publishing

Five things make a post

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1- It’s snowing. This isn’t going to be one of those big storms that hit other parts of the country, but it’s still pretty. (Added later: coming down harder now)

2- I’m a little behind where I want to be on the copy edit, but I’m well ahead of where I need to be to return it to my publisher on time. The rush is mostly about productivity (without letting quality suffer).

3- No one needs to find a backlog of Glenn Beck shows on the AZ killer’s TIVO to speak out against the rhetoric of violence in modern American cultural/political discussion. Personally, I’m sick of it and yes, at the moment this is a tactic that conservatives are using. I wish the heads of the G.O.P. would speak out against it the way McCain [tried to, badly, when Obama was accused of being an “Arab” by a woman who almost certainly meant “Muslim”] during the last presidential campaign.

4- As a not-so-side issue, I’m also sick of the way we as a culture denigrate our government. Most every candidate runs as an outsider determined to change the way things are done. Obama certainly did. I’d rather see us have a clearer view of our public servants; no, they’re not always great. They are often quite good, though, and doing their best to serve the constituents who voted for them.

5- Watched SHARPE’S RIFLES yesterday. A pretty good movie, but those Chosen Men sure did reload quickly when the camera was on other people. My wife leaves for work in an hour and my son is still sleeping. Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in IRON MAN 2.

Obligatory copy editing post

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Boy is this humbling!

Why is that paragraph at the bottom of the page instead of where it belongs?

How many times can I cram the word “look” into a sentence? You’d be surprised!

Apparently, there’s some rule for using “anymore” and “any more.” Who knew?

Honestly, I should just repost my last copy editing post. It’s the same stuff (except that I’m more prepared to deal with it now).

Randomness for 1/6

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1) Woman laughing alone with salad.

2) “How’s Your Poor Feet!” Manly slang of the 19th century.

3) The year according to Tom Toles. Excellent.

4) Amazon.com pulls ebook that explains how to game its sales rankings. What? You mean Amazon’s sales rankings aren’t worth anything? Who could have known?

5) Are you a Comic Sans Criminal?

6) Countries winning the fight against poverty, in a way that’s so simple no one in the U.S. will believe it.

7) A new white person complaint, daily.

“If every other writer jumped off a bridge, would you?” (repost after WP problems)

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Don’t mind me. I’m just hanging up this dirty laundry. It needs airing.

You know how I discover that the Hugo and Nebula nomination season has opened? Dozens of writers start listing their yearly sales to say “Here’s my eligible stuff!”

Which is fine. It’s important to them and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. And really, Pikachu forbid that I or anyone else tell people what they write on their own blogs, which I choose to read without paying a penny.

But I’m not going to do that, not this year or any, because the sort of books I write don’t win those awards. And that’s cool. I think of Hugo and Nebula awards as things of importance within the science fiction community and I’ve never really been part of that. [1] It’s like seeing the BAFTA winners, I guess; I’m happy for those people in that foreign country.

It does prompt me to look back over the year, though. Game of Cages came out at the end of August, of course, and it’s been doing pretty well. I also took part in A Glimpse of Darkness. But that’s it.

Many of the other writers I see out there had a couple of novels come out in 2010 along with a string of short stories. I envy them their productivity. Me, I had a tab open on this computer for three days which held an article about being productive and getting things done, but I couldn’t find time to read it, so I just closed it. (Not kidding).

So, my 2010? It’s been a frustrating year for me, writing-wise. The publishing end of things has been great–Del Rey has been doing a terrific job with my books, and I was glad that Child of Fire got a second printing.

But the first third of the year was spent finishing up Circle of Enemies, seven months past deadline. Yikes. I did not want to be that writer, and yet, there I was. I think it’s a solid book, maybe the best thing I’ve ever written, but it took so much time…

After that I spent months working on a proposal for The Buried King, a Harry-Bosch-in-fantasyland rhino killer, done my way. But there was something wrong with it–I’m not even sure what. I knew it would be difficult to translate a procedural to a second-world setting (a major part of the appeal of a police procedural is iron clad research and a glimpse into a privileged world, but how does that work when the author is making it all up?) but I guess I didn’t the the solutions in place. It didn’t get very far.

Then I went to work on A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark and… Jesus, what am I thinking here? Do people really want an urban fantasy with a 65-ish year old heroine? Who’s a committed pacifist?

I took a whack at the story once already, but none of it held together. right now I have, here beside me at the coffee shop, nearly 200 pages of manuscript for The Auntie Mame Files, about 30K words. I’m about to drop it into the mail for my agent.

If she can’t sell it, 2010 will have been a total wash, writing wise, except for the short chapter I wrote for A Glimpse of Darkness.

What the hell, right? It’s what I did. Hopefully, when the end of 2011 rolls around, I’ll be able to look back on a more productive year.

[1] That’s not meant as a condemnation. I’m just not much of a socializer

So long, Borders

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According to PW, Borders has suspended payments to some publishers.

At this point it looks as though Borders has no way to avoid bankruptcy, and the big question is whether they will take a bunch of publishers down with them. Small presses are especially vulnerable here, and Borders has been very hard on the whole small press scene for years, using credit from returns to order books on a much faster schedule than they actually paid for books sold.

As for Borders itself, it was once a great place to buy books–the staff were knowledgeable and the selection excellent, and while Joshua Bilmes offers a clear narrative of Borders’s descent into crappiness (quick warning about that link: very interesting), he doesn’t mention that the stores tried to control sky-rocketing rents by locking in long-term leases… right before the economy collapsed. Now their expenses are high and the revenues are low, and who’s going to suffer?

Well, authors for one. And publishers for another. Readers, too, because if we have one major chain store, as Joshua Bilmes points out, there will be certain books that readers won’t even get to see. Months and months ago, James Nicoll asked who was the most powerful but unrecognized person in sf/f, and the answer was the sf/f buyer at B&N. Without Borders, his decisions will sustain or destroy even more writers’ careers.

Hey, I know people like to see this stuff as the “Death of Traditional Publishing.” Isn’t B&N also closing stores (in high-rent areas, during a strained economic recovery)? But that’s just not the case here. Borders has been struggling for years, mainly because their upper echelons have no idea that selling books isn’t like selling other products. The economic crash simply exposed these long-term problems.

What does that mean for you? Well, if Borders isn’t paying publishers for the books they sell, you might want to stop shopping there. I know I will.

My early Christmas present

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In a few weeks, Black Gate #15, which includes my story “Eating Venom”, goes to press. Here’s the artwork that accompanies it (and since you’re online, you get to see it in color–it’ll be B&W in the magazine):

eating venomclr

Cool, huh? It’s by Malcolm McClinton. I’d never have thought to imagine the characters that way which is why I’d be a terrible artist, but I love it! Click the link to see more of his work.

About that story: I sold it over three years ago, so it’s a bit of a time capsule of my writing style and technique. I’ll be interested to reread it when it comes out.

How it came about: Some folks will remember a few years back when Janine Cross’s Touched by Venom came out, there was an online row about the writing style, and the way the style was criticized in an offline gathering.

While all that was going on, I thought There has to be a story idea in this somewhere. Not that I’d read the book in question: all I knew of it was that it’s erotic, boundary-pushing second-world fantasy. But a real writer would be able to generate a story or twelve out of it, right?

Some folks know that I don’t get story ideas easily or often–I’m just not that sort of writer. Still, I was sure there was something worthwhile there, and after a bit of work (and more than one false start) I came up with the idea of a sort of basilisk fugu and wrote “Eating Venom”.

It’s full of my usual obsessions: outright bastards, flagrant lies and manipulation, decent people trapped by honor and expectation, magical elements that are largely backgrounded for human conflicts, screwed-up social/political structures, bitter resentments, and much stabbing with sharp pieces of metal. I’m proud of it.

You guys are reading Black Gate magazine, aren’t you? It’s full of adventure-oriented fantasy of the kind I love.

Anyway, I’m off to have Xmas Eve lunch with my in-laws (and the holidays have me way behind on all my online reading). Best wishes to everyone reading this, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

F/u to previous post

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Now I want to tell the story of meeting my editor for the first time:

It was San Diego Comic Con, and I was on my first ever panel, which was held in the first few minutes of the first day. I’d never been to SDCC before and had little idea what to expect. Not to mention there was some unusual social interaction there that I didn’t have time to process. So I did my best, but I was a bit of a mess.

Then I looked out into the audience and saw my editor in an aisle seat, watching the panel. I’d already looked her up with Google Images (anything to procrastinate!) and recognized her instantly. Of course, seeing my editor out in the audience made me feel even more confident and calm.

Oh wait. I mean just the opposite.

Anyway, I flubbed a bit and rambled a bit more. I had some buddies in the audience (who had basically held my hand through the travel and badge-acquiring process) but I tried not to look too much at any of them.

Then, after the panel was over, I walked up to her and introduced myself. She lied and said I did well, and I felt kinda awkward.

Then one of my buddies (the one with the hammer) ran up to us and said, in a very loud voice, “Mr. Connolly! Mr. Connolly! Would you sign my girlfriend’s breasts?”

That’s what happened the first time I met my editor.

Quote of the day

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“It was a hard decision because another editor had offered more money. I called up my old boss from when I’d worked in publishing to ask what I should do, and he told me that the right thing to do is always to take more money, because life is uncertain, and the professional life of a young and up-and-coming editor who might get a better job at another house at any time is especially uncertain. He was right—he’s always right—and you should keep his advice in mind. When you make a deal it’s with the publisher, not the editor. I prefer to make the risky un-fiscally responsible choice whenever possible, though, so didn’t take the bigger offer and luckily Amber didn’t abandon me. I think about the money all the time, though, and not in a wistful “ah, sliding doors” way.”

— Emily Gould from Five Writers Talk About Their Book Editors.

Actually, I could have pulled a number of different quotes from that article–that’s a rich vein right there–but this one made me laugh. (Unlike Matthew Galloway’s account of his first-ever meeting with his editor, which made me laugh and cringe.)

Give it a read. It’s pretty interesting.

Apropos of a Twitter speech

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Writer/Director Kevin Smith left a long… rant? Let’s call it a speech–on Twitter about being what you want to be, rather than wanting to be it. He talked about spending time–years in many cases–believing in yourself and pushing until you reach your goals.

He makes a good point. There was a study in creativity not too long ago (Google won’t turn up the actual study) that asked people to exercise their creativity. Many folks who had boring jobs and didn’t think much of their own creativity scored quite low. Not a surprise, right?

But then the people giving the study asked them to answer the questions as though they were someone else. Someone creative, like a sculptor or other artist.

Once instructed to respond the way a creative person would, they began to give very creative answers. It wasn’t a lack of creativity, it was that they didn’t think of themselves as creative people, and so didn’t try hard to think creatively.

And this is true of many aspects of writing. One of the tricks I use all the time when I’m stuck is to ask myself “How would a professional writer fix this sentence?” (I know, don’t tell me, I know). Or “What would a best-selling/award-winning author have these characters do?”

You can substitute the name of an author you already admire, it can be some sort of platonic ideal, or you can picture yourself in some advanced, evolved state. I usually choose option 3. The fact is, this trick really helps. It opens me up to solutions that weren’t accessible before, because I was all wrapped up in who I think I am and what I think I’m capable of.

So, go Kevin Smith.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s legit and who’s not

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And sometimes it’s as easy as loading a website.

Check out the website for Mocknick Productions Literary Agency (there’s a “nofollow” command in that link so this post won’t count in Mr. Mocknick’s Google ranks). The agency reps screenplays and novels, apparently, and to promote their business, they have a series of YouTube slide shows.

That star “Arielle”, a sex doll.

No, that’s not a joke. Here’s the first video. Yes, there are more, including some where the sex doll explains why you have to pay upfront.

And here’s Arielle’s own story, from David Mocknick’s own unproduced screenplay called “Doll Warrior” about sex stunt dolls brought to life who fight terrorists.

When I first heard about this from Writer Beware, I was sure it was a hoax. But now that I’ve watched two of the videos, I’m not so sure. This stuff looks like genuine awful. And no, I didn’t watch the video about how to submit.

Also, as I keep mentioning here, next Monday I’ll be traveling across the country by train, and what do I discover but a series of tweets about a guy stranded on a train without power or heat through most of the night?

It was sort of disturbing, until I realized he went from “Hey, power’s out” to “I feel like crying,” and “I keep imagining them backing the train into cold black water” and all sorts of freak out in less than two hours.

Honestly, it’s hard to get all freaked out about my own train ride based on what looks like a hysterical freak out.

And now, a question! Most cell phones play music when a call comes in. What do people call this? The phone isn’t “ringing” per se. It’s playing a tune. Do you still call that a ringing phone?

Thanks.