Goodreads
I’ve just discovered Goodreads, the website much beloved by fellow book-nerds everywhere. It’s bloody fantastic, and I’ve even added myself to the website as an author (chiefly for Gravesend, but it has also linked to a bunch of anthologies that my stories have been in, that sort of thing). A very cool way of keeping track of the To-Be-Read pile, show your reading progress, and post brief reviews and ratings of books that you’ve read. I’m an instant convert! While I signed up for this as an author-promotional tool, I got a feeling I will be posting and reviewing and rating books just as much as anyone else. The reviewing mechanism seems to be a lot more reliable and honest than the classic “1 or 5” scoring system on Amazon.
This is me: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2847548.Jason_Fischer
Why yes, I have been living under a rock 🙂 Feel free to add me or what-have-you.
The Great Book Cull of 2010
Partially motivated by Toddler Fisch’s habit of destroying books that he can reach, I’ve undergone my second big book cull, hoping to move everything onto the one bookcase that he can’t get to. Now, I will admit to being a shocking book hoarder. At one stage, I hadn’t thrown out a single book in about 10 years, and I’d been heavily reviewing novels and magazines for all and sundry, as well as buying books quicker than I could read them. It’s not quite so respectable as the book hoardings of others, but with no special effort I filled up two tall bookcases, with plenty of overflow, and boxes full of books in the shed.
Someone whose name escapes me once mentioned the desire to completely declutter, and get their book collection below 300. In total. Including their own publications, and books published by friends, non-fiction books etc. At one stage this figure filled me with dread – how could I bear to part with everything I’d collected? Whole series of stuff, gifts from writer friends, collections that You Just Gotta Read, and a growing list of Aussie short SF. I’ve got every issue of Andromeda Spaceways, most of the Aurealis magazines (from their 20 year history), and all sorts of miscelleanous goodies I’ve picked up during my interest in genre fiction.
And now I’m writing fiction myself, and one little cube of our Ikea shelf thing is completely filled with anthologies, magazines, comics and other writings that I’ve put into print. Another section is filled with local anthologies, books written by friends, various how-to guides, and all of the writing ephemera that most folks seem to gather.
But I’ve nearly done it. At a quick guess, I’d now be around the 300 mark, in toto. I did cull my collection once (about a year ago) but I was brutally ruthless this time, hauling stuff out like I was in Fahrenheit 451 (a book I am keeping, BTW). “Am I EVER going to read this again?” I asked myself. “Is there ANY value to keeping this book, or am I just collecting these, Pokemon style?”
So now, I’m down to some classics, some stuff that was really hard to get hold of, a few authors who I’ve collected diligently, signed copies of stuff, my own books, the local gear that I think is worth keeping for reference, books written by friends, and a few other bits and pieces I couldn’t make a decision on. There’s a small pile of stuff I’m going to re-read once, and then dispose of.
The one point I’ve been wavering on is my Dennis Wheatley collection. It’s…truly awful stuff. He would never get published now, and the writing is definitely dated. It’s a bit like McDonalds for the mind, and I have collected just about everything he ever did. Some 1st editions, some with the original lurid dust-jackets. And he wrote 3-4 books a year, and lived to be 90 or whatever. That’s a lot of dead tree. But I have made up my mind…tonight, the Wheatley stuff is GONE. I’m not likely to read it again. I will keep the Roger Brooke series, because it’s full of Napoleonic goodness, but that is my sole concession to the jettison of junk.
Gotta get me an e-reader 🙂
EDIT: Holy smokes. Apparently some of these first edition Dennis Wheatley books are worth quite a lot of moolah! Must investigate.
The top result is in perfect condition, with a signed letter from the author – asking price about $400. Mine isn’t in perfect nick but it’s still got the dust-jacket and everything. Hmm.
For the person who has everything…
STEAMPUNK LAPTOP!
Which is started by a chunky old key. I would be all over this like a cheap suit.
Midnight Echo #6 – the goings on, and a wee serving of angst.
Hey folks,
We’ve had a few hiccups this end, but it’s all under control again. We lost our executive director, and between that and real life interrupting all three of the issue #6 co-editors, the wheels of Midnight Echo did fall off somewhat. Nevermind, we are back on track! All the slush has been read and responded to, and if you haven’t got a rejection letter from me today it means that you are in the 2nd round of reading, congratulations!
There were some great pieces in the slush, and some less-than-great, but one of the things that I noticed were over 3/4 of our slush didn’t comply with standard manuscript format. Many markets have subtle differences in how they want submissions laid out, but if you comply with Shunn’s template (found here: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html) you will be okay 90% of the time.
I’m also stunned that several authors quite clearly didn’t read the guidelines, with several stories not even qualifying as speculative fiction. If you can’t be bothered to check out what a market is actually looking for, it tells me that you’ve probably bombarded several markets at once, knowing nothing more than the editor’s email address. It’s…not exactly professional. Always ALWAYS read the submission guidelines. It will take 1 minute of your time, and vastly improve your chances of finding a home for your tale. If in doubt, try using duotrope.com which categorises open markets by genre and payment – submit smarter for success, and such.
Lastly….female authors are currently accounting for 26% of our total submissions. I’ve put out the call to folks through several mediums/forums, sent some emails around personally soliciting work, and I really don’t know what else to do. If you wonder why a lot of genre magazines seem to publish 75% male authors in the average Table of Contents, THAT’S bloody why (or at least one reason why – I’m sure that in Chauvinism HQ other editors are puffing on stogies and laughing as they shred women’s stories holus bolus, or whatever it is they do in there). I personally am trying to do the right thing by everyone, and it’s a little frustrating. Remember, if we don’t see it, how are we meant to buy it 🙂 all I can do here is reiterate my wish to see our final TOC be a little more inclusive, and representative of the writing community as a whole. If I didn’t give a shit, I wouldn’t mention it, grumble mumble, gnashing of teeth…
Closing date is 31st Jan, and guidelines can be read here: http://www.australianhorror.com/index.php?view=144