Jeff Gerke Comments on Marcher Lord Press Sale
Marcher Lord Press founder Jeff Gerke (center) with MLP authors Kathy Tyers (left) and Morgan Busse (right) at the 2013 Realm Makers conference on Aug. 2. (Photo by Kathrese Coleman McKee)
In a Facebook discussion about Marcher Lord Press being sold to literary agent Steve Laube1, MLP founder Jeff Gerke has shared more. The first “marcher lord” particularly asked fans to support the second “marcher lord,” calling him a true torchbearer for fantastic Christian fiction.
Guys, I’ve been staying out of these discussions, but I feel I need to intervene here. (I may wish I hadn’t later, lol.)
This sale is a great thing for our genre, for MLP, for the MLP authors, and for everyone who loves this sort of fiction. If I were in a position to purchase a publishing house, and if I had a clear idea for what I wanted to do with it and how I thought I could succeed with it, I would approach the owner with that plan in mind. If I didn’t think certain things would fit my plan, I wouldn’t include them. That doesn’t mean I think they’re bad or whatever; it means only that they don’t fit my strategy. I might leave those things for someone else to take up and explore, and more power to them, but for what I had in mind, I wouldn’t be doing them justice, so I’d want to set them free to do what they want.
That’s what’s happened here. And please don’t refer to Steve as someone who is not a trailblazer. You can make the case that we wouldn’t be having the discussion of what Christian speculative is or isn’t if Steve hadn’t done what he has done to promote it over the years.
If it can be said that I have been bearing the torch for Christian speculative fiction for the last few years, then you have to know that I took the torch from Steve, who bore it a lot longer than I did and who is bearing it again. It’s all good, you guys.
(And if you really want to see more Hinterlands-style fiction, write it. I got astonishingly few proposals for that line. And if you REALLY want to see more of it, become a publisher and publish it yourself!)
- See Marcher Lord Press Regenerates, Jan. 1. ↩
Thanks for weighing in on this, Jeff, and lending some inside perspective to this discussion. I think we as authors get pretty worked up when we worry our domain could somehow be changing or shrinking–which I personally doubt will be the case with someone as influential as Steve Laube handling MLP. I also appreciate what you said about differences in vision. Steve’s vision may be slightly different from yours, but that doesn’t make it bad.
Onward and upward! May we all see the good in what’s to come, rather than freaking out at “different.”
For fans of this genre: Irony much?
Ironically, no. Geeks REALLY don’t like change much. Geeks are conservative in a way people don’t get, because they value continuity and myth in their fandoms. Even liberal ones, like with the whole “should the next Doctor be a woman?” thing.
After we squabbled about Santa, it’s my great pleasure to announce that I couldn’t agree more.
I think fans of this genre have a heightened sensitivity to the fact that not all change is constructive. Today Boston Dynamics, tomorrow, maybe, Skynet. We also have this odd tendency to, well, speculate about what the future may bring–and have strong opinions about that.
Though nobody should get too excited until Mr. Laube lays out his intentions on Jan 6, I don’t think it’s inappropriate in the meantime to identify concerns about CBA influence, the implications of publisher and agency cohabiting, motivation for excluding two apparently very successful products from the deal, etc. We’re writers and fans…we have some investment in this organization and its welfare. Beware of devolving your “discussion forum” into a pep club.
Thanks for saying this, Fred. I don’t think disagreement or skepticism are dangerous or destructive, as long as we respect each other’s opinions and each other as people. A culture of happy yes-people is hollow.
At least, it’s hollow if no one ever goes beyond saying “This is great! I can’t wait to see what God is going to do!” Not that I’m criticizing that sentiment; it’s good if it’s sincere. But not everyone should be content to stop there, even if they ultimately end up supporting the change.