Book Giveaway: Goblins or Libriomancer

About two weeks ago, I received my author copies of the Science Fiction Book Club editions of Libriomancer and The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer.

This makes me happy for lots of reasons. Many of the books on my shelves came from the SFBC, back when I was younger and there was no way I could afford full-priced hardcovers. And then I found the SFBC. Five free books at sign-up? Reduced-price omnibus editions? Sweet! This is how I first discovered authors like Robert Asprin, Fred Saberhagan, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula LeGuin, even Asimov and his Foundation Trilogy.

So I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate this milestone, my first books to make it into the club, with a giveaway. And since the stress-o-meter has been running rather high lately, I’m gonna go with something happy and hopefully simple for this one.

All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me about one of the best things that happened to you in 2012.

I’ll pick one commenter at random next week and send them an autographed copy of the SFBC edition of either Libriomancer or The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer. Their choice.

This isn’t a U.S.-only contest, so anyone can enter.

Cover Art – So Where’s The Problem?

As some of you might have noticed, I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past year talking about sexism in cover poses. Specifically, trying to point out how women are so often dressed and posed in ways that emphasize their sexuality over all else. Some of the poses are physically painful or even impossible. Others are simply impractical. And while men are certainly objectified on book covers as well, it’s not in the same way. The poses generally don’t sacrifice power or agency for the sake of sexuality.

Now, not everyone agrees that this is even an issue. I’ve been accused of being a faminist shithead, of selling out my gender, and was told this is the liberal equivalent of the War on Christmas. All of which, quite frankly, I find pretty damn hilarious. But for those of us who do see this as a real problem, the next question is what to do about it. And to answer that question, I think we need to take a better look at how these covers get perpetuated.

Artists are the easiest target for blame. “Cover art is bad because artists are bad, and they should feel bad!” Voila, problem solved. Let’s go cure cancer next!

Yeah, not so much. We talked about this a bit at ConFusion during the group pose cover reveal panel. I’m pulling part of what follows from my wonderfully wise panelists. When we look at cover art, we have to consider:

  • Writers – if an author writes sexist crap and the artist faithfully depicts the story, where does the fault lie?
  • Editors – editors often get input into which scene will be used for the cover. Did they have to pick the shower-assassination scene?
  • Art directors – these are the folks directing the artists.
  • Artists – sometimes the problem is with the artists. They have some choice and control in how they portray women, and what they choose to emphasize or deemphasize. (Anecdotally, I’m told the artist for Piers Anthony’s The Color of Her Panties did his best to minimize the panties part of the image while staying within the guidelines of what he had been instructed to create. I can’t swear this story is true, but I like it.)
  • Booksellers – publishers want to sell books, so if the booksellers ask for a certain style of cover, publishers will probably give them what they want. This becomes even more significant when you have a few huge chains with a lot of market power.
  • Readers – if y’all buy a bunch of semi-clad boob-and-butt books while ignoring the sensibly clad ass-kicking heroines, then that’s what you’ll keep getting.
  • Society in general – yeah, that’s right. It’s SOCIETY’S fault for perpetuating all of this sexist crap, and teaching us to accept it as normal.

My goal here isn’t to announce that EVERYBODY SUCKS, but to point out that this problem is woven through every layer of the publishing process, as well as society as a whole. Trying to change that problem will require work from a lot of different circles. For example, I firmly believe we as writers need to be more aware of our own prejudices and assumptions. And while it’s true that we have very little control over our covers, “very little” isn’t the same as none. We may not be able to change anything, but we can at least talk to our editors and let them know when we’re not happy with a cover, or that we’re worried it might alienate some of our potential audience.

I’ve heard readers say they don’t want to punish an author for a cover they don’t like, so they buy the book anyway, and doesn’t that just reinforce the problem? Speaking as an author, thank you for buying our stuff anyway! But you can also shoot an email to the publisher asking why character X, who’s a strong, werewolf-slaying heroine, looks like a pipecleaner with a pair of water balloons stuck to her chest.

And you know what? Sometimes, sexualization is appropriate for the story. Lena Greenwood is a very sexual character, and I’m totally comfortable with her midriff-baring look on the cover of Codex Born. It would be utterly wrong to see Talia from my princess books in that same kind of outfit, though. I don’t think anyone’s saying that women can never be shown as sexual; it’s more that they seem to always have to be sexual, and it has to be a fairly narrow kind of sexuality. And that portrayal usually happens at the cost of their power, strength, agency, or just realism. (Seanan McGuire had a great post on this, talking about her book Discount Armageddon.)

So how do we fix this problem? We keep talking about it. We recognize that it’s a multi-layered problem that’s been evolving for a very long time. We don’t settle for simplistic answers. We speak out about the bad covers and the good ones, the covers that show strong, competent women who may or may not be sexualized, but if so, it’s not done at the expense of that strength.


I have been amazed and gratified at all of the discussion the cover poses have generated. I sincerely hope it will continue.

Autographed Print of MARY’S ANGELS

The day the group cover pose went up on the internet, I started getting comments and emails asking where people could buy a print of this amazing piece of…art!

And I am HAPPY TO OBLIGE! Thanks once again to photographer Al Bogdan, I am in possession of one of only two existing high-quality AUTOGRAPHED 16×16 prints of that amazing pose. That’s right, this print is signed by Al as the photographer, as well as myself, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, Charles Stross, and Mary Robinette Kowal.

This auction will run for the next ten days, and the proceeds will be donated to the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation.

The other print went home with Mister Rothfuss, who will be offering it as part of his Worldbuilders charity. I’ll link to that as soon as it gets listed, but WHY WAIT? You know you want this gorgeous print hanging in your living room, your bathroom, or maybe on your bedroom ceiling. We won’t judge you!

Go! Bid! Do it now! Do it for the children! Do it for Pat’s awesomely crossed legs and duckface pout. Do it for Charlie’s amazing sunglasses! Do it because if you don’t, you’ll make us all very sad.

Group Cover Pose Reveal!

1/21: You can now bid on an autographed 16×16 print of this amazing piece of…art! All proceeds benefit the AFS. Details available here.

Yesterday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., a group of authors set forth on a great challenge. In the hallowed halls of the DoubleTree Hilton, they stripped down and waited patiently while powder was applied to certain overly shiny scalps. Author and photographer extraordinaire Al Bogdan prepared his hand-painted backdrop, set up his camera and flashes, and laid out the rubber raft.

The time had come. John “Waffle-man” Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, Charles Stross, and I took our places around Mary Robinette Kowal. We had come to Dearborn not for the glory, but to fulfill a promise made weeks ago, that if the good people of SF/F fandom raised at least $5000 for the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation fundraiser, we would attempt to duplicate the cover of Young Flandry.

The fundraiser brought in more than triple that amount. And thus did the five come together, prepared to endure great pain and sacrifice all dignity to support a very worthwhile cause and simultaneously try to point out that, darn it all, some of our SF/F are just ridiculously sexist, you know?

I’d like to thank ConFusion for hosting our photoshoot and reveal, the other authors for being such wonderful fun and good sports, and Al for donating his time and expertise.

And now, my good internet, ARE YOU READY?

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A Thank You from the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation

Hey, what’s this? Why, it looks like a BBC article about the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation fundraiser and sexism in SF/F cover art. Now, at a time like this, there are two choices. You can squee and dance around like a little kid because holy crap, a major news outlet is recognizing your fundraiser and contributing to an important conversation! Or you can play it cool.

If you need me, I’ll be Snoopy-dancing.

I haven’t quite completed all of the poses for the fundraiser yet. I had hoped to have everything done except the group pose (which we’ll be doing this weekend), but then I got caught up reading bad fiction for a different fundraiser.

However, I wanted to share this thank you from the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation to everyone who donated or helped to spread the word. Speaking for myself, the $15,000+ we raised greatly exceeded my best expectations.

What follows is the message I received from Al Meo of the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation:

For the past 22 years, the ASF has been funded through private donations and individual fundraising efforts such as yours.  Our board of directors and those involved with the foundation do so on a voluntary basis, no one  is paid…so all contributions we receive are used to benefit our girls and their families.

We want to express our sincere appreciation to your followers and all those who contributed to your fundraising event for their kindness and support.  Their extreme generosity helps us to continue our work in providing medical/adaptive equipment for girls in need as well as funding an educational and supportive conference for families. We also contribute to ongoing Aicardi Syndrome research and will soon be funding a new collaborative project which we hope will be successful in answering our many questions about this devastating syndrome. It is always our wish to find the cause of Aicardi Syndrome and to improve  quality of life for our girls.

From all of us at The Aicardi Syndrome Foundation, thanks for making a difference! We wish you all a very happy and healthy 2013!

Thank you all so much from me, as well.

And as I head off to ConFusion, I’ll leave you with one more cover pose…

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2012 Writing Income

Ever since 2007, I’ve been doing my best to talk openly about my income as an author. It’s occasionally awkward, but I also believe it’s helpful to new and aspiring writers. If nothing else, it lets me play Mythbuster with the fairy tale that writers are all fabulously wealthy with their own built-in laser tag arena and fleet of customized DeLoreans…

My income posts from previous years are here: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.

2012 was an odd year. In many ways, it’s the best year I’ve ever had as an author. My eighth book with DAW came out in hardcover, and went through four printings in the first few months. I won a Hugo award. I saw some of my books come out in audio format for the first time ever. The goblin books were re-released as a trade paperback omnibus, and also sold to the Science Fiction Book Club.

So it was a little weird at first to realize that I made significantly less money in 2012 than I did in the prior year. The grand total for 2012 was $33,598.19 before expenses and taxes and all the rest. Compare that to almost $43,000 from 2011.

I figured the reason for the drop was pretty straightforward: I didn’t sell any new books to my U.S. publisher last year. The deal for Libriomancer and Codex Born was made in 2011, and while I have ideas for book three in the series, I haven’t pitched it yet. So while 2012 saw some money for delivering the final manuscript for Libriomancer and the on-publication payment, it wasn’t as much as the on-signing advance for those two books last year.

At least, that’s what I had assumed … and then I started looking at the numbers more closely. Thanks to royalties and subrights sales (audio and SFBC), my U.S. novels actually made more than they did last year. Turns out it was the foreign sales that saw the real drop, and I’m not sure why.

The income from my self-published titles jumped a bit, probably in part because I put another collection out midway through the year. I didn’t write or sell much short fiction last year, which is part of why the miscellaneous income (from speaking fees, a few nonfiction pieces, and reprint sales) is the smallest category.

  • Novels (U.S.): $25,800
  • Novels (Foreign): $5,020
  • Self-Published: $1,950
  • Miscellaneous: $820

I’m still sorting out expenses for the year, but it looks like that’s going to come in around $2000 or so, mostly for conventions. That’s been fairly steady for several years now. I actually made it to a few more conventions, and did a little more traveling last year, but several of those were Guest of Honor gigs, which helped balance things out.

The other interesting thing (to me) is how erratic the checks were. I made a total of $115 in the month of January, but February was an awesome month, with more than $6000 showing up in the mail. March and April went the same way. The fact that I have a full time day job means I’ve got a steady income I can count on for most of our day-to-day needs, but if I’m ever able to go full time as a writer, I’m going to have to be a lot more careful about budgeting for the long term.

That was my 2012. Please remember I’m just one author, and you can’t make sweeping generalizations from a sample size of one. But I hope the information is useful, and as always, I’m happy to answer any questions.

The Hobbit vs. The Goblins

We saw The Hobbit on New Year’s Day, and overall, I enjoyed it. It did feel occasionally bloated, but there were other additions I appreciated and enjoyed. “Riddles in the Dark” was, as many have said already, one of the best parts of the film. While I don’t think it was as strong as Lord of the Rings, that would be a pretty high bar to reach.

That said, the movie did have some problems. I have no taste for fat jokes, which felt like pretty much all they did with the character of Bombur. The stone giants seemed completely random and unnecessary to the story. But my biggest complaint, which will probably come as no surprise, was the way the story treated the goblins.

In Lord of the Rings, our heroes slaughtered an awful lot of orcs. Orcs were the stormtroopers of Middle Earth, generic villains who could be killed with little to no remorse, because they’re all Evil. On the other hand, Lord of the Rings took place in a time of war. The orcs we saw were generally soldiers sent out to hunt and kill humans and other races. The Uruk-hai were specifically created to be evil killing machines.

But then we get to The Hobbit. The dwarves take shelter in a cave, and find themselves tumbling into the goblin kingdom under the mountain. They’re taken prisoner and brought to the goblin king, and oversized and grotesque creature. The dwarves, with Gandalf’s help, eventually break free and fight their way out. In the process, they pretty much Kill All The Goblins.

This scene drags on and on. Goblins are smashed with rocks, stabbed with swords, chopped with axes, knocked into the abyss, and generally massacred left and right.

As a mental exercise, how do you think a party of goblins would have been treated had they stumbled into a dwarf kingdom? They’d have been taken prisoner, hauled in front of the authorities, and probably sentenced to death for the crime of being goblins. How is what the goblins did any different? Yet we’re supposed to sympathize and cheer as the heroes kill every goblin they come across?

Exercise the second: remember toward the beginning of the movie, when they’re talking about how most of these dwarves aren’t really warriors? Yet they killed all of those goblins without a single casualty. What does that tell you about the goblins they were fighting? Those goblins weren’t trained or experienced fighters. They couldn’t have been. Most of them were probably just minding their own business and got caught up in the chaos.

Yeah, I have a soft spot for goblins, but this was just thoughtless storytelling. It felt almost pornographic in a way. Instead of Debbie Does Dallas, we get Gandalf Guts Goblins.

I can appreciate a good fight scene. This wasn’t one. This was empty hack and slash, and I want better.

Reading my Very First Story, IN COSTUME, for Jay Lake

Most of you know the background. Author Jay Lake has been fighting colon cancer for four years, and he’s running out of treatment options. Catherine Shaffer and Mary Robinette Kowal put together a fundraiser to try to pay for whole genome sequencing for Jay, which might suggest other ways of attacking the cancer. They rallied various people from the SF/F community to perform various “acts of whimsy” as rewards for meeting fundraising goals.

I volunteered to read excerpts from the very first story I ever wrote, a 50,000 word piece of Dungeons & Dragons-inspired sword & sorcery, starring Nakor the Purple, a character I totally-didn’t-rip-off-from-Raymond-Feist. Not only that, but I would read this IN COSTUME as Nakor. You see, back in college, our D&D group put together Halloween costumes of our characters, and it was awesome. Because that’s how we rolled back in 1995.

Sadly, I no longer have the prosthetic elf ears, and I couldn’t get the sword to stay on when I sat down to read. I also think I looked better in this costume back when I had long hair. But ah well–any excuse to wear a cloak!

I won’t lie to you. The story is pretty bad. I’m tempted to make a drinking game. “For every unnecessary adverb, take a drink. Every time a character raises an eyebrow, take a drink. Every time the villains sit around waiting for the heroes to do something, take a drink.”

The first time I went to record, our dog Casey heroically tried to save you from having to watch. And then, after waiting three hours for the video to upload,  YouTube deleted it because I had a setting configured wrong. But as you know, you can’t stop the signal, and I eventually got 42 minutes of bad fantasy uploaded for all the world to see.

For everyone who believes the myth that professional authors were just born knowing how to write, I offer you the following proof that you could not be more wrong…

Jay’s fundraiser runs through the end of the month, and while they’ve already raised enough for the genetic sequencing, four years of cancer leads to some serious medical expenses, even with insurance. Click on over, check out the other acts of whimsy, and consider donating.

I guess I can’t stall anymore. I present to you now, Jim C. Hines reading the first chapter, a scene from the middle, and the climactic battle from his very first story.

And please remember. I got better!

If the embedding doesn’t work, click through to YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFbHgpH9bf0

Other Fundraiser Awesomeness

I know I spent most of last month pushing the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation Fundraiser, but there are two other fundraisers going on right now that I wanted to draw attention to, if only so you’ll understand why I’m going to be on YouTube in a purple cloak reading really bad fantasy…

1. Pat Rothfuss’ Worldbuilders fundraiser. Pat is a fundraising machine, and every year puts together an outrageous number of prizes and rewards for Heifer International. Heifer helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation, promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world. One of his latest posts listed “Geekery for Gamers” rewards, including the chance to play True Dungeon at GenCon with Pat, myself, Mary Robinette Kowal, and a few other awesome people to be named later. It’s possible there may be some signed copies of Libriomancer showing up in the rewards pile soon, too…

2. Sequence Jay Lake’s Cancer. Jay is an award-winning SF/F author who has been battling cancer for more than four years now. He’s running out of treatment options. One possibility is to genetically sequence his tumor to see if that suggests other possible ways to fight back. Unfortunately, the cost is between $10K and $20K. So Catherine Shaffer and Mary Kowal decided to do a rather creative fundraiser, and persuaded various SF/F folks to do whimsical things at different reward levels.

They raised more than $20K in the first 6 hours. For my act of whimsy, which was the $6000 goal, I’ll be reading from my very first–and very bad–novel, a 50,000 word story about my D&D character Nakor the Purple. And I’ll be doing it IN COSTUME AS NAKOR! I warn you now that it will be painful, so when I post the video online, please remember that nobody’s making you watch, and if you choose to watch, you can’t hold me responsible for the consequences.

Catherine and Mary are adding more goals, and any additional money raised will go to help Jay’s other medical expenses.

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While the SF/F community isn’t perfect, and we certainly have our problems, sometimes we are pretty damn awesome.

ConFusion Schedule

I have my tentative schedule for ConFusion next weekend:

  • Friday 7:00:00 PM Inclusion in an Expanding Fandom
  • Saturday 10:00:00 AM Author D&D
  • Saturday 3:00:00 PM Aicardi Syndrome Foundation Fundraiser: Group Cover Pose Unveiling
  • Saturday 4:00:00 PM Lady Voldemort
  • Saturday 5:00:00 PM Mass Autograph Session
  • Sunday 10:00:00 AM Reading: Jim C. Hines & Diana Rowland
  • Sunday 12:00:00 PM Dumb Questions

I may also be participating in a skit on Saturday night, which should be fun.

I’m excited about a lot of the programming this time. The inclusion in fandom panel is something I feel strongly about, and I love that we’ll be starting off the convention with a conversation about how to make the experience more inclusive. Because it’s nice that conventions are comfortable for me as a straight white male author, but it would be even nicer if we could work harder to make them comfortable for everyone.

The Saturday Group Cover Pose panel will be the unveiling of the collaborative efforts of myself, John Scalzi, Mary Kowal, Pat Rothfuss, and Charlie Stross, photographed by the wonderful Al Bogdan. Please note that the actual photoshoot will not be public. (I’m told there had been some questions about this.) My plan is to talk about Aicardi Syndrome and the fundraiser, about sexism in book covers and the genre, and then reveal the AWESOMENESS of our group cover. There may also be something special to auction or raffle off at the end of the panel 😉

Then there’s the Lady Voldemort panel, which started from a question I posed online. On Twitter, I think. I asked how the Harry Potter series would have been different had Voldemort been female. And not just Harry Potter, but how does gender affect the way we write villains in general? How would the evil and horror of Sauron have been different? How did the White Witch being female affect the way she came across in the first Narnia book? It led to a fascinating discussion online, and I expect the panel to be equally good.

And then there’s author D&D and reading with Diana and talking about dumb questions and seeing a ridiculous number of my friends and fellow authors.

Yeah, I’m looking forward to this con!

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