Alan Baxter's Blog, page 60

Selling Fiction vs Self-Publishing

Self-publishing doesn’t carry anything like the stigma it used to. This is a good thing, of course, as it opens more opportunities for writers, and we’re all looking for opportunity. But should we all jump on board and self-publish all the writings?

There is certainly the argument that self-publishing has the potential to give the writer a far greater dividend than any other form of publishing. But this is something of a furphy. All the really successful self-publishers have either built their success on an already established traditional publishing career (like Konrath, et al) or they’re publishing lottery winners (like Hocking, et al). For ninety nine point nine per cent of the rest of us, self-publishing will garner far smaller results.

Let’s look at the alternatives.

One of the myths bandied around all the time by the self-publishing evangelists is that traditional publishers are mean and nasty, and not interested in new talent. This same nonsense is applied to publishers of short and long fiction, to publishers of books and magazines, be they print or electronic. It is true that a lot of big business trade publishers operate on something of a risk-averse model. They’re unlikely to take a chance on anything really left of centre, because they operate under a certain agenda. But there are numerous small press outfits around who are very keen on “different” stories, to set them apart and build their own legacy.

Publishers are not mean, nasty or averse to new talent. They’re just very busy and receive a lot of submissions – and a lot of what they receive is pretty poor. Writing, like any other craft, takes time, effort and commitment to master…

Read the rest of this article at the Planet EWF Blog here.

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2012 British Fantasy Awards

The winners of the 2012 British Fantasy Awards have been announced:

BEST NOVEL (FANTASY): Among Others by Jo WaltonBEST NOVEL (HORROR): The Ritual by Adam NevillBEST NOVELLA: Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God by Lavie TidharBEST SHORT FICTION: “The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter” by Angela Slatter (from A Book of Horrors)BEST ANTHOLOGY: The Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeerBEST COLLECTION: Everyone’s Just So, So Special by Robert ShearmanBEST SCREENPLAY: Midnight in Paris by Woody AllenBEST MAGAZINE/PERIODICAL: Black Static edited by Andy CoxBEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL: Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel RodriguezBEST NON-FICTION: Supergods by Grant MorrisonBEST INDEPENDENT PRESS: Chomu PressBEST NEWCOMER: Kameron Hurley

Excuse me while I dance up a storm at the news that our very own Angela Slatter won the Best Short Fiction category! Woohoo! Well done, Angela. I’m also very pleased to see The Weird, Black Static and Supergods get nods in their respective categories. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

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Conflux 8 – the con report

This is going to be short and incomplete, because I’m pretty tired and have a lot to do. But I couldn’t let this weekend pass without a mention. Conflux is always a great con – it’s my favourite on the Australian scene – and this year was no exception, despite the shortened program. As Conflux 9 next year is also the 52nd Australian NatCon (National Science Fiction Convention) and as it’s in April, this Conflux was programmed over only two days instead of the usual three or four. But it certainly didn’t suffer for that.

9am Saturday opened with the inimitable Jack Dann doing his usual schtick as MC. Jack’s a great guy and really got things moving, and he kept his energy and enthusiasm throughout the weekend. Aussie SF is lucky to have him. The two day programme was packed with loads of interesting panels and all had great speakers and interesting, engaging crowds. My favourite panel environment is one where the audience have a level of participation that engages and moves the panel along, instead of distracting it or hogging time. Almost every panel I was part of or in the audience for was just like that. I really enjoyed the ones I sat in on, so thanks to my fellow panelists. This year I was on panels with Ian McHugh, Sue Isle, Rob Hood, Lewis Morley, Tracey O’Hara, Lily Mulholland and Rik Lagarto. I also did a workshop on Friday and a reading on Sunday with Ian McHugh. So thanks to you all for making it so much fun.

Highlights of the con for me included music from the awesome duet, The Fildenstar, (watch out for more about them on here soon), Keith Stevenson’s guest of honour speech (though I think I’m a little more optimistic about the changing role of editing and publishing than he is!), the massed launch on Saturday night (which included From Stage Door Shadows, which has my story, Fear Is The Sin, in it) and the launch of Adam Browne’s new novel, Pyrotechnicon. That was possibly the best book launch I’ve ever attended. The novel is published by Coeur De Lion, of which GoH Keith Stevenson is the head honcho. The launch consisted of Keith in full fancy dress and Keith, Adam Browne and Jack Dann enacting a scene from the book. Truly wonderful!

Here’s a shot (stolen from from Claire McKenna) showing Adam on the left and publisher, Keith Stevenson, on the right. I can’t find a shot with all three, sadly. If you have one, please comment and let me know.

And while I say that these things were highlights, the whole con was an absolute success. Top respect to Jane Virgo and the team for doing such a tremendous job. Here’s to next April and Conflux 9, NatCon!

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Conflux 2012

It’s Conflux time again. I love going to Conflux, as it always has a great vibe. Always a very friendly con. (Next year, Conflux is NatCon, so that should be extra exciting!) But in the meantime, we’ll all be in Canberra again this coming weekend, so join us. Jooiiiinnn uuuuuusssssss!

I’ll be conducting a seminar on Friday afternoon, with the very talented Ian McHugh. We’ll be talking about getting the details right in your fiction, from fighting to scene-setting to character description and more. Then I’ll be on a few panels over the weekend:

Saturday 10am – 11am: What makes a good fantasy / sf / horror story? with Sue Isle, Ian McHugh and myself.

Saturday 11am – noon: Story and Plot Structure in Superhero Comics with Rob Hood, Conor Bendle, Lewis Morley and myself.

Saturday 2pm – 3pm: The art of scene and mood setting in dark speculative fictionwith Tracey O’Hara,
Lily Mulholland and myself.

Sunday 9am – 10am: Writing dialogue workshop with myself and Rik Lagarto.

Sunday 3.15pm – 4.15pm: Readings : Alan Baxter and Ian McHugh. I’ll read from my novella, The Darkest Shade Of Grey, I think.

Also, on Saturday Night from 7 pm onwards at Smiths Alternative Bookshop there are no less than Five books launches! Launched by Conflux MC, Jack Dann, we have:

Jodi Cleghorn (editor) – From Stage Door Shadows;

Gillian Polack – Ms Celllophane (e-book);

Craig Cormick – Time Vandals;

Tor Roxburgh – The Light Heart of Stone;

Greg Mellor – Wild Chrome.

I have a story in the From Stage Door Shadows anthology, and will probably read a bit of it at the launch.

So it looks like a busy and fun time will be had. Obviously, as usual with cons, at any times not listed above you’ll find me in the bar, drinking and carousing. Come and say hello!

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Stories like buses

I’m very pleased to say that I’ve just sold my short story, Crossroads & Carousels, to The Red Penny Papers. It’ll be out in October in their fall issue, and available online from here: http://redpennypapers.com/ If they sound familiar, they should. Apart from the fact that they’re awesome, they also published my supernatural noir novella, The Darkest Shade Of Grey, which is still available online or in all ebook formats. Click the cover in the sidebar for more details on that.

It’s been a funny old year for me with publications. I’ve had two gluts of releases with an arid desert of nothing in between. Between February and April this year I had five original stories published and one reprint. Obviously, those things were written and sold across a wide spread of time. The wait from sale to publication can vary massively. For example, I’ve sold a story that has taken more than a year to see publication, and sold another story months later that hit print within weeks. Publishers and editors all work to a wide variety of schedules. It usually means that things come out spread neatly across the year, but not in 2012. After one rush of publications in February, March and April, nothing of mine has seen print (or pixel) since.

Until now, where I’ve got three things coming out within a few weeks of each other. My depression-era story based on the Tiny Dancer lyric, “Jesus freaks, out in the street”, which is part of the Shadows At The Stage Door anthology, is being launched at Conflux this weekend (be there – a post about that is forthcoming).

Then my story, Cephalopoda Obsessia, is coming out in the Bloodstones anthology in time for Halloween. It’s a great line-up in that book, so I’m excited to read it.

And now Crossroads & Carousels is coming out in The Red Penny Papers Fall edition, due around the end of October. I’m really pleased this story has a home. I’ve always wanted to write a Devil-at-the-crossroads tale, and this is it. I’ve also combined that idea with an homage to one of my favourite songs, so I think I’m pretty clever and you can’t tell me otherwise, so shut up.

Publications like buses, nothing for ages, then three come along at once.

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Industry IQ seminar: Going Indie: inside self-publishing – Saturday 22 September

If you’re going to be around Brisbane this weekend and you have an interest in self-publishing, you should try to get along to this event. I’m very pleased to be presenting alongside Sally Collings and Graham Nunn, where we’ll be talking all about the ins and outs of self-publishing and chatting about our own publication journeys. Regular readers here will know that I’ve dabbled in a variety of forms of self-publishing, as well as being traditionally published. Some of my self-published work is now traditionally published, and other stuff I’m happy to keep publishing on my own. Hopefully I can give a decent overview of my experience and be useful to anyone who comes along.

As far as I can tell, we should have a good mix of fiction, poetry and non-fiction experience between us. As the blurb says:

Demystify the world of self-publishing with this seminar that examines the issues and process of self-publishing. Explore the process of making and selling books, editing and manuscript development, marketing and author platforms with these industry professionals who have taken the leap into self-publishing.

Here are all the details:

Going Indie: Inside Self-Publishing

Presented by Alan Baxter, Sally Collings, Graham Nunn

Date: Saturday September 22

Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm

Venue: Meeting Room 1.B, Ground Floor, State Library of Queensland, Cultural Centre, Stanley Place, South Brisbane

Price:

Full Price $50

Concession $45

QWC Members $30

QWC Member Concessions $27

Further details about the event and the presenters, and booking forms, can be found by clicking here.

I hope to see you there. I’ll be around a little bit before the event and sticking around for a little while afterwards, so do come and say hello.

EDIT: Venue corrected.

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Ellen Datlow – gatekeeper

Ellen Datlow is one of the best editors in the business. I’ve got enormous respect for her, and the books she puts out are always excellent. I was also honoured that she gave one of my stories (Punishment Of The Sun from the Dead Red Heart anthology (Ticonderoga Publications)) an Honourable Mention in her latest Year’s Best. Someone pointed out this YouTube video to me, and I had to share it. It’s a fascinating one minute of film. Look at all those stacks of books! Look at all those Hugos! With science fiction “you can sneak in and corrupt them.” Brilliant. Enjoy.

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Amazon doing their job, kinda…

So I get this email from Amazon, offering me a selection of books I might be interested in.

You know what, Amazon? I am quite interested in that book. But not as a reader. Because I wrote it!

Still, at least Amazon are doing a good job. Kinda.

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Blackbirds and Mockingbird, by Chuck Wendig, reviewed

My latest reviews are up at Thirteen O’Clock. I’ve been enjoying Blackbirds and Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig. Excellent dark urban fantasy horror thrillers. Review excerpts below.

Blackbirds is a novel by notorious internet pottymouth, Chuck Wendig. Chuck’s online writing advice and sheer volume of bloggery is quite impressive and I was slightly dubious about wading into his actual fiction for the first time. I really wanted to like it, but wasn’t sure if I would. I needn’t have worried.

The story follows ballsy, attitude-ridden, hardass, Miriam Black, who has the power to know, from a single skin-on-skin touch, when a person will die. She’ll see in graphic detail, just once, the first time she touches a person, exactly how that person will shuffle off. She’s never wrong and she can’t change anything that happens. What she can do is make notes about the people who are going to cark it and be sure she’s nearby at the time to loot the corpse. That’s how she makes a living. Pretty dark stuff.

But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered just as he seems to spot her behind the killer. Miriam knows from experience she can’t save him, but if she’s there as he’s murdered, she’d better try, in order to save herself if nothing else.

Wendig delivers this story like shotgun blast after shotgun blast of action and smartmouthed dialogue. The characters, for the most part, are excellent. Miriam is a very well-conceived invention, a real basketcase, and Wendig manages her well.

Read the rest of the review here: http://www.thirteenoclock.com.au/blackbirds-by-chuck-wendig-review/

Mockingbird is Wendig’s second novel from Angry Robot Books and the sequel to Blackbirds (which I reviewed here.)

Mockingbird picks up a year or so after the events of Blackbirds, with Miriam and Louis in some kind of stable situation. But this is Miriam Black, so we know that’s not going to last. Louis sets Miriam up with a job using her special power to see how people are going to die. A friend of his works at a school for troubled girls and wants to know if her suspicions of terminal illness are well-founded or not. Miriam reluctantly agrees to use her powers for good.

While at the school she touches a young student, a troubled teen called Lauren, and sees her suffer a hideous death, aged eighteen, at the hands of a particularly nasty serial killer. This leads Miriam to investigate further and she begins to uncover a lot of horror, murder and mayhem, dragging her through several twists, reversals and life-threatening scenarios.

Once again, Wendig showcases his excellent writing skills, with tight powerful prose, locked into the voice of his characters like a tick to exposed skin. The character of Miriam definitely grows in this book – she’s explored more deeply, we discover more about her background and what has led her to be the way she is. She also begins to realise what she is to become, where her own destiny lays.

Read the rest of the review here: http://www.thirteenoclock.com.au/mockingbird-by-chuck-wendig-review/

A way to fight the review buyers and sockpuppetmasters

There’s been a lot of stuff going around the interwebs lately about douchefucks paying for positive reviews, guerrilla reviewing their rivals with one star attacks, sock-puppetry and so forth. I blogged about it a little bit here and a web search will show loads of other people weighing in on the debate. The net result of all this is primarily twofold.

1. People are now distrustful of all positive reviews;

2. The real victims are readers, because now no one knows what or who to trust.

In some respects, this is only a small part of the bigger picture. Most people buy their books on the recommendations of friends, regardless of reviews. They trust certain outside sources, like book bloggers they respect and so on. However, reviews are a significant part of any author’s literary lifeblood. We will always get new readers when someone reviews a book, someone else sees that review and says to themselves, “Well, that sounds like it’s right up my particular stinking alley, I’ll give it a go.”

So we need people to continue reviewing. We need people, once they’ve read a book, to take a moment to leave a review and a star rating on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing or wherever they frequent. We need them to write about it on their blog, mention it on Twitter or Facebook or wherever they hang out socially. These things are easy and it shows great love for your favourite authors, so said authors get to continue squeezing word babies from their fetid brains for your amusement and delectation. It’s a symbiotic relationship and it works well.

That is, until these fuckmuppets and their sockpuppets start devaluing the whole thing for everyone else. (Incidentally, Fuckmuppet & The Sockpuppets is the name of my next band.)

Some people are suggesting that Amazon needs to address the problem. Some are saying they need to only allow reviews from verified purchasers, or only allow reviews from accounts linked to some third party verification. But there are massive problems with that.

The verified purchaser thing is a problem because what if someone borrowed a copy of a book from a friend and really liked it? What if they wanted to review it on Amazon? Or even if they hated it and wanted to review it. They can’t. People borrow books all the time, there’s nothing wrong with that. Or they buy them secondhand. Or they download them illegally. All these things deny the author a royalty, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s just how things are. What does matter is that those people can leave reviews which will help that author in the long term. Take away that option and you take away the ability for borrowers to give anything back to the author they enjoyed (or hated) so much.

And it’s not all about good reviews. People will pay much closer attention to a book with a whole range of reviews than to a book with only 5-star reviews. The more variety in the ratings, the more likely a person is to learn about that book and make an informed decision. You can’t please all the people all the time. An honest 2 or 3 star review can actually help to sell a book. What you don’t like might appeal to someone else.

The absolute last thing we need is for places like Amazon to make it harder for people to review books. If that happens, the douchefucks have won. The power is more in the hands of the reading public than it has ever been, and that power only retains its potency while it is easy to apply. Right now you can read a book from any source, then spend literally five minutes or less popping into Amazon and Goodreads and leaving a star rating and a couple of lines of review. You only have to type it once, then copy and paste it elsewhere. Take this review of RealmShift on Amazon from one Cathy Russell:

I liked that this story had believable characters and explored faith (or lack of), it’s origins, etc. It had a lot of deep themes. The characters were well thought out. The plot was engaging, and I liked the whole idea of a superhuman who could kick the devil’s ass. While reading this, I kept thinking it would make a great action movie or comic book too. I’d recommend this.

That’s a fantastic review (Thank you, Cathy) and would have only taken moments to write. She gave it four stars, too, bless her beautiful reading eyes. Now imagine if Amazon had required some particular hoops be jumped through in order to leave that review. She may still have done it, of course. But she may very well have not bothered. That would damage me as a writer and potential future readers.

I don’t think it’s Amazon’s job to police this stuff (beyond the obvious, like removing reviews flagged as hate, etc.) It’s up to us, the readers. BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL, it’s in our hands! We can fight the douchefucks with our minds and tappity typing fingers. I’ve compiled a list below of all the things you can do to help your favourite authors. And you can address authors you’re not so keen on using the exact same list. Because open honesty is what’s required. If we deluge the system with clear and open reviewing, then whatever douchefuckery these other bastards engage in loses its potency with every blow we strike.

At the same time, if you are one of those douchefucks who buys positive reviews, uses sockpuppets, sabotages your fellow authors with 1-star attacks or anything else, just fucking stop it already. You’re a scumbag and you make the world a worse place. Don’t game the system for your own selfish ends. Let the system work. If recent news is anything to go by, you’ll be found out in the end anyway. You’re just pissing in the shared flagon in the meantime, and that’s not on.

So, here’s that list I was talking about.

Whenever you read a book, take a moment to do the following:

Talk about the book, online and IRL. Tell people you read it and what you thought.Tweet, Facebook, Google+, etc. a quick comment about it, like “I just really enjoyed/hated reading This Book by An Author.”Go to Amazon, Goodreads or any other bookish place you frequent and click a star-rating.If you have time while you’re there, jot down a few lines quickly about why you rated the book the way you did. You don’t have to be super eloquent or anything. Just honest.If you have time, spend a bit longer on a more thoughtful review.If you have a blog, maybe write a blog post about the book.If you enjoyed the book, buy it for a friend, family member or colleague for their birthday or anniversary or just because you’re a hoopy frood.If you hated the book, buy it for an enemy, because you’re cold like that, you mean sonofabitch.If you’re part of a book group, suggest the book as a future read for your group.
Talk about the book, online and IRL.

You may have noticed that my list is in increasing order of time and effort. If you only do the first thing, that’s great. It’s better than doing nothing (which is why it’s repeated at the end). The more of those things you do, the better it is for everyone and the less of an impact the dishonest douchefucks will have.

So, take it away. And please comment with your thoughts on the subject and any suggestions you have for doing the right thing by authors and readers. Feel free to suggest additions to my list.

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