David Marusek's Blog, page 5
May 3, 2011
Some Feedback to your comments . . .
I want to thank everyone who took the time to respond to my recent post. Your feedback came in the comments on this blog, directly to me via email, and on Facebook. By far the most responses came via FB, and so I will definitely have to keep it in the loop.
Here are some things I've gleaned. I would appreciate any further feedback y'all can give me about them or other thoughts you have. I'm trying to tailor my PR efforts to your preferences.
1) It was suggested I start a forum so that fans can discuss my work on their own with occasional input from me. I think this is a great idea, but I've got to wonder if there are enough fans out there who would participate. Amazon offers a forum feature on my Author's Page, and no one takes advantage of it. I'd hate to launch a forum that only collects cobwebs. Anyone out there dying to discuss my work?
2) Here's an important one: what should I share on this blog? One person encouraged me to share my wit here (and referenced the witticisms in my books to demonstrate that I do indeed possess wit). But another respondent said about the opposite, to steer clear of opinion and keep my witticisms IN my books, not on my blog. That leaves me wondering how much of my life and thoughts to share here. Another person said she appreciates my posts about Alaska. Everyone's interested in hearing about Alaska, right?
3) Twitter. People follow Twitter. It was suggested I learn how to use hashmarks. I'd love to. Can anyone explain them to me? BTW, if you want to follow me there, my addy is http://twitter.com/davidmarusek.
4) Someone said I should consider using a fan page on Facebook, as opposed to a personal one. Anyone got any ideas about that? My FB addy is http://www.facebook.com/davidmarusek. BTW, I don't play Farmville or any other games or stuff there. I just don't have the time/interest. Does that make me a bad person?
5) Someone said I should link this blog to more places, such as Goodreads. I'm not sure how to do that. Blogger has Twitter and FB buttons, which makes it easy. Assuming I can figure out how to link elsewhere, where should I link to? Where do you go to get your book/author news?
Well, that's all for now. Any feedback is appreciated.
April 30, 2011
David Wakes Up!
The datelines on my most recent posts show that I haven't kept you, my readers, or the world at large informed about my life or work. In large part that's because of my need for privacy. Also because I don't believe people, even my readers, are much interested in how I live my life. And finally because I'm not really convinced that social media and self-promotion have much of a positive effect on my career. Some SF writers seem to bubble over with news, opinions, and facts and still have time to put out a fairly decent novel a year. I'm not one of those writers. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. Nothing ever happens, so there's no news (with a few notable exceptions. See below). I'm opinionated, sure, but don't consider my opinions especially worth airing, except when they come out of the mouths of my fictional characters. As to social media, I just don't get it. Call me a social grinch, but I'd rather spend five minutes breathing the same air with someone than an hour reading their updates online. As to promotion, I've always felt that that was my publisher's job. After all, they take 85% of every dollar in sales of my books.
But that's all about to change. Why? For two reasons. First, my longtime agent, Ralph Vicinanza, died unexpectedly last November. I was lucky to have representation by a person of his caliber. He steered the course of my first novel, Counting Heads, and I will be forever in his debt. Now I am faced with decisions of how to chart my future course, which leads to . . .
Ebook publishing has exploded. Ebooks had been a tantalizing possibility for years, but no one knew how to bring them to the market. Amazon changed that with the Kindle. There had been ebook reading devices before, but Amazon put theirs together with the largest online bookstore in the world, making it easy and relatively cheap to find, download, and read books. IMO, the Kindle has done for books what iTunes did for music. And with Barnes & Noble and Apple jumping into the game, it seems clear that ebooks are the next step in publishing. Moreover, e-publishing has the potential to cut out the middleman, the traditional publishers, from the process. In five years, if such giants as Macmillan and HarperCollins are still in business, that business will be unrecognizable by today's standards. In the meantime, we authors have the ability, like indie musicians, to cater to our fans directly.
Of course, that means we're responsible for getting the word out ourselves and to build and cultivate our own fan base. In other words, self-pubbing equals self-promoting, and at long last I accept the challenge.
What does that mean? First off, it means that I'm committing myself to letting you know what's happening with me and my work on a more timely basis than once every six months. For the last 15 years I have counted Saturdays as just another work day for writing fiction. Now, and for the foreseeable future, Saturdays will be my "social network" day. I have to admit, I still don't know how to do it, and I'm hoping that some of you reading this can give me some hints. What's the best way to get the word out about my fiction? Where do YOU go for news about your favorite writers? What do you want to know about me? How can I best use my time? Come on, give me a clue. I've had a Facebook account for years, but I never updated it, using it only as an easy way for people to find me. Now, I will at least copy these blog postings onto FB, but what else is FB good for? Do you follow Twitter? Does anyone really care to read tweets from me? What else out there should I be using?
It also means that I will begin to self-pub some of my short fiction as ebooks. I've already got "She Was Good—She Was Funny" up on Kindle for 99 cents. This was my second-ever published short story, and the only one that's not science fiction. Actually, it's a kickass story about love and murder in the Alaskan bush, and it appeared in Playboy magazine. It's never been collected (except as a premium feature in the Subterranean collection, Getting to Know You) and is pretty much unavailable, until now. I'll get it up on Nook next. After that I'll do a mini-collection of three stories: "Osama Phone Home," "A Hard Man to Surprise," and "Timed Release." The first of these appeared in MIT Technology Review, and the other two are flash fiction stories that appeared in the British journal Nature. These three stories have also never been collected or anthologized. They are available online but only behind a paywall. And then, if I can secure the rights, I'll do an ebook edition of my most popular story, the novella, "The Wedding Album."
There's a lot of work getting all this put together. A lot of administrative hoops to jump through creating accounts, not to mention the formatting of the ebooks themselves. I've been forced to update a bunch of software (plus I need a new computer! I need broadband!) and to learn the finer points of .mobi and .epub formatting. More on this in coming weeks.
My big news
The biggest personal news I have to share is the fact that I'm a new grandparent! Here's my little darling only three hours old, fresh from her water birth at home. If my daughter and son-in-law allow, I'll be sharing more pix in future weeks.
Well that's enough for now. But check back next week for more. I'll tell you about the novel I've been working on for the last three years. And please leave comments (or send email) about things you'd like to see here.
But that's all about to change. Why? For two reasons. First, my longtime agent, Ralph Vicinanza, died unexpectedly last November. I was lucky to have representation by a person of his caliber. He steered the course of my first novel, Counting Heads, and I will be forever in his debt. Now I am faced with decisions of how to chart my future course, which leads to . . .
Ebook publishing has exploded. Ebooks had been a tantalizing possibility for years, but no one knew how to bring them to the market. Amazon changed that with the Kindle. There had been ebook reading devices before, but Amazon put theirs together with the largest online bookstore in the world, making it easy and relatively cheap to find, download, and read books. IMO, the Kindle has done for books what iTunes did for music. And with Barnes & Noble and Apple jumping into the game, it seems clear that ebooks are the next step in publishing. Moreover, e-publishing has the potential to cut out the middleman, the traditional publishers, from the process. In five years, if such giants as Macmillan and HarperCollins are still in business, that business will be unrecognizable by today's standards. In the meantime, we authors have the ability, like indie musicians, to cater to our fans directly.
Of course, that means we're responsible for getting the word out ourselves and to build and cultivate our own fan base. In other words, self-pubbing equals self-promoting, and at long last I accept the challenge.
What does that mean? First off, it means that I'm committing myself to letting you know what's happening with me and my work on a more timely basis than once every six months. For the last 15 years I have counted Saturdays as just another work day for writing fiction. Now, and for the foreseeable future, Saturdays will be my "social network" day. I have to admit, I still don't know how to do it, and I'm hoping that some of you reading this can give me some hints. What's the best way to get the word out about my fiction? Where do YOU go for news about your favorite writers? What do you want to know about me? How can I best use my time? Come on, give me a clue. I've had a Facebook account for years, but I never updated it, using it only as an easy way for people to find me. Now, I will at least copy these blog postings onto FB, but what else is FB good for? Do you follow Twitter? Does anyone really care to read tweets from me? What else out there should I be using?
It also means that I will begin to self-pub some of my short fiction as ebooks. I've already got "She Was Good—She Was Funny" up on Kindle for 99 cents. This was my second-ever published short story, and the only one that's not science fiction. Actually, it's a kickass story about love and murder in the Alaskan bush, and it appeared in Playboy magazine. It's never been collected (except as a premium feature in the Subterranean collection, Getting to Know You) and is pretty much unavailable, until now. I'll get it up on Nook next. After that I'll do a mini-collection of three stories: "Osama Phone Home," "A Hard Man to Surprise," and "Timed Release." The first of these appeared in MIT Technology Review, and the other two are flash fiction stories that appeared in the British journal Nature. These three stories have also never been collected or anthologized. They are available online but only behind a paywall. And then, if I can secure the rights, I'll do an ebook edition of my most popular story, the novella, "The Wedding Album."
There's a lot of work getting all this put together. A lot of administrative hoops to jump through creating accounts, not to mention the formatting of the ebooks themselves. I've been forced to update a bunch of software (plus I need a new computer! I need broadband!) and to learn the finer points of .mobi and .epub formatting. More on this in coming weeks.
My big news
The biggest personal news I have to share is the fact that I'm a new grandparent! Here's my little darling only three hours old, fresh from her water birth at home. If my daughter and son-in-law allow, I'll be sharing more pix in future weeks.
Well that's enough for now. But check back next week for more. I'll tell you about the novel I've been working on for the last three years. And please leave comments (or send email) about things you'd like to see here.
November 27, 2010
August 1, 2009
New story out
My latest "flash fiction" short story, "Hard Man to Surprise," appears as the Futures feature in this week's issue of Nature (July 30). It's an adventure in social networking in the era of designer drugs (as was my previous entry, "Timed Release." That must be a theme of mine or something). I hope you check it out.
If you are a Nature subscriber, you can read it online for free. If you're not a subscriber, you might be able to read it on your local university's server or find it in a library o...
July 9, 2009
Counting Heads Audiobook
Counting Heads has just been released as an audiobook by Recorded Books. Looks like it's available as a download (for $28) from Audible.com, through Amazon. This is my first audiobook, and I'm pretty excited about it.
Back from Vacation
I've just returned from a couple of weeks in a remote corner of Alaska. That is, in the Wrangell--St. Elias National Park and Preserve, where my family owns land in an inholder subdivision. The photo above is of my friend Rusty who accompanied me during his first visit to Alaska. He's standing in front of the Kennicott Glacier near McCarthy, which is about 10 miles from the subdivision. The old Kennecott Copper Mine can barely be seen in the background on the right.
We're going to build a cabi...
June 12, 2009
New flash fiction story
"Timed Release," my latest story, is in this week's issue of Nature (June 11, 2009). It's a flash fiction piece and concerns a "bachelor aid" technology I am waiting for someone to invent. I thought maybe if I got my idea into one of the world's premier science journals, maybe an enterprising chemist would see it and be inspired to work on it. I believe it would be a boon to civilization and could make some drug company a ton of money.
March 7, 2009
Dueling Interviews
Two new interviews came out yesterday, one in the Alaskan writers blog, 49 Writers, and the other in the SF blog io9. This sure has been my time for interviews.
The photo above is a shot of my recent reading at Barnes & Noble in Fairbanks.
January 29, 2009
MOS Book Launch this Saturday
If you're in the Fairbanks, Alaska area this Saturday afternoon, stop by Gulliver's Books on College Rd. and help me launch my second novel, Mind Over Ship. It's a science fictional romp through a scary future, and it's the sequel to my first novel, Counting Heads. I'll be there from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, and I'd love to meet all of you sf readers in Interior Alaska.
And another interview
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This one is in our local newspaper, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, purveyor of all the news from the mines since 1906, I think. And it's true that I worked there in the early 1980s. There were relatively few quality jobs in town in those days, especially for a young man with no skills but art. The N-M was responsible for turning my fine art into commercial art, which has provided me a steady paycheck ever since (until I quit all graphics work two years ago to devote all my time to writing).
T...
This one is in our local newspaper, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, purveyor of all the news from the mines since 1906, I think. And it's true that I worked there in the early 1980s. There were relatively few quality jobs in town in those days, especially for a young man with no skills but art. The N-M was responsible for turning my fine art into commercial art, which has provided me a steady paycheck ever since (until I quit all graphics work two years ago to devote all my time to writing).
T...
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