SF/F Links: June June June
Here are some leftovers from last month to keep June interesting, or informative, or something useful like that. Cinematropolis lists ten 2009 science fiction films with promise. A lot of interesting flicks coming out and hopefully this will be a banner year. Apparently people can’t make up their minds. Not too long ago they said that warp was impossible. Now they’re saying it’s not impossible, just really difficult, as if we didn’t already know that. I’m sure everyone has been thinking about how easy it is to make a functioning warp drive and wondering why it is that we don’t have them. I mean, come on! It must be a conspiracy, right? Oil companies. Blame them for no warp. Scalzi highlights a rather interesting idea about how we interacted with some of our non-human Neanderthal relatives: we ate them. And it’s not cannibalism, according to Scalzi. Here’s a lengthy list of science fiction and fantasy writers of African descent, in case you’re interested. Some new names in there! Discover Magazine reminds us of some rules for time travelers. Good stuff! The Incurable Disease of Writing recently posted their May edition of the Just Write Blog Carnival, which links to one of my articles and has a whole lot of other stuff you all might want to check out. And then there’s the late April Creative Writing Goodies Blog Carnival with a whole lot of other links that might be worth checking out. This blog looks interesting. It’s called Toxotai: The Galaxy Project and seems to be one individual’s attempt to build an entire galaxy. Sounds cool to me! Jeremiah Tolbert lists five rejection horror stories (meaning instances in which writers now rather famous were horribly rejected in their early careers). This should give those of us still struggling to get published some hope, or at least further our delusions. Apparently that’s a documentary coming out called Invisible Universe, which will discuss a history of blackness in speculative fiction. I’m really looking forward to it, actually, because it sounds fantastically informative. Jim Van Pelt has a list of ten science fiction books he recommends. Some excellent stuff in there. (Thanks to SF Signal) And, finally, Listverse lists fifteen influential early works of apocalyptic fiction. Some titles I’ve never seen in there and now want to read! And there you have it!
SF/F Links: June Batch
Because what could be better than interesting links to other places? A lot of things, I’m sure, but that’s not the point. For now, enjoy these: Juno Books has an incredibly informative list of recent book sales figures that you all might be fascinated by. Really detailed stuff and rather telling of how the book industry is doing. The list makes some interesting points on the age of readers, which might be worth noting. Who Is Caleb G? discusses the marginalization of science fiction. Some basic, but exceptionally valid points are made. The genre really is as important as those of us who read it say. A bit of random trivia: ten fun facts about Kenya. Yup. Random, I know, but you might learn something useful. Bloggasm talks about basically one of the most useless studies on the effects of giving away electronic copies of books on book sales themselves. Basically the fellow wasted his time studying only to tell us that “oh, well, yeah, we see sales, but we don’t know if that’s because of other factors beyond giving them away as electronic copies.” So, essentially pointless. Any moron could have done this and come up with the same thing. *rant over* Mashable has 100+ of the best authors on Twitter, conveniently divided into genres. AME has a useful marketing roadmap form you can use to, well, develop a marketing roadmap. Pretty self-explanatory and particularly useful for future novelists who want to be published. As cool as it may sound that scientists are creating zombie fireants by introducing a species of fly that lays eggs in the ants, which grow and kill them, I can’t help thinking that this is going to bite us in the butt later. Anyone else think fiddling with introducing non-native zombie-fying species is a bad idea? The Book Publicity Blog has a whole series on sending and receiving review copies of books. Check the bottom of this post for the various other sections. Definitely worth reading. Follow the Reader has some great statistical information about book buyers that might be of interest. I’m particularly astonished at how the elderly are taking the whole eBook thing. Oh, and to all of you idiots who think reading is dying: you’re wrong and the stats on this page say so. Eat it. Best Fantasy Books asks if speculative fiction is at its zenith. I’m not so sure. I think the problem is that what tends to get attention is what sells, and that’s never necessarily been what is of high quality in the writing world. There’s good stuff out there, you just can’t always rely on the bestseller’s lists to find them. The Scattering makes an interesting argument about Neanderthals being like the Androids of Blade Runner (or other films, etc.). I don’t think it’s entirely accurate, but it still makes one think about what our role may have been in their extinction. The Litter Box has a hilarious list of five worthless droids. Cracked me up. Johnny Five! Flights of Fantasy lists five uses for dinosaurs in fantasy. I prefer using them as mounts–a Velociraptor specifically (names Bill). And that’s it for this time around. A lot of links that hopefully will not bore. Anywho!
Self-Publishing: A Clarification (for those who don’t know)
Apparently I’ve raised a tiny bit of a stink over self-publishing based on what I said here, particularly with folks who apparently are not familiar with my full position on self-publishing, which had no purpose being reiterated in that post. So, to make things more clear on my position, I give you this list of points: Self-publishing is not the same as traditional publishing. Self-publishing does not deserve unearned respect. Why? Because anybody can self-publish, and for free these days. You wouldn’t give unnecessary respect to someone who ate a carrot, would you? That’s essentially what is being asked of folks like me, that we should respect the process unconditionally, when there is no difficulty in said process. Self-published authors must earn the respect, and that often means through persistence and hard work; even then, there’s no guarantee. Most self-published novels are crap. That’s reality, not just a talking point. You can cite a dozen novels that are exceptions, but that still does not change the fact that the vast majority of self-published novels are not worth the paper they are printed on. When I say that they are crap, I am specifically talking about the quality of the writing: typos, grammar, style, etc. One could argue endlessly about the merits of plot or character, but when it comes to the quality of the writing itself, there are few, if any, arguments. Crappy writing is crappy writing. Self-publishing is not legitimate. If it were, then you would be able to cite authors who have been successful doing it. But there are basically none. No, Paolini, Scalzi, and the handful of others you could cite do not count primarily because they didn’t become successful, bestselling authors due to self-publishing, but due to being picked up by legitimate presses, which put them in bookstores. There are no bestselling self-published authors, only bestselling former self-published authors. If the form were legitimate, said folks would still be doing it, because why would you bother working with a traditional publisher if you could be just as successful by yourself? Self-publishing will not be legitimate until such time as a filtering system can be put in to weed out the overwhelming majority of garbage. To expect the consumer to figure this out on their own is not only rude, but unacceptable. The consumer expects a certain level of quality in a published work and self-publishing, unfortunately, has not met that demand and won’t until someone can figure out how to make it clear which self-published books are worth spending money on. Telling the consumer to read excerpts to figure out if a self-published book is worth buying is essentially asking the consumer to go out of their way for you. The consumer is not your bitch. Their time is equivalent to money, except that they cannot earn it back. This is another reason why self-publishing is not a successful endeavor for the vast majority of would-be authors: because the consumer has no desire to take gambles or waste their time reading excerpts to figure out if a book is worth their hard-earned dollars when they can just hop on over to Borders and find a book printed by a legitimate press that they know will at least be of a certain written quality. The following are the only reasonable demands to make on a consumer: To look at the price. To look at the cover. To read the dust jacket or the back of the book. To glance inside to see if the writing is in a tense that the consumer likes to read. Self-publishing is not an escape from an evil corporate publishing scheme, because traditional publishing is not an evil corporate publishing scheme. These sorts of untruths are the kinds of things spoken by bitter writers who couldn’t hack it, for various reasons. Vanity presses are evil corporate schemes, and any press that asks you, the author, to pay for the honor of being printed is an evil corporate scheme, even if you’re paying for something as simple as distribution or an ISBN. The reality is, if traditional publishing were such an evil thing, some of the most successful authors in history would not be published through them. After all, writers like Stephen King should just as easily be able to make a living publishing their own work rather than dealing with a traditional press, right? The problem is that people who are against traditional publishing are either delusional or sucked into a self-publishing trap and perpetuate the lies shoved onto the traditional platform. These people do a disservice to self-publishing as a whole by misrepresenting what it actually entails and by ignoring and even lying about what traditional publishing offers. There are some excellent self-published novels. But one great self-published novel does not make up for an overwhelming supply of filth and wasted paper. With tens of thousands of self-published books being thrust on the public, most of them horrendous, you cannot possibly expect the consumer or anyone to wade through to find the good stuff. When I say good, I don’t mean excellent or superb, just good, as in entertaining (gets the job done). This is really the only reasonable expectation by the consumer. I do not begrudge anyone who self-publishes. I wish them all the success in the world, but that does not mean that I am not going to point out a harsh reality. You should know what you are getting yourself into when you self-publish. I will begrudge those who lie and are deceptive about self-publishing. In particular I am thinking about people who create “presses” in order to publish their own work. This gives the consumer the impression that a work is legitimate, but what it actually does is confirm everything I’ve said here: that self-publishing is not legitimate, that it has a stigma attached to it that is not unreasonable, and that said author is much more willing to manipulate and deceive the consumer rather than
SF/F LInks: Book Giveaways Galore!
Yup, there are more of them out there, constantly. Too many books to list, to be honest. So here are a few to wet your appetite: Sweeps4Bloggers is giving away a copy of The Alchemyst and The Magician. Literary Escapism has a copy of Worst Nightmares up for grabs. J. Kaye is tossing out an ARC copy of Wings by Aprilynne Pike. BSC Review has a copy of Objects of Worship up for grabs. The Koolaid Mom offers up Goblins! by Royce Buckingham. And that’s it for today. Enjoy!
SF/F Links: End of May Book Giveaways
Lots of books being handed off in the blogosphere recently. Here are some notable links: TV and Book Addict is giving away Michael Scott’s The Alchemyst and The Magician. Shalonda’s Blog has a copy of Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender up for grabs. Addicted to Books is giving away a copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. Addicted to Books also has copies of The Princess Plot, The Glass Maker’s Daughter, and Watersmeet up for grabs. Might be worth checking out. Reverie Book Reviews has quite a few interesting books up for grabs in her rolling epic contest. Blood of the Muse is giving away a copy of the Wolverine Files. BSC Review is tossing out a copy of Guillermo Del Toro’s new book, The Strand. SciFiGuy is giving away an ARC of Interwined by Gena Showalter. Peeking Between the Pages has a copy of Sea Changes by Gail Graham up for grabs. And unless I’m forgetting anything, that’s it! Good luck!
SF/F Links: A Few More May Goodies
I have a handful of new links that you all might be interested in. The blogosphere is certainly alive this month! Enjoy: SF Signal’s new Mind Meld is up (I took part this time around, actually). The question: Which science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror books would you recommend to a friend who has never read them before?Got any suggestions? Gizmodo makes an interesting argument as to why Asimov’s Laws of Robotics are total B.S. Interesting stuff. Tumblon talks about why fantasy literature matters for children. I absolutely agree. Aliette de Bodard lists some great software for writers. Worth checking out. Jeremiah Tolbert suggests some interesting reasons why not to blog about writing. I don’t necessarily agree, but it’s interesting stuff nonetheless. Follow the Reader asks whether the new Kindle blogs feature is a double-edged sword. What do you think? Publishers Weekly talks about book marketing methods and which ones are most effective. (Thanks to SF Signal) ScifiWatch lists five ways to increase sales, save money, and promote publicity. Good stuff. Fantasy Book Reviewer raises some valid concerns about reviewing books too early. I’ve often thought that doing so is counterproductive, but his post says everything I’d like to say about the issue, and then some. Catholic Sensibility has a really interesting take on theology and science fiction. I don’t necessarily agree, but it’s still worth reading. Seriously. Apocalyptic language and science fiction. Good stuff. Electric Velocipede talks about starting a zine, with a few humorous bits tossed in there. (Thanks to whomever I got this from) And that’s it. Hope you find the links interesting!