Kristine Kathryn Rusch doesn't think the sky is falling (brava!) despite some (check the comments) who do in Signals 18 , an article in the current IROSF.
Aaaannd the comments collapse instantly into "Nobody will pay for content on the Internet!"
As if the cover price of magazines or newspapers has been what "paid for" the content at any point in the US since the mid-1950s. Behold, a strange new wireless technology that provides free content twenty-four hours a day, and from highly paid personnel:
Dare SF publishing enter the brave new world of...the early twentieth century!
Aw, c'mon Nick, you know how averse science fiction people are to change. All those new ideas, they are so scary! They are bound to lead to doom and disaster.
Cheryl, Don't know if you recall how hard it was to get sf writers online for live chats/discussions about ten years ago--at Event Horizon we sometimes had to have the author phone us while we typed his/her responses onto the computer. But some DO change--Silverberg's online now and emails regularly. For chrissake, my mom, who is 82 emails me regularly. It just takes a little kick start sometimes ;-)
Yes indeed. You're right about radio but I've been trying to make the point for years that the internet is similar to television--I don't know how long it actually took for advertising to pay for tv (and I'm too lazy to research it--you do it Nick ;-) ) but there's no reason why internet content can't pay for itself. It....will....happen. It's still early in the technology's life.
But Lois has always been doom and gloom, as long as I've been on the web. I'd prefer some positive suggestions and insights.
Short story markets are expanding. I've been selling and continue to sell original anthologies to publishers, despite the economic downturn. That means publishers believe short stories do sell.
Right away, or once modern TV (not the old mechanical models) came on. Of course, the soaps transitioned from radio to television dramas, sponsors intact as did prime-time shows such as Texaco Star Theater (can you find the sponsor cleverly in the title ;)).
With the Internet, the first wave of ads were done by nobodies: are you going to click on a banner with slogans like "Is There A Serial Killer In Your Neighborhood? Click Here to Find Out" or one that offers "Low-Interest Visa's" (to name two I remember from the 1990s)? Then portaling was the big deal for a while; people wanted consumers to use only one website ever.
Now we're back on track, but honestly a lot of magazines just have no idea how to get ads. They either bury their Google ads (which have finally been cleaned up of scams and such) or are not devoted to making sure they are clickable, or they try to half-ass it by selling tiny ads directly.
It's bad ad time right now, so we'll continue to see a local contraction, but between webcomics and specialty bulletin boards (a martial arts message board I am on essentially funds the owner's life and family; he gets ads from video games, UFC, diet supplements etc.) the age of the ad is here.
People just need content that advertisers want to be associated with! Boring stories and breathless articles about how movies are always ruined by Hollywood ain't gonna cut it.
A very good piece. I went over there wondering if she'd bring up the economic downturn and how it actually tends to be good news for low-cost entertainment. We're seeing this in video games right now -- the big publishers are in trouble but the casual market (generally games under $20) is in an even greater boom than it was before.
Big businesses never feel good, nor do those who rely on them, when things change, just in general. They have too much to risk losing, and out of paralysis often get out-competed by those who are willing to follow the (usually very obvious) desires of the market. The important thing is not to get so caught up in fear that you're paralyzed against innovation.
Don't get me wrong, it's rough everywhere, but it should actually be better for the fiction and short fiction markets than for many other services and goods.
I've been very anxious about the anthology market (for my own financial reasons, of course) and while the adult market seems a bit rougher (the big publishers are belt tightening)--they still do need product to sell--whether that is a novel or an anthology--most publishers can get away with paying less for anthologies than novels these days (I suspect).
The YA market seems to be thriving right now, definitely because of Twilight and other genre material that seems to have hit a chord with teens.
Yes, I think it would be safe to say YA is still going crazy following the aftermath of JK Rowling? It's really interesting to see how the kind of fantasy that would have been printed as "regular" fantasy 10-15 years ago, having now been shut out by the direction F&SF have been taking, is now reappearing as YA...
Also very interesting what you're saying about the anthology market rallying. It does make sense, if the publishers and booksellers from the top aren't suffering so much they have to shut down acquisitions (but yeah, that would just strangle them). I would certainly love to see more short fiction anthologies, especially the kind of loosely themed ones like Inferno... but do you think this means we'll see a boom of anthologies on the market in 1-3 years, when the impact of this tightening actually hits bookshelves? That's one of the things that's been interesting (in kind of a bad way) about the video game market -- at first gamers thought everything was fine (there was some nonsense about games being 'recession-proof') because games kept hitting the shelves -- not realizing that the consumers won't really feel the brunt of the downturn until a few years from now when games that should have gone into production now would be completed and shipped. They're learning to be concerned now that layoffs have started rolling through the news, but otherwise there would be no visible impact for a couple of years.
I hope that this means some good news for you, though. It would be a kind of silver lining on the whole short fiction publishing enchilada.
To me the best thing about the YA market is that it means we're NOT losing readers, that young readers are reading and buying books.
I've got a number of anthologies coming out this year and next and yes, those were all commissioned before the economic downturn. The issue is how many anthology commissions (and how lucrative) I'm able to get now.
I've been working on a few reprint anthologies for smaller presses and have a few proposals out (two with Terri and a third with her to go out soon). And I'm hoping to do follow ups to both The Del Rey Book of SF&F and Inferno--those would not be big money, but sufficient money.
I worry a bit about the YA boom, because almost everyone I know in my age bracket spends their money exclusively on games, but were also almost all voracious YA readers (and spenders).
I'm 24, and my range of association runs from late teens to early thirties, with a few outliers here and there.
In general, the 30+ folks happily read. But the twenty-somethings are the ones who game and used to read. This is informal polling, but I have a pretty wide net in the Boston area.
Hmmm. I wonder why that is. Hopefully, at least some of them will return to reading. Obviously someone is reading-and-buying Stephenie Myers, Melissa Marr, Holly Black, M. T. Anderson, and others.
I work in a bookstore, and most of the ones buying those books are teenage girls, and they almost always say, "I usually don't read, but I totally love this book!" But, hey, they're buying the books, and they are usually rather affluent, which means they'll have the money to buy more.
Which is an entirely different attitude from, "I love reading, but I just don't have time for it anymore, what with all the gaming I'm doing."
(To answer the earlier question I forgot: magazines, including online ones, are read a lot less than novels. Some of them pick up the blockbuster epic fantasies, like George R.R. Martin's stuff, but far fewer than the ones who don't buy anything. Except comics. And if you walk into any bookstore, you can see the result of that in the ginormous graphic novel sections now.)
I think media tie-in novels are a good gateway drug, at least for boys. I came to gaming early, and I can't count how many Dungeons & Dragons-derived novels I read when I was in elementary and middle school. Lo and behold, I'm still reading.
I'm actually really hoping to see this stimulate further growth in the Indie games sector, and hopefully the big pubs like EA will pick up some of the positive sides of the Hollywood model they're emulating and streamline the process to bring successful Indie devs into a version of the industry that can actually bankroll them while letting them keep doing what they do.
Thanks for the posts, y'all. I was beginning to feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. And then when the handful of folks I asked to link to the article refused, I got quite sad. I do want people to know that they can do things to support their favorite publications, whether on-line or in print, as well as the books that they love. It's surprising to me how many people never think of the simple solutions. So thanks for the links and comments.
Kristine Rusch's article was right on the mark. I believe we're approaching of the most exciting points in the history of short fiction. We're experiencing the growing pains of a substantial shift in the way people consume technology and the publishing field isn't the only one scrambling.
While the traditional print magazines are faltering due to lack of distribution in normal channels (i.e., bookstores), the electronic venues and anthologies seem to be on the rise.
Readers are changing. Some of them still prefer the crisp feel of paper and ink beneath their fingertips while others have embraced electronic consumption wholeheartedly via computer screen or electronic reader. The key, I believe, is to change with the reader.
Technology-wise, we're at or near the point that a zine can publish their content electronically for free while offering Kindle, e-reader, and print-on-demand versions simultaneously. Print readers and users of electronic readers are already accustomed to paying a fee for the priviledge, so sell those versions by the copy or subscription.
It's adapt or die. The old business models are faltering, and new ones are being born. Short fiction isn't dying, it's transforming. It's an exciting time to be a writer (or editor, or reader).
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As if the cover price of magazines or newspapers has been what "paid for" the content at any point in the US since the mid-1950s. Behold, a strange new wireless technology that provides free content twenty-four hours a day, and from highly paid personnel:
Dare SF publishing enter the brave new world of...the early twentieth century!
From:
no subject
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no subject
Don't know if you recall how hard it was to get sf writers online for live chats/discussions about ten years ago--at Event Horizon we sometimes had to have the author phone us while we typed his/her responses onto the computer. But some DO change--Silverberg's online now and emails regularly. For chrissake, my mom, who is 82 emails me regularly. It just takes a little kick start sometimes ;-)
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But Lois has always been doom and gloom, as long as I've been on the web. I'd prefer some positive suggestions and insights.
Short story markets are expanding. I've been selling and continue to sell original anthologies to publishers, despite the economic downturn. That means publishers believe short stories do sell.
From:
no subject
With the Internet, the first wave of ads were done by nobodies: are you going to click on a banner with slogans like "Is There A Serial Killer In Your Neighborhood? Click Here to Find Out" or one that offers "Low-Interest Visa's" (to name two I remember from the 1990s)? Then portaling was the big deal for a while; people wanted consumers to use only one website ever.
Now we're back on track, but honestly a lot of magazines just have no idea how to get ads. They either bury their Google ads (which have finally been cleaned up of scams and such) or are not devoted to making sure they are clickable, or they try to half-ass it by selling tiny ads directly.
It's bad ad time right now, so we'll continue to see a local contraction, but between webcomics and specialty bulletin boards (a martial arts message board I am on essentially funds the owner's life and family; he gets ads from video games, UFC, diet supplements etc.) the age of the ad is here.
People just need content that advertisers want to be associated with! Boring stories and breathless articles about how movies are always ruined by Hollywood ain't gonna cut it.
From:
no subject
Big businesses never feel good, nor do those who rely on them, when things change, just in general. They have too much to risk losing, and out of paralysis often get out-competed by those who are willing to follow the (usually very obvious) desires of the market. The important thing is not to get so caught up in fear that you're paralyzed against innovation.
Don't get me wrong, it's rough everywhere, but it should actually be better for the fiction and short fiction markets than for many other services and goods.
From:
no subject
The YA market seems to be thriving right now, definitely because of Twilight and other genre material that seems to have hit a chord with teens.
From:
no subject
Also very interesting what you're saying about the anthology market rallying. It does make sense, if the publishers and booksellers from the top aren't suffering so much they have to shut down acquisitions (but yeah, that would just strangle them). I would certainly love to see more short fiction anthologies, especially the kind of loosely themed ones like Inferno... but do you think this means we'll see a boom of anthologies on the market in 1-3 years, when the impact of this tightening actually hits bookshelves? That's one of the things that's been interesting (in kind of a bad way) about the video game market -- at first gamers thought everything was fine (there was some nonsense about games being 'recession-proof') because games kept hitting the shelves -- not realizing that the consumers won't really feel the brunt of the downturn until a few years from now when games that should have gone into production now would be completed and shipped. They're learning to be concerned now that layoffs have started rolling through the news, but otherwise there would be no visible impact for a couple of years.
I hope that this means some good news for you, though. It would be a kind of silver lining on the whole short fiction publishing enchilada.
From:
no subject
I've got a number of anthologies coming out this year and next and yes, those were all commissioned before the economic downturn. The issue is how many anthology commissions (and how lucrative) I'm able to get now.
I've been working on a few reprint anthologies for smaller presses and have a few proposals out (two with Terri and a third with her to go out soon). And I'm hoping to do follow ups to both The Del Rey Book of SF&F and Inferno--those would not be big money, but sufficient money.
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That's not good. So do they not read books or magazines at all any more?
I watched tv as a kid but I was also a voracious reader. One can do both.
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In general, the 30+ folks happily read. But the twenty-somethings are the ones who game and used to read. This is informal polling, but I have a pretty wide net in the Boston area.
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Which is an entirely different attitude from, "I love reading, but I just don't have time for it anymore, what with all the gaming I'm doing."
(To answer the earlier question I forgot: magazines, including online ones, are read a lot less than novels. Some of them pick up the blockbuster epic fantasies, like George R.R. Martin's stuff, but far fewer than the ones who don't buy anything. Except comics. And if you walk into any bookstore, you can see the result of that in the ginormous graphic novel sections now.)
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From: (Anonymous)
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~Tristan
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Derailed!
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Best, Kris
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
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While the traditional print magazines are faltering due to lack of distribution in normal channels (i.e., bookstores), the electronic venues and anthologies seem to be on the rise.
Readers are changing. Some of them still prefer the crisp feel of paper and ink beneath their fingertips while others have embraced electronic consumption wholeheartedly via computer screen or electronic reader. The key, I believe, is to change with the reader.
Technology-wise, we're at or near the point that a zine can publish their content electronically for free while offering Kindle, e-reader, and print-on-demand versions simultaneously. Print readers and users of electronic readers are already accustomed to paying a fee for the priviledge, so sell those versions by the copy or subscription.
It's adapt or die. The old business models are faltering, and new ones are being born. Short fiction isn't dying, it's transforming. It's an exciting time to be a writer (or editor, or reader).