EDGE planned to publish its first book within two years and spent an exhaustive amount of time working on a business plan, building up EDGE awareness and soliciting new authors and submissions. The Black Chalice was an instant success and so was EDGE.In 2003 EDGE incorporated Tesseract Books into the EDGE collective and increased distribution to a national level.

Today the EDGE publishing program is fast, flexible and expanding quickly. We accept agented and un-agented submissions, and attempt to balance the release of both fantasy and science fiction titles equally.

Our mission is to build a publishing house that will allow us to publish talented authors (both new and established authors) making them and their works both visible and available to SF&F readers. To date, we have published novels, short story collections and authors from Canada, the USA, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

What is the publishing process like at EDGE, once you have agreed to publish the author’s book?

Once we’ve agreed to publish the author’s work, we sign a contract to produce and sell the author’s work as a book. We also acquire the right to promote the work in other venues such as a screen play for the movies. This point is negotiable, of course, but we think we are in a position to help further an author’s career in that way as well.

Do you pay an advance?

Yes, we do. It usually isn’t as much as the author hopes for, but it does fairly represent our interest and goodwill in the author’s work.

In my experience, many small presses are able to get an author’s book published, but fall woefully short when it comes to their marketing and distribution of the product. Tell me what you feel are both the author’s and the publisher’s responsibilities in getting the book out to the reading public.

I believe the responsibility is a shared one. We develop a basic media kit which includes the author’s biography, a synopsis of the work, a photo (if required) and a collection of the book’s reviews. We also send out review copies to the media and do direct mailings to readers. Our catalogue is distributed through our distributor twice a year. We maintain our own website which is updated weekly and contains information about our current and up-coming books. Janice, our marketing manager, is in touch with all of the major media and keeps everyone up to date with email, faxes and phone calls. Authors need to keep in mind that they are the biggest part of the marketing team and until the last book is sold, readers will be looking to contact the author to see if their books are still available.

What type of books is EDGE looking for? Is there any particular theme in the genre that you favor?

The publishing program is flexible and changes over time. Our general direction of course is to try to balance fantasy and science fiction titles so that we produce roughly equal amounts in both genres. Currently, we have more science fiction than fantasy, so we are looking for some great fantasy submissions.

When you are marketing outside of Canada, do you feel that a novel that contains a lot of Canadian content has a disadvantage?

There are two schools of thought on this. One is that Canadian authors represent a gold mine of talent and that U.S. readers are curious about what Canadian authors have to say and write about. That being said, that same U.S. readership is also very interested in subjects that are familiar and close to their own hearts when it comes to the genre. When one thinks of alternative histories set in Canada for example, there is probably less interest in the U.S. than there would be for a fantastic, dragon-based society—which is far more generic.

Could you briefly summarize how you like to be approached by perspective authors wishing to offer you a manuscript? Do you mind being button-holed at conventions?

I prefer, when approached personally, that the author keep it short, friendly and business-like. I’m interested in hearing about new and interesting story-lines that fit into a particular part of the genre, fantasy, alternative history, SF, whatever. I hope that the author will have already prepared a two- or three-line unique selling proposition that will pique my interest by telling me why a reader and I might find a particular story interesting. I appreciate receiving a business card (not an entire 6.000-page manuscript).

If the idea was interesting I might email the author for further information. If I don’t followed up—which can happen when I get busy—I don’t mind being reminded. Just send me an email reminding me of our talk and where we met.

All submissions are tracked by Anita. You receive confirmation by email (or letter if you do not have email). It can take eight to 12 weeks to review your submission. We receive more than 40 manuscripts a month and we publish between eight and 12 titles a year. Obviously there is a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. If your work is not what we are looking for—I hate to use the word rejection—don’t lose heart. Sometimes our process isn’t about rejecting an author’s work but may be about having to make practical business decisions about EDGE.

Are eight to 12 titles a year about average for a small press?

Every press is different. Because we are dedicated to publishing only science fiction and fantasy, we put all of our time, energy and resources into the genre. We currently have 10 titles scheduled for 2006

Did you always publish so many?

No. In the first two years we published 1 1/2 books. Since 2002, our production has increased every year.

What are your thoughts about posting portions or entire books on your website as Baen does?

We currently post the first chapter of new novels.

I’ve heard small publishers say that publishing trade books is the only way to make a profit. On the other hand, book stores complain that trade-sized books don’t fit on their shelves. It would seem to me that if trade-sized genre books are placed in another part of the store because of their size, they aren’t going to be seen and bought as frequently by the reader as the mass market books are going to be. Could you speak to the controversy surrounding the size and cost of books?

Every publisher approaches this in a different way. There are a lot of considerations–from font size (age of reader) issues to business considerations such as the cost of production (profitability), available printing presses (size of printing press), perception of the "street" value of the finished book, etc. Booksellers who do not have flexible shelving now should invest in new shelving units in the near future. Authors should be aware of the projected growth patterns for used book stores as well as our proposed "fair trade" initiative.

Unlike music CD’s or video DVD’s, there are no "standards" for book size. In fact most publishers consider book design to be one of the "value added" elements that make books interesting and different from other information "products".

Thank you very much for doing this, Brian Hades, and we will look forward to reading the upcoming titles from EDGE.