I’ve been following a minor drama going on between some science fiction authors about a new publisher called Ark Press. Most of the controversy centers around whether this new publisher is being funded by billionaire Peter Thiel and whether he originally was trying to buy another publisher Baen Books. Baen is almost the only science fiction publisher that isn’t horribly woke. So, from my point of view, both Baen and Ark are both the best fit for publishers I would submit my Sniper novel to. And that’s not to say I think either one would be a slam dunk to buy my book. But I think they are the only traditional publishing choices that are even possible.
Eventually I found a YouTube video where the main editor of Ark Press (D.J. Butler) answers a bunch of questions about Ark Press and some misinformation about the relationship between Ark and Baen.
It’s quite long and probably not that interesting to anyone who’s not writing a non-woke science fiction novel. But I was very excited to find out there are two possible publishers I can offer my book to.
But the more generally interesting thing about Ark Press is that someone like Thiel who is a pretty heavy hitter, is getting involved in publishing conservative science fiction books. This is exactly what I’ve been bloviating about for ten years. This is what Andrew Breitbart was talking about way back. Culture is upstream of politics and we are completely shut out of the culture because the institutions (book publishers, record companies, movie studios) are 99% controlled by the Left. Literally 99%.
Hearing that someone with extremely deep pockets is dipping his toes in genre publishing is miraculous. It’s as if all the howling I’ve done in the wilderness wasn’t in vain. And then there is the synergism. Peter Thiel was the guy who turned JD Vance onto the Trump train. And he’s an old friend of Elon Musk. The two of them were start-up partners on PayPal. If Thiel were to persuade Musk that some of his books were very popular with young adults maybe as a lark Musk might buy some broken down movie studio like Paramount or Warner Brothers for a song and strip it down like he did Twitter and make some movies that people actually want to see. Just imagine.
As you can probably tell I’m pretty excited about all this stuff. Of course, it will probably lead nowhere if the people running Ark and Baen can’t recognize the obvious genius displayed in my Sniper story. But right now, it’s fun thinking about it both from a personal angle and from the larger considerations of the wider culture. I mean, come on! Every boy in America used to be a science fiction/fantasy fan. Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, DC, you name it. It took Disney and the girl bosses they hired a whole generation to kill that excitement with the awful female-centric drivel that currently passes for science fiction/fantasy. It’s as obvious as daylight that if publishers and movie studios produced what boys used to pay to read and watch, boys would pay to read and watch it again.
So here we are. At the dawn of a new golden age of science fiction publishing. It can’t be a coincidence that it is happening just as Donald Trump has declared the beginning of the American “Golden Age.” Well, I haven’t been using any booze or drugs so maybe there is a reasonable chance that some of this may resemble reality. If not, it was fun thinking about. Fingers crossed.
You can always self-publish via e-book. Don’t know much about it, but I’ve read a few.
Yes, that’s plan B. Or being realistic maybe it should be considered Plan A.
Best wishes with getting your book published. I have bought quite a few Baen Books publications, and been very pleased with the stories. Haven’t had any experience with Ark, but i recognize some their titles, all good.
Thanks. I won’t be shocked if I strike out on both. Winning lotteries was never my forte. My kind of luck is different. But thanks for the well wishes.
How about a third option?
https://aethonbooks.com/
Aethon publishes Hard SciFi, Fantasy and Roleplaying fiction.
Word is that they are not woke.
I’ve heard they’re good too. Their niche is working to attract the Amazon algorithm. But from what I understand you need to have a whole bunch of books already written in a series (as high as ten!) and then release them one every month. That’s a lot of books to write before releasing anything.