Night Shade Books has announced that it will be closing their magazine Eclipse Online effective immediately. All stories in inventory are being released. The online version of Strahan’s anthology series was launched in October 2012 and included stories by Christopher Rowe, Eleanor Arnason, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Lavie Tidhar, Susan Palwick, and E. Lily Yu. According to the publisher, all stories have been paid for and no new ones will be considered.
Publishers Weekly has announced that Night Shade Books is in sale negotiations with Skyhorse Publishing and Start Publishing to sell its assets, including titles under contract. The press has had financial difficulties for several years, and recently let editor Ross Lockhart go. Several of their authors have also left the company. At the same time, SFWA, which has been working with Night Shade Books for several years, including a probationary period, has announced the press will be delisted as a qualifying market.
Art director James Plumeri (b.1933) died on February 2. Plumeri spent 15 years working for NAL before taking a position at Bantam Dell for another twenty years. At Bantam, he worked designing paperback covers, including those of Stephen King’s novels The Shining and Salem’s Lot.
French editor Jacques Sadoul (b.1934) died on January 18. Worked as an editor for Editions Opta and J’ai Iu, working to bring Anglophonic science fiction to France as well as publishing French authors. He founded the Prix Apollo and also published Histoire de la science fiction moderne in 1973.
Arc Manor has announced the launch of on-line magazine Galaxy’s Edge, scheduled for March 1, 2013. The magazine, which is edited by Mike Resnick, will include a mix of new and reprint stories, as well as serials. It will be available for free on-line, with paper copies available through Amazon and B&N and downloadable versions for a low price. The magazine will be published every other month and include columns from Barry Malzberg, Paul Cook, and Horace Cocroft.
Rich Horton, who reviews short fiction for Locus and has edited several Best of Year anthologies has been named reprint editor for Lightspeed magazine. Horton will assume the position in January 2013. Lightspeed is edited by John Joseph Adams and is a merger of Adams’s Lightspeed and Fantasy magazines.
Sean Wallace has announced that Prime will launch a digitial imprint, Masque Books, in July 2013. The imprint will publish six e-books a month, with the possibility that some times may see an eventually print edition as well. Wallace will serve as publisher while Paula Guran will serve as senior editor and Natalie Luhrs will take on the role as acquisitions editor.
Editor Charles E. Fritch (b.1927) died on October 11. Fritch wrote several science fiction stories in the 1950s, along with a handful of others that appeared through 1999. From 1963-5 he edited the magazine Gamma. He served as the assistant editor at Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine under Sam Merwin and Larry Shaw before taking over as editor for the final years of the magazine. He also published under the name Eric Thomas.
Barnes and Noble, which purchased e-publisher Fictionwise is 2009, has announced that it will be closing Fictionwise in December. U.S. Fictionwise customers will cease to have access to their Fictionwise Bookshelf through the site after December 21, 2012. Customers outside the U.S. will cease to have access to their Fictionwise Bookshelf through the site after January 31, 2013. Fictionwise customers will be notified of this and U.S. and U.K. customers will be given an opportunity to move their customer accounts, including their eBooks purchased at the Fictionwise websites, to a Barnes & Noble NOOK Library.
Steven H Silver has announced his resignation as the publisher and editor of ISFiC Press. Silver helped found the press in 2004 and has overseen most aspects of it from production to fulfillment since 2003. Silver will work with ISFiC, the Press’s parent corporation, to develop a transition plan to make sure fulfillment and production continue. Under Silver’s guidance, ISFiC Press published 12 books, included Aurora winner Relativity, by Robert J. Sawyer and Hugo nominee Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches, edited by Joe Siclari and Mike Resnick. ISFiC Press’s most recent books are Win Some, Lose Some: The Complete Hugo Award Winning (and Nominated) Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of Mike Resnick and Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots, by Seanan McGuire.