Page Created: 03/09/25. Last Updated: 05/17/25.
MARTIN CAHILL
ONLINE
Website: <https://martintcahill.wordpress.com//>
SOCIAL MEDIA
FaceBook: <https://www.facebook.com/martin.cahill.52643>
Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/mcflycahill90/>
Twitter: <https://x.com/McFlyCahill90>
Meeting Date: March 8, 2025.
Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Attendance: 18 + 15.
Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A w/science fiction writer / Erewhon Books Marketer & Publicist.
Notes:
Seven people attended the pre-meeting Ice Nine discussion and viewed special features about THE TIME MACHINE movie. Six people went out to the diner afterwards.
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2025 Philip J De Parto:
The Saturday, March 8, 2025 General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River. Author Martin Cahill, the Promotions & Marketing Director of Erewhon Books, was our speaker.
Mr Cahill's first novel, AUDITION FOR THE FOX, will be out later this year. It concerns a semi-divine being in need of a sponsoring deity. She is sent into the past and given a nigh-impossible task by a trickster god. The book has not been published but already has its first review, which was done by an AI. Our guest is a graduate of Clarion. His short fiction has appeared in CLARKESWORLD, LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE, REACTORMAG.COM, and other venues. He has also worked for DC Comics, Wizards of the Coast, and Critical Role.
Our speaker is the Promotions & Marketing Director of Erewhon books, having read slush for LIGHTSPEED, interned at the JABberwocky Literary Agency, and worked for Skyhorse Books. He created the Mission Statement for Erewhon and has been through several regimes and upheavals in his time there.
One of his strengths is persistence. He was rejected by CLARKESWORLD 23 times before he made a sale there. As a Skyhorse publicist, he would make 75 cold calls before reaching someone who would agree to do a piece on an author.
Additional information appears on the club website at 2025 - 03/2025 Meeting. Our thanks to Pamela Webber and Claire Fisher for their assistance and everyone else who helped out at the meeting.
Meeting Notes:
Started reading at 5 years old.
His parents were voracious readers.
Read Elfquest and Goosebumps when young.
In late high school he made a deliberate decision to read more diversely
Currently reading THE RIVER HAS ROOTS by Amal El-Mohtar.and THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones.
Went through various projected careers as a child including baker in the 4th Grade.
Wrote continuation of Tom Sawyer in 7th Grade.
Also interested in theater, stand up comedy, and improv.
Wrote a play in High School & had it performed (one night only) when gym/theater/auditorium was free.
"If I write a play, will you perform it?"
He was an asshole and full of himself. A group of friends explained this in an intervention.
Went to University of Albany as English Major / Theater Minor.
Didn't understand that a play or other creative work is a collaboration. This helped his attitude to being edited. Now he loves it.
Unsuccessfully applied to Clarion before making the cut in 2014.
Brought ARC of first book, Audition for the Fox. He received a 4K advance. He has his first review. It was written by a AI bot.
Heroine is of divine ancestry. She must get a deity as a sponsor or bad things will happen to her. Every god turns her down until Fox God accepts her and sends her back 300 years in the past.
Started book in 2018.
What is the purpose of a trickster god?
First piece he wrote for the book was a 5K conversation between heroine Nesie and the Fox God who steals an S from her name.
Trimmed Fox to 3996 to stay under 4K length for friend Brent Lampert at reactormag. Then reactormag.com rejected it.
Reworked and let it be known in the sf community that he had a novelette. Three agents were interested, assuming he would produce a novel. He settled on literary agent Hannah Bowman of Liz Dawson Agency.
Hannah articulated a clear career path she saw for Martin.
"There's a lot more money in publishing than publishers want you to think."
First job in publishing was as a publicist for Skyhorse Books. Persistence pays off. He would make 75 cold calls before reaching someone who picked up their phone. Eventually connected to NPR.
He has 3 or 4 unpublished novels. You have to move on from rejections.
Writing in coffee shops is just distracting enough.
Wrote horror story during covid lockdown. What is security and how does it really work?
Lived at parents' house for a few years after graduation to save rent on condition he got a job. He worked at B & N in Nanuet among other places as he tried to break into publishing. Also bartended. Worked for healthcare marketing company.
Did unpaid part time administrative assistant work for JABberwocky Agency to learn the business.
Read slush for Lightspeed Magazine. Learned what captures your attention. How confident is the writer? Confident, but not cocky. He must make you want to keep reading.
Rejected 21 times by Clarkesworld before he broke in.
Praised Max Gladstone's A Kiss with Teeth about a domestic Dracula (reactormag.com).
He couldn't write for a year after going through Clarion. Mary Robinette Kowal explained that it's like having UPS drop off 400 boxes at your front door. It takes time to process. Find what you enjoy about writing.
Kept writing and getting rejections. Why can't I sell anymore?
His early stories sold and delivered a gut punch. The feeling wasn't there after Trump's (first) election. He had to train himself to write with hope.
On being a publicist: At the end of the day you get to talk about books and throw them at people. Was at Eerwhon Books for 3 days when he was told to give a long presentation to the entire company.
His first book as an Erewhon Publicist was released when Covid struck. He had lined up signings for a debut Australian writer who was going to fly in. Stores started canceling in the days before the shut down, but the author was determined to come over until the last minute.
Martin has seen owners and bosses come and go in his not-very-long tenure.
He created a mission statement for the company and heard people in the field talking about Erewhon in terms similar to the mission statement. Oh, the branding worked!
Erewhon has hit the 100,000 mark of books.
Recent trends: time travel, multiverse tales, stories set in a house / home.
Grist Farming Magazine does an annual SF issue.
Believes we shall see the apocalypse.
Where do religions fit in with the apocalypse?
So much of our world is sci-fi.
Libro Necromancers bring back dead books.
Hates certain tropes and challenges himself to do new takes on tired tropes.