“Will people be in costume?” How mainstream media sees SF fans.
Maybe it’s time for fans to relax about how the mainstream media sees us. We do sort of rule the world.
Website Review: Star Wars dot com
For fans of classic space opera, one of the most iconic movie franchises ever produced in the genre is arguably that of the Star Wars saga. Not surprisingly, one of the most informative sites on the web pertaining to all that is Star Wars is the aptly named www.starwars.com.
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 31)
independently publishing your stories yourself
Marketing 101: Strategies for Growing your Email List
Sending emails without one’s permission is what is commonly know as spam and you don’t want to get a reputation for being a “spammy author.”
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 30)
I finish off the discussion I began in part 29 on some of the paths a writer might choose to take for their short fiction career, this week focusing on publishing a collection of your short fiction.
Building Online Communities
Building an online community can expand your reach, build customer loyalty, and help members generate and share knowledge. But where do you start?
A Science Fiction Primer
Media SF – in all of its varieties – is firmly and uncontestably rooted in the literature (whether it acknowledges its sources or not). The problem for the audience of media fare is that the mainstream definition of “sci fi” is overly broad, encompassing bad examples along with the good and offering no inherent means for distinguishing one from the other .
Genre vs. Literary: The SFF Experience
SFF fans are some of the friendliest and smartest people I know. I don’t know how literary writers and fans interact across various platforms.
The Artful Collector: What Gets MY attention at a Worldcon art show?
I am totally biased and opinionated when it comes to art. It has to connect with me in some emotional way.
Marketing 101: Email Lists Management Software
If you do only one marketing initiative, it should be to make a concerted effort to develop and maintain your email list.
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 29)
Making your first professional sale does not improve your probability of making your next one. Now and throughout your writing career (assuming you intend to have a writing career), you will always face the same challenge: to write the best stories you can and to keep them in front of professional markets until they sell.
Marketing As A Metafictional Tool: Harnessing the Power of Misdirection
Deliberate misdirection is a writer’s tool that also deserves a place in the marketer’s toolkit. Here’s how writers can colonize the search page, where the reading experience ought to start.
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 28)
Cool Stuff That Might Happen (or Not): Awards, Best of Anthologies, Movies Welcome back! This week I’ll be looking at some of the cool things that just might happen to you after you’ve published a […]
The New Doctor and the Spin Behind It
The BBC is a weird organisation. The night after the first episode of the first series of Doctor Who aired, their news site broke the news that Christopher Ecclestone was leaving at the end of […]
Marketing 101: Authors and Reading Communities
I’m a member of two really large and really great reading communities: Goodreads /r/Fantasy on reddit Recently in /r/Fantasy there was a post about self-promotion. And I was pleased to see that I was called […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 27)
Bonjour / Hola / Ciao: Selling foreign language rights (conclusion) In parts 25 and 26, I began another mini-series on your options for re-selling your stories after they’ve been published for the first time. If […]
Who Is Your Audience, and Why Should You Care?
The artistic process, whether painting or prose, is admittedly the child of self-expression. The long-standing image of the cloistered artist in her studio — hunched over her writing desk or standing before her canvas to […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 26)
Bonjour / Hola / Ciao: Selling foreign language rights Last week, I began another mini-series, this one on your options for re-selling your stories after they’ve been published for the first time. If you haven’t […]
Photographs, Fantasy, Cover Design and Neil Gaiman
Let’s take a break from looking at artwork. Let’s look at some photos instead. Most people like looking at photographs. Usually these are family photographs, sometimes in an album, sometimes projected on a screen with […]
Le paysage éditorial de la science fiction et de la fantasy en France – 1ére partie – Les grands éditeurs indépendants spécialisés.
Le paysage éditorial de ce que nous appelons en France, les littératures de l’imaginaire est particulièrement riche. Nous commencerons cette série de trois articles qui vont y être consacré par les grands éditeurs indépendants. Ces […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 25)
A Writer’s Magic Bakery: Selling your stories again (and again, and again…) Welcome back to my series on marketing and selling short fiction. Last week, I wrapped up a mini-series on everything that happens after […]
The Artful Collector: Handling Difficult People Part 2: The Collector (or) Why I Can’t Sell Art to You
Do you think artists have a monopoly on “crazy”? Heh. You ain’t seen nothin, till you’ve had to handle the people who buy SF/F art. Not for nothin’ do corporations send employees for special training […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 24)
Let the Band Ring Out and the Banners Fly: To promote or not to promote Welcome back to my series on marketing and selling short fiction. I’ve written these posts in a very specific sequence, […]
Emailing a Book Blogger About a Review and Why First Impressions Matter
One of the primary benefits of reviewing books on a blog is that people will work hard to get you to give their book a chance. Now if you have a big publisher behind you, […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 23)
They Said WHAT?!?: Dealing with reviews Welcome back to my series on marketing and selling short fiction. I’ve written these posts in a very specific sequence, with each entry building on previous ones. You can […]
The Artful Collector: Handling Difficult People Part 1: The Artist (or) Why I Couldn’t Be Your Agent
Let’s say, for the sake of this posting, that our corner of the collecting world consists of two groups: The Creators and The Collectors. Which group, do you think, has the monopoly on “crazy”? I’ll […]
Why I Do What I Do
I have been asked several times in the last week alone about indie publishing. Before I talk about what I’m doing, and why, let me point out that I am relatively new to this. Vulcan’s […]
Marketing 101: Start with the Right Attitude
Marketing. Is there any other word that instills more fear in a writer? I don’t think so. When authors talk about marketing, here are the things commonly mentioned: I’m an introvert; I don’t want to […]
The Artful Collector: Vulgaris Triumphus? on Judging (SFWA) Magazines by Their Cover
Judge books by their cover? Everyone does it. That’s why – and despite the mis-marketing, agenting “horror stories” (both artist and author) and egregious lack of talent (cover-wise) – books and yes, magazines, still get […]
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