Thursday Updates

::Waves to the new readers::  Welcome, and please feel free to say hi and introduce yourselves.  Or not, if you prefer.  It’s all good.

1. So, remember that goblins vs. zombies idea I was working on for an anthology invite?  I’m happy to announce that both editors liked “The Blue Corpse Corps.”  I’ll post details of the sale as soon as the contracts arrive.

2a. My thanks to everyone who’s commented or e-mailed about Tuesday’s post on sexual harassment.  I’m hoping to post a follow-up early next week with resources for reporting this behavior for those who choose to do so.  So far, I’ve heard from Baen, Tor, and DAW, all of whom state that this sort of harassment is unacceptable, and they would want to know if one of their editors or other employees was behaving in this way.  I’m working to get info from other publishers as well.

2b. I’ve also been contacted by convention committee members from several cons.  Based on those e-mails, I’m thinking it would also be helpful to write up a bit about convention sexual harassment policies.

3. Goblin Quest miniatures are on sale!  Garden Ninja Studios is running a sale through Christmas, knocking down the prices for their custom miniatures.  Because everyone wants goblins for Christmas, right?

4. I’ll be in Ann Arbor this Sunday from 2-4 at a group signing at B&N.  Details on my web site.

5. Finally, and apropos of nothing, cake is good.  Except when people ruin it with coconut.  Why would anyone do that to a poor, helpless, delicious cake?

Editorial Boob

ETA: Based on suggestions in the comments, I will be contacting the major publishers to try to find out who to contact if you’ve experienced this sort of harassment from one of their employees.  I will publish that information as soon as I can.

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Yesterday I posted about the good that was WFC.  Today I wanted to talk about some of the bad and the ugly.

Over the course of the convention, I ended up talking to several different women about a particular editor from one of the major publishing houses.  Each one of these women, all of whom are writers, described how this editor would ogle their chests, give uninvited massages, or explicitly compliment them on their breasts.

The more I heard these stories and thought about them, the angrier I got.  Bad enough when a random creep at a con puts his hands on you without permission, or sits there leering at you.  What do you do, as a writer, when it’s an editor?  Someone who might be able to give you your big break, but could also ruin you, at least at this particular house?

(Gosh, it’s a good thing there’s no sexism in SF/F anymore, eh?)

And what do I do?  I didn’t witness this behavior first-hand.  Oh no, this guy was always perfectly civil around me.  Nor do I feel comfortable telling other people’s stories for them.  Meaning … what?  I just write a vague post about editors who sexually harass writers?

So far, only a few other options have come to mind.

1. I can point out the back up project.  The project does make a good point that, “it is unlikely that a woman who is already being followed around a con hotel by a strange guy will feel as comfortable asking another strange guy to walk with her to her car as she would asking another woman.”  But if you feel comfortable asking me for backup, I’ll say yes.  And if I see this behavior, I’ll do my best to challenge it.  (Hey, he’s not my editor.  The dude has zero power over me…)

2. I can point out that he has little real power over anyone else, either.  Editors are not as powerful as they think.  The truth is, if you’re a good writer, this guy isn’t your only option.  There are other editors looking for good books.  And ultimately, if your writing isn’t ready yet, then it doesn’t matter how much he looks and/or touches you; he’s not going to buy a book from you.  Either way, this individual has no actual power over you.

3. I can point out that you’re not alone.  I know sometimes this sort of thing can make you feel alone, but if you’ve been harassed by some guy at a con or elsewhere, I guarantee you’re not the only one he’s done it to.

I suspect this sort of thing is often overlooked because people tell themselves it’s not that bad.

I think it’s bad enough.  It’s an unforgivable abuse of one’s position as editor.  It’s an inexcusable way to behave toward others.  And it’s not something that anyone should have to put up with.

Thoughts and discussion are welcome, as always.

WFC 2010

I never know how to write up a con.  The long list of names is rather dry, and I obsess over whether or not I forgot someone.  A detailed blow-by-blow is a bit much for anyone who didn’t attend.  I could do a photo album, but that’s a lot for a blog post.  (I’ve posted pics on Facebook in the WFC album. A few are also up on Twitpic.)  So maybe I’ll just do a highlights reel.

Free book haul: Awesome.

Agents and Editors: Getting to meet Eddie and Jessie from JABberwocky?  Awesome.  Jessie came bearing contracts from France and a fan letter from Germany, which pushed the awesome up to eleven.

And I finally to meet Sheila Gilbert and Betsy Wolheim from DAW.  I spent many enjoyable hours with them and the rest of the DAW family, and oh yes, they spoiled me rotten 🙂

My Reading: I headed over about 15 minutes early and waited in the hallway, and all of these people kept showing up to wait with us.  After a while, I finally asked, “How many of you are here for my reading?”  I figured maybe Esther Friesner was doing a panel, or some other big name had something going on opposite my reading.

Everyone raised their hands.  We filled the freaking room!

And this was before everyone finished filtering in.  At the risk of overusing the word, it was indeed awesome.  My thanks to everyone who showed up!

Barcon: The bar frightened me.  So many authors and editors and agents and others packed together, spilling out into the passages…  I strayed into the edges of the bar scene once or twice, then fled screaming, the introversion circuits of my brain popping and sparking like a Mythbusters 4th of July experiment.

Avoiding Barcon: So I mostly dodged the bar and hung out elsewhere.  Had lovely lunches with Deanna Hoak and Marie Brennan.  Several nice chats with Laura Resnick.  Got to play a bit with the Buckell twins, who both gave me baby fistbumps before I left.  I loved these smaller conversations.

Mass Autographing: I missed most of the mass autographing, and I feel really bad about that.  The autographing was at 8:00.  But DAW had invited a few of us to dinner at 7:00, and the restaurant had lost the reservation, so it took 15-20 minutes just to get seated.  I apologize to anyone who was looking for me at the signing.  Please understand that I wanted to be there, and it’s all DAW’s fault.  They forced me to eat delicious lasagna.  I remember saying “Oh please stop giving me this wonderful chocolate and let us go to the signing“, but you know publishers…

The Voyage Home: All too soon, it was Sunday, time for Catherine Shaffer and I to head back so I could get home in time for Trick or Treating.  We were both exhausted, and had a very giggly drive in which we discussed everything from obscene puppetry to certain people’s plans to save the world to the fact that Doselle Young is an alien.  To thank me for driving, she treated me to White Castle.

Yeah.  Next time she can just walk 😛

This was a very different experience from my last WFC in 2002.  I actually knew people this time, and was known by even more, which is still a little disconcerting. I got to meet and talk to so many wonderful people.  Even though I’m completely exhausted, I wish I had been able to stay longer so I could have spent more time with everyone.

But hey, WFC in Toronto is just two years away….

Moon v. Wiscon Follow-up

I’m still sorting through my feelings on Wiscon rescinding Elizabeth Moon’s Guest of Honor invitation.

It’s not the first time something like this has happened.  William Sanders’ GoH invitation to ICFA in 2008 was rescinded after his “sheet head” rejection letter, for example.  (Thanks to Nick Mamatas for that historical pointer.)

Basically, I think the situation sucks.  There’s been a great deal of conflict among the Wiscon decision-makers, among those who attend and love the con, among SF/F fandom in general, and among the wankers who aren’t involved/informed in any way but still want to wave their opinions about.

As far as I’ve seen, the only public follow-up Moon has given since her initial post was in this 10/23 piece for a Texas newspaper: Texas Author Uninvited as Convention Guest of Honor Over Remarks on Islam.

I don’t believe Moon is the devil incarnate.  I do believe she screwed up, and based on the follow-up, I don’t get the sense that she understands why people were upset by her words.

Was this the right call on Wiscon’s part?  There was going to be backlash either way, and no answer would make everyone happy.  In my opinion, their obligation was not to try to make everyone happy, but to first and foremost do what was best for Wiscon and its mission.

Some people I greatly respect have expressed their discomfort and disagreement with Wiscon’s decision.  Others I greatly respect have expressed approval.  I’m trying to weigh both as I refine my own conclusions.

But as I continue to read responses to Wiscon’s decision, I’ve given myself permission to ignore certain voices.  Specifically…

  • If you use any of the following terms, I’m not going to bother reading further: feminazi, PC Police, FAIL Fandom, fascist, jihadist, thought police.  (I reserve the right to add to this list.)
  • If you describe a decision which came after roughly six weeks of intense internal and external debate as “knee jerk,” I’m not going to bother reading further.
  • If you dismiss everyone who disagreed with Moon’s post as mean old PC bullies/cowards, I’m not going to bother reading further.
  • If you equate the decision to rescind an invitation to be Guest of Honor with burning Moon’s books/burning Moon in effigy, I’m not going to bother reading further.
  • If you label everyone who questions Wiscon’s decision “disgusting bigots,” I’m not going to bother reading further.

It’s not about tone.  It’s because those responses tell me you’re not interested in participating in a discussion, or even in understanding the discussion.  It’s because, like Saladin Ahmed said, not every conversation is worth having.  And it’s because there just aren’t enough sporks.

World Fantasy Con

I’m off to World Fantasy Con this weekend.  This will be my first WFC since 2002, and I imagine it will be a very different experience this time around.  The best change isn’t that I’ve gone from bookless unknown to six-book goblin king (though that’s pretty cool too); the best part is that I’ve met so many wonderful people in the past eight years, and I’m really looking forward to seeing/meeting some of them in person.

I should warn you, though — I suck at names and faces.  If I take a second to stare at your badge, I’m not trying to decide whether or not you’re worth my time or anything like that.  I’m just trying to kick-start my brain and avoid making an ass of myself.  And if I only know you through your LiveJournal handle, please help me make that connection.  My brain cells thank you in advance.

The full program is available here.  My schedule is fairly short, and looks like so:

Thursday, 8:30 p.m.
Reading in Room 208
I’m planning to read/perform “The Creature in Your Neighborhood,” my muppet werewolf story from Strip Mauled.  It should be fun 🙂

Friday, 8:00 p.m. to whenever
Mass Autographing in the Regency Ballroom

Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Group booksigning at the OSU Bookstore
This is open to the public, and will feature thirty authors from the con.  Oh yes, you want to be there.  The Facebook event page with the full author listing is here.

I’ve also got meetings and meals scheduled with my editor, my publisher, and one of the agents from JABberwocky, which all feels so professional and businesslike.

I’ll be using ShinyNewPhone to try to post updates and pics on Twitter.

And that’s about it.  Looking forward to seeing and meeting people!

E-book Experiment: Week One

Last week, I announced my little experiment, putting my mainstream novel Goldfish Dreams [B&N | Amazon] up for sale as a $2.99, DRM-free e-book.

Amazon was much quicker than B&N to get things uploaded and processed, but the book is now available on both sites.  (And to B&N’s credit, they were able to recognize and link the e-book to the print edition, which Amazon failed to do.)

The sales results after release week?

Amazon: 10 copies sold
B&N: 2 copies sold

Both Amazon and B&N pay roughly $2 royalties per copy, which means I made about $24 that first week.  Really, that’s not too bad — it’s more than I was making when the book was on Fictionwise, where it was priced at about seven bucks.

6 of those sales were from the first day, when I blogged about the book being available on Kindle.  To see how blog hits translate into sales, that post was viewed 3198 times on LJ according to their stats site, with probably a few hundred additional hits from my site, RSS feeds, and Dreamwidth.  A few people also Tweeted about it.

Several folks commented that they’d love to read the book, but either didn’t do e-books or else didn’t like the formats available through Amazon and B&N. 

Over the past week, I spent about an hour updating product info on Amazon and B&N.  I also updated my LJ profile with a link to the book and started doing the same on my web site, but haven’t finished that yet.  Nor have I had time to check into other stores/sales outlets for the book.  This underlined a problem I was anticipating: namely, I don’t know that I have the time to effectively do the self-publishing thing.

I could have spent more time working to promote and sell Goldfish Dreams.  Instead, I finished the first draft of my goblin zombie story.  With limited writing time and two other anthology invites sitting on my desk, not to mention (hopefully) a forthcoming deal for the new series … I just don’t have time to be my own sales force.

The question then becomes, what happens when I sit back and concentrate on the writing?  I will get the site updated, but once I do, will the book sell without my help?  Even a few copies a week could add up to several hundred bucks a year.  Or will it become one of the many forgotten books on Amazon with a sales rank in the three millions?

I have no idea.  I’ll check back in about a month from now to see how things are going.

Winners and Lego

I’m a little late drawing winners for the Huff and Brennan giveaways.  Sorry about that!  It was the first thing I did this morning.  Okay, the second if you count heating up some leftover French toast.  Third if you include feeding the animals, but if I didn’t do that the cats would still be yowling at me.  And technically, I also–

Oh, never mind.  Congratulations to ambyr, who won A Star Shall Fall, and bkwrrm_tx, who’ll be getting The Enchantment Emporium.  (Winners picked by Random.org from everyone who entered on the various comment threads.)

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I really liked this build when I first saw it a week or so back.  Flickr user pirate_cat built the rescue of the Chilean miners out of LEGO.

Click the picture for the full set.

First Book Friday: Martha Wells

Welcome to First Book Friday. You know the drill…

Today we have Martha Wells (marthawells on LJ), who has the coolest writing routine ever.  From a 2009 interview, “I write full time now, so I pretty much just get up in the morning, surf a little bit, and then start writing.”  All that’s left is to combine the two activities … which would make an awesome author photo!

She’s written both original work and Stargate tie-ins, but today she shares the story of her very first novel.  As a special bonus, Martha has posted that first book online for free at her web site.

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I wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember. Even back in grade school, while writing and illustrating stories about the Godzilla movies on Saturday afternoon TV and drawing elaborate maps of Monster Island, I wanted to do this thing, before I really understood what this thing was.

I started to write and submit short stories in college.  My parents never knew, but I chose Texas A&M University solely because it was listed in a directory of active SF/F fan groups in Starlog Magazine, and it had a student-run convention.  I took a writing workshop class taught by Steven Gould through the university’s Free U, which offered classes in everything from conversational Japanese to bowling.  Over the next eight years, I went to more workshops, including Turkey City, where Bruce Sterling gave me some of the best advice on what worked and what didn’t work that I’ve ever heard anybody give.  I got even more into fandom, I went to SF cons and helped run them, I wrote fanfiction for fun.  Eventually I was in a writers group with Steven Gould, Laura Mixon, and Rory Harper that met regularly.  I continued to write and submit short stories to magazines, and did not sell one single one.

Somewhere along the way, I’d had my imagination captured and held by Richard Lester’s Three Musketeers movies and the dirty, gritty, vividly alive image of 17th century Paris.  I read Alexandre Dumas, watched the PBS/BBC series By the Sword Divided.  I started to write a fantasy novel, The Element of Fire [B&N |  Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon], and I based my world on 17th century France, but with magic and with fairy as a real every day threat.  Nobody in my writers group, possibly in the world, thought I’d finish it, but I’d been working up to this book for years.  It wrote it slowly, during breaks at my first full-time job in computer support.  In the evening and on weekends, I edited print-outs and hand wrote new material, because I didn’t have a home computer.

About midway through the process, I got very lucky.  Steve Gould had been contacted by a relatively new agent actively seeking clients, and he gave the agent my number.  I talked to him on the phone, with very little idea of what I was supposed to ask or how things were going to work.  I sent him the first half of the book, and he agreed to represent it when it was finished.  It was kind of a shock.  (If that sounds easy, I made up for it sixteen years later when I left him and went looking for a new agent.  That’s a long, fraught story for another time.)

Finally I finished the book, and my agent submitted it to a publisher who originally showed some interest, but then turned it down.  Then he submitted it to Tor, and incredibly, amazingly, they bought it for $3000, more money than I had made in my life at any one time.  It took two more years of contract wrangling and two revisions before the book was actually published in hardcover in 1993.

Since then I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but I’m doing this thing I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s the best thing ever.

Thoughts from a PC Parrot

I told myself I wasn’t going to respond to the Apex blog post Plucking the PC Parrots in the Genre World.  Apparently I lied.

I’m not going to rehash a conversation I’ve already had with the author, but a few points kept bugging me and demanding blog time.

Bondoni opens with an anecdote about an American Fortune 50 executive who smugly described hiring an unqualified black woman to meet their quota.

The veracity of this story was challenged in the comments.  Personally, I don’t care.  Anecdote =/= data.  But Bondoni uses this as a lead-in to what he calls ToC Fail, “the PC crowd’s latest insanity,” where people complained about “The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF” having only white male contributors.

I’m  missing the connection to his anecdote, since not one person in that 200+ comment thread suggested quotas.  Nobody in any of the responses I read was advocating for quotas.

My Recommendation: Read what people are actually asking for, and stop derailing discussion by complaining about imaginary quotas.

“Of course, maybe [the editor] was a chauvinist pig. Maybe he went through the stories and systematically removed all of those with a female byline, and anything by Tiptree as well. But … I believe the editor simply chose the best stories he could.  And this is exactly the way it should be. The best stories and ONLY the best stories should be included.”

Underlying Assumption: If discrimination isn’t conscious and deliberate, it doesn’t count.

Bonus Assumption: This all-white-male ToC actually represents the best stories.

“It seems to me that we’re still trying to fight a battle that was won years ago.”  Bondoni states this more explicitly in the comments: “There is no misogyny in SF/F/H, and no racism, other than that nebulous ‘implied’ mysogyny and racism that we’re all so angsty about.”

Methinks that last sentence should read, “I’ve chosen not to see/acknowledge misogyny in SF/F/H, or racism…”  Off the top of my head, without even touching things like Moon v. Wiscon or Racefail:

Bonus Data Point:Bondoni refers to this article, which found that 85% of publishing employees (with 3 years experience or less) were female.  I clicked through to the posted data, which also looked at executive information/salaries.  In this “female-dominated” industry, 12 of the 14 publishing executives listed (that would be roughly 85%, right?) appear to be men.  But women own the bottom of the totem pole, so it’s all good.

I’m not interested in arguing with Bondoni or in bashing him.  I’ve done the former, and I suspect the latter would only reinforce his belief that the “PC Zombies” are out to have dissenters “crucified, tarred, feathered and, if possible, impaled.”

Bored now, and done.  This zombie parrot has a goblin story to finish…

Midlist Bestseller

Reminder – tomorrow is the last day to enter to win books by Tanya Huff and Marie Brennan!

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Joshua (my agent) e-mailed me after Monday’s blog post to tell me I should really stop calling myself a midlist author.  Personally, I’d rather call myself Segway Ninja and Tribble Juggler Jim C. Hines.  But his e-mail got me thinking, and I realized I don’t even know what “midlist” means.

My future author photo, complete with Ninja Death TribblesOh, I know the term originates from publishers’ catalogs.  The Big Names are there at the front of the list.  Older and poorly-performing books get tucked away in back.  The rest get tossed somewhere in the middle of the list, ergo midlist.

Years ago, I remember Elizabeth Bear commenting that to be a midlist author, you have to have five books in print.  This isn’t an official Law of Publishing or anything, but it stuck with me.  Getting my fifth book into print was a nice little milestone.

But am I a midlist author now?  I have six books in print, so maybe I’m upper midlist?  Lower frontlist?

Joshua said my sales continue to improve and my backlist is selling well, and these things propel me past midlist status.  Maybe I should start calling myself a Future Frontlist Author?

It was also pointed out that, at certain publishers which will remain anonymous, the fact that I’ve made the Locus bestseller list with my past four books would get me billed not as a midlister, but as National Bestselling Author Jim C. Hines.

Pardon me while I choke on my Diet Cherry Pepsi.

I know this much: I’m not about to start slapping “Bestselling Author” onto my business cards.  While technically true, it feels deceptive.  Like certain self-published authors who make it into the top 10 of some obscure Amazon subcategory and immediately dub themselves “Bestselling Author Spock T. Pizzatrousers” or whatever.

In some ways, this is pointless navel-gazing.  Who cares what I call myself, as long as I keep writing, selling, and enjoying it?  But the discussion brought something into focus: in certain respects,  midlist feels like a relative term, a comparison of your own success to that of other authors … and I have no clue where I fall on that continuum.

I know I’m not selling like Gaiman or Rowling or Harris, or any of those NYT Bestselling authors.  But that only tells me I’m not in the very top percentile.  Am I in the top ten percent?  Twenty?  At least in the upper half?

Again, in some respects, it doesn’t matter.  I’m not trying to compete with my peers (except maybe that Anton Strout fellow), and as long as DAW keeps buying my books, I’m happy.  But I feel like I’m in the dark here.  If I’m future-lower-front-and-slightly-off-center list, should I be pushing for larger advances or better/bigger deals?  How confident should I be in my long-term career?

It reminds me of karate.  In Sanchin-Ryu, I’ve never been told what the requirements are for any given rank.  I had to teach myself not to worry about it, and to just concentrate on improving.  Let my sensei decide when I’m ready for the next rank.  But then, I’m not trying to make a career out of Sanchin-Ryu…

What do you think midlist really means?  Who do you think of as midlist authors?  And for the published authors, am I the only one who feels clueless about how successful (or not) I really am?

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