Sunday, April 28, 2002

Where Epic Fantasy Went Wrong
"Every epic fantasy writer that has followed in Tolkien's admittedly enormous footsteps has failed to do what Tolkien did; there has never been another world created within the genre that can rival Middle-earth in originality, scope or individuality. Though perhaps unintentionally, every world built thus far has been nothing but a pale, wan, watered-down shadow of Middle-earth."
2:16 AM (link)

Saturday, April 20, 2002

2002 Hugo Award Nominees announced
2:55 PM (link)

Thursday, April 18, 2002

The difference between science fiction and fantasy
This Usenet thread hints at why we deal with both science fiction and fantasy on SciFan. Basically, I think the line between the two is very blurry. Besides, I like both!
11:59 AM (link)

Eric Flint writes about content "piracy" (via boing boing)
"Making one or a few titles of an author's writings available for free electronically in the Free Library seems to have no other impact, certainly over time, than to increase that author's general audience recognition-and thereby, indirectly if not directly, the sales of his or her books.

I believe it also-I leave it up to each individual to weigh this out for themselves-places such authors on what you might call the side of the angels in this dispute. For me, at least, this side of the matter is even more important than the practical side. It grates me to see the way powerful corporate interests have been steadily twisting the copyright laws and encroaching on personal liberties in order to shore up their profit margins-all the more so when their profit problems are a result of their own stupidity and short-sighted greed in the first place."
9:20 AM (link)

Damon Knight, influential U.S. science fiction writer and editor, dies at 79
"Knight, who had been in poor health in recent years, died Monday at a Eugene hospital of age-related causes, a family spokesman said Tuesday. "He was immensely respected," said Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor of Knight's final novel, Humpty Dumpty: an Oval, published in 1996. [...] Knight published his first story in 1941, and went on to write 13 novels, beginning with Hell's Pavement in 1955, and more than 100 short stories."
6:56 AM (link)

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Amazon chief defends sale of used books
"Following a plea from Amazon.com head Jeff Bezos, thousands of e-mails have been sent to the Authors Guild protesting its call for writers to remove links on their Web sites to the online retailer."

It's important to remember the Authors Guild didn't protest against used-book sales per se, rather they "say that Amazon's particular way of marketing used books is harmful for authors and for publishers." What Amazon.com does differently is to market used books in the context of new book sales. You can voice your opinion in our discussion group.
2:17 AM (link)

Thursday, April 11, 2002

6,000 writers in our database!
We've been adding a lot of new and upcoming books these last two weeks, and we now have 6,000 authors listed in our database (ok, counting pen names as separate authors, but still, we're happy to grow!)
2:33 AM (link)

Wednesday, April 10, 2002

NYT: Online Sales of Used Books Draw Protest (registration required)
"Authors are rebelling against new efforts by Amazon.com to spur sales of used books, a practice that has become a major source of revenue for Amazon but pays nothing to writers or publishers."

We link to Amazon and to used-book networks such as Alibris. We do want to support writers and it's obvious they don't make anything on used sales. On the other hand cheap books promote reading. I think we as readers need to be responsible and support writers by buying at least some of our books new.

As a side note, we don't get commissions on used sales at Amazon, so if you do buy second-hand books, it will help us if you do so through our Alibris and Half.com links.
2:05 AM (link)