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.
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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
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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.

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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.
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Writing/Publishing Update: Wings to Success

I finalized with Penina the contract for her painting Wings, which was the inspiration of my new novel, Guardian of the Sky Realms. She will sign in the next few days, and once the niceties are over, I will be able to use the painting for my novel’s cover. Brilliant! Thank you very much Penina for your kind assistance.

The proofing of Guardian will be completed this weekend. All that will be left is the block formatting with InDesign. My novel was planned to be published in October – still on track, and perhaps can even be released earlier.

I have some commitments in the publishing game, but once the pressure is a little over, I look very much forward to returning to my first novel, The Scepter and the Orb, and think long and hard what I want to do with it. I love it and it is the introductory book to a vast world I created (Evyntyde). The real area of interest is whether I split it or not, to make the production more economically viable. I think it is likely I will go that way. I think, because I have learned much over the last year or so, that I may also do a serious revision. Oh well.

I have four short stories to go, set in the world of Evyntyde, which will complete my anthology. This is likely to be my second Title that will come out, both courtesy of IFWG Publishing.

My second Evyntyde novel, Crystal Peak, will have to wait a while. A bit of a shame, since it is two-thirds completed.

Regarding publishing, I recently finished editing and proofing Biola Olatunde‘s wonderful adventure novel, Blood Contract. This should be come out next month – I look forward to it. Another edit job I did – The Devil Came East (crime thriller) by Geri Fitzsimmons and Andy Stephenson, was held back from publishing a few months to allow synchronization with some marketing activity. I think it will also be published next month – and I have a very good feeling about that one. It is so very good in its genre. I also have had some luck getting Paul Goat Allen to review it (shortly). My next edit job is an inspirational novel, by Linda Lenehan, called They Never Gave Up. I look forward to that job.

All in all, a pretty busy time for me. (I love it).

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Bloody Angioedema

It hit me again. I have had angioedema (chronic, impact type) for probably 20 years – and over the last year or so had a few nasty scraps with it. I win, and it means a drug regime that I will have to carry on with for the rest of my life. Fortunately, until recently, it was a case of just a lot of antihistamines.

I have had a bad throat infection for a while and antibiotics didn’t appear to do me much good, so when my breathing was struggling a bit, I got scared. Went to hospital last Sunday and lo and behold, it turns out that my lungs are fine, my heart it good, no cholesterol or blood-sugar level issues, and yes, I still have my myco-bacterial infection. But it turns out the infection and my angioedema have been playing silly-buggers with each other and that’s why the antibiotics didn’t work. In a nutshell, because I didn’t figure on angioedema playing a part, nor my GP, we were not hitting it the right way.

After two nights at Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Melbourne, I am on track again. Medication to get rid of angioedema symptoms and the infection, and more knowledge on how to stop this happening again.

Bloody Angioedema.

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Great Result

The painting, Wings, by Penina Gal, was the original inspiration for my YA Novel, Guardian of the sky Realms. Well guess what – the artist has agreed to allow me to purchase rights to have it used as the cover of my novel. Incredible result – not only is it (obviously) highly pertinent to my novel, but it now has a very powerful connection to it as well.

I am expecting, based on how close to finalised all this is, that the novel will be out in October. Very excited indeed.

You can find the painting on her website (look for the purple coloured thumbnail, called Wings).

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