lilfluff | Entries tagged with authors

Hola all,

Today I thought I'd provide some links to Good Stuff.

If you aren't following

haikujaguar's LJ you might not realize she's been posting a serial story Spots the Space Marine. One small outpost, one alien science advisor, and a horde of deadly alien crabs bent of bringing The War to the outpost. (BTW, today's her Birthday, a new reader and comments from the same would be a great gift, yes?)

I may only have written a few bits of mostly incomplete fanfic, but I've enjoyed listening to Writing Excuses and I've heard published authors say good stuff this podcast. What is writing excuses? It's a podcast about writing done by Brandon Sanderson (several books, and the author selected to finish The Wheel of Time), Dan Wells (author of "I Am Not A Seriel Killer"), and Howard Tayler (of the webcomic Schlock Mercenary). Or maybe I just like their tagline for the podcast, "Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."

Speaking of comics, at this year's Phoenix Comicon I picked up a copy of the Little Vampires little book. They're vampires, so surely they're scary. Then again they are only a few inches tall so only scary if you're a blood orange (shh, don't tell them it's not actually blood). Look at that page, are they not cute? Have I mentioned I have a weakness for cute stuff? Or that growing up we had a Blood Orange tree in the back yard?

Woo! And Wen Spencer just posted that she's got a contract for another Tinker book plus another fantasy.

I'd heard about the Bordertown series of books but haven't yet read any. That's going to be changing. There is a new Bordertown book coming out and Emma Bull read part of her story at this year's LepreCon. Now I just need to hunt down the earlier books...

Speaking of Emma Bull and having earlier mentioned a story being released serially online, take a look at Shadow Unit which has been described as "the best science fiction television show you aren't watching on TV". Shadow Unit is a television series about a special unit of the FBI, only while it was prepared as if a television program, has seasons and episodes, it's actually produced as written fiction posted to the Shadow Unit website. Here's a link to Emma's explanation of the origin of Shadow Unit

Oh yes, and my user icon? Done by Tod Wills, who I have mentioned before. He writes and draws a webcomic called Ekwara, works with Virmir on Crimson Flag and is even doing an adaptation of Dracula. And with all he is doing, he finds time to do Icon Days when all you need do to get a free icon is post a request before deadline (although using the paypal tip jar is certainly a Good Idea).

Current Mood: geeky

I'll put my view short and sweet. The only damage I can see that fanfic has ever done to a published author or publisher is damage done not by the fanfic but by the author and/or publisher's reaction to it.

As for those who call it theft. Fine. Show me the novel sent back to the publisher because, "Some darn fanfic author went and wrote a fanfic and all the ink evaporated off the original book's pages." Show me the police report about the damage done to the author's front door when the fanfic author sat down to write and spectral thugs kicked in the door and started carrying off the author's notebooks. What? No such evidence? Well... Dang. Maybe you should start using a different word than theft. I mean, even the RIAA and MPAA are kinda-sorta thinking of abandoning the term piracy to describe the activities they complain of.

Expansion: Attacking fanfic is also self-destructive behavior in my opinion. There are the people who will watch your show's original broadcasts or buy the book in hardcover release. There are the people who will watch the reruns and buy the paperbacks. These are the people who will lend a copy of the first book in a series to friends, getting them to go out and start buying them as well. You know, you've got a word for them, customers. You've got a word for what you gain from them, money or profits.

Current Mood: unimpressed

I was writing a reply to

seawasp's post about this matter and realized it had become long enough it ought to be a post here instead...

I think that the important question for publishers and authors is not, "Oh hell, how do we stop people from people from pirating our books," but, "Oh wow, people who are interested in us, how do we get them to willingly send money our direction?" (to give a short version of

haikujaguar's post yesterday on this matter)

Emphasis on the word willingly because no matter how many layers of DRM and DMCA style law are used, short of a total collapse of society and loss of technology, it is only going to get easier for people to copy things. And yes, that includes physical objects as well as digital data. Ten years from now (if that long) we'll get to see if companies that have invested in design patents on household items will react to tomorrows version of the Rep-Rap any more intelligently than the RIAA did to Napster.

(Which they are still in denial about screwing up. I read an article at some point in the past month where one former RIAA person insisted that the fault in Napster going away was entirely due to Napster refusing to come to the bargaining table and that the RIAA would have been willing to make a deal if Napster had... That's funny, if I recall correctly Napster offered a billion dollars and potentially partial ownership, plus a percentage of profits, plus unfettered access to usage statistics, as a settlement deal, and as I recall the RIAA's response was, 'We'll be more than happy to talk to you once you are dead, dead, dead, you [the following five minutes of ranting censored to protect children, pregnant women, and those of delicate disposition] so we hope you have good lawyers, no settlement! See you in court!')

I won't claim to know what the final answers will be (I don't believe it is going to be one single model), but I do know what the publishers and authors that don't ask that second question will be called. Forgotten. I do suspect part of it will involve relaxing control, because trying to maximize control will simply annoy potential readers (aka customers, aka patrons, aka your source of money) at a time when it will be even easier for them to find alternatives.

Additional note: Publisher's take note, this issue is even more important for you to figure out than for the authors. If the three sides in this issue, the authors, the readers, and the publishers, you the publisher are the most replaceable. The money flows from the reader towards the publisher (and we hope at least some of it makes its way on to the writer). The books flow from the writer towards the readers. We have publishing houses because so far the combination of publishers and book stores has proven to be the most successful in bringing the two together. But that doesn't mean any one publisher or bookstore, or even the two as concepts are not replaceable.

Yes, readers can like publishers, I personally have a liking for Baen when it comes to fiction. But why do I have a liking for Baen that gets me to regularly check their list of upcoming books? Part of it is Baen's company personality. They don't screw the reader. Their website is more than than a collection of blatant advertising, their forum has actual conversations on it (perish the thought!), samples of upcoming books are available to read (whoa, you mean they are confident enough in the books they thing I'll still be interested after the first five chapters?), ebooks aren't delayed (and are not made defective with DRM, and are made available in multiple formats, and are even given a sliding with increasing amounts available prior to the print release).

But you know what? If Baen did something that ticked off the authors and they all jumped ship for someone else, that past good will wouldn't mean all that much if I wasn't seeing authors I liked sending books in for Baen to publish. I would be checking to see where they went and heading in that direction. Fortunately I doubt I'll have to worry about Baen. They seem to be one of the few publishers in any genre to be reacting with anything other than, "Quick, grab some sandbags, guns, and a phone with our lawyers on speed dial!"

Current Mood: quixotic

No? You're sure? Well, what if I buy the hardcover how about th--*SMACK!*

"Lynch him! String him up! How dare he give us money! Hey publisher, show that dastardly reader who is boss and delay the next ebook until after even the paperback is out!"

Exaggeration? Perhaps. Not what the people at Writer Beware intend as a message? Probably.

Is that how the response looks to this reader? Pretty much.

The short version is that someone wrote into the New York Times Ethicist column saying that --
A: He bought an ebook device to read books on while traveling
B: he really wanted to read the new Steven King novel Under The Dome, but
C: the publisher has decided not to release the ebook yet (apparently as part of the recent "Oh noes! We must drive away customers in order to support hard cover sales! Darn them for wanting to pay us for books in ebook formats!" movement among publishers), so
D: Really wanting to read the book but not wanting to feel like a gosh darn dirty thief for downloading a pirated ebook copy without having paying the publisher or author... He went out and bought the hardcover like the publisher wanted,
E: Having then given the publisher and a book store money he went to the internet and downloaded an unauthorized copy in a format compatible with his ebook device and used that to read it.
F: The Ethicist columnist says, Hmm, Illegal, but you paid the publisher so I'd say it isn't unethical.
G: People start frothing at the mouth and saying, "How dare you, how dare you!" to the columnist and reader.

I think I agree with

haikujaguar who on seeing this decided to do an impromptu addition of the Three Micahs (her new series on the intersection of business owner, independent marketer, and artist for artists of whatever stripe (author, painter, whatever)). She noted that the response on Writer Beware amounted to, "Bad reader! Bad!" With comparisons to outright stealing print copies without ever paying and nary a glance at the publisher that nearly drove away a sale.

I figure if I found this interesting enough to comment spam

haikujaguar's post on the topic, then it is an interesting enough post to give a pointer too.

More and more I'm reminded of the late Jim Baen's comment on the Baen Bar that business practices that got between a customer and the customer wanting to pay for Baen published books, were obviously evil. (Although I recall that it was worded in a less wordy and much snappier fashion)

(Edited to actually include a link to the article)

Current Mood: quixotic

About a month ago

haikujaguar put the following in one of her posts:

Cylithria Dubois, Marine Corps Novelist. She puts all your excuses for not doing something you say you want to do to shame. Absolutely amazing story.

I bumped across that link while poking about older posts on my friends list and gave it a follow. Now there is a story. A NaNoWriMo 50k completed while part of a forward observation team in northern Iraq. Completed mostly in evenings, after sundown, in a place where it would not be a great idea to be basking in the glow of a laptop screen...

Two weeks off, you know, I bet I can get more of Unquiet Past written during this.

Current Mood: impressed

space_coyote has posted pictures of volume 2 of Yokaiden. What? You say you haven't read volume 1 yet? What are you waiting for, run down to the store and pick it up. It's fun!

Volume 2 comes with nifty features like pre-printed, pre-assembled pages. That's right! No longer do you need to print, cut, stack, and glue the pages, only to then need to find the heaver paper to print the cover on. Del Rey's manga group has already done that for you, all you need due is turn the pages and read.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to volume 2, and you have find preview pictures of Yokaiden 2 at the link you just read over.

Current Mood: silly

You would think I would have learned by now. I can remember thinking, "Now I'll never get to meet Asimov, or write him a fan letter." Or, "Damn, now I've missed the chance with Zelazny as well."

And have I written any of these fan letters I keep thinking I ought to write? And now another opportunity has passed.

Thank you for How Much For Just the Planet. Thank you for Growing Up Weightless. Thank you for being an interesting discussion forum participant. I'm sorry I never said so when I had the chance.

At least for a short while there will be the books I haven't yet read. There are to ones to reread and enjoy again.

Damn.