How We Can Save Borderlands

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A while back, Borderlands Books announced that they would have to close up shop. This was met with much despair and many calls to investigate options to avoid closing.

Borderlands held a planning meeting earlier this month to consider options. Writer and Reviewer Sunil Patel took notes at the planning meeting, which I Storified here (N.B. these are not official meeting minutes).

And last night, the staff announced a proposed plan for how they would be able to stay open: yearly sponsorships at $100 each, offering special perks.

On Twitter last night, I saw a huge outpouring of support for Borderlands, and it looks like they’re well on their way to reaching the goal of 300 sponsorships to stay open through at least the end of 2015. I will be buying a sponsorship, for sure. And I would invite you, dear readers, to take a look at their website, look up the events they have hosted, the role they play in the SFF community, and to consider buying a sponsorship if it is within your means and your giving allowance.

Even though I’ve only physically been to Borderlands twice, I have felt the positive impact their presence has on the community. There are a very small number of specialist SF/F bookstores in the country, and Borderlands is one of the very best. It is my hope and sincere belief that the broader SF/F community can come together and give them the boost they need to continue to serve the San Francisco SF/F community, the city that is their home, and the genre writ large.

Side note – this post is not the place for discussion of the minimum wage regulations or Borderlands’ state reason for closing. That has been much-discussed elsewhere. This is about coming together to help the store.

Introducing GENRENAUTS

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Tor.com has announced their launch roster for The Imprint, including two books by me in a new series!

When I heard the news of Tor.com launching a novella imprint, focusing on digital sales and experimenting with different sales and promotion strategies, as well as offering a higher royalty rate on digital sales, Macmillan had my curiosity.

When they hired my former Angry Robot colleague Lee Harris as the Imprint’s Senior Editor, well…

Django Unchained Gif ' You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.'

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SFWA Welcomes Self-Published and Small Press Writers

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Creative Commons Books image

Late Tuesday afternoon, SFWA announced that it was revising its membership requirements to specifically allow self-published/indie/author-published and small press writers. This move had been under discussion for quite some time, and like many professional organizations, SFWA is somewhat slow to make large policy changes. But changed it has.

I am incredibly pleased by this change. There are many writers who have already been operating at professional levels who had not been allowed to join under the old rules. I hope that this leads to a notable membership boost, and allows SFWA members and officers to broaden the remit of SFWA to support writers regardless of the publishing path they pursue.

SFWA has done a lot for me and meant a lot to me since I joined in 2012. I’ve made connections and friends through events, I’ve had the chance to promote my work at convetions (especially the Baltimore Book Festival), and I’ve benefited from the professional insights shared on the forum and in the revamped SFWA bulletin.

Here’s to a new era for SFWA and for SFF prose writing!

The Fifth Element Approach to Process

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There’s a scene in The 5th Element (one of my favorite SF films – go see it if you haven’t) where the co-lead is reconstructed from a sliver of DNA and 3D printed back into existence.

I put together my stories kind of like that. In fact, exactly like that. I have a 3D story printer and it whirs away while I play video games and read comics. Secret revealed! *twirls mustache*

What I actually mean is that I put together a story from the inside out.

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Push Comics Forward

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…and while we’re at it, books, too.

Yesterday, the team at BOOM! Studios, one of the coolest independent comics publishers, announced a new initiative called ‘Comics Forward’

Push Comics Forward

Push Comics Forward has its own site, and a hashtag for discussion on Twitter (#ComicsForward)

And fortunately, BOOM! are not the only comic publisher pushing diversity and expanding their audience. DC has added Gotham Academy and Batgirl, Marvel has Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and more. Image has a swathe of comics like this – fewer for all-ages, but many that expand the range of what’s available in comics storytelling.

Some quick historical context: when comes were at their most popular, they encompassed a wide range of genres (especially including romance, a notable missing genre among most larger comics publishers right now, crime, as well as supernatural/fantasy/supers), and the readership was both women and men. It’s only later on that the major publishers narrowed their aesthetic and marketing focus in a way that excluded women and younger audiences. So this intentional expansion of what kinds of stories are being told and what audiences are being invited in is not a question of ‘cheapening’ comics or ‘giving in to feminism’ (which is like saying ‘giving in to equality and compassion’), but more like a return to the breadth of content and readership comics had at its height.

I am excited to see what Push Comics Forward will accomplish, for BOOM! and for comics more broadly.

In both comics and in SFF literature, there’s been ongoing conversations about diversity and representation, to the point that I hope it will prove to be a sea change and not a seasonal or temporary topic. With initiatives like Push Comics Forward, the Destroy Science Fiction anthologies (Women Destroy Science Fiction, Queers Destroy Science Fiction), We Need Diverse Books, and more, I hope that a high standard of diversity and representation will become just another part of what is expected from the comics and SFF literary world. I’ve been doing my best to be part of the equation by writing as diversely as I can, and there are many other writers leading the way in the prose world – Seanan McGuire, Ann Leckie, Kameron Hurley, Max Gladstone, N.K. Jemisin, Saladin Ahmed, and many many more.

Whether these efforts succeed or fail will be decided by creators and consumers both. So let’s Push Comics (and Books) Forward.

And the Content Wars Continue

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I’ve talked before about the Content Wars in media – the fight for exclusive content, of capturing, holding, and monetizing attention with subscription models, walled garden marketplaces, and so on.

It behooves writers, readers, and all media consumers/producers to stay abreast of what’s going on in the broader business landscape for creatives.

Which is why I wanted to point out this Tumblr article by musician Zoe Keating.

The music industry is not the publishing industry, so I’m not saying this precise model will be replicated in publishing with services like Kindle Unlimited, Oyster, Scribd, etc.

But among other things, it’s a good reminder to be aware of the partnerships you’re making, and that aggregators, distributors, and retailers (Google, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Kobo) are not your friends. They are businesses looking out for their own best interests. And if you are beholden to any one of them for too much of your business/reach/content, it can and often does end poorly.

Comics Love – January 2015

Gallery

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Bitch Planet #1 cover

This gallery contains 4 photos.

After attending Baltimore Comic-Con, I’ve drastically increased my comics consumption because 1) I love comics and 2) I’m keeping abreast of what’s going on in the industry, since 3) I’m getting into writing comics. I talk about what I’m reading a … Continue reading →

ConFusion 2015

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This weekend, I’ll be joining some of my favorite authors and hundreds of cool fans at ConFusion, an excellent SF/F convention in Michigan.

Here’s my schedule:

Friday, January 16th

8:00 PM (Southfield) — Urban Fantasy Authors Interview

Jackie Morgan interviews Courtney Allison Moulton, Susan Dennard, Michael R. Underwood, and Diana Rowland

10:00 PM (Model T Boardroom) — Bradley P. Beaulieu and Michael R. Underwood Reading

Brad and I will read things. It will be awesome. Brad is a great reader, and I’d like to think I’m no slouch, either. 🙂

Saturday, January 17th

4:00 PM (Huron-Ontario-Erie) — Autographing session

Saladin Ahmed, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Robert J. Bennett, Tobias Buckell, Cinda Williams Chima, Wesley Chu, Monte Cook, Delilah S. Dawson, Seleste deLaney, Michael J. DeLuca, Susan Dennard, Shanna Germain, Merrie Haskell, Douglas Hulick, Christian Klaver, Mary Robinette Kowal, Courtney Allison Moulton, Laura Resnick, Jason Sanford, John Scalzi, Catherine Shaffer, Patrick S. Tomlinson, Michael R. Underwood, Doselle Young

Come meet your favorite authors, artists and musicians and have them sign things! (Please limit your signing requests to
3 items per person.)

5:00 PM (Dearborn) — Where the $@# Are All My Bookstores?

Michael R. Underwood (M), Christine Purcell, Douglas Hulick, Rowena Cherry

Ah, the good old days when you could just drive down the street to pick up your favorite book. Or is it easier now to just click a “Buy” button? How has the book selling industry changed in the last 20 years, and are bookstores going to quietly
disappear?

9:00 PM (Southfield) — A Glimpse Behind the Curtain: The Business Side to Writing and Publishing

Michael R. Underwood (M), Tobias Buckell, Kameron Hurley, Whitney Ross

There are many resources available about developing the craft of writing, but many writers enter the business without knowing the nuts and bolts of how the industry works – query letters, agents, advances, contracts, and more. This roundtable with established authors and publishing professionals will cover these topics and more, tailored to audience
questions.

Sunday, January 18th

11:00 AM (Huron) — The Comics Code

Saladin Ahmed (M), Michael R. Underwood, Doselle Young, Peter V. Brett

Where have all the diverse, feminist comics gone? How about the 1930s and 40s, in the days before the Comics Code?

12:00 PM (Huron) — Time Travel TV

Michael R. Underwood (M), Whitney Ross, Michael Marcus, David M. Stein

From Doctor Who to Outlander, what’s going on with time travel on TV?

 

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And outside of these panels, you’ll be able to find me in the common room or the bar, most likely. It is a convention, after all.

See you there!

 

 

Tsu Kid on the Block

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Every so often, a new social media pops up, makes some noise, and then, most of the time, fades away after a couple of months.

The newest contender is Tsu. As far as names go, it ranks pretty high on punability, which is fun.

 

What’s Tsu?

Tsu, at the moment, looks like a mix between Twitter and Facebook, with an asymmetrical follow system like Twitter, as well as a double-approve friend system like Facebook. It’s got more graphic design going on than the incredibly stark ello.

 

What makes Tsu different from the fifty-zillion other social media sites?

The major difference between Tsu and other social media sites is how it treats content and equity. Tsu acknowledges that users are content creators, and that engagement with the site comes from users. And not only does Tsu accept that users are content creators, it’s giving equity for content. Shares and views and likes and comments build your equity with Tsu.

This admission of users as content creators is good on its own, but adding equity on top of that makes me far more interested in using Tsu than even the more warm-fuzzy-feelings of Ello.

 

Features

Sharing is already more intuitive and effective than Ello’s sharing, and responding in-thread is very easy. It shares pictures fairly well, but there is no edit function to clean up typos.

Sharing outside of Tsu is very limited, since Tsu is currently in a beta form, and even content that’s been shared publicly isn’t really public except to people with Tsu accounts.

 

Summary

It’s still early days with Tsu, and so far, most of my network are other writers, so its utility for discovery and engagement is somewhat limited, but we shall see.

If you want to check out Tsu, you can join the advance guard here.