World Fantasy Convention Friday

It’s been a very busy day at World Fantasy. It should come as no surprise that I’ve been talking my head off. I do that normally anyway, but there have been lots of folks interested in digital publishing and the vision of the future. I’ve been handing out and collecting cards, talking to authors about publication programs and Second Life, and folks seem very receptive. This is a marked change from years past where the conversation has been difficult. The downturn in publishing and the greedy terms offered to authors these days are ridiculous. One large publisher is offering authors a 20% royalty for online sales, which sounds great, but is horrible when, under current contracts, they’d owe us a minimum of 25% of cover for things Amazon sells, and 50% of cover for electronic books that they move through direct sales. The fact that they’re prepared to use our money to build their infrastructure is not lost of any of us.

Let’s put it another way to make this clear. If I decide I want to fund and publish a book of my own, warehouse and deliver it to my customers directly, I can work a deal with fulfillment houses to take care of everything, including offshore printing, for roughly 40% of the project gross, and I get to keep all of the income I make off digital publications of that same book. Contrast that with the situation today where I’m letting a publisher keep 90-92% of the money for the same services and at least 50% of the digital money. Hardly seems equitable when I’m also doing the work of creating the project in the first place.

While World Fantasy does deal a lot with business, it isn’t all business. There is a lot of laughter and telling of stories that have nothing to do with writing. We also get into weird conversations. Bill Wu was mentioning a story he was writing and wanted to know what sort of gun a female character would carry if she wanted one that could protect her, but didn’t want to be hauling around a big piece of hardware. I suggested a Lady Smith automatic or a 2″ barrel Bulldog revolver (Colt made it, I think) with no ear on the hammer so it wouldn’t get caught in clothing when drawn. Bill liked the choices and will do the research to figure out which (or if both) is what she will carry.

I didn’t get a chance to sample any whisky today. Such is life. I did hear a good joke attributed to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To show his friend the armadillo that it was safe.

Yep, it’s that kind of crowd. Creative, fun, and very cool. And I got to talk to my editors at Night Shade about the Crown Colonies books. They’re cool with delivery timing and, hold on to your seats, we even talked a bit of promotion and merchandising. Imagine!

The day ended with the mass signing. Bob Vardeman, Nathan Long, Bill Wu, Jeff Marriotte and I held down a table and signed some books. Not too many, but a respectable number. Mostly we got to chit-chat, see friends and watch lines fill up for Robert Silverberg. (WFC has a mass signing in which every author there finds a chair at a table and signs books. It’s pretty cool, in fact, and there are book collectors who wander with huge bags full of books getting them signed, then swapping them out for yet more. It’s definitely an overwhelming event, part flee market, part worshipful awe and a lot of fun.)

Okay, off to bed. Meeting Bob Vardeman for breakfast again, then my cousin Christie for lunch. After that, it’s into a Tux for the Morhaim Family Dinner. That will be great!