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I've never understood why fantasy and sci-fi are joined at the hip. Sure there are examples where someone crossed the lines a bit, but that's true of many genres. The fantasy genre has always struck me as the lazy man's path to fiction. I find it far more formulaic than sci-fi.

They're both genres about things that aren't, probably. I don't consider fantasy writing any easier than sci-fi writing, since it's just as easy to get it wrong and write something totally unresearched and unbelievable. As tons of bad novels will attest, it's just as easy to write bad fiction in any genre; the trappings themselves won't make a bad story any better.

Read Ursula K. Leguin's "The Disposssed"(Hugo, Nebula)

And, in fact, Tethers Unlimited, the company proposing this beast, was founded by scientist, engineer and science fiction writer Dr Robert L Forward. Sadly, Dr Forward died last September.

Speculations has a ton of good advice, and don't miss The Rumor Mill, especially the Caveat Scrivener sections.

SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. If you know anybody in SFWA, ask to look in the back of the directory at the list of agents representing members.

SFF.net, which hosts most of SFWA's online conversation in newsgroups.

Preditors & Editors is another outstanding resource; if you have any doubts about whether your agent, editor, or publisher is on the level or not, go poke around there.

"Is This Stuff Sci-Fi, SF, Or Skiffy?"

skiffy?!?

There's another big advantage to this sort of just-in-time manufacturing. There was a Supreme Court decision in 1979 that changed the publishing industry, known as Thor Power Tools. In brief, it makes it more expensive (taxwise) for publishers to keep books (or CDs) in a warehouse. So they are motivated to pulp them much sooner than was the case before Thor.

So print-on-demand schemes like this are probably the future of publishing, and it'll likely happen quicker with music than with books, because the traditional CD is a less-entrenched cultural artifact than the traditional book.

Also, other economies are possible. It would be much cheaper to send the files out to music stores and burn the CDs at the store. Much more efficient shipping model.

AOL on that. On the hard SF front, I also enjoy
Alastair Reynolds's work (e.g. Revelation space). Other writers I'd recommend are Peter F. Hamilton (in particular the Night's Dawn series - wide-vista space opera with a touch of horror), Allen Steele (Clarke-esque near-future SF), Robert Charles Wilson and on the more slipstreamy side, Michael Marshall Smith and Jeff Noon.

Yeah, he died last September. The SFWA wrote a nice little bio on him here, in which they said, "The science in his books has often been novel enough that many of his fiction books have been referenced in journal publications as 'prior art publications'." He was a very bright man. I remember writing a paper in university on zero-point energy fluctuations in a vacuum, which was based on an early paper or his.

- adam

• Warnings and Cautions for Writers -- Vanity and Subsidy Publishers -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America
• Fraudulent Vanity Press Publishing of Manuscripts and Poetry -- Crimes of Persuasion: Schemes, Scams and Frauds

The big problems with getting science fiction onto bestseller lists, except for top names like Crichton, is that publishers don't print enough to actually make a dent on the lists. According to Robert J. Sawyer, his initial harcover runs are still only a few thousand for North America (this includes Canada as well), while best sellers usually sell this many just in the first week at least just in the USA. Sawyer's won awards in four countries and is constantly active in science fiction with clinics and book tours, as well as being a former president of the SFWA, but because he's not only Canadian, but a science fiction author, he doesn't get the sales of anything that, say, Grisham or King would get.

And until there's a demonstration that books such as his are marketable in the same lists as King or Grisham books, they won't be printed in the numbers needed to get on those lists.

The large chain bookstores already track author popularity very closely and, if your last book didn't do well, your next book may not get the opportunity to do well. This discourages authors from branching out or trying something new. Several authors have found themselves forced to adopt new pen names to get around these problems.

I fear that this proposed system is only going to make things worse, not better. Yes, I would like to see SF treated with a little respect, but I'd also like to see authors free to experiment and to try something new and off the beaten track. I'm afraid that this will kill off what little market remains for interesting and innovative writers, and leave us with nothing but "popular" cookie-cutter pablum.

I think if you browse around on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America web pages, you may find some articles that address these concerns in greater detail.

The large chain bookstores already track author popularity very closely and, if your last book didn't do well, your next book may not get the opportunity to do well. This discourages authors from branching out or trying something new. Several authors have found themselves forced to adopt new pen names to get around these problems.

I fear that this proposed system is only going to make things worse, not better. Yes, I would like to see SF treated with a little respect, but I'd also like to see authors free to experiment and to try something new and off the beaten track. I'm afraid that this will kill off what little market remains for interesting and innovative writers, and leave us with nothing but "popular" cookie-cutter pablum.

I think if you browse around on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America web pages, you may find some articles that address these concerns in greater detail.

Though Slashdot didn't feel a need to post the obituary, you can find my remembrance of him here: http://www.sfwa.org/news/effinger.htm.

Unfortuntely, Tim had had a limited edition of the book published in 2000 and was thus ruled ineligible by the SFWA. I know for a fact from a class I took from Tim in September that he had high hopes for the Nebula. It shows how much class he has that he accepted the decision graciously and stated that the rules were completely fair.

While all the nominees are great works, you really owe it to yourself to try to dig up a copy of Declare and read it for yourself.

As a SFWAn (i.e., a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) I'll answer this:

SFWA, the organization which awards the Nebulas (and does lots of other stuff as well -- check out the Web site) is an organization for writers of both science fiction and fantasy, as the name implies. And yes, it was originally the Science Fiction Writers of America -- and then, briefly, SFFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, before we decided that changing a well-known acronym like SFWA (prounounced "sif-wa") was pointless, and held a vote to make the acronym SFWA regradless of what the actual name was -- and yes, the Nebulas have generally been dominated by science fiction at the expense of fantasy, but a) fantasy has gained a lot of ground over the last couple of decades, both critically and commercially, and it would be silly to ignore that, and b) the dramatic Nebulas (when we've awarded them -- we haven't always) have generally been a bit broader-based that the literary Nebulas, in recognition of the fact that Hollywood often turns out some really good SF/F while avoiding those labels for marketing reasons.

You might be interested in this link...

...that in light of the current climate for authors, musicians, etc. trying to protect their copyrights online to unnecessary extremes, it's very nice to see that two of the five Nebula winners (Novella, "The Ultimate Earth", and Short Story, "The Cure for Everything") are freely available online, along with many of the non-winning nominees as well.

It's nice to know that professional literature can still be free, even if professional music often can't.

This is completely bogus. The one who was found dead is the DRIVER who struck Stephen King. This was over 1yr ago.

My favorite Poul Anderson work is the Time Patrol story "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth"

Locus Online.

No Truce With Kings...

And before doing anything else, go to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers web site and check out all their information, especially "Writers Beware".

For an example of this, look at the site that certain members of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Association are putting together, the Storytellers' Bowl. The idea is that pre-completed works will be published serially, each new installment coming out free for all to read, download, copy, pass around on Gnutella, etc. as soon as would-be readers have kicked in enough money. They'll be using the PayPal person-to-person payment system for contributions. It's being discussed now on an SFFnet newsgroup.

I personally think this is a keen idea, and I'm all afire to support it, especially since it's likely to result in more stuff from the Deed of Paksenarrion universe by Elizabeth Moon.
--

Back in Days of Yore, the Science Fiction Writers of America (now the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.) were getting victimized by publishers, movie producers, etc. - so they came up with their Model Contract. Can't remember who was the first to sign a contract using it (something in me wants to say Harlan Ellison - NEVER get Harlan pissed at you). Since then, it's become the de-facto standard for writers in several genres, and has versions for various types of publication (all available at the SFWA web site. They also have a Position Paper on electonic rights - something folks should pay some attention to, since these guys have been doing this a while (not to mention (1) they dreamed a lot of this up (2) they have Harlan Ellison :-).

Back in Days of Yore, the Science Fiction Writers of America (now the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.) were getting victimized by publishers, movie producers, etc. - so they came up with their Model Contract. Can't remember who was the first to sign a contract using it (something in me wants to say Harlan Ellison - NEVER get Harlan pissed at you). Since then, it's become the de-facto standard for writers in several genres, and has versions for various types of publication (all available at the SFWA web site. They also have a Position Paper on electonic rights - something folks should pay some attention to, since these guys have been doing this a while (not to mention (1) they dreamed a lot of this up (2) they have Harlan Ellison :-).

How about posting the entire content of the book to a website so people can read it online for free. If you're not making a profit, then why not? It can't hurt profits if there aren't supposed to be any. And that might help get to a wider audience.

1. As another poster already mentioned, the people who most need to see these messages are not online. Recognize that there are people who are not like you.
2. Just because Andover and Katz aren't making any personal gain from the book, don't assume that profitability of the book is unimportant. Firstly, a book has to make a profit to stay in print. Secondly, the profits from the book can be applied to good causes to help relieve the torment of teen geeks and publicize their plight.

The great writers of science fiction exist because of the magazines. Few writers this century sprang up ex novelo; they developed their talents and reputations with shorter stories published first. And most would continue to write short stories after their novels are published- it keeps the mind sharp, because a good short story is the most difficult type of writing. The stories also create a fan base and a track record that both contribute to a publisher's willingness to accept a novel.

Recent anthologies like "The Year's Best Science Fiction" contain stories that rival anything from the golden age of SF in intensity, cutting-edgeness, and sheer old-fashioned numinous sense-of-wonderness. Notice where the stories came from: Asimov's (probably the largest single source), SF Age, Analog, SF&F...all good magazines. And look at awards lists of recent Hugo and Nebula winners/nominees. Authors first show up in the lists with shorter story nominations, and then the novels appear.

Now for a re-read of Weapon Shop...

The knighthood had already been granted, but the timing of the story was such that Clarke asked that the ceremony be postponed until he could respond to the charges.

Statement by Sir Arthur's Executive Secretary, on the SFWA website

I haven't heard anything about the outcome of Sir Arthur's legal action against the paper.

> There's no reason for paperbacks to be out of print anymore.

Actually, there is, and like everything else, it has to deal with money. Publishers are not encouraged to keep stock for very long at all; titles go out of print more quickly, and sell fewer copies. The reason for this is the tax situation that was created in a US. Supreme Court ruling, Thor Power Tool Company vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, having to do with the taxation implications of inventories.

As a note: this is also why companies physically destroy books that are sent back to them, rather than simply holding on to them to re-sell them.

For more information, see this article on the SFWA site.

• Royalty -- in exchange for publication rights, the publisher prints and sells the book, and gives you royalties if the book is successful; you pay the publisher nothing.
• Vanity -- you pay the publisher to print and bind your book; the printed books are your property, and you have to sell them.
• Subsidy -- a combination of the above two; you pay the publisher some money up front, and they print the book, sell it, and pay royalties.
• Self -- you form your own little publishing company, choosing your book's graphic design, hiring a printer, etc., etc.

For more details, see SFWA's excellent page on subsidy and vanity publishers.

Fatbrain's program doesn't seem as bad as some of the outfits described on SFWA's site. But this program looks like a way to separate foolish writers from their money. As such, it's likely to be a smashing success. I can imagine thousands of people writing what they imagine to be the Great American Novel, uploading it to Fatbrain, fantasizing about the fame and fortune that awaits them, and not missing the leak from their credit cards.

But read the fine print: After the promotional period, Fatbrain takes $12/year/book from your credit card, and half of your book's download price -- in exchange for what labor or risk? The company doesn't promise to do anything to promote your book. It doesn't even promise a quality-of-service level for its download site!

So why should anyone interested in self-publishing go through Fatbrain, rather than setting up an ecommerce site through a regular ISP?

• Royalty -- in exchange for publication rights, the publisher prints and sells the book, and gives you royalties if the book is successful; you pay the publisher nothing.
• Vanity -- you pay the publisher to print and bind your book; the printed books are your property, and you have to sell them.
• Subsidy -- a combination of the above two; you pay the publisher some money up front, and they print the book, sell it, and pay royalties.
• Self -- you form your own little publishing company, choosing your book's graphic design, hiring a printer, etc., etc.

For more details, see SFWA's excellent page on subsidy and vanity publishers.

Fatbrain's program doesn't seem as bad as some of the outfits described on SFWA's site. But this program looks like a way to separate foolish writers from their money. As such, it's likely to be a smashing success. I can imagine thousands of people writing what they imagine to be the Great American Novel, uploading it to Fatbrain, fantasizing about the fame and fortune that awaits them, and not missing the leak from their credit cards.

But read the fine print: After the promotional period, Fatbrain takes $12/year/book from your credit card, and half of your book's download price -- in exchange for what labor or risk? The company doesn't promise to do anything to promote your book. It doesn't even promise a quality-of-service level for its download site!

So why should anyone interested in self-publishing go through Fatbrain, rather than setting up an ecommerce site through a regular ISP?