Did some independent bookstores deserve to die?

With a number of science fiction authors like Tobias Buckell complaining of late about their books being "skipped," Andrew Wheeler has a long post both explaining the situation and stating why chain book stores are "vastly better than the bulk of the existing independent bookstores" they replaced. Here's the paragraph that will probably get up a lot of people's noses:

One thing is indeed true: about eighteen years ago, there were 7,500 independent bookstores; now there are 1700. Sure, some good stores closed. But the rosy-colored view of the wonderful lost indy bookstore, land of miracles, where enlightened, Buddha-esque bookmen and -women sold only the finest of literature to a happy and contented audience is pure bunk. Most of those vanished stores were too small, undercapitalized, badly run marginal businesses run by cranks. They went out of business because they were bad at business, lacking any point-of-sale systems or serious inventory tracking at all. If they didn't return all that many books, it was because they had no idea what they had or where it was. Oh, and most of them -- as those of us who remember those days without the gauzy light of nostalgia -- were actively hostile to science fiction and fantasy. (Remember? This is the era when SF sold mostly in paperback, through entirely different channels, or in small hardcover editions to libraries. Those supposed wondrous independent stores of yore didn't carry SFF.) The independent stores still open are probably 90% of the well-managed independent bookstores that ever existed; there's a serious selection bias in looking at what's still around and extrapolating that back to all of the stores that didn't survive -- most of them didn't survive for a reason.

I'm a fan of independent bookstores and shop at them quite often, but I can also see where Wheeler is coming from. Growing up in central Alabama during the 70s and 80s, there were no good independent bookstores in the area that stocked quality science fiction or fantasy. Only with the arrival of the big chain stores did central Alabama suddenly have access to the same great books that were taken for granted in the big cities.

That said, the best bookstores in the country tend to be independent bookstores. My favorites include Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis, Burke's Book Store in Memphis (run by a great writer named Corey Mesler), and the wonderful Book Loft near my home in Columbus, Ohio. So while I understand what Wheeler is saying about poorly run independents being replaced by chain stores, I also know that the bookstores which make the biggest impression on me are always independents. And what worries me about the current bookseller landscape is that too many of the great independent bookstores I care about are also at risk of disappearing--and I know the unreal pressure they're facing is not because they are poorly run.

Two notes on my writing

My essay "Singing the Songs of Arthur C. Clarke's Distant Earth" is in the current New York Review of Science Fiction (October 2008, issue 242). The essay examines the many different versions of Clarke's story The Songs of Distant Earth, which was the late grandmaster's self-professed favorite novel.

In other great news, Richard Horton, who reviews short fiction for Locus and edits anthologies such as Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2008, selected my story "Where Away You Fall" as one of four impressive short stories to appear this year in Analog: Science Fiction and Fact. He discussed this on his blog, where he also provided a very nice overview of what Analog published during 2008. Many thanks to Richard for the kind words.

Artist or ape? Faulkner or machine?

Here's a great little quiz I discovered, in which you try to decide which of the examples of abstract art are actual masterpieces created by great artists, and which were painted by actual apes.

I only scored 33%, meaning I missed most of the questions. Fortunately, the one picture I actually liked turned out to be by an artist, so homo sapiens didn't totally suck.

Take the quiz here.

The site also has a William Faulkner quiz where you try to decide if a sentence is something Faulkner wrote, or if its simply a machine translation of random German text. I refuse to reveal what my score on this quiz was.

Her dying wish to vote

As this political season winds down, I hope that people will keep some perspective on why we go through this turmoil every four years. Voting is the greatest of civic virtues. However, in the heat of a political campaign, with mudslinging and attacks all around, it's easy to forget why people throughout history have struggled and fought so they can have a voice in their government.

One person who truly understood the power of voting was an amazing woman it was my honor to briefly know: Suzanne McDaniel Hayes.

Suzanne has been fighting terminal cancer for the last two years. As the end of her fight neared, she told her doctor she didn't care what he did to prolong her life, just as long as "I live to vote." Suzanne was able to vote by absentee ballot last Wednesday. She died on Saturday. Suzanne lead an amazing life right up until the end, and what an example she set for all of us on how voting is a sacred duty.

To learn more about her struggle to vote, listen to this public radio interview or this American Public Radio article (which includes links to photos).

My deepest sympathy goes out to her husband Bill and their three kids.

Screw-up places submissions, rejection letters online

Last year Geoff Ryman, Julian Todd and Trent Walters began accepting online submissions for their mundane science fiction issue of Interzone. I wrote a story specifically for the issue titled "Where Away You Fall," which I submitted into their online submission system. The story was a hard science fiction tale of very high altitude ballooning which, according to the editors, didn't fit with their mundane manifesto. Not a problem. Don't be a writer if you can't take rejection. I turned around and submitted the story to Analog, where the story was accepted and published in their just-released December 2008 issue.

So imagine my surprise when someone e-mailed to say they'd found a copy of my story on the internet. At first I thought someone had copied the story from Analog, but when I followed the e-mailed link I saw a Google cache of the submission I'd sent to Ryman et al. For some reason Google was able to access all the submissions for the mundane Interzone issue, along with many of the rejection letters. Among the writers affected by this are myself, Terry Bisson, Carrie Vaughn, James S. Dorr, Jeff Crook, and many more. It appears that these submitted stories and rejection letters are no longer live on the web, but they are still stored in the Google cache (you can view some of them by clicking on the cache function of individual pages found through Google searches such as this one).

Just as writers have a responsibility to not abuse the submission process, editors also have a responsibility to not let those submissions and rejections show up on the web. For the record, Interzone is not responsible for this screw-up because Geoff Ryman, Julian Todd and Trent Walters ran the submission process through their own website. I have no problem with their decision to reject my story. What I have a problem with is letting that submission and rejection letter be placed on the internet for all the world to see.

Top SF/F editors tell all

John Joseph Adams has published a great interview with three of the top SF/F magazine editors: Gordon Van Gelder, the editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction;Sheila Williams, the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction; and Susan Marie Groppi, the editor-in-chief of Strange Horizons.

Adams gets the editors to explore how authors can get their stories to rise out of the slush piles, what plots they're tired of seeing, and more. Perhaps their best advice is that all writers should be readers, meaning you should continually read examples of the fiction you strive to write. The complete interview is here.

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun

Last week I finished reading Gene Wolfe's science fiction masterpiece The Book of the New Sun. This is a novel which easily stands up to all its critical acclaim and is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of world literature across any genre. In fact, this book is now on my short list of favorite late 20th century American novels, alongside Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx.

I have ordered the coda to the novel, titled The Urth of the New Sun, and once I finish that I'll no doubt have more to say about this masterpiece. Until then, I strongly urge people to hunt down this four-part novel. Yes, it's a dense read. But if you give this novel them time it needs to reach into your consciousness, you'll come away amazed at what great literature can accomplish.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Godzilla21I remember my first comic so clearly: Issue 21 of Marvel Comic's late 1970s series Godzilla King of the Monsters. I purchased the comic at a 7-11 just down the street from my grade school, turning in enough refundable coke bottles to cover the 35 cent price.

The title on the cover reads "Godzilla battles the raging might of Devil Dinosaur in The Doom Trip." I read that comic until it literally fell apart. While it wasn't a comic masterpiece, I fell in love with both comics and fantasies from that point on.

Final week to win a subscription to Interzone

We're entering the homestretch of the great Interzone subscription contest. Among the most recent bloggers to take part are:

John Ottinger at Grasping for the Wind also was nice enough to do a review of my short story, in addition to his previously mentioned plug for Interzone.

Remember, the contest ends on Wednesday, Oct. 8. For more details on how to take part, go here.

New look for Asimov's and Analog looks really good

As previously mentioned on this blog, Asimov's and Analog are undergoing their first major redesign in years. Their new size is called an L trim and is 5 and 7/8 inches by 8 and 5/8 inches, with the per issue page count reduced from 144 to 112 pages. But since the new pages are larger than the oldpages, the amount of words lost each year will be minimal.

But it's one thing to know logically what the new magazine size will look like; it's quite another to actually pick up a copy and read the stories inside. Today the December 2008 issue of Analog arrived. (SHAMELESS PLUG: Be sure to read my short story "Where Away You Fall" in the December Analog. END OF PLUG.) The magazine looks really good in the new format. Not only does it feels more modern and "streamlined," as John Thiel said over on the Analog forum, I also think the thin cover stock the magazines use go better with this size than with their previous digest dimensions. So overall, an excellent redesign which should also help the bottom line of both magazines.

The secret of author bios: No cats!

Jason Sizemore at Apex Magazine recently published an essay about author bios titled "You're Boring Me!" As most readers and writers know, author bios are the self promotional blurbs that accompany most short stories and novels. As Jason states, these bios should help a reader learn more about a writer's works, so that said writer can perhaps gain another fan. Unfortunately, too many writers give bios consisting of attempts at humor or slice of life vignettes which, in the end, do not tell readers how to find more info on the author's writings. So the next time a writer feels the need to mention their cats in their author bio--don't!

More Interzone contest links

The links for my Interzone subscription contest keep coming in.

Thanks to all of these bloggers. As more bloggers join in, I'll add links to their posts. Remember, the contest ends in about two and a half weeks.

Interzone subscription contest links

With about two and a half weeks to go in my Interzone subscription contest, the entries are starting to come in. Two of the first blogs to enter--and help promote this great British science fiction magazine--are S.M. Duke's The World in the Satin Bag and John Ottinger's Grasping for the Wind. Thanks also to SF Signal for promoting this contest.

I've also been e-mailed by a number of bloggers who say they plan to take part, and I'll add these links on my site as they appear.

The great "win a subscription to Interzone" contest

Now that my power is back on after the "Great Midwestern Hurricane of 2008," I can officially launch the great Interzone promotion of 2008.

For those who don't know, Interzone is a bi-monthly British science fiction magazine often counted as one of the most influential genre publications of the last 25 years. Among the writers who got their start in their pages are Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan, Kim Newman, Alastair Reynolds and Charles Stross (per the magazine's Wikipedia entry). With a stable of authors like that, the 1980s and early 90s were truly glory times for Interzone.

A few years ago I heard whispers that the magazine--now under a new editorial team run by publisher Andy Cox--was once again making the SF world sit up and take notice. Intrigued, I tracked down a sample issue. Impressed by what I saw, I subscribed. Not only is Interzone again at the top of its game, publishing top-notch fiction and nonfiction, they also have the best design of any genre magazine. Finally, they have also been kind enough to accept two of my stories, for which I can't even begin to thank them.

To celebrate the publication of my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain" in Interzone, and to pay the magazine back for the support they've shown my writing, I'm giving away a one-year subscription to the magazine. Here's the deal: Any blogger in the United States is eligible to take part. Simply drop me an e-mail at lapthai (at sign) yahoo (dot) com with your blog's url and a few words to the effect that you want to take part in the contest. In order to showcase what Interzone has to offer, I'll e-mail you a PDF of my recently published Interzone story (thanks to Andy Cox for letting me do this; here are a few of the reviews my story has received). Don't worry. You don't have to review the story, although I won't protest if you do. I simply want to give people a taste of what Interzone publishes.

If you like the story, post information on your blog about both this contest and Interzone, including a link to Interzone's main page. If you don't like the story, I hope you'll still post info about Interzone on your blog. Either way, once you've done a blog entry about Interzone you're entered in the contest. My hope is that these blog posting about Interzone will raise the magazine's profile in the United States.

This promotion will run for three weeks. After that time I'll take all the names of the blogger participants and throw them into a random number generator. The person whose number comes up wins the free one-year, six-issue subscription.

Before anyone asks, I'm limiting this promotion to the United States because my understanding is that Interzone gets really good distribution outside these shores. If the promo works, I'll consider doing it again one day, only this time offering a free subscription to anywhere in the world.

PS: Anyone can enter this contest, but do realize that if you win you'll need a snail mail address to receive the subscription. This may go without saying, but I guess it can't hurt to state the obvious.

Hurricane Ike delays Interzone promo

The remnants of Hurricane Ike tore through the Midwest yesterday and we're now without power. By some quirk, my father-in-law's house still has electricity--and a wireless connection, hence this quick post--but my house is dark. Luckily we didn't have any damage, but some of our neighbors got hammered. It's an awe-inspiring thing seeing hurricane force winds in the Midwest.

Until the power is back up, I won't be able to launch the Interzone promo I had planned to kick off this week. The short and long of the promo is that I'll be giving away a one-year subscription to Interzone, the fabled British science fiction and fantasy magazine, to one lucky blogger in the United States. But until the power is back, I can't start the fun and games.