The delightful Nicola Budd is not only an excellent artist, but also an editor with Jo Fletcher Books. Horrorology was a major new project for her and here she talks about the experience.
So this is the second book you’ve helmed for JFB – is this your first anthology?
It is the first anthology I have taken charge on, but not the first anthology I’ve worked on for JFB, as I’ve also worked on the other wonderful anthologies from Steve: A Book of Horrors, Curious Warnings and Fearie Tales. The anthologies have been some of my favourite titles to work on so far because you get a taste of different authors’ writing (though that does come with its own challenges!), and for me, at least, it also helps a lot to break the editing down into more manageable chunks and keep it interesting.
What are the challenges of editing such a diverse anthology?
This is a good question! Steve does most of the editing on these anthologies, so it comes to me in a pretty clean state. Having said that, I do find it a challenging when there isn’t just one style of writing, as you have to get into the flow of so many different ideas and consider every author’s opinion. It can also be hard to maintain consistency across the stories – JFB has a house style we like to adhere to, and there are certain words that can be spelled differently, but should be uniform across the book. Creating the style sheet is a nightmare.
However, any challenges are pretty much offset by how interesting a project like this is to work on!
How much input have you had into the selection of internals and cover art?
This one was something of a team effort. Clive Barker sent us the internals we could use, then Steve, Jo and I each picked our favourites separately. Then we had a very business-like meeting (in a pub) over a bottle (a few bottles) of wine, and it turned out Clive had sent over some further images – so we just dropped everything we were going to do and went with those. Then Steve showed us the amazing visuals that he wanted for the cover and after a couple of questions we all agreed on those, too. Then Patrick Carpenter turned them into the cover you see today. Et voila – team effort image picking.
As for the typesetting style and internal text (fonts etc.), I’m going to claim the credit for that myself (selfish I know, but if I’m going to claim anything, it’s going to be that!), but it’s the typesetters who make my vague ideas for ‘medieval texts’ and ‘stone-cut fonts’ look so good.
What’s it like working with JFB?
I love working for Jo Fletcher Books. I sometimes can’t believe I hit the jackpot so early on in my career – working on books I love with some of the best and loveliest authors out there. I find some people have a bit of a stigma when it comes to SF, Fantasy and Horror, but sometimes they still have an old idea of what these genres mean; they have moved on so much since the early days and it’s such a pleasure to work on everything from Fantasy/Crime and Mystery crossovers (Lisa Tuttle – you, Angela! Can’t wait to release Vigil next year) to SF romance (Karen Lord), to novels that just can’t be defined (City of Stairs). Jo has done a brilliant job of finding something for everyone and it certainly keeps me on my toes!
The future of the book is …?
Wow, if I knew I suspect I’d be being paid a lot more than I am . . . and possibly be a god of some sort.