So, with the Aaron Reed interview, I published my last completed slush survivor interview (some of my other survivors were not available for interview), but Slush Writer Appreciation Month continues! In the coming days, I’ll post a few interviews with the slush readers in the field. And first up is Kelly Link, slush reader for SCI FICTION.
New this month: an A.I. tale from Albert E. Cowdrey; the story of an unusual father/son relationship from new writer Trent Hergenrader (one of Gordon’s Clarion students from last year); an examination of the problems with publishing from Robert Reed; a Holy Grail tale from James L. Cambias; the account of a war with roaches by C. S. Friedman; a story that might remind you of your time in school from Mike Shultz; a far future tale of religion, enlightenment, and sexual expression from Gary W. Shockley; and another new slush survivor: Donald Mead, who makes his F&SF debut with a 15,000 word novelet of African historical fantasy, set in the days leading up to The Battle of Isandlwana in the late 19th Century.
My first audiobook review for Publishers Weekly just appeared in the June 6, 2005 issue. But if you want to read it, you can just go visit the Amazon.com page for the unabridged CD edition of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat and read it there.
My next review for PW will be of the abridged edition of David McCullough’s follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning John Adams, 1776.
I read a non-fiction book recently called THE WORLD IS FLAT, which is about outsourcing and the global economy. I listened to it on audio, and the book brings up an interesting point in regard to audiobook publishing. As an audiobook reviewer, I have found myself frequently frustrated with the fact that audiobooks have nearly no lead time from production to publication, so reviewers have very little time to get their reviews done in a timely fashion (resulting in audio reviews that are “older” than desirable). The reason THE WORLD IS FLAT got me thinking about this, is because it discusses Wal-Mart, and how being the industry powerhouse it is, it was able to make certain demands to its suppliers in order to make its business more efficient (i.e., they forced all suppliers to use a certain type of tracking device with all packages which made Wal-Mart’s distribution system more manageable).
A powerful publication, like Publishers Weekly, or some other high-profile venue, could be in some position to dictate demands to audio publishers…namely, that they figure out a way to get reviewers audiobooks in a more timely fashion. With high-speed internet and digital audio publishing (more FLAT WORLD stuff), there’s no reason that reviewers shouldn’t be able to get audiobooks a bit faster than we are. Surely, publishers could get audiobooks to reviewers in a stripped bare-edition, without packaging, perhaps even just a single MP3-CD. But MP3-CDs aren’t even strictly necessary — publishers could set up ways for reviewers to download audiobooks via secure web servers (they would still have to be in a compressed format like MP3, as regular CD files [WAV files] would be much too large). New audio publisher Paperback Digital sells audiobooks to consumers this way, and Audible.com, of course, has a similar setup.
If a call center in Bangalore can field my customer service requests, or talk me through a computer problem, surely an audio publisher in my own country can get me a review copy of an audiobook at least a month before it goes on sale.
Mike Shultz‘s story “Old as Books” (F&SF, July 2005, on newsstands now) was just reviewed in Tangent Online (along with the rest of the issue, of course), in which reviewer Aimee Poynter called it her “favorite story of the issue” of an issue filled with so much good stuff she was inspired to subscribe. It also received a a glowing review from bluejack in The Internet Review of Science Fiction.
In addition to being the inspiration for the films AI and Halloween, and being the home of writer Ef Deal, Haddonfield, NJ was also home to the Hadrosaurus foulkii dinosaur 65 million years ago (give or take a few million). It was discovered in 1838, excavated in 1858, then assembled in 1868.
Here is where I made my discovery. But also be sure to check out the rest of ZUG’s pranks, which are quite amusing. See? Humor can be educational!
I’d like to again welcome those of you who are reading this courtesy of the Analog and/or Asimov’s “A Blog’s Eye View” portal. You may have caught the “sneak preview” of my blog last week, when it was placed into the feature slot a bit prematurely. For those who did, welcome back. For those who didn’t, welcome. Come on in, stay a while.
My blog will be featured on the “A Blog’s Eye View” pages for the month of June. Otherwise, you can find it at http://www.tuginternet.com/jja/journal/.
And don’t forget — June is Slush Writer Appreciation Month. Be sure to check out my interviews with the authors of stories I’ve rescued from the slush pile. Currently featured is my interview with Ef Deal, author of “Czesko.” Also be sure to check out my interview with Mike Shultz, author of “Old as Books.”
And finally, one last note to my regular blog readers. If you’re a regular, do SF bloggers (and me) a favor, and click over to Analog’s (http://www.analogsf.com/blog.shtml) and Asimovs’ (http://www.asimovs.com/Blog.shtml) “A Blog’s Eye View” pages, so they’ll know people like the feature, and that the magazine readers are interested in discovering new SFnal blogs.
If anyone wants to place my magazine banner on their own website, here’s the code to do it:
magazine banner:
Alex Wilson suggested I slow down the Troll ad a bit, and advised me on how I can workaround that whole embedded link problem, which is to include the HTML code for others to copy if they want to use the ad on their own site (so you can help Charlie sell lots of books). The ad’s been slowed down; if it’s still too fast, let me know. Here’s the HTML:
If you decide to put the banner on your site, please don’t modify the HTML. Leaving it as is will allow me to track the ad’s effectiveness, regardless of where it appears.
700x60 banner:
I’m interested to hear comments on the The Prodigal Troll ad you see above. Is it cycling too fast? Do you have time to read the quote?
BTW, does anyone know if you can embed a link into an animated gif? I know you can do that in flash, and I initially tried to make the ad in flash, but I suck at using it, and I gave up. Making an animated gif is easy. The ad as it is now is linked to Amazon, but that URL is not embedded in the file, so if someone wanted to copy the ad and use it elsewhere, they’d have to attach a link to the image with HTML.
