The TV show, that is. I’ve not read the books, which is why I’ve been putting off watching the show for fourteen months. I always prefer to read the original before watching the adaptation, but I finally gave in.
And ohmygoditsawesome. Why?
Month: June 2012
Always Judge My Book By Its Cover
I’m very excited – I just received the final version of my cover! Stephanie Mooney (http://mooneydesigns.net/) did a fabulous job, and I’m really pleased with the result. So without further ado…
‘Must Read: Neil Gaiman’s Tribute to Ray Bradbury’
They’re right. This excerpt – from Gaiman’s contribution to a new collection of short stories paying tribute to Bradbury – is haunting:
‘My dreams. I do not know your dreams. Perhaps you do not dream of a veldt that is only wallpaper but that eats two children. Perhaps you do not know that Mars Is Heaven, where our beloved dead go to wait for us, then consume us in the night. You do not dream of a man arrested for the crime of being a pedestrian.’
Read it here.
‘Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against PublishAmerica’
I came across this article on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America site today, here.
I’ve been vaguely aware of PublishAmerica for a while, mainly for their notoriously shady and author-unfriendly business practices:
‘Defendant provides very poor editing services, is slow to respond to book orders, and it routinely overprices the books it publishes. This is no accident. Defendant will only lower the price of its clients’ books to a competitive rate for a $399 fee. These practices make it difficult for even the most enterprising authors to promote their own books.‘
It seems like the chickens might be coming home to roost for PA.
All Stars Have Planets
Awesome/terrifying report on io9 here.
‘Shostak also admitted that the discovery reaffirms the idea that life could have emerged in the Galaxy a long time ago. “It’s been possible to have worlds with life for quite some time now,” he said, “there could be life out there that’s billions of years old.”‘
THEY ARE COMING FOR US.
Update on ASCENSION POINT
It’s getting exciting. I’m nearly at the end of my beta reader edits, which have been really helpful. (If you’re reading – thanks!)
Soon it’ll be professional edit time; I have a slot booked with the team at RedAdept Publishing, who come very highly recommended by the folks on the KindleBoards Writers Café. Looking forward to that.
And as if that wasn’t enough, my cover designer, the lovely Stephanie Mooney, sent me the first mock-ups for my cover yesterday! They look awesome, really close to what I’ve been envisioning. Just a few tweaks needed, and it’ll be done. You’ll see it here first, of course.
Exciting times!
Lord of the Ringworld: In Praise of Larry Niven
Lovely article from Lev Grossman on Larry Niven. Makes me want to read Ringworld again – it’s been years.
Yet More On The Death Throes of Legacy Publishing
There were a couple of great blog posts today from two of the heavyweights.
Here Joe Konrath talks about the fallacy of the slippery slope argument that Amazon is out to destroy the publishing industry, so they can then jack up prices and start ripping everyone off.
“A lot of bookstores might blame Amazon for putting them out of business, or competing unfairly. Welcome to capitalism, kids. That’s like saying, ‘My girlfriend left me for another guy who is more attractive and treats her better.'”
And here Dean Wesley Smith writes about the many myths of indie publishing versus traditional.
“You are guaranteed to sell more copies through a traditional publisher. Let me just try not to choke with laughter. Folks, I have sold books to traditional publishers that sold exactly 625 copies at last royalty statement. I have had books go out of print and the publisher still hold them at less than 2,000 copies. Some of those books I got advances beyond thirty grand. Trust me, selling to a traditional publisher doesn’t mean numbers of copies.”
‘The End of The World as We Know It’
Kris Rusch gives the legacy publishing doom-mongers an absolute skewering on her blog here, using only the power of actual facts and figures.
“For many in traditional publishing, the world is ending. Their clout is vanishing and their ability to understand what is going on is vanishing with it. They’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, wondering why it has suddenly gotten so cold. Yeah, they may survive in the future, but they’ll always remember the night they hit that iceberg—and the surprise they felt.”
This Is Why We Need Beta Readers, People
Just a quick one.
Among other excellent feedback from my friend Steve on ASCENSION POINT was this gem: “If you use the word ‘smiled’ one more time I will cry.”
“Oh, really?” thinks the author. “I’m sure he’s exaggerat- oh.”
135 times, in 88,000 words.
That’s 0.15%, and would only be acceptable if there were fewer than 700 words in the English language. And maybe not even then.
DAN HARRIS: 10% SCI, 90% FI 