Alexandra Erin

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I think I’m going to make this part of my “warm-up routine”.

So, folks… I wasn’t planning on taking any time off for New Year’s Eve or Day, since I (ideally) write during the day (and thus would be free to mark the passing of the year in an appropriate fashion) and don’t have to leave the house to get to work by a particular hour (and thus would be able to sleep in a bit on the 1st anyway).

However, circumstances (insomnia, necessary computer maintenance stuff, backlogged household tasks) have kept me from getting down to writing during the appointed hours, so I’m declaring Tribe and Void Dogs “on holiday” for today. Tales of MU will still update. I don’t know how many people will be online looking for it, but I realize a lot of my readers overseas will already have marked the turning of the year, and a lot of my readers in America will be stumbling home and checking their computer for updates…

Anyway, you can also expect a long-winded, rambling, introspective “look how far I’ve come” type post from me some time today or tomorrow. Considering that this time last year, I was only starting to explore the idea of using ad boxes to earn money from my stories and here I am now making a fairly decent living, I think I’ve earned it.

Update:

I just got invited on a new years’ day excursion to see some good friends down in Kansas who I don’t visit with often enough, so tomorrow will be another “MU only” day. Wednesday will be back to normal.

Got an e-mail this morning that opened with “How do you expect to be taken seriously as an author if [you do all the things you're doing.]”

That’s my paraphrase in the brackets. It goes on for approximately seven paragraphs worth of text… though, notably, without any actual paragraph breaks. I’ll spare the details, though people who followed my little “tiff” a week and a half or so ago can probably guess the general drift and thrust of it, with the addition of hitting major plot points and recurring jokes in Tales of MU.

Then this afternoon I got another e-mail (from another person) asking me “how are we (presumably meaning, “the audience”) supposed to take Void Dogs seriously” and if I’m worried that people will have a harder time taking Tales of MU seriously because I’m also writing Void Dogs.

So far nobody’s asked me how I expect Ariella Rasputin to be taken seriously. I assume that must be because nobody’s having any problems doing so. The lady’s got gravitas to spare, apparently.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that I think people take being taken seriously too seriously. There’s a reason the last version of this blog bore the title “Hey! [I'm] Writing Here!” I’m not interested in whether or not people take me seriously. I’m interested in writing… and as an incidental consequence of that, being read.

To some people, Tales of MU is a guilty pleasure… a shallow, silly piece of entertainment that they’re probably honestly embarrassed to be reading. Other people see it as something much more.

I’m not really overly concerned with how many people are in each column, as long as they’re enjoying it.

I’d be a little bit concerned by anybody who did take Void Dogs too seriously, though.

After learning that many people within the self-publishing community are quite as concerned about our lack of a “quality filter” as people in the traditional publishing industry, I submitted my thoughts on the subject as a guest post on Novelr.

Copied from the Tales of MU FAQ:

What’s your position on fan fiction? Can I write stories set in the MUniverse?

Well… that’s a bit different.

I address this subject with a little caution because I realize a lot of the people who will be naturally inclined to read my stories are also readers, if not writers, of fan fiction… and so I want to start by explaining that I have no real problem with fan fiction in general.

I see absolutely no legal, ethical, moral, or philosophical problem with people writing fiction set in a game world, as such constructs are by their very nature open to a certain amount of interpretation and, in the case of a tabletop RPG or an online MMORPG, designed for people to make their own characters and envision their own adventures. What’s the difference between making up an adventure module for your friends to play and writing a story for all the net to see? Only the number of people who get to share in the fun… in fact, there’s some online authors who got started by essentially “novelizing” their campaigns.

Likewise, I see no ethical, moral, or philosophical problem with people writing fiction in a setting like a science fiction universe where the world has already been expanded beyond the scope of a single creator, a single series, a single version, etc. The legal issues are a little thornier, of course. Regardless of how you choose to interpret the question of “transformative” vs. “derivative” works, a massive media conglomerate can likely afford more lawyers than you can, but in the absence of a cease and desist order or a DMCA notice, you might as well have at it.

Where I’m troubled is when a fictional universe exists only within the works of a specific creator, who has nursed and shepherded it along. In that case, I think the wishes of the creator must be absolute. The act of bringing a character–or a world–to life can be an intensely personal thing. Having somebody come along and “mess with” that can be disheartening, or worse. It can feel like a kind of violation.

Not every author feels this way. If a particular author encourages or condones fan fiction, then it is fine to write fan fiction. If they don’t, though, then it isn’t. Remember that an author’s stories are a kind of children… and remember how a mother bear reacts if you step between her and her cubs.

Simply put, I would really rather people don’t write fan fiction based on my writings. All the common reasons that big multinational corporations cite when they clamp down on fan sites apply to me, magnified a hundredfold. I’m one person with a privately hosted site and a few thousand readers. It wouldn’t take much for my “brand” to be “diluted.”

It wouldn’t take much for the casual reader, newly becoming acquainted with MU, to become confused as to what is the official canon version and what is somebody’s personal interpretation… and no matter how many disclaimers you choose to put on something, somebody else coming along and seeing the secondary version might make their own version based on that, and forget the disclaimer or think it’s overkill…

Call me a control freak if you must, but please respect my wishes. If my only choice is between sharing my stories but having my rights as creator ignored, or keeping them to myself… well, I’d just as soon keep them to myself.

To quote W. B. Yeats:

“I have spread my dreams under your feet;

tread softly, for you tread upon my dreams.”

And that, in the words of the prophet, is all I have to say about that.

Tales of MU has been reviewed by Eli James of the aforementioned Novelr.

I took exception to one of his points but still consider it an overwhelmingly positive review, as the only bad things he has to say are about the inclusion of sex. It sounds as though like some others, he finds himself racing past those scenes to get back to the plot… well, I figure my long-term readers know what I think of that kind of thinking, but I figure that if the worst thing somebody can say about a story is that the parts they didn’t want to read didn’t work for them, that’s a good review in my book.

Honestly, I wouldn’t consider the review any less favorable if he had said all the same positive things and concluded with, “But the sex is too much for me. I just can’t keep reading.”… it would still help people find out about the work and give them some idea if it would suit their tastes, which is what I think a good review should do. From his comments elsewhere on the site, I think Mr. James would agree.

Anyway, it’s probably a better thing in the long run for me to have people out there saying, “I don’t like the sex scenes but I still found it worth my time.” (or “I don’t like the nerd culture in-jokes but I still found it worth my time,” for that matter) than it is to get a bunch of “I like everything in this story and so should you.” posts.

(Though I enjoy seeing those, too.)

Anyway, I’m working up a guest post for his site, on an unrelated topic. I mention it here in my blog so I don’t forget to actually do it.

Darwin A. Garrison, the individual whose armchair appraisal of Pages Unbound touched off the recent tempest in a teapot, is working towards a project that looks like it might be somewhat worthwhile: a webzine called “Darwin’s Evolutions”. This from his blog:

The basic premise is that paper-based publishing is currently involved in a fairly advanced form of bureaucratic bean-counter driven seppeku. Because of the change in customer attitudes regarding access to content and competition from other kinds of entertainment, we need to leverage the power of the internet to offset the lack of innovation and opportunity coming out of traditional publishing.

Well, of course my response to that would be a resounding two syllables which rhyme with “snow hit.”

He’s got some interesting ideas, including offering the content for free but with author-specific tip buckets. In another blog post on his Livejournal (some of his posts are mirrored between the two blogs, but not all… I’m not sure what his organizational scheme is here.), he mentions his interest in creating an archive of previously published works where the rights have reverted to the author. It’s not a bad idea. These can be difficult to sell (few publishers are interested in buying used goods!) and so the fact that the rights belong to the author don’t actually get them much.

I’ve got two questions about this. If he cares to answer, yay! But following our altercation, I’m not going to pose them to him directly.

One, what about previously self-published works? In other words, if I had a short story on my blog and I took it down and submitted it to the archive, would the nature of its previous publication even be a consideration, or only its quality? My personal suspicion is that whatever the official answer to this, Mr. Garrison’s bias towards something that has not undergone the “public service” of having been previously screened for the benefit of those bean-counters he dislikes would come into play. Maybe time will prove me wrong. I’m not likely to be his test case, though.

Second, forget previously published works belonging to the author… what about simultaneously published works belonging to the author? In other words, if an author has decided to slap their library of previously published shorts up on their own website with their own tip jar, would they be required to take that down before their works could be archived by DE?

The kneejerk answer to this would probably be “yes,” on the basis that one point of the archive will be to draw people to the DE site, but that’s outdated “bean-counter” thinking. What real tangible benefit would be gained from claiming exclusivity? Somebody reading John Q. Author’s “The Verbed Man” on the DE archive is not going to suddenly go, “Wait! This is also on jqauthor.com! Why am I reading it here?”

By and large, the benefit to DE (and any spillover for the authors of new works hosted there) will come from the presence of a sizable content library, not from the lure of an individual work which cannot be found anywhere else.

Perhaps Garrison realizes this, or will be open to the idea the first time it comes up.

The thing about his model is this: it’s got promise, but I’m not sure he grasps what it truly means to leave the bean-counting industry behind him.

My prediction is that the bulk of his submissions will come from people who would be better served by publishing themselves, in one of two ways: people whose work is not really up to professional snuff but they see a webzine and assume (perhaps correctly) that’s this is an easier target and (perhaps incorrectly) will get them a leg up towards more “legitimate” (quotes very heavily emphasized) publications… and people whose work is of a quality that it would draw attention to itself on a privately hosted website. 

Obviously, the best of the former group (those whose work can be made publishable) will benefit… to the at least marginal detriment of the latter group.

The webzine model has proven to be very hit or miss, and rarely (if ever) proves to be wildly profitable for any involved. On the off chance that Mr. Garrison (or anybody else who’s planning such a venture) is reading this, I’d like to make the following suggestion: forget about trying to be a “publisher.”

You are a content host.

Yes, in the technical and legal sense, you will still be publishing… and if you’ve got a sentimental attachment to the concept of “issues”, stick with it… but by God, don’t make me browse through issue by issue if I find your ‘zine three years in and I just want to read stories.

Make each “issue” a front page that links to stories already dumped into a directory that’s sortable by name of author and title alphabetical.

Make sure there’s navigation links at the bottom of each and every story so that somebody’s who’s in the mood to do what the webcomics folks call an “archive trawl” can read every single story in your archive without clicking more than one time between them, if that’s what they’re in the mood for!

Don’t segregate your originally published works from the archive of reverted-rights content. Don’t make readers a slave to the notion of “issues.”

Also, give them an unweighted random button!

And… if you’ve got access to somebody with the technical chops to pull it off, tag the stories so you can display three or five links at the bottom of “Related” or “You May Also Like” stories.

If you can’t swing all of that (I for one know what it’s like to try to run a website without being a qualified web developer), at the very least, make the alphabetical archive and put the Next, Prev links at the bottom of the stories, even if you have to do it by hand.

In short, if people are in the mood to keep reading, make it easy for them. Three stories an issue? Okay, three new stories a month might be all you can handle with an actual editorial process… but if you can swing it, launch your zine with four, five, or six stories for the first several issues. Build that archive fast! It’s what will keep people coming back.

If you plan on advertising (including networking and other cost-free promotional activities), wait until you’ve got three, if not six, issues out. Why? Because that’s when you’ll have enough content to make an impression. If you push the first issue, a lot of people will read what you’ve got, go, “Cool, I’ll have to remember to come back here.”… and then not come back.

Die-hard speculative fiction geeks… people with both enough sense of history to miss the old classic magazines and enough sense of the future to look to the internet read speculative fiction zines… but a great many more people spend a great deal more time browsing directories of fiction. It’s mostly fan fiction, and it’s mostly bad… and it’s not that some of these people don’t know they’re reading crap, but they’re bored and it’s there.

Here is the central truth that must be embraced to make this kind of thing a success:

This is the internet and Content Is King!

Content is what makes a web venture fail or succeed. Content is what brings people back. Content does not depend on presentation (except in the sense that a presentation which gets in the way of enjoying the content can drive people away.)

The best content is free content, naturally.

Which brings me to the next suggestion: advertising. Here’s the thing, Mr. Garrison (or anybody else planning a zine): your zine is going to depend on the best writers in your stable making a gift of their writing to you, in exchange for no benefit they could not get for themselves. They will do so once or twice because you have a worthy endeavor and they believe in it… but if they keep doing it, it will only be because of a mistaken perception that the tips trickling in are “probably the best we can expect. It is online, after all.”

It’s never really going to catch fire in most people’s minds because even if they see some sort of nebulous potential to embracing new technology and emerging markets, that’s never going to coalesce unless the money is there.

Where’s the money in free content? It’s in advertising. Keep a hit counter on each story… divide the advertising money proportionally. Heck, keep some of it in reserve and use it to buy advertising.

Internet audiences understand that advertising pays for free content. Less people will rebel at a line of inobtrusive Google ads down the sidebar then will object to “Premium Membership” costs for access to even some of the site content. (Especially if it’s the archive of stories from older issues. Do not make the mistake of thinking you can get people hooked with the three stories fromt he current issue and then they’ll pay for the archive. The archive is your draw. Content is king.)

I’ll close this up by referencing another blog post of Mr. Garrison’s. This one offers advice for writers. Number 8:

8: Yeah, the market sucks. Unfortunately, it’s the market you’ve got. So you either play or you spectate. Them’s the rules, make your choice.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It should read:

“Yeah, the market sucks. If you realize this, why are you still messing with it? You either play their game or you invent your own.

Them’s the choices, make your rules.”

I recently posed a broad question (or series of questions) to my MU readers about what makes online reading work for them. I’m still reading through the answers… a lot of it falls along the lines I kind of thought it would, but there’s one point that I hadn’t considered: it’s apparently very convenient for the seeing impaired.

Think about it: if you have little or no eyesight, you need a special copy of a print book with either enlarged print or braille. Online, you can adjust your browser preferences to make font larger, you can adjust the display colors for optimal contrast, you can use magnifying glass widgets, and you can use text-to-speech programs like Jaws… people who are extremely nearsighted, legally blind, photosensitive, etc., can find lots of advantages to getting their literature in electronic form.

First, I hate the term “blook” for “blog book.” That’s why I call what I do a “web novel” or “web serial.”

That said, there’s a fairly well-established blog about this kind of writing, called “Novelr”. (How very Web 2.0) Although they’re apparently not widely enough known for anybody to go, “Hey, Lexy, there’s people blogging about the sort of thing you’re doing!”, they’ve got a well-established archive of commentary and advice for people who are getting involved in this form.

Now, my frequent correspondent and fellow Nebraskan Lazette Gifford was so deeply concerned that I don’t include enough informational links on Pages Unbound… she need worry no more. As soon as I finish this post, I’m going to go add a link to Novelr to the site!

(Though, in an initial skim of the blog I’m not finding one prominent mention of the all-important potential loss of future sales which ‘zette thinks I need to be warning peopel about. Hmm… could it be that independent web authors as a group don’t really give a damn about losing their chance to beg for crumbs when they can carve out a whole piece of the pie instead?

Nah, they must just be naive.)

Novelr can be found here.

Whoo, well, I missed my targets for Tribe and 3 Seas updates this last week… I regret it but I’m not going to scramble to make them up. One thing I learned from my Star Harbor years–and from watching webcomics–is that while it’s important to hit your update schedule far more often than you miss it, you can sometimes dig the hole deeper trying to make up the misses. This weekend being what it is, I’m not really going to have a chance to make anything up until it’s time for fresh updates to everything again.

If I draw a line and say, “Okay, the goal is to update on time from this point forward.” then a week from now, the missed updates won’t matter. If I end up rearranging my schedule to squeeze them in, something else will be late, and something else will be late, and so on…

I’m articulating all of this not so much because I feel I need to justify myself, but because I think it’s good advice for anybody who’s doing a project like this: keep your update commitments no matter what.

But when you can’t… look forward, not back.