J.C. Hutchins of 7th Son fame drops by to discuss the conclusion of his opus. He also gives his first live reading, sort of. This is still a podcast, after all, but it’s great to listen to him revisit a scene from book one!
Show Notes:
– Sam discusses some new books worthy of your attention.
(What’s up with Amazon’s lack of artwork? Seriously!)
– Shaun talks about Scott Sigler’s new book deal. Will it open the door for other podcasters or not? Related links: Scott’s Twitter page, where he makes the announcement; TeleRead gives the details of the deal.
– J.C. Hutchins talks 7th Son, the status of getting published, whether or not book 3 will be a disappointment, and gives a reading from book 1. He only had one hiccup while reading, which I did edit out because while it was just one mistake, it was a big one! Love ya, Hutch! Great reading.
– Listener feedback: Kory asks about Dr. Howard Hendrix’s comments concerning webscabs. Sam and I discuss. Is the good doctor wrong? Or did he just have poor judgement in his selection of words? Check out Dr. Hendrix’s explanation.
– What do you think of the issues raised in this show? Please, let us know. Let us discuss.
Thanks for listening, as always.
Promo: Tales From the Verse – Much podcasting goodness for you Firefly/Serenity fans.
Promo: The Silk Code
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:50 — 44.6MB)
My book deal won’t open that many doors for podcasters – but if INFESTED, the first book in that book deal, hits the NY Times Bestseller list when it comes out in April 2008, THAT will open a lot of doors. Publishers are watching right now, and they’re in no hurry. If INFECTION blows the doors off when it comes out, that’s going to start a feeding frenzy that will benefit a lot of people. That’s my strong belief.
Hi Scott. Thanks for dropping by. If Infested his the NY Times bestseller list, that will do a great deal for both small press and podcasters alike. I’m pulling for ya! In fact, we need to have you on the show to discuss it.
I think you mean cross-media not cross-genre.
Comics and novels aren’t genres.
I am a big fan of Warren Ellis, too.
Some of this Hendrix stuff comes across as self-interested whining. If he doesn’t like it, but a large number of readers do, then he is SOL.
I doubt he is holding fund-raisers for vaudevillians, circus acrobats, or other entertainers whose roles have changed or disappeared or diminished.
Comics used to sell millions of copies. Nope, not anymore, low 6 figures tops these days. Monthly pulp novels, hundreds of thousands. Not any more, they are gone except for the odd very rare close relative. Evening newspapers? Not in this country, these days.
Maybe things will become like in a Kim Stanley Robinson story (I think, the name escapes me at the moment), where everyone’s work gets thrown in a public arena and the most popular etc. will still make money from it.
It is not likely to get easier for authors any time soon, there are lots more people, so lots more writers, and lots more choice, and lots more past work. Publishing types have never been strong on the whole statistics and mathematics thing though it seems, from what I have read, compared to other businesses.
If authors have to change, like musicians, from live in the bush hermits, to performers, to digital artists, etc., then so what? will be the average reader reaction, I think. Those that are good at accessibility and information and provide a decent product at a decent price, even if electronic should be well set.
I have been looking up some information about things I am interested in recently, and it has amazed me that a bunch of authors and publishers with short story collections don’t even have the contents of the books available. Can you imagine an album with no song list? I have no idea what they are thinking when this happens, other than, ok, marketing speak blurb done, me finished? No surprise that those who are good at it are appreciated by their readers.
Looks like your postal service made it a bit tougher for not in bookshop type authors too, chopping out surface mail, so you are going to need other ways to get your work to people.
I have asked a few independent type authors about the possibility of ebook versions of their stuff, and several times have got the electronic equivalent of a blank look. All lost sales. Even more important probably now that their work costs 3 times as much to ship.
Authors must absolutely take advantage of online and digital media. I am still shocked when I contact scifi authors for interviews and they don’t know what a podcast is. I even had one author turn me down (one of the most celebrated authors in the field really) because he “doesn’t keep up with technology.” Maybe he just doesn’t like me and that was an excuse.
I don’t know how these folks write such good scifi with that attitude.
The internet is the wave of the future, but paper books will always have a special place in my heart. And now that the big bookstores are finally recycling mass markets instead of just trashing them, the environment is better off, too.
But publishers really should take a hard look at their model. Printing 20,000 copies of something and hoping they will sell just doesn’t make sense to me. I understand they want physical copies of books in stores for browsing and impulse buying, but I’ve seen first hand the waste that such a model can create.
Yeah, there is definitely still some of them that barely understand a computer’s basic operation. One of them said this to me.
Paper is nice as a collectable for stuff that you like a lot, or collect, for sure. Some people do fetishise the things.
As to how I read something disposable, like a Kim Harrison or something that I am not going to collect, and will never read again, I don’t care.
If the only way some obscure author can get their stuff to me is a 15 dollar book POD with 20 dollars shipping, in greenbacks, when a $5 ebook would do the same thing, then basically they will miss out, I think.
Part of it might be ‘hey, I’m an author, this is paper’, even if they have only sold 9 of them. Completely stuck in one mindset – and some don’t want to bother with that at all, as just a small hobby I suppose.
Selznick is an example of someone with a clue. I actually bought his ebook a while back, exactly the scenario described just above. I asked him about it, what format do you have, can it work with my Palm.
Answered the question, multiple formats available, etc., so then you get a reader.
If you are famous 65 year old basically retired author that is likely the case you mention earlier, you probably don’t care either. You should probably name names if you are going to be journalist-like. 🙂 Then people will know the dinosaurs to avoid.
If suppose if you are a want to be writer though, you don’t want to annoy those who might squish you. Then again, he will never hear you. 🙂
Stross
Egan
Watts
Scalzi
plenty of stuff online there.
Elizabeth Bear seems to get it, too.
Don’t forget Cory Doctorow. I had a person tell me today that they weren’t that impressed with Cory because he’d only published a few books in paper. Even though he is a huge internet phenomenon with a loyal and ever-growing fan base, they discounted him just like that. I wanted to point out that it was 2007 and the internet is not a “fad” (as they put it). It boggles my mind that people still don’t understand this.
Doctorow has had 5 books published since 2003, and he has another coming out this year (if I remember him correctly from his Mysterious Galaxy visit). What more does that guy want Cory to do!?
Maybe write a romance novel every three months? 🙂
I’ve been having the ‘dinosaur’ discussion about book people in another form today. Some people just don’t get it and never will, I guess.