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Why does the Productivity Commission hate Sean Williams?

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

There’s a lot more in the Australian Productivity Commission’s report into parallel book imports than just their economic argument about cheaper books.

There’s been some good analysis of what implementing the recommendations could mean for Australian authors, booksellers and publishers. And there’ll be plenty more to come, which I might do a wrap up of next week. I don’t want to revisit those arguments now because, frankly, others have done it in more depth.

My interest today is Appendix F.

Appendix F is titled: “Design of financial support for book producers”. It analyses grants and literary prizes for authors and publishers. They don’t offer much of an explicit opinion on the Public and Education Lending Right schemes, which compensate authors for books borrowed from public and educational libraries. Except they make the point that most authors receiving payments under PLR and ELR get small amounts; only a few get the big bucks, which seems code for saying it’s not much use when it comes to author incomes. Many authors will tell you different.

Stick with me, I’m getting to the Sean Williams hatred real soon.

The Productivity Commission suggests, that instead of inefficient grants to individual authors and various organisations:

Subsidies to book producers ideally should be delivered only for books that yield material cultural and educational externalities that would not otherwise be generated. The externality value of books, and the likelihood that it would be generated without a dedicated subsidy, is likely to vary between classes or genres of books, as well as within them, and so ideally subsidies should vary to reflect these differences.

And which class of books do they say are likely to offer more value?

Among the diversity of the adult trade sector, Australian stories, histories and biographies are examples of books which are more likely to generate cultural externalities than generic fiction or some non-fictional material such as Australian-authored computer manuals.

There’s the hatred. Sean Williams – a great Australian storyteller – writes some of that dreaded generic fiction. No PLR or ELR for him. The Productivity Commission says instead subsidies could be dished out by a panel of assessors who – as they suggest – should probably give the science fiction section a big miss.

But it’s not just Williams. The productivity hates any number of great Aussie speculative fiction authors like Karen Miller and Marianne de Pierres. They probably don’t hate Margo Lanagan quite so much but only because she writes lots of those great youth-oriented page-turning cultural externalities yarns.

Though having a panel to assess subsidy eligibility is probably a bit inefficient. Here’s what they suggest could streamline the process:

An alternative approach to aligning subsidies with potential differences in cultural externalities of books, that may be more suitable for a broad book subsidy scheme, would be to distinguish book content according to generally accepted bibliographic classification systems.

Why bother with a pesky assessment panel – they may let a few genre books through – when you can just wall off the entire science fiction and fantasy section and forget about it? It’s kinda like saying you can go for a jog along any street you want but you’ll only get fit if your route goes through the rich suburbs.

So what type of books are likely to be Productivity Commission pre-approved:

Most obviously, the core ideas that were embodied in books such as The New Testament, The Wealth of Nations, Mein Kampf and The Female Eunuch have had major impacts on how societies operate. Truly ‘iconic’ works are rare, but some books have similar, though smaller, external effects through their influence on people’s views and attitudes.

But watch out for those negative externality generators

For example, some people would see Professor Ian Plimer’s recent book Heaven and Earth — which purports to debunk the scientific consensus on climate change — as generating external costs, to the extent that it weakens community support for measures to reduce greenhouse emissions. Most clearly, books that have the effect of promoting intolerance between groups can diminish certain forms of social capital and generate external costs.

Mein Kampf’s okay but don’t challenge climate change, okay? (And before anyone throws Godwin’s law back at me, just remember – the Productivity Commission started it).

And here’s the biggest problem for me. The Productivity Commission started off making an economic argument. And there’s probably an important discussion to have around some of these things. It would be good to pay less for books. But why isn’t the Productivity Commission saying we should drop the GST on books, or force Amazon and other online retailer to pay the 10% tax and reduce their government-regulated competitive advantage. Lets discuss them.

Instead we get this nonsense – essentially an argument over what has literary merit. Stories matter to me, not externalities.

But clearly it’s important to them. So just in case they didn’t check – a note for the Productivity Commission: Cheapest I could find Mein Kampf on Amazon was US$1.46 (without shipping). But if that’s a bit much you can probably get it cheaper if everyone puts in and you buy the order in bulk.

Tags: Productivity Commission, Publishing
Posted in Publishing, Uncategorized, politics | 1 Comment »

To market to market with a hit like Twilight

Monday, April 20th, 2009

I took this photo a week or so ago at the Brisbane Borders store. It got me thinking about the future of bookstores (as distinct from the book business) becoming more and more analogous to cinemas.

There are around 220 copies of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books here – and that’s on top of the display on the ground floor, the display in the science fiction and fantasy section, the display in the YA section and the posters promoting the upcoming release of the DVD. It’s no surprise there are reports that the Meyer books accounted for 16% of all tracked book sales in the US in the first quarter.

Many chain bookstores are already stocking fewer titles but the oncoming ebook swarm is about to make that even more profound. I suspect we’re going to see chain bookstores either devote more space to making it easier to buy ebooks instore (in the interim) and then move to stocking substantially fewer “hit” titles. The cinema analogy comes into play when you look at choosing a movie online or from the rental store, or going to see one of eight or 10 movies on the big screen.

Question is how fast it will happen and what it will mean for the book biz in the meantime.

Posted in Publishing, e-books | 3 Comments »

Aloud allowed – the Kindle 2, authors and readers

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

The burgeoning brouhaha over the new Kindle’s ability to read text aloud opens up some cool questions and reveals some interesting underlying misconceptions from various parties.

The story so far for those who missed it: Amazon this week re-Kindled its ebook reader and announced some new features including more storage capacity, better screen contrast, round keys and a text-to-speech feature.

It’s this last ‘new’ feature that’s causing all the grief (mind you – round keys! Seriously? That’s outrageous)

Some small publishers are concerned about how it impacts on rights issues and what that may mean for author payments. But the biggest noise is being made by the Authors Guild, which is insisting the text-to-speech functions not just infringes audio rights but is essentially the same thing.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Authors Guild executive director Paul Aiken said: “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud. That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”

Text-to-speech is a transient form – not a recording. It’s no more a breach of an author’s copyright than reading a work aloud to yourself is. It is not derivative unless someone broadcasts the audio or records it (I’ll save format shifting arguments for another time).

And the technology already exists. Windows will do it for you already with many ebooks and there’s plenty of places on the web that will as well. If you’re keen to hear Mr Aiken’s quote in all its auditory glory, check it out here.

I remember convincing my three-year-old nephew once that there was a little man living in my speakers because he used to talk to him after I typed some text into my computer. That would have been in about 1992. This ain’t nothing new folks.

I’ve often tried to win debates by arguing a more outlandish case and have someone argue me back towards my desired (and more reasonable) point. But The Authors Guild has a long way to go given they first have to be argued from wrong to silly before they can meaningfully engage.

As a reader, I think it’s a great idea. It means I can put my book down for a few minutes and stay with the story the story.

As an author, I think it’s a great idea. it means my readers can put the book down for a few minutes and stay with the story.

Wouldn’t this be a great tool to add to WordPress or LJ?

One defence many supporters are offering that doesn’t fly with me is that it shouldn’t matter anyway because the quality of the computerised reading voice is so poor it doesn’t come close to replicating the experience of a trained voice actor read an audio book. The quality of the computerised voice is poor. But it won’t be forever. Check out the audio of the Aiken quote that I had the website create for me. It’s not Orson Welles or Morgan Freeman but it’s actually not too bad. And it will get better, much better, over time.

To me though, it’s just another example of why authors should work hard to understand themselves and their work as a platform. It can be confusing stuff but the publishing world is changing and authors need to engage with this stuff any more.

On a final note turns out science fiction author Fred Pohl is on a Guild advisory council. Fred’s a smart guy. Maybe he could knock their heads together a bit. You out there, Fred?

Tags: ebooks, Kindle, rights
Posted in Publishing, e-books | No Comments »

The Meyer Imperative

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Ever noticed how later books in a wildy popular series rapidly balloon in length? You’re not alone. I’m not the first – far from it – and won’t be the last to comment on the increasing length of books in series such as Twilight and Harry Potter.

But I thought it might be worth putting some rigour – ie numbers – around some of the assumptions. So I wheeled out my trusty version of Excel and decided to put its graphing abilities to good use. I wanted to see how rapid the rise (or fall) in page length was over the course of novel series that became suddenly successful.

The four series I chose to graph were:

Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter – J. K. Rowling
the Mars Trilogy – Kim Stanley Robinson
Lord of the Rings – J. R. R Tolkien

Here’s what the results look like.

I included the last two as controls (and because, you know, they were close to hand). I considered including Asimov’s Foundation books as another (of which there are seven, not including his expanded Empire and Robot series and novels written by other authors). But for the record, Foundation, first published in 1951 in book form totalled 255 pages. The last in the series was Forward the Foundation, which was published 42 years later and came in at 464 pages.

All comparisons are between consistent editions.

For the record:

the first Twilight book was 434 pages and the last was 736
the first Harry Potter book was 223 pages and the last was 607 (book five peaked at 766 pages
the first Mars book was 519 pages and the last was 609.
the first Lord of the Rings book was 427 pages and the last 416

But here’s where it gets tricky – and probably why the post is titled the Meyer Imperative rather than the Potter Principle. Rowling pulled back on the length of books six and seven. So to adequatelty compare we need to plot all series as if they went to seven books. Enter Excel.

At seven books apiece the last Harry Potter book was 2.7 times the length of the first one. But if the Twilight series had continued in the same pattern, a seventh book in the series would have come in at whopping 1306 pages. And that length would have made in a smidgen over 3 times the lenth of the first book. A seventh Mars book (Muave Mars, anyone?) would have only clocked in at 828 pages.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

But what’s it all mean, I hear you ask. Who knows? I suspect that publishers who find they’ve got a massive hit on their hands let writers have a freer hand – not necessarily to keep them happy but more likely I suspect to get the product to market faster.

And it isn’t by definition a comment on quality – and certainly I haven’t read the Twilight books – but it will be interesting to see what happens with the next series from Rowling and Meyer, whether they’re a success or not quite so much. And what that means for lengthas the series progress.

Tags: authors, Meyer Imperative
Posted in Publishing, Reading | 2 Comments »

End of the road for Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Sad news from Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror has been cancelled. St Martin’s won’t do any more collections, meaning the anthology edited by Kelly and Gavin, and Ellen Datlow is no more. They are three great editors who have worked hard to put together wonderful collections.

I suspect we’ll see a few more year’s bests pop up in its place but they’ll be from smaller publishers making for an even more fragmented market.

Tags: Year's best
Posted in Publishing, Reading | No Comments »

Aurealis Awards shortlist

Monday, December 8th, 2008

The Aurealis Awards team has announced the finalists for 2008. For the first time it includes categories for best collection and best anthology. Some great nominations in there, with a fine representation of Clarion South alumni.

Best Science Fiction Novel

K A Bedford, Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
Marianne de Pierres, Chaos Space, Book Two of the Sentients of Orion, Orbit
Simon Haynes, Hal Spacejock: No Free Lunch, Fremantle Arts Centre Press
Kim Westwood, The Daughters of Moab, HarperVoyager
Sean Williams, Earth Ascendant, Astropolis Book Two, Orbit

Best Science Fiction Short Story

Simon Brown, ‘The Empire’, Dreaming Again, HarperVoyager
Nathan Burrage, ‘Black and Bitter, Thanks’, The Workers’ Paradise, Ticonderoga Publications
Trent Jamieson, ‘Delivery’, Cosmos, #21
Margo Lanagan, ‘The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross’, Dreaming Again, HarperVoyager
Tansy Rayner Roberts, ‘Fleshy’, 2012, Twelfth Planet Press

Best Fantasy Novel

Alison Goodman, The Two Pearls of Wisdom, HarperCollins
Sylvia Kelso, Amberlight, Juno Books
Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels, Allen & Unwin
Juliet Marillier, Heir to Sevenwaters, Macmillan Australia
Karen Miller, The Riven Kingdom, Godspeaker Book Two, HarperVoyager

Best Fantasy Short Story

Thoraiya Dyer, ‘Night Heron’s Curse’, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #37
Karen Maric, ‘The Last Deflowerer’, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #32
Angela Slatter, ‘Dresses, Three’, Shimmer, Vol 2 #4
Cat Sparks, ‘Sammarynda Deep’, Paper Cities, Senses 5 Press
Kim Westwood, ‘Nightship’, Dreaming Again, HarperVoyager

Best Horror Novel

Jack Dann, The Economy of Light, PS Publishing
Nick Gadd, Ghostlines, Scribe Publications
John Harwood, The Séance, Jonathan Cape

Best Horror Short Story

Lee Battersby, ‘In From the Snow’, Dreaming Again, HarperVoyager
Deborah Biancotti, ‘Pale Dark Soldier’, Midnight Echo, #1
Trent Jamieson, ‘Day Boy’, Murky Depths, #4
Kirstyn McDermott, ‘Painlessness’, Greatest Uncommon Denominator (GUD), #2
Ian McHugh, ‘Bitter Dreams’, L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol XXIV

Best Anthology

Bill Congreve & Michelle Marquardt (editors), The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction, MirrorDanse Books
Jack Dann (editor), Dreaming Again, HarperVoyager
Jonathan Strahan (editor), The Starry Rift, Viking Children’s Books

Best Collection

Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams, Russell B Farr (editor), Ticonderoga Publications
Robert Hood, Creeping in Reptile Flesh, Altair Australia Books

Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel

Steve Hunt & David Richardson, The Cloudchasers, ABC Books
Shaun Tan, Tales from Outer Suburbia, Allen & Unwin
Colin Thompson, The Floods Family Files, Random House Australia
Julie Watts, The Art of Graeme Base, Penguin/Viking

Best Young Adult Long Fiction

Isobelle Carmody, The Stone Key, Obernewtyn Chronicles, Volume Five, Penguin/Viking
David Cornish, Lamplighter, Monster Blood Tattoo Book Two, Omnibus Books
Alison Goodman, The Two Pearls of Wisdom, HarperCollins
Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock, Penguin/Viking
Sean Williams, The Changeling, The Changeling series book one, Angus & Robertson

Best Young Adult Short Fiction

Deborah Biancotti, ‘The Tailor of Time’, Clockwork Phoenix, Norilana Books
Dirk Flinthart, ‘This Is Not My Story’, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #37
Trent Jamieson, ‘Cracks’, Shiny, #2
Kevin McLean, ‘Eye of the Beholder’, Misspelled, DAW Books

Best Children’s (8-12 Years) Long Fiction

Simon Higgins, Moonshadow, Eye of the Beast, Random House Australia
Sophie Masson, Thomas Trew and the Island of Ghosts, Hodder Children’s
Emily Rodda, The Wizard of Rondo, Omnibus Books
Carole Wilkinson, Dragon Dawn, Black Dog Books
Sean Williams, The Changeling and The Dust Devils, The Changeling series books one and two, Angus & Robertson

Best Children’s (8-12 Years) Illustrated Work/Picture Book

Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg & Kim Gamble, Tashi and the Phoenix, Allen & Unwin
Richard Harland & Laura Peterson (illustrator), Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown, The Wolf Kingdom series, Omnibus Books
Ian Irvine & David Cornish (illustrator), Thorn Castle, Giant’s Lair, Black Crypt, Wizardry Crag, The Sorcerer’s Tower series, Omnibus Books
Sally Morgan with Ezekiel, Ambelin and Blaze Kwaymullina & Adam Hill (illustrator), Curly and the Fent, Random House Australia
Richard Tulloch & Terry Denton (illustrator), Twisted Tales, Random House Australia

Winners announced in Brisbane on January 24, 2009. See you there.

Tags: Aurealis Awards, Clarion South
Posted in Publishing | No Comments »

Of cars and writing groups

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

No one is surprised that few short stories or novels will be ready to go right from first draft. One way writers can help improve their work is to put it in front of a writing group for feedback. As well as offering critiques, writing groups can help with networking, market tips and plain old-fashioned friendship.

Brisbane has the best open speculative fiction writing group in Australia. It’s called Vision and has helped nurture writers such as Trent Jamieson, Marianne de Pierres, Grace Dugan, Dirk Flinthart, Jason Nahrung, Cory Daniels and others.

I learnt a lot from Vision and wanted to share some of my thoughts about what makes a good writing group. First off, the car thing. Writing groups are like cars for a number of reasons:

They’re very useful in modern publishing.
They will help you get places faster
You’ll pick up some friends along the way
Just make sure you don’t choose a lemon

So, how do you choose a good writing group? Let’s be honest though – working out whether a writing group is the right one for you comes mostly down to gut. But here are three simple rules that may help you work things out faster.

Rule one: If others don’t take their writing seriously they probably won’t take your writing seriously either. The single best way to ascertain how serious others are about their writing is to ask a few simple questions:

How many people have published something in the last six months?
How many people have submitted something out in the last six weeks?
How many people have started or finished something in the last six days?
How many people have done any writing in the last six hours?

If the answer to all of those questions is ‘none’ you may want to reconsider participation in that group. Having people who don’t treat their writing as a ‘hobby that they’ll get around to some time’ is even more important than having people writing in the same genre as you.

Rule two: The only thing that sport and critique groups should have in common is that they should both be governed by a set of rules.

Critiquing isn’t a performance sport and it’s not debating
It shouldn’t be about stroking one person’s ego
Should be a clear set of rules about the critiquing process

A writing group should operate in a civilized and consistent manner. It should give all members a good opportunity to participate and it should have checks and balances that stop one person dominating.

Rule three: When the critique group outgrows its usefulness to you, move on.

Humans are social creatures and belonging to a tribe is important. It’s even more vital for writers who spend much of their time tapping away in solitude. So, if the time comes that you’re not getting much from the core work of the group, maybe it’s time to move on. When it’s time to move on, move on. Just think about how you can pay it forward.

They are some of my quick thoughts. Anyone else have any suggestions or experiences – good or bad?

Tags: writing, writing groups
Posted in Publishing | 5 Comments »

By the Numbers

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

Author Sean Williams has a great little post on his blog packed with info about the financial life of authors.

Williams has handy pie charts on his expenses, income source and income breakdown which give great examples of the business side of being a fulltime writer that you don’t hear enough about. He’s also got a graph showing fluctiuations in writing income over two decades.

Check it out.

Tags: business, Publishing, writing
Posted in Publishing | 2 Comments »

World Fantasy Award winners

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

I’m sure that almost everyone who is interested in who won the 2008 World Fantasy Awards will already know but for the sake of posterity, here they are:

Life Achievement
Leo & Diane Dillon
Patricia McKillip

Novel
Ysabel Guy Gavriel Kay [Viking Canada/Penguin Roc]

Novella
Illyria Elizabeth Hand [PS Publishing]

Short Story
“Singing of Mount Abora” Theodora Goss [Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra]

Anthology
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural Ellen Datlow, Editor [Tor]

Collection
Tiny Deaths Robert Shearman [Comma Press]

Artist
Edward Miller

Special Award-Professional
Peter Crowther for PS Publishing

Special Award-Non-professional
Midori Snyder and Terri Windling for Endicott Studios Website

I would have done them sooner but I literally just got back from a post-awards judge’s panel, drinks then dinner; then more drinks. More on the con later but I’m also very pleased to let people know that we’ll continue to have some Aussie representation on the judging panel with Jenny Blackford being named a judge (along with Peter Heck, Ellen Klages, Chris Roberson and Delia Sherman – a great panel).

Tags: world fantasy awards
Posted in Publishing, Reading | No Comments »

The 2008 World Tour

Friday, October 17th, 2008

The endgame of my stint as a World Fantasy Award judge is approaching rapidly. In a little over a week I’ll be jetting off overseas and in a little over a week the winners will be announced in Calgary, Canada.

After I’m back I’m going to review each of the winners and maybe do a category by category rundow. But until then a reminder of the life achievement winners and shortlisted nominees.

LIFE ACHIEVEMENT
Leo & Diane Dillon
Patricia McKillip

NOVEL
Fangland, John Marks (Penguin)
The Gospel of the Knife, Will Shetterly (Tor)
The Servants, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
Territory, Emma Bull (Tor)
Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)

NOVELLA
“Cold Snap”, Kim Newman (The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club)
Illyria, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing)
“The Master Miller’s Tale”, Ian R. MacLeod (F&SF May 2007)
The Mermaids, Robert Edric (PS Publishing)
“Stars Seen through Stone”, Lucius Shepard (F&SF Jul 2007)

SHORT STORY
“The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics”, Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea)
“The Church on the Island”, Simon Kurt Unsworth (At Ease with the Dead, Ash-Tree Press)
“Damned If You Don’t”, Robert Shearman (Tiny Deaths)
“The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change”, Kij Johnson (The Coyote Road)
“Singing of Mount Abora”, Theodora Goss (Logorrhea)

ANTHOLOGY
The Coyote Road, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Viking)
Five Strokes to Midnight, Gary A. Braunbeck & Hank Schwaeble, eds. (Haunted Pelican Press)
Inferno, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tor)
Logorrhea, John Klima, ed. (Bantam Spectra)
Wizards, Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Berkley)

COLLECTION
Dagger Key and Other Stories, Lucius Shepard (PS Publishing)
Hart & Boot & Other Stories, Tim Pratt (Night Shade Books)
Plots and Misadventures, Stephen Gallagher (Subterranean Press)
Portable Childhoods, Ellen Klages (Tachyon Publications)
The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club, Kim Newman (MonkeyBrain Books)
Tiny Deaths, Robert Shearman (Comma Press)

ARTIST
Ruan Jia
Mikko Kinnunen
Stephan Martiniere
Edward Miller
John Picacio

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
Allison Baker & Chris Roberson (for MonkeyBrain Books)
Alan Beatts & Jude Feldman (for Borderlands Books)
Peter Crowther (for PS Publishing)
Jeremy Lassen & Jason Williams (for Night Shade Books)
Shawna McCarthy (for Realms of Fantasy)
Gordon Van Gelder (for F&SF)

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
G. S. Evans & Alice Whittenburg (for Cafe Irreal),
John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
Rosalie Parker & Raymond Russell (for Tartarus Press)
Midori Snyder & Terri Windling (for Endicott Studios Website)
Stephen Jones (for Travellers in Darkness: The Souvenir Book of the World Horror Convention 2007)

Tags: 2008 trip, awards, Publishing, world fantasy
Posted in Publishing | No Comments »

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