Because Tom Doherty and people like that are not stupid. If they could have streamlined their operation more to get more money out of it, they would have done it. It's not like they're a bunch of idiots. Jerry Pournelle More Quotes by Jerry Pournelle More Quotes From Jerry Pournelle Freedom is not free. It is bought at a high price. It can be squandered cheaply. Jerry Pournelle high-prices You see, I used to do a certain amount of market research by going to the local drugstore and seeing what the truck drivers would put up. Now it's all just copies from the latest best-seller list and damn little of anything else. Jerry Pournelle lists research littles ...with what we spent in Iraq we could build nuclear power plants and space solar power satellites and tell the Arabs to drink their oil. Jerry Pournelle oil iraq space The importance of information is directly proportional to its improbability. Jerry Pournelle life-and-love importance information We're basically after Joe's beer money, and Joe likes his beer, so you better make sure that what you give him is at least as pleasurable to him as having his six-pack of beer would be. Jerry Pournelle better you money beer We do a hard fantasy as well as hard science fiction, and I think I probably single-handedly recreated military science fiction. It was dead before I started working in it. Jerry Pournelle dead think fantasy science To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. Jerry Pournelle everything reflection doubt believe There were probably, what, 300 science-fiction members in the SFWA, of whom probably a hundred were active members in the sense that they were selling something every year, or every couple years. Jerry Pournelle sense something year years Somebody's always getting me to come lecture to their writing class, and I don't talk about writing at all, I talk about the business of making a living at this racket. Jerry Pournelle me always business writing So, I guess the answer to your question is very few people can bring off a novel of the future because it's just so damn hard to make it look like the future. Jerry Pournelle your look future people One the other hand, the publishing trend is ghastly, isn't it? Two hundred and something distributors are now down to 10 or 12? And what's the recruiting drive? Jerry Pournelle drive down something now I started in this racket in the early '70s, and when I was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, of which I was like the sixth president, I was the first one nobody ever heard of. Jerry Pournelle nobody like science america Heinlein never had a best-seller. Even, I think, with Stranger in a Strange Land, I don't think it was actually on the New York Times best seller list. Jerry Pournelle new never best think Asimov was the reason why we changed some rules in the SFWA, and I'm not convinced we changed it for the best. Jerry Pournelle rules some best reason And meanwhile, the storytellers like me and Anderson, Silverberg... we tell stories. People like them. They want to know how it comes out, they want to know what the ending is. Jerry Pournelle ending know me people
