James D. Macdonald

Macdonald was born in 1954, and raised in White Plains, New York. He attended the University of Rochester{{Citation needed|reason=citation needed to prove claim|date=May 2014}}, and went on to serve in the US Navy for fifteen years.{{cn|date=August 2022}} He has been writing professionally since the early 1990s and has published 35 novels.

Macdonald is well known for his work in educating aspiring authors, particularly for his advice on avoiding literary scams. Early in his career he was asked by such an author how much he had paid to have his books published, and in response began a campaign of educating other writers about the problems of vanity publishers. As part of this campaign, he coined Yog's Law,{{cite web|

url=http://www.sff.net/people/yog/|

title=Yog Sysop - Yog's Law}} which states "Money should flow toward the author." This rule is named after "Yog Sysop", a nickname of Macdonald that refers to Yog-Sothoth. It is often quoted by professional authors such as John Scalzi{{cite web| url=http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003681.html|title=Amazon Shorts|first=John|last=Scalzi|date=22 August 2005}} and Teresa Nielsen Hayden{{cite web| url=http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002692.html|title=Follow the Money|first=Teresa|last=Nielsen Hayden|date=1 July 2003}} when giving advice on finding an agent and getting published.

{{Main|Atlanta Nights}}

One target of his campaign is PublishAmerica, a company that claims not to be a vanity publisher but a "traditional publisher" that accepts or rejects books based on their quality. Macdonald organized a group of professional authors to test whether that company was actually reading any submissions for clarity and realism before accepting them. One day after Macdonald issued a press release announcing that PublishAmerica had accepted a manuscript that was created to be as bad as possible, the company withdrew the offer to publish it.{{cite web|

url=http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?category=0&id=30389 |

title=SF Authors Sting Publisher|

publisher=SciFi.com |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20050217092254/http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?category=0&id=30389 |archivedate = 2005-02-17}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sfwa.org/members/travistea/backstory.htm |title=The Making of Atlanta Nights |website=Science Fiction Writers of American (SFWA) |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140402205228/http://www.sfwa.org/members/travistea/backstory.htm |archivedate=April 2, 2014 }}

Knight's Wyrd was awarded the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature,{{cite web |url=http://www.mythsoc.org/awardwinners.html |title=Complete list of Mythopoeic Award Winners |publisher=Mythopoeic Society |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206142023/http://mythsoc.org/awardwinners.html |archivedate=2007-02-06 }} 1992, and named to the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list in 1993.{{cite web |url = http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/Kw_head.htm |title = Knight's Wyrd - Awards, Reviews and Excerpt |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060927173106/http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/Kw_head.htm |archivedate = 2006-09-27 }} In 1997, he was awarded Best Young-Adult Science Fiction by the Science Fiction Chronicle for Groogleman.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}

This bibliography is based on Macdonald's entry on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

• The Apocalypse Door, Tor (New York, NY), 2002. {{ISBN|978-0312869885}}

• (Under pseudonym Robyn Tallis) Night of Ghosts and Lightning ("Planet Builders" series), Ivy, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0804102025}}
• (Under pseudonym Robyn Tallis) Zero-Sum Games ("Planet Builders" series), Ivy, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0804102070}}
• (Under pseudonym Nicholas Adams) Pep Rally ("Horror High"{{Cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?3533|title = Series: Horror High}} series), HarperCollins, 1991{{Cite web|url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/nicholas-adams/|title=Nicholas Adams}} {{ISBN|978-0061060847}}
• (Under pseudonym Victor Appleton) Monster Machine ("Tom Swift" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1991. {{ISBN|978-0671678272}}
• (Under pseudonym Victor Appleton) Aquatech Warriors ("Tom Swift" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1991. {{ISBN|978-0671678289}}
• Timecrime, Inc. ("Robert Silverberg's 'Time Tours'" series), Harper (New York, NY), 1991. {{ISBN|978-0061060144}}
• Night of the Living Rat ("Daniel Pinkwater's 'Melvinge of the Megaverse'" series), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1992. {{ISBN|978-0441910793}}
• Knight's Wyrd, Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1992. {{ISBN|978-0152007645}}
• Groogleman, Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1996. {{ISBN|978-0152002350}}
• Requiem for Boone (based on the television series Gene Roddenberry's Earth—Final Conflict), Tor (New York, NY), 2000. {{ISBN|978-0312874612}}
• (As Douglas Morgan) Tiger Cruise, Forge (New York, NY), 2000. {{ISBN|978-0312870423}}
• (As Douglas Morgan) What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor? (nonfiction), Swordsmith, 2002. {{ISBN|978-1931013093}}
• Land of Mist and Snow, Eos, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0060819194}}
• Lincoln's Sword, HarperCollins, 2010{{cite web|url=http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Lincolns-Sword/?isbn=9780060819279|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731160443/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Lincolns-Sword/?isbn=9780060819279|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 31, 2010|title=Lincoln's Sword|website=Harper Collins Publishers}} {{ISBN|978-0060819279}}

• School of Wizardry, Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. {{ISBN|978-0816769360}}
• Tournament and Tower/The Secret of the Tower, Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. {{ISBN|978-0816718290}}
• City by the Sea/The Wizard's Statue, Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. {{ISBN|978-0816718313}}
• The Prince's Players/Danger in the Palace, Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. {{ISBN|978-0816718337}}
• The Prisoners of Bell Castle/The Wizard's Castle, Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. {{ISBN|978-0816718351}}
• The High King's Daughter, Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. {{ISBN|978-0816769971}}
• Mystery at the Wizardry School, Troll (Metuchen NJ), 2003. {{ISBN|978-0340882344}}
• Voice of the Ice, Cloverdale Press, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0733618567}}

Written with Debra Doyle, Mageworlds is a space opera novel series originally published in the 1990s and re-issued as e-books in 2012.

1. The Price of the Stars, Tor Books (New York), 1992. {{ISBN|978-0812517040}}
2. Starpilot's Grave, Tor, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0812517057}}
3. By Honor Betray'd, Tor, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0812517064}}
4. The Gathering Flame, Tor, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0812534955}}
5. The Long Hunt, Tor, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0812534962}}
6. The Stars Asunder, Tor, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0312864101}}
7. A Working of Stars, Tor, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0312864118}}

• Bad Blood, Berkley (New York, NY), 1993. {{ISBN|978-0425139530}}
• Hunters' Moon, Berkley (New York, NY), 1994. {{ISBN|978-0425143629}}
• Judgment Night, Berkley (New York, NY), 1995. {{ISBN|978-0425147283}}

• Mortal Kombat (movie novelization), Tor (New York, NY), 1995. {{ISBN|978-0812544527}}
• Midnight Justice (Spider-Man Super-Thriller series), Byron Preiss (New York, NY), 1996. {{ISBN|978-0671568511}}
• Global War (Spider-Man Super-Thriller series), Byron Preiss (New York, NY), 1996. {{ISBN|978-0671007997}}
• Harold R. Foster's Prince Valiant (movie novelization), Avon (New York, NY), 1998. {{ISBN|978-0380794058}}
• The Loch Ness Monster (nonfiction), Rosen Publishing (New York, NY), 2002. {{ISBN|978-0823935642}}
• A Silence in the Heavens (novel; MechWarrior: Dark Age series), Roc (New York, NY), 2003. {{ISBN|978-0451459329}}
• Truth and Shadows (novel; MechWarrior: Dark Age series), Roc (New York, NY), 2003. {{ISBN|978-0451459381}}
• Service for the Dead (novel; MechWarrior: Dark Age series), Roc (New York, NY), 2003. {{ISBN|978-0451459435}}

• Rosemary: Scrambled Eggs on a Blue Plate, Tor, 1992 (co-written with Alan Rodgers and collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Kennedys)
• Now And in the Hour of Death, Tor, 1992 (co-written with Debra Doyle and also collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Kennedys)
• Souvenirs, Tor, 1992 (co-written with Alan Rodgers and collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Outlaws)

{{reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Portal|Children and Young Adult Literature}}

• {{official website}}
• {{isfdb name}}
• {{LCAuth|n88267312|James D. MacDonald|20|}} (search pseudonyms too)
• [http://www.travistea.com/ Travis Tea] - collective author of Atlanta Nights
• [http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail1666.html Interview on IT Conversations]

{{Authority control}}

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Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American children's writers

Category:American fantasy writers

Category:American male novelists

Category:American science fiction writers

Category:Living people

Category:Writers from White Plains, New York

Category:Novelists from New York (state)

Category:1954 births

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American male writers