At a reading I did once I said that everything I know about writing I stole from Robert J. Sawyer, and I meant it (though there was no actual theft–he gives the advice away for FREE! What a guy…)

Well, today on his blog he’s at it again with an article on using traditional media to promote your book. And even though ‘new media’ is the big idea of late, I think this is great advice. Many writers I know and who post to various forums I frequent seem to talk exclusively about how to do online promotion, mailbomb e-mail lists, build a website, gather a following for their blog, post on other blogs, gather MySpace friends and members for their book’s Facebook page, etc, etc…

Now, I’m not suggesting that they’re on the wrong track–you are reading my blog, after all–but I think some people either forget or choose to ignore the old media, like radio and TV. True, you probably won’t make a giant splash your first time out (or even the first few times) but, as Rob points out, this stuff is cumulative. Today, Channel 10 public access; tomorrow, Good Morning America…

Anyway, go to the site, read, steal, emulate. You’ll be glad you did. Oh, and in case you’ve never read any of Rob’s other great advice on writing, professionalism, and self-promotion for authors, go here and switch your brain to sponge-mode–you’ll want to absorb everything.

– S.

Okay, so I’m a bit behind on posting about this but, hey, I’ve been in Australia.

A few weeks ago Google settled copyright lawsuits over its plan to scan millions of books and post them online. The deal between Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers means that Google will pay $125 million dollars to establish an independent, non-profit “Book Rights Registry,” to resolve outstanding claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees from class-action lawsuits against Google.

This is an interesting development and perhaps one more step toward publishing’s digital future. But it may have its draw backs.

Google’s plan could mean the end of orphaned books–those books for whom the holder of copyright is unclear due to death of the author and his heirs, the collapse of publishing houses, etc.–and that such books and stories might once again be available for all to read. This is a particular problem with many of the stories appearing in early sci-fi pulp magazines, and it would wonderful if such stories were available. But does this also mean the end of ‘out of print’ books–rare or hard to find books would be available essentially in perpetuity once they are uploaded. But what does that mean for authors who’d like to get those out of print books back into hard copy books in book stores? Hmm…

And I’m still a little skeptical that there’s a money-making business model for this. People are used to getting, well, EVERYTHING for free on the internet, legally or otherwise. Suddenly they’re going to start paying to read books online? The physical book is a wonderful technology that had basically been perfected over the last 500 years or so and I think those who want books prefer (at least still) the old dead-tree versions to electronic data.

My youngest brother Chuck, easily the most plugged in of the four Kotowych boys and the most voracious reader, too, said that if he could get every book online he’d still just download them and print them out to read later. He hates on screen reading, even though he spends hours each day in front of the computer.

Anyway, I’m just saying that I’mnot holding my breath for thos to be the Next Big Thing in publishing. I’m happy to wait and see, but my money is still on nobody (or at least nobody but Google) making any money off of this venture.

Below is the press release I got from the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers announcing the deal. There’s also a more current post available at Bloomberg.

– S.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Google settles copyright dispute with authors, publishers

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Google and book publishers and authors on Tuesday announced that the Internet search giant will pay 125 million dollars to settle a copyright lawsuit over its plan to scan millions of books.

The landmark settlement between Google, the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers (AAP) was reached after two years of negotiations and is subject to approval by a US District Court in New York.

It calls for Google to pay 125 million dollars to establish an independent, non-profit “Book Rights Registry,” to resolve outstanding claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees from class-action lawsuits against Google.

Alleging copyright violations, authors and book publishers filed a series of lawsuits against Google three years ago after it launched Google Book Search, a plan with several major US universities to scan and copy millions of books from their libraries and make them searchable on the Web.

In a joint statement, Google, the publishers and authors said the settlement agreement “acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.”

Of the 125 million dollars, 30 million will go to creating the Book Rights Registry, 45 million to paying authors and publishers whose books have already been scanned without permission and the remainder to reimburse legal fees.

The agreement also provides future revenue to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books with the Book Rights Registry.

“Holders worldwide of US copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized,” the statement said.

Roy Blount Jr., president of the Authors Guild, which has some 8,000 members, compared the Book Rights Registry to ASCAP, which represents songwriters and musicians and collects royalties on their behalf.

Authors have the option of not signing up their books with the Registry, which will be controlled by a board of authors and publishers.

“If an author does not want his or her book to be in the program they absolutely can opt out,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild.

The agreement, which only applies to holders of US copyrights, allows users of Google Book Search to preview a limited number of pages of in-copyright books for free if the rightsholder agrees.

Consumers can choose to buy an entire book online at a price to be set by the rightsholder or a Google algorithm designed to “maximize revenues for the book.”

The settlement sets up a system of institutional subscriptions to Google Book Search and provides free access to public libraries.

Advertising will be carried on Web pages displaying the books but not on the books themselves and rightsholders “will receive the majority of the revenue from the advertising on Web pages for specific books.”

The settlement calls for revenue from subscriptions, consumer online purchases, advertising on Web pages and per-page printing to be divided 63-37 between the rightsholder and Google.

The agreement was welcomed by AAP chairman Richard Sarnoff.

“The agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world,” he said, calling it “an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”

Google co-founder Sergey Brin also welcomed the settlement.

“While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers,” Brin said. “The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”

It’s not just me, right? Those new CNN news holograms that debuted on American election night look like they’re straight out of Star Wars, right?

I kept expecting one of the hologram people to get down on one knee and say: “What is thy bidding, Wolf Blitzer?”

What an age to be alive…

– S.

This year’s Writers of the Future Grand Prize Winner, Ian McHugh (that’s him on the right–which, in case you haven’t been paying attention, means that’s me on the left…)

I got a real kick this summer when, shortly before my trip to Australia, it was announced that an Australian, Ian McHugh, had been named the new Writers of the Future Grand Prize Winner.

When I found out that he lived in Canberra (one if its suburbs, anyway), where I planned to be visiting some friends during my trip anyway, well, I thought it would be fun to meet up.

Ian and I had a great lunch talking shop and swapping WOTF stories, which made me want to do the whole award week over again. More and more I’m thinking I’ll have to make the annual pilgrimage to hang out and at least be around that energy. As Sean Williams told me once, he finds it energizing and invigorating every time he goes, which as one of the judges is yearly. So if it doesn’t get old for the judges…

But here’s where Ian and my experience was different: he was much smarter than me (and, I think, than anyone in my cohort).

See, Ian wrote a 1500-word short story for the 24-hour story portion of the week, and was done by 1am the first day. That meant that not only did he get a full night’s sleep, but because he had no other responsibilities the next day he was able to hang out with the judges, go to lunch with Tim Powers and some others…

BRILLIANT! Definite Grand Prize thinking. The time you get with Tim Powers, Kevin Anderson, Rob Sawyer, Sean Williams and all the other judges and past winners (I understand that Eric James Stone and Steve Saville were in attendance again this year) is GOLDEN and just as instructive and fun as all the other stuff that week.

If only I was smarter… 😉

– S.

Wow. The death of Michael Crichton comes as quite a surprise. I hadn’t even heard that he was ill.

Oddly, I think I’m more familiar with the movies made from Crichton’s books than with the books themselves. I saw WESTWORLD and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN movie at a very young age, though I do recall reading JURASSIC PARK long before the movie came out and then reading EATERS OF THE DEAD after I saw the movie version, 13th WARRIOR (which I still love, by the way–both book and movie).

UPDATE: The New York Times now has a full obituary up, plus what they’re calling an ‘appraisal’, titled “Builder of Windup Realms That Thrillingly Run Amok.”

This last piece, well, I’d call it damning with faint praise. It credits Crichton with writing fast-paced, unputdownable techo-thrillers, but in the same breath (and then, at some length) explains how his books relied on “a simple formula”, how the technology was described in his work was “often more subtle and more interesting than his characters,” and–most outrageous of all!–:

“Like most genre fiction, the Crichton novels are windup toys of a sort, and in memory it’s hard sometimes to keep them all straight. We recall them by their themes and issues — the plague book, the gorilla story, the train-robbery one, the airplane thriller — and not for their characters or their fine writing. But they are nevertheless toys that require a fair amount of craftsmanship. Despite their way of latching on excitedly to the latest new thing, they often gleam with old-fashioned polish.”

Now, I’ve heard a number of fellow SF writes disparage Crichton and his works on these same grounds (all the while openly envying his readership and success) but to disparage all of genre…That crosses a line.

– S.

I just saw the most amazing thing on television…

– S.

Simon Pegg, one half of the genius team behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has an article in today’s Guardian, his reaction to Britain’s Channel 4 recent five-night TV zombie spectacular, Dead Set.

The basic premise of his article? ZOMBIES DON’T RUN.

Now, I’ve only ever been a casual watcher of zombie flicks and not much committed to either side in the heated partisan debate of fast vs. slow zombies. But after reading Pegg’s article I think I may be a convert to the ‘slow zombie’ camp and an advocate of ‘traditional zombie values.’

As a writer myself, it’s always interesting to hear another creator’s rationale for the choices they made in their work. In this case, Pegg lays out a compelling philosophy for the slow zombie, both as a dramatic choice and for the metaphor underlying zombies in general.

Worth checking out. You know–before the onset of the zombie apocalypse. Best to know what you’ll be up against.

– S.

…and saying “There’s no place like home,” I magically returned from Oz…err, Aus…I mean from AUSTRALIA.

Me, 140m in the air, on the catwalk atop the Sydney Harbor Bridge,
wondering how I talked myself into the Bridge Climb…You can see
the Sydney Opera House behind me, to the right.

Yes, Australia, where I spent two glorious months vacationing, seeing friends, and checking off another item from the “Things I’ve Always Wanted To Do” list (for those of you keeping score, ‘Travel to Australia (and specifically to Kakadu National Park)’ was #2, right after ‘Get Published’. Next up on the list: a subset of #1, which is ‘Publish a Novel’.)

While I was trekking through the Outback I was often away from computers generally, and the internet specifically, hence the long radio silence on the blog.

Despite the height of these cathedral termite mounds,
they make remarkably poor wireless internet hot spots…

But fear not! My new goal, starting today, is to have a little something to post each day, Monday through Friday–the goal of any good blog 🙂

While driving through the Outback I happened upon one of
the 1 million wild camels in Australia. Glad I’m not the one who’s
the butt of the joke in this photo…

I anticipate many of the posts being about my new project–the aforementioned dreaded first novel! *GASP!*

While I’ve written a couple of long pieces before, and had several failed attempts when I was in my teens to write a novel, this is the first real attempt at the 100 000-word novel, the average length of the novels you find in the bookstores.

I’m really excited about the idea I have (more details on the plot and theme later) and very excited to get going on the writing–an enthusiasm I think you need going in. Much like a marathoner, from what I hear most or all writers hit The Wall in the course of a novel’s first draft: the point at which you’re mired in the endless middle, convinced that the book is stupid, or boring, or dull–or all of the above–and you just want to chuck it all, quit writing, and begin drinking heavily.

Posting daily and posting about what’s going on with the project will hopefully let me keep my spirits (both figurative and literal) up and make it through what will likely become the long slog of the first draft.

Because it’s the first draft that’s the hard work. When I read recently that James Patterson uses ghost writers to write first drafts based on his detailed outlines (which he then revises into a ‘James Patterson novel’) I damn near fell out of my chair. That’s practically cheating! The first draft is the hard part; revising, shaping, pruning that draft–that’s the fun.

I heard Farley Mowat once say that he didn’t like writing, he liked having written. I completely get what he means.

Talk to you soon!

– S.

…well, maybe it’s only been five, but still a pretty special anniversary for me.

Robert J. Sawyer was good enough to post on his blog a copy of the fateful e-mail he sent out five years ago today, setting up the writers workshop that would become The Fledglings, and which would kick my butt into gear to get writing seriously for the first time.

A lot has happened in those five years–my first publication, my Writers of the Future Grand Prize win, conferences, panel participation, more publications–but I think I’ll always remember the giddy thrill (and, I’ll admit it, disbelief) I felt when I read that message and realized that Rob thought maybe I could make something of my writing.

Ahhh…

Thanks so much Rob! And thanks to all the Fledglings, too! I know that none of these dreams would have come true without your help.

– S.

Though it’s coming up on being a year old, TESSERACTS ELEVEN continues to garner positive reviews online.

While this review doesn’t give comments on individual tales, it says of the collection as a whole:

“The striking thing about these stories, aside from the fact that they are all really good, is that many of them are very contemporary stories. They could easily take place last month, or a couple of years from now. This book is very much worth the search.”

I agree 🙂

– S.