Science-Fiction Handbook

Science-Fiction Handbook
Dust-jacket for Science-Fiction Handbook
Author	L. Sprague de Camp
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Writing
Publisher	Hermitage House
Publication date	1953
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	328 pp
ISBN	NA

Science-Fiction Handbook is a guide to writing and marketing science fiction and fantasy by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp. The original edition by L. Sprague de Camp alone, subtitled The Writing of Imaginative Fiction, was published in hardcover by Hermitage House in 1953 as a volume in its Professional Writers Library series. A revised edition, credited to both authors, titled Science Fiction Handbook, Revised, was published in hardcover by Owlswick Press in 1975 and as a trade paperback by McGraw-Hill in 1977.^[1][2]

Content

The book comprises a comprehensive guide explaining how to write and market science fiction and fantasy. Peripheral subjects such as lecturing and bookkeeping are also discussed, and a short history of the field of imaginative fiction is included. The revised version excised outdated material, updated the historical section, and added more information on the business and records-keeping end of being a writer.^[1]

Contents

Reception

Alexei and Cory Panshin praised the original edition as "a marvelous and ungainly book . . . a stewpot of everything De Camp could imagine a writer of SF needing to know." However, reviewing the revised edition, they declared that "A venerable classic has been consistently simplified, softened and trivialized" and concluded that what remained "was not adequate to the problems of writing contemporary SF."^[3]

Notes