Book Review: The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing by J. A. Konrath

Love him or hate him, Joe (“J. A. “) Konrath is a mystery/crime/thriller/horror author who has become one of the most vocal proponents of self-publishing eBooks. You might disagree with what he has to say about the changing paradigm of book publishing and retail, but you certainly can’t ignore the guy. He has perhaps become best known for his blog, which covers his own efforts at getting his books and stories published and sold, and for his relentless, indefatigable defense of self-publishing eBooks. (If you are at all interesting in writing professionally, you really do owe it to yourself to at least check out his blog.)

This is a mammoth collection of Konrath’s old blog entries, some covering his self-promotion efforts for past books, though most concern various aspects of writing, publishing, and Konrath’s current efforts to self-publish his work as eBooks on Amazon and other sites. There’s quite a lot to wade through, as the material goes back years, to the start of Konrath’s career. You will want to take some time to cruise through the entire collection. The blog entries are presented chronologically within certain very broad topical categories. In each section, I found the entries from the last couple years most useful, as Konrath’s views have changed over time. For the first few years of his career, he was a staunch defender of traditional publishing, though as he dipped his toes in the self-publishing/eBook world, his opinions began to change. Now, Konrath says that anyone who publishes their work with a traditional publisher is, essentially, a fool. I’m not sure that I’d personally go quite that far, but Konrath’s case is presented so convincingly that it’s hard to disagree with him.

Do you need this collection? After all, it’s really just a nicely-formatted compilation of all of his old blog entries, with links to all of the entries comments and so forth. No, you certainly don’t technically need to buy this eBook, as it really is all available for free online. But it’s a lot easier to read it all in one place, and frankly, it’s cheap enough that I don’t think you’ll mind paying for that convenience if you plan to read a sizable chunk of his blog.

I give this ebook collection 4 stars out of five, though that may be a bit generous. I’d actually like to see this one receive some editing, proofreading, and an update. Since this collection came out, Konrath has actually written quite a bit more on the topic that’s not included here. I’d also excise all the early material in which Konrath badmouths the ebook craze (in hindsight, those entries are kind of ironic). He’s fully repudiated that view by now and is one of the biggest proponents of self-publishing ebooks. Since Konrath began his blog, he’s witnessed a real paradigm shift in publishing, and we’re all along for the ride. A new edition that focuses solely on tips for self-pubbing ebooks and includes all his comments on that since the publication of this edition would result in a much stronger, more tightly focused, and, ultimately, useful volume. Something like that would get close to 5 stars from me. The problem with the collection is that while it’s interesting as a more-or-less historical artifact on one author’s views of publishing over time, it’s really only the entries from, say, 2009-10 onward that are relevant to today’s publishing environment. I will say this, though: Konrath’s blog and this collection, have been instrumental in helping change my own views on eBooks as a phenomenon – they are here to stay, folks, and whether we like it or not, they are only going to grow at the expense of physical books. Konrath’s an fun, engaging writer, and his blog has made me read a half-dozen of his books. Say what you will, but Joe Konrath is a pretty savvy guy.

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Review copyright 2011 J. Andrew Byers

Recent Acquisitions: Pulpy awesomeness

I haven’t posted about recent book acquisitions in a long, long while, but I have some real treasures to mention, so here goes. I stopped by a local used bookstore I don’t pop into very often a couple weeks ago. No reason for staying away for so long, I just never get around to it. In any case, the place had lain fallow for probably a year or so. These finds were well worth the wait. Here’s what I got:

* The first two Dreamlands novels by Brian Lumley ($2.50 each). Sure, I know that many Lovecraft purists don’t like Lumley’s contributions to the Mythos, but I’ve always enjoyed his enthusiasm, even if he tends to expend too much of his wordcount on exposition and really long flashbacks.

* Seven Doc Savage novels (the Bantam editions), five of which I didn’t already have ($2.50 each). The ones I didn’t already have: THE MYSTIC MULLAH, THE PHANTOM CITY, THE METAL MASTER, THE KING MAKER, and THE RED TERRORS. The duplicates were THE DEVIL GENGHIS and THE LAND OF TERROR. I need to bundle up those latter books with my other Doc Savage duplicates and put them on eBay. I’ve also got some Dray Prescott and Fu Manchu duplicates, among many others, so drop me a line if you’re interested and perhaps we can work something out.

* Seven ORIGINAL pulp magazines, all in just about as good a condition as you could expect to find in 2011. ($4.00 each!!!!!) These are: FANTASTIC ADVENTURES June, July, September, October, November 1948; January 1949; and August 1952. I have many, many reprint editions of pulp novels, stories, collections, the magazines themselves, etc., but these are my first actual pulps. Yes, I know that this wasn’t one of the major titles, and it’s from an era that was slightly past the heyday of the pulps, but, hey, at $4 a piece, how could I pass these up? A phenomenal find, and one that made my day. (The pictures of these beauties are a little fuzzy because they are in plastic sheaths.)

Book Review: Transhuman Space: In the Well by Jonathan Woodward

Almost ten years ago, Steve Jackson Games created what I think is one of the most original RPG settings out there: Transhuman Space. The world of Transhuman Space is our solar system in the year 2100 where all of the predictions and fantasies of today’s transhumanists have come true. Strong AI is available, individual brains can be downloaded and uploaded, biotechnology has produced a number of amazing developments, and humanity has begun to really explore and settle the entire solar system. I should note that while the setting was first created almost a decade ago, SJG is still supporting the game line, primarily through e-books. This was one of the first major books put out for Transhuman Space, and covers the “inner system” of Mars, Venus, and Mercury; the book has a significant emphasis on Mars, since that’s where most of the interesting gaming potential is here. Venus and Mercury are, realistically, dangerous, difficult places with not all that much value for (trans)humans.

In the Well contains eleven chapters, some of which are very short, with the first providing a brief history of Mars and its settlement and colonization. The next two contain details on the geography, terrain, and atmosphere of Mars. The fourth chapter provides a lengthy description of all of the key elements and groups, national, corporate, ideological/cultural, and religious. The next two chapters contain very short introductions to what’s going on on Mercury and Venus. There’s not a great deal of detail here, because frankly not that much is going on in either world. There are small mining in research facilities on each, and Venus has a major, long-term European terraforming effort occurring there. The seventh chapter contains a very brief introduction to the inhabited settlements on asteroids and independent habitats in the inner system. The eighth chapter contains an introduction to various character types, professional, parahuman, and bioroid. The next chapter contains information on specific pieces of equipment and vehicles found mainly on Mars. The tenth chapter contains a short piece on the genetically engineered animals, both domestic and wild, to be found on Mars. And the final chapter contains a number of suggested campaign frameworks as well as some secrets/conspiracies taking place on Mars. The book closes out with a lengthy appendix that provides a wheeled vehicle modular design system. (Designing vehicles from scratch in GURPS isn’t my idea of a good time, so I’ll leave that section to others to discuss.)

Areas I liked: I like all the details about Mars’ climate and terrain, as well as all of the game mechanics for living and operating on Mars. I think that having a prospecting or scientific/exploration sort of game would be a lot of fun, and it’s certainly possible given the mechanics provided. I also like the somewhat free-wheeling/wild West feel of Mars and think that Mars as a kind of new frontier space works very well. While there aren’t any “Indians” on Mars, there are certainly plenty of criminal/organized crime groups there which should work very well. You could easily have an interesting law enforcement/crime campaign set on Mars.

Areas I didn’t like: Mars was a fine setting, but to be honest, I found both Mercury and Venus to be, well, boring. It’s hard for me to imagine having interesting, dynamic adventures or campaigns on either of those planets. Transhuman Space, despite its many pretenses to the contrary, isn’t really a “hard” science fiction setting. That doesn’t bother me, but I know that some of its fans like to emphasize the harder science fiction elements in the setting. If you’re one of these folks, you may be a little bothered by the rapid pace of Mars’ terraforming. While I think that what they’ve done with Mars is interesting, and is a place where you could have a perfectly fine campaign, its depiction here didn’t exactly make me want to run out and immediately begin a campaign set there. While I can see that there are a number of campaign possibilities for Mars, none of them immediately leapt out at me as being ones that I feel I immediately have to run.

I give this one 4 stars out of five, and so I recommended it to both completists as well as those interested in running a game set on Mars. Mars is clearly designed as one of the main adventure settings in Transhuman Space, serving as a kind of “wild West” in which PCs can operate relatively autonomously, though still interacting with a number of established societies, and government/legal systems. The book provides a fun setting, though for me personally, it’s not my favorite in the setting.

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Review copyright 2011 J. Andrew Byers

Borders Post-Mortem

Business Week has just posted a long, interesting post-mortem of the Borders book chain. The article also includes a nice history of the company. I haven’t posted about Borders in a good while — since it went out of business and all — and this may well be my final post on the topic. Some points I found interesting in the linked article:

* “When Borders declared bankruptcy in February, more than 200 of its 400 outlets were still ‘highly profitable,’ says its final chief executive officer, Mike Edwards.” Location, location, location. Some were good, others not so good. It’s really too bad that Borders’ overall debt picture was sufficiently poor that it was unable to restructure itself, close the unprofitable locations, focus on the ones that were working, and rebuild itself a leaner, meaner company.

* Suggested factors for Borders’ demise:
— The downturn in the economy.
— Tough competition from Amazon.
— Extremely late (and poor) embrace of online book retailing.
— Too much in investment in CDs and DVDs, just as customers were switching to digital downloads.
— Too much expansion of brick-and-mortar locations. Good locations are the key for bookstores, and a larger physical footprint may not be better.

* Brick-and-mortar stores can’t really compete based on having a large in-house inventory. No matter how large the store’s inventory is, it’s nothing compared to Amazon, which essentially stocks all in-print books, among other items.

* Barnes & Noble may have to start trimming its own less-than-profitable locations. We’ve seen just a few hints that this may indeed be going on, so perhaps there is some traction to the idea of an upcoming B&N downsizing. keep your eyes peeled for more indications that this is happening.

Sale at Clarkesworld Books

I wanted to alert you all to a fabulous new sale at Clarkesworld Books. The store closed years ago, but they still hold a good amount of inventory and periodically offer great sales to clear some space. It’s run by Neil Clarke, who also Clarkesworld Magazine (semi-pro-zine of SFF) and Wyrm Publishing (a small press), and I’ve done business with them in the past, so I can vouch for their service. Sadly, my book budget is currently operating on fumes, so I probably won’t be able to take advantage of this sale, but I wanted to pass it along so others could. I would urge you to particularly take a look at all the autographed copies they have available for excellent prices.

The sale only lasts until November 19.

Book Review: Wordsmith: Vols. 1 and 2 (The Veil of Heaven and The Thousand Eyes of Flame) by Michael R. Collings

Michael R. Collings has crafted a two-part, lengthy novel titled WORDSMITH. I haven’t seen this two-volume series (is it pretentious to call it a “duology”?), plus a prequel (which I previously reviewed here), receive much attention online. In fact, I was hard-pressed to find even a single significant review of either volume online, and that’s really too bad. I think it would appeal to many fans of fantasy (or “science fantasy”), and I’d compare it favorably with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s long-running Darkover series. If you’re at all familiar with M. A. R. Barker’s slightly more obscure novel series and role-playing game setting of Tekumel/The Empire of the Petal Throne, some elements – colonists from Earth who have long forgotten their heritage and established a new culture and society on an alien, metal-poor world and discovered magical/mystical abilities – will also seem familiar. I hesitate to describe it as a science fiction tale, though it shares many typical tropes of the genre (especially in the second volume), but I certainly wouldn’t quite describe it as straight “fantasy” either. Perhaps the catch-all “speculative fiction” label is the best we can apply to WORDSMITH.

Please note: plot spoilers follow, though I have studiously tried to avoid spoilering all the major twists and turns of the plot.

WORDSMITH is more or less the coming of age story of a young man, a social outcast, La’am Iam’Kendron-word (and yes, it’s a long story about what that name/title signifies), who ultimately grows in power, matures, and becomes both the most powerful man on Omne as well as its savior from outside forces. The Omnans, long-ago colonists from Earth, settled Omne and created a peaceful, pastoral society on a metal-poor world, renouncing technology and the company of other humans. Their world has been sheltered by the Veil of Heaven, part-mystic and part-cosmological phenomenon that has shielded them from outside attention and allowed them to remain aloof, isolated, and independent for centuries. The Omnans have discovered that Omne also holds a number of secrets, not the least of which is a kind of magic or energy that can be manipulated by those who dedicate themselves to its study (and service?).

The Omnans’ isolation is shattered in the second volume of WORDSMITH, which details the conflict that pulls apart Omnan society when a ship from Earth – or at least humanity’s larger society – arrives, seemingly in fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Sadly, but perhaps predictably, these visitors are little more than privateers, and do not have the best intentions of the Omnans in mind. They have arrived only to exploit what they can of Omne’s resources and then depart, leaving a shattered society behind. (This bit reminded me more than a little of Cortes’ arrival in Mexico, again, seemingly in fulfillment of a prophecy, and the eventual downfall of the Aztec Empire.) I hesitate to describe in detail the outcome of this struggle, though I will simply say that it explores the nature of the strange forces that permeate Omne, though it left me wanting more.

Ultimately, this is a book about a clash of cultures, moralities, and societies. To be sure, the Omnans are clearly the “good guys” and their unwanted, rapaciously exploitative visitors are the “bad guys.” But there’s still plenty of room for moralizing (I don’t mean that in a bad way) and the plot isn’t clearly telegraphed from the start, as with many similar stories.

I give this two-volume set a very hearty four stars out of five. It’s highly engrossing and entertaining throughout, despite its length. Collings is himself a wordsmith, and his prose reads effortlessly. The only elements preventing me from giving it a full five stars are the pacing of the second volume, which slows a bit and takes a somewhat meandering course before picking up at the end, and the mostly unknown and unclear origins and full capabilities of the strange powers we see on Omne. I am left with some lingering questions on this, but perhaps that lack of precise clarity is part of the point. I’d actually love to see more fiction from Collings set on the world of Omne and hope he’s working on it!

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Review copyright 2011 J. Andrew Byers