MultiMind's Blog, page 4

What to Look for in Submitting Works to Short Story Markets

Submitting stories suck. I’ve talked about that already in the past. But one thing I have also noticed in newer calls for stories are full of red flags.

Wanting to be published is a powerful pull for any writer, regardless of background. And some do want to be publishers for a litany of reasons. Problem is, publishing is a business and not many seem to understand that – or they do and they want to exploit it.

Aside from reading Writer’s Beware, a long running blog about scams and screw-ups in the publishing world for both indie and traditional writers alike, here’s some things I have noticed that are good to look for:

Wix Site/Free Site
A publication that claims to be a paying market should have their own website. I’ve spotted quite a few who have “Wix” or something similar that means all the same thing: The site is a free site. If they can’t buy a domain, then how can they pay you?

AI Art
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. So many publications calls seem to feature AI art. Here’s a guide on how to identify AI art by sight (It’s Reddit but the Broken Clock Theory* applies here). If you see it, know for fact that place has no respect for you. Or money to pay you, end of story. If they can’t afford an artist, they certainly can’t afford to pay a writer, especially several. It shows they don’t care about copyright (or knowing it properly) so that means whatever contract they have to offer is most likely trash, poorly made and/or full of problems the publication will swear up and down does not exist. Also, who is to say they won’t let AI mine your works?

Fees
I don’t submit to anything that asks me to pay a red cent for anything to submit. Not only is it an accessiblity barrier for those who cost is a concern, it also is a bit of a dupe. If you’re not accepted, you’re basically paying to lose, might as well be a donation. However, some markets are fee markets. If you want to pony up money, sure, but make sure the publication is worth the scratch they’re asking for: Awards, sterling editors, no mentions on Writer’s Beware, ALLi Watchdog and sensible price-tag of a fee. Don’t pay more than $20 for an entry fee if you really feel like it will be a good market to join in. Money should flow to the author, not away. The more noteworthy publications such as Nightlight, Fiyah and Strange Horizons do not ask for an entry fee. Also, look at what they’re offering the author in terms of payment. How come they are not selling copies to readers? How come you’re paying? Ask yourself questions like that, they will help.

Very New
Everyone starts somewhere, that’s true. Buuuuuuuuut you have no idea if this is a one time thing or a forever publication. And, usually, neither do the publishers. More often than not, they’re one time things. If they have been around for a couple years and have their own site (you don’t see .wix or .wordpress in the name), it’s probably not a swirling digital vortex of dazzling, promising nothingness.

Doesn’t Publish Diversely
This is primarily for writers of color, White authors don’t really have to worry if their story is too White for Asimov or Fantasy and Science Fiction** (“too White” is exactly what those markets prefer, if anything) but authors of color regularly worry if the fact they’re not White will show up too much in their stories and thus wreck their chances. Those markets aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on so don’t bother to submit if you just want to have some semblance of a fair chance at being published. The folks who run or read these markets like to complain in the comment sections of File 770 that they’re dying out or struggling to make ends meet – that’s their problem. Here’s how to not waste your time:

Before starting, yes, this does sound like self-rejecting. Almost every place will say “don’t self reject” but given how frustrating it can be to get published as a writer of color, it’s better to just direct your work at places that actually publishes writers of color and stories of color – and not once in a blue moon or when some random Black person is brutally murdered in 4k and that’s splashed all over the internet. If it takes a murder and a riot of someone you most likely do not know to convince someone to publish you, do you really want people like that to review your work? White writers don’t have to have videos of White people be killed in 4k to get their works accepted, they just have to submit them. It should be the same for writers of color. But it isn’t.

Check the Black in Spec Fic Report
Originally made by Fireside, until they had a racist conundrum themselves (they had a White voice actor narrate a work made by a Black writer, and the voice actor went full Blaccent – all of this was super preventable, btw), now handled by Fiyah lit magazine, an actual Black spec fic literary magazine. Read all the ones from the previous years and look at the data. Use that info to figure out who is actually publishing Black writers or writers of color, but also stories of color (meaning you don’t have to cram in a bunch of blonde hair/blue eyes just to get a second look. The characters/storyline can resemble June 19 and not January 6 without getting slapped with “not a good fit”). This doesn’t promise that you’ll actually get published by these places but at least they’re publishing works that aren’t White focused. As a writer of color, that’s the important part. Many of these publications are going to say a bunch of mealy-mouthed bullsh#t that sounds great about how anyone can submit but fewer put their money where their mouth is. If you want to try for the publications that are extremely White, go for it but understand it is most likely a very futile time. You’re not the only writer of color that’s submitting and none of them got in either, remember that. Check to See if They Actually Have Writers of Color Published
The best way is to see who has actually been published in previous issues. They should have a list of all their published writers. Some people use pennames (like me) but others have their actual names. Throw them all into your search engine or click to their sites (if there are sites linked to their names) and see if they are clearly a person of color. Not White-passing, not “maaaaaaaaaybe…?”, clear and direct. Either they’ll have a picture or say so or both. Also, if possible, read the work they have published in the magazine. If it’s loaded with White characters and/or very White/Euro-centric storylines, then it means the publication is not that diverse, they might not have even known they published a person of color. Or if they did, that’s basically how the writer of color has to write enable to get a publishing credit: to Whiteness. Double so if the characters of color are very 1 dimensional or simply sideline characters. If your work is not as bland as Kurt Vonnegut’s greatest hits, find somewhere else.

Lack o’ Contract/Wonky Contract
The market call you see seems to want to own everything? Your rights do not revert in a year or less? There’s a bunch of wishy-washy “we’ll see … you wanna get published, right?” type of nonsense? Don’t submit. A lot of small publishers actually do not know their way around a decent contract but don’t let that screw you over. If they have an odd stipulation or no stipulations at all printed somewhere accessible on their site, don’t bother with them. It’s like that for a reason: They’re looking for a sucker or it’s ran by a bunch of suckers. You need to own all your work, rights have to revert, they do not own the copyright to anything you have submitted and it should not be herculean to get your rights back. This also includes places like WattPad, Radish and more. Read their terms and conditions. Writer’s Beware have brought these places up several times on their site, read it. If there are issues in a presented contract, such as no promise your work won’t be used to train AI, bring them up. If they’re a good publisher, they will respect your concerns. If they burst into flames about it or ghost you, that should be indicator enough for you.

Crypto.
Run.

If the publisher dabbles in crypto in any way, don’t bother submitting a thing. They want to pay you in crypto? Say no. They start talking in dizzying language about something called a “blockchain”? Cut them off and say no. They publish books about crypto anything and it isn’t super sci-fi (nor the majority of their selection)? Look elsewhere. They talk up crypto as better than money? They’re trying to screw you. The internet magic beans do not work out for most, don’t take the bait. Plus, you would have to buy extra stuff to even accept crypto, such as a crypto wallet, and just because a crypto coin sounds great or looks profitable now doesn’t mean it will be a half hour later – or shorter. Many have lost their shirts (and houses. And worse.) this way. Also, fun fact: there’s no protections in crypto so if you get schemed, there’s no real way to get the money back or bring the person to justice. There’s a reason why they want to use crypto and are pitching everything they have to people who most likely don’t know what crypto is. These folks are not really that versed in actual art or literature, they’re just looking for suckers to make themselves money off of. I actually own a cold wallet and I still avoid spots like these like the plague. It’s just an elaborate scam 9 times out of 10 and you’ll never be the 1, don’t fall for it. Demand to be paid in actual money, not some coin you can’t physically touch.

This is not a comprehensive list but it’s what I use when I see calls for stories. You want to actually get published and published somewhere at least half decent. It is not a great experience to send your stories to what feels like almost any and everywhere just to feel like no one would publish you even if you were the only and last story on earth. That feeling just makes you desperate and the more desperate you get, the less cautionary you’ll become. And that is one way many has fallen for nasty scams or markets that lead you on but go nowhere. Remember that a good chunk of the markets you’re seeing won’t exist even five years from now, it’s important to stick to the ones that look like they have some staying power. You won’t always know who those markets are, especially since these markets can sometimes start off great and finish off terribly for a slew of reasons that Writer’s Beware has best explained throughout their entire website.

* Broken Clock Theory: “Even a broken clock is right twice a day”

**It took Fantasy and Science Fiction hiring a Black editor (a first one in their entire history, that’s a concern) to up the diversity of stories by a couple tics. And when things went south with the owner, who is White, being sloppy about the checks and even publishing a glowering racist, it was the editor that took all the heat, not the owner. That’s a major problem. Don’t become some random White person’s human shield for their screw-ups

In a Bind

I’ve been noticing bookbinding has been growing in popularity as of late. Part of me noticing is from the massive deluge of really bad and remarkably dunce questions – and I don’t mean from the “this person is new but totally interested in learning the ropes and doing the work”, I mean from the “Can I BiNd FaN-FicTioN? Is ThAT LeGAl?” crowd – that seems to regularly get presented as if they are the newest and hardest questions on the planet. Some want a spoon fed experience, which, in bookbinding, doesn’t exist since actual work is involved. Others seem to confuse hand-binders for machine binding and somehow think hand-binding is cheaper (it isn’t, I once bound a junk book for $60 and that was for a friend (she insisted to pay me, I tend to bind for free for friends) – that book would have been $220 for anyone else. Low end.) Even on my Library of Congress post someone literally asked in the comments if they could send a handbound book for their LCCN verification Y’know, instead of a regular, machine bound book that shows the book is real and can be bought in a store or rented in a library.

Lol wut?

Others kind of are stuck in this “blind leading the blind” loop, where they amass all this product (great if your name happens to be “Amazon”, crappy for everything else), spit out all these rules that seem to show off novice behavior but parades as pro knowledge, etc etc.

I’ve been bookbinding since 2007, I taught myself from a Gutenberg packet bought at a Blick Art Store because I wanted to make an interesting gift for Ryu of hip hop group Styles of Beyond.

They were part of Mike Shinoda’s side project away from Linkin Park, Fort Minor. I went to see a show at Nation (crappy venue in D.C., so glad it is gone), where I had meet and greet with the folks of Fort Minor. I gave the journal to Ryu – but Shinoda thought it was for him and green eye envied it for the rest of the night. Reminded me of Golem from Lord of the Rings, just short of a “My precioussssss” hiss. That dropped the penny in my head that I might be good at this. I joke that the journal actually is at Shinoda’s house, just buried under some art books.

And I’ve been bookbinding since. I also made Shinoda a journal of his own:

The toothy scribble is something drawn by Shinoda, but vectored and 3d printed by me – it also glows (if I remember correctly).

I gave that to Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. to give to Shinoda after missing him at a show. Sonny had the same, brief green eye Shinoda did before I told him where it was going to. That journal is probably sitting next to a small collection of bibles in Sonny’s house. Sonny also has a journal of his own now.

The journals I write in and plan my works in are handbound. I already wrote about that here.

I also work in the field of preservation and archives, which means I regularly look at stuff to do with bookbinding and things like that, even on a professional level.

(Great time to remind everyone that the field looks as White as it does not because of lack of interest from archivists and bookbinders of color – it’s because they don’t want us there, period. They’ll complain the field is dying but it isn’t, they’re just killing it instead of risking actual diversification because keep in mind, history is remembered based on who preserves it. Probably sounds wild until you remember that racism, including anti-Blackness, is so good at short-circuiting logic it will start making someone think Haitian immigrants are actually eating dogs and cats and also make that someone somehow think they do not need a head doctor.)

I also have 3D printed designs I’ve made of bookbinding supplies, which I used to sell on my online store but shut down for the pandemic, but will eventually reopen after I upgrade my 3D printer.

An awl guide and cradle I designed and 3D printed

So, it’s pretty short to say I know my way around bookbinding. I have repaired books, built books from scratch, etc. I also write books (hence this website), and written those books in journals I made from scratch, my skeleton journals.

I saw a video from a booktuber who is pretty brand new to bookbinding. I sat through the half hour vid and it led me to make this unfortunately long comment (I didn’t even know comments could be posted this long . The more you know ):

Hi, I’m a self-taught Black bookbinder with almost 20 years of bookbinding experience and work in archives, gotta interject a bit. Super long comment ahead

A re-bind’s official name is “re-casing”. The outer part of the book is called a “case”. Also, an unfolded piece of paper is a “folio”.The inner flappy black paper is called “flyleaf”. Also an amazing bandYou don’t need a duplex printer. If it prints on one side only, just get Booklet Creator 2 or BlueSquirrel, which are about $20 for a forever license. If it prints, it fitsDon’t make a store front to sell supplies unless you are personally inventing them. I designed a 3d printed punching set and corner cutters for my currently closed Etsy store, the Black Witch Shoppe. There are actual bindery supply stores filled with professional materials ran by people who know what they’re doing, such as Hollander & Lineco. Please don’t glut the field for a quick buck. For those who can’t drop major coin, that’s what art stores like Blick is for, where they sell Gutenberg book binding kits that have everything (including a guide) but the glue. Super duper broke? Dollar store and office supply store.I have the same Epson EcoTank (mine is in black), it will easily handle anything you throw at it. I have printed journals for me to write books in, journals for me to keep track of my fountain pen ink collection in, the user guide for my VR headset, and my own printed written works. Laser is nice but if you’re just making stuff for you, inkjet is fine and the Epson EcoTank alone can handle it fine. It’s affordable and does the job.$52? Wow, ChurchPaper saw you coming lol. They are slowly becoming the Surfshark VPN of the bookbinding world – you see em everywhere. They’re in all my bookbinding groups, I think. You could have gone to Staples or any office supply store and simply stared at the info on the side of the box such as gsm and things like that. A 500 pg pack of Southworth would have been massively cheaper and still have quality. Bookbinding isn’t a pricy hobby, nor is it a hobby where spending the most makes you the winner. It depends on skill, not how good someone is at throwing down cash. Besides, if you’re new, you should hold off on the expensive stuff until you learn more.Art stores have bookboard, like Blick. You don’t have to break the bank for bookboard/chipboard, esp if you’re new.Used cardboard works just fine as a cutting mat. It just has to be flat and protect your surface. I don’t own a mat, just I use a paper slicer/slide guillotine and cardboard.You need PVA glue, you’re holding up PVA glue, the “neutral PH glue”. Regular glue, like Elmer glue, is in the family of PVA glue, just meant for paste-eating school children. Works in a pinch and will still hold throughout the years but PVA is the standard because it’s designed for bookbinding, not simply slapping something together involving paper (such as macaroni on a paper plate, paper crafts glued together, glitter, etc) by a six year old on a sugar bender. Glue stick is also fine as long as it goes on smooth.Bone folder is not needed, I’ve used a guitar pick (my favorite is from Staind, great concert, thick pick). You can use a sturdy ruler if you’re in a pinch or even a bank card. The name of the game is the press of the folding. You can also use … your fingers, including your nails (short, long, doesn’t matter) to fold. I don’t even own a bone folder, actually. I use my hands usually and sometimes a guitar pick.The brush shown in the wrapper that you doesn’t use … is the traditional bookbinding glue brush, oh geez. The silicone one is nice but yeah. I use a litany of brushes, depending on what is needed at the time, from broad paint brush to teeny detail brushesOne awl is all you need for personal bookbinding (fnar.)That orange slide guillotine, I have the same one. As far as paper cutting, it’s about all you need, besides a decent pair of scissors and a pencil.You can also stitch your own headbands. Also, headbands are 10000% optional3 printers? They must love wasting money. They could get an laser printer if they are that desperate to spend. If it were a pro bindery, sure but for fanfic just for you? A wasteVinyl cutters are not mandatory in bookbinding at the core. You can make covers out of anything. I’ve cast mine in resin using a mold. And if you’re working with gold leaf/shiny anything, just get a single laser printer and iron. I’ve even used the bottom of a pot that had boiling water, fresh from a stove.You’re describing a cradle and awl guide. I designed and 3d printed my own. Previously, I used my hands to hold the folded folios together and a folded piece of paper with the punch dots marked out by handBookbinding is a cheap hobby. I was able to do it at 20 as a broke college student. I’m not too jazzed with new people coming in with inflated unnecessary prices. You have string, needle and paper? You can start bookbinding. I make what I call “skeleton journals” for my writing – it’s just paper, string and chipboard covers with the title stenciled in via pen. All the super essentials of what makes a book. I’ve taught bookbinding at 4-H with just paper, needle and string.

Here’s what you actually need if you just want to quickly stitch a book and get it out your system:

A printer (ANY. Get BlueSquirrel or Booklet Creator software if you want)Awl (pref. bulb handle shape to prevent hand pain)Cradle (could literally use a box’s folding hinge if you’re super broke, anything to safely hold a book and stop a needle after it pierces. Or hold it up with your hands and punch (safely!!!!!) hole by hole, using binder clips to keep things in place)Awl puncher guide (could be a folded piece of paper with hand scribbled dots on it)String. (Any.)Needle (preferably curved for easier handling but straight will do just fine. Even sewing needles from the dollar store)Paper (to make the text block. You can buy this at any office supply store, I use Southworth resume paper (great for fountain pens, also) but ANY paper pack will do if you’re just making it for yourself. As long as the paper is “de-acidified” (won’t age fast), you’re fine)Pencil (to mark stuff)If you want to hardcase your book, bookbinder’s board, which is simply thick chipboard. If you want to softcase it, you can just saddle stitch, Ethiopian (Coptic) stitch or journal stitch and you’re done.Whatever you plan to cover the hardcase with. I’ve even used wrapping paper in a pinch, I just sealed it later with glue or sealant because it’s not designed for permanent book covering. SeaLemonDIY, who is here on YouTube, has an excellent guide on how to make bookcloth from scratch so you can use fabric and other materials. I recommend her for those who are visual learners.

Bookbinding is tedious – welcome to how information was made before computers, and this is only the tip of the iceberg – but it isn’t expensive to start.

My bookbinding supply store, which is related to my other blog will eventually reopen for anyone interested but the fact of the matter here is with the influx of new people comes an influx of, well, bs. Well meaning bs but bs all the same. And usually it comes down to price. I guess to make the experience seem exclusive and exclusionary? Like it’s a product in a store and not a skill that is obtained?

I’m part of some pricier hobbies, such as gothic lolita fashion and virtual reality gaming. Bookbinding is not at all expensive. You don’t need to pass a high-jump of a sales tag. But tacking on a major price is a great way to scare people who may not have the dough to spend out of it. Or to seem like you know what you’re doing when really you don’t know much at all. If you have the super basic materials, you’re fine. Everything else is just extra, learn how to actually bind first. The only thing that costs the most is time.

Cheaper materials are your friend in this situation because when you mess up, you do not want to do that on paper that costs an entire mint. You’re going to glue wrong. You’re going to cut wrong. You’re going to mess up. That’s how you learn. Messing up on some cheap copy paper is going to hurt a lot less. Unless you’re doing a professional bind – not fanfic – you don’t need top of the line stuff right away. Focus on nailing down the skill first, then do the “aaaah, go stupid, aaaah, go crazy” bit with the materials.

When I bind my skeleton journals, I also use that as a practice spot for stitching. I prefer to stitch open spine (where you can see the spine, like the journal I made for Shinoda) instead of closed spine (where I just Ethiopian (Coptic) stitch it and call it a day since no one will see it) so I have a variety of stitching styles. I’m not trying to hyper replicate a machine bindery because that will bore the ever livin’ daylights out of me and I find the stitching engaging to look at, especially stitches like the Catepillar stitch or Japanese stab binding. Plus, I like the books I make to stand out when I make them for others. Bookbinding is an art so I treat it as such. I can do those closed spine bindings if I’m repairing hardbound books and such but that’s repair, not me making stuff for fun.

Also, you don’t have to ask authors about whether or not you can bind fanfic. That’s really just plain stupid, and I’m saying that as an author. If you’re not selling fanfic in any form, you’re fine*. People are aware that not everything was on computers throughout all of history, right? Books were bound then to store information. That’s all it is.

No one is watching you stitch a book. There are way worse copyright issues – actual issues – than picking a ye olde school way to keep paper together. I have printed out fanfic, that’s just simply stapled in the corner. The site it was on is gone, the author is nowhere to be seen but I still have the stories and they’re well preserved. That’s all.

Like I’ve said in a previous post about fan-fiction and binding, it seems like these new people just want to complicate thing unnecessarily because how else can you look like an expert on something you know so little about? Make up frivolous quandaries! Say you have to do a whole bunch when actually you could do quite little. Bs like that.

There’s way more information out there than ever about the topic, bookbinding really isn’t that hard or pricy to get into. All you have to know is how to stitch, how to fold and how to glue (which is the tricky part). The rest is extra.

*Usually. Some authors are tetchy about fan fic and any author can swoop in at any time to control how their IP is used by others but also, Anne Rice is dead. Be smart about it.

The Glassman audiobook edition is out today!

Out today! The Glassman, the audiobook edition! Available where all audiobooks are sold and borrowed. Narrated by Alejandro Antonio Ruiz.

Here’s a long sample:

And here’s a free Spotify copy of the audiobook, first come first serve.

Next up: The Harlequin, March 2025

Ow, My Thumb.

I use my hands for a lot of things: knitting, writing, coding, art, harassing my new cat, gaming, typing, things like that.

Pictured, new cat

And now my thumb is dinked up.

Pictured, dinked up thumb

The first knuckle feels like fireworks in the worst way when I try to straighten it and it feels like I am trying to crackle my thumb but I simply can’t. It’s the worst in the morning unless I have kinesthetic tape on it (what athletes use for sprains and things like that) to keep the thumb straight.

Turns out, in my search of finding splints for my thumb (because I’m running out of tape, which I use to keep from sanding the skin off my pinky finger while I write), what I have is called “Trigger Finger” (or “Thumb” in my case). It just needs rest and ice. Basically the RICE method:

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

It’s a thumb and it’s on my dominant hand so it’s super hard to not use it, thus I modify. I regularly keep it wrapped up and iced or heated up when I can. It doesn’t look like a forever injury but I’m certainly going to try to take care of it so it won’t become one. I kinda need my hand.

I most likely got it from knitting since I had some tough projects recently. It doesn’t hurt after the morning or at all if it is wrapped up so I can still write and type but I do need to take it easy. Which sucks. I despise taking it easy. But I don’t want the hand injuries that people older than me have so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

I have some time between books since The Glassman‘s audiobook is done and promo is underway and my next book, The Harlequin, is chugging along on schedule, it just has to go to my artist Edge next (who has done the covers of all my books). This means I can take some downtime for my hand.

For the meantime: Ow.

The Glassman Audiobook Finally Coming Out! Sept 20, 2024!

Took a year but it finally got here. Available on all audiobook platforms, The Glassman will be available on Sept 20, 2024. Narrated by Alejandro Antonio Ruiz.

Listen below for a 9 min snippet of the book:

The snippet is also be available on the front page of this site for future listeners. A free giveaway on The Storygraph will be running from Aug 19 to Sept 18 to promote the new audiobook. 50 audio copies will be available but there’s also an opportunity to get ebook and print copies as well. Print copies will not only be signed by glass pen in fountain pen blood ink, they will also feature hand-sprayed edges, also in blood ink.

Get on Storygraph and try your hand at a free copy!

Ruiz did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life, I hope you all enjoy. This all finishes the final chapter of The Glassman – for now.

Next up: “Stalwart”, a short story in a water-based anthology titled Yemoja Tears, and my next novel, The Harlequin, a YA dark fantasy horror set to come out Spring 2025.

Another One Bites The Dust – Or: The Case of One Who Thought He Was Truly Ineffable

So, another writer acting badly: Neil Gaiman.

Given his usual demeanor and the company he tends to keep, such as public-groping, all-around vicious person Harlan Ellison, the rapey and abusive China Mieville, the glowering racist and acidic person Amanda Palmer, and bra-strap-plucking Isaac Asimov, I’m none too surprised that something like this is out. Even how he handled the Orlando Jones/American Gods racism issue showed that if he doesn’t like a problem that is genuinely a problem, he’ll just disconnect from it, pretend it doesn’t have anything to do with him and do a classic “I’m the issue but I’m also over it so we all have to be over it (and not hold me to it)”. And I’ve had a brief chat with him on twitter, he really does do the “if I’m not winning, I’m leaving” thing. It’s one thing to want to control the narrative of your own career, it’s another to act wantonly and have the attitude of “it’s ok, I don’t need to be held to my behaviors, just hide or ignore the messed up ones.” He looks out for himself, that’s pretty obvious.

Part of this started through women coming forward, all their separate stories of someone who was super enthralled by his fame – until it dawned on them that this fairytale they’re living is actually quite a nightmare. Super unfortunate to say the least but at least someone took on their story finally. I wouldn’t be surprised if more came forward.

Also, another part of this started through what is known as “whisper networks” from booksellers, literary workshop holders, and librarians. I usually don’t take a lot of stock in whisper networks, also more formally known as “rumor mills”. There’s a reason why they’re quiet, in my eyes: either because it isn’t true, or it isn’t a big enough issue to stand up about the problem and thus, it’s easier to enable and cover for a potential bad person than to bring it to the fore. “I heard [so and so] is/does …” is not that captivating to me.

It’s one thing to tip off a friend of bad behavior (and, please, still tell someone important if it is indeed super important), it’s another to just go “Hey this person has [bad behavior that is super bad but it’s from a 5th hand source and we’re all quiet about this for self-sustaining reasons].”

Folks, I came from the music industry. Keeping quiet helps no one, especially once the same name keeps getting floated by different, unconnected people.

I do take note of who gets mentioned but if they’re anon sources or no one seems to really care more than “here’s a tip off” and it’s for egregious behavior, I just keep it in the back of my head unless I see something that goes “that’s not good.” Or sometimes I talk directly with the person talked about.

Also, because I’m me and I live in the real world, I also weigh race, gender, orientation, etc. If they’re Black or simply not one to pass a paper bag test, I factor in anti-Blackness and/or colorism, especially if it comes from White or lighter skinned folks as sources. It’s amazing how fast “difficult to work with”/”moody behavior” is actually “I’m the terrible person and they didn’t put up with that so now I’m on destructo-mode”. And I learn by spending time with the person. I’m pretty hyper-sensitive, thanks to having two trauma disorders stacked on top of each other, so I’m usually pretty on the money a good chunk of the time. Also, if it is centered on someone who is not White & male, I just use the actions of the worst White guy in the field as the yardstick. If the White guy could do something worse and still keep a career in that field, then I factor that in and even bring it up because I’m not a fan of double standards. Plus, it just means to me “you will accept worse if they have privilege so it’s not an actual problem to you, you’re just trying to bleach the field.”

If it is something more egregious than “moody person I dislike”, such as prejudice or sexual harassment/sexual assault/rape, I rather keep stock of that … and tell someone that could potentially do something about it. That’s not “difficult to work with”, that’s a major problem. You genuinely liked Good Omens that much to have someone walk around and be grabby to others you haven’t personally warned?

Trust, I have friends who knew Lost Prophets and R. Kelly personally – just freakin’ report it. It was not fun seeing friends who didn’t know what the ne’er-do-weller was doing, or those who did but thought they could “talk some sense into ’em before they do something really stupid”/”look, nobody’s perfect but someone’s gotta be there for ’em”. Almost all of them had to basically make an apology to the world, answer really unsavory questions, and some even faced investigation – just for the actions of others. Lost Prophets is a case of “some folks are very good at deception – especially if they pick victims others don’t prefer to listen to, such as ‘imperfect’ women”. R. Kelly is a case of “some people are pretty decent at deception … but very good at picking and keeping around people who say they’re upstanding – yet have malleable morals if the paycheck or allure of associated fame is nice enough. Oh, and they pick victims others don’t prefer to listen to, such as Black women and girls, especially the ‘imperfect’ ones”. (Everyone genuinely knew what R. Kelly was doing – even MadTV lampooned it when he was slated to perform at the 1996 Olympics, but it was only after he targeted a White girl did it all come crashing down.) It’s not always “made up nonsense, created by jealous people [usually women] with nothing better to do but tear someone famous [usually a guy] down”.

Yes, people can make stuff up but when it comes to sexual violence, the chances of the person being a liar, statistically, is about 2-8%. That means it’s a solid 90+% chance the person is telling the truth. Especially given all the horrid nonsense an accuser has to go through, it’s no badge of honor to go through that and no one wants to deal with the sexism of “the wicked jezebel that wants to tear down a random guy”. Yes, men really do engage in messed up sexual behavior more often than people think women fabricate about said behaviors. It’s called “rape culture” and “casual sexism”. Actually, most sexual violence is by someone the victim knows, there’s about a 76% likelihood of that. That’s part of why it’s so difficult to report or to even know what happened was sexual violence, it’s not some nefarious guy in a trenchcoat jumping up from out of the bushes. It’s somebody who knows you – and your boundaries (as well as how to twist them) – way better than that. Easier to twist your head up that way and protect themselves. Especially if they are famous.

It’s not easy but being quiet about serious stuff doesn’t help anyone.

In addition, people should probably review their spaces and who they associate with and ask themselves why they would prefer to keep an environment that protects harmful people from their actions but helps creates more victims. While it would be nice to believe Gaiman was this master spinner of tales and deception and beautiful lies that fooled us all – people knew. He asked people to provide him with girls for a trip to Scotland. Palmer knew he was going after women by the payload. Clarion Workshops created rules to keep Gaiman away from women of certain age. Bookseller and publishers knew he was Sir Grab-a-Lot. That’s a lot of people who coddled him. Again, why? Were they that stupefied and dizzied by Mirrormask? It’s just no point in covering for him because the crocodile tears are plentiful when crap hits the fan. There’s just so much “if we knew about this, we would have said something (no, they wouldn’t, they’re just trying to save a different person this time from their own actions: themselves).” Or “We feel so sorry for the victims (usually after dragging the victim names through mud and thorns to hell and back)”. All because it comes from them being willing to ignore bad and toxic behaviors, partly because they’re fine with those behaviors – until it publicly bites them – or because “I’m around someone famous, let me not mess this up”. Yes, pobody nerfect but use your brain, it’s a structure. I bet sexual assault survivor places, such as RAINN and House of Ruth, are going to get some major donations from people in the literary world though. As if that solves the damage Gaiman has done. It doesn’t.

A brief aside, by the way: NDAs are supposed to be for protecting trade secrets, such as Coca Cola’s recipe, to help protect and keep their business running. Why is it such an important “trade secret” to hide a rapist? A racist? An abuser? And why is caping for them more important than making sure they don’t make more victims? Which, by the way, ups the chances of having things crash down even harder. Keep NDAs to actual business only, not to protect the methods of how to get more people thrown into the “broken goods” box. Also, thank R. Kelly, Trump and Weinstein for this new development on NDAs: NDAs meant to hide messed up behaviors are worth less than the paper they’re printed on … unless they’re trying to say the raping, discriminating & abusing are all a necessary part of their trade. A messed up lawyer can make you sign an NDA but it is up to a judge to uphold it. Again, keep NDAs to actual business and not to trick people into signing up for 50 Shades of Pretend Legal Gray Area.

Moving on, this kind of reminds me of the Gabe Hicks issue, where it turned out Hicks was engaging in very manipulative behaviors in his relationships. He was cheating in polyamorous relationships, which, given how poly relationships work, sounds like he just likes hurting people. Seriously, cheating in a poly relationship is like trying to hot-wire steal a free nice car that already has keys in the ignition – freakin’ why?

The part that seemed a bit wacky to me was how his word was taken solely and purely when it came to harming the people he victimized. If he said so-and-so should not be worked with because “unprofessional behavior”, that was basically it. Does no one cross fact check with others or do their own research when it comes to picking people for jobs? One person is enough? And it has to be Hicks to be kingmaker? Because if it were someone the D&D folks didn’t care about (or keep as their favorite on-call token (it isn’t lost on me the major Whiteness of the situation and the D&D community as a whole, as Hicks is a Black man who does cater to Whiteness quite a bit)), then it would have been just another day. The creator side of the D&D community need to take stock in how they handle these issues in the D&D community because it’s more than one person. Way more. Again, these things do not work in a vacuum.

The other part that seemed a bit wacky to me was how Hicks’ actions had a ripple effect on other Black creators in the D&D community, which is already so few as it is. They started losing gigs left and right because of someone they may or may not have known did messed up stuff – and this is the D&D community. White dudes doing problematic stuff there is about as common as snow in the Artic, even things that could have easily dwarfed Hicks behavior (which is part of why I was a bit surprised at the reaction of Hicks’ behavior, they’ve allowed and caped for way worse – then I remembered it was a White community lol). That’s not fair for the other Black creators, that’s just mass punishment for the actions of one. The D&D community needs to also take stock in the fact that it took one person to mess up in a group for them to write off the entire group. At least it also explains how Hicks was allowed to do messed up stuff for as long as he could – he was already in a really messed up environment and he used that to his advantage.

By the by, as full disclosure, I was slating Hicks to be a narrator for a future work but I kept him on the reserve side of my list because I wanted to deep sea dive his info when the book finally came in the saddle. It’s what I do for all narrators when it comes time to select someone for an upcoming work. It’s also because sometimes he was only a tad sus, and because his demo reel was a little weak in terms of what I like to look for in voice actors. I followed him on Tumblr & Instagram for the longest time and would check on his twitter from time to time. I didn’t follow his twitter officially because I already followed him on Tumblr & Instagram, where he’s more active. He always seemed to play it cagey, like he knew he was courting White approval but there are a lot of Black guys in nerd spaces like that, they’re basically adored pets in White nerd communities: great to have around to nullify accusations of racism from other Black fans like little human shields, make the White folks feel like they’re not racist when they actually are, such wonderful pets – until they bite. Hicks would post stuff that, again, seemed sus (to me as a Black woman) but it seemed like standard “I want White people to like me” thirst but he wasn’t Clarence Thomas/Candice Owens level so there’s that. Would I ever work with Hicks again? That depends on Hicks himself and the ocean of Black male vocal talent I can find to match or better him.

Also, since that happens quite a bit to people of color – one person messes up, everyone else pays for it – does this mean Neil Gaiman messing up (and J.K. Rowling messing up, George R.R. Martin messing up, etc etc) mean that we can now mass wipe all White authors off the shelves in bookshelves, on book sites and creator spaces until they somehow magically work their way back into the good graces of the world? And it can’t take less than several years and, oh! the person has to be practically saint level perfect in every way. More perfect than a saint, actually. And every White writer is seen as a walking, talking liability that everyone should avoid like death until a massive slew of people write out dissertation length posts, videos and more to even remotely convince that this is a good person who isn’t a walking pile of filth, and deserves to be published or simply shown to the world? And it takes decades to earn those “good person” cookies back? And those same cookies can be lost in a clean sweep the nanosecond someone else in that group messes up (or is perceived to mess up) and it all has to start back at square one? Because that’s exactly what happens to creatives and creative projects of color. All. The. Time.

Gaiman engaging in behavior super south of “not great” isn’t at all surprising, the writing had been on the walls for a minute. I don’t expect him to get super flogged overall because, again, this is also a case of community and what they allow. It’s amazing how much they’ll let slide if you factor in privilege, especially Whiteness, and make media they like. Gaiman will still get awards for his writing (probably more of them now because other White guys will feel rallied up and make sure [insert messed up, phony, sexist and/or racist theory du jour here] “doesn’t win”), his shows are not likely to be canceled and he’ll probably have to lay low for a bit. Happened to Rowling. If anything, he’ll probably get the lighter version of what she gets. A lot of his core fanbase is comics and is fairly White – race is coming up a lot because, yes, race does matter in instances like these – so they’re just going to be fairly forgiving most likely, if not dismissive of the accusations altogether. They’re the SuperWhoLock crowd, the crowd that usually harasses BIPoC Star Wars actors for simply doing their jobs, the crowd that pretends they’re progressive in thought because delusion is their favorite space to be in. The crowd that thinks they have royal standards in how to treat others but they actually don’t. These are the folks who like Mark Wahlberg (who attempted to murder two Vietnamese people for simply Existing While Asian. Nearly succeeded, too. One is permanently blinded for life. And they’re not the only victims) and Sean Connery (who has an extensive history in sexual violence and physical violence that could make Neil Gaiman look like a saint). So what they allow is a pretty hefty indicator of how they’ll act. And they allow quite a bit.

In Black literary groups I’m part of, people bring up the racist incidents Orlando Jones had to go through in his Anansi role during American Gods, how Gaiman just totally blew that and the fracas that happened. Jones was right, Gaiman was wrong, but Gaiman’s super White fanbase just took Gaiman’s side blindly and flummoxed Jones, a Black actor, about it. Basically, Gaiman had already besmirched his own name among quite a few fans of color, especially Black fans. Even folks who are still major fans of Gaiman there in the reading group are disappointed … but note that he’s replaceable, he can sit in the same bin next to Rowling as far as they’re concerned. If anything, they’re just sad because they thought he was not as trash as the average White male writer but some are not too broken up about it.

For BIPoC folks who are sad and teary: remember, you didn’t know him personally. No need to be so destroyed about his behaviors he personally chose to do and the people who protected & coddled him because they wanted him back in their bookstore or library or writing event more than maintaining the safety of the people they see on the day-to-day. Fame is massive but it shouldn’t be just cause for letting messed up people get away with messed up things. And he’s not the only person who writes fantastical stuff. There are plenty who can write as well as he can and have stories that are just as engaging. And most importantly – you didn’t know him personally. Be sad if you have to but find new media to invest yourself in.

Hopefully all this mess means I’ll see less deep-throating about him in fountain pen communities (he writes with a fountain pen and so do I) and in writing spaces. He wasn’t an insufferable person, but he wasn’t great either. He simply was his own bad omen and people ignored it.

SFWA – Publishing Taught Me: Nothing Really Changes, Just the Tech & the Lingo

Note: SFWA did a Publishing Taught Me for BIPoC writers call a while back. This is what I wrote. They didn’t go for it lol:

Since 2020, there has been a brand-new awakening across the world in since the murder of George Floyd and the protests that ensued after. White institutions and organizations finally found some new words to eventually recycle into oblivion in the form of DEIs, black squares on their social media and mentioning the same three figures of Black history, one of them almost always Dr. King. Standard White virtue signaling: tone-deaf as usual, self-serving as usual, White guilt laden as very usual.

This is no different in the world of publishing, from literary organizations to publishing houses. They all seemingly want to run away as much as they can from the glaring facts that they help uphold Whiteness the same way a carpenter builds and restores an old house. Bluster when called out, hijack all the right words from actual BIPoC & QBIPoC individuals they would never want to ever touch – or publish – with a thousand foot pole and repeat those words with no real substance but a lot of gusto until all the White people they’re actually talking to pat them on the back or say wonderful things – oh, you thought they were talking to BIPoC writers? Yeah, no. It looks like that on the surface but that’s just the surface.

These institutions do not bother making an honest effort to the very same groups they have shunned for decades via overt and subtle ways. Nah, no, just exhume Octavia Butler, wave her dead body around a bunch and pretend they treated her decent when they didn’t. And then confuse living Black writers for Octavia Butler, too, (something that happened to N.K. Jemisin – who also gets the token treatment just like Butler). Don’t forget to denigrate, backhand complement, and act as if BIPoC writers should be grateful about it all, too. These places like to acknowledge writers who are not White with the same adoration as a petulant teenager expresses about cleaning their junky room.

And both have been told to clean up their act for the umpteenth time over a very long time.

I’m new to publishing but not to its chicanery. I first tried to go into traditional publishing for several straight years. I learned all that I could, I wrote the best stories I could, I tightened up my query letters all I could. I made sure that anything anyone saw was as clean cut and professional as possible.

And still came the issues.

I got very few requests, which is pretty standard for the industry. But I already knew how prejudiced publishing was (and pretended not to be) before I even entered. Publishing is hard for everyone, especially those trying to break in, but add marginalizations and it gets even harder. It really did seem like the industry just wanted blatant race trauma stories from BIPoC writers and everything else – fun, boring, and in between – from White writers. “It’s not your craft, it’s the market.” “Not a good fit.”

Since I didn’t want to delude myself with traditional publishing and I already knew they mainly published White, given the books that are already out, I reviewed articles about racism and publishing from places like Publisher’s Weekly and Fiyah. Spoiler alert: It’s been talked about since the 80s and 90s and even further back. Same situation, similar faces, not much has changed but the technology. But, oh wow, will the publishing industry pretend that all this is brand new news to them, to the point many of them probably should try their hand in film so they can collect their Oscars.

Actually, the only publications that have ever given me a shot were all Black publications, like Nightlight. I’ve submitted my works to way more than Black publications, including the longstanding publications, by the way. “Not a good fit,” they would say. One even congratulated Nightlight for taking my story as if they never received a submission of it at all. That was PsuedoPod.

I went independent because when there’s a traditional publishing structure that is 70% White, they’re going to make sure that number only go down by a slice of a percent, if not less than that if they can help it. So now, I have published books where I can keep my all BIPoC characters, have their lovely, dark-skinned faces and bodies on the cover and work with an editor and narrators that actually look like the people and cultures I write. Everyone I work with are all Black and Latin, and a good chunk are queer. From my artist, to my editor, to my narrators. All talented and none of them were hard to find.

Which is a common refrain I hear from these traditionally White institutions and organizations: we can’t find BIPoC writers and workers. We want to welcome them but we can’t find them anywhere.

Try checking your slush piles. Try checking who you hire. Try checking Melanin Library. Try checking online groups like “PoC Writers of Color” or “Black Girls Read Books, Too”. If I can find them – because people of color are indeed people and thus lack antennae to get over the air updates like smartphones – then so can they. BIPoC apply to these places, submit stories to these places, we do all that we’re asked to, only to be ignored again and again. All because we don’t tell our stories in traditional European style. Not everyone wants to sound like a Lovecraft or Tolkien knock-off – heck, not everyone even liked the original Lovecraft or Tolkien. Different writing isn’t poor writing.

But someone of the National Front can get published. Several times in noteworthy lit journals. Even serve on award panels. For several years. He’s the “good fit”, I suppose.

This guy only got the boot when enough White people mentioned – BIPoC unfortunately get ignored as “rabblerousing nitpickers that will never be happy with anything and are easily offended by everything, especially the Black writers” – that this guy had a background in the National Front. And they still had to convince the other White folks about why having David Duke’s British nephew around is a Bad Thing.

They are aware BIPoC writers can see this, right? That we don’t live in another vortex or on a different planet?

But, hey, BIPoC writers are supposed to be happy with three and four year old DEIs that sound brilliant but most likely won’t be applied except as shields from accountability. It may sound pessimistic but here’s the thing: as a writer over 30 years old, I’ve seen it all before. If this was a one-and-done, it would have long time happened by now.

Take literary awards for example. Just about every big literary spec fic award I have learned about is very traditionally White, from the deciding panel to the hosting organization to the people who get awarded. Thus, I searched for the very first Black person to ever receive the award and then I look for when the organization first started.

To keep this list short for length, let’s go with the Nebulas, Hugos and Stokers:

Nebula: Presented by SFWA, which was founded in 1965. First Nebula presented: 1966. First Black person to get an award: 1984, Octavia Butler for Bloodchild – So, for 18 years SFWA thought no Black person was creative enough to pen award-worthy work, and it has been spotty since.

Hugos: Presented by the World Science Fiction Society, which was founded in 1939. First Hugo presented: 1953. First Black person to get an award: 2016, N.K. Jemison for “The Fifth Season” – So, for 63 years, the World Science Fiction Society thought no Black person was creative enough to pen award-worthy work, and it has been spotty – and a mess – since.

Stoker: Presented by Horror Writers Association, which was founded in 1985. First Stoker presented: 1988. First Black person to get an award: 2001, Linda D. Addison for “Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes” – So, for 16 years the Horror Writers Association thought no Black person was creative enough to pen award-worthy work, and it has been spotty since…. which is quite flooring, given how terrified White people, White writers included, get when they hear about Black lives in general. Even when we’re just musing about a boring trip to the supermarket for groceries, they’re genuinely terrified to be around us, interact with us like regular people, or to even listen to us. And we don’t even have to be terrifying – we just have to exist. Ask Lovecraft.  Or Stoker.

I’m focusing on Black writers here because I am a Black writer and anti-Blackness is unfortunately a terrific ruler of how much diversity they’re allowing in. (So is colorism, which is getting really rampant today, it’s like darker skinned people shouldn’t exist.) We’re already used as a canary in the mine by just about everyone else for just about everything else – which is very dehumanizing, by the way.

Back to the awards. Embarrassing, right? Almost every winner happened when I was alive, except for Octavia Butler’s win, that was only three years before I was born. Otherwise, it was as White as a Klan meeting jamboree prior. I treat these extremely long stretches as something poignant because something poignant is indeed being said through these awards: “No Black person has ever written anything we thought was good enough up until [year of win]. And no Black person since then has ever written anything we thought good enough until [year of another win]”. Not like it gets better for other writers of color. Actually, it gets worse.

It’s not just spec fic. Even the Nobel has only given four Black people (three men, one woman) an award in literature. The most recent being 2021 – and the one before that was in 1988 to the only Black woman to ever get a Nobel Prize in literature since the existence of the Nobel Prize itself, Toni Morrison.

Nice to know I’ll never get a Nobel. Not because I can’t write but because apparently Nobel believes the same thing that the Nebula, Hugos, Stokers and other awards believe: Good writers are White writers, White writers are Good writers, Anything Else Better Be Rare (and Better Be Grateful).

Even though there are countless Black writers and other writers of color both before and after these award-winning Black writers I named that are just as amazing in their works.

However, the awards are just a reflection of the organizations that present them. For example, I have my own experiences with SFWA as a teenager growing up in Baltimore, where the Baltimore Book Festival would be held yearly. SFWA always had a table that always had an All-White or All-White-And-Octavia-Butler showcase, and they always staffed it with smiling White people were pleasant jerks to just about anyone that couldn’t pass the paper bag test. That was my experience for years. As a teen, I wanted to learn how to be better involved in speculative fiction genres and become a better writer. But by the time I was a young adult, I started to figure out that Some Things Always Stays the Same at SFWA. They weren’t Baltimore Sci-Fi Society bad, but was the attitude necessary?

After 2020, when these institutions started scrambling to write DEIs, saying all the right things they most likely don’t mean, having deals and free entry they barely told BIPoC writers about for a single year or two (because that somehow undoes decades of being obtuse), all this commotion probably looked amazing if you were a White person saying to yourself “wow, they’re pulling out all the stops for these ingrates”, but, honestly, it wasn’t. These institutions should have cleaned house at any time after the 1960s, when race issues were massively at the forefront then. And kept that house clean thereafter. No Black writer wants to join an organization filled with people who cry blood at the first sign of diversity or have to be convinced over and over again that structural prejudice exists. No writer of color wants that, either. BIPoC writers just want to simply be writers and to be properly recognized for their works. Not get death threats for existing.

All publishing has taught me is that things stay the same. Not because there is no change, publishing just wants to never change until they can’t. Then they learn new words & tricks so they can try to stay the same again. And that needs to immediately change.

SWFA Nebula Conference vs. WriteHive Conference: Is It Worth It?

A couple of weekends ago hosted two conferences for writing:

SFWA Nebula Conference (which also includes the Nebula Awards)
June 6 – 9
In-Person/Virtual Hybrid
$150 to attend ($125 extra for dinner), Scholarships to waive costs available

WriteHive Conference
June 7 – 9
All Virtual
Free

I had a scholarship for SFWA Nebula Conference and I was slated for two panels for WriteHive so I had a lot to do during that week. Might as well compare and contrast.

SFWA’s conference started in the 1960s and WriteHive started in 2019. Also, I’m biased since, for me, WriteHive is starting from zero with me, in terms of impressions, and SFWA is starting from negative numbers due to a negative number of interactions I’ve had with SFWA in person since I was teenager. Basically, it’s up to SFWA to work those lost chips back, WriteHive just has to not suck.

The Nebula conference costs money to attend unless you get lucky and have a scholarship for historically disadvantaged writers they don’t talk much about outside of their immediate sphere of SFWA.org. Otherwise, I would not have attended. Remember, I’m pretty long charred by SFWA so I’m not going to dole out money for a possibility of more of that. Yes, SFWA has said they have changed when it comes to dealing with historically marginalized writers but every White organization says that – and then go right back to Business As Usual so I tend to ignore that stuff. Plus, it doesn’t help that they said this in 2020, when every White org with a half bit of sense said so – but they’re all back to Business As Usual, as expected. So, at least I get to see the conference virtually for free because there’s no way I’d drop a single penny to visit Cali (where it is held) to have the glowing chance to basically relive college: White people, White opinions, a whole lotta expensive bullsh#t for nothing.

WriteHive is free and all digital, I actually have been suggesting them to writers both local and afar because of their lack of cost and massive accessibility by being digital. I mainly learned about them because I think I was recommended to them from a different author friend and liked what I saw. I liked that they aim to be diverse – not as a PR thing but as part of the actual DNA of the conference. They show Black people, dark skinned people (I have been noticing colorism is mega on the rise nowadays), people who look visibly Not White, etc. It’s more welcoming for people who didn’t historically benefit from structural prejudice. Most of the world is not White, so I appreciate that WriteHive, despite being so small, works hard to cater to that world instead of imply that you have to erase what doesn’t make you White/Male/Cis/Het to participate. Even all the Guests of Honor are all PoC, including Black and including dark skinned. (SFWA membership would probably riot over that if they did the same. They and the Hugos did have the Sad Puppies issue in their rank and file, and N.K. Jemison did get confused for Octavia Butler – two years after Octavia Butler died. Or SFWA would just do genuine inclusivity for one (1) year, maybe two (2) – and then promptly stop.) So, WriteHive is who I would suggest to authors without thinking. I also liked they have the creator of Melanin Library there to be on several panels, so it does show that WriteHive is way more modern in approach about diverse reads and doesn’t act like a teenager that was told to clean up their room for the umpteenth time. Unlike SFWA and the Hugos.

WriteHive is a lot smaller than SFWA and doesn’t have a due paying membership, which makes them more inclusive since not everyone can dole out the money. They do take donations and sell WriteHive related merch but despite all that, it seems they’re pretty efficient with how they manage their time, digital space and money. They don’t have to rent a physical place to be in so that probably cuts costs by a lot, I would imagine. They’re pretty young as an organization so I don’t expect the moon and stars but they are putting in work.

SFWA is a long-standing dues paying association. For the longest time, the rules of entry were pretty towering at SFWA; you had to be a traditionally published author with a certain amount of hefty sales. Given how White traditional publishing is and was, you could guess the membership layout in terms of diversity: There wasn’t much of it and they were pretty satisfied about it. (That’s why it’s such a big commotion to change it even just a little. The Whiteness is by design, not by mistake – especially when they pretend it’s not.) SFWA had to have big discussions and debates over stuff WriteHive just simply included, such as being genuinely inclusive – instead of lip-service inclusive – to writers who aren’t White.

SFWA now has lowered their barriers of entry, such as you can be independently published (which is what a lot of PoC and Queer authors do due to the oft-studied, long standing, cemented-in prejudice of traditional publishing), and you just have to prove you have accrued at least $100 in royalties across all bodies of your work over the lifetime that you have been putting work out. This means that I can actually get an SFWA membership but I rather trial-run the conference. No point in paying money when I can hear myopic literary White bullsh#t for free. I already have my English degree, I don’t need to waste another penny.

I, however, will always say I like SFWA’s Writer’s Beware. I have nothing but nice things to say about them. And GriefCom, while I have not used them, does seem useful, but one author in the BIPoC meetup talked about being ignored by them. They’re supposed to hand handle contract disputes of SFF authors but this one wasn’t cared for and things took a turn for the worse, which the author wanted to prevent, hence going to GriefCom. Given SFWA’s age in comparison to WriteHive, they should have eradicated a lot of the prejudice problems from their ranks. As I have said time and time again, SFWA started in the 1960s – during the same time as the Civil Rights Movement. They had zero excuse then and less than zero excuse now to be more inclusive. These folks could imagine hobbits and Narnia but equal rights? Apparently they need a minute. Or a few decades.

As for the panels, both have a slew of them. SFWA starts a day earlier than WriteHive, but they also offer Office Hours, where you talk to a member of SFWA about some skillset they have, such as how to write a good query letter or how to promote your work better. You peruse the list, see what you like and sign up for them. If you are picked, you get a 25 minute digital slot with the person. I must say, the Flight Check crew, the volunteers who help get you to where you are going digitally, are amazingly ran like a well-oiled machine. Even if you were bad at tech, you just pressed the button in the email and away you go, to be sorted to the right space and person. The office hour convo I had was pretty ok, it was about learning promotion. I do wish the selection had more diverse selection of people but it seems the writers of color had their own batches of subjects that I unfortunately did not have much of an interest in. But the Flight Crew does not kid around, they get you to where you are going.

WriteHive doesn’t have Office Hours but you already have the discord so there’s that, more on Discord comparisons later. Back to the panels.

I personally feel that WriteHive was the better conference. More actual diversity, great panels that were super informative (I really loved the “Passive Marketing: How Authors Can Leverage SEO” panel/presentation) and are diversity focused. WriteHive was ran pretty well for a newer conference that mainly takes place on Discord. I liked how there were really informative panels focused on people who aren’t straight White guys, such as “Deconstructing Colonization in Fiction” and “Marginalization and the Querying Process” – panels that SFWA barely would touch with a 20 foot pole. On top of those panels, they have other general industry panels as well such as “Breaking into the Serialized Fiction World”, “How to Handle Receiving Critiques”, “Breaking into the Publishing Industry”, and “Penny for your Thoughts: Giving Insightful Critiques”.

The people who went to Write Hive were usually younger (but they did have older folks there, as evidenced by the panel “The Older Beginning Author: Never Too Late For a Plot Twist”) and it was pretty diverse. Meanwhile, SFWA still presents itself as fairly staunchly White and very old with few young people, especially few young people who are not White. Yeah, SFWA tries to change but in their DNA, they don’t actually want to or they would have done so by now in leaps and bounds. WriteHive was pretty White as well but it wasn’t by an overbearing amount. They could actually find panelists that were BIPoC for many panels, including panels that have nothing to do with discussing historical marginalizations. Because we can talk about those subjects as well. Some panels at WriteHive still had the Token effect (everyone but one or two people are White) but at least they also weren’t cringing towards bringing up historical marginalizations. (More on that all later.) It was moreso talked like a normal subject, not with a knee-jerk I-swear-I’m-not-a-bigot reaction or hesitance. I don’t like panels where discrimination is talked about with coded language of “some groups”, “certain eras”, blah blah blah, either talk about it earnestly or STFU and get off the stage.

WriteHive has comparatively less hoops to jump through to join the conference. It’s free, yes, but it’s also just all ran in a Discord server, and comprehensively well. You can slate what you want to see and not have to slog through what you don’t. You can talk to panelists in the chat. I do wish that the panels were live and not pre-recorded but WriteHive is new and small, only but so much they can do, especially since so many people have so many different time zones. (On one of the panel I was on, one person was in Australia, another was in the UK.) Perhaps it’s also because I use Discord regularly but I’m also in the SFWA’s Discord and it is stiffly ran.

SFWA’s conference was ran on their site so you needed to register, get a login, things like that. It’s very big on “if you’re not supposed to be here, you won’t be”. The Discord was hard to get into, the “Affinity” groups (BIPoC, LGBTQ-Plus, Neurodivergent) were even harder to get into – you had to email the Discord handler (who is a super nice person that’s pretty on-top of things, I gotta say. 10/10, would talk to again) – there’s a bunch of rules that seemed to be very “all emotions are actively monitored”. And people talked a little in the Discord (there was some healthy chatter going on during the conference weekend tho), but the Affinity Groups? I only joined BIPoC and LGBTQ-Plus but BIPoC was silent, crickets. Stale and the conversation is pretty stiff, like anything will get someone booted, especially having a potentially deep conversation about race and racism. The queer one was heavily White. Had more convo going, though. They talked more and socialized more – but also SFWA is less likely to bounce someone for queerphobia (White queers do exist, after all), but race? SFWA is more strained about it. Even the BIPoC Writers Virtual meetup became an agony discussion after a few minutes. The Black SFWA rep was super nice and helpful and tried her best to show SFWA was changing itself and changing for the better … but SFWA is just SFWA and their longstanding behavior about race is still, well, pretty longstanding.

One thing I definitely noticed: All the BIPoC writers at SFWA basically knew each other. All the White writers didn’t. That’s a problem. The White writers don’t see themselves as the Other (nor are they treated like Other and regularly reminded about it), they do not get iced out of things for simply existing, and they do not exist so few in a group that they all basically know each other by name. That is a major problem. SFWA has a membership of roughly 2,600 but it’s obvious that most of it is White. It’s all woven in the atmosphere of the convention and even the panels I saw. I may not like seeing the Token effect on panels but seeing White authors Lorax on and on about the issues of BIPoC authors and Queer BIPoC authors – as if they couldn’t find one to put on the panel is a problem. All SFWA can do is blame itself for that. I went to the LGBTQ virtual meetup, it was super White and I just didn’t bother to stick around for that. I’m not the only BIPoC author who dipped out of virtual meetups because it was just too White. And these meetups are supposed to include everyone who has a conference ticket, whether they made the trip to Pasadena, California, or stayed home. In other words, even without the barriers of travel, SFWA was still a very White space. It’s nice the older BIPoC folks want to strive and fight for a more diverse SFWA but for me as a younger, Black queer writer? I’d rather take my ball and go play elsewhere that’s not going to be so burdensome a place. I’ve notice many younger BIPoC writers feel that way: why join? Let SFWA die out with the crowd it’s always had if it wants to be so difficult when it comes to modernizing and diversifying. No point in fighting this kind of atmosphere when you can just make a new spot in a new place. All the Black or BIPoC exclusive places I’m part of have growing memberships, not waning.

At least in WriteHive, there was a pretty sizeable BIPoC community, both on the panels and in the crowd. All the BIPoC didn’t know each other. The BIPoC channel on the WriteHive discord had a lot of vivacious discussion and chatter. It was less “We have to be careful of our words” and more, well, regular discussion. The queer discord wasn’t so “White Queers Party Central – and Maybe Some of the Others” as SFWA, it was a pretty decent mix. (It also was basically Ace Town, lol. So many people from the asexual community. I’m demisexual so I found it humorous.) WriteHive just had a more fluid community that was about writing. SFWA conference didn’t strike me like that, and you have to dole out money for that event. A BIPoC group shouldn’t have the same welcoming feeling as a nerves-inducing nuclear fallout shelter in the middle of an air siren during the ’50s.

WriteHive still sometimes had “fly in the milk” (one BIPoC person, the rest of the panel is White) panels, however. I even wound up on one, which I usually include in my panel suggestions to not do. I hate being the token because it sucks and makes me wonder if the runners of the convention suck even more. Tokenization is a form of racism because it takes concious thought to say “We will have one (1) person who is not White among our sea of White – and now we look anti-racist while maintaining racism, yay!” So I prefer to not to be involved with that. Hopefully WriteHive next year will flesh out its panels better.

Although, discussions about racism and the issues about it at Write Hive were not hampered or forbidden with a “Won’t someone please think of the feelings of White people!” which was the vibe at SFWA. I don’t mince my words about prejudice nor do I soften my approach for those with privilege. Privilege is a cushion, they’ll be fine. I don’t get up in arms when non-Americans rip on America, when trans people complain about cis people, etc. If you have privilege in the area spoken about, learn how to STFU and stop with the narcissistic alligator tears.

So, WriteHive is good about having actual open discussions from the historically marginalized to talk about their feelings without going, “You’re only have certain feelings and only to a certain level, then you better stop or the historically benefitted might have a dampened mood – but they’re free to say whatever messed up stuff they like, you just need a thick skin and stop letting what other people say affect you. They don’t mean it like that, they’re good people, we don’t keep a bad crowd.” That sentiment I just described is super common in White spaces. That exact sentiment. They may think their weirdness or their queerness may save them but it really doesn’t when they still don the proverbial Klan hood. It may have a little rainbow hem or a embroidered UFO on the corner – but it’s still a Klan hood. I do appreciate that WriteHive allows such discussions but part of that is because they also have people of actual different races and backgrounds, not just White people and some Sunken Place light skinned lackeys to assist and be a human shield from accusations about prejudice. So that’s a positive. It reminded me of Multiverse, which is a good thing. They run roughly the same way. Part of being genuine about being inclusive is not shutting up the people who always been told to shut up for decades and centuries. WriteHive isn’t perfect but at least they’re actually trying.

SFWA panels weren’t too bad, but they weren’t as meaty as WriteHive’s. And, again, with a limited BIPoC community (that they kept limited over decades. Again, it’s not a mistake, it’s a design), it was common to see the same names over and over and usually for BIPoC topics. The rest of the panels were stiflingly White. I didn’t even want to sit through all the panels I had an interest in because of that. I did like the Contracts meetup but that’s because I like Writer’s Beware. It basically felt like Writer’s Beware Live, which I like. WriteHive didn’t have that and I was surprised that there was so few people in the contract meetup – the meetup was meant for people to ask about contract issues, get advice on contract stuff both good and bad, etc. While I was the only person of color and, for the vast majority of the meetup until the last 5 – 10 minutes, the only woman (I’m demi-gender but you get the drift), it was a good chat. I kind of expected it to be all White and male but still, I didn’t think there would be so few people in there, especially given how many people have contract grievances. I super recommend that meetup. Even if you don’t have contract problems, it’s always good to go to hear what is being said. They had a great discussion on subjects like AI, small presses, terms and conditions/ToS stuff in general, contracts in different languages (or lacktherof), and traditional contracts.

I didn’t watch the Nebulas, I don’t care much for the award for reasons I have already talked about. WriteHive doesn’t have an awards show and that’s fine by me.

SFWA has to work to be more inclusive but frankly, I am not really sure they have it in them to do so. Not because it is impossible – because that’s lightyears far from the truth. It’s intensely possible, SFWA is extremely and wholly capable – but at the core of SFWA, they don’t really want to full-commit to the change. Some do but quite a few don’t and especially at the core. What they have done so far is half-hearted and sluggish. WriteHive is much smaller, much younger, and much lesser known – and they have a more diverse population. And there definitely were people from SFWA at WriteHive. One was even a fellow panelist of mine.

I would do SFWA again only if I get another scholarship and to attend the Contract meetup but I wouldn’t be heartbroken if I didn’t go back. I would definitely like to do WriteHive again, though.

WriteHive Panels I Did: History and War

I recently was a panelist at WriteHive, an all free, all digital writing conference. The panels I did were:

Historians on History in Fiction

War and the Long Term Effects of War in Fiction

The panels are pre-recorded and my voice clips out a little at times in the War panel but they’re there.

Getting Sprayed

I’m a bookbinder and an author. So seeing the sprayed edges/gilded edges craze is a bit on the odd side for me. The edges are indeed pretty – but not worth the major jack up in price. The sprayed edges are all you get sometimes, no autograph in the book or anything else special. Just something cheap added to hike up the price and to super sell first edition copies (so a publisher (a traditional one, particularly) can say a book did well, even if no one cracked open their copies). For me, it’s just a bit on the weird side.

Some very, very short history: colored edges, such as fore-edge painting and gilded edges, have existed for centuries. Back then, it was to know if someone tampered with the book via taking out pages (as is the case for marbled edged books, because the pattern would become wonky), or to seal the pages because de-acidification is a recent thing (started in the 1990s). Before paper was de-acidified, paper held its natural acid lignin, which would make the paper go brown at the edges. That would make the paper crumble and just generally be of terrible quality due to it being exposed to air and light. You can de-acidify a book but the process isn’t quick or easy.

I have journals from early 2000s bought from Barnes & Nobles and Claire’s that has those exact problems. Especially journals from Barnes & Nobles. As a preservationist, the oldest book I have worked with was from the 1300s and the pages did not have these problems so it basically was (and is) a case of how much did the maker cheap out on the paper to get the book made. They basically ran under the motto of “looked good when we sold it”. By the time you start seeing signs of cut corners and poor materials, it’s long after the refund window. It’s your problem now.

To fix this problem back then (before instituting a “why don’t we just use de-acidified paper?” as a rule), books would have colored edges, usually red but sometimes they were green or blue. Those were basically sealants to defend against the issues of de-acidification. (Ditto with gilded edges. They helped books last longer.) These sealants blocked out the light and air for the pages and helped them stay decent for longer (and helped booksellers sell cheap books at a markup because “oh, look at the pretty. Nothing wrong with the book at allllllll.” ::koffkoff::). In other words, the painted edges/gilded edges were basically like looking at pretty duct tape for a banded-up leaky pipe instead of installing a pipe that doesn’t break or fancy bondo on a car to cover up a deep ding.

Granted, like I said prior, there could be multiple reasons for gilded and painted edges in the past, including publisher brand identification, to make sure the books aren’t tampered with, to bondo-up a book that has sub-par quality paper, or just because painted edges/gilded edges are just plain pretty.

Speaking about now in the current time, me seeing the craze for sprayed edges, and seeing some authors feeling pressured to have them, it’s a bit odd because it feels gimmicky to me when the book isn’t signed or things like that. It also feels odd because … this stuff has always been here. Decorated edges has existed for centuries so it’s just a feel of “ok, why now?” The story isn’t made better because there’s some paint on the edges. If the book isn’t signed and/or has other special effects (or it isn’t a case of “this is standard printing protocol, all books will have sprayed edges”), it just feels like a cash grab by trad publishers.

And of course, here comes the parasite cold callers crawling into the inboxes of authors, preying on their insecurities and possible fear of missing out (FOMO), offering the promised ability to provide gold lettering, fancy edges, etc, etc and other bs like that – for a monumental price and a golden opportunity to have a major headache from dealing with people who care only about money, not quality. The prices they charge are wild. As a bookbinder, you can tell they’re pretty much in the business of scheming and dupin’ the stupid.

Since decorated edges has been around long since hector was a pup, I don’t feel a race to decorate my edges. It’s not hard for me, I’ve already done so with a couple test copies of my book Dreamer via inkpad and compact airbrush.

Top: Airbrushed
Bottom: Inkpad

I think the pearly dark blue on the bottom book is lovely on the edges and the shimmer of the top book is simply brilliant … but the story is the exact same. I would rather someone buy my book because the story caught them – let the painted edge be just the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. The ink I used on the top dark blue one is Stroke of Midnight by Ferris Wheel Press, a shimmering, mid-sheening ink, airbrushed on. The bottom was plain ol’ shimmering inkpad padded on.

Would I do sprayed/gilded edges? Given that I already have the skillset to do it myself, I don’t see why not but I rather not go super sayan gimmicky with it. 20-30 books are easy to do in a pressed stack and they can be for promotional giveaways on The Storygraph (which would make my life easier, logistically speaking) and perhaps conventions, maybe keep a spare ten around for the MMP online store for those who can’t attend conventions and don’t win giveaways. I would probably spray them with the fountain pen ink I originally wrote the book in because I personally think that would be cool. If the story wasn’t originally in fountain pen, it may be in the color I signed them in. Maybe do a stenciled design if it suits the story. The books would be signed as well because why not? Basically, the books would be true limited editions because I cannot and am not interested in cranking out 746846643 books just because people want the pretty over the story. They can have both. Besides, I feel like ppl are treating the sprayed edges in a Pokemon “gotta-buy-’em-all” kind of way.

I rather decorate the edges of my softback books because it’s my personal preference as a bookbinder. Plus, I put out books to be used, to be read, not to languish away on a shelf somewhere. Let it languish away on a shelf after it’s been read at least once, lol. It’s not too common to see someone sit on a train with a thick, hardbound book, fancy edges or not. Books are utilitarian first, then add the fancy.

I also know how to do hidden fore-edge because I have been doing that since I was about 15 trying to not have people take my stuff, teachers included. A personal story: I once had my Barnes & Nobles copy of David Copperfield taken by a teacher because she said it belonged to the school (she couldn’t believe an inner city Black kid actually would own a copy of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield). It actually was a Christmas gift from my mom. I had my name in the book and instead of that being seen as proof it belonged to me, it was seen as “vandalism of school property”, which is potential suspension. I was 15 and I didn’t want them getting mom involved, especially since it seemed like everyone who had a pair of ears and was an adult just blindly went with the “stolen & vandalized school property” story, no matter what I said so I basically lost an entire book thanks to some racist biases by the end of January. They at least let me keep my bookmark and didn’t suspend me, just stole my book under the veneer that I was the thief. They didn’t care that it was a recent edition, they didn’t care that the school didn’t carry Barnes & Nobles edition, they assumed some parent (a White parent because, remember, they can’t imagine how a Black kid at a IB/Blue Ribbon school or their parent would be caught dead with this book) donated the book out the kindness of their heart and now here I come to steal and mark it up as if it belonged to me. Despite the fact that it did.

Sidenote: the most common format I read books in are in ebook form. Easier for me to manage my vast libraries of books on the go or at home, harder for a racist to abuse whatever authority they don’t deserve and say I stole whatever book I actually genuinely own and they don’t.

Historically, hidden fore-edges were made to hide markers of veracity. They’re usually in gilded/painted books because otherwise, the image comes out looking squished and not at all hidden.

The deco-edge helps hide the hidden fore-edge, thus making it hidden. The only way to reveal it is to fan the pages, which naturally happens when the person has the book open.

Some readers are spraying their own edges, which is nice. They should be using at least craft spray paint and not the cheapest can of Krylon money can buy, though. Air brush would be smarter – unless they like flaking and cracking every time they use the book, a risk that happens with cheap spray paint or too thick a layer. Dry painting does exist and has been done for centuries but it’s also basically one step before pointilism, a painting style via dotting the page a bunch. Most may not have the patience for it and I can tell you for fact modern shelved books do not have it. Their edges are sprayed because it’s cheap & quick to do, it just takes a few minutes, some painter’s tape and a steady hand. Some may wreck their own books in the process but that’s learning a skill for you. Some do look decent. At least it creates a touch of personality and it’s an easy way to mark that you own the book and that it’s from your personal library should you lend it out. Also, these folks need to also learn that painter’s tape exists and they don’t have to spraypaint their presses with all the colors of the wind if they don’t want to.

But sprayed edges/decorated edges shouldn’t be a super jack up in price. Unless the art is hand-done by an amazing, established artist, it shouldn’t be an arm, a leg and a soul in the price tag department. Cheap bibles have guilded edges. It’s just a heat press and some gold leaf.

As for authors: a book is going to sell fine if the story is good enough. Any person who is only on the lookout for sprayed edges is not a return reader usually. Plus, readers ought to know that not all books are gonna have a gimmick on the edge and books that do have a gimmick on the edge may not always have an amazing story, just an amazing edge. Focus on the story, decorated edges have been around for centuries, it’s literally nothing new. There’s no point in throwing out a bunch of money you may or may not have for a risk that potentially comes with crackly edges, flaking paint and stuck pages. If you can DIY it, do so – but only if you actually have the skill.

It seriously bears to mention: I have a litany of skillsets.

Here, it’s best you play Spanish Flea while reading the list, it’ll make it easier:

List of skillsets:

Hardback bookbinding
Softback bookbinding
Mixed media bookbinding
Painted edges (by hand and airbrush)
Painted fore-edge
Gilded edges
Book stitching
3D Printing
CAD design
Machine building & repair
Robot building & repair
Coding
Circuitry and soldering
CNC etching
Seed beading (by loom and by hand)
Jewlery making, incl. metal work
Sticker making
Gold foiling
Resin work
Mold making
Mold casting
Soap making
Candle making
Knitting
Crocheting
Handsewing
Machine sewing
Graphic design
Fashion design
5+ languages
Weaving, both loom and by hand
Fountain pen care & repair
Fountain pen ink work
Typewriter, use and repair
Deco-den, crystal/encrusted style
Cabochon, clay and resin
Sweets deco-den
Stamp carving
Stamp making (via 3D printing or using rubberbands)
Stamping, paint
Embossing
Screenprinting
Stenciling (by hand or spraypaint/airbrush)
Stencil-making
Bookcloth making
Tool making
Doll making, fabric
Doll making, knitted/crochet
Audio engineering
Audio design
Audio restoration
Video digitizing
Paper digitizing/scanning
3D object digitizing
Virtual object creation via within virtual reality
Ebook design
Ebook coding (both original and corrective)
Audiobook metadata creation
3D design correction
Book formatting
Book interior design
Font/typeface creation
Custom circuit board creation
Music instrument playing (plz don’t make me list the instruments, too lazy)
Music mixing
Audio mastering
Research (historical)
Research (contemporary)
Restoration and preservation, paper and books
Restoration and preservation, fabric
Restoration and preservation, mixed media
Clay bead making
Clay figurine sculpting
Clay modification
Papier Mache
And More!

The list goes on and on, by the way. This is just what’s off the top of my head.

By the way, I didn’t really go to school for any of this. A vast majority of this was self-taught. No one thought Black kids in the hood were worth the programs and whatever creative programs we did have, there was always a lot of work and effort to have them cut and taken away. It’s part of why I have a very Devil May Care/F#ck You attitude to anyone middle class and above who pitches whines to me about how they don’t have my skillsets. Not my fault they wasted opportunities that were handed to them over and over that would have benefitted a kid in the hood a billion times more and even put a reversal on the numerous harmful policies that instead was instituted so it would be a lot easier to shove a kid in the hood into street nonsense and from there into jail, the grave or both. These creative programs are super needed in communities that will actually use them, not communities that don’t. The fact that I had to learn these myself shows a major problem and anyone who tries to spin this negative into a problem is also part of the problem.

Further more, while I learned all these while dealing with institutional and social policies designed to be sure I don’t, a middle class person or above should have at least triple that list, given all the resources they are personally handed (sometimes on the backs of kids in the hood, so they can put “worked in disadvantaged communities” on their resumes) to succeed. It’s a bit of a grumble of mine, to say the least.

Anywhoodle, in short, I have a lot of skillsets the average writer doesn’t have. On top of that, I’m not traditionally published so that gives me a lot of leeway to run things as I see fit. I don’t have to worry about a publisher sidelining me and undercutting promotion or cutting corners in how my book comes out because they can’t get past their own well-nurtured and constantly-instilled racism. I just others do (or don’t do), look at my skillset and wonder if I can impliment the same or do something better. I also have a disorder to consider so it’s important to me to make sure whatever I do can fit inside the constrains of that disorder. Because it’s a disorder.

So doing stuff like deco-edges comes a bit easy to me because I already did all the hard work in learning this. However, in knowing how to do this, I know when someone is being greedy with the pricing or not. Sprayed edges are extra work but not burdensome extra work. It shouldn’t be a terrible jump in price between the two. An author can do this themselves but they do run the risk of messing up their books in the process if they’re brand spankin’ new to all of this. They would have to use airbrush paint as a start off point. I’m using fountain pen ink because A) I already have it on hand and B) I already know how to do this. Also, if that author is traditionally published, that is the job of their publishing company, not them. If they still want to deco the edges themselves and the company is cool with it, their publishing company had better up the royalty rate.

All in all, this isn’t half bad. At least it’s entertaining to make, or else I wouldn’t bother at all. And I can probably keep this up long after the sprayed edges bandwagon fades out.