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The Best Way To Break Into Science Fiction Writing Is Online Publishing

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NanSage
07/06/09

In reply to The Best Way To Break Into Science Fiction Writing Is Online Publishing
I want to destroy this man. First, it's all well and good for an established author to pimp online publishing. Especially a guy who writes SW fic, I mean, that audience is so myopic they won't touch anything that doesn't have fucking LASER in the TITLE, and there are only so many people in the world who churn out that crap. That's like Radiohead being able to sell digital copies without a label. But have you ever heard of DJ Real? I worked for him at Sony. He's made all of a dollar off of posting songs online for YEARS. Second, publishers of short fiction won't touch something that's already been published online. They want to sell magazines, or at least make people go to THEIR websites. Maybe if you post, like, two chapters of a novel you won't have a problem with getting that novel published later...

Finally, his approach to writing makes my soul BURN. As someone who's trying to legitimize genre writing, the sort of formulaic pandering described here is like my kryptonite. Only it's crap, because formula breeds crap. It's craptonite.

Online publishing is great if you've got a fan base, but it's a kiss of death when you're getting started. A few years ago you could find all sorts of articles about how self-publishing was a great way to break out, but nobody reads self-published shit. The whole point of publication is the vetting. All the awful horseshit that spews from the keyboards of countless untrained and brain-dead wannabes needs to be filtered out. Publishing is like the Nintendo Seal of Quality, only with meaning. Seeing a book on the bookshelf at borders indicates that somebody somewhere who's in the business of selling books decided that this book was worth the risk of investment.

I'm sure that e-publishing will become legitimate, but it will only do so through established channels. There will be virtual "houses" that essentially just endorse books for a cut, and nobody will bother to read the other crap.
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Ed Grabianowski
07/06/09

@NanSage: So, explain to me again how some bean counter in a suit deciding a work of fiction was "worth the risk of investment" is a better guide to quality than, say, a website or friend whose opinion and taste I trust saying, "Hey, check out this short story collection on a website, it's good."
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Altair12
07/06/09

@Ed Grabianowski: Because a "bean counter in a suit" operates their life around finding good stories. It's their career and it's what they do every day. They know what makes a story work, if the writing is quality, etc. You can go with your friend's tastes, but chances are that they don't have the same level of knowledge on writing as a publisher.

Not to mention, the publisher, when they do find something worthwhile, put a lot of stock into it, with promotion and advance payment to the author and whatnot. They won't do that for just any story.

Also, the really worthwhile stories you may find floating around the Internet are few and far between. At least, something that's original. (Fanfic doesn't count as legitimate writing, sorry)
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braak
07/06/09

@Altair12: They know what makes a story work, if the writing is quality, etc. You can go with your friend's tastes, but chances are that they don't have the same level of knowledge on writing as a publisher.

Well, yes and know. Sometimes, they know what makes a story work. Sometimes, they know what makes a story sell. Sometimes, magazines go out of business.

I think that one of the real problems with setting up online publishing is that, even if you get a group of people together to do some vetting, without any startup capital or anything like that, you can't afford to pay your writers. And who wants to work for free? No one, that's who.
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Nephelim
07/06/09

In reply to The Best Way To Break Into Science Fiction Writing Is Online Publishing
Is this where a new, unpublished writer should be posting a link to his Serialized adventure story?
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Grey_Area
07/06/09

@Nephelim: No.
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
07/06/09

In reply to The Best Way To Break Into Science Fiction Writing Is Online Publishing
He seems pretty savvy, but his comments that "...mainstream publishers don't see digital publishing as a serious threat." is probably untrue. How can a publisher watch what's happening to newspapers and assume it will never happen to books? How can they see what is happening to music and other forms of entertainment and think they are immune? I bet he's been told this by publishers so they can lowball him on the digital rights. Sort of like when the Hollywood studios told the writers that digital rights weren't worth anything. Of course, Sumner Redstone had told his stockholders they were worth a fortune just a year or two before.
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Ed Grabianowski
07/06/09

@Dr Emilio Lizardo: I'll elaborate on that, because I did trim down what he said on that topic for brevity's sake. He said that major publishers don't view legitimate digital publishing as a major threat to their established "books in warehouses" publishing model. On the other hand, they're terrified of digital piracy, partly because they're owned by media conglomerates who have already been hammered by digital music piracy.

The result is that they undervalue digital rights and digital delivery methods. This leaves an opening for authors able to use the marketing and audience building possibilities that major publishers can't (or aren't willing to) utilize to make their own mark and set their own terms.
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
07/06/09

@Ed Grabianowski: If that's really true, their shortsightedness will lead to their unemployment. As Stackpole points out, the loss of money to piracy is probably alot less then they fear. Certianly a lot less then will be lost by failing to succesfully exploit new markets and distribution models.

They should learn from the RIAA. While they are busy chasing pirates, suing customers and alienating music fans, legal online distrubution of music is bringing in money for lots of people. They risk missing the boat.
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Ed Grabianowski
07/06/09

@Dr Emilio Lizardo: That's pretty much the long and short of it.
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