How the New York publishing industry is reacting to the rise of the cli-fi genre

When I proposed to a young science communcations and literary communications college student the other day that she might want to write an oped for the New York Times about how the book industry is reacting to the rise of cli-fi. she replied by email that yes, she was interesting, but wanted to know more.

"I see -- you are interested in knowing how exactly is the NYC publishing industry is reacting to cli-fi? Positively I assume.," she said. "Sounds very interesting, I am curious, though — is cli-fi exploding?"

This blogger replied in internet time: "Good question. Actually, I don't know the answer and that's why I'm looking for someone, a reporter, a journalist, a coollege student,  to look into it. Maybe for the nytimes opinion section, or its book review section, or...slate or salon or treehugger or any general interest magazine like the Atlantic or the New Republic. "

I added: "Problem is this. While the term cli-fi is exploding on the internet with hundreds of articles about it, the NYC book industry is remaining pretty much silent. So I'm trying to find a way to get them to talk. Are they warming up to publishing more cli-fi novels or are they still cool to the genre? ''

''By they, I mean acquiring editors at major and small publishers, and literary agents, publisher CEO people, the PR and marketing people, the book reviewers, the literary critics.  At the moment they are keeping silent. And they prefer to use terms like speculative fiction or sci-fi or fantasy or horror genres and review books under those terms. Anything but cli-fi. It's such a new term, they don't want to go out on a limb and commit to it. Fear of what, I don't know.

''They adore sci-fi but they haven't embraced cli-fi yet. So I want to know why.

''They won't talk to me. One big lit agent in NYC who I know personally, from my hometown days in the 1960s, he dated my older sister Joanie, in high school days, he read my email aboutt this very question last year and wrote back "Dear Danny, I have heard of this new term and it's nice to to know you coined it. But I cannot go public with a quote from me about cli-fi for business reasons. I need to stay neutral. I hope you understand."

''He's one of the top literary agents in America. And yet for some reason or other he doesn't want to be quoted one way or the other. See what cli-fi is up against ? A wall of silence in the publishing world. Weird. Cold feet? I don't get it.

''So I'm hoping a news article or op-ed will get their attention pro or con. I just want to hear their views in this IPCC world. 

''I understand this topic doesn't fit for college paper. But think about this, maybe for your thesis or a PhD paper later on, or...if a savvy editor at the nytimes who read your op-ed the other day contacts you and asks "hey, I read your campus newspaper piece about cli-fi, loved it, could I commission a new op-ed from you for the nytimes about this same topic re the book industry?''

''Maybe it will happen. If I was a nytimes editor, I would give you the paid assignment right now."