Direct Marketing

Two or three interesting blog entries in the last 24 hrs on the subject of connecting creative types directly with their audience. The first, from Amanda Palmer, is a stand-making shout out to the effect that she is pioneering a new model, combining her effervescent web presence with paypal to make money that goes directly into her pocket…and almost as quickly into that of her landlord and the woman who owns the grocery store, etc. Because when it comes down to it, creative people need a roof and they need to eat and can’t always wait til the money from CD sales or tours filters through the record company, the management company, etc.

I like AFP’s stance on this and indeed, since I am a Fan, have bought one or two of the items announced on her twitter feed (the LOFNOTC t-shirt, for example, is the ideal garment for its stated purpose, and I would not be seen alone in the house on my computer on any night of the week in anything else). She’s built herself up a fanbase who are into what she does and she’s got every right to benefit from that.

But Ms Palmer, she’s brazen, she’s shameless, she’s realistic and fearless. Not everyone is like that.

Take another example, but from a slightly less affirmative stance. This post by Agent Ribbons describes a heartfelt tale of woe that should not happen to any band. They’re nowhere near the stage of profitting from their income and the tone of their post is sweetly prideful and apologetic for asking fans to help them out of a hole, but there should be no need for apologies. Fans who love their music will find a way to help out, because it’s an investment in the future promise that the band will then be able to make more wonderful music in the future.

Music’s custom made for internet sales. It’s immediate, it’s ubiquitous, it costs nothing to send to people (eg “Everything Pomplamoose Has Ever Made for $9“). It should be easy to directly market to people who know where to go to get it. But what about fiction?

For the last ten years people have been experimenting with delivery methods of short fiction over the internet. They’ve had to because the steady decline of paper magazine sales indicates that at some point it may well be e-zine or nothing. The difficulty has been getting punters to pay realistic (or in fact any!) money for an ezine, and in turn making such venues realistic propositions for professional writers to submit work to. Unlike the music industry I’ve not been aware of much of an attempt by established writers to market their own fiction direct from their own websites. Some have had a “support your struggling author” Paypal button, but anecdotal evidence suggests  that these are ineffective. People will pay money for a product, or for a cause, but not just because there happens to be a Paypal button.

So, that makes this post by Hal Duncan interesting. Like Amanda Palmer, Hal’s got a fan base (and he needs to eat) so I’m hoping (in fact expecting) him to raise the total he requires to release the rest of the story to the public rather quickly. I love Hal’s fiction (and I’m kicking myself for not being able to make the reading at the weekend where this particular tale was unveiled), and if I came across a publication with one of his stories in it I’d buy it, irrespective of the rest of the contents. So, I’ve chucked a few quid – about the price of a magazine – into his Paypal pot in the hope that I get to read the rest of the story soon. Again, I see nothing to apologise for in this context – he’s a creator, I’m a consumer, where’s the shame in conducting a reasonable transaction?

In all of the cases here, we have artists appealling to their fanbase. And since fans tend to be loyal, these attempts at direct marketing, I have no doubt, will pay off to a greater or lesser degree. But this kind of model only works once you have those fans.  For the rest of us, we watch our myspace visitor stats and track plays creep up and scratch our heads at what to do next to garner those few fans into a nucleus.

And the answer to that?

Make better products. Catch a break. Work hard – REALLY hard. Continually. Just like the artists above did. Just like it’s always been.

A Word About Stories

It occurred to me this morning, in a dull flash of latent stupidity, that I’ve not done a terrible amount to point visitors to stories of mine that can be found lying around the web. These were all fanfared when they were first posted, of course, but time has seen the links trampled into the mulch of blogdom. So, I’ve updated the Published Stories page with some juicy linkage:

The Bone Farmer at Albedo One

Amber Rain at Serendipity

The Happy Gang at Infinity Plus

Harrowfield at Infinity Plus

The Apparatus at The Virtuous Medlar Circle

Bric-a-Brac From The Bargain Bin at Farrago’s Wainscot : Behind The Wainscot

The Last Note Of The Song at Keep To The Code

Microcosmos

Really, really, REALLY enjoyed Nina Allan’s “Microcosmos” in Interzone#222.  It’s thoughtful and immersive, and builds a complicated family backstory around the young narrator through hints at things unspoken and things that are spoken being not fully understood. Loved it.

This issue of the magazine was one of those quirky, varied issues that just throws stuff at you because, when it feels like it, that’s what Interzone can do. It’s all very subjective, but I also particularly liked Kim Lakin-Smith’s steam-punk T-Birds and Aliette de Bodard’s mythical, drowned city Ys.

On the other hand, while I thought Sean McMullen’s story was extremely well executed, I found the premise silly to point of embarrassing. But then, I’m not the sort of person that thinks that cats are all that. Others will disagree, many of them – for a reason I’ver never been able to fathom – writers. Why is that? Answers on a postcard.

Interzone and me

So, yes, officially, my story Spy Vs Spy will be appearing in the next issue of Interzone.

I talk about Interzone quite a lot on this blog: a/ because it’s personally important to me and fundamentally linked to my development as a writer and b/ because it remains a damned good read.

And it has REALLY pretty covers.

Get someone to get you a subscription for Christmas. You won’t regret it.

In fact, while we’re recommending gift ideas, you might like to consider NewCon Press’s Subterfuge. It’s selling well, and the early reviews are excellent.

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AbFab Whitby

So, over the weekend the postman dropped a very welcome jiffy bag on my mat. It was something I’ve been looking forward to for a fair while now, and I’m delighted to announce the arrival of Fabulous Whitby.

This is the second in what looks hopefully like it might be a series of short story anthologies themed around places in Britain. Its highly entertaining predecessor was Fabulous Brighton, and from the couple of dips I’ve managed between the pages so far, Fabulous Whitby looks like being even better. Editors Sue Thomason and Liz Williams have drawn together seventeen intriguing tales set in the environs of that town that presides over East Yorkshire’s coastal crags and I’ll be impressed if there’s not one mention of Dracula in the whole volume. Particularly looking forward to reading the stories by the editors themselves, and also Chris Butler, Alastair Rennie and Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold.

Oh, and there’s one by me in there at the end too. Although The Codsman And His Willing Shag was written specifically for Fabulous Whitby, due to the vagaries of publishing schedules its inclusion here is technically a reprint.

There may be a launch event at the Whitby Gothic Weekend, but at this moment that’s unconfirmed, so if you fancy getting your hands on a copy you can get it direct from the publisher.

Who knows where the Fabulous Albion people will set their compass for next? I’m voting for Fabulous Ecclefechan, but am not sure if they could fit that on the cover.

The Taste Of Mundanity

So, the Mundane SF issue of Interzone has come and gone. In case you’ve not been aware, there was a whole bunch of foohfarah about the Mundane manifesto, because I don’t know, the rhetoric rubbed people up the wrong way or something. And that was rekindled when IZ announced they were handing over the reins to Geoff Ryman and co for one issue. I’ve not seen any bloggings of seething vindication on either side since the issue came out, but that doesn’t mean the war ain’t raging somewhere.

Anyway. *Yawn*. Doesn’t matter.

My overall reaction to the seven stories that Ryman and friends have selected to exemplify their point is 1/ they are uniformly good, and 2/ this is the sort of stuff Interzone used to publish more regularly than it does now. I felt nostalgic. Nostalgic for the time when a copy of Interzone would throw you a flight of fancy and then on the next page tie you right back down to earth with a gritty, near-future piece that really made you think. Take a galaxy spanning Stephen Baxter or a baroque Richard Calder and follow it up with Greg Egan’s “Learning To Be Me” or Iain McLeod’s “Well Loved” or Chris Beckett’s “Welfare Man” stories. Really stretch your mind. I’m not saying that IZ doesn’t still strive to do this – David Mace’s “This Happens” still lives fresh in my memory – but it’s not as frequent as I remember it being.

So, if the Mundanistas are complaining that people generally aren’t writing enough of this kind of carefully considered, predictive SF; if it’s a spice, a flavour we’ve lost, then maybe they’re right. Especially if they’re as well written as Lavie Tidhar’s “How To Make Paper Aeroplanes”, or Elizabeth Vonarburg’s “The Invisibles”, or Geoff Ryman’s wholly thought-provoking “Talk Is Cheap”, which rounds off the fiction offering of the issue perfectly.

So, Mundane SF. Do I like it? Yes, when it’s done as well as this.

Will I write it? Probably, sometimes, but like most genre writers, not all the time.

Put it this way, if I were a chef I wouldn’t cook with it exclusively, but it’d be a flavour I’d be wanting to use more often in my restaurant.

Thanks to IZ for reminding us what it tastes like.

It’s a Farrago, I tell you

In the world of online fiction zines, Farrago’s Wainscot has established itself as among the most chic, oblique and unique. Their regular selection of literary short stories is always worth dipping into, and if that weren’t enough they have this little bundle of extras that goes by the name of Behind The Wainscot. In the words of the editors, BtW is: “is, in a literal sense, interstitial. An irregular blogozine, it features work that slips between the quarterly releases of Farrago’s Wainscot. Behind the Wainscot is a collection of short forms, of experiments, studies, and the fragments between.“

The latest issue of BtW has been handed over to Hal Duncan who was tasked with bringing in a Scottish flavour to the proceedings. Hal has answered the call with enormous enthusiasm, and collected a fistful of highly entertaining and deeply strange snippets from members of GSFWC and the East Coast SF Writers.

I enjoyed my little foray into that dark and mysterious space between wood and wall immensely. Hope you guys do too.

As chance would have it…

Delighted to see that my story Amber Rain, first published in The Third Alternative yonks ago, has been reprinted in the very excellent new zine, Serendipity.

Cool, huh?

Interzone is 25

With the publication of its latest issue (in the shops now!), Interzone magazine is officially 25 years old. I’ve been reading it for at least 80% of that time and over the years it has introduced me to an uncountable list of fantastic writers that have enriched my life. I’ve eulogised about the mag before, and there’s no need to do so again in detail, but:

1/ Interzone started me writing (and has yet to find a way of stopping me).
2/ Interzone has for a long time now been the keystone of British genre fiction; its editors have an unerring eye for new talent that quickly become household names.
3/ Interzone 209 (out now! buy it!) features an interview between myself and Mr Duncan, plus a new Book Of All Hours story by Mr Duncan, PLUS new stories by M John Harrison, Gwyneth Jones, Alastair Reynolds, Jamie Barras and Daniel Kaysen.

How is it possible you’ve finished reading this and not gone out and bought the thing, or better still ordered a subscription!

Word, Dog

A date for yer diary, should you be interested in this sort of thing.Wednesday 24th January, 8.30pm
13th Note, King Street, Glasgow
Word Dogs : Cry Havoc! An explosive evening of high-octane fiction readings on the subject of conflict, war, ruckuses, barneys and gentlemen’s boxing brought to you by Word Dogs, the exhibitionist arm of GSFWC.

The format will be something like:
1/ grab a seat and a beer
2/ listen to two or three entertaining stories
3/ grab another beer and have a chat
4/ more stories
5/ more beer… and so on until closing time.

Easy, fun and quieter than Murnie. Come on down.

If noise is more your thing, however, I should also take the opportunity to point out that Murnie are rolling out the loudness guns the following night for Pin-up’s Ambulance Station at the Admiral in Waterloo Street.

Aye well, at least it’s never dull round here.