Open Book Society has just put up an interview with author Michael A. Burstein (I REMEMBER THE FUTURE and ten-time Hugo nominee)! Take a look and find out about how he composes stories, how he writes with two new kids in the house, and his impression of what defines “science fiction”!

“As an author does the current state of the publishing industry concern you at all? Has it affected you and if so, how?

I don’t think there’s ever been a time when the publishing industry wasn’t in some state of flux. It’s just more pronounced right now because of the types of changes we’re going through.

The current changes haven’t affected me that much in my role as a writer, and I suspect that most writers won’t be affected that badly. At the lowest level, we’re still doing what we always did, which is writing stories that we hope people will enjoy. How those stories get delivered to our readers, whether by print magazines or electronic media, is irrelevant so long as a market still exists.

The real problem isn’t the industry, but the market. Are there still enough readers of short stories out there, for example, to make it worthwhile to write short fiction? There’s been a lot of talk recently that writing short fiction is going to become a labor of love.

The problem is that editing short fiction looks like it might also be moving in that direction. There are some very good webzines out there whose editors don’t earn a living from their editing, and as long as part of their philosophy is to make sure that their writers do in fact get paid a professional rate, people seem to be fine with it. But an editor serves as a gatekeeper, an arbiter of taste, and you can’t just find good fiction by randomly visiting websites. And like writers, editors need to eat. My hope is that the more things change, the more they will stay the same.”

Read the whole interview here!