Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

The wife is sick and under orders not to leave the house, and I think she'll go insane without some new reading material. I know a few other authors in the genre, but at the pace she reads, she'll be through them by this afternoon, and she'll probably be stuck in bed for at least a week.

She's pretty bound and determined to support indie authors as a moral obligation, though she's the most quality-finicky reader I know.

Anyone got any ideas on what I can grab for her? I'd like to fill the kindle tonight when I get home from work, because I'm pretty sure she'll have made it through everything on it by then. She likes speculative fiction and science fiction a lot, but is also a huge fantasy and horror nerd. Really, she'll read anything so long as she likes the characters.

Nicolas wrote: "She's pretty bound and determined to support indie authors as a moral obligation..."

In a discussion a few months ago (Self-published sci-fi/fantasy) I said I didn't know anyone who looked at the publisher to decide what books to read. I stand corrected. :)

May I assume you are already familiar with some of the obvious indie SF&F books, e.g. Howey's self-published Wool? It's (deservedly, i think) gotten a lot of mainstream attention lately. (I understand that he just inked a print-only deal with Simon & Schuster; does that mean he's not an indie author anymore? :)

How is your wife disposed towards established authors who've published with the major labels, but also publish other works through the indie press?

I'm pretty fond of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's series, Diving Into the Wreck & Retreival Artist. I'm pretty sure they're all through independent publishers (Pyr, I think.)

Also, Connie Willis has produced several novelettes through indie Subterranean Press. I especially enjoyed All Seated on the Ground, which is her usual great mixture of character and humor.

Have a look at Book View Cafe (www.bookviewcafe.com) for a vast deal of SF and F in e format. I have two novels there that are only available in electrons:
http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/bvc...

Well, she's an opinionated nightmare of a reader. Entirely too sharp, obsessive, and thinks too much for her own good.

She saw some of the articles on the Hydra contracts, and a number of others about the ways that traditionally published authors get exploited and sometimes ruined by the major publishing houses, especially as the industry has grown more desperate, and it became her newest pet cause. Something to the effect of "I don't see how I CAN be an avid reader and book lover while supporting practices that ultimately undermine the very people who create the stories I love."

I, uh, have to laugh at her a bit for it. We don't own a single book, traditional or self published, that does NOT have her annotations on errors. She routinely writes critiques of a novel that are a quarter of the length of the novel FOR FUN. I've tried encouraging her to actually set up shop to review things, but she still feels like it's too cruel to the authors who would supply her. Especially since her opinions don't really matter for a book with a major publisher, but one bad review can start a mudslide that wrecks an indie book's sales.

I'm not sure what her opinions are on hybrid authors, authors who have both traditional and indie books. I don't think she has anything against the authors, I think she simply doesn't wish to support publishers.

Brenda, I'll have a look at Book View Cafe.

I'll pop on over to that thread. I did a quick search, but I must have been looking in the wrong section. That'll probably have more information that'll help too! Thanks.

Hey Nicholas,
Sorry to hear your wife is sick. I'm an Indie author with a brand new sci-fi book and I love quality-finicky readers - I am one myself. The book is "Now & Again" and plays around with parallel universes. You can check out the great reviews and try a few chapters before you buy. Here's the link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1Y2HBY

If you would prefer to be totally risk free (although your wife should be up and around by then) my eBook will be offered free on April 9 & 10 and then again on April 13 & 14.

Gene

Circle Spinner and Other Tales and Rose's Will are indy books I got for free from author giveaways in goodreads that I found to be reasonably well written. Many books by award-winning sf/f writers are also published by indy press, like Tanith Lee's Paradys books & her more recent anthologies, The Windup Girl, everything by Ekaterina Sedia, When She Woke (a book w/ a premise somewhat similar to one of your books) & the English translation of Troll: A Love Story etc.

Nicolas wrote: "Well, she's an opinionated nightmare of a reader. Entirely too sharp, obsessive, and thinks too much for her own good.

She saw some of the articles on the Hydra contracts, and a number of others ..."

I hope she will put her book reviews online some day.

hope she's better by now...i totaly understand her anger at publishers...they have been screwing SF writers for years, going all the way back to the days when Hugo Gernsback paid his authors in Amazing Stories 1/4 cent a word...and the joke was he only paid that "on lawsuit"

i've also heard tons of stories about how the SF Book Club kept SF writers in the poor house by killing the sales of publisher's editions, and paying a nickle a copy or the like to authors....

When She Woke looks really good... I'll have to look that up.

Thanks, Spooky. She's doing a bit better. She's on medication for the more urgent of the health issues, so she doesn't have to be quite as homebound as she was. She still feels really crappy, and is working from home and taking it easy, but she's in much better spirits. I don't think I've heard the "on lawsuit" joke before. That's pretty darkly hilariously awful. Yeesh. I certainly do hope more readers make an effort to reform the system while it's still going through its ebook growing pains. Seems like there's a lot of good to be done.

Book View was started as a cooperative by authors were were tired of the NY publisher clusterf*ck. It is pretty well agreed that practices and contracts there are wildly abusive. Even well-known titans of the field like Kate Wilhelm are unable to get decent contracts; the rights grabs are egregious. You can google on how she's started her own imprint to get out from under it.

A fun heroic fantasy, sort of, is Claus: Legend of the Fat Man by Tony Bertauski.

SmashWords is a website that's a clearing house for indy stuff...tons of stuff, and it's a mixed bag

also, in the Kindle store, Rudy Rucker put up his own stuff, also can get it at his web site...his Compleate Short Stories is like $6.

also, tell her i said if she wants to strike a blow to the head of the NY publishers, try shopping the used book stores as well...maybe even hit a library book-sale (they don't just have ex-library books)...She will find her old favs and not a dime goes to the publishing houses.

also tell her to check out the small-press publishers...they often take a chance on new authors, and usualy actualy CARE about what they are publishing (they aren't just in it for the $$$)

I suggest taking a look at Gina Marie Wylie's Kinsella universe stories.

David Wingrove

I hope her health problems are better by now. I'm curious to hear if there were any of these recommendations that she particularly liked.