Category Archives: Uncategorized
On creative interruptions, or why I write genre fiction
Today I’m over at The Interruption, where I talk with Sean Cranbury about “the problems with genre, the difficult confinement of literary fiction, and the freedom allowed by pseudonyms.” Bonus content: I also read from one of the crazier sections of my new book, The Dead Hamlets.
Coffee Break: I Stole Your Cream and Sugar
So that reddit thread about piracy got people talking online. Here are the relevant reads:
- “9.6 times what I bring in in a YEAR from Amazon.” – M. Todd Gallowglass writes a blog post about how many pirated copies of his books are available on one site alone and what that may be costing him.
- “Is this immoral?” – reddit responds
- “If you’re an author, piracy doesn’t matter” – Writer Jake Kerr weighs in on the subject.
In other news:
- The Days of Meta-Meta: Fictional Characters and What They Might like to Read
- How and why Thomas Wharton went hybrid – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Business stuff!
Some good distribution news from my publisher, ChiZine. Full press release follows:
TORONTO, Ontario (March 2, 2015) — ChiZine Publications is pleased to announce it has signed new distribution agreements for its trade titles in Canada and eBooks globally.
CZP trade paperbacks will now be distributed in Canada by PGC/Raincoast. Worldwide eBook distribution will be handled by Trajectory.
CZP’s trade paperback distribution outside Canada will continue to be handled by Diamond Book Distributors.
“We’re looking forward to working with PGC/Raincoast,” says Brett Savory, co-publisher of ChiZine Publications. “They have a tremendous reputation helping independent publishers rise above the noise. With our growing catalogue of titles, a partner who can get our titles into the hands of fans nationwide is a big plus.”
“Trajectory is also a major step forward,” adds Sandra Kasturi, CZP’s other co-publisher. “Their innovative technical approach to eBooks makes them an industry leader. We embraced eBooks from the beginning, and Trajectory can help us extend our reach even farther.”
Technical difficulties — please stand by
I was alerted to the fact that the ebook versions of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice and The Dead Hamlets have stopped showing up on Kindle and related sites. Not to worry — it’s just a backend technical issue as my publisher switches distribution providers. I expect the ebooks to be available again shortly. Of course, you can always order direct from the publisher and give them a bigger cut of the money!
This also seems like a good time to sell ChiZine’s all-you-can-eat subscription service. Read until you throw up!
Coffee Break: What people are reading around the web
Because the Internet is for distraction.
- The Art of Agenting: “It’s harder to sell a book to a big publisher now than it was ten years ago, I think. The blockbusterization of the book industry has had the same effect as the blockbusterization of Hollywood—among many other industries.”
- A call to self-published fantasy authors: A contest to get reviewed on 10 of the top fantasy blogs
- Former MFA teacher trolls the web: “Anyone who claims to have useful information about the publishing industry is lying to you, because nobody knows what the hell is happening.”
- Chuck Wendig responds to the former MFA teacher: “I’m so angry, I’m actually just peeing bees.”
What’s your Moment?
I’ve really enjoyed some of the guest posts I’ve done at other blogs recently in support of my new novel, The Dead Hamlets. It’s been great to be a part of the Big Idea, My Bookish Ways, Eating Authors, The Hook and Unlikely Influences. I love reading what makes other writers tick, and it was an interesting process of self-discovery to think about my own works and writing processes a little harder when I wrote my guest posts. I hadn’t even realized how much things like the Gaudi church or mortality or other writers had affected me until I started talking about them on other people’s blogs. And, of course, it’s also great to reach out to the broader community for a little discussion — this writing thing can be a lonely business sometimes.
I thought it would be interesting to come up with my own version of those things, so I’ve created a space for other creators on my site. It’s called The Moment, where writers, artists, musicians, whatever can talk about the big moment that changed their lives. Here’s the general info:
Introducing The Moment
Every creator has a moment that changed their life — something they read, saw, experienced, heard, whatever. Let’s hear your moment. Tell us about what changed your life.
How to be considered
Send me a message at peter.darbyshire@gmail.com with “The Moment” and your name in the subject line of the email. Tell me what you’d like to talk about in the message. If it sounds good, I’ll get back to you about the details. I’m looking for around 250-1000 words.
Obviously, this is a chance to publicize your works. I don’t want The Moment just to be a self-promo feature, though. I’d like creators to genuinely talk about important moments to them. It can be about your new work, sure, but please make it about more than that at the same time. On the other hand, it doesn’t have to be about your work at all! I’ll do some promotion for you in the intro I provide, where I’ll list your new works, etc. So please think of it as a chance to share something rather than shill.
Who can contribute
Anyone who’s a creator — writer, artist, musician, you name it. To start with, I’m going to limit it to people I know in person or online, just to cut down on requests from random bots online. We’ll go from there once it’s up and running. I hope you like the idea. Let’s see what happens.
Author writes zombie novel, gets brain tumour
Over at The Province I talk to Adam Lewis Schroeder, who discovered in the middle of writing his new zombie novel, All-Day Breakfast, that he had a brain tumour. Crazy story.
“Between the end of substantive edits and the start of copy edits, I found out I had a big tumour on my pituitary gland the size of a Rubik’s Cube,” Schroeder said. “It’s almost like the book prompted it.”
I guess it’s actually done now?
The Dead Hamlets, the second Cross book and sequel to The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, is officially done and off at the printers. You can expect to find it at local bookstores and fine online emporiums everywhere shortly. I will hold off on promotion until it is available.
In the meantime, I am working on the latest draft of the third Cross book. Things definitely take a turn for the crazy in that one. More to come soon, dear friends!
peter darbyshire 