Category: Uncategorized

A precious story

One of my more precious stories, Halo In The Sky (a steampunk story), has finally been committed to a publisher – Hydra Publications. They had a steampunk anthology going but didn’t think my story was ‘steampunk enough’ – I know what they mean – I didn’t have the ‘classic’ steampunk elements in it, but they loved my story and wanted it to be in a science fiction anthology that will open for submissions in March next year, and then get published around October 2011. They don’t have a name for the anthology as yet. I umm’d and ahhh’d for a while, and after they categorically stated they will publish my story, I agreed today.

This was, to some extent, a hard decision. I don’t mind publishing my ‘lesser’ stories in almost any reputable publication, but my ‘precious’ stories – I count about half a dozen at this time (out of 39 that are ‘publishable’, or are published), I really want to publish with commensurately better publishers. Forgive me Hydra for saying it, but you guys aren’t ‘up there’, but on the other hand I thought that it was important to get my story out, and a commitment is a commitment – if I submit, I have to be willing to accept the offers. For what it’s worth, I think this will end up good, and I certainly will offer the story to the Aurealis Awards for 2011.

Well, this is my twelfth submission that has been accepted… it is worth celebrating.
.
.

latest on Guardians of the Sky Realms

It would appear that it will be first cab off the rank for IFWG Publishing’s publish queue for November – so very soon indeed. The reason why is because I have entered it in the Aurealis Awards for 2010 (Young Adult Novel category) and I have to get copies of the ARCs to the three judges before 31 December 2010. Not a lot of time when these ARCs get printed in the US. What is amazing is (and it is a coincidence, believe me) is that the three judges are all located in Melbourne, my home city.

Novel nearing publication

At last – Guardian of the Sky Realms is nearing completion. I am happy with the cover – it contains the painting that inspired me to write the story, and it has a wonderful frame with wings as engraved decoration at its corners. A beautiful blue sky is in the background. Simple, but effective. Thanks Randy 🙂

Here is the latest draft of the front cover:

Cover of Guardian of the Sky Realms by Gerry Huntman (IFWG Publishing, 2010)

My bio page with draft of the blurb: http://ifwgpublishing.weebly.com/bio-gerry-huntman.html

Click Here for the prologue and first 3 chapters

Penina Gal is the artist of the painting.

I am, in Australian terms, a happy little vegemite.
.
.

Note on Forum Nazis

I don’t want to make this long.

Over the last few days Randy and I discovered that a particular forum site had a posting made asking if anyone knew of IFWG Publishing. Instead of someone perking up with knowledge, a few regulars skimmed our site and then spat out an amazing amount of shit. I can live with viewpoints consistent with facts, but this was unadulterated crap.

Here is the forum and thread, and our response: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=181582 

If our posting is removed, here is our blog treatment: http://ifwgpblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/of-forum-nazis.html

I wont go into the details of it, but it is important for those who are interested, what is my motivation.

Our business is a business, but we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t get a kick out of getting an author a few steps closer to their life’s ambition. it isn’t worth the hard work and (like the forum) the unwarranted criticism. The crap that came out wasn’t just misinformed (or worse) attacks on us, they were also attacks on our authors. Unbelievable stuff. Any upcoming writer wanting to know about us will look us up on Google and find their postings. Sheesh. Cowardly.

Rant over. I am not even going to visit the site anymore.

The Concept of Loyalty in Small Press Publishing

This posting is a bit of a warning, as much as it is a blog of my views on a particular topic.

When I was an author prior to dabbling in publishing, I often speculated what motivated publishers in their contracts and general relationships with their authors. I often assumed a lot of negativity. From a naive point of view I considered many of the contractual elements as being rather complex and extreme.

Now, I know there are unscrupulous publishers out there, and some of them do hover among the establishment, but as a publisher I also can see the other side of the ‘argument’. I will focus on this.

I can’t, for legal reasons, go into details, but I can say that despite only being in business for just over a year, and publishing 11 titles by end of this year, we have had contractual disputes or disputes that ran counter to what we consider to be the spirit of contract. Since then, mind you, we have tightened our wording. In most of these cases, it was authors who changed views on what they wanted, and sought every means to make it happen (or planned to). I pondered on more than one occasion why these things happened.

Firstly, it might not have been totally cynical, but rather, an act of ignorance. I can sort of live with that reason, and in one case an author made corrective action and we are grateful for that. The other reason is selfishness. If an author thinks they made a mistake going with us, or that there is a way to reinterpret the contract so that the publishing regime is realigned with the author’s new agenda, this is cynical. This is selfish. This is disloyal.

Disloyal. One use of the term is associated with a superior-inferior relationship, where the inferior doesn’t obey. I don’t mean this. I am talking about a small company that tries its hardest to support authors – to give them a leg up in the long ladder of a writing career, and expecting the authors to return this loyalty by sticking with us by contract and what it entails. If an author wants us to publish a title, we ask to have full rights to publish it – print, electronic, smoke signal, and worldwide. This is what our contract basically says. We expect no other copy of anything resembling  the manuscript to exist on any publicly accessible source. etc etc. It is amazing, in the short life of our company, that we encountered something in this space on three occasions. Disloyalty.

Cynicism aside, we have an absolutely fantastic family in IFWG Publishing. And I mean family. A bunch of writers who are like a small, virtual community and where many of us participate in writing workshops and joke and kid around. it is a by-product of mutual respect and loyalty. Yes, I am affected enough by the negative side to write this blog, but I can also say that the good far outweighs the bad.

So I return to my original thoughts. Yes, as a publisher, working with a myriad of people, some of whom can be disloyal and even downright wacky, it is critical to protect my business. Yes, a contract has to be wordy and long. Yes, I have to be tough on first publishing rights. Yes, I do have to be literal at times. But I also believe I have to be loyal to you, the writer, as well, and prove I am no hypocrite.
.

A few wins…

Alright folks, just bursting and needing to share good news. While not publishing short stories in Analog and Clarkesworld (yet) I scored a double hit with Planet Magazine – Three Destinies and also Last – fantasy and science fiction. They are both already published (once they made the decision, it was literally a few hours to publication – they can be found here: Three Destinies and Last.

Here is the breakdown of my attempts at getting published or obtaining awards since 1 January 2010:

                    Mags Anthologies Awards Agent/Publisher (novels)    Total
Rejected:    20             4                 1                        1                               26
Accepted:     5              2                 0                        0                                 7
In train:       8               0                5                        0                               13
===================================================================
Total:          33             6                6                         1                               46

Note that this does not include IFWG Publications (shouldn’t count – 3 short stories published and a YA Novel, but I do submit them for awards, which are reflected here).

I probably sound like a parrot, but I genuinely believe if you like writing short stories submit them to different markets, and try to get into the SFWA group. Get exposure. Same with awards. Don’t feel shy, you can only try. Use Ralan.com if you are into specfic, and http://www.duotrope.com for any genre.

.

Good Break

Had a great week in Fiji as well as a restful five days in the Gold Coast (southern Queensland, Australia). The Fiji wing was much better than expected as it was idyllic, the weather was perfect, and the resort was uber-family friendly (Erin was assigned a nanny from 8am to 9pm each day – which we didn’t fully utilize of course). The journey there was interesting, as was the return journey – another story to tell.

Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne, take another day off, and I am off back to work on Friday. I can honestly say that I couldn’t have recharged my batteries better in a fortnight break.

Oh, and I wrote two short stories that I’m very happy with.

Good start to time off from work

Very good start.

Today is my first day of 14 off from work which allows me a much needed break. We are packing today and late tonight we fly to Fiji (Nandi) and then shuttle off to another island soon afterward. Then 6 days on an island paradise.  After that, a few extra days in the Gold Coast, which will also be very relaxing.

Also, got my short story, David Rorshach’s Dream Comes True, accepted for Sonar4 Publication’s anthology, For The Oceans. The revenue goes to a worthy cause, but it is nice to get my unusual science fiction accepted for it. It made me happy indeed.

I will be on the Internet here and there during the day, but then there will be a black out for me in terms of online – so have a good 10 or so days!

Two Weeks

In two weeks Jen, Erin and I will go for a short break to the Fiji islands and the Gold Coast in Queensland. Needed beyond belief.

In the meantime, winding up my current assignment at my day job, and also furiously trying to complete editing Linda Penhall’s wonderful book, They Never Gave Up. We really want to publish it in October, so the completion of the editing and proofing is critical. Of course, I continue to do my own writing, and looking closely at what I do with The Scepter and the Orb.

Finally, looking forward to what IFWG Publishing comes up with for my novel’s cover. It has to be good, and feature prominently Penina’s artwork that I acquired.

A busy two weeks.
.