An Interview with Betsy Mitchell,
Senior Editor of Del Rey
by Celu Amberstone

Q. Tell me a little about yourself as we start.

A. I'm a second-generation science fiction fan. I started reading anthologies that my dad collected in the forties and fifties. From there, I went on to read his novel collection—all the classics. I wasn't aware of sf fandom till I joined the staff of Analog in 1980. After my job at Analog I worked at Baen Books for five years.  In fact I was Jim Baen's first employee when he started up Baen. After that I went to Bantam for five years. Then I went to Warner and started up the Warner Aspect line. And now I am editor-in-chief of Del Rey.

Q. I'm starting to see that each publishing house has a different personality. What makes Del Rey different from other publishers?

A. Yes, they are different to a certain extent. Judi-Lynn and Lester del Rey were responsible for making genre books popular for a broad audience when they started up Del Rey. Their authors were the first to start hitting the best seller lists with any regularity. I'm speaking of people like Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson, David Eddings...

Del Rey launched all those people. It's great to be at a company that believes you can have best sellers with genre titles. I'm the type of editor who would like to see an author win awards and get great reviews, but also make big sales. At Del Rey we concentrate on the large tales, the epic science fictions and fantasies. We are also looking for new authors, because many of our best selling authors are getting older. So we've brought in people like China Miéville and Alex Irvine, and other younger names. We're also starting the Manga Program in hopes to get teenagers reading in the field, and that to me is very important. Manga is Japanese comics. Teenagers, especially teen girls, are reading boatloads of these great stories right now.

Q. Do you have any advice for Canadian authors wishing to get published in the U.S.?

A. It's not really any different for Canadians than anyone else. Go to the cons, and get acquainted with editors and agents. Almost all publishing houses require agents these days. We don't have the staff to look at unagented submissions. And even with agents we do a type of triage. The top agents' subs we look at first because those will be the most contested, then we go to others. In our contracts we buy U.S. and Canadian rights, so we prefer a Canadian author comes to us rather than going to Britain. The other way of course is to get published by a small press in Canada that we could pick up in the States.

Q. There aren't very many of those at the moment in Canada. What about getting published by a small press in the U.S.; do you pick up from them as well?

A. I can't say that it happens very often, but it could.

Q. I noticed that you didn't mention publishing short stories first. So, you don't feel that the short story route is necessarily the way to go in today' s market?

A. When I was a young editor I read all the magazines, looking for people who did good short fiction and who were ready to break out into the longer form. Now that I'm at a higher editorial level I don't have time to do that, but it's still a viable path, because most agents do. Short fiction is also good when we publish a first novel because it gives us things to put on an author's fact sheet, which we give to our sales reps.

Q. Do you feel that including Canadian content in a book can influence its sales in the U.S.?

A. I think that's probably true. I don't see why it should be any different than setting the story in San Francisco, or Austin for example.  I don't think it's fair but it may have a bearing. We are publishing a first novel by an Edmonton author called, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, by Minister Faust. Edmonton is very much a part of the story, but it doesn't overwhelm it.  We expect the book to do well both in the U.S and Canada.

Q. Do you find a difference working at Del Rey from Warner?

A. Yes. Del Rey has a bigger budget and more support staff.

Q. Does Del Rey have a preference for either SF or fantasy?

A. No, we buy anything that interests us.

Q. How long, on average, is it from the time the contract is signed till the book is in print?

A. About a year. Once the manuscript is turned in.

Q. How do you see the industry changing, and what would you like to see happen in the future?

A. I'm really glad to see more of the YA. publishers coming back into the business. There was a gap of about fifteen years when not much SF or fantasy was being published for that age group. Now there is a fair amount of fantasy, but I'd like to see more science fiction as well. Movies like The Lord of the Rings have been good for us. They have actually increased books sales. I don't like to make any sweeping comments about the industry. Every couple years it seems like we're teetering on the edge of doom but we never fall over. Del Rey is doing okay, and I'm grateful for that.

Q. Does Del Rey do hardcover books with new authors? How many hardcover and mass-market books do you publish in a month-year?

A. We do publish new authors in hardcover, when we really believe in them and want to make a big splash. The latest example of this would be The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb, which came out in the summer of 2002. We gave the book and the author all kinds of publicity, marketing, and online support. And the effort paid off--we sold a good number for a first novel in hardcover. More frequently, however, we publish a new author in trade paperback, as we did with Altered Carbon, by Richard  Morgan, and The Coyote Kings of the Space-age Batchelor Pad, by Minister Faust. This keeps the cover price lower and encourages people to experiment by buying someone they’ve never heard of before.  As to how many books we publish a year, Del Rey publishes about 24 hardcover, 20 trade paperback, and 48 mass-market books per year.

Q. The travel costs in Canada are often double or even triple what they are in the States. This means that many Canadian authors are unable to travel to many cons. What cons are best for people with limited budgets? Do editors and agents attend regional cons? Can you suggest any other strategies Canadians can use for networking and interesting editors and agents in their work?

A. World Fantasy is a great convention to meet a large number of professionals. The other is the International Conference of the Fantastic, held in Florida each spring.

Thank you very much for doing this, Ms. Mitchell. I know our readers will be very interested in what you’ve had to say.