On April 19, 2004, Prometheus Books announced it was launching
Pyr, a science fiction and fantasy imprint that would publish its first title
the following spring. At that time, Prometheus was entering its thirty-fifth
year as an independent publisher of nonfiction, with popular science being one
of its core categories. The company felt that there would be a natural
connection to this genre, noting the long history of mutual inspiration and
admiration between science nonfiction and speculative fiction.
Lou Anders was hired as Pyr’s editorial director. Guided by
his vision, and charting new waters for the parent press, the Pyr imprint achieved
many successes but was not immune to misses, either. Over the years, there were
many award-winning moments and sales successes—and some missteps and
disappointments, too. Anders embraced an additional role as the face, and often,
spokesperson, of Pyr—a role at which he excelled. But from day one, many people
worked to build the Pyr brand. Every book Anders acquired (just as those
acquired by our nonfiction and later, crime fiction, editors) became the
responsibility of the entire Prometheus Books team. Many dedicated marketers,
editors, publicists, designers, typesetters, and production and sales staff
contributed creativity, ideas, and hard work to each Pyr book and series we
published.
As all parents of ten year-olds will recognize, young tweens
have a powerful desire to separate from the direction a caretaker has always
provided and want nothing more than to blaze their own trail regardless of any stumbles
that may occur in doing so. With Lou
Anders’s departure, it would be a mistake to assume that Pyr, at age ten,
cannot potentially benefit from some fresh independence and room to be guided
by other voices.
Rene Sears has been part of our professional family for
quite some time and is uniquely qualified to shepherd Pyr projects through this
time of transition and growth. (She has
such familiarity with our list and the genre as a whole that she’s been a
valuable information-font at our DragonCon booths. We missed her there this
year!) Prometheus Books is so happy to welcome her into this role and we have
already had encouraging discussions on cover direction, author and agent
relationships, manuscript readiness, and other matters. We are quite confident in her abilities to
help our ten-year-old imprint navigate this separation and become even more
self-sufficient and strong.
We’ve recently heard from independent booksellers that their
customers are hungry for science fiction again, despite the predominance of
fantasy over these last several years. That’s
encouraging. National retailers have indicated they see a resurgence in space
opera—a category in which we’ve not only published before but one in which we
have a new series starting in December with THE FORTRESS IN ORION (Dead
Enders, Book One) by Mike Resnick. Also, good news.
Our 2004 press release announcing the Pyr launch included
this aim: "With Pyr, we’ll be looking to create science fiction for the
Next Age.” After ten years of proudly bearing Anders's personal stamp, Pyr is
ready for its next age. We thank all our readers, and authors, for their
continued support.
