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Posts Tagged ‘Publishing’

CUCURBITAL – Midpoint in the Window

No Comments » Written on May 16th, 2011 by
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The reading period for Cucurbital 2 is today at its midpoint. I have received some wonderful submissions, and some less than wonderful submissions. Please send more of the first kind.

And yes, we do have a cover ready to go, but because this is a prompt-themed anthology I won’t be showing it to you until all the stories are chosen.

And speaking of prompts, just as a reminder, there are three of them and they are:

watermelon

turtle

sex worker

Now, get back to work and send me a submission.

Eric James Stone’s new book goes to press!

1 Comment » Written on May 2nd, 2011 by
Categories: Plugs
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The next book to come from Paper Golem is Rejiggering The Thingamajig And Other Stories, a single author collection by the dazzling Eric James Stone (and edited by Arthur Dorrance and me). Among its twenty-four stories, the book includes “That Leviathan, Which Thou Hast Made” a story that is currently nominated for both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award!


I spent much of this past weekend in an extended flurry of emails with Eric, and Mary Robinette Kowal (who, among her many talents, did the cover design for the book). The end result is what you see here. Pretty, isn’t it?


With that last piece completed, I sent the book off to be printed, and I’m now awaiting a proof. This is the part of publishing that feels wonderful. Most of the work is done, and the book is in other hands being transformed from computer files to ink and paper.


You are going to love this book!

Rejiggering The Thingamajig

CUCURBITAL – Now Open for Submissions

No Comments » Written on April 14th, 2011 by
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What is Cucurbital?

It’s the name of a new “theme” anthology series in which all of the authors write their stories starting with the same handful of prompts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cucurbital has launched!

No Comments » Written on April 8th, 2011 by
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Regular readers of this blog may recall that a few days ago I mentioned I was considering a new project for my small press, Paper Golem.

That project is Cucurbital, and guidelines for it have been posted to the web.

To summarize, I’m looking for stories that are 5000 words or less, and that have been inspired by the use of three prompt words.
Those words are watermelon, turtle, and sex worker.

I’ll be accepting submissions from May 1st through May 31st of 2011.

So start writing!

New Paper Golem Project?

5 comments Written on March 29th, 2011 by
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I’m supposed to be working on finishing up a short story for an anthology, but for some reason I seem to be in Publisher mode this morning, not Writer mode.

I’m toying with the idea of starting a new book project / series. A small anthology, maybe 20 or so stories, from 20 different authors. The catch is that all of the authors write their stories starting with the same handful of prompts, likely a person, a place, and a thing.

I like the idea of an anthology that has a very loose theme, and seeing where so many different authors would go given the same simple starting points.

The pay would likely be limited to a pro-rata share of any profits after expenses, so barring some insane best-seller fluke, no one (least of all me) would get rich on this. Still, I’m curious what (if any) the reaction might be among readers of this blog.

A Friday’s Thoughts on Self Publishing

3 comments Written on March 25th, 2011 by
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I posted the following as a comment over on Amy Sundberg’s blog, and I encourage you to head over there to take a look at the context and other voices in the discussion. My own two cents seemed coherent enough that I wanted to include it here as well:


My concern with self-publishing, as with small press publishing and big press publishing is the issue of the signal to noise ratio.

It’s useful to remember Sturgeon’s Law, that 95% of anything is crap. Ideally, gatekeepers exist to address this point, to weed out the good from the sea of bad, and present only the worthwhile (accepting for the moment that you agree with a given gatekeeper’s operational definition for what is worthwhile).

At a large press, a good editor or editorial team takes on this role, and for those portions of “worthwhile” defined as “profitable” there’s a marketing team involved as well. As a small press (for example, the one I operate) there may only be one or two editors working on a project and the question of “how much money will this book make” may not even come up at all (though the question of “how much do we stand to lose” usually does).

In self-publishing, there may not be a professional editor and the author has to shoulder the responsibility of both creative artist and gatekeeper. And more often than not, objectivity goes out the window. Most of the authors I know (and I’m including myself) are rarely the best judge of whether their own work.

I run a small press and from day one made the decision never to publish my own work. Why? For the same reason I don’t expect people submitting novellas to me to include rave reviews from their mothers. There’s no objectivity there. At best there’s an attempt, but c’mon, writing is a very subjective, in-your-own-head kind of thing.

If you’re going to self publish, that’s fine, but unless you bring in an outside editor (and while you’re at it, let’s go with a proof reader and copy editor as well), my best guess is you’re going to land in the wrong portion of that 95% / 5% divide.