haggis) is not a full length novel.

2) Bearfish, again, is a series of interviews IIRC and if it's of high quality I see no reason why any format couldn't be given a shot.

3) Azure Main is very realistic but starts off as an ISOT so again, quality counts. I don't think you should have issues.

4) No idea on this one, I know @AndyC has published hard sci fi but not sure on the deal there.
 
I don't see an obvious place to post this, so I'll post it here. Then I'll probably see where I should've posted this immediately afterward.

1. Does publishing focus on novels, or is there consideration of novellas and short stories (stand-alone or in collections)

2. How does Sea Lion feel about the "Interview" format (ala World War Z) for a story/novella/novel?

3. How does Sea Lion feel about fantastic/speculative elements in alternate history?

4. Noting that Sea Lion takes sci-fi, does it prefer hard sci-fi to soft?

Thanks...

Since I just finished up negotiations on A Century Turns, I'll kick in my two cents here.

1: My work can reasonably be called a novella, since it is around 25k words. Length seems to be a non-issue.

2: No comment. That said, I'd suggest picking a better representative of your choice of storytelling than World War Zzzzzzzzz...

3: Read my thing. Pure reality gets dumped as ballast around the fifth page past the prologue.

4: No comment.
 
Obviously it comes down to editorial decision, but I think the main qualification for publication is that it is in narrative or prose format (i.e. not just a list of dates type timeline). And general quality, of course.

The sci-fi question is an interesting one. There's arguably nothing AH about Andy's "The End and Afterwards" series, but it feels like a natural part of the SLP stable. The sci-fi novel I'm writing currently does have AH elements but they're not the main focus. I don't think hard vs soft is the main issue--I've had a soft AH book (The Unreformed Kingdom) and one with fantasy elements (Not An English Word) published.
 
These have already been answered, pretty much, but as the founder of the publishing house is a user here, you might as well get a reply from him :)

1. Does publishing focus on novels, or is there consideration of novellas and short stories (stand-alone or in collections)

We've published plenty of all of those. We will continue to do so!

2. How does Sea Lion feel about the "Interview" format (ala World War Z) for a story/novella/novel?

The Unreformed Kingdom and Zonen come to mind as existing and well-regarded examples of this type of thing. We'd certainly consider more of them.

3. How does Sea Lion feel about fantastic/speculative elements in alternate history?

As long as they involve some sense of AH (or alternative future, which is a blurry line with sci fi but we'll survive), go for it.

4. Noting that Sea Lion takes sci-fi, does it prefer hard sci-fi to soft?

Sci-fi is considered on a case by case basis. Stuff that considers how the world will change in the future (eg Andy's The End And Afterwards opening in part with an ambitious Nigerian space programme) is more our cup of tea than 'aliens and lasers oh my'. That isn't a direct answer to your question but I hope it is useful.
 
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