I am having a number of interesting conversations as a result of sending out my usual year-end note. What follows is [part of] one such.
John Sundman [1] is an author whom some of you might know, either in person or through his work. (e.g., here is a post about him from our resident open-source anthropologist, Chris Kelty [2]) Anyway. John was wondering if I might want to review his books, with a view to increasing visibility and perhaps sales as a result. See ChrisK's post linked above for more background. The possibility of asking silklist members to review it then occurred to me. Here's what he had to say: > I was reminded that you're a Zappa fan. Wherefore I feel compelled to tell > you that the logical structure of Zappa/Mother's Uncle Meat album is central > to the plot of my first novel, Acts of the Apostles. > > As to Silklist, OF COURSE I would love for you to mention me & my books > there. My books are available under Creative Commons license and are easy > enough to find on the web on torrent sites, etc. I no longer provide links to > places where you can get my books for free, because I'm trying to sell them > to make a little money. The ebooks go for $2.99 on Amazon, $3 on my site > (PDF), and similar prices in the iTunes, B&N, Kobo, etc places. Anyway, my > point is, it would be kind of nice if some of the people on Silklist *read* > my books, but it would be *much more nice* if some of them *bought* my books. > (Paper copies also for sale on Amazon & from me.) > > As I said, anybody who doesn't want to pay $3 can legally find & download my > books for free; moreover the first portions of each of them are free on my > site & Amazon, among other places. > > So anyway, with that long preamble, I attach below the PDF of Cheap Complex > Devices, beloved of Weinberger & Julianne (among others). There's no DRM and > it's Creative Commons licensed, so do with it whatever you like. I would > appreciate it, however, if you kept in mind that I would much rather sell a > book than give one away. > > I read that boing boing bit. Funny. Cory's a friend of mine (deep in the > bowels of wetmachine there's a one-hour podcast, in 3 parts, of he & I > talking) and has boing'd my books a few times, bless his heart. > > http://boingboing.net/2008/12/15/sundemans-the-pains.html > http://boingboing.net/2006/04/20/new-cclicensed-illus.html > http://boingboing.net/2003/04/28/two-gonzo-hacker-boo.html > > The relationship between Sterling & me is a little more attenuated, but when > he blogged that I was "the future of printed fiction" my sales went up for > about two weeks. > > http://my-thoughts-exactly.wetmachine.com/content/youre-right-bruce-sterling-i-am-the-future-of-printed-fiction-lets-discuss-at-sxsw > http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/10/the-future-of-printed-fiction/ So, anyone want to do a review? Udhay [1] http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jsundman [2] http://savageminds.org/2009/10/29/another-publishing-world-is-possible/ -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
