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Penguin Imprint Focus: Meet the Staff at Roc and Ace

Tue, 11/13/2007

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Despite their voluminous monthly output, Ace and Roc are run by a surprisingly small team. Over the remainder of this week we're going to introduce you to the tightly knit group of people behind the Imprints, from the Editor-in-Chief to the Editorial Assistants. Or, more accurately, allow them to introduce themselves.

Susan Allison, Berkley Editorial Director

My science fiction reading began with A Wrinkle in Time, which I expect I knew nearly by heart, and then with all the Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein novels I could find in the library. Later there was Dune and Stranger in a Strange Land, the science fiction that everyone was reading, but I really had no awareness of science fiction as a community until I went to work as Jim Baen's assistant in the late 1970s. I came to Berkley in 1982, and was Editor-in-Chief first of Ace and then of Ace and Roc. Ginjer Buchanan has now taken over as Editor in Chief of Ace and Roc, but I still work with a number of wonderful authors, including William Gibson, Stephen R. Donaldson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Joe Haldeman, Robin McKinley and Patricia A. McKillip.

Ginjer Buchanan, Editor-in-Chief, Ace/Roc

Often at Writers Conferences, people want to know how to break into publishing as an editor. I always say that there is no one way, and that my career path proves that.

I was a social worker for 15 years before I began working for Putnam Berkley. Though I grew up to acquire an MSW degree, I had as a child always read fiction voraciously, thanks to the Carnegie Free library system in Pittsburgh. And my tastes had run to fantastic literature--CS Lewis, E. Nesbitt, Edward Eager (a particular favorite) PL Travers, and, as I got older, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, and HP Lovecraft. Then I got older still, and became a card-carrying science fiction and fantasy fan--one of those people who go to conventions, meet authors, attend panels, buy books, and discuss the genre in hallways and at late-night room parties. My social circle was largely made up of other fans, from all over the country. In fact I met the man who was to become my husband through science fiction fandom.

Eventually, I moved to New York City. There I met a lot of the women and men in the sci fi/fantasy professional publishing community (there is a very close connection between the pros and the fans in the genre). My husband got a job as an editorial assistant, and later became an sci fi/fantasy editor himself. Meanwhile, I was still social working, (foster care and adoptions in case anyone was wondering) but I dabbled in the field, as a reader for The Science Fiction Book Club and as a free lance editor for the early days of the Star Trek program at Pocket Books.

Then in 1984 (propitious year that!) Susan Allison offered me a full-time editorial position at Ace Books. Perfect timing for a mid-life career change!

I've been an editor ever since, and seen the company become a part of Penguin USA. I've had the exciting opportunity to incorporate responsibility for Roc, the sci fi/fantasy imprint of NAL, into my duties, been promoted a bunch of times, and am currently Editor-in-Chief of Ace/Roc.

Along the way, I've worked with a lot of amazing authors, some of them (like Allen Steele) almost from the very beginning of my tenure. Also, very early on, I bought Laurell Hamilton's first Anita Blake novel--and we all know where that led! I've edited Jack McDevitt for close to fifteen years, worked with Bill Dietz and Sharon Shinn just as long, and have, in recent years, been thrilled to include Al Reynolds, Charlie Stross and Charlaine Harris among my authors. And when we assumed responsibility for Roc, I happily took over as editor for Steve Stirling and Eric Knight!

All of which keeps me right busy, but in my free time, I still read voraciously (historical fiction and non-fiction, mostly), and watch an incredible amount of television, about which I have many opinions (I've had pop culture essays published on Buffy, Firefly and Highlander). My husband and I have two cats, one dog, a co-op in Manhattan and a hybrid car. We travel a lot in it (often to Toronto, to visit his family). We go to movies (he likes movies with angst ridden gangsters. I like George Clooney), concerts (Bruuuce!) and plays. (all nine hours of The Coast of Utopia.)