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L.A. Mitchell remarked:
Todd, I've never seen this
(Tuesday, November 18)

Camille Alexa mentioned:
"What is stunning to me is
(Monday, November 17)

Steve Buchheit observed:
Cool, thanks for the list,
(Sunday, November 16)

L.A. Mitchell answered:
Your friend would have made a
(Thursday, November 6)

nathan remarked:
Not only that. Think how long
(Tuesday, November 4)

Recent blog posts

  • Houses Big And Small
  • Go Vote
  • We Have Second Draft
  • Bunch O' Stuff
  • Celebrations
  • Writing By The Numbers
  • FYI
  • Two Cities, Five Airplanes
  • Left Coast
  • Spunk And Bite
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Blogs

Houses Big And Small       November 14, 2008

Back on the old blog I posted a corporate map of the big publishing houses and their science fiction/fantasy imprints. I meant to follow up with noted small publishers as well, but didn't get around to it.

 
Until now! I decided to repost the major publishers and fill in some blanks. Part of my research was done in Barnes & Borders, scanning the spines for imprint information. While a small number, there were books by small publishers on the shelves, which was encouraging. Also, quite a few books in the (no disrespect meant) women's/romance-speculative vein. As noted below, many companies want to be in on that sub-genre.

 
Where the list is lacking is YA imprints. I tried to note a few but that wasn't the focus of my research. Also, the list of small publishers is nowhere near complete. One can find an exhaustive list at the Locus website. My subjective rules for listing the small publishers below were

1) They had a book on the shelf when I visited Barnes & Borders
2) They have published an author I have heard of.

 
What is stunning to me is the apparent personality disorder of some of the big publishers. It's as if they can't make up their minds under which brand name they want to put their science fiction and fantasy. There are probably reasons for this, but seems like an awful messy overlap of function and direction. And while much of the corporate hierarchy is unchanged from a year ago, I wonder if that will still be the case a year hence.

 
The list is below the break. Hope this helps.

 

tags:
  • Markets
  • Publishers
  • Publishing
  • 6 comments
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Go Vote       November 4, 2008

What's that? You voted already? Then you may have a cookie. Or a celebratory beverage. Feel free to post your choice here (food or beverage choice that is).
 

Mine will be strong coffee and Halloween candy as I will be up all night watching the results. Lots of races to keep track and I can't wait until morning. I am an election junkie.
 

It started in 1976. We had a mock election in school. A friend of mine said Carter was a thief who hid the money in the peanuts on his farm. Keep in mind this was 4th grade. I thought I was a genius for picking Carter to win.
 

And then I felt an idiot when John Anderson didn't win in 1980.
 

In 1984 I was pissed, PISSED!, that I would miss the chance to vote by mere days, not yet being 18.
 

Since then I've been mostly pissed, but have voted every election. Sorry, it's not a choice: it's a responsibility and duty.
 

Go vote.
 

Then treat yourself to a cookie. Or something stronger.

  • 2 comments

We Have Second Draft       November 1, 2008

My novel Garbageland has graduated from shitty first draft to crappy second draft.
 

Along the way one character was excised, two others were morphed together, and paragraphs, scenes, and chapters were slashed. Total word count dropped about 10k; I expect to add words back in the next round. And all that only took nine months.
 

One problem was the method. I read in another writer's blog how they printed out the first draft, made corrections on paper, and then re-typed the whole thing for the second draft. I decided to do the same.
 

There was some benefit. It certainly slowed me down, making me think more about the words I didn't touch. I've found it works well on short stories. Novel length works: not so much. I'd get bogged down frequently, looking at how few pages I'd gotten through in a day.
 

I must have a stubborn streak because I didn't give up on that method until September. Returning to live editing, for lack of a better term, the pages flew by. Perhaps that will require more changes in the third draft, but at least that draft will go quickly.
 

Work on the third draft starts Wednesday, or as soon as I've recovered from election night.

tags:
  • Editing
  • Perseverance
  • Process
  • 4 comments
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