Kimberly Richardson of The Red Room has just posted her review of Sara M. Harvey’s THE CONVENT OF THE PURE.

“Harvey is one of those writers that grabs you by the throat on the first page and does not let go until the very last word is read; she weaves her words well, skipping the “purple” style and delivering punch after punch of can’t-put-it-down writing.”

Read the rest of the review here!

Congratulations to Gene O’Neill for receiving a starred review in the current Publishers Weekly for his Apex collection Taste of Tenderloin.

Quote:
“…O’Neill’s deft, authentic prose resonates with the weight of sad reality, erasing the line between knowledge and fear.”

You can read the full review here (about 3/4ths down the page).

Gene’s book is up for pre-order until July 30th and subsequently released on August 1st. You can pre-order straight from the Apex Book Store or from our friends at Horror-Mall.com.

All pre-ordered copies come signed by Gene, cover artist Steven Gilberts, and Gavin O’Neill (who wrote the introduction).

Whenever a writer talks about writing at any length, eventually the topic of whether or not to self-publish comes up. It doesn’t matter how gingerly how one talks about the subject, once it rears its head, it can become fairly divisive. Accusations of being elitist, a shill for the establishment/Old Boys Network; of belittling those who challenge the way things have been done, the comments come quick and furious as people justify their career choices. And that’s what it boils down to – a career decision each writer must make for themselves.

For the purposes of this blog, I’m defining self-publishing as you having to pay for your book to see print. Call it subsidized or vanity press, it is the same beast by another name – the author sets his own book, finds a printer and publishes. [Though some folks use the terms interchangeably, POD (Print On Demand) is a technology and not the same thing as self-publishing.] Self-publishing includes the trap many new writers experience known as PublishAmerica and the many other scammers who prey on the hopes and dreams of would be writers. Scams that can tie up your rights so that you aren’t as in control of your own work as you think. Just as there are many myths floating around about who has been self-published and the number of “success” stories.

I feel like I’m in a religious debate and I have to lay out the dogmatic/doctrinal issues I have with another set of beliefs in explaining why I won’t convert. My “dogmatic issues” boil down to three:

1. Money should flow to the writer. It’s the main lesson professional writers have drummed into my head and an easy check against you falling into a scam deal.

Writing can be like owning your own business. I have costs from my web site maintenance, postage, maybe some editing costs (well, before I had friends in the business). There are obvious costs associated with putting out your own novel.

There’s the cost of editing. Writers develop blind spots and are notoriously the worst judges of our own work. One of the knocks against self-published books is how badly they are in need of a professional editor. Not too long ago, I turned in what I believed was a clean manuscript. The editor bought the manuscript, however, the line editor revealed just how riddled with errors it had been. And I knew that I had gone over it a half dozen times (not including other eyes who’d gone over it) before turning it in.

Other costs not often thought about are cover art (or the software to do it yourself), transportation (for example, first-class shipping to the Amazon distribution centers), and storage, especially since authors are encouraged to buy a large number of copies from some scams. And there’s the rub: how much you have to pay, whether upfront or once they are printed, for your book to see print. Money should flow to the writer.

2. Marketing. We’re all competing for limited shelf space. I know the dream is that through the miracle of the Internet and online campaigning, the playing field has been leveled, but we’re not there yet. I don’t live in a dream world where I believe whoever buys my book will pour hundreds of thousands into promoting it. Much of the promotion will probably still fall on me. On the other hand, the way the dame is set up, no, I can’t self-publish my way into book store chains or the Wal-Marts of the world.

Marketing ourselves is a different skill set from writing. I’m using the word marketing to cover a whole host of issues:
-distribution – major distributors require that you have ten or more books published before they consider you
-blurbs and reviews – it is harder for self-published books to get reviewed or blurbed (though, I also think that these things are over-rated in how many copies of your book will get moved)
-discounts – Amazon charges 55% of the cover price to get into their distribution channel. Those charges can go upwards of 65% for some smaller distributors
-higher cover prices – The trade paperbacks typically run about $5 higher per copy. I have known writers who sell their PublishAmerica published novels at a loss just to be competitive.
-returns – some places want 100% returns on books that don’t sell, costs that come back to you (or to your distributer … and then to you).

3. Honing my craft. I know the temptation of going the self-publishing route. I have a novel that I’ve shopped around, but have been rejected. I believe in the book, I want to see it in print, but I won’t self-publish it. The rejections have taught me that the book isn’t ready. Self-publishing would mean that I would have a bad (at worse) or prematurely released (at best) novel on my resume.

Rejection is part of the process. You submit, you wait, you reassess, you re-write, and you grow. The rejections, besides thickening your skin (when the discouragement doesn’t break your spirit), they should give you a sense of how difficult it is and how hard you have to work to get published. Granted, there is a certain validation when known editors want to buy your work.

There are no easy paths to success and no matter what route you choose, it takes hard work to get published. It’s a long race to get published and I don’t believe in placing unnecessary hurdles in my way. We write to be read otherwise we’d write our stories and leave them in a drawer. All of the technologies and ease of publication ushering in the 21st century, have combined with our need for instant gratification, leaving no patience in our rush to be called a writer.

Self-publishing if fine if you’re a hobbyist and just want to see your name in print. It’s fine if you have a small niche you wish to reach. It’s also fine if you have a guaranteed audience that you can get product to. I know a few writers with dedicated fan bases for whom it made perfect sense to self-publish a project. It’s your career choice. Do your research.

Here’s a good column to peruse if you decide self-publishing is right for you. For me, the only thing I self-publish is my blog. If I were interested in going that route for the sake of exposure or strictly being read, I’d just post my stories on my blog.

Maurice Broaddus is a notorious egotist whose sole goal is to be a big enough name to be able to snub people at conventions. In anticipation of such a successful writing career, he is practicing speaking of himself in the third person. The “House of M” includes the lovely Sally Jo (“Mommy”) and two boys: Maurice Gerald Broaddus II (thus, he gets to retroactively declare himself “Maurice the Great”) and Malcolm Xavier Broaddus. Visit his site so he can bore you with details of all things him at www.MauriceBroaddus.com. Most importantly, read his blog. He loves that. A lot.

In 2008, Apex Publications released Orgy of Souls, co-written by Maurice Broaddus and Wrath James White. He is also the author of the upcoming trilogy, Knights of Breton Court, from Angry Robot.

After much arguing, Deb Taber was able to convince me that today is June 28th, not the 30th. I’ll leave the blog post up because I’ve linked it elsewhere and to remove it would be a pain.

So…enjoy the last two days of June. *cough*

For many businesses, this is the last day of the 2009 fiscal year. Not for Apex, we go Jan. 1 – Dec. 31st. But that’s not why today is so important.

Five things of major relevance occurs on the 30th:

1. Last day of the Apex Author Lottery. If you plan to play, better make it today. Ticket purchases have been low, so your odds of winning something are pretty good at this point.
2. Today is the last day to pre-order Prime by Nate Kenyon. The price of book goes up to $13.95. We’ll have all pre-orders signed by Nate.
3. Today is the last day for novel submissions.
4. On the 28th, Orgy of Souls co-author Maurice Broaddus will be appearing on the blog talk radio showThe Funky Werepig at 9 p.m.
5. On the 28th, Orgy of Souls co-author Wrath James White will be chatting at 8:30 p.m. over at the Horror-Mall.

So take a break from the heat. Send that novel off. Buy some tickets to the lottery. Visit Wrath at his chat and listen to Maurice pontificate on the radio.

If you’ve been thinking about submitting a novel to Apex but you haven’t quite gotten around to it, yet, it’s time to kick your submission process into high gear. Apex Book Company will be closing to novel submissions on June 30th. Any novel queries we receive after that date will be deleted unread.

We’re looking for dark SF/fantasy and horror novels between 50,000 and 100,000 words in length. Please make sure to read our submissions guidelines before submitting. Learn them, love them, love them! The guidelines also include our novel submission e-mail address and what we would like submitted to us as part of your query package.

Good luck!

We’re pulling Apex Magazine out of hiatus and plan on releasing a new issue on the first Monday of July (July 6th).

Why now? And why the magazine?

As I’ve said before, I’m stubborn. That’s playing a role in this decision. But I also try to be sensible when it comes to expensive business decisions. This time, I have a better plan in terms of financing the magazine.

It’s three-tier revenue stream…or three different ways our readers can help support the magazine that also provides them added value for their financial investment.

Tier One: Minion Support via sponsorship
We’ve setup three different levels of sponsorship–$50, $250, $1000.  For each level of sponsorship, you get a certain amount of stuff in return. Using this option, Apex receives all the money minus our e-commerce shop’s surcharge (3%) and the credit card surcharge (3%).

Tier Two: Support via Apex Magazine POD purchase or via donation
We’re going to experiment with the Magcloud.com magazine POD service. For each issue, we’re going to design and sell a full color print version of Apex Magazine available for purchase through Magcloud.com. This should be a great solution to those who want to read Apex in print format without waiting for the anthology. Buying the magazine should net $3-$4 in the Apex reserves.

Alternatively, we’ll work harder to earn your donations if you want to support the magazine by that route. Naturally, all donation money goes to Apex minus the previously mentioned surcharges.

Tier Three: Buy a copy of Descended From Darkness: Apex Magazine Vol. I
This is the upcoming anthology that contains all the original fiction printed digitally in Apex Magazine from January 1st, 2008 through June 30th, 2009. By buying this anthology, you’ll be directly supporting both the magazine and the book side of Apex. Descended From Darkness comes out December 1st, 2009. If you buy the book straight out of our shop, Apex will net approximately $8-$10.

Apex Magazine will be published in July and August. If the support is there from the readers, we’ll keep on publishing. We need $500 a month to finance the magazine. With a combination of these three options, we hope to meet that $500 goal each month.

And yes, Apex Magazine will be open to submissions starting July 1st.

Comments? Suggestions? Fanfare?

I’m quite excited about our upcoming books and projects. Like I do every so often, I’m going to catch my breath and share with you our latest global domination plans.

In the immediate future:
July 1st – We’re releasing Nate Kenyon’s cyperpunk-noir novella PRIME. Remember, we’re offering signed copies to those who pre-order. The price also goes up from $10 to $13.95 on July 1st.

August 1st – Gene O’Neill’s dark fantasy & horror collection TASTE OF TENDERLOIN comes out. These stories about San Francisco’s seedy underbelly (the Tenderloin) are currently on pre-order and all copies will come signed by Gene, artist Steven Gilberts, and Gavin O’Neill (Gene’s son, who provides the introduction).

September 1st – THE APEX BOOK OF WORLD SF edited by Lavie Tidhar is released. Featuring stories from the likes of Zoran Zivkovic, S.P. Somtow, and more, this is one you don’t want to miss. Unfortunately, since Lavie is currently hiding in the jungles of Laos, we’re not able to get signed copies.

October 1st – Mari Adkins presents HARLAN COUNTY HORRORS, our first ‘regional’ flavored anthology. If you like stories about hillbillies, coal miners, and rednecks, you’ll enjoy this one. Mari Adkins and a number of contributors will be signing all pre-ordered copies.

November 1st – The dual novella book WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US/BEAUTY IS by Elizabeth Engstrom comes out.

December 1st – DESCENDED FROM DARKNESS edited by Jason Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth. This is the Apex Magazine anthology reprinting all original short stories published on our website since January, 2008.

Further out…we’re buying at least two novels, though final edits have not been completed and contracts still need to be signed so we’re not naming names just yet. I can tell you that one is a wild zombie-comedy that we know you’ll love. The other is an action packed angel/demons/aliens thriller that reads fast and furious.

We’ve got three anthologies in the folds. The biggest is DARK FAITH edited by Maurice Broaddus. Another is Jennifer Brozek’s fun CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE URBAN KIND. Finally, late in 2010 or early 2011 will be Gill Ainsworth’s THE BLACKNESS WITHIN, an odd bit of stories featuring Moccus,a Celtic pig-god.

To round things out, the second of Sara M. Harvey’s novella trilogy is due out next March/April/May and we should have a novella from Campbell Award-winner Mary Robinette Kowal.

Phew, fun times, indeed!

Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on Michael’s personal blog here on June 19th, 2009. It is the third in a series of posts about the subject of author compensation. Read Part 1here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Reading back over my previous discussion about valuing creator’s work properly, I’ve been pondering the correct way to ask someone to provide something for free. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the request I had received to allow a nonprofit to reprint a story of mine in exchange for exposure. And I asked myself, if they knew from the outset that they couldn’t offer me any money at all, was there a way they could have asked me that would have led to my agreement?

I already noted that I would have been more amenable if the man who made the request had started by asking me what I would charge as a reprint fee, or if he had said that they didn’t have a lot of money but had offered me a token sum. That would have acknowledged from the outset his understanding that my work had value to it. But then I thought of one other approach he could have taken. I can’t be sure this would have done the trick, but I think I would have been receptive had he said the following:

“I’m sorry to say that I can’t offer payment. Would you be willing to donate your work?”

I would have been a lot more comfortable with this kind of request. Why? Because the original “offer” implies that “exposure” is a valid form of payment. But the request as phrased above makes it clear that the publisher understands that the work has value, simply by using the word “donation.” And it implies a level of respect for the creator and the work that the offer of payment by exposure does not.

Of course, that mostly works if the asker is running a nonprofit or a charity, and if the writer can afford it.

Writers do donate things all the time, such as signed copies of their work or the chance for a person to appear in a book, to charity auctions. But people need to keep in mind that just because someone is a writer doesn’t mean that they can actually afford to make donations. The writers who can are usually ones more famous and better off than I am, and yet there are a lot of people out there who seem to think that if you’re a fiction writer you’re automatically very well off, even if they don’t see your name on the Times bestseller list.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone like Stephen King on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy, trying to raise money for a good cause (and if Wikipedia is to be trusted, King did in fact appear on the show to raise money for the Bangor Public Library in 1995). But most of us who are writers would rather appear on Jeopardy for our own benefit, so we can avoid missing our mortgage payments.

If you do approach a writer for a donation, and you’re turned down, you ought to be gracious about it. When I was just starting out, I got an email from some school asking me to make a donation of a personal item for a charity auction. (These requests are a lot more common than people realize.) I emailed back, explaining that I was a teacher myself (low-paid, of course, as many teachers are) and had agreed with my employer that I would only make such donations for my own school’s auction. The other school’s representative emailed me back indignantly, saying that he had never heard of such an arrangement and casting aspersions on my moral character because I wouldn’t part with one of my possessions to help them out.

You can be sure that I crossed that school off my list of places I would ever help out if I found myself in a position to do so.

So let’s go back to the question of Google and the artists that spurred these articles in the first place. Would it have been better or more appropriate for Google to ask the artists to donate their work instead of offering exposure? I would say no, that Google isn’t in a position to ask artists to donate their work, for the obvious reason. Google isn’t a charity; it’s a company that makes a large profit every year and is looking to increase its own profits with wider distribution of their Chrome browser. In the end, I return to the point I made at the beginning: if Google thinks that the artists’ work has value, they should be willing to match that value with payment.

Michael A. Burstein won the 1997 Campbell Award. His short fiction, mostly in Analog, has been nominated for ten Hugos and three Nebulas. He and wife Nomi live in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he is a Library Trustee and Town Meeting Member. He has two physics degrees, and attended Clarion. See http://www.mabfan.com.

In November, 2008, Apex Publications released Michael’s first collection of stories titled I Rememeber the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein.

Photo credit: Nomi S. Burstein

Don’t miss out on a chance to win goodies from the entire roster of Apex authors.

Want to win a signed copy of Beauty and Dynamite by Alethea Kontis?

Perhaps you’ve had your eyes on something from Michael A. Burstein?

Or you’ve seen Paul Jessup acting up on Twitter and want to read his fiction?

We have it all. The lottery ends on June 30th, so don’t delay, go and play!

http://www.apexauthorlottery.info