Lois Tilton Leaves Locus Online

Lois Tilton will no longer be reviewing for Locus Online she told readers of SFF.Net Webnews today.

I wish to announce that, after 205 columns, I’ve resigned as reviewer of short fiction for Locus Online. Without consulting or informing me, they had begun deleting material they considered negative from my reviews. To me, this is censorship and completely unacceptable. If a publication includes stories of no merit or interest, this is something a review should mention.

I had also begun to have misgivings about participating in the selection of the Locus Recommended Reading List, because of the possibility of conflict of interest.

So publishers with material for review will have to find another venue. Don’t send it to me.

Since it’s actually not likely that too many publishers will be reading here, passing on this announcement to relevant outlets would be helpful.

Before joining Locus Online, Tilton reviewed short fiction for the Internet Review of Science Fiction. She said in a 2012 interview:

In my first column at IROSF, I wrote as my manifesto: “I consider that my mandate is to the readers, not the authors or editors of the stories I review. I have no one else to please and no one else’s opinion concerns me, save that of the editors of IROSF.” This still holds true, mutatis mutandis, with Locus. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t keep doing reviews. When I reached the age of curmudgeonhood I decided that the rest of life is too short to let other people tell me what I can and can’t say.

65 thoughts on “Lois Tilton Leaves Locus Online

  1. Holy shit, Locus has been removing negative statements from Tilton’s reviews?

    I… just don’t even.

  2. Locus has become more and more financially dependent on a handful of major SF and fantasy publishers, particularly Tor / Orb and what is now Penguin Random House, to purchase a lot of advertising each monthly issue.

    This has become increasingly important as their actual paid subscriptions have dropped by at least a third to just over six thousand according to advertising rate page on their website.

    Is Locus concerned about those publishers pulling advertising? No idea but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were. Would a major publisher put pressure on a magazine to spike unfavourable material? Gee I can’t imagine that happening…

  3. “Without consulting or informing me, they had begun deleting material they considered negative from my reviews.”

    Wow, is this true? I am gobsmacked.

  4. Although it does not excuse editing out “negativity” without consent, it’s worth noting that Charles Brown was very opposed to negative reviews, so that might provide some context for motive, but not the way it Tilton claims it was done, which needs no context. That sort of thing is dead wrong for a place like Locus.

    It will be interesting to see what Locus has to say about this.

  5. Wait, Locus *actually* started removing her negative reviews because they might upset people? That’s truly revolting.
    If a story is genuinely bad in the eyes of the reviewer, then it deserved to be smashed, no matter how the other parties might feel. Removing that is censorship and she was in the right to leave.

  6. A Wee Green Man said: Locus has become more and more financially dependent on a handful of major SF and fantasy publishers, particularly Tor / Orb and what is now Penguin Random House, to purchase a lot of advertising each monthly issue.

    But Lois Tilton reviewed short fiction almost exclusively, so would the big novel publishers even pay any attention to that? Seems doubtful to me.

    I am also curious to hear Locus’s version of events. For all that I did not always agree with Tilton’s take on things and I know some people found her tonedeaf on some subjects, I always appreciated that she was an honest reviewer with a long reading history, and I’m sorry to see her go.

  7. Josh Jasper: Yes, that was Charlie Brown’s philosophy, as you say. I remember having a conversation about that with him myself.

    Charlie extended that to the kind of news he would cover, as well.

  8. Both those publishers do publish a large number of anthologies and single author collections. Though I can’t say for certain if my knowledge is always true, I’ve been told by editors and packagers alike who’ve had (and do so no names will be cited) that anthologies in particular are highly profitable if the rights are done as a one-off with no future rights stated.

    And I was told further that a collection of material from a writer like Leiber or Heinlein was even more profitable as long as you could throw a rarely reprinted piece or two in the there for the completists as story rights were quite reasonable.

    If you subscribe to Locus, just count the anthologies and single author collections that Simon & Schuster, Macmillian and Penguin Random House have in their ads. It’ll surprise you I believe.

  9. Holy cats, what!?!

    I’ve only just spotted this and still have to read it all … But Lois Tilton is a sensible person and a conscientious reviewer. If she is unhappy with Locus Online then something is seriously wrong over there.

  10. I worked for a magazine for Second Life where the rule was “praise what you like, and for what you don’t like, be silent.”. But I knew that as the House policy and it was very clear and upfront that’s the way they wanted their articles. So I had no problem with that.

    But to just go ahead and edit her like this…Holy Cats, that’s an untenable position.

  11. Wow. If you’re going to remove unfavorable content from reviews, why even have reviews in the first place?

    Also, editing people’s reviews without their knowledge or consent is a massive dick move. Like, so massive it has a gravitational field of sufficient size to put objects in orbit around it.

  12. Lois Tilton was the only thing from Locus I read regularly. I hope she lands somewhere else or self-publishes her work. I enjoyed her serious take on the field.

  13. I wonder how long Locus has been doing this, and why Lois didn’t notice before now. Every reviewer I know always checks the published version of their work, be it online or print, to see that it got done correctly.

    Also I’ve found the idea of reviewing single stories within anthologies, magazines or collections to be not to my taste. I’m not going to seek out a reviewed work that exists within a larger work by purchasing the latter. I like a review of say an Ellen Datlow collection to tell me enough about the contents in totality to give a feel for getting that work.

  14. Josh Jasper said:

    Although it does not excuse editing out “negativity” without consent, it’s worth noting that Charles Brown was very opposed to negative reviews …

    It’s certainly not unique to him; there’s an attitude that pops up here and there in various fandoms that if you don’t love absolutely everything in that genre/medium/whatever, you’re not really a fan of whatever it is.

    And Alex Case asked:

    If you’re going to remove unfavorable content from reviews, why even have reviews in the first place?

    As far as I can tell, some people think that a “review” is just a space for basking in the wonderful existence of whatever general thing is being “reviewed”.

  15. I didn’t always agree with Tilton’s reviews, but I trusted her to be honest in them. This is a loss for the genre. I also hope that she finds another venue where she can continue reviewing.

    It doesn’t matter who Locus hires now, I’m not going to be able to rely on their interviews to not be artificially skewed positive, either by the writer or by the editors. 😐

  16. Egads. A terrible policy and a horrible move towards an honest person. I didn’t always agree with her either, but you knew where she stood and she had integrity.

  17. I wonder how long Locus has been doing this, and why Lois didn’t notice before now.

    Maybe the edits were happening long after publication.

  18. It’s probably best not to speculate about how or when or what was noticed. It’s Ms. Tilton’s choice to say or not.

  19. Before everyone decides that Locus is dead to them forever (FOREVER), maybe wait a day to see if the magazine releases a statement of their own. Just because Tilton characterizes the incident as “deleting material they considered negative” doesn’t mean that’s accurate or fair.

    Jerk that knee a little slower, maybe

  20. Harry Connolly: Before everyone decides that Locus is dead to them forever (FOREVER), maybe wait a day to see if the magazine releases a statement of their own. Just because Tilton characterizes the incident as “deleting material they considered negative” doesn’t mean that’s accurate or fair.

    Please provide instances where deleting portions of an author’s reviews without the author’s knowledge or permission would be justifiable.

    My knee is staying right where it is, thank you very much.

  21. I don’t recall a single person here saying anything of the sort.

    I have the greatest respect for Lois Tilton’s integrity. Yet Locus is also a major part of the community.

    The news is startling. I am waiting to see what further news comes out.

  22. I miss the days when it was expected that reviewers were critics. Even my 5 star books can have negative notes – things others might not enjoy/content warnings.

    Editing someone’s work after they’ve published it without their knowledge is wrong.

    I expect there is another side to the story but I’ll be a bit wary of it.

  23. I would like to hope that people won’t speculate too much about my announcement, and I especially hope they won’t fan up a feud where none exists. As far as I know, my departure from Locus has been on peaceful terms.

    To clarify some of the issues raised here, there seems to have been an editorial policy change for the website, in the course of which some negative commentary was removed from my upcoming January column. I had not been previously informed of this editorial change, but I discovered it when querying the delay in publishing the column. At this point, I withdrew it prior to publication.

    I am not going to go into more details regarding a correspondence that I regard as confidential.

  24. In common with Mike, I was personally acquainted with Charles N Brown’s attitude towards ‘negative’ news and reviews. Editorial integrity always ran second to personal status, and not even a close second. I very swiftly lost all respect for the man, and it appears little has changed since he departed the helm.

  25. @Lois Tilton

    As far as I know, my departure from Locus has been on peaceful terms.

    That’s good to hear, but I’m very sorry to see you go, Lois. You’ll be missed.

  26. Steve Green: We may agree about Brown’s policy not to run negative news and reviews, but it seems we do not agree in our assessment of Brown’s editorial integrity. In my experience, he was always very interested in getting right the stories he published.

    Yes, he had boundaries about what he was willing to cover. It is well known that Brown styled Locus as the trade magazine of the science fiction field, and trade magazines rarely do investigative features that are adversarial to anybody.

    Charlie also emphasized to me he wasn’t interested in running any story that would open him to litigation. Locus as an enterprise towers over our field, but it was never something on the scale of a national publication where paying lawyers is an expected cost of business.

  27. @Lois Tilton,

    Thanks for the clarification, and best wishes to you. I haven’t always agreed with your reviews but you have always been candid, a quality I value highly.

  28. @Lois Tilton: While I didn’t always agree with you, I always found your reviews interesting and insightful, and I will miss seeing them in Locus. Best wishes.

  29. Pingback: Locus Responds to Tilton Departure | File 770

  30. @ Lois Tilton
    Another wish that you find another venue for your work. As others have noted, I don’t always agree with your assessments, but highly value your opinion and integrity.

  31. @Lois Tilton: I immensely appreciate the years of through, clear, and engaging reviews. They’ve been a rare lighthouse in the nigh-unnavigable sea of short fiction.

    All the very best to you, and thank you.

  32. Looking at it, is it disappointing of Locus, or is it disappointing of a subculture that demands good reviews only and strikes out with cyberstalking, harassment, and lawsuits if it doesn’t get them?

  33. I often found Tilton’s reviews over-caustic and slightly bitter, but I have no doubt that they were honest reactions. I am glad that she has clarified that Locus have not been editing already published reviews but were editing forthcoming reviews that hadn’t actually been published. They certainly shouldn’t have done that without Ms. Tilton’s consent.

  34. So between this and the other thread, it appears that Locus edited one unpublished review, and Tilton disagreed and pulled it, Locus pointed to an in-place editorial policy and they parted on peaceful terms.

    It speaks well of us as a community that people are rallying to her defense, but without knowing what exactly they wanted edited, I think calling this censorship or extrapolating to Locus’s journalistic ethics seems a bit excessive. Publications who pay for content do get to apply editorial standards to the content they pay for, and it’s generally not considered censorship.

    Until I have some specific idea what was involved, I’m not inclined to paint either side as the villain in this piece.

  35. I find it sad that the internet seems to assume there must be a feud declared, a villain chosen, and sides taken.

  36. “Both those publishers do publish a large number of anthologies and single author collections. Though I can’t say for certain if my knowledge is always true, I’ve been told by editors and packagers alike who’ve had (and do so no names will be cited) that anthologies in particular are highly profitable if the rights are done as a one-off with no future rights stated.

    And I was told further that a collection of material from a writer like Leiber or Heinlein was even more profitable as long as you could throw a rarely reprinted piece or two in the there for the completists as story rights were quite reasonable.”

    These are both the opposite of truth unless publishing has been turned upsidedown lately. Anthologies sell like crap, as a rule, and single author collections are worse. Generally publishers more or less have to be forced to do them. This has been the case ever since the Roger Elwood Disaster, i.e., the past forty-plus years.

    I am perfectly willing to believe I’m out of date if someone actively editing a major line of sf would like to speak up and say so.

  37. My experience as a freelance magazine writer for thirty years supports Teresa’s point–editors get to edit, and absent explicit contractual language the editor’s decision is final. (And yes, some back-and-forth is not unusual, especially in feature writing.*) In 26 years with Locus, I can think of perhaps three times when there were any noticeable cuts in any review I submitted–and those were clearly matters of economy, most often in introductory paragraphs, never of core content. Nor was there any expectation of only-positive reviews–though my personal policy is that any book that’s dull or annoying or dumb or badly-written enough to earn a bad review is too dull, annoying, dumb, or badly-written to be worth reading in the first place.

    * And as arrogant as I am about my taste and skills, I have generally found that my editors’ decisions were right, or at least reasonable given the constraints of magazine publishing.

Comments are closed.