Alan Baxter's Blog, page 90

The Borders and A&R collapse

Everyone is blogging about the collapse of REDgroup, the company that owns the bookshop chains of Borders and Angus & Robertson (and Whitcoulls in New Zealand). I was going to write a big long ranty post all about it, but the truth is it's all been done. A quick web search will yield more opinions than you can fit on a ballot sheet. But I will add, very briefly, my perception of the whole thing. (Which probably means I'm about to write a big long ranty post!)

Lots of people are trying to establish exactly what this collapse is and what caused it. I'll tell you what it's not. It's not the great ebook revolution; it's not shitty management by REDgroup; it's not the global financial crisis; it's not the rising cost of physical shop rents; it's not the massive surge in online shopping and stores like Amazon stealing business. At least, it's not any one of these things. It's all of these things.

It's the progress of industry. Sure, the management of the whole group was blindly stupid and greedy, but without the other factors they'd probably have survived. Sure, Amazon, Book Depository and stores like them are having a massive impact on brick and mortar bookstores, but without the other factors they'd probably have survived. When you combine all the factors at once, this stuff is inevitable. Pretty much every major bookstore chain will suffer. The nature of the industry is changing. It's a terrible shame for all those people that are going to lose their jobs, but that's a part of life. It's like the shipbuilders on the Tyne, the coalminers in the Welsh hills, the dudes that used to run photo processing shops specialising in dark room development. The world moves on, things change, technology develops and old methods and jobs slowly disappear. But new ones also emerge. The smart and the rich are the ones that stay ahead of the curve.

Putting shitty American coffee chains in shitty American book store chains wasn't going to suddenly make Borders a going business concern. Turning Angus & Robertson into cheap remainder bins with plate glass windows was never going to ensure their survival. High street and mall book stores, just like paper books, are going to be disappearing. There will still be paper books (I've talked about this a lot before) but they'll be specialty books, or Print On Demand books from online stores. Just the same, there will still be book shops, but they'll be specialty stores, catering to a particular niche of collectors or genre and they'll have to diversify – comic books, trading cards, games, collectibles – all the stuff that fits the niche.

Whether we like it or not, the world is constantly changing. With change comes death and rebirth. Some things crumble to dust while others are born from the ashes of their predecessor's demise. There were once people that were skilled at many things that no longer have a place in the world. You can't blame any one thing except progress. The same is true of the recent book store collapse. There are many mitigating factors that contributed to the stores going under at this particular time, but that's the small stuff. The changing face of publishing, reading and book selling is going to keep changing.

Within the next decade, I predict, we'll see very few, if any, big chain book stores. Mass market stuff will be in all the department stores and K-Marts and places like that, but mainly online. Eventually you'll only get your mass market release in hard copy at a POD booth or ordered that way online. There'll be specialist stores dealing with specialist buyers and collectible books, while pretty much everyone else buys their stuff online. And the vast majority of it will be ebooks, with a small chunk held by POD releases. There'll be a rise in collectible, beautiful, probably limited edition hardback releases. Kids starting school now will look at print books the same way we look at vinyl and tape cassettes. If you compare books to albums, you can look at the ebook as the CD and the print book as the vinyl release. The ratios will be pretty similar soon enough, I expect. And before long the CD and will disappear unless you order one, POD style. There'll be a rise in small press releases with short print runs, and more small press will utilise online bookstores and ebooks for their distribution. Eventually the small press print run will be a thing of the past.

It's all going to happen, so trying to find a particular reason for the demise of Borders is like trying to look for a particular reason for the demise of the Victorian era. It didn't die because Victoria did – it ended because we all moved on, in a slow and incremental way with all kinds of contributing factors. That's life.

Told you I wasn't going to write a big long ranty post.

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Swancon – in Perth this Easter

I've just booked my flights and accommodation for Swancon 36, Perth's annual SF convention, which is happening this Easter. More than that, it's this year's Australian NatCon, the 50th Australian National Convention, so it looks like being a good one. It's from 21-25 April 2011 at the Hyatt Hotel, Adelaide Tce, Perth.

I'll be running my Write The Fight Right workshop there and there's loads of other stuff happening, so do your best to get along. You can learn all you need to know here.

A couple of things that are really worth your attention are these:

WriterStream @ Swancon

The Swancon Thirty Six WriterStream is aimed at writers who are seeking to take the next step in the business of writing: how to become a writing professional and support in the writing process.

Featuring many of the Swancon guests including internationally acclaimed editors Ellen Datlow and Jonathan Strahan, British writer Justina Robson, and Australian authors Sean William, Simon Haynes, Kaaron Warren and Juliet Marillier, this stream is a must-see for anyone looking to write on a professional level.

When: Saturday April 23
Cost: $70

Also, the ASFFA Short Story Competition is part of Swancon, with some pretty solid prize money.

OPEN: 1st prize $250 | 2nd prize $100
JUNIOR: (18 and under): 1st prize $100 | 2nd prize $50
Free entry for Junior category and to members of the Swancon Thirty Six | Natcon Fifty.
$10 for other entrants.
THEME: Historical futures
CLOSING DATE: Friday April 1, 2011

Again, all details of these and other things at the SwanCon website. It'll be my first Swancon and my first visit to Perth, so come along and say hello.

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The power of strong characterisation – Dexter Morgan

I've been mainlining Dexter recently. Let me state from the outset that it's the TV series I'm currently loving and I haven't yet read any of the original books by Jeff Lindsay. I'd certainly like to and will eventually, but right now I want to talk about the TV series. I started wondering what made the show so compelling and how we can get so invested in a serial killer. The performances are superb and the writing is brilliant, so that makes for great television, but what is it about Dexter Morgan that is so enthralling? The reason, I think, is that Dexter is such an incredibly well developed character and so utterly believeable. I won't put any spoilers in this post talking about particulars of the show, but I do want to talk about why Dexter is such a good character.

To start with, let's establish the facts – Dexter Morgan is a largely emotionless, mentally broken serial killer. He has a code that he lives by very strictly and only kills other killers. Here's the first thing that lets us associate with him so deeply. We all want to see killers that escape justice pay for their crimes. Dexter makes that happen. But he kills them in a hideously ritualistic way because he has to kill. He has what he calls his "dark passenger" that fills him with an insatiable urge to kill and he regularly, though only briefly, satisfies that urge by killing bad guys, thereby having a certain justification for his heinous acts. But he enjoys it, and he enjoys cutting up the bodies into component parts afterwards before disposing of them. How can we associate with that part of him?

Dexter lives more than a double life. He works for Miami Metro Homicide, which gives him access to all the things he needs to find his victims. He has a lover (slight SPOILER – later he has a family), which he needs to protect from his true self. He has a sister that he cares for, and again has to protect from his true self. Make no mistake – the real Dexter is the broken, ritualistic serial killer. The job, the family, the sister, the social life – these are all contrived masks that he holds together to protect his true nature. Therefore he lies to and manipulates these people all the time.

So sure, Dexter kills bad guys, but he's a horrific person that lies and cheats and manipulates. And kills. So why is he so compelling? Why do we associate so much with him? When you watch the show, you're desperately hoping he won't get caught. We want him to carry on. Why?

I think it's a many faceted thing. Firstly, the writing is superb, with Dexter developing as a character all the time. Through the course of his life he learns more about what made him the way he is, which gives him personal insight and we get that insight too. As his relationships grow with the people around him, so too does his personal character. He learns that he does care about his wife, her children, his sister and his colleagues. He grows as a person even while he remains a slave to his dark passenger. This all helps to invest us in him as a character.

But more than that, I think the reason we really enjoy the show is because we can empathise with Dexter. We hate what he does, but we can see ourselves in it. We can see the potential for us to do similar if our own morals and emotional responses were dampened. Part of us can't stand it, but most of us wants him to get away with it. We all have a dark passenger to some degree. For the vast majority of us that passenger is small and quiet and rarely does more than irritate us from time to time before sinking down again. But that tiny part revels in Dexter's ability to let his demon out completely and give in to those dark, nasty desires that reside in everyone.

On top of that, it's an adrenaline rush to ride with Dex. We constantly fear that he'll get caught and while his emotional responses are so dampened that his own stress and panic levels are way more controlled than ours, we still get that vicarious buzz at watching him ride the risks the way he does. We like Dexter for the same reason we like rollercoasters and scary movies.

Dexter makes mistakes and feels guilt when he does, even though he doesn't necessarily recognise guilt for what it is. But he is flawed even within his own code and abilities. He has incredible rushes with his successes, amazing highs when he satiates that dark passenger ever so briefly. And we rise and rush and fall along with him.

Dexter does terrible things but there's enough redemption in the character for us to root for him. It's an incredible achievement in storytelling and character development that we care for such an anti-hero. Especially as that character only gets more and more compelling.

So we can learn from this that great characterisation comes from a well-rounded, well developed character, with a shared and satisfying genesis. One that continues to grow and develop while still maintaining the core of what makes them who they are. One that makes mistakes and learns from them. One that has an internal consistency in their actions while still being affected by the world around them and responding to it. This kind of intelligent character building can even make us root for a ritualistic serial killer without making us feel like sickos for doing so.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my assessment? Are you as fascinated by the character of Dexter Morgan as I am? Leave a comment and mention some other examples of great characterisation if you have any in mind.

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Night-Mantled, the best of Wily Writers

It's all about the announcements right now. You may remember in a post a few days ago I was talking about great fiction podcasts. One of those I mentioned was Wily Writers. They do great podcasts, with two new stories every month. Well, their first print anthology, called Night-Mantled, the best of Wily Writers Volume 1, is due out in March and I'm very proud to have a story in it. As you can see, the cover art has been released.

Wily podcast my story, Stand Off, back in July 2009. It's an Isiah short story (the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign) and I'm really pleased to see it selected as one of the Best Of stories for this book.

Here's the blurb for the anthology:

SCIENCE FICTION
FANTASY
HORROR

Out of the darkness come the monsters, the mysteries, and the miracles that engage our minds and engorge our hearts.

This collection of short stories from exceptionally wily writers will take you from looking over your shoulder to pondering the wonders of the universe and back again.

The WilyWriters.com Speculative Fiction podcast chooses only the best two stories per month from its submissions and records them for your listening pleasure.

This volume collects Year #1's best of the best.

Author Lineup:

* Alan Baxter: "Stand Off"
* Jennifer Brozek: "Honoring the Dead"
* SatyrPhil Brucato: "I Feel Lucky"
* Nathan Crowder: "Ink Calls to Ink"
* Richard E. Dansky: "Small Cold Thing"
* Seanan McGuire: "Julie Broise and the Devil"
* Lisa Morton:"Sane Reaction"
* Ripley Patton: "A Speck in the Universe"
* Grant Stone: "The Salt Line"
* Joel A. Sutherland: "The Death of Captain Eugene Bloodcake and the Fall of the Horrid Whore"
* Bruce Taylor: "The Prey"
* Mark W. Worthen: "The Minimart, the Ruger, and the Girl"

You can learn all you need to know here. I'll let you know when the book's available for pre-order or purchase.

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Ditmar Award nominations open, and I could use your vote

The Ditmar Award (formally the Australian SF ("Ditmar") Award; formerly the "Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award") has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (the "Natcon") to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction (including fantasy and horror) and science fiction fandom. The award is similar to the Hugo Award but on a national rather than international scale.

The awards are open for nominations now, so if you have favourite stories, novels and so on from the last year, and if you're a member of NatCon or active in fandom, get your votes in now for the people you'd like to see nominated.

There's a list here of eligible works, though the list is incomplete and you're encouraged to add to it.

The rules of the Awards can be found here.

So get involved and have your say in who wins awards this year.

Of course, this post is slightly self-serving, which I tried to make clear from the title onwards. I have two stories published in 2010 that are eligible for Ditmars this year. They are Trial Not Required, published in M-Brane SF Issue #13, February 2010, and The King's Accord, published in Flesh & Bone: Rise of The Necromancers, an anthology from Pill Hill Press, August 2010. Trial Not Required is a science fiction story and The King's Accord is a dark fantasy yarn. If you read those stories and liked them, and are eligible to vote, I'd love your nomination vote.

If you're eligible to vote, but haven't read those stories (as they're both US publications it's possible that a lot of eligible voters haven't seen them) then I'm more than happy to send you a copy to read. If you did take the time to read them and consider them, I'd be very grateful. I don't really like asking for things like this, but the truth is that people can't be expected to read every publication every year and often you'll only get a story noticed if you point it out to people.

So if you'd like a see the stories and consider them for voting, leave me a comment or send me an email (email address in bold under the typewriter on the right hand sidebar) and I'll get copies off to you right away.

Regardless, I'll keep you all up to date on Ditmar news as it happens.

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New Age Of Publishing – 10 – Essential reading

So I've been running a series of guest posts about the new age of publishing, talking about ebooks, indie authorship, where the traditional bookshop is headed and so on. One of the guest posts was from Shane Jiraiya Cummings and he's running a similar series of posts on his own blog right now.

I've been watching his series with interest and today he has a post up that is an absolute must read. It's from Elfwreck, "an avid (some would say fanatic) ebook reader with over 10 years professional experience with digital imaging and over 25 years with document conversion and editing."

It's a brilliant post, in three parts, covering loads of detail and I agree with every bloody word of it. Seriously – go now, and read.

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New ThrillerCast, with Joanna Penn

The latest edition of ThrillerCast, the podcast I do with fellow author David Wood, is up now. In this episode we interview Joanna Penn, author of the new novel Pentecost.

You may remember that I reviewed that book recently and Joanna guest posted here as well. Get the podcast here.

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Fiction podcasts

I plan to start blogging a bit about good places to find quality fiction. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but keep not getting around to it. Today I sold a story to one of my favourite podcasts, so that triggered me to get started. With the net and all associated digital content, new ways to receive stories are popping up all the time. I plan to blog about some of the best online fiction magazines in a future post, but thought I'd start with podcasts.

You probably know that I do a podcast myself, with David Wood, called ThrillerCast. We talk about thrillers and all kinds of genre fiction, about writing and publishing and so on. There are loads of good podcasts like ours out there with people chatting about stuff. But there are also some brilliant podcasts that deliver fiction. There's something primal and heartfelt about having a story read to you. I love to read, I love to immerse myself in a book and have that time to myself, living a story as the author delivers it directly to my imagination. But I also love to be told a story. Since time immemorial people have shared stories by voice. Sitting around a campfire, being transported by a good story, is one of the simplest and most profound pleasures in life. The podcast gives us the opportunity to recreate that in the digital age.

I often drive to Sydney and back, which is about an hour and a half each way. When I make that drive, I'll listen to stories all the way there and back. I subscribe to quite a few story podcasts through iTunes, which means that whenever I sync up my iPhone any new podcasts are automatically downloaded to it. When I get in the car I plug it in and see what new stories are waiting for me. These are great audio magazines and I can't get enough of them.

Here are some of my favourite podcasts:

Pseudopod – I'll start with this one because I'm currently Snoopy dancing about the fact that they've just bought one of my stories. Pseudopod, PodCastle and Escape Pod are three projects run by Escape Artists, with Pseudopod being the horror arm of the trifecta. They have great stories, which is why I'm so happy to have one of mine appearing there soon. Also, from a writer's perspective, they pay well, which is always a bonus, and accept "reprints". Pseudopod publishes quality dark fiction, rarely for the faint-hearted, but never the kind of mindless splattergore so often associated with horror. When I say this is one of my favourite podcasts I might be lying. It's possibly my absolute favourite. If you like dark fiction and don't listen to anything else, at least listen to this one.

Escape Pod – This is the Sci-Fi podcast of the three mentioned above. The quality of sci-fi here is comparable to the quality of horror at Pseudopod and well worth your time. Also, from a writer's perspective, they pay pro rates of 5c a word and accept reprints.

PodCastle – This one makes the final third of the Escape Artist podcasts, being the fantasy arm. Again, the quality is invariably high, the pay rate, like Escape Pod, is a pro 5c a word, they accept reprints and the reading in all these podcasts is top notch. In fact, the majority of stories in all three of these podcasts are things that have originally appeared in print somewhere first.

Everything about the Escape Artists podcasts is brilliantly done and I always enjoy what they have to offer. They're definitely my top three fiction podcasts. Have a listen, subscribe and, if you like them, think about donating something via the buttons on the websites so they can continue to pay well for great stories.

Wily Writers – This bunch were my first experience of podcast stories. My story, Stand Off, was published by them in text on the site and as a podcast. It was the first time I'd heard someone else read my work and hearing a professional American voice actor delivering my story was quite bizarre. It was also excellent. Wily Writers are releasing an anthology soon, collecting the best stories they've podcast so far, and Stand Off is going to be included, so I've got a lot to thank them for. I'll let you know when that book is available. In the meantime, subscribe to the podcast as they always put out good stories that are always very well read.

Terra Incognita – "The best Australian Speculative Fiction read by the authors who created it" is the tagline of Terra Incognita Australia Speculative Fiction Podcast, or TISF, and it says it all really. It's run by Keith Stevenson as part of cour de lion publishing and Keith gets the best of Aussie spec fic and gets the authors to read it, simple as that. It's always good as Keith is a great editor and has an eye/ear for a good story.

Dark Fiction Magazine – This one is out of the UK and another example of quality dark fiction, again shattering the preconceptions of horror. Top stories, top readers and regular episodes.

Outlandish Voices – This one is a bit like TISF, but they focus on local voices. They've had some great stories read by their authors, all of whom are in the Wollongong area of New South Wales, in Australia. Included among these is me, reading my story Crossfire. They haven't done much in the last six months, but it's worth subscribing to catch anything new they do put out.

So that's my pick of the fiction podcasts for now. Most of these are just like audio magazines in that they include news and reviews as well as the stories and often read out and discuss feedback from previous episodes at the end. If you haven't tried podcast fiction, give some of these a go. But I warn you – it's addictive.

What about you? Do you like podcast fiction? What are your favourites? If you have any good tips, please leave a comment.

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Free copies of RealmShift and MageSign for reviewers

A little while ago there was a problem with the MageSign page on Amazon. It's all sorted out now, except all the reviews and ratings people had left got deleted. People do respond to Amazon reviews, so it's always good to have a few on the page. So, here's where I need some help.

If you've read either RealmShift or MageSign and can spare a minute to write a review for them, that would be awesome. If you'd like to read them, and promise to write a review, I'll send you a free ebook copy of both books. The reason I'm offering both books is because MageSign is the sequel to RealmShift, so you get a lot more out of it if you've read both. Plus, more reviews for RealmShift certainly couldn't hurt.

Please understand – I'm not soliciting good reviews! You're under no obligation to write something positive. All I ask is that if you've read the books, you leave an honest review. If you'd like a free ebook version of both, I'll happily send them if you promise me an honest review when you've read them. If you don't like them, well that's fine.

I'll leave this offer open until a bunch of people have responded, so if you're after a free ebook get in quick. I'll supply whatever format you like – mobi for Kindle, ePub, PDF, etc. Just email me at alan [at] alanbaxteronline.com with your preferred format. But get in quick, because I won't be giving away free books for long!

If you've already enjoyed the books and could spare a few minutes to rate or review, then I thank you profusely. If you'd like to include them in a Listmania or So You'd Like To… list as well, please do. Here are the direct links:

RealmShift at Amazon.com

RealmShift Kindle at Amazon.com

MageSign at Amazon.com

MageSign Kindle at Amazon.com

RealmShift at Amazon.co.uk

RealmShift Kindle at Amazon.co.uk

MageSign at Amazon.co.uk

MageSign Kindle at Amazon.co.uk

Thanks again in advance to anyone that helps out. Apologies for this shameless self-promotion – normal service will resume shortly.

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100 Stories For Queensland

I'm sure that wherever you are in the world you've heard about the shocking run of extreme weather Australia has been enduring lately. Foremost among that devastation are the floods and cyclone that have thrashed Queensland over the last few weeks. The damage and loss of life and property are heartbreaking. But true to the much lauded Aussie spirit, people across this country (and overseas) are stepping up and helping out, either with donations to the various rebuilding funds or with actual hands on, shoulder to the wheel clean up work. It's amazing to see on the news pictures of notices on telephone poles in flood ravaged suburbs offering free board to people that have lost their homes and people turning up, unbidden, from all over the place and saying, "Right, what can I do?" It's enough to make a cynical bastard like me think that maybe there is hope for the human race after all.

I've tried to do my bit where I can. I'm a long way from Queensland, but I've donated in a few places where I was able and then I saw the call out by the 100 Stories For Queensland team. Well, that's something right up my alley. 100 Stories for Queensland is a charity anthology of short stories following in the footsteps of 100 Stories for Haiti and 50 Stories for Pakistan. 100% of sales profits go to The Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal.

I immediately wanted to be part of this project so I wrote a story specifically for the anthology and sent it off. I was pleased to see that I made the long list last week and now I've just learned that my story has been accepted as one of the 100 that will make up the book. I'm really proud to have been selected for this and would like to think that my story and the 99 others will go some way to helping repair the damage in Queensland. Writers from around the world have donated stories – you can see the full list here.

The anthology will be available in digital and print form as well as an audio book, and is due for release on Tuesday, 8th March, 2011. I'll drop a reminder here when it does come out. Please think about buying a copy to help out a bit with people that really need a hand right now.

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