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Posts Tagged ‘writing’

A Thought for Monday Morning: Keep Going

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2013| 1 Comment »

This is a great bit by Ira Glass on Art, and how you have to keep working at it if you’re going to be any good… even when you know that what you’re doing isn’t as good as you wish.
 

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A Duotrope Replacement, & It Looks Good

Posted in Reviews, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Like many I was disappointed (if not terribly surprised) to see Duotrope go to a paid subscription model. This market database and submissions tracker is a great service, no mistake, but the subscription barrier felt a little high. There are some potential substitutes and while I was able to put together a system for story research, tracking, and submission, the process took time. Time I’d rather spend working or sleeping.*

What’s that? You know I’ve found a replacement and you just want me to spill the good news? Well then:)

Welcome to The Grinder, from the good folks at Diabolical Plots. It is a market database and submission tracker with Duotrope-style summary data and response time statistics. Those statistics will improve as more users add submission info, but I was surprised that after just a few months their data look similar to what I remember from Duotrope. And if you have an unaltered .csv export file of your Duotrope submission records, The Grinder has the option to import that information. See this summary page for more details on what it can do. And did I mention this service is free?

Drawbacks? It’s in beta so they are still building the market list and some of the features you might expect aren’t yet in place. (For example, I can’t find the Favorites list but as I just started using it that might be me.) It’s currently for fiction only but plans are in place to expand to non-fiction and poetry soon. These issues aside, The Grinder has a lot going for it, and the team seems genuinely interested in user suggestions and making improvements.

If you are in the market for a market list and submission tracker, this looks like a very good option.

* Or enjoying a frosty glass of some adult beverage with friends. Because there’s more to life than working and sleeping, people!

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Way to go Scalzi & Co

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This is still in progress but John Scalzi reports new updates have been made to the previously mentioned contracts through Random House’s Hydra and Alibi imprints:

Random House Makes Changes to Hydra/Alibi Contracts

… and Scalzi’s immediate followup:

Immediate Thoughts on the Random House eBook Imprint Contract Changes.

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More on Bad Contracts… and One Very Good One

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

John Scalzi’s righteous assault on bad deals for authors continues, with a look at a contract from Alibi, a sibling imprint of the previously discussed Hydra. The downsides look very similar and the upsides are few and very far between:

A Contract From Alibi

So, don’t ask me how, but I have in my hands (from what I consider a reputable source) a contract from Alibi, which is the sibling imprint of Hydra, the Random House imprint that I thumped on roundly in the previous entry.

And if you need more evidence that signing over all rights for the term of the copyright is a terrible idea, check out this DBW piece on Wool author Hugh Howey’s latest contract. He cut a deal with Simon & Schuster for print rights only to the tune of a seven-figure advance. Yes, apparently Howey’s self-published e-books were bringing in $150k a month already, but no matter who you are, why sign your work over to anyone else for nothing? Heck, you’d be better off printing your book out and using it for party invitations. Or tinder. Or any other use you can think of that is controlled by you and not someone else.

Just saying.

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“Random House’s Hydra Imprint Has Appallingly Bad Contract Terms”

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

A great discussion is going on right now over on Whatever, John Scalzi’s site, around publishing contracts. Specifically, Random House’s new science fiction imprint Hydra is (so far as has been determined) acting as a vanity press. No advance, signing over copyright forever, and the author pays for expenses. In sum, Hydra somehow manage to make the music industry’s often exploitative contract terms look more reasonable in comparison.

Read John’s excellent salvo here:

Note to SF/F Writers: Random House’s Hydra Imprint Has Appallingly Bad Contract Terms

Random House recently started Hydra, an electronic-only imprint for science fiction stories and short novels. But, as noted by Writer Beware here, the terms in a Hydra deal sheet shown to them are pretty damn awful…

I’d say this is a must-read for all new or un-agented (i.e. unprotected by someone with industry experience or a lick of financial sense) writers. John’s right, there’s no justification for terms as bad as these.

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Feeling a Little Like Nero…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

I’m fiddling. I have several stories in progress, some of which are really quite close to completion, or should be. Except that I’m fiddling. I’m spending way too much time trying to get it “right” and not enough time trying to get the work done. Because it’s never going to be perfect.

Parkinson’s law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

What I really need is a deadline.

Perhaps I should decree March my personal “Short Story Finishing Month,” or ShoStoFiMo. Yes, that should do nicely.

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More With the Free! This Time From Mary Robinette Kowal

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

More free stuff available, this time it’s Mary Robinette Kowal putting out a novelette in honor of her 44th birthday (it was on February 8th, but better late than never). Here’s her intro to the piece:

This is “The Lady Astronaut of Mars,” which I wrote for Audible.com’s anthology, RIP-OFF!, edited by Gardner Dozois. It’s a fun anthology. Each story starts with the first line of a classic novel. Mine starts with the first line of The Wizard of Oz.

Happy belated birthday, Mary, and thanks!

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Free Download: Stupefying Stories’ “The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology”

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Oooh, shiny!

If you are at all interested in good writing or genre fiction, check out Stupefying Stories’ “The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology.” The name is a bit of a mouthful but get past that and you are in for a treat. This collection contains 80 short stories by authors eligible for this year’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer award, and all free free free.

Limited time offer, get yours today!

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Excerpt From A NaNoWriMo Notebook

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

** This happened in November but it fits so perfectly with my current mood that I decided to post it today.**

It was a fine day, although just before I started work on my novel the cat got out of the yard and I ended up with sixteen bandages and a lot of bleeding. Nothing too horrific, just lots of scratches and some annoying flaps of skin, but I am now pleased to know that I am the sort of person who can have four bandaids on one hand and still write almost 3,000 words. It was actually really satisfying, I must say.

That brings to mind a Neil Gaiman quote that I hope serves you as well as it has me:

“When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Finish the damn story. You’ll be happy you did.

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Writing…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on February 7, 2013| 2 Comments »

photo by Benimoto on Flickr

photo by Benimoto on Flickr

I’m writing. How’s it going? Not bad, considering. Ann Patchett has a terrific essay called The Getaway Car. One particularly telling passage details her view of writing. While the work is in her head it is perfect, she says, a beautiful, multi-dimensional butterfly in the most magical and vibrant colors. The problem with bringing the story into being is that she has to take that gorgeous creature and smash it onto a black and white page, a two-dimensional and wholly inadequate representation of the original.

It made me laugh and want to cry because I know exactly what she means.

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