Saturday I received a nice check from AntiqueWeek for my auction coverage. I will definitely try my best to write for them again. I wish all nonfiction markets were that easy to work with! Impressive. :)
TER is almost to 20k, btw. Which should mean I'm almost halfway done, but I'm not getting that impression. We shall see. If it runs a bit long, that's okay, but I don't want it much over 50k. (I don't want to pull a J.K. Rowling and have the third book three times the length of the second.)
I didn't get much done this weekend, but then again, I didn't have a lot to do. I'm rereading Sunshine, and I reread NS (finding more mistakes!! Argh!) Thankfully, the similarities between the two books seem to be all in my head. :)
My last day of posting will probably be Friday. I have a lot to get done between now and then, but nothing that will be too difficult to get done between now and then.
I am so looking forward to vacation. If only so I can concentrate on writing. My two goals: Finish TER and finish SCR. We'll see if I succeed.
Third goal: Don't get sunburned. But that's not really writing-related. :)
-------------------
There's a conversation/argument winding down on sff.net that I've been reading with both interest and dismay. It started out as a simple request--whether or not Double Dragon Press was legitimate and whether or not a reading fee was acceptable for contests (Evidently they run a contest that costs $25 to enter and the only prize is publication.) This ballooned into discussion by the snobs of sff.net (I'm sorry, but there's no real better term) proclaiming that small publishers aren't professional and there's no way to become a professional by subbing to small presses.
There was also a comment about busting one's butt writing a novel, and wasting it on the small press publishers.
So anyway, since the scams newsgroup is not the place to post my thoughts on this, I thought I'd post them here. (Or some of them; I'm trying to write another essay about snobbery in the SF field as well, and I might just sub that somewhere...)
Point #1: I don't "bust my butt" to write novels. In truth, I find them relatively easy to write. Sometimes they give me fits, but I can usually work through the problems and come out on the other side with something publishable. Short stories, on the other hand, are hard. But that's just me, and I have a lot more experience writing novels than short stories.
The only way I would bust my butt writing a novel is to go completely OOG (out-of-genre) and write, say, a historical romance. Or even a historical fiction novel. That would be hard. I would probably bust my butt a bit on that one. However, since that's OOG, I'm not likely to attempt one of those any time soon. I'm not saying it won't happen (especially if I write the history of the Hunt novel, but that would also be historical fantasy, technically, so not really OOG) but it would probably be a NaNoWriMo novel and a total experiment. (Hey, it worked for CtS, didn't it?)
So anyway. I'm sure--I know--other writers are different. But you can't assume generalities, especially when you're posting in a public newsgroup where everyone is not the same.
Point #2: I like ebooks. I like small press publishers. I consider them professional sales using my definition of professional sales. (What is my definition of professional sales? If you get paid for it (royalties or an advance (for fiction) or direct payment (for nonfiction)and there's decent distribution, it's a professional sale.)
I have said before that it's theoretically possible to make $30,000 a year from royalties from ebooks. I still believe that. (Not there yet. But since late 2001 (when my first book came out), my royalty statements have at least doubled each year.)
Also, I get to design my own covers. And I think I'm getting better at it. :)
I just don't see why some 'professional' authors have to act like such snobs. It really makes me hesitate to submit anything to NY at all because of this attitude. (And it's not everyone. But it's a pervasive attitude, and it bugs me to death.) It also makes me not want to go to cons that these people frequent, for that reason alone. (Because in all honesty, I'd much rather be writing. But anyway.)
SF is a small genre anyway, if you think about it. I've not seen any recent percentages, but last I heard, romance had cornered something like 50% of the genre books sold, and mystery, sf, westerns, and something else brought up the rest. (And this is just genre books, not mainstream.) I don't remember if they separated science fiction and fantasy, but it was only something like 17% of the genre books sold.
There's not enough room for petty squabbles and snobbery. We should try to get along and broaden the sf readership, bring in new blood to the fan bases, and work together to make things better for everyone.
Considering another figure I read somewhere (and pardon me for not checking my facts), if the average 'professional' author makes $6,000 a year (or somesuch; it's a pitiful figure) then damn it, don't you think these people would be more inclined to work together to make the sf field grow? You can't survive on $6,000 a year anymore.
Hmm. Maybe the criteria of 'professional' should be bestowed on people who only make enough to live on. What's the SFWA criteria for editors who want to join? $25,000?
I wonder how many 'professional' authors would have to give up their memberships if the rules were revised to match this amount?
Definitely something to think about...
TER is almost to 20k, btw. Which should mean I'm almost halfway done, but I'm not getting that impression. We shall see. If it runs a bit long, that's okay, but I don't want it much over 50k. (I don't want to pull a J.K. Rowling and have the third book three times the length of the second.)
I didn't get much done this weekend, but then again, I didn't have a lot to do. I'm rereading Sunshine, and I reread NS (finding more mistakes!! Argh!) Thankfully, the similarities between the two books seem to be all in my head. :)
My last day of posting will probably be Friday. I have a lot to get done between now and then, but nothing that will be too difficult to get done between now and then.
I am so looking forward to vacation. If only so I can concentrate on writing. My two goals: Finish TER and finish SCR. We'll see if I succeed.
Third goal: Don't get sunburned. But that's not really writing-related. :)
There's a conversation/argument winding down on sff.net that I've been reading with both interest and dismay. It started out as a simple request--whether or not Double Dragon Press was legitimate and whether or not a reading fee was acceptable for contests (Evidently they run a contest that costs $25 to enter and the only prize is publication.) This ballooned into discussion by the snobs of sff.net (I'm sorry, but there's no real better term) proclaiming that small publishers aren't professional and there's no way to become a professional by subbing to small presses.
There was also a comment about busting one's butt writing a novel, and wasting it on the small press publishers.
So anyway, since the scams newsgroup is not the place to post my thoughts on this, I thought I'd post them here. (Or some of them; I'm trying to write another essay about snobbery in the SF field as well, and I might just sub that somewhere...)
Point #1: I don't "bust my butt" to write novels. In truth, I find them relatively easy to write. Sometimes they give me fits, but I can usually work through the problems and come out on the other side with something publishable. Short stories, on the other hand, are hard. But that's just me, and I have a lot more experience writing novels than short stories.
The only way I would bust my butt writing a novel is to go completely OOG (out-of-genre) and write, say, a historical romance. Or even a historical fiction novel. That would be hard. I would probably bust my butt a bit on that one. However, since that's OOG, I'm not likely to attempt one of those any time soon. I'm not saying it won't happen (especially if I write the history of the Hunt novel, but that would also be historical fantasy, technically, so not really OOG) but it would probably be a NaNoWriMo novel and a total experiment. (Hey, it worked for CtS, didn't it?)
So anyway. I'm sure--I know--other writers are different. But you can't assume generalities, especially when you're posting in a public newsgroup where everyone is not the same.
Point #2: I like ebooks. I like small press publishers. I consider them professional sales using my definition of professional sales. (What is my definition of professional sales? If you get paid for it (royalties or an advance (for fiction) or direct payment (for nonfiction)and there's decent distribution, it's a professional sale.)
I have said before that it's theoretically possible to make $30,000 a year from royalties from ebooks. I still believe that. (Not there yet. But since late 2001 (when my first book came out), my royalty statements have at least doubled each year.)
Also, I get to design my own covers. And I think I'm getting better at it. :)
I just don't see why some 'professional' authors have to act like such snobs. It really makes me hesitate to submit anything to NY at all because of this attitude. (And it's not everyone. But it's a pervasive attitude, and it bugs me to death.) It also makes me not want to go to cons that these people frequent, for that reason alone. (Because in all honesty, I'd much rather be writing. But anyway.)
SF is a small genre anyway, if you think about it. I've not seen any recent percentages, but last I heard, romance had cornered something like 50% of the genre books sold, and mystery, sf, westerns, and something else brought up the rest. (And this is just genre books, not mainstream.) I don't remember if they separated science fiction and fantasy, but it was only something like 17% of the genre books sold.
There's not enough room for petty squabbles and snobbery. We should try to get along and broaden the sf readership, bring in new blood to the fan bases, and work together to make things better for everyone.
Considering another figure I read somewhere (and pardon me for not checking my facts), if the average 'professional' author makes $6,000 a year (or somesuch; it's a pitiful figure) then damn it, don't you think these people would be more inclined to work together to make the sf field grow? You can't survive on $6,000 a year anymore.
Hmm. Maybe the criteria of 'professional' should be bestowed on people who only make enough to live on. What's the SFWA criteria for editors who want to join? $25,000?
I wonder how many 'professional' authors would have to give up their memberships if the rules were revised to match this amount?
Definitely something to think about...
Comments