Stephen Jones Interview
Photo Credit: Peter Coleborn
Stephen Jones is the multi-award wining editor of the excellent Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror series. He has edited many books over the years, including Horror: The 100 Best Books (1988) and Horror: Another 100 Best Books (2005) (both with Kim Newman), and compiled such titles as The Hellraiser Chronicles (1992) and Clive Barker’s A-Z Of Horror (1997). He is a highly revered expert in the field of horror and fantastic fiction. His website is www.stephenjoneseditor.com.
Which authors did you read growing up?
In the 1960s, when I first began reading books in the genre, I started out reading such authors as H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, Lin Carter, Robert Heinlein and others. As time went on, these writers led me to other names, and my literary horizons expanded.
When I started, I read in all the genres – heroic and high fantasy, science fiction, horror – but as I went on I began to concentrate on certain authors and certain types of books. As much as I loved all aspects of the genre, I found myself drawn more to the darker types of books – those usually labelled “horror”. That’s where I found my real interest lay.
How did you get into writing and editing books?
In the early 1970s I discovered the British Fantasy Society. I quickly joined and began receiving their publications. It soon became apparent to me that I could do a better job with some of them, so over the years I ended up editing a number of BFS periodicals – most notably Dark Horizons, the Society’s magazine featuring fiction and articles. This allowed me to forge lasting relationships with many writers and artists, which helped greatly when David Sutton and I launched our own small press fiction magazine, Fantasy Tales, in 1977.
At that time there were not that many publications devoted to genre fiction – on either side of the Atlantic. Because the markets were limited, we found we were able to attract such established writers as Michael Moorcock, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Kenneth Bulmer and others to the magazine, even though we were not able to pay all that much.
Because of the quality of the fiction we published and the clean layout and design, Fantasy Tales turned out to be quite a success and won a number of awards. Some years later, while attending the British Fantasy Convention in 1987, Dave and I were approached at the bar by Nick Robinson, who had recently set-up his own UK publishing imprint. He asked if we had ever thought about doing a book of stories from the magazine. In fact, we had been trying for a couple of years without much success. As it turned out, Kim Newman and I pitched the idea for Horror: 100 Best Books to Xanadu around the same time. So the following year, at the World Fantasy Convention in London, I found myself launching three new books – the Xandu title, plus The Best Horror From Fantasy Tales and a new paperback incarnation of Fantasy Tales from Robinson. And that’s pretty much what I’ve done ever since...
Can you give me a bit of background detail on your Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror series?
Well, I continued working with Robinson on their very successful series of “Mammoth” anthologies. Nick had bought Gardner Dozois’ annual SF “Year’s Best” series from America to add to the imprint and then approached me to edit a companion horror title.
At that time, my friend Karl Edward Wagner was doing his annual horror series for DAW Books in the US, and Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling had just launched their horror/fantasy “Year’s Best” into the same market. The attraction for me was that the Robinson title, unlike the other two, would also be published in the UK as well as the US (under the Carroll & Graf imprint). However, I wanted Ramsey Campbell – whose critical acumen I trust more than anybody else I know in the genre – to co-edit with me. Thankfully, he readily agreed and, after checking with Karl that he had no objections, the first volume of The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror was published in 1989.
As it went on, so it became a lot more work. Ramsey left after five volumes to concentrate on his own writing, and I have continued to edit it alone ever since. I get a lot of help from correspondents, but I still read all the submissions, handle the contracts and compile the final volume. These days it’s a huge amount of work – usually taking around eight or nine months out of my year. But it’s probably still the most rewarding experience I have as an editor. I love compiling the introductory overview and the extensive necrology, and it affords me the opportunity to read and buy fiction from newer writers just beginning to make their mark on the genre, along with the more established names.
Last year we published The Best Of Best New Horror, which contained one story from each year in the series’ twenty-year history. The quality of material was remarkable, but I could have easily published another ten stories for every one I chose. So I’m extraordinarily proud of my work on Best New Horror.
Can you tell me about some of your experiences working on books with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman and Clive Barker?
Since I began, I’ve seen editing as a collaborative process with the writers, publishers, artists, whoever. Perhaps this is because I came out of television – where whatever you do is achieved with a team of writers, producers, actors and technical crew. It just seemed very natural to me to share the creative process with people I can trust.
As I said earlier, it made absolute sense for me to bring Ramsey on board for The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror – his involvement would only make the finished book a better product. And the same is usually true of the other people I’ve collaborated with.
I had known Clive since Ramsey introduced us – before the Books Of Blood were even published. I had been working as a unit publicist on Clive’s Hellraiser and Nightbreed movies when I pitched the idea for The Nightbreed Chronicles, which I could put together while the film was still in production. That led directly to The Hellraiser Chronicles and the bio/bibliographic Clive Barker’s Shadows In Eden. Some years later, BBC Books contacted me about writing the tie-in to the TV series Clive Barker’s A-Z Of Horror. It was a rush job, but I liked the challenge of turning the show into a reference book. Clive gave me his blessing, and the BBC pretty much allowed me to do what I wanted. In fact, I even ended up designing the whole project as well. Unfortunately, they then decided to bury the series in a late-night slot.
I had been introduced to Kim by mutual friends at the World Science Fiction convention in Brighton. As we both live in London, it was only natural that we would move in the same circles. Kim is one of those multi-talented guys who can turn his hand to anything – fiction, reviews, articles, scripts, broadcasting etc. We initially came up with the format for Horror: 100 Best Books – a collection of reviews written by established names in the field – over dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Soho. Again, Kim’s one of those people – like Ramsey – who brings more to any collaboration. In many ways we compliment each other, although he’s much more knowledgeable than I am, and we work easily together. And that’s probably the most important thing you need from somebody you’re collaborating with.
I first met Neil when he was a young freelance journalist who came along to a British Fantasy Convention I was co-organising to interview Robert Silverberg. Again, we found ourselves moving in the same circles and became friends as well as colleagues. Neil has been very generous to me over the years. When I was struggling after initially going freelance in the late 1980s, he helped find me work. And later, after he had become a world-famous brand, he got me the job of writing the art book tie-ins to the movies of Stardust and Coraline, based on his original works. He has also been incredibly supportive of the anthologies and other projects as well . . .
There are many other people, such as Ramsey Campbell, Michael Marshall Smith and David Sutton, that is has been an absolute pleasure to work with over the years.
What’s your daily routine as editor?
I’m very lucky that I am able to work from home. After breakfast and various household chores, I’m usually at my desk by around 9:30 a.m. I then check and answer the omnipresent e-mail. Once they have been dealt with (and that can take anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours), I then write until 1:00pm, when I break for a half-hour lunch. I then write or read for the remainder of the afternoon, usually finishing around 6:00 p.m.
Sometimes I’ll then spend twenty minutes to half-an-hour on the exercise bike watching a DVD, before dinner and TV. Then I’m usually back on the computer for an hour or so before I go to bed, checking e-mail again and looking at eBay (I love collecting stuff).
Unless I’m in town for meetings or at a convention, I tend to do this seven days a week, every week during the year. The only day I take off is Christmas Day. And if I have a particularly pressing deadline, then I will go back to work for a couple of hours in the evening after dinner. That’s how you get things done. Although, that said, I’ve noticed that I’m starting to slow down as I get older.
Which books are your most proud of as editor and writer?
As I said before, I’m very proud of my work on The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror series. Probably the other book I am most proud of is The Essential Monster Movie Guide, which was published in 1999. It took me three years to research and write, and I think it’s one of the best volumes of its type up until then. Of course, the market for those kinds of reference volumes is pretty much dead now – the Internet has taken over as the primary source for that kind of thing, and can do it much better.
But, to be honest, I’m reasonably proud of nearly all the books I’ve done. I only take on projects that interest me, and I try to give 110% to everything I do. Not everything turns out the way you hoped – either through your fault or somebody else’s – but if my name’s on it, then I have to stand by the end result. There are always reasons why a certain project fails to live up to expectations, but I’ve found that that’s all part of the creative process – right back to my television days.
Which books proved the most difficult to write/edit?
Some of the tie-in books. The anthology series. With the Stardust and Coraline books, for example, I had very little to work with – film companies are notoriously secretive, even with the people who are trying to work with them on tie-in projects. This is why the Nightbreed and Hellraiser volumes were so easy to do – I was in control of the publicity, so I could supply exactly what I needed. With the two Gaiman books I had almost nothing to work with, so it’s a matter of finding a different way “into” the book. With Coraline, we made it about the whole creative process surrounding the concept, not just the movie, and that allowed me some flexibility. You also hope it gives the book a wider appeal and a greater longevity than just a movie tie-in.
With series like the Dark Voices and Dark Terrors anthologies, it’s coming up with a superior compilation year-after-year. Publishers are always very supportive of these books when they start out, but after you’ve wracked up a few numbers after the title, they begin to lose interest and stop supporting the series quite so much. There are plenty of good stories out there, but without promotion and publicity, these anthology series are doomed to decline and eventual failure. That’s what happened to both those titles, despite the fact that we featured a remarkable line-up of authors and some incredible short stories, several of them award-winners.
Nowadays I usually prefer to do the one-off titles such as Summer Chills, The Dead That Walk or Visitants. And, of course, The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror.
Who are your favourite authors at the moment?
Many of my favourite writers are still the ones I grew up reading. It was an absolute delight for me to put together the H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard collections for Gollancz because it afforded me an opportunity to re-read most of these stories again many years after I first encountered them. Not only was it a real privilege to work on those titles, but it gave me the opportunity to hopefully make their work more accessible to a new generation of readers.
There are other writers, such as Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Manly Wade Wellman, C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, Stephen King, Charles L. Grant, Dennis Etchison, Karl Edward Wagner and numerous others, who I never get tired of reading and re-reading.
If you are referring to more contemporary names, then there are probably far too many to mention here. I still delight in anything that Ramsey Campbell writes. The same is true of Neil, and Kim Newman, Michael Marshall Smith and Cailtín R. Kiernan, to name only a few. Of the somewhat newer writers, in no particular order, there’s people like Glen Hirshberg, Robert Shearman, Simon Strantzas, Joe Hill, Sarah Pinborough, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Angela Slatter, John Langan and numerous others, who are turning out so much superior work these days.
What books have you read recently that you’d recommend?
Because of the limit on my time these days, I rarely get to read for pleasure. I mostly read anthologies, collections and magazines for Best New Horror consideration.
I was recently blown away by Angela Slatter’s collection Soughdough And Other Stories, and I really enjoyed the anthology Haunted Legends edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas. There are probably plenty of other recent titles that I can’t recall at the moment...
What is your personal library like? Do you have an extensive collection?
Sadly, I don’t have the space in my house to keep everything. I’m forever culling my collection of books to add new titles. I usually hang on to the better anthologies and collections for future reference, but I just can’t keep everything that I would like to. Stuff is coming into the house all the time. And god knows when I’ll ever get around to reading most of the novels now anyway.
I love collecting books, and I guess I have a good collection – many signed and rare editions. But I also collect other stuff as well – movie memorabilia, tie-in toys, original artwork – and there’s simply not enough room to keep it all on display.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer wanting to get a short story published?
Firstly, be honest with yourself. Are you really any good as a writer? Are you at least as talented as the other writers already being published in your chosen field? If the honest answer is “no”, then I would suggest finding another vocation or at least being aware of your limitations when you set out on your career path.
There are way too many authors out there trying to get their work published, and most of them –frankly – are either rubbish or simply not good enough to stand out from the rest of the crowd. To make a successful career as a short story writer you must have something different or remarkable to offer. Just being competent is not going to be enough in such a highly competitive marketplace.
The best short stories are beautifully written and have something different or original to impart to the reader. Either one of these traits is not good enough just on its own. You must have a command of language and plot that makes your work unique amongst other submissions. Otherwise you are just another wannabe.
I should also add that it is incredibly difficult to earn a living being a short story writer. Or any kind of writer, come to that. Very few people are fortunate enough to make a full-time career out of it.
Can you recommend any websites or magazines that publish short stories by new authors?
Under editor Gordon Van Gelder, the venerable Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction continues to publish some of the best and most eclectic genre fiction around. Subterranean Online consistently features excellent stories. The Postscripts magazine anthologies from PS Publishing always contain interesting work, while Cemetery Dance and Black Static still publish horror fiction in the print media.
You know, I include a list of “Useful Addresses” each year in The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror which is specifically aimed at new authors and interested readers.
What’s your opinion on the recent mass spate of vampire books?
If you’re referring to the glut of “Urban Fantasy” or “Paranormal Romance” titles, then in my opinion the majority of them have nothing to do with the genre that I am involved with. They are not actually “horror” books – they really belong in the “romance” section along with the rest of that drivel. They do a disservice to our genre and it saddens me seeing authors and organisations like the Horror Writers Association jumping on this bandwagon simply because they think they can make money from it.
It’s like the horror “boom” of the 1980s – for a while there, horror was considered a successful genre to work in and suddenly hack writers and opportunistic publishers were falling over themselves to hitch their product to the bandwagon. As a result, the market quickly became flooded with substandard material and within a couple of years the genre imploded to such an extent that it has never fully recovered to this day.
Although it has lasted longer, the same will eventually happen with “Paranormal Romances” as well. A few of the better authors may survive and continue to have careers in the genre – if that’s what they want – but the majority will move on to whatever the next Big Theme in publishing will be, and again start knocking out multiple titles per year under a variety of pseudonyms. And you know, that’s their prerogative.
But let’s not in any way confuse what they are doing with real vampire or werewolf fiction. It’s a silly, homogenised version of some iconic fictional tropes that, for some reason, seem to have struck a chord with an audience of mostly undiscerning female readers. I don’t blame them, they have every right to read whatever entertainment they want – no matter how poorly written or derivative it may be. In my opinion, it is the writers and, especially, the publishers churning out this crap who should all be ashamed of themselves.
I’ve just watched a documentary of Harlan Ellison called Dreams With Sharp Teeth. Have you had any “Ellison experiences” at conventions over the years?
I thought it was an excellent film. I first encountered the legend that is Harlan Ellison at a convention in Texas back in the late 1970s. Since then we have met on many occasions, I have been a guest in his house, he has been my guest for dinner, and he has kindly (if not quietly!) contributed to a number of my projects over the years.
Harlan is a perfect example of an author with absolute belief in himself and his work (at least in public). Over the years he has created a “brand” that continues to get him noticed – whether you love him or loathe him. Personally, I think he is one of the most professional authors I have ever had the pleasure of working with and anybody who finds him “difficult” probably should look at their own behaviour before criticising him.
I wouldn’t dream of revealing any “Ellison experiences” here, not least because I want to continue working with him. I will say that he telephoned me just a couple of days ago about something and, even though I find him very amusing, out of all the authors I have ever known he still has the ability to scare the shit out of me every time we talk!
Are you pleased that H.P. Lovecraft appears to be very popular these days with all the reissues and reprints of his (short) bibliography?
Of course I am delighted that an author like Lovecraft is now so accessible to everyone, although to be honest August Derleth and Donald Wandrie started that process more than seventy years ago with Arkham House. H.P. Lovecraft, like Robert E. Howard, M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and so many others, deserves to have his writings kept in print for perpetuity. I am only happy that I have had a small role in helping to do that.
There are so many collections of Lovecraft’s work out there now that he is out of copyright, that we wanted to make sure that we did something special with the Gollancz editions that would enable them to stand out from the others.
I’m not bothered with “preferred” texts – Lovecraft (or Howard for that matter), didn’t seem to care much about such things during their lifetimes. Like most writers, they needed to be edited and it is only the so-called “experts” who have come much later who insist on restoring their work to the original drafts – warts and all. This is something that I suspect that neither author would have much approved of, especially as their work often benefited from the editing of such luminaries as Weird Tales’ Farnsworth Wright and the much under-appreciated August Derleth.
So, using these “original” texts – the ones that I grew up reading – as our starting point, we took care to ensure that we gave the readers extra value for money: Les Edwards’ multiple illustrations perfectly compliment Lovecraft’s imagery, I’ve contributed historical Afterwords with numerous rare cover reproductions, and Gollancz produced very attractive leather-bound volumes for a fraction of the price charged by some limited edition presses.
The first Howard and Lovecraft volumes have sold an astonishing number of copies and have gone through multiple printings (with the Lovecraft now edging slightly ahead, even though it was published later). The companion Robert E. Howard volume, Conan’s Brethren was finally published at the beginning of 2011, with the second H.P. Lovecraft collection, Eldritch Tales, due out later in the year. There are a couple of surprises in the latter that I hope will please HPL fans.
Can you tell me about your latest collection Zombie Apocalypse!?
It’s not really a collection, or an anthology for that matter. I’ve been referring to it as a “mosaic novel”. The people at Robinson wanted to do a different kind of zombie book, and I came up with the initial idea over our pub lunch (which is when I tend to come up with some of my best ideas!).
I created a complete plot and a rough time-line and then approached a group of writers who I knew I could trust to flesh out (as it were) the various different entries. The twist was that all the stories had to be written in a distinct “style” – letter, e-mail, text, diary, newspaper article, website, etc. – to give a sense of verisimilitude to the whole proceedings. It also helped that I used writers whose backgrounds or life experiences matched the sections I assigned them. They were then able to bring their skills and knowledge to the fiction. It was then my job to stitch the whole thing together, cross-reference some of the situations and characters, and create a believable time-line for the zombie virus to spread around the world.
I also love the fact that the name for this technique – of a work collectively assembled – is Cadavre Exquis, or “Exquisite Corpse”! How appropriate is that for a book about the walking dead . . .?
It was a lot of hard work, and probably one of the more difficult books I’ve ever compiled. But it was also incredibly exciting in a creative way. The authors were all wonderful to work with, and I was blessed with a great editing and design team who understood exactly what I was trying to achieve. However, despite all that, I was really worried how the book would be received. I really was pushing the envelope on this one, and the tone of the book is wildly uneven in places – which is what you would expect from a world-wide disaster.
Anyway, Zombie Apocalypse! has done incredibly well in the UK, going back for a second printing in less than a month. Robinson has produced some great marketing and publicity, and the reviews have – overall – been very positive. The book was only released in America just before Christmas, so we’ll have to see how it does over there, but there are already some very exciting developments happening around the project that will be hopefully announced soon.
What are your forthcoming projects?
Well, I don’t usually like to talk about projects before they are done. However, I can say that I have two more volumes of The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror in the pipeline, along with another stand-alone “Mammoth” title that will be a bit different for me. The Mammoth Book Of Dracula is also being reissued in 2011 in a revised and updated edition. I also have another one-off anthology with Ulysses Press, the Californian publisher I did The Dead That Walk and Visitants with. Invariably, there’s a pile of fun projects forthcoming from PS Publishing, which will roll out over the next few years, and following the huge success of The World Horror Convention in Brighton in early 2010, I’m involved again in something even bigger and more exciting that will come to fruition in 2013.
On top of all that, there are always a number of books and other projects in various stages of development, and no doubt the odd surprise that even I’m not expecting at this point! That’s what continues to make life so interesting. So I’ve got plenty to keep me going at the moment, and that’s all you can ever really ask for...
Interview by Neil Daniels 2011
