Publishing and Marketing 02: Nightshade Books

About a month ago, I posted my first Publishing & Marketing column on the blog, titled “Publisher Communication“. In it, I talked at length about the marketing approaches of various SFF publishers in the English-speaking markets. The post got a fair amount of attention in social media and over email, and I’m really pleased with how things turned out.

I initially intended for the second installment of this semi-regular column to get into more of the above topic, but then I decided against it, since something else happened around roughly the same time. It was announced in various places that Nightshade Books was a hair’s breadth away from declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy and that they were considering an asset (author contacts to be specific) sell-off to meet their debts and make sure that their authors, editors, cover artists, etc all got paid their respective dues. This is where Skyhorse Publishing and Start Publishing were stepping in as the potential buyers. But, things weren’t as promising as they seemed at first. The terms being offered by Skyhorse/Start meant that while everybody would be paid, they would not be paid anywhere near the full amount, especially not the authors.

Smarter and more publishing-savvy people than me have already talked at length about the details, so I’m not going to touch on any of that. There was even enough backlash from a LOT of people involved, the fan community and the SFF community that is, that Skyhorse/Start eventually were willing to offer better terms, although there were still some big concerns. Just do a google search and you’ll get a plethora of links and discussions about it.

The purpose of this column is to talk about my experiences with Nightshade’s publications, and why I think its rather tragic that they are going under and what it means for the SFF community as a whole.

Middle East Film and Comic Con 2013

Image courtesy of the MEFCC FB page.

Year-long (at least) readers to the blog will remember that last year in April I attended my first ever major con, the inaugural Middle East Film and Comic Con. It was a fantastic event, and I’ve been waiting for the second installment ever since. I got the chance this past weekend, and it was absolutely amazing. I am told that where the attendance last year had been upwards of 13,000, this year it was predicted to be in the 23,000-26,000 range. That is unbelievable, an almost 100% increase over and above the first year. I will say that the show absolutely deserves it. The organisers put on a terrific show, and it was certainly a few notches above last year.

Thoughts: Steubenville

If you have been paying attention to the news in the last few days, you know what has been happening in Steubenville, Ohio.

This post is my attempt to denounce the way the American media has reacted to the guilty (delinquent) verdict given by the court to the two young men who committed rape and were sentenced. Be warned that this post may come across as a rant, includes a lot of swearing, and may just not be all that comfortable of a read.

I normally do not swear heavily, especially not on this blog, so, just for this time, ignore that if you can.

There are some issues that I’ve wanted to blog about for quite a while, but have attempted to refrain from such since that is not the focus of this blog. However, there’s a lot that goes on in my head about things like this, and this time, I want to say something to get it off my chest.

So, if you go ahead and read this post, keep all this in mind, and don’t come back to complain about the tone or content. You have been warned.

Monthly Report – February 2013

Once again, the monthly report has been severely delayed, so I offer my apologies once again. Between a huge review backlog and other endeavours, it’s become rather tough to find time for the report writing. But anyway, here it is.

Overall, I think the month turned out to be decent enough. I’m making steady progress on several fronts, and having a damn good time of it, which is always good in the end! Although, all things considered, I’ve been thinking that I devote too much time to reviewing and should tone it down. Not sure about that! I definitely need to devote more time to my writing, and also tone down on my TV watching. Funny how “entertainment” can impose on life.

So, this is how the writing and reading went down last month, and you can find the January report here.

Publishing & Marketing Column

For the last couple of months I’ve been considering doing a semi-regular column on the publishing industry. Specifically, I’ve been considering the aspect of marketing and getting published. The basis for both is, of course, personal experience in the case of the former and my observations over the last 18 months for the latter.

Here are some thoughts I’ve had about this.

Cover Art: The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Angry Robot)

Time of late has been extremely limited, between work, reading, and reviewing, so the blog has been a bit neglected with regards to new content. This is why I’m doing a cover reveal post for one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Read on and find out why!