Alright, I should just write this up and finish my convention report before life sweeps me away completely.
Saturday was the main day of the con. To be honest, I forgot all the panels I went to, except this really awesome one by a guy at NASA on near Earth objects (NEOs). Holyfreakingcow there are thousands of these objects AND WE ARE SENDING MISSIONS TO THEM!!! So cool!
I went to a kaffeklatsch with Nancy Kress, which turned out to be quite an interesting experience. She’s an extremely gracious person, much like Tracy Hickman, and gave some excellent career advice: 1) no matter the obstacles or difficulties, always find a way to keep writing, and 2) always be true to the story.
Had dinner with some other Utah writers, and I wish I could say it was pleasant, but for some reason it got very antagonistic. I know it takes two to tango, but I honestly don’t know what I did to make it that way. Perhaps stress levels were running high, or people misread my tone, but the conversation at our table completely fell apart at least twice. It was very wierd.
Part of it might have to do with the fact that I’ve become something of a trailblazer for indie publishing within the SLC / Utah Valley writing community. Which brings me to another side note: everyone talks about how militant and polarizing self publishers are, when in my experience it’s the advocates of traditional publishing who tend to adopt an us vs. them attitude. To be sure, there are plenty of desperate to be published writers who take the indie path just to “stick it to the man,” but those people tend to fade away once they realize it isn’t a silver bullet.
Anyway, the Hugo Awards in the evening were great! Robert Silverberg presented the award for Best Novella, and for fifteen minutes he was my favorite person in the world. So hilarious! I’ve tried to find a video, but there doesn’t seem to be one up yet. Utah writers were nominated in six categories, and even though none of them won, the competition was pretty dang good, so I don’t feel so bad about losing.
All in all, it was a great convention! I had a lot of fun, even if I did feel a little exhausted by the end of it. I’m not sure if I’ll be attending future worldcons in my current capacity as a beginning writer, but I most likely will buy supporting memberships in order to vote in the Hugos (and download the voting packet). It’s a good community, and I’m glad to be a part of it.
Silverberg’s award giving was very much one of the highlights of my entire trip. The joke was just so well paced I couldn’t stop laughing.
Oh it doesn’t surprise me that a group of writers could get antagonistic with you. Writers are some of the most egotistical people I’ve ever met and they backbite each other all the time. Look at the things Stephen King said publicly about Stephenie Meyer. I also have a writer friend that went off on Jane Austen…my writer friend is female and close to 70 years old and writes the same period stuff as Jane Austen did. I defended Jane Austen saying that she did wonderful things for women in a time when women were really under-represented and on top of that, she is a great writer which really burned her gravy. So yeah…it doesn’t surprise me at all. Not one bit.
Glad to hear you had fun.
I suppose. Though it wasn’t so much that they got antagonistic as that things just…deteriorated. Blarg. But thankfully, I’ve generally had a very positive experience getting to know other writers in the area.
Also…Iago Silverberg! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
It’s interesting getting a group of writers going two different directions together. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened or what went wrong, but as long as you didn’t make any comments about e-books replacing paper or traditional publishers kicking the bucket, you’re fine. There are hundreds of paths to getting your stories to readers, going it alone with self-publishing or taking a collaborative approach through traditional publishers are perfectly viable options with–especially these days–more and more overlap between the two.
It’s weird. Translators have had to deal with this disparity for decades. Now the rest of the writing field has to catch up. *amused* Going-it-alone/e-publishing/whathaveyou doesn’t replace anything, it’s just another option. Like how paperbacks or audiobooks didn’t replace hardcovers. It’s just one more perk to add to a writer’s toolbox.
If the atmosphere was as friendly as the above with the implication that everyone should get along, that all ways of publishing are equally valid and have different pros and cons, then you were okay. If you made any implications about traditional publishers being idiots with the changing times or if you implied they are going to be defunct here pretty soon, then the natural result would be for people to either shut up, find a different topic, or argue, since that is an effective condemnation of something they love and are invested in.
Maybe this helps, maybe it doesn’t.
Also, I agree–Silverberg was AWESOME. I couldn’t believe how hard I was laughing!
Actually, it wasn’t ebooks or epublishing business models that started the animosity; it was something having to do with character and story structure. I don’t even remember what it was, but I took a contrary view (mostly to play devil’s advocate and make the discussion more interesting), and all of a sudden I felt as if I were caught in a verbal fistfight. We did discuss ebooks later, and I was careful not to be too polarizing or antagonistic, but they still got very defensive. Weird.
I do agree with you: epublishing is simply an alternative career route, not the only option and certainly not the best option for everyone. But when unpublished writers feel that they have to stand up as Defenders of the Faith for the publishing industry…it makes me stand back and go “huh?”
Huh…weird! I thought most writers -liked- discussions and playing devil’s advocate, but I guess we are fewer in number than I thought.
As for the rest, that IS rather baffling, as well. But I guess it just goes to show that they have never really tested all these lovely new waters. Maybe I should introduce them slowly by dunking them into the world of audiobooks first. :p
Maybe. Although I haven’t even tried that out yet. What’s going on with audiobooks?
Dude. Audiobooks are awesome. I’ll post about them later with more detail on what Writers Do Wrong as regards to audiofiction. But you should definitely check them out, especially if you’re bored at work for hours every day doing monotonous routine tasks.
Many libraries have free audiobook downloads with your library card. I’m not sure if the Provo Library does, but they may have it. Otherwise, you can preview books on Audible.com, find a good narrator (bad narrators make anything awful), and try out a book. You might be surprised! Everyone whom I’ve introduced audiobooks to falls in love with them as long as they preview the narrator first. *amused*
Audiobooks can completely change your whole “story” experience. Unlike e-books which are essentially a replacement for paper, there’s something different between visual and aural storytelling.
Audible.com has the advantage of cheaper audiobooks than ever before and you don’t need a lot of CDs or a bazillion cassette tapes to listen to them these days. Cheap–Especially if you’re a member. And especially if you wait for good sales. I’ve gotten a lot of audiobooks for 5 bucks–much cheaper than their paperback equivalents.
I’m somewhat familiar with audiobooks as a digital format, but what do you mean by “dunking them into the world of audiobooks?”