Soon after announcing the electronic-only publication of the forthcoming third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (see this article), publisher Gollancz now plans to tie it to their new ebook publishing venture: the SF Gateway. They write “Building on the remarkable success of Gollancz’s Masterworks series, the SF Gateway will launch in September with more than a thousand titles by close to a hundred authors. It will build to 3,000 titles by the end of 2012.” The launch is tied to the 50th anniversary of Gollancz’s sf list.
Gollancz’s Digital Publisher Darren Nash, who joined the company in September 2010 to spearhead the project said, “The Masterworks series has been extraordinarily successful in republishing one or two key titles by a wide range of authors, but most of those authors had long careers in which they wrote dozens of noels which had fallen out of print. It seemed to us that eBooks would offer the ideal way to make them available again. This realization was the starting point for the SF Gateway.”
The SF Gateway “will be closely integrated with the Encyclopedia,” with “direct links between the Encyclopedia and the Gateway providing easy access to eBook editions, for sale through all major online retailers.”
As with every electronic venture these days, they also expect the Gateway to “act as a major community hub and social network for SF Readers.” The site will “include forums, blogs, and regular promotions.”
Orion Deputy CEO and Publisher Malcolm Edwards said “It’s clear that publishers need to show that they can respond to the challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution imaginatively, particularly when it comes to backlist. The SF Gateway is just such a response, creating what we hope will become a destination website which will promote the books and authors it features in an active way. We hope it will not only be a success in its own right, but that it will provide a model for future developments in backlist publishing.”
Authors already signed up include: Poul Anderson, Barrington J. Bayley, Gregory Benford, Michael Bishop, James P. Blaylock, James Blish, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Brosnan, Fredric Brown, John Brunner, Algis Budrys, Kenneth Bulmer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pat Cadigan, John W. Campbell, Jr., Terry Carr, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, D.G. Compton, Michael G. Coney, Edmund Cooper, Richard Cowper, John Crowley, L. Sprague de Camp, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Gordon R. Dickson, Christopher Evans, Philip Jose Farmer, John Russell Fearn, Alan Dean Foster, Mary Gentle, Mark S. Geston, Joseph L. Green, Colin Greenland, Nicola Griffith, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Frank Herbert, Philip E. High, Robert Holdstock, Cecelia Holland, Robert E. Howard, Raymond F. Jones, Leigh Kennedy, Garry Kilworth, Damon Knight, Henry Kuttner, Tanith Lee, Murray Leinster, H.P. Lovecraft, Katherine MacLean, Barry N. Malzberg, Phillip Mann, David I. Masson, C.L. Moore, Ward Moore, Edgar Pangborn, Frederik Pohl, Rachel Pollack, Tim Powers, Mack Reynolds, Keith Roberts, Eric Frank Russell, Josephine Saxton, Bob Shaw, Robert Silverberg, Clifford D. Simak, Dan Simmons, John Sladek, Cordwainer Smith, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Norman Spinrad, Olaf Stapledon, Theodore Sturgeon, William Tenn, Sheri S. Tepper, James Tiptree, Jr., E.C. Tubb, George Turner, Harry Turtledove, Jack Vance, Ian Watson, Ted White, Kate Wilhelm, Connie Willis, Robert Charles Wilson, and Gene Wolfe.