1632 Editorial Board

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Main articles: 1632 series and The Grantville Gazettes

Grantville Gazette II cover as an serialized eMagazine

'The Grantville Gazette' cover as original experimental paperback.

Grantville Gazette II hardcover cover.

This article is a sub-article of the articles covering the many works in the popular 1632 series and in particular of the Grantville Gazettes role in collaborative authorship of complex commercial fiction in the universe created in 1632 (novel).

This article is on the 1632 Editorial Board and the 1632 Slushpile as the two terms are necessarily difficult if not impossible to separate, as they are tightly intertwined with the popular 1632 series of alternate history books authored or edited by milieu creator Eric Flint, as may apply, and especially on the sub-series of works collectively called The Grantville Gazettes, the eighth of which will be issued in June 2006 as an e-book.

It is noteworthy, that third work published and the first anthology in the burgeoning series reached hardcover publication in January of 2004, and as of May 2006 the series is well past numbering in double-digits the works published overall. This explosive growth can be in large part credited to the 1632 Editorial Board which is the group that oversees the selection of stories for the Grantville Gazettes, which make up roughly half of the total works.

The first Gazette started as an experiment in publishing as a serialized eMagazine. After three installments, the complete work was assembled as an e-book about the time the professionally written Ring of Fire (anthology) was released. At Baen's it outsold many other e-book titles authored by name authors, and was subsequently released in print itself in November–2004. It sold out, and Baen Books had to go to a second printing. Its successor, Grantville Gazette II was released in hardcover in March 2006, and has sold very strongly, although not as a sales topping work.

'The Grantville Gazette' cover as original experimental eMagazine.

The unusual series is split currently about 50:50 in novels and anthology collections each enjoying commercial success, and will continue in that manner indefinitely, so long as the shorter fiction collections keep selling. A total of ten are under advanced contract at this July 2006 writing, and the ninth Grantville Gazette is being put together. A 'Slushpile' is the standard 'publishing trade term' for unsolicited manuscripts from a receiving publishers point of view. From a fledgling writers point of view, getting out of the slushpile and into an editors hand for vetting, is the first and usually longest hurdle, as typically, a story on the slushpiles will take several years before they percolate out back into the light of day. A good agent or a well established author can get a manuscript past the hurdle of a slushpile, which may not seem to be fair, but publishers are business people first, and authors with a following means sales.

The 1632 Editorial Board is a group of established writers and fans chaired by the milieu creator Eric Flint that collectively decides on whether a story for one of the fan written anthologies submitted to the 1632 slushpile on the web forum Baen's Bar are both canonical to the series existing and planned development, and of sufficient quality to be published; in practice, the second factor is somewhat easier to obtain, as the 1632 slush web forum is a large writers workshop with merciless peer review abounding with suggestions on how to polish up a submission. Only after meeting that quality process on the '1632 Slush' sub-forum at Baen Books, and then surmounting the Editorial Board recommendations, does a story submission reach the final test. It must be selected by Flint wearing his editors hat as canon, by taking the series in approved directions, or is discarded as non-canon; Flint retains final editorial control as is appropriate under both publishing tradition and in the eyes of copyright law. The selected stories are then first publish serialized eMagazine, subsequently as an e-book, and then finally as the printed anthology since 2003—2004.

1 The Background
2 The Historic Melting Pot
3 After the Milieu Stabilized
4 The Grantville Gazette
5 List of Gazettes
6 External links

[edit] The Background

1632 (novel) was written as a stand alone book in the science fiction sub-genre Alternate history under the hypothesis of Flints newly invented literary mechanism, analogous to the Time Machine invention by H.G. Wells, the Assiti Shards event. The concept juxtaposes two equal spherical volumes on the planetary surface in both space and time. The concurrent space-time juxtapositions sent a small fictional town Grantville, WV back to May of 1631, and the novel climaxed in the eponymous year 1632 with an upbeat but intriguing end. A relatively new author at the time (Full time writing only since 1999), Flint was a regular visitor-contributor like most of the Baen stable of authors, to the various online forums on Baen's Bar, and the premise and plot of the novel created a great deal of interest— and pestering demands for a sequel.

[edit] The Historic Melting Pot

Such discussions began on one forum dedicated to the Honorverse (buships— for works by author David Weber) and were good naturedly evicted soon after into the newly created 1632verse forum 1632 Tech, which later became today's 1632 Tech Manual forum. Over a period of time, plot lines, technology and historical implications were chewed over, researched and reassembled until Flint committed to the much demanded sequel. In the long process, the forum also received fan-fic, and Eric Flint, uncharacteristically in a field respectful of 'Intellectual Ownership', opened the infant milieu to other established authors while agreeing to write the mainline (main-thread) sequel with best selling author David Weber. During the multi-years-long process historians, educators, authors, engineers, scientists and like professionals formed into a group of trusted advisors, the informal 1632 Research Committee; Baen set aside another forum for the fan-fic (1632 slush, from slushpile, publisher's name for the stack of unsolicited manuscripts) and 1632 Comments for peer review of the fan fiction— primarily to keep it from interfering in the technical background and plot scheming that was the ongoing business on 1632 Tech. This later became more important, as Eric Flint and the other established authors contributing found some of the stories submitted to be good plot stimulators— and such were eventually incorporated into the 1632 series neohistory and so became canon.

[edit] After the Milieu Stabilized

As the future of 1632verse began to stabilize in the creators mind, aided by valuable insights from the contributed fan-fic at 1632 Slushpile, he invited a variety of authors that had assisted in generating ideas to contribute stories (See: Ring of Fire) while he began planning with David Weber the writing of the first full novel sequel '1633 (novel)'. The process also got him to considering the many valuable contributions made by the fans in time and ideas, so he proposed the eMagazine The Grantville Gazette to Jim Baen as an experiment, and so was launched another collaborative first—an author-editor working hand in hand with interested fans to collaborate on canonical fiction that was not somewhere off to the side of the various works, but were instead, to a certain extent its heart and soul. But that was the result, not the start. First the contents of the 1632 Slushpile were picked over by Flint and some were selected for the first anthology, Ring of Fire. Concurrently, many of the 1632 Research Committee were putting together the official 1632verse website 1632.org, which is dedicated to aiding canonical writing within the milieu—Flint likes to co-write—it truer to say Flint likes co-writing a lot.

[edit] The Grantville Gazette

Once the peer review process had wound down and terminated on 1632 Slushpile various advisors would suggest certain stories as being well developed, at which time Flint would consider them as an editor and the final arbitrar of the 1632verse and so the fan-fic continued and continue to shape the development of the milieu. Such polished stories were selected for the serialized eMagazine in an order and for reasons known solely to Flint. First appearing in the new serialized eMagazine, the purchased fictional works paid only semi-pro rates rather than typical SF magazine pulp fiction rates, but they made the fan-fic a step in the process. As more stories were gathered, picked on, and picked over an informal editorial board came about, was added to and stabilized with membership much overlapping that of the 1632 Research Committee. This unloaded Flint's time and he promptly decided that the eMagazine fiction deserved to be republished as the initial Grantville Gazette e-book, again experimentally.

This step followed naturally as an experiment in on-line publishing underwritten by publisher Jim Baen and edited by Eric Flint, and dove-tailed nicely with some other experiments Jim Baen was conducting with webscriptions.net. The initial experimental publication The Grantville Gazette Issue 1 as an e-book was financially successful and is offered in electronic form at Webscription.net, but a subsequent experiment, a mass market paper edition of the first issue was print published in November of 2004 as the slightly different trade title The Grantville Gazette. While not bearing the modified name on its cover, this successful print version is now colloquially called The Grantville Gazette I, as the experimental first printing sold out and continues to sell so strongly that the second issue was released as a hardcover edition in March 2006 by the title Grantville Gazette II. Note that technically, the eMagazine releases were titled somewhat differently such as Grantville Gazette Volume II, in conformance with typical magazine publishing practices.

The authors in these anthologies are principally members of Bean's Bar, which have contributed fan-written-fiction to the peer review process administered as 1632 Slushpile (A slushpile in literary terms is the in-basket of a publisher for unsolicited manuscripts for vetting and processing) on Baen's Bar. After this trial by fire, the manuscripts are nominated for consideration by the 1632_Gazette_Editorial_Board and final selections determined in conjunction with Flint wearing his editors cap. The result is unusually well groomed fan-fiction that is further unique as Flint categorically stated in March 2006 that any and all 1632 materials published in any form by Baen's becomes thereafter canon for the milieu he created and manages. This gives the emagazine an unusual and historic place in literature, as does the fact that published authors also occasionally submit anthologies to this process.

[edit] List of Gazettes

Preceded by: Ring of Fire (anthology)	1632 series The Grantville Gazettes Anthologies by Publication Order	Succeeded by: The Grantville Gazette

The Grantville Gazettes are all edited by Eric Flint. The first three were assembled with the assistance of Cheryl Detweiler. Beginning with Gazette three Paula Goodlett became assistant editor, assuming the editorial role beginning with Gazette seven with Flint acting as the publisher. Flint maintains editorial control over the canon for the series on the 1632.org website in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board, and the various 1632 Research Committees, all being regular participants to the Baen's Bar forum, and in particular the 1632 Tech Manual sub-forum. Gazettes include fact articles (see the research committee) and stories which are initially vetted through a tough peer review on the sub-forum 1632 slush, typically requiring several rewrites then may subsequently nominated by the editorial board, whereupon Flint, and Goodlett choose the stories for inclusion in the Canon and for each volume based in part how it leads into or integrates with the ongoing main storyline 'threads' in the various novels.

Table by strict order of first publication of the work (e-book versions given same weight)

Grantville Gazette I -- Issued as the experimental The Grantville Gazette.
Grantville Gazette II
Grantville Gazette III
Grantville Gazette IV
Grantville Gazette V
Grantville Gazette VI
Grantville Gazette VII
Grantville Gazette VIII published July 2006
Grantville Gazette IX published September 2006
Grantville Gazette X published December 2006

[edit] External links

Web page links:	Comments and Content notes
edit 1632 series
Baen Books in the 1632 series	List of 1632 Series Books grouped by the series by Baen Books. Includes the first few chapters of each.
1632 full text	Full text of the novel 1632 from the Baen Free Library.
Baen Books catalog for Eric Flint	List of Eric Flint books published by Baen Books. Includes the first few chapters of each.
baen.com/library/eflint.htm	List of Eric Flint books available in toto in the Baen Free Library.
http://bar.baen.com/	Baen's Bar is an official fan-forum with several specific sections (sub-forums) dedicated to the 1632 universe. These are: 1632 Tech Manual, and 1632 Slush for manuscript submission (Slushpile in publishing: Stack of manuscripts for vetting) and 1632 Comments where Peer review feedback, suggestions, and comments on the slushpile submissions are posted. The two together form a collective collaborative workshop for wannabe authors.
http://ericflint.net/	Eric Flint's website, which has much about his work currently in progress or upcoming (in publication, in planning, under contract, in process) matters in the publication cycle.
http://www.1632.org	The official web site by Eric Flint's 1632.org on and about the 1632 universe and related matters. It is run by the 1632 Research Committee in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board. It includes the canonical references for the entire book series available for browsing and download by any participating in the collaborative writing process in the series. Eric's partners that are also professional writers use the same data. If you want to write a contribution to The Grantville Gazettes, this is a must-visit site. Additional Technical articles resulting from 1632 Tech Manual discussions and the Research Committee are also posted here.
klaus-leiss.de/1632Tech	1632 universe dedicated German Wikiproject organized to cross reference and encyclopediatize matters and characters pertaining to the 1632verse. Another must-browse site for would-be contributors to The Grantville Gazettes and students of Collaborative writing projects.
Fan Page collecting 1632 research	1632verse Commonwealth of Two Nations Resource Page - a webpage about Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1632 universe, but especially valuable for 1632 fans for its many period maps and links to other resources.