A few days ago Sean Wallace posted a link to an article that revealed Galaktika - a Hungarian magazine publishing primarily SF/F - had been pirating work. At this point it seems the extent of the piracy is undetermined. (It's been confirmed that some stories in past years were pirated, but it is not certain if all of them were.) It does appear that almost every story published in 2015 was done so without the authors or editors permission.
Frequent targets were pro-paying magazines (Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Popular Science, Playboy) and anthologies.
To share details on work that was stolen from you, please either comment on the new thread over at the Absolute Write Water Cooler (Galaktika Magazine - AWWC) or here. (You may also contact me directly if you are not comfortable sharing details in public - annagrace dot carpenter at gmail dot com)
To look and see if your story has been stolen you can check out this link : Galaktika Magazine - Bibliography Click on the Magazines link, then click on the year link next to the Galaktika heading. Each authors name in the TOC also links to a larger bibliography that will show any work by that author translated into Hungarian (including some that were published elsewhere legally).
I am currently working on simply collecting information on the situation and will post updates as they become available.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Steampunk Expo & Gothic Con Schedule
Just one month left 'til the 2016 Steampunk Expo & Gothic Con.
Below is my schedule for the event. (Subject to change, but I'll be sure to post any updates as necessary.)
Saturday (April 16th)
2 PM - Is it steamy enough? Writing Steampunk: When writing, what elements, tropes, or styles are necessary to make a story Steampunk? Do you really need airships and corsets?
4 PM - Ladies writing Steampunk: Our ladies of steampunk discuss what they love best about writing, the struggles of women in the publishing world, and which guy they'd like to see on the cover of their next book.
Sunday (April 17th)
10 AM - Author Interviews - the great round table discussion: The Library Police spend sometime learning more about the convention's attending authors.
Below is my schedule for the event. (Subject to change, but I'll be sure to post any updates as necessary.)
Saturday (April 16th)
2 PM - Is it steamy enough? Writing Steampunk: When writing, what elements, tropes, or styles are necessary to make a story Steampunk? Do you really need airships and corsets?
4 PM - Ladies writing Steampunk: Our ladies of steampunk discuss what they love best about writing, the struggles of women in the publishing world, and which guy they'd like to see on the cover of their next book.
Sunday (April 17th)
10 AM - Author Interviews - the great round table discussion: The Library Police spend sometime learning more about the convention's attending authors.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Nostalgia and New Blood
It's interesting, sometimes, being a fan of SF/F/H, but not being especially connected to a particular fandom. Among other things, it allows me to have a different perspective on things that are being remade, rebooted, or transferred from one medium to another. It means that I can usually approach those works from a place of "What story are they telling this time?" and less of a place of "OMG! They are so gonna fuck this up."
I dunno. Maybe this is where eight years of classical piano studies comes in handy. See, in classical music each performer has the opportunity to massage the original work into something special. Maybe not unique - in the sense that they still play all the same notes - but still different. Because each performer brings something new to the table. Their education, their own love of certain types of music, their emotional awareness, their technical skill. All of these things effecting minute changes. [For a concrete example you can check out this video on YouTube which compares five different pianists versions of Bach's Invention #1. Although I suggest stopping after the first four and listening to Gould's version here - he hums along as he plays.]
The point being that the same source can produce vastly different end results depending on the individual bringing it to life. And this is not necessarily a bad thing because it gives us a chance to see (or hear or read or whatever) something from a new perspective.
Does that mean it's always going to be good? No.
Does that mean every person has to like every version? No.
Does that mean that there aren't certain standards of quality to be applied? No.
What it does mean is that clinging to a single version of a song or type of story can mean you miss out on something else good.
Why am I mentioning this? Because yesterday the trailer for the new Ghostbusters movie came out. And there is a lot of hate for it. Some of it centers around the fact that the new team is all-female. Some of it centers around the fact that the sense of humor is different. But most of it boils down to "But I liked the original and this is different. Boohoo." (Seriously, the number of folks talking about how the new movie is ruining their (already in the past) childhood is just... stunning. Like the new movie is going to erase the old one.)
Remember when I mentioned being a fan, but not so much a member of particular fandoms? Here's where that becomes relevant.
I first saw Ghostbusters in my early teens (well, after it had first come out, although we were still using VHS tapes) and I loved it. I even daydreamed about what it would be like to be a Ghostbuster. I'm still a fan of the original movie. But here's the thing.
Yesterday, as the trailer was being rapidly disliked on YouTube by a bunch of butt-hurt older fans, I went and looked up the trailer for the 1984 movie - just by way of comparison. And... it's not great. (Partly because, you know, the 80s.) It's not terrible either. It's the sort of thing that will immediately appeal to some folks and not to others. The humor will make some people laugh, and miss completely with others.
Does the trailer for the new Ghostbusters make me dance around the room with excitement? No.
Are all of the jokes laugh out loud funny (to me)? No.
Do I think it looks like a complex and nuanced plot? No.
But it is going to be new riff on a story and world I like. And if it turns out to be awful it won't change the story and world I like. (Again. New versions of old movies are not like the Terminator - they don't travel back and change the past.) And if it turns out to be good, then all the more to love.
I won't let my nostalgia get in the way of enjoying something different.
I dunno. Maybe this is where eight years of classical piano studies comes in handy. See, in classical music each performer has the opportunity to massage the original work into something special. Maybe not unique - in the sense that they still play all the same notes - but still different. Because each performer brings something new to the table. Their education, their own love of certain types of music, their emotional awareness, their technical skill. All of these things effecting minute changes. [For a concrete example you can check out this video on YouTube which compares five different pianists versions of Bach's Invention #1. Although I suggest stopping after the first four and listening to Gould's version here - he hums along as he plays.]
The point being that the same source can produce vastly different end results depending on the individual bringing it to life. And this is not necessarily a bad thing because it gives us a chance to see (or hear or read or whatever) something from a new perspective.
Does that mean it's always going to be good? No.
Does that mean every person has to like every version? No.
Does that mean that there aren't certain standards of quality to be applied? No.
What it does mean is that clinging to a single version of a song or type of story can mean you miss out on something else good.
Why am I mentioning this? Because yesterday the trailer for the new Ghostbusters movie came out. And there is a lot of hate for it. Some of it centers around the fact that the new team is all-female. Some of it centers around the fact that the sense of humor is different. But most of it boils down to "But I liked the original and this is different. Boohoo." (Seriously, the number of folks talking about how the new movie is ruining their (already in the past) childhood is just... stunning. Like the new movie is going to erase the old one.)
Remember when I mentioned being a fan, but not so much a member of particular fandoms? Here's where that becomes relevant.
I first saw Ghostbusters in my early teens (well, after it had first come out, although we were still using VHS tapes) and I loved it. I even daydreamed about what it would be like to be a Ghostbuster. I'm still a fan of the original movie. But here's the thing.
Yesterday, as the trailer was being rapidly disliked on YouTube by a bunch of butt-hurt older fans, I went and looked up the trailer for the 1984 movie - just by way of comparison. And... it's not great. (Partly because, you know, the 80s.) It's not terrible either. It's the sort of thing that will immediately appeal to some folks and not to others. The humor will make some people laugh, and miss completely with others.
Does the trailer for the new Ghostbusters make me dance around the room with excitement? No.
Are all of the jokes laugh out loud funny (to me)? No.
Do I think it looks like a complex and nuanced plot? No.
But it is going to be new riff on a story and world I like. And if it turns out to be awful it won't change the story and world I like. (Again. New versions of old movies are not like the Terminator - they don't travel back and change the past.) And if it turns out to be good, then all the more to love.
I won't let my nostalgia get in the way of enjoying something different.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
This Girl Needs to Get Paid: Or Why I Sell My (Self-published) Books Through Gumroad and Not Amazon
A few weeks ago I put my short story collection (The Weather's Always Fine in Paradise) up for pre-order on Gumroad. Another writer friend contacted me and said "I saw that you have a new book coming out, but when I looked for it on Amazon, I couldn't find it."
I told him I prefer to distribute my self-published* work through Gumroad because I get paid considerably more per sale that way. (If you aren't familiar with Amazon's rates they take 30% of the money and give you 70%. Unless you are selling something for $0.99, in which case they take 70% and give you 30%. Gumroad charges $0.25+5% of the price. Even on the $0.99 sales, I make a much higher percentage with Gumroad.)
"Yeah, but Amazon has such a big piece of the marketplace."
But I make more money with Gumroad.
See, here's the thing. I understand browsing for books. I understand that Amazon are not only a marketplace, but also an aggregator. (When was the last time you didn't use Amazon to look for that book you read a few years back but can't quite remember the title or author?) I understand that while bookstores still maintain 40%-ish of physical book sales, they only have 10% of ebook sales (while Amazon has 90%). I understand that they have Top Seller lists out the ass (a couple years back I was in the Fiction - Western - Science Fiction top 10 multiple times) and algorithms that (sometimes) recommend your book to folks looking at (supposedly) similar work.
But I make more money with Gumroad.
Based on observation during the period Eggplant Literary had my SF Western novella on Amazon, the vast majority of my sales come through personal referral. That is, when I told someone to check it out or I tweeted about it or posted a link to a review. When I didn't do those things... there was just the eerie silence of watching my book plummet through the sales rankings.
Just being on Amazon was not enough.
Let me repeat that.
As a debut author with a small publisher, just being on Amazon was not enough. Sales did not magically trickle through due to algorithms or Top 10 lists. (This, by the way, is not a surprise. Targeted promotion and marketing is fucking key for authors of any level with any size publisher selling books through any venue or marketplace.)
So, when my sales are still overwhelmingly coming from me telling folks "Hey, you should buy my book," where do you think I want to point them? A marketplace that takes 30% of my profit or a marketplace that takes a little over 5% of my profit?
"But Amazon!"
Yeah. But I make more money with Gumroad. And I need to get paid.
*A publisher is welcome to sell my books however they see fit. From the trunk of their car, on Amazon, even dropped from a helicopter like a near-flightless bird over Cincinnati.
I told him I prefer to distribute my self-published* work through Gumroad because I get paid considerably more per sale that way. (If you aren't familiar with Amazon's rates they take 30% of the money and give you 70%. Unless you are selling something for $0.99, in which case they take 70% and give you 30%. Gumroad charges $0.25+5% of the price. Even on the $0.99 sales, I make a much higher percentage with Gumroad.)
"Yeah, but Amazon has such a big piece of the marketplace."
But I make more money with Gumroad.
See, here's the thing. I understand browsing for books. I understand that Amazon are not only a marketplace, but also an aggregator. (When was the last time you didn't use Amazon to look for that book you read a few years back but can't quite remember the title or author?) I understand that while bookstores still maintain 40%-ish of physical book sales, they only have 10% of ebook sales (while Amazon has 90%). I understand that they have Top Seller lists out the ass (a couple years back I was in the Fiction - Western - Science Fiction top 10 multiple times) and algorithms that (sometimes) recommend your book to folks looking at (supposedly) similar work.
But I make more money with Gumroad.
Based on observation during the period Eggplant Literary had my SF Western novella on Amazon, the vast majority of my sales come through personal referral. That is, when I told someone to check it out or I tweeted about it or posted a link to a review. When I didn't do those things... there was just the eerie silence of watching my book plummet through the sales rankings.
Just being on Amazon was not enough.
Let me repeat that.
As a debut author with a small publisher, just being on Amazon was not enough. Sales did not magically trickle through due to algorithms or Top 10 lists. (This, by the way, is not a surprise. Targeted promotion and marketing is fucking key for authors of any level with any size publisher selling books through any venue or marketplace.)
So, when my sales are still overwhelmingly coming from me telling folks "Hey, you should buy my book," where do you think I want to point them? A marketplace that takes 30% of my profit or a marketplace that takes a little over 5% of my profit?
"But Amazon!"
Yeah. But I make more money with Gumroad. And I need to get paid.
*A publisher is welcome to sell my books however they see fit. From the trunk of their car, on Amazon, even dropped from a helicopter like a near-flightless bird over Cincinnati.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
ConNooga 2016 - Schedule
Next weekend (February 19-21) I will be down at ConNooga. In addition to selling copies of The Weather's Always Fine in Paradise in the Dealer's Room, I will also be participating in five panels throughout the weekend.
Friday
3:00 PM Lost in Spice - Dune panel
5:00 PM Creating 3 Dimensional Characters
Saturday
6:00 PM Intro to Fantasy
7:00 PM Writing Openings that Hook Your Reader
9:00 PM Writing: Building Tension in Scenes and Stories
Feel free to stop by and say hi!
Friday
3:00 PM Lost in Spice - Dune panel
5:00 PM Creating 3 Dimensional Characters
Saturday
6:00 PM Intro to Fantasy
7:00 PM Writing Openings that Hook Your Reader
9:00 PM Writing: Building Tension in Scenes and Stories
Feel free to stop by and say hi!
Thursday, February 11, 2016
FORTHCOMING! - The Weather's Always Fine in Paradise
Coming on February 16th!
"Eleven stories about love, survival, and the depths of the human heart.
Eleven worlds – some remarkably similar to our own, some dramatically different.
From
the clammy dungeons and mysterious rooftops in The Spider Thief and the
Sorcerer to the muddy, voodoo protected shores of Lake Ponchartrain in
Legacy to the highrise slums of Venus in The Weather's Always Fine in
Paradise, this collection of short stories will take you out of the
everyday world and into the realm of 'what if'?
What if magic and knowledge were things that could be leased and reclaimed?
What if voodoo could open a woman's heart to the possibility of love?
What if the things that mattered most were not things at all?
Explore the possibilities in this short story collection from A.G. Carpenter."
That's right, folks. I have a short story collection coming out this coming Tuesday. It features some of my favorite, previously published stories, plus one brand new short story, and one brand new novelette.
You can preorder a copy in paperback or .epub. (The ebook will also be available from the usual vendors like Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Scribd, etc.)
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Angst on Toast (AKA 2015 in Review)
At the beginning of 2015 I set myself a single writing goal: Write a Better Book.
The year started off pretty well. I was working on the Southern Gothic/Horror project and cranked out a solid novella in a couple of months. It was weird and a little different from what I'd written before. And it felt... better. I read the prologue and the opening chapter at one of the local conventions and got a very enthusiastic response. It felt strong. It had touched on better narrative skills than some of my other projects.
But I wasn't sure about trying to sell a novella. A Horror novella, no less. I thought perhaps I could take the total story arc (which was conceived as three novellas) and turn them into a novel. So I started working on the second one in April.
Thus began the Great Flailing of 2015. I wrote the first chapter, then set it aside because something wasn't working. I picked up the opening of an unfinished high fantasy/steampunk/mythology redux and hammered out another novella. But it didn't feel right either.
I wrote an outline that heightened the conflict and stakes, but also meant expanding the novella into a novel. That stalled so I set it aside.
I had written the first dozen pages or so of an Original Graphic Novel (OGN) script in May. I picked it back up and wrote the rest in about two weeks. It was good. It was strong. I was excited because I was back on track.
I tackled the Southern Gothic project again. And stalled. Maybe it needed to percolate a little more.
I started working on another older project - the Epic Not Fantasy. Wrote an outline. It seemed a little long for a novella, but that was okay - this one I could handle being a little longer. Revised the opening, making adjustments for new plotlines. Picked up a new thread in the story and added 20k I hadn't even planned on. Still okay because it made it a better book.
I was busy, but still making progress. I loved my characters. I loved their flaws. I loved the things they were trying to do. And then I got to the middle of September and something in my brain screamed "OMG! This year is almost over and you haven't sold ANYTHING!"
It's an uncomfortable thing talking about the slow road to "overnight success". Because we really want to think that if we take the right steps and achieve certain milestones that it's just a matter of time before you can run around the interwebs yelling "SUCCESS! I've done The Thing!" But then the months tick past and you get a nice rejections that talk about how intricate your world-building is or your delicate way with words or the emotion in the romantic subplot but it's still "just not right for us at this time."
And you've done all the right things. You've written the best book you could. You struggled through the query trenches and landed an amazeballs agent (whom you love for loving your books and wanting them to be better just like you want them to be better). You've written other novels and short stories so that you have new projects to go out on submission if the first one doesn't strike the right nerve with the editors.
All the right things and still the months go by and that feeling you've always had, that maybe you aren't as good as you thought, that maybe you're really one of the tone deaf contestants on American Idol singing your heart out and being told there's just no hope that this thing you love will ever be a career.
I wallowed for a bit. Not deliberately. That's just how it is when the depression kicks in. I would try to write and I couldn't muster the energy to do more than open my documents and stare at the words I'd written weeks before. And the end of the year got even closer and the panic got bigger.
I talked to Agent Amazeballs and we agreed that maybe the Southern Gothic novella needed to remain a novella series instead of trying to remold it into a novel. And I should take the lead on subbing it. So it went out.
This was a decision that cut both ways. Putting it out there made me feel active again instead of stalled. But it also brought the total number of projects out on submission up to four. Not including a few short stories I still had in circulation.
I took another week or two to try and get my practical goals straightened out. I found that even though I wasn't ready to write the next Southern Gothic novella, I did (finally) know what I wanted to do with it. I also figured out how to rework the high fantasy/steampunk/mythology redux novella so that it would be longer, stronger, but not a full on novel.
I started writing on the Epic Not Fantasy again after almost six weeks of not touching it. I was scared it wouldn't work, but it all came back. Like I'd just set down the pen (metaphorical pen) for a few minutes and then come back to it. And this time I told myself that even though I wanted to finish it by the end of the year, I would just work on it until it was done. Even if that wasn't by the end of December.
November was NaNoWriMo. I didn't win. I wrote about 20k words. I brainstormed my simple plot for the Epic Not Fantasy into something spectacular. And epic. It's a really wonderful book.
It's not done yet. And thus we return to the point of this review of my year as a writer.
Sometimes things don't go like you plan. One thing I kept struggling with was the feeling that I hadn't accomplished anything this year. It wasn't true, but I was letting the things that weren't working like I'd planned obscure the things I had done.
I'd lost sight of the fact that sometimes success is not giving up. Sometimes progress means not taking a step back, even if you can't take a step forward that day. Or the next.
The end of the year is only days away and I have worked on my singular goal of writing a better book. I haven't met all my individual project goals, but I haven't given up.
And that's success.
The year started off pretty well. I was working on the Southern Gothic/Horror project and cranked out a solid novella in a couple of months. It was weird and a little different from what I'd written before. And it felt... better. I read the prologue and the opening chapter at one of the local conventions and got a very enthusiastic response. It felt strong. It had touched on better narrative skills than some of my other projects.
But I wasn't sure about trying to sell a novella. A Horror novella, no less. I thought perhaps I could take the total story arc (which was conceived as three novellas) and turn them into a novel. So I started working on the second one in April.
Thus began the Great Flailing of 2015. I wrote the first chapter, then set it aside because something wasn't working. I picked up the opening of an unfinished high fantasy/steampunk/mythology redux and hammered out another novella. But it didn't feel right either.
I wrote an outline that heightened the conflict and stakes, but also meant expanding the novella into a novel. That stalled so I set it aside.
I had written the first dozen pages or so of an Original Graphic Novel (OGN) script in May. I picked it back up and wrote the rest in about two weeks. It was good. It was strong. I was excited because I was back on track.
I tackled the Southern Gothic project again. And stalled. Maybe it needed to percolate a little more.
I started working on another older project - the Epic Not Fantasy. Wrote an outline. It seemed a little long for a novella, but that was okay - this one I could handle being a little longer. Revised the opening, making adjustments for new plotlines. Picked up a new thread in the story and added 20k I hadn't even planned on. Still okay because it made it a better book.
I was busy, but still making progress. I loved my characters. I loved their flaws. I loved the things they were trying to do. And then I got to the middle of September and something in my brain screamed "OMG! This year is almost over and you haven't sold ANYTHING!"
It's an uncomfortable thing talking about the slow road to "overnight success". Because we really want to think that if we take the right steps and achieve certain milestones that it's just a matter of time before you can run around the interwebs yelling "SUCCESS! I've done The Thing!" But then the months tick past and you get a nice rejections that talk about how intricate your world-building is or your delicate way with words or the emotion in the romantic subplot but it's still "just not right for us at this time."
And you've done all the right things. You've written the best book you could. You struggled through the query trenches and landed an amazeballs agent (whom you love for loving your books and wanting them to be better just like you want them to be better). You've written other novels and short stories so that you have new projects to go out on submission if the first one doesn't strike the right nerve with the editors.
All the right things and still the months go by and that feeling you've always had, that maybe you aren't as good as you thought, that maybe you're really one of the tone deaf contestants on American Idol singing your heart out and being told there's just no hope that this thing you love will ever be a career.
I wallowed for a bit. Not deliberately. That's just how it is when the depression kicks in. I would try to write and I couldn't muster the energy to do more than open my documents and stare at the words I'd written weeks before. And the end of the year got even closer and the panic got bigger.
I talked to Agent Amazeballs and we agreed that maybe the Southern Gothic novella needed to remain a novella series instead of trying to remold it into a novel. And I should take the lead on subbing it. So it went out.
This was a decision that cut both ways. Putting it out there made me feel active again instead of stalled. But it also brought the total number of projects out on submission up to four. Not including a few short stories I still had in circulation.
I took another week or two to try and get my practical goals straightened out. I found that even though I wasn't ready to write the next Southern Gothic novella, I did (finally) know what I wanted to do with it. I also figured out how to rework the high fantasy/steampunk/mythology redux novella so that it would be longer, stronger, but not a full on novel.
I started writing on the Epic Not Fantasy again after almost six weeks of not touching it. I was scared it wouldn't work, but it all came back. Like I'd just set down the pen (metaphorical pen) for a few minutes and then come back to it. And this time I told myself that even though I wanted to finish it by the end of the year, I would just work on it until it was done. Even if that wasn't by the end of December.
November was NaNoWriMo. I didn't win. I wrote about 20k words. I brainstormed my simple plot for the Epic Not Fantasy into something spectacular. And epic. It's a really wonderful book.
It's not done yet. And thus we return to the point of this review of my year as a writer.
Sometimes things don't go like you plan. One thing I kept struggling with was the feeling that I hadn't accomplished anything this year. It wasn't true, but I was letting the things that weren't working like I'd planned obscure the things I had done.
I'd lost sight of the fact that sometimes success is not giving up. Sometimes progress means not taking a step back, even if you can't take a step forward that day. Or the next.
The end of the year is only days away and I have worked on my singular goal of writing a better book. I haven't met all my individual project goals, but I haven't given up.
And that's success.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)