It's that time of the year when writers blog about their award-eligible works published in the last calendar year. Well, I only had one work published in 2017:
If you read and enjoyed Kangaroo Too, please talk it up anywhere and everywhere you like!
And now I'm going to direct your attention toward some other writers who have published outstanding fiction in 2017. In no particular order:
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have personal connections to all of the above writers through conventions, workshops, professional organizations, and/or living in the Pacific Northwest.
I'm flattered that enough people voted for Waypoint Kangaroo to put it in the top ten for the first novel category, and I'm honored to be listed alongside these outstanding works:
The Locus Awards Weekend is open to all (tickets are $60 each), and includes readings and workshops with the likes of Connie Willis and Carrie Vaughn. Will I see you in Seattle next month? Leave a comment and let me know!
Hello, readers! I know, it's been a while since I actually wrote one of these Wednesday blog posts. I've been working on other writing projects lately (like my first novel) and have also started an author newsletter which will eventually be archived on my other, theoretically more professional web site. (Stop laughing.) But for now, I'm still pushing some content into this space.
So we're coming to the end of 2015, and writers are starting to post lists of their award-eligible works. Nominations for the Nebulas are open, the battle for next year's Hugos looms on the horizon, and I'm sure there are other honors to be won by works more worthy than mine.
Please note, this isn't me projecting some false modesty in an attempt to reverse-psychology you into nominating me; I have personally read more interesting, more groundbreaking, and more well-wrought tales than the ones I got published this year. I've worked pretty hard and I'm happy that my stories are finding homes. But my stuff isn't award-worthy when compared to the whole wide world. I wouldn't vote for me, and neither should you.
So, for your consideration, here's a short list of genre fiction writers who had eligible works published in 2015. Even if you don't plan to nominate, please go read their stuff, because it's good:
For my own bookkeeping purposes, here are my publications from calendar year 2015. Online stories are linked directly; print stories link to the anthologies in which they appear:
"It's Machine Code" (Unlikely Story #11: The Journal of Unlikely Cryptography)
For the record, most of those stories started out as 512 Words or Fewer flash pieces, and one of them was originally part of my application for Clarion UCSD (I didn't get in). But this is one of the most important things I've learned in the last decade or so: not everything I write is for publication. In fact, probably most of it isn't. But it all counts.
A lot of the words in my early drafts get revised out of the final manuscripts. Sometimes I write things for exercises or workshops or classes, and some of those could be turned into full stories, but the majority of them are just for practice or demonstration. It's okay that they'll never make it "into print." That wasn't their purpose. It's like going to the gym, or practicing a musical instrument, or rehearsing a live performance: you don't always do it for an audience; you do it to prepare and to improve.
There are countless people—professional authors included—who spend innumerable hours writing fan fiction which can never be published. They're doing it for love, and whether intentionally or not, they're also sharpening their skills at storytelling. And that is a great way to develop those muscles (so-called): thinking about characters you love, whether or not you created them and the world they inhabit, and doing your best to give them the tribulations and triumphs they deserve.
...and I don't expect I will for several more years, if ever. I'm just not that kind of writer! (He said coquettishly, batting his eyelashes.) But it does seem to be that time of the year, and it'll be a nice retrospective if nothing else.
I had two short stories and one novelette published last year, including my first SFWA-qualifying professional sale:
"Zugzwang" (SF short story) in Daily Science Fiction, magazine edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden, September 19, 2014
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, dude. My potatoes are the smallest.
So if you're attending Sasquan, or a current Active or Associate members of SFWA, please go nominate someone else for the Hugos and Nebulas, respectively. Here are just a few links to get you started:
Exercise for the reader: Do a Google search for "award eligible work 2014" and see what else turns up. Add the name of your favorite author/editor/artist for possibly better results!
But it's nice to see that publishers still believe in science fiction.
Last month, this bit of news showed up in the Publishers Lunch daily newsletter:
Try not to think about the fact that Weir originally self-published his first novel, The Martian. Or the fact that he also got a six-figure publishing deal for that book. Or the fact that The Martian is now being made into a movie, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, scheduled for release in November of 2015.
Do not compare your own writing career to any other writer's career.
Everyone finds a different path to publication. Everyone has a different story—literally. Keep writing. It'll happen. And meanwhile, make sure you're enjoying the ride, because it'd be a shame if you didn't have some fun during those years (and yes, it will take years).
In related news, huge congratulations to my fellow Pacific Northwest writer Jason Gurley, who just sold his novel Eleanor to a publisher! (Oddly enough, his book was also self-published originally, and it also went to Crown—just like The Martian. Coincidence?)
Jason and I, along with thirty other authors, will be attending Story Con this Saturday at the Fort Vancouver Community Library. If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, stop by and check out the panels, readings, and signings—I'll be moderating a panel on flash fiction which I promise will not be boring!
And that started a long Facebook discussion (not shown here) of how much authors should worry about online piracy. I threw in my two cents, but we haven't had computers and the Internet long enough to see how all this shakes out long-term, so everybody's arguing from ideology more than evidence.
With that in mind, here's my "mix tape" argument for not spending your time worrying about how to prevent or fight piracy. I'm focusing my own efforts on making cool stuff, finding an audience, and being nice to paying customers.
[A]lthough it’s hard to turn fame into money in the arts, it’s impossible to turn obscurity into money in the arts. It doesn’t matter how you plan on making your money — selling books or downloads, selling ads, getting sponsorship, getting crowdfunded, getting commissions, licensing to someone else who’s figured out how to make money — you won’t get the chance unless people have heard of your stuff.
But let's talk about books specifically. Since books are made of text, and plain text is pretty much the easiest form of data to copy and share over the Internet (by design), online piracy is an obvious concern for professional writers. However, John Scalzi makes a very logical argument in "The Stupidity of Worrying About Piracy" (13 May 2005):
Let's ask: Who are pirates? They are people who won't pay for things (i.e., dickheads), or they're people who can't pay for things (i.e., cash-strapped college students and others). The dickheads have ever been with us; they wouldn't pay even if they had the money. I don't worry about them, I just hope they fall down an abandoned well...
I don't know anyone who can pay for a book or a CD or a DVD or whatever who doesn't... I don't see the people who can't pay as pirates. I see them as people who will pay, once they can. Until then, I think of it as I'm floating them a loan. Nor is it an entirely selfless act. I'm cultivating a reader -- someone who thinks of books as a legitimate form of entertainment -- and since I want to be a writer until I croak, that's a good investment for me...
Yes, there's an investment risk... [but] I believe that fundamentally, most people aren't thieving dickheads; they're people who if they like your writing will want to support your career... Treat readers like they can't be trusted and there's no reason for them not to live down to your expectations. Make it clear to them that they're integral to your continued success, and they will help you succeed. Treat them like human beings, for God's sake.
[Publisher] Jim Baen is fond of pointing out: most people would rather be honest than dishonest.
He's absolutely right about that. One of the things about the online debate over e-piracy that particularly galled me was the blithe assumption by some of my opponents that the human race is a pack of slavering would-be thieves held (barely) in check by the fear of prison sentences...
[T]he truth is that most people are no more tempted to steal a few dollars than they are to spend their lunch hour panhandling for money on the streets. Partly because they don't need to, but mostly because it's beneath their dignity and self-respect.
The only time that mass scale petty thievery becomes a problem is when the perception spreads, among broad layers of the population, that a given product is priced artificially high due to monopolistic practices and/or draconian legislation designed to protect those practices. But so long as the "gap" between the price of a legal product and a stolen one remains both small and, in the eyes of most people, a legitimate cost rather than gouging, 99% of them will prefer the legal product.
[A]uthors who see 100,000 downloads of their book as equivalent to 100,000 lost sales are deluding themselves. Please trust me when I say that 100,000 downloads is not the equivalent of 100,000 copies shoplifted. It’s actually the equivalent of 100,000 people thumbing through the book while standing in the bookstore or library, deciding whether to invest the time in reading it...
Of those 100,000 who downloaded your book, most of them aren’t reading it anyway. 90,000 probably never open the file. Of the 10,000 who do, you just got the equivalent of them opening a copy of the book on the shelf at a bookstore to see if they like it. Most traditional authors would have KILLED to have such great placement in the bookstores as to attract 10,000 browsers to pick up the book and look in it. Out of those 10K, say 3 out of 4 decide the book is not their cup of tea. So now we’re down to 2500 who are genuinely interested. In the brick and mortar world, retail rule of thumb says 500 of them would have a good chance of buying it...
Giving stuff away helps. Having it for easy sale also helps. In fact, despite all our “new media” chatter about publicity in the digital age, about blog tours and Twitter contests and Facebook pages, these two things seem to be the only two things that actually make a measurable impact on sales. Give stuff away to increase your customer base, and then have it for easy sale to sift money out of those who are eager to pay. That’s it.
Back to Untalented. Since the pirate site in question appears to be behind a paywall, and Kat's already filed a successful DMCA takedown notice against them, I'm not too concerned for her—why would any reasonable person pay to access a shady download site instead of just buying the eBook from Amazon?
Last but not least, until September 30th, US readers have the chance to win a paperback copy of Untalented through this GoodReads giveaway! You have literally nothing to lose. Of course, if you can't wait—or don't want to take your chances—you can also buy the eBook right now. (Full disclosure: yes, that is an affiliate link.)
It's the middle of Week Six now, the final week of Clarion West 2014, and I've turned in my final story for critique tomorrow morning. It's all downhill from here: just seven more stories to read and give feedback on, then we party and clean up the house before scattering to the winds.
I'll miss being here, but I'll also be glad to go home. I'm planning to take a week off to catch up on sleep and filmed media (the last two episodes of Orphan Black season two! Movies, including but not limited to How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes!) and generally recharge my brain. Then it's straight back into rewrites on the Kangaroo novel.
Without going into too much detail, Sam made me an offer on July 7th, I did my due diligence for a couple of weeks (while at Clarion LIKE A BOSS), we signed the paperwork on July 23rd, and then Sam beat me to the punch on Twitter.
That's fine; I was busy writing a new, 6,000-word Jake and Andy mystery which didn't totally suck. I'll super-spam my friends and social media followers next week! STAY TUNED.
00:58 - "bookish"
03:12 - you, too, can send us an e-mail
04:54 - comparing XCOM strategies
05:50 - look, it takes a long time to write a novel
08:24 - the cool thing that happened recently: Query Shark!
13:54 - from query to synopsis to manuscript
22:10 - Hogwarts and the endless story conferences
27:38 - riffing on tropes, like you do
29:36 - who else loves deadlines?
38:40 - upcoming events:Portland Afoot Game (May 4th), DASH 5 (May 18th)
39:36 - The End
Now through the end of Saturday (January 5, 2013), you can download a FREE Kindle edition of the first short story I ever sold! It's titled "At Long Last, Love," and it's part of the anthology From the Porch Swing - memories of our grandparents.
"At Long Last, Love" was the first fiction piece I ever sold for actual money, so I'm still nostalgic about it. :) For those interested, you can read the backstory of the sale on my blog and livejournal.
If you want to see how much I've improved as a writer since then, please peruse my other, more recent work at curtiscchen.com.
Rescued from the backlist: Steven Gould's 1996 novel Wildside, now available in eBook format with spiffy new cover, shown above. (Disclosure: I got the manuscript for free, as part of his crowdsource proofreading project; and I probably took longer to work through it than he would have wanted. Oh well.)
Logline: A group of high school graduates spend their summer vacation in the wilderness of a parallel universe--one where humans never existed. It's a fun read, kind of the anti-Stargate, with similar technical ingenuity ("Want power in another universe? Use an extension cord. Want water? Run a hose") but less adoration of the military.
The Big Idea, as finally explained, does strain credulity, but Steve keeps a tight focus on the protagonists and their families throughout. In that way, the tone is very similar to Jumper; but I wouldn't call either that or Wildside strictly a YA novel.
The Clarion UCSD Write-a-Thon 2010 ended a few weeks ago, but I neglected to tally up my donation numbers until now. Drumroll, please:
Total amount donated: $419
Total number of donors: 6
Mean average donation: $69.83
Largest single donation: $256
Total words written: 44,135
Putative amount donated per word: 0.9¢
...if that had been actual payment, the rate would be what professionals call "token payment"--or, euphemistically, an "honorarium." (Pro rates for fiction are, at minimum, five cents a word. And some pros won't even roll out of bed for less than twenty cents a word.) But it's over four hundred dollars that the Clarion Foundation didn't have before, and that's Good.
I didn't reach my arbitrary fundraising target of $512, but it was a "stretch goal" anyway. I know I'm a terrible salesman. 82% is still a solid B-minus, and I accomplished my primary goal: to stop being so damn lazy and write. It's also motivated me to continue my good habits with weekly goal-setting, so hey. Win.
Received in the mail today: my contributor's copy, payment, and publishing contract for "At Long Last, Love," a short story in the anthology From the Porch Swing: memories of our grandparents. (If you look closely, you can see that I was paid the princely sum of ten whole dollars.)
One day, I hope to be prolific and successful enough as a writer that a small thing like this will merit no special celebration. But for now, it's still a novelty. So there you go.
Anyone who spends any amount of time on the Internet already knows about many of the topics Wired editor Chris Anderson discusses in this book, and probably knows more about some of them. At less than 300 pages (including a sizable index and the business-book-obligatory "executive summary"), there's not much space to get very deep into any specific business model or case study.
One odd thing: the "free books" section mentions Neil Gaiman's American Gods giveaway experiment, but says nothing about Cory Doctorow's career-long habit of giving away all his books under Creative Commons, even though Anderson quotes directly from Doctorow later on and talks about the fictitious Whuffie economy depicted in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Maybe Cory's too much of an edge case?
Anyway, the publisher also offers a free, abridged audio book version--in exchange for your e-mail address. Which is ironic, since Anderson spends much of the book talking about removing roadblocks to the Internet's highly efficient, "near-zero marginal cost" of distribution. Maybe they've abridged that part out of the audio version.
Jasper here, with more on self-publishing, this time from New York Times bestselling author and multiple Hugo Award winner John Scalzi! From his "Quick Note on Self-Publishing":
[I]f you are going to self-publish, for the love of all that is good and decent in this world, don’t pay to do it. In this day and age, there is no reason to do so...
[This] assumes you are minimally competent to copyedit your own work and are competent to do a basic design for your book, either on your own or using the default settings available on Lulu or other similar services. If not, you can hire people to do these specific tasks, which is still very likely to be cheaper than a suite of services you would buy from a vanity publisher.
In related news, there's been a bit of an online brouhaha surrounding romance publisher Harlequin's announcement that they're launching their own "vanity press" imprint! They got spanked pretty soundly by several trade organizations, including SFWA, and that's all I'm going to say about that!
Always remember Yog's Law: Money flows toward the writer! (And thanks to Viable Paradise's Jim Macdonald for originating that axiom!)
[W]hy do we need publishers if we can just release ebooks and make the print available through one of the many excellent print-on-demand houses such as lulu.com? Well, a traditional publisher does a lot for you that is unrelated to printing books, from preparing the manuscript to ensuring that the book connects with an audience by wooing reviewers to talk the book up, booksellers to put it in the path of readers, librarians to put it on the shelf and, of course, by paying for a certain amount of marketing in the speciality and general press.
Note: that's not a typo! People really do say "speciality" instead of "specialty" in England!
I won't keep you in suspense! The answer is, it depends. Read his complete blog post for more--he goes into specific exceptions where it makes sense to self-publish instead of going the "traditional" route!--but as he says, the most important thing is "to figure out what it is you want, and then decide on the best way to get it."
If you're interested in numbers and data and stuff like that, check out novelist Lee Goldberg's "You Can Be a Kindle Millionaire" blog posts! He talks about putting some of his backlist and out-of-print titles on Amazon, and gives actual sales numbers for each title!
And once again, his conclusion says it all: "So far, I have earned nearly $700 on out-of-print books that I thought were long past their earning potential for me. That's not a lot of money... I don't think the Kindle is the wave of the future for authors or publishing...at least not yet. Not even for self-publishing. There just isn't enough money in it for original works to make a living at it or simply a decent wage."
So there you have it! If you want to be a successful writer, it still pays to get an agent! Don't get discouraged! Check out literary agent Nathan Bransford's blog or others for some inside dish. And keep writing!
After reading Monday's blog post, my friend Loren emailed me to ask: "How soon do you realistically think it will be before you make money from writing?"
I wrote up this response:
I've been submitting short stories to magazines; if and when one of those sells, I might get a couple of hundred dollars (depending on the publication). The short fiction is mostly for practice, and to accumulate professional credits.
After I finish this month's rewrites/additions to the novel, I'll start querying it; if it sells, a typical first-novel advance is about $5,000. (Last year at VP, I talked to one of the staff who had signed a 3-book deal for a total advance of $60,000. That's insanely great for a new novelist. Her agent had managed to get two publishers into a bidding war.)
I also have a couple of screenplays in the trunk. I have no idea what the going rate for those is, but my impression is it's highly variable depending on a variety of factors (no pun intended). I'd have to do quite a bit of work to get either of them into fighting shape.
Realistically, I probably won't ever make a living from writing alone; most fiction writers don't. I expect to get back into web consulting in a few years--I've already started attending the various open-source events here in Portland--or doing other types of freelance work.
Those are the facts. I'm luckier than most to be able to take a few years off to chase this dream--I've already won the lottery once, figuratively speaking. I have no illusions about my chances of becoming a bestselling millionaire novelist (to wit: vanishingly slim), but I believe I have a good chance at getting published, sooner or later. I'm working on the "sooner" part.
Melinda Roberts ... admits it's been tough going: "When I sell a book, I can buy a Big Mac, and that's about it. My last quarterly check, which is sitting on my desk waiting to be deposited, was $24."
Translation: Don't quit your day job. All writers get this advice, and self-published writers are no different.
Mr. Wheaton argues, "There's a sharp distinction between self-publishing and vanity publishing." He encourages writers who are serious about their work to self-publish — if they're certain they've written a good book... "If you're serious, hire an editor. And pay for it. Listen to the editor. If you think your story about magic ponies is really awesome but nobody wants to buy it, there's probably a reason for it."
Translation: Get a second opinion (or even a first) before proclaiming your genius from the rooftops. You could avoid a lot of embarrassment.
It's no secret that I am a writer, and I aspire to be a professional. Since last October, I've been posting a new piece of flash fiction every Friday to 512 Words or Fewer and recording an audio version to podcast.
But wait! Why, you may ask, am I "self-publishing" these stories, when I've just spent the last four days railing against self-publishing? Why am I not submitting them to actual, paying markets so I can start collecting professional credits?
I'm doing 512 Words for three main reasons: practice, pressure, and publicity. Practice, because I'm still working through my million words of crap; pressure, because at least two people will notice and get on my case if I don't meet my deadline every week; and, of course, it's a publicity stunt to get my name out there (a story a week! kinda like Jay Lake! but not really).
Listen, I have no illusions about my "reach" (as marketers would call it). My blogs are essentially newsletters for my family and friends, because nobody else cares what I have to say. I do have longer stories making the rounds at several professional markets (I'm expecting that rejection from The New Yorkerany year now), but if short fiction is to writers as the club scene is to independent musicians, flash fiction is my version of busking on a street corner. It gets me out there and doing something, and it keeps me writing. It's just part of the journey.
I also believe, as Tim O'Reilly famously said, that obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy. I support the Creative Commons (CC) movement to share cultural works freely (both as in speech and as in beer). I believe more artists should follow the fine example of forward-thinking people like Cory Doctorow and Jonathan Coulton, who release all their work under CC licenses for others to share. Let fans be fans, and they will show you love and support in ways you could never have imagined--or, sometimes, ever wanted to, but that's another story. So this is me, putting my money where my mouth is.
Even if you're a writer who would rather distribute your writings the old-fashioned way--encased in physical objects called "books"--the Internet gives you tons of opportunities to interact with your fans and keep them engaged. You may have heard of Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood, whose novels are published by Crown Publishing (a Random House imprint). Both of these guys do a ton of online self-promotion, including putting free content on Podiobooks.com and selling some crazy merchandise. Clearly you don't have to be as gung ho as these two to succeed as an author, but it certainly couldn't hurt:
Now, some people think it's fun to do all that self-promotion. But that's not writing. More to the point, if you can make others believe in your work, they will help you do all the things you're not so good at. When I get my first book contract, I don't want to comb through all the legalese myself--that's when I'll want an agent. When the book goes to press, I won't want to deal with typesetting and other production issues personally--that's why I'll want an editor and a publisher. And so on. I am willing to relinquish some control for the benefit of having a good team on my side, and I want them to be in it for the duration.
The American dream these days seems to be the get-rich-quick scheme. Every singer wants to be Gloria Gaynor, who built a career out of a single song ("I Will Survive") and is still raking in the royalties. A lot of unpublished writers seem to think they'll be able to write a single Great American NovelTM which rockets to the top of the bestseller lists and then immediately retire, having secured fame and fortune everlasting.
But no publisher or promoter wants a one-hit wonder. Forget about the lottery-jackpot aspect of this pipe dream; if a reader enjoys one book, she's going to look for more books written by the same person. Publishers want to help dedicated writers build careers as authors. I want to tell lots of good stories, and I want each one to be better than the last. I want my life to be something more than long.
Over the last three days, I've discussed why self-publishing is, at best, a huge time sink for writers who should be writing, and at worst a way for scam artists to prey upon those desperate souls and steal their money. As I noted yesterday, there do exist legitimate print on demand (POD) services who don't pretend to provide the editing, advertising, and other services that real publishing houses do, and those companies are a great asset for certain creators. But that's printing, not publishing. There's a difference.
There's a long tradition of people printing their own stuff when no one else would, because they were passionate and wanted to put their work out there. Here in Portland, Oregon, the public library system and Powell's ("The greatest bookstore on the planet," says PNH) both feature entire racks of zines covering a wide variety of interests and topics. They come in all shapes and sizes, many obviously handmade. They serve small, local audiences. They have no pretensions or wider ambitions. This is what they're for. (Science fiction fandom also produces tons of fanzines, but that's a whole other discussion.)
These days, it's trivial for anyone to create their own "e-zine" by setting up a blog or a web site. Of course, just because it's easy for anybody to find your content, it doesn't mean that they'll go looking for it, or that they'll like it. If you build it, they will not always come. And even if they come, they may not stay.
So who gets to be a "real" publisher? These days, short fiction writers can submit their work to a lot of online-only markets. Many of these are little more than blogs, and most don't pay writers a lot (if anything) for their stories. Mac Stone, whom I met at Viable Paradise XII, runs Coyote Wild Magazine out of her own pocket. She doesn't make any money doing it. She does it because she wants to help get good stories out there.
Leonard Richardson and Sumana Harihareswara just released Thoughtcrime Experiments, "a free 2009 anthology of fantasy and science fiction stories and art, published under a Creative Commons license." As Leonard explains in Appendix A: How to Do This and Why, he and Sumana spent $2,300 and nearly 400 person-hours putting together the anthology, and the main reason they did it was so they could find and share stories that suited their own personal tastes. In other words, for fun. They're not making any money off TE; in fact, they're losing money. But they consider it money well spent.
Are Mac and Leonard and Sumana publishers? Sure; they've found content they like and helped present it to a wider audience. Are they professional publishers? No, and they don't pretend to be running a business. They're publishing because they want to give back to the community. They have no illusions about reaping financial gains from these transactions, and that's okay. We all do things for love that we would never do for money.
