The Confabulator Cafe

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  • Close Enough for Rock & Roll

    Eastman & Laird
    One little self-published comic book was the beginning of a startling cultural phenomenon.

    I have self-published music, comics and my writing. I am not wealthy as a result of it, but I am better for having made the attempts. These attempts were made with the best of intentions but with little heed for what was actually wrong with each of them. We had no producer for the music and I had no editor for the comics or writing. I thought I knew what was wrong at the time with all of it, and I was right.  But there was more.

    Everyone’s heard the stories of the writer who pens a wildly successful book, the band who’s basement-recorded album hits the top of the charts, the writer and artist whose parody concept spawned a revolution in comics. Amanda Hocking. Collective Soul. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

    These are the exceptions to the rule. These are the inspirations for people like me. (Well not Amanda Hocking in my case, sorry.) These are the cases that cause us to keep at it. If they can do it, so can I.

    I’ve been in a professional recording studio and in ones in the homes of other musicians, always looking to make the best product I could. One band was really successful at it though we didn’t do an actual release of the record. We got two songs played on local radio (one seemed to have a regular rotation for a month or so) and had some very, very good shows. Didn’t make a dime off the record, but hey we had the shows and the beer and nice following locally. I’ve documented my comics ‘career’ elsewhere and don’t need to rehash it other than to say that I got some positive reviews and made some great friends. My writing has also been self-published on my blog and via the wonderful folks over at The Penny Dreadful website.

    Each of these situations, projects – whatever you want to call them – creative efforts, would have greatly benefitted from a producer or editor to tell us what we weren’t able to discern for ourselves: they weren’t good enough.

    Everything that’s independently produced (art, music, writing, whatever) needs to have a professionally-trained, uninvolved set of eyes to give it a lookover. The Beatles had George Martin, early science fiction writers had John W. Campbell, comics have Karen Berger and Axel Alonso. Editors are important, make no mistake. (more…)

  • The satisfaction of the self

    Sometimes I call myself an unpublished writer, but that is not technically accurate. I had experienced the thrill of the acceptance letter, the brief realization that my writing was worth something to someone out there. Oh, yes. I was fourteen, and I had considered myself a writer for at least seven years. I kept long, glorious, passionate journals, wrote letters to Jesus, and Anne of Green Gables fan fiction. So the world was obviously ready for my peculiar genius to come into the spotlight. And those good people at poetry.com could see that, too, and they took a chance on me, and published one of my semi-rhymed verses in their venerable anthologies: Gondolas in the Moonlight, I think, or maybe Saltwater and Seaweed.

    Now, fourteen year old me was vain, and overwrought, and preachy. But even fourteen year old me was not stupid enough to believe my work was worth my $50, the price of the anthology. So, sadly, none of my family ever saw my immortal words preserved in leather-bound pages alongside two hundred and fifty other promising young poets.

    Poetry.com was my first (and, to date, only) experience with self-publishing, although I didn’t see it as such at the time. Later, I was able to laugh about it, only to find that several of my college friends published with that company as well, and some still labored under the hope that they were fine publishers.  That experience did make me wary of other self-publishing schemes, however. If I were to venture into more self-publishing, I would want it to be a decidedly anti-capitalist operation, and most of the current platforms appear to be steeped in capitalism.  Specifically, they appear to be operations designed to extract labor from writers while providing very few services to them or to the literary community, profiting only the company involved.

    That said, I have read some delightful self-published books, some that don’t have a large enough audience to fit into a traditional publishing house focus group.  The world of ‘zines is one of empowered self-publishing, intended to affirm one’s worth and communicate ideas directly without an intermediary.  These seem to be worthwhile enterprises, new possibilities that the digital age makes possible and cheap.  While I don’t anticipate self-publishing my novels in the near future, I think some of the current technologies may make the process less exploitative.  I have enjoyed some other authors’ efforts in this vein, and I support those who wish to blaze new pathways of possibility for both authors and readers.

  • Modern Thinking vs. an Antiquated Notion

    I’ve always thought of self-publication as a fallback option. My own plan has always been to pursue the traditional route of sending queries to agents and publication houses, and to only resort to self-publication as a last resort. As time goes by, however, I’m slowly coming to realize that my plan may be faulty. The problem with my reasoning comes down to answer two questions:

    • Agents and publishers provide something of value to the author. Are the services they provide worth the price of admission?
    • Have e-books and the internet changed the answer to the first question?

    Rather than answer these yes/no questions directly, I’d like to break them down into their components and discuss them in more detail.

    (more…)

  • Self-Publishing Is Not a Shortcut

    Many roads will get you there, but they're all up hill. Both ways. In the snow. Wear a coat and boots. Also pants.

    The publishing landscape has changed. The path to publication isn’t as clear as it used to be. In the past, there were two choices: traditional or vanity.

    Traditional publishing is every bit as difficult to break into as it used to be, possibly more so. Vanity publishing isn’t called that anymore, and has taken on a legitimacy that didn’t previously exist.

    But wait—a wealth of boutique publishers has cropped up, giving a more accessible option to authors. And e-publishing, whether through a digital publisher or as a DIY offers options that didn’t exist a few years ago.

    After a brief, frustrating trip down the agent-querying path, I took matters into my own hands. I submitted my novel to a digital-first publisher. They didn’t require an agent to submit to them. Now, you have to understand, I researched the hell out of them first. Their authors were publicly happy. Their marketing department was top notch, and their editors were highly qualified. They made me an offer, and every step so far has reinforced that I made the correct decision. It doesn’t hurt that Carina Press is an imprint of Harlequin. I got a boutique publisher feel with the backing of a traditional publisher.

    But we’re talking about self-publishing, not the other options out there.

    A lot of people are making a decent living by cutting out all the middlemen and putting their work out themselves for reasonable prices. A few have made themselves rich. But many more put their work out there and make few, if any, sales.

    I’ve read some self-published books. Some were good. Some were so poorly thought out and/or so badly edited that my eyes bled and my Kindle was in mortal danger of hitting the wall across the room.

    I think we all know what went wrong with those. I’m not going to lecture on quality here today. Even traditional publishers can put out poor quality from time to time. All I’m going to say is that if you’ve written a novel and you publish it yourself, for the love of the Red Pen of God, please get somebody qualified to at least look over it before you throw it out to the world.

    For me, the issue is more than the need to garner the approval of the “gatekeepers.” I am a writer. I want to write. I am not a cover artist. I am not an editor. I am not a marketer. I don’t want to spend time making a crappy cover, formatting my novel for a gazillion different platforms, and I don’t want to spam the entire Internet to get my name out there. While I’m happy to do what I can to market my work, I want a marketing department behind me.

    Self-publishing is not a shortcut. In fact, if it’s done properly, it’s more work than going a traditional route. So, no, I can’t bring myself to condemn it outright.

    But to the people out there half-assing it as a way to feed their own egos instead of giving people good stories:

    Quit trying to cheat the system. You’re making it difficult for the people who are doing it right.

  • Make Millions or Mistakes

    When I began my quest to become a published writer, I set myself the goal to have a novel published, available for purchase, within ten years. I gave myself ten years because I know I will have to work hard, suffer rejection and the inevitable bouts of crippling self doubt, but also because the book market is in flux. It’s changing. Traditional publishing is changing.

    People are actually self-publishing now. And actually making some money doing it.

    Just look at Amanda Hocking. Millions?

    So it is possible.

    But her story is probably the exception to the rule. I think to actually have success self-publishing, there is a lot more work involved than writing a book and putting it up for sale on Amazon.

    The biggest con of self-publishing is probably the lack of a brand. There is a huge stigma attached to those who put books out themselves instead of going through a big publishing house. There’s no guarantee for quality control. I think for self-publishing to be taken seriously, you need a reliable editor.

    That was my problem with Ms. Hocking. I read some of her early stuff, and now I am too jaded to read any of her newer stuff. It had potential, but really needed an editor. Her books were born too early, and as writers, it’s difficult to be objective about our own work.

    There are definite pros, though: money, of course. No middle man to take a cut. Although in the long run, if you count labor, publicity, and printing/production costs (if you’re not doing ebook), and time is money, you might actually be losing it trying to do it all yourself.

    Of course, the biggest pro is you don’t have to be validated by some pretentious publishing house, or wait a year or more for contracts and book covers and all of that to be approved. You can just do it.

    So, if I near the end of my 10 years and haven’t had any luck, I will take matters into my own hands and self-publish.

    As long as I find myself a good editor first!

  • Self-publishing: Success or stigma?

    “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” ~ Groucho Marx

    Self-publishingThe publishing industry is having problems. Some say the publishing model is broken. Others say the industry is in flux. Writers are questioning the role of the traditional publishing house in a digital world.  Now, more writers are opting out of traditional publishing and exploring self-publishing.

    E-book devices like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook have made it easier than ever to get self-published works into the hands of readers. For some, it’s a potential revenue stream for long out-of-print books. For others, it’s an opportunity to sell directly to consumers without an agent or publisher taking a cut of the profits.

    It’s all so confusing now. Traditional publishers require agented submissions. Digital publishers are more accessible, and many don’t require agents to submit a work for you.

    In self-publishing, an author writes, formats, and publishes a manuscript in a digital format (Kindle, ePub, or even PDF) and makes the work available on the Internet. Digital self-publishing requires no agent, no publisher, and no bookstore.

    (more…)

  • Self-Publishing: A Decision-Making Model

    Self-publishing: A decision making model

  • Letting Lunatics Loose

    “Writers are the lunatic fringe of publishing.” – Judith Rossner

    In this digital world, self-publishing has become a very real alternative to the traditional publishing route.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that for some people, self publishing in a digital format may be more profitable than traditional publishing.

    For example, it is entirely possible that your share of the royalties on a book you publish yourself on Kindle may be greater than for a print book that you get published through a publishing house or agent.  That being said, I don’t think I would go that route if I had other options, unless I already had the sort of fan base that can provide a writer with a living.

    The benefit of self-publishing is total control.  No one else is telling you what your art is supposed to mean, or how you should go about writing.  No one is droning on about how your characters aren’t likable or your scenes don’t work, or they simply don’t get it.

    The downside is much the same.  No one is telling you that your writing is crap and you really need to work on it before publication, no matter how married you are to that metaphor in Chapter 6.

    My belief is that if you are going the self-publishing route, you had better have a support group that includes very talented, very experienced editors.  Otherwise, hire a professional to take a look at it and tell you what is missing, where you have gone wrong, and what changes you might consider.

    You can’t do it all yourself.  You are too close.  There are too many things going on in your brain that aren’t on the paper.  What makes total sense to you may seem foreign to anyone less psychic than Sylvester Stallone’s mom.

    I’ve read a couple of self-published books, and the results are mixed.  Personally, I’m not willing to put my name on something that I don’t know for sure is ready.  In fact, I would rather have other people tell me it is ready.  When it comes to my work and other people reading it, I don’t like taking chances.

    It is my name, and my reputation that is on the line when someone sits down to read something written by Jack Campbell, Jr.  However, I really like the feeling that someone else believes in what I’ve written as much as I do.

    There may come a day when I go the self-published route, but not without the helpful advice of several talented friends.

  • Self-Publishing (Week of 13 February 2012)

    The rush times in the cafe are noisy with lots of cups and saucers clinking against one another, people chatting amiably across their open laptops or with someone on Skype. Then there’s the hiss and whoosh of the steam wands stretching the milk for those of us who want something hot; a latte or chai or a combination of mocha and chai. (Try it, it’s luscious.) These times are when subjects range wide from the sometimes personal to the broadly general and even political.

    This week we’re discussing self-publishing, the topic that can inflame authors and readers alike. Everyone here has a thought or two on the subject of quality, quantity, availability and even whether or not it’s for them. So come on in, we’ve got your table right here. Get comfortable, order something to drink and read up on what we think. It promises to be enlightening.

  • What’s Your Favorite Science Fiction Story?

    Every week we take a peek into the minds of the Confabulators to find out what they’re thinking. This week they were asked What’s Your Favorite Science Fiction Story? and they’ve responded with some classic titles. It’s interesting to note that of all the books mentioned not one on this list published in the 21st century. Admittedly the sampling is small and it’s hard for authors like China Mieville, Cory Doctorow, Gregory Benford, Vernor Vinge, Michael Swanwick and others to compete with the likes of Bradbury and Heinlein and Card. That doesn’t mean there’s not good SF coming out (there is! — we recommend the Year’s Best SF series edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer) but nothing that’s supplanted the masters in our minds yet. Yet.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.:

    Farenheit 451.  People always argue whether or not Bradbury is really a science fiction writer.  Even Bradbury says he is not.  It doesn’t matter.  Bradbury is a great writer and Farenheit 451 seems to get more and more prophetic as the years pass.  It’s a spectacular book with a ton of meaning.

    Sara Lundberg:

    I am a huge Michael Crichton fan. Some of my favorite science fiction stories are books he wrote – Sphere, Jurassic Park, Timeline. They read less like science fiction and more like maybe this kind of stuff is happening just beyond public awareness. To me, that’s what makes them brilliant. I believe in the quote “science fiction will become science fact,” and Crichton has always toed that line. That being said, a more traditional sci-fi story I consider my favorite is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I read that entire book straight through without stopping.

    Kevin Wohler:

    My favorite SF story? Like there could be just one? Please! Okay, let’s do this by the numbers. I’ll give you my favorite story from my favorite collection by one of my favorite authors. The winner of this prestigious title would have to be the short story “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury. I love all of Bradbury’s work, but this 1952 short story is my favorite. It is a seminal time travel story, one that ends up being referenced in almost every other time travel story. Whenever time travelers discuss the implications of altering the past and mention “stepping on a butterfly,” it’s a nod to Bradbury and this elegantly simple yet captivating story.

    Jason Arnett:

    Stranger in a Strange Land has everything great science fiction requires: aliens, politics, sex, a circus and religion. It’s easily my favorite SF story not just because it’s famous and the name has been associated with all sorts of weird, sometimes sordid, things but because it’s so well written. The characters are palpable, the world is believable and the situations in the story are not all that far from what could happen in the real world. Its commentary on the world of the day it was written in (50 years ago) is just as — if not MORE — valid than ever.

    That said, if you buy me a whiskey some time, I’ll tell you why Inception may be one of the great SF stories ever, too.

    Larry Jenkins:

    I don’t read a lot of sci-fi.  I’m typically more of a horror/thriller guy with the occasional foray into fantasy (both my own and the genre).  But if I’m picking the story that stuck with me the longest, I’d have to say it was Ender’s Game.  I’m assuming this will probably be a popular choice, but the truth is the truth.  I was really drawn to the character, Ender Wiggin.  Not because I have some false belief that Ender and I have anything in common, other than the fact that we both eventually need to be shipped off-world.  Our powers are too great to do anything but ultimately doom humanity.

    Ender fascinated me because he was simultaneously human and alien.  He was lonely and had this burning need to be loved, but at the same time, he was cold and calculating and devoid of attachment when necessary.  He was a freaky little kid, and I would not want my own children hanging out with him.  But he certainly took up space in my head long after I’d finished reading that book.

    R.L. Naquin:

    I love Ender’s Game. I am so excited for the movie I might pee myself during the opening credits. (Just a warning, in case you come to the showing right after mine.) Still, I think I love Ender’s Shadow even more. Reading the same story from Bean’s perspective was fascinating, and I preferred Bean’s series to Ender’s. Orson Scott Card is my hero.

     Aspen Junge:

    Favorite SF series: hands down, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan novels. They are action-packed, character-driven, and wise beyond belief. I can only hope to live with one tenth the verve and dedication of Miles and his family.

    Ted Boone:

    A tie between Permutation City by Greg Egan and A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

    Muriel Green:

    Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes. The reason I like this story so much is because when I was a kid I worried about dying in strange ways that might make me a ghost. One of the scenarios that terrified me was the belief that if I were struck by lightening while talking on the phone my consciousness would get trapped in the telephone lines. Harlan Ellison’s story is the closest thing I’ve ever run across to my creepy childhood phobia.