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New books!
Some days the mailman is kind to me. Today is such a day. No bills, and three books.
First, an ARC of Steampunk II. Been dying for this one!
Steampunk II: From Indiebound: Blending the romantic elegance of the Victorian era with modern scientific advances, the popular Steampunk genre spotlighted in this collection is innovative and stimulates the imagination. This artfully assembled anthology of original fiction, nonfiction, and art can serve as an introduction to the Steampunk culture or provide dedicated fans with more fuel. Stories of outlandishly imaginative technologies, clockwork contraptions, eccentric heroines, and mad scientists are complemented by canon-defining nonfiction and an array of original illustrations. This collection showcases the most sensational Steampunk talents of the last decade, including Daniel Abraham, John Coulthart, William Gibson, and Margo Lanagan, and demonstrates exactly why the future of the past is so excitingly new.
Next we have Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, a generous gift from author Adam Christopher who heard I was too impatient to wait for it to arrive in US book stores in January.
From Amazon: Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty online 419 scam habit – and a talent for finding lost things. But when her latest client, a little old lady, turns up dead and the cops confiscate her lastpaycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job: missing persons.
Lastly, I entered a contest at the Hendrick’s Gin website a long time ago, and this arrived today, to my amusement:
Addendum: You are required to suck
I’ve been saying for years that you should allow yourself the freedom to suck at writing. With the freedom to write horrible things, you get discouraged less, you learn faster, and you understand the difference between good and bad writing.
But lately I’ve been thinking that that needs to be changed. Because, at the beginning, you are going to suck. The “allowing” part means you keep going instead of stopping and wailing that your perfect idea is crap on the page. This is not an insult; remember I love the sports metaphors. If I said I wanted to run a marathon tomorrow, would you say, “Go for it!” or would you say, “You’re going to vomit and fall down from leg cramps before you get two miles in?” If you cared about my well-being and my ability to walk the day after tomorrow, you’d say the second one, which is essentially, “You’re going to suck.”
I just read this eye-opening post by Jason Pinter at The Huffington Post. Will New Technology Ruin Talented Authors? I’ve (and JC Hutchins, and Scott Sigler, and countless other podiobook authors) been saying for years that you should do everything you can to get published if you want to do this writing thing for a living. Only then fall back on the self-publishing/web publishing/podcasting route. That is not just because you will very likely make more traditionally than going it alone*, but it’s because rejection will make you a) tougher, and b) more ready to look at your work with a critical eye. It will put the steel of your soul through the fire of rejection, and you’ll be stronger, both as a writer and as a person facing the constant rejection we encounter.
Do you think if you publish yourself, you’re bypassing rejection? Hell no. You’re just bypassing editors’ and agents’ rejections. You are opening yourself up to rejection of the world, most of whom are a lot less professional and a lot more hurtful than editors and agents. Few books sold, scathing Amazon reviews, and even comments at your blog can be demoralizing. You’re putting a black mark on your publishing record; if a publisher is interested in your next book, they may see your self-published flop and shy away from you.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t self-publish. Long time readers of this blog know I’m not saying that. I fully believe, if you want to, you should self-publish so long as you fully understand everything – and I mean everything – that entails. (Even Cory Doctorow is learning a thing or two about self-publishing. The original article seems to have disappeared from Publisher’s Weekly but a commentary on it is here – Cory Doctorow Discovers Why Publishers Get 90% and Authors Get 10%) There are many people making a ton of money self-publishing, especially with ebooks. A self-published (via web) book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, just made history by winning the Andre Norton Award this past weekend. But all of these authors are veteran writers who have gone through the gauntlet and learned their craft.
What I took from Pinter’s article is every writer has to go through that suck period. You have to acknowledge that you’re an apprentice, not a master. Bypassing THE MAN and thinking that you’ll just publish the first thing you finish can feel liberating, but if you’re not ready, it’s going to be a sad wake up call.
You can be a writer. It’s not easy. It’s not quick. There are many options open to you. But you have to write, to practice, and learn your craft before the world sees your work, else they’re not going to care at all.
* I know the numbers; you can make X% more publishing yourself than the wee percentage you make through a publisher, but my personal experience is having a publisher makes for more books sold. I made a lot more with the Swarm version of Playing for Keeps than the POD version. Kindle and Apple are changing that now, but still, if your work sucks, it’s not going to sell, regardless.
Do The Write Thing For Nashville!
Okay, does everyone know about the Do The Write Thing For Nashville auction yet?
Click on the image to link though for details, but the basics are that new items go up each day, and items are available for bidding for THREE DAYS, with auctions closing at midnight CENTRAL TIME on the third day. Day Three (May 8 ) items are still up for bid until midnight tonight, Day Four (May 9) items are good until tomorrow midnight, and new Day Five items are being posted as I type this. (Indeed, I think I read something about TEN DAYS of auction items, but I’m not totally sure…)
Items include signed books and author swag, jewelry, vacations, visits with authors, phone calls with agents, critiques of queries and/or pages… but I have been most impressed by the FULL MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUES up for bid. Full MS. Take a moment. This is such a rare and magical thing.
For Young Adult writers:
From Lauren MacLeod, agent at The Strothman Agency: One full young adult manuscript critique, no more that 100k words. Day 3, Item 7 (ending tonight)
For speculative fiction writers:
Russell Davis, author, editor, packager, and President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, will read (1) complete novel manuscript and reply with a detailed editorial letter in response. In addition, Russell will do a detailed line edit on the first three (3) chapters. Lastly, he will do a phone call with the person, after they’ve had a chance to look everything over, to answer any questions. Day 4, Item 13.
For writers of YA and adult fiction: fantasy, science fiction, paranormal and romance (the auction listing didn’t specify any genre, but I looked the agent up online and so should you):
From agent Suzie Townsend of FinePrint Literary, who kicked off her career with a bang when she sold her first book in an auction, a thirty minute phone call… If bidding reaches $600 [it has!], she will critique AND write an editorial letter for a FULL manuscript. Day 3, Item 13 (ending tonight)
For the fearless:
From super agent Janet Reid, a thirty-minute manuscript consultation via telephone. The auction winner will send a completed MS by email for Ms. Reid to read before consultation. Day 4, Item 9
Now, keep in mind that there are many other hot items and many more affordable items than the examples I just gave, including 10-page or 50-page crits with other agents and/or editors (who might be better fits for your writing: DO YOUR HOMEWORK), plus the aforementioned signed books (some are ARCs: advance release copies!) and other writerly goodies.
Go bid on something. Or just donate. It’s awesome either way.
You should know about Duotrope’s Digest
Hi, I’m Carrie. You may know me from such podcast show notes as ISBW #131-141. I also have a blog, Heim Binas Fiction, but I’m assuming you don’t read it. (Yet!) Which is why I’ve come over here to tell you about the wonder that is Duotrope.
Now, Mur told you about Duotrope in ISBW #86, but that was way back in March 2008, so I think it deserves another mention.
Duotrope is “a free writers’ resource listing over 2800 current Fiction and Poetry publications.” More specifically, it is a massive fiction and poetry market search engine, searchable by genre, pay rates, length and theme of piece, submission method, and media type.
Want your grandparents (who don’t have a computer) to finally see your fiction in a form other than a print-out from a webzine? Search for print markets, and get your work into a journal that comes in a form they’ll recognize.
Don’t know what to do with your coming-out-in-space novella? Search for SciFi markets with a GBLT theme that take novella-length works. (Nine primary matches!)
Broke, with a low attention span? Search for paying markets that accept flash fiction.
Agoraphobic? Search for markets that take email submissions and save yourself that stressful out-in-the-open walk to the mailbox.
Duotrope also has some excellent round-up statistics, like markets that send personal responses and the markets with the fastest/slowest response times and the lowest/highest acceptance percentages. They prudently decline to rank the “most prestigious” markets, but they do provide a list of the markets with the most reported response times (not exactly a measure of popularity, but it at least shows you which magazines most people are eager to report information about), and you can draw your own conclusions about those markets with low acceptance rates. (This can all be found through the section marked “Curious?“)
If you register, you can save searches, start building a list of your favorite markets — and those you want to ignore — and best of all, you get a free submissions tracker. I’ve been using Excel, but this is really a lovely feature, and it helps provide (anonymous) data to your fellow (desperate, hungry for information) writers.
Go check it out. And, if you can afford it, donate some dough to help keep it free. The 2010 Writer’s Market Deluxe in paperback is over $30, and it doesn’t come with an online submissions tracker and continually updated data about response times and acceptance percentages. Just sayin’.
Happy submitting!
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 140
Just wanted to point out there is one day–ONE DAY–left to win the fine shirt below. All you have to do is write a story with an October prompt. That’s all. The winner will be posted on Sunday.
Tomorrows Ghosts
Old Mason knows all the stories. But the ones the children like best are the scary ones. The ones with the unstoppable monsters who destroyed haunting after haunting with their terrible lightning.
“It’s not easy being a ghost in this here world,” Old Mason would say. “You’ll learn about that soon enough. But these creatures made in harder. Their hunched backs would fire a strange, gripping energy, that would draw you into their one of their jars. Then they’d seal you up and put you on a shelf!”
The young phantoms were horrified. “Where did these creatures come from?” one of them asked.
Old Mason scratched at his ethereal chin. “No one rightly knows. They say the humans summon them. They say, that when there’s something strange, in the neighborhood, who you gonna call?”…
The News From Poughkeepsie – Day 99
A woman gets on a bus…
…of the dead.
Charon smiled and tipped his hat at Yuri as she got on. She paid her fare—two copper coins—and sat down next to the kindly old woman with snakes for hair and gleaming brass hands. A fresh scar that wound around her neck like choker.
The old woman was an easy talker, going on about her sisters, how she couldn’t do a damn thing with her hair and how much polish she went through on any given week to keep her hands shiny. Yuri started to space out, and it wasn’t until the old woman asked where her where Yuri intended to stay that she snapped back into the world of the bus.
“Oh, I won’t be here long. My boyfriend will come and get me. This is temporary.” Yuri brightened. “He’s a singer.”
The old woman feigned being impressed for a moment, and then placed her cold metal hand on Yuri’s knee.
“That’s sweet and all, doll. But if you’re serious about leaving Hades, you best make your own plans. No point waiting on a man, singer or no.”
Yuri hadn’t thought of this, that Orpheus might not be coming for her. So she started to plan…
ISBW #110 – Courtney Summers Interview
Yes! ISBW has depth this week as we discuss YA with new author Courtney Summers!
Sponsored by Author Boot Camp – sign up with the code MUR1 for a discount!
- Promo: Author Boot Camp, February 21, 22 in San Francisco.
- Interview with Courtney Summers.
- Promo: Sun Run Homes
- I’m being deluged with backup solutions! Jungledisk, Mozy, Apple’s Time Capsule, Zoho, Google Notebook, Evernote, and apparently you can use iPods for backups on the PC.
- More map software here: Rachel Udin’s site
- The Nanomonkeys website has expired and an unsavory site has picked it up. Don’t go there.
- There’s a Valentines Day Poetry Contest with a fascinating prize at Shapeways.
Writing and marketing around the web
- Chris Brogan had a wonderful post today about marketing your book online. The best thing about the post are the comments, though, so take the time to look through those.
- Nathan Bransford talks about the leap from small press to big publisher, something I’m quite interested in.
- And NaNo is coming up, and I’m still… conflicted. Ready for someone to convince me one way or another.
