Note: don't miss our last interview to Ken Liu » We Use Narrative As a Way to Make Sense of the World

THE FUTURE OF READING AND PUBLISHING ACCORDING TO AMAZON

"«The question is not, will reading become increasingly digital, that seems very likely. The question then becomes for the people who add value and try to be useful to authors and readers – and that includes publishers and booksellers – how do you evolve being useful in a digital world? … Nobody in publishing was thinking about whether their authors needed a Twitter feed five or 10 years ago, but it’s probably something they’re thinking a lot about now. Publishers will have to explore how to listen to authors, observe what sells books and find a way to adapt and be useful in that scenario.»"
Macleans.ca | @peternowak

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN THE NEW ERA OF PUBLISHING

"I actually think authors have a good situation in the new era, because everyone will have a chance to be heard. But, unfortunately, not all chances are going to be created equal. There will still be a big difference between a book launched with a major publicity campaign and a book anonymously and quietly uploaded to Amazon.
In any situation where there is a great deal of choice people tend to retreat to trusted brands, and I think that's going to be true of the new era. Megabestsellers and celebrities will continue to sell more, and everyone else may find it difficult to stand out."
Nathan Bransford | @NathanBransford

9 SIGNS SELF-PUBLISHING IS OUT OF CONTROL

"To paraphrase the immortal words of Truman Capote, there’s a difference between writing and typing. And, to put it gently, we can say with a good amount of confidence that most self-published books were typed, not written. Because communicating with letters assembled into words is a skill most learn by the age of 5, and because written communication has become so ubiquitous in American life, everyone now thinks he’s a writer. Until recently, the publishing industry had been our sea wall, protecting us from a tidal wave of boring life stories and dreadful novels. But now, the ease of self-publishing threatens to drown us all in mediocrity. Here are nine signs the situation is out of control."
Accredited Online Colleges

WHERE IS PUBLISHING HEADED?: THE FUTURE OF BOOKS IN 7 EASY STEPS

"So where is book publishing now headed? Will the traditional print-on-paper book become a relic of a bygone age, a collector's item to be found only in second-hand bookstores and garage sales, much like the old vinyl LP? Will publishers - and perhaps agents too - be displaced by a flourishing of self-publishing and by powerful online retailers like Amazon who can offer to publish writers' work on royalty terms that are much more favorable than those traditionally offered by publishing houses?"
Huffington Post

THE REINVENTION OF THE BOOKSELLER

"These days most bookstores have some sort of coffee shop or snack bar. Years ago it was a brilliant move to add that dimension, as it helped turn bookstores into a hangout rather than just an in-and-out retail destination. If in-store coffee shops were the game-changing idea of the '90s, what's the new one for the current decade? Here's one possibility: an in-store self-publishing resource. Self-publishing is red-hot and still gaining momentum. But what's sorely lacking in the self-publishing world is a reliable place to go to ask all the questions. How do I get started? What's the best platform? How do I create a marketing campaign? Self-publishing enthusiasts are left with a slew of questionable online options and a few in-person events. Why not create an in-person self-publishing resource within your store?"
O'Reilly Radar | @jwikert

WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE PAPER BOOK?

"In the past several years, we’ve all heard readers mourn the passing of the printed word. The elegy is familiar: I crave the smell of a well-worn book, the weight of it in my hands; all of my favorite books I discovered through loans from a friend, that minor but still-significant ritual of trust; I need to see it on my shelf after I’ve read it (and I don’t mind if others see it too); and what is a classic if not a book where I’m forced to rediscover my own embarrassing college-age marginalia?"
Slate

DIGITAL READING: GETTING AGILE ABOUT BOOKS

"So why is agile methodology being applied to book development? Because in our current cultural environment of instant downloads, regular updates and reader feedback, the leisurely process of making a book and the siloed organizational structure within publishing houses have come to be obstacles to success. Publishers could certainly benefit from greater speed, accuracy, functionality, end-user satisfaction; perhaps agile development methods can deliver them."
Digital Book World | @bklynanne

OF BROOMS AND BONDAGE

"Now readers can go online to berate overhyped books that fail to thrill. “It’s a lot harder for a publisher to sustain an illusion of a big new success,” Mr Rickett observes. And thanks to social media, word of mouth spreads faster than ever before, giving unknown writers a better shot. Today, a bestseller must usually appeal either to young people (who use social media a lot) or women (who dominate reading groups)."
The Economist

NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE FIXED COSTS OF YOUR BOOK, MOVIE, WHATEVER

"They only care about the value to them of the single copy they get. And this makes sense for a variety of reasons, both economically and psychologically. This is the point that economists have been making for ages, trying to get people to understand the difference between fixed costs and marginal costs. Fixed costs don't impact pricing. Maginal costs (the cost to produce the copy) do. That's not to say that the fixed costs aren't important -- they are -- but they don't factor into the pricing decision, they factor into the investment decision. That is, you don't take on a project if you don't think you can create a business model that will give a total return on investment over the fixed and marginal costs. But the pricing on the individual item is entirely about the marginal costs. And this is actually a good thing. If you did pricing based on the average cost, including fixed costs, you actually lose the incentive to be more efficient and lower your fixed costs, since you get to just bake them into the price. But the public doesn't care about how much you spent. As far as they're concerned, you may have spent stupidly and inefficiently. They only care about the marginal benefit they get from the copy."
TechDirt

IT DOESEN'T MATTER WHAT E-BOOKS COST TO MAKE

"Consumers don’t really care what a publisher’s costs are, nor are they likely to pay more simply because a publisher argues that their content is really valuable. In the same way, movie-goers don’t really care how many millions of dollars a movie studio spent on their latest blockbuster — that has no bearing on whether they want to see it or not. It is the perceived value of the e-book that matters, not the cost — and there are some good reasons why e-book consumers might want to pay less."
GigaOm

Jason Fischer lives near Adelaide, South Australia, with his wife and son. He tries to unleash the weird every time he gets behind the keyboard, and his fiction has been described by reviewers as “strikingly original” and “weirdly imaginative”, while noted for containing “greasier genre elements”.

He is the author of over thirty short stories, with his first collection appearing soon from Ticonderoga Publications. His “After The World” series of zombie-apocalypse novellas are available from Black House Comics, and his fantasy novel “Tusk” is being serialised in Terra Magazine.

Blog | @jasonifischerio | Goodreads

The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

The biggest change I can think of is the ascendancy of the e-book, more than anyone could have anticipated. This in itself has completely changed the nature of publishing, publishers, writers and even readers. Writers are beginning to wear several hats, self-promotion is king, and the problem now isn't getting published - it's standing out from all the white noise. Readers are entering the e-book marketplace with their guard up; there's a lot of bad self-published work out there, and the average reader is (wisely) wary of unfamiliar names. Where an editor or publisher once exercised the most quality control in the chain of publishing, that now often falls to the reader themselves to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Why do you choose to write short stories? What does attract you in this format?

I initially moved into short story writing as a way of improving my craft, and stayed for the joy of writing. I've had a lot of fun in the past few years, contributing to all sorts of themed anthologies and magazines, made friends and had a lot of laughs. I was lucky enough to win the Writers of the Future short story contest a couple of years ago, where I got to fly to America and complete a workshop with authors Tim Powers and KD Wentworth. In all honesty I'm starting to move away from short story writing, but I don't regret a moment of it. I still dabble in the form from time to time, and it's the sheer joy of creating disposable worlds and scenarios that keeps things interesting.

You write both fantasy and horror stories. Do you think there is any interesting connection to explore between the two genres?

More often than not, fantasy *is* horror, or at least is darker in flavour. There are many horrific elements in George RR Martin's fantasy novels, for example. The current mode seems to be moving away from Tolkien-esque vanilla fantasies, incorporating grit and visceral settings. High Fantasy is still around but it's an endangered species, which I am actually grateful for. Enough with the elves! I would suggest that Horror and Fantasy blend together much better than they do with their cousin Science Fiction, and many authors pull this off with aplomb. Fantastic elements lend a breath of fresh air to those tired of slasher horror, and it's a combination I won't be tired of for some time.

What do you think about the current horror stories? Which are the main quality you can see in them, today?

I think the current crop of horror is becoming more cerebral, less splatterpunk than the horror seen in 80s and 90s. The violence and gore can still be seen in places, but as horror becomes a more accepted genre, it's creeping into other mediums. So we've seen the birth (and rapid ascendancy) of paranormal romance, and a lot of interesting cross-genre work, especially when creatures and forces specific to horror (such as vampires) are used in police procedurals. The cross bleed doesn't always work, but it does often enough to make it commercially viable.

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

"By Bizarre Hands" by Joe Lansdale, "Tender Morsels" by Margo Lanagan, and "Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advices: do you have three tips for them?

Write often. Edit always. Get a good chair

Honey Brown lives in country Victoria with her husband and two children. She is the author of three books: Red Queen, The Good Daughter and After the Darkness. Red Queen was published to critical acclaim in 2009 and won an Aurealis Award, and The Good Daughter was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award in 2011.

The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

Changes in the book universe are similar to changes in the world in general - superseded in an instant, brief moments in the spotlight, short periods to shine. And the organic and sensory are being replaced with high tech and remote. It feels to me like the instability in the book world will continue a while yet, and then level out, and storytelling will find its place within the digital age and be as important and treasured as it always has been.

When readers talk about After the Darkness they always spent some words about the psychological suspense you are able to create. What does inspires you the most to create this kind of atmosphere?

I've always been drawn towards dark themes. I'm often inspired by something I'll read in the paper, a murder, or an abuse case. My mind goes looking for answers - how could a person do that? Why would a person do that? Are they good as well as being bad? Instead of hunting down the facts and looking outside myself for answers, I look inside myself. I create my own characters and setting, I introduce a crime or an assault, and I see what happens and how the characters respond. I try to gain understanding through fiction; it's a much a journey for me as it is (hopefully) for the reader.

What works better to grab the reader, in your experience?

Creating clear pictures and introducing conflict. Without rich visuals the reader won't become involved. Without conflict the reader won't turn the page. By creating a clear picture I don't mean pages of description - that can kill a visual image. Sometimes one line is enough to sum up a place or person.

What do you think about the current thriller stories? Which are the main quality you can see in them, today?

I'm not the best one to answer this question, because I read books to study technique and style, not for the story. I find it very hard to get swept up in a novel, and I'm not familiar with the current crop of thrillers.

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

After the answer I just gave above, I'm not sure the readers are going to have a lot of faith in my three picks! But here they are: The Long March by William Styron, The Quiet American by Graham Green, Lord of The Flies by William Golding.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advices: do you have three tips for them?

Everyone has a different creative process, and tips and advice can sometimes damage a writer's self-belief, so I give these with the disclaimer - they may not suit you.

1. Don't talk about your story to everyone, write your story (make the page the only outlet for it).

2. Finish each book you start, and then start another one.

3. Think of your reader's mind as a movie screen, and you're the projectionist in charge of giving a great show.

Note: don't miss our last interview to Ken Liu » We Use Narrative As a Way to Make Sense of the World

HOW WE WILL READ: MARIA POPOVA

"Reading is a bootcamp for developing and exercising critical thinking. Without that — intellectual apocalypse! And critical thinking is about developing a point of view, and all writing is — or, should be — about arguing a point of view, implicitly or explicitly. When you bring the crowd into the equation, this concept completely disappears — because a crowd cannot have a point of view, at least not one that is simultaneously focused and authentic to each individual in the crowd."
Findings

THE INNOVATION WE NEED TO SEE BEFORE EBOOKS CAN COMPLETELY REPLACE PBOOKS

"Now, I understand there are a few advantages to paper. But I see a lot more advantages to digital. The fact that I now carry about a hundred books with me, wherever I go, that I can read whenever I want, outweighs any advantage a paper book could give me. Well, beyond the shallow extremities of the paper book, like its smell.
There are however a few technical challenges that could be overcome by Amazon and Apple that would make my digital books even better and would let me forget about paper altogether."
The Next Web

WHY PUBLISHERS NEED A CONTENT STRATEGY TODAY

"The traditional linear publishing process becomes instead a network of modularised processes that enable dynamic, personalised content creation. Publishers as content providers do not create more and more products, but design and maintain a content centre, from which they are able to feed into the growing diversity of business opportunities. These paradigm shifts require an extensive rethinking for publishers – and make a content strategy essential. They entail having a content strategy which recognises that books are not just information or data."
Publishing Perspectives

THE RETURN OF THE NOVELLA, THE ORIGINAL #Longread

"I think novellas have intimidated publishers, who cannot easily parse the form. Novellas range so widely in length, from several dozen to over 200 pages, that it's impossible to characterize them as a group. There really is no precise formal definition for what even constitutes a novella, nor will there be—each narrative relies on its own structural logic to determine its length. Writers love this freedom, but for publishers the novella's protean borders are a risk and a headache."
The Atlantic

SUSTAINABILITY IN PUBLISHING: WHO CARES?

"Surely we could just switch to e-books? Ah, of course it’s not that easy. You have to consider how many books are read on each e-reader in its life, its production methods, toxicity of the materials, what other uses it might have, how soon it will be obsolete, and whether it’s recyclable or destined for landfill. Oh, and let’s not forget social sustainability: the less-than-golden reputation for developing world manufacturing; the impact e-books have on independent bookshops; and the risk of making books less accessible to poorer social groups. And that’s just the beginning. Studies suggest e-readers become greener than print once you’ve read between 14 and 70 books. Oh yes, it’s THAT conclusive.
It’s almost enough to put you off books altogether. No, no, no, no it’s not."
EggMag

AMAZON AREN'T DESTROYING PUBLISHING, THEY'RE RESHAPING IT

"Before agency was introduced, Amazon boasted of controlling 90% of the ebook market. Barnes & Noble's Nook now has a share in the mid-20s, with Apple down around perhaps half that and assorted others making up a few more percentage points. Whatever agency's sins may be, it opened the way for something like competition, which is why it seems on the face of it painfully odd that publishers should face legal action for anti-competitive practices in adopting it.
And why is competition important? Because it drives not just lower prices, but better products. And let's face it, the products we have are ho-hum."
The Guardian

NOTE TO PUBLISHERS: YOUR ADDICTION TO DRM IS KILLING YOU

"Has DRM prevented piracy? That seems unlikely, since it is relatively easy to get around those locks and copy a book if you really want to. What is pretty clear, however, is that those rights-management locks have cemented Amazon’s control over the publishers’ content. In other words, it has given the online retailer a stick with which to beat them, as Stross described it recently. And it has also made it more difficult for some independent e-book sellers, because publishers won’t let them sell their books without DRM."
GigaOm

THINKING THROUGH A STRATEGY FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

"With this analysis, one might assume that I am in favor of DRM. I am not. I am simply being realistic. A publishing strategy to move away from DRM requires a great deal of thought and contingency planning. Can we afford to lose our course adoption sales? How do we monetize reading groups? And what about the used-book market, from which we currently derive no revenue? Can we come up with new ways to monetize books so that we can recapture some of that lost revenue? The issue concerning DRM is falsely thought to be a technological one. It is not; it is a marketing issue. What is the best way to reach markets, and does DRM help or hinder that goal?"
The Scholarly Kitchen

HERE'S ANOTHER FAST-GROWING SOCIAL NETWORK: GOODREADS

"Goodreads saw an opportunity, and began offering e-books directly from the site. Now authors could sell 13,000 books to their fans. With the rise of the self-publishing industry, which many writers have taken to nowadays - and with the likes of imprints like Chicago's own Tortoise Books and Featherproof popping up all over the place - it's not surprising that 35,000 self-promoting, social-networking authors have taken to Goodreads. The site currently has 8 million registered members who have written more than 13 million reviews and added more than 280 million books to their virtual shelves."
The ReadWriteWeb

Ken’s fiction has appeared in F&SF, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Clarkesworld, among other places. His work has been twice nominated for the Nebula (“The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” and “The Paper Menagerie”) and several of his stories have been selected for inclusion in various Year’s Best anthologies. He lives near Boston with his wife and daughter.

Ken Liu | @kyliu99 | Goodreads

“The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”: free online PDF

The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

I think anyone who thinks they can predict the future of publishing and bookmaking is kidding themselves. So much is in flux: new e-book technologies, new publishing models, new ways for authors and readers to interact. It's impossible to tell which changes will proliferate and become the new norm, and all that authors can do is to be ready to adapt to the new ways.

I do have one wish: that these new changes will make it easier for authors to find audiences internationally. I'd love for barriers of geography and language between communities of readers to fall. Electronic distribution and new models of doing translation (whether technological or social) ought to help with that.

In your blog you mention a quote by Stanley Kubrick that you feel like perfect to capture exactly why you wrote The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary. Could you tell us more about this idea?

The quote is this:

The most terrifying fact of the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment.
However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

Like many insights about life, this one centers on the ideas of acceptance and struggle. Growth as a species and as an individual seems to me to be about learning to navigate between these two poles.

In The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary you wrote "there are some narratives that are closer to the truth than others, and we must always try to tell a story that comes as close to the truth as is humanly possible." Is this a goal you try to reach with your writing? And if yes, how?

I think we humans are drawn to using narrative as a way to make sense of the world. Telling stories is how we work through our values, our beliefs, our emotional responses to each other and to the world.

Good works of fiction resonate with the reader in a way that should, ideally, make the world seem a little more beautiful, more true. I'd like to think that's the goal of every writer.

What do you think about the current science fiction stories? Which are the main quality you can see in them, today?

I think I see a lot more diversity in contemporary science fiction compared to the past -- I mean in every way -- topics, ideas, attitudes, approaches, demographics. At the same time, many contemporary writers have maintained the willingness to question our society's deeply held assumptions about how things ought to be -- one of the most subversive qualifies of science fiction.

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

I'm going to suggest something very different: short fiction. Some of the most interesting work in contemporary speculative fiction is done in the short form, and you can get a quick survey of the state of the field by browsing just a few issues.
I'd suggest a subscription to print magazines like F&SF, Analog, and Asimov's, as well as online magazines like Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advices: do you have three tips for them?

1. Read, read, read.
2. Write, write, write.
3. Don't take "tips" from other writers too seriously. You have to find what works for you.

Deborah Biancotti is a writer based in inner-city Sydney, Australia. Her first published short story won an Aurealis Award and her first collection, A Book of Endings, was shortlisted for the 2010 William L. Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Book.
Her second short story collection, Bad Power, has just been published by Twelfth Planet Press, and her first novella has just been released by Gilamesh Press in the Ishtar anthology.
Deborah is working on her first and second novels. She continues to write short and long stories and refer to herself as a 'tired idealist'.
Blog | @deborah_b

Find out more on Goodreads

The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

It looks to me like the world’s opening up for authors. Especially authors willing to try non-traditional methods to reach an audience. Personally I’m loving the whole ‘eBook singles’ idea in particular, where a single story or novella is sold independently of any covering anthology or collection. I think that’s really exciting and kinda subversive. I’m interested to see whether editing becomes as independent as writing is becoming.

I love buying one or two stories (or ‘singles’) for a quick afternoon read. And since I like reading at the shorter word length, I’m excited to think that maybe the whole eBook revolution will lead us back to the days when novels were only 60,000 words or less and novellas were available in every newsagent. As opposed to the the big ‘door stoppers’ that traditional print made popular for the sake of printing economies of scale.

Or, you know, some other format entirely might take over. It’s anybody’s guess.

Bad Power is a collection of sinister police procedural short stories, with a particular kind of supernatural characters: the one who dislikes having superpowers. What do you love the most on the mix with police procedural and fantastic genre?

I think what I love is the order vs. chaos you get when we try to apply our cumbersome human systems of justice and security onto a world we don’t understand. There’s something kind of honourable about the attempt, and something sweetly sad and inevitable about the failure. You know, it’s a very human trait that in the face of chaos and ‘the void’, in the face of mortality and the apparent impossibility, the hostility of life, we still try to keep to the ways and traditions we understand. We still try to protect ourselves and each other. We still do the best we can.

And in Bad Power, Detective Palmer is very much doing the best she can, trying to be the best she can be. She’s compassionate and humane even when the world around her falls short of those values. And the outcomes from that aren’t great for me. Palmer, to me, is a living, breathing example of consequence, of good intentions getting nowhere.

It’s the same for Detective Ponti, who’s being torn apart by his power. He has the uncanny ability to find lost children. But his power is so unpredictable that people start to suspect he’s involved in the disappearances. He’s someone whose career and his life have both apparently stalled. But he keeps showing up, doing his job and doing his best. It hasn’t bested him. Yet.

Your readers love your ability with dialogues and images: a wonderful way to define them is "cinematic". Which is the best way to grab reader's attention, in your opinion? Are there any essential key points you can't miss on doing it?

Why, thank-you! As a reader, I always love that moment of immersion that happens when you really believe a story and you find yourself trusting the author. How that happens is probably different for each reader, but for me what you can’t miss out on is a good character. For a story to work, you need to care about the outcome, and the way to care is to find a character you can invest in. That’s certainly what’s behind my desire to write interesting dialogue and a world that’s visually evocative: it’s that immersion I’m aiming for.

What do you think about the current police procedural stories? Which are the main qualities you can see in them, today?

One of the things I love about police procedurals is that they’re almost always stories with a sturdy narrative spine and strong, energetic characters. You start at the beginning, usually with a crime, and you end with a resolution, and along the way you dive in and out of the lives of a bunch of people with problems. Big problems, typically. It’s an old story structure that’s never gone out of fashion, and that’s because it’s so satisfying and so versatile. It’s a form and format that drags the characters with it, kicking and screaming, regardless of what else is happening in their worlds.

Nowdays I think police procedurals are expanding more and more to take part in other kinds of stories. Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men is a police procedural, but it’s also a literary story, a gothic western story, a thriller. Local Australian author Katherine Howell is writing police procedurals often from the point of view of paramedics as well as police. In graphic novels, Gotham Central is a fabulous police procedural based in Gotham City and featuring a bunch of cops who are coming to resent the superheroes (read: Batman) almost as much as they hate the bad buys. And I won’t even begin to talk about the police procedurals on television, such as Detroit 187, Southland, The Killing, Wallander. Luther, Rush ...

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

Oh, man, just three? That’s so hard.

Well, I think Katherine Howell is going to be huge. Her Cold Justice is an action-packed thriller ride through Sydney and shouldn’t be missed. It’s a multi-point-of-view story about a bunch of strong, complicated characters coming together around a cold case involving a murdered teenaged boy from twenty years ago. It’s about how much the present belongs, still, to the past.

And I absolutely love Michael Marshall Smith’s Bad Things and think you should read it. He’s at the top of his form with this book about a man whose son goes missing in front of his very eyes, and the spooky reasons that wind up being behind that. He writes marvelously clear prose and his characters are immediately sympathetic and interesting.

And, hmm, Dorothy Porter’s The Monkey's Mask is a brilliant, sexy, smart police procedural told in verse. It’s one long poem that takes the form to its logical conclusion. We all enjoy snappy, fast-paced action, right? Well, this book is the definition of snappy, fast-paced action. Porter is one of Australia’s best, most exciting, most energetic poets and everyone should read at least one of her books.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advices: do you have three tips for them?

1. Keep writing.
2. Ignore people who try to diminish you.
3. In the words of Goethe, “Do not hurry; do not rest.” (i.e. KEEP WRITING!)

Awards: Boston Review (1998), New Millennium (2004, 2007, 2008), Faulkner (2004), O. Henry Award (2001)
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The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

For all the talk of change in the book industry, I think it's important to focus on what is not going to change any time soon: The public wants engaging, moving, insightful stories. No matter how much the medium changes - whether we embrace e-readers and hypertext or return to quill pens and parchment - there is no subsitute for strong content. Any publishers who lose sight of this fundamental principle will do so at their own peril.

As an author, I focus my energies on writing worthwhile stories. In the long run, no matter how the industry changes, that's the real connection between reader and writer.

You often privilege the intimacy of relationships, and describe ordinary lives meticulously, highlighting details with an extraordinary precision. What does fascinate you the most on this kind of plots?

Readers want to recognize themselves and their own experiences in the characters about whom they read. That does not, of course, that they are reluctant to experience the unfamiliar. Rather, they want to see connection with the unfamiliar. So the reader who first reads of the romantic grappling of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy or of the antics of Huck and Jim or even the toubles of the rabbits in Watership Down recognizes some of their own experience in these narratives.

A reader might say, Miss Havisham reminds me of my Aunt Gertrude or I know exactly how Levin feels while courting Kitty, even though I'm not a nineteenth century Russian, and that's what makes literature magical.

How do you draw inspiration for your stories?

The kernel of all my stories comes from either personal experience or the experiences of people I know well. The work of writing involves translating the personal into characters and events that others will find interesting.

What do you think about the current literary fiction? Which are the main quality you can see in them, today? 

Literary fiction is alive and well - despite many predictions to the contrary... and despite the impressive ineptitude of the publishing industry. Our literary journals are thriving. Anyone who picks up a copy of Southwest Review or Viriginia Quartlerly Review or Subtropics will have their faith in contemporary literature renewed.

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

Kevin Brockmeier's "Things that Fall From The Sky"
Andre Aciman's "Call Me By Your Name"
Elizabeth Graver's "Have You Seen Me"

I'd also strongly recommend that readers reread the novels and stories of Shirley Jackson. Far too many readers stop at "The Lottery" and
"The Haunting of Hill House". Her less-known works, such as "Summer People" and "The Road Through the Wall, are some of literature's best
under-appreciated gems.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advices: do you have three tips for them?

Three tips:

1. Perserverence is key. Never give up. If you don't receive at least 365 rejections each year, you're not trying hard enough.

2. Practice humility and kindess to other writers. Even after you win your first Pulitzer Prize, do your darnedest to help aspring authors. (I recommend re-reading Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse.") If you teach creative writing, and you give students B's, you should feel ashamed of yourself. If you refuse to blurb a book or write a negative review of a young author, this reflects far more poorly upon you than upon the work. We are a community of writers. If you can't embrace the community part, you're missing all the pleasure.

3. Read the kind of work you want to write. If you're striving to write the Great Dutch Novel, but you read only haiku, you're doing
yourself a disservice. If you spent your time watching television, move to Hollywood -- but don't squander the time of editors by writing
short stories. In short, be part of the market you're targetting.

Note: don't miss our last interview to Angela Slatter » Short Stories Are about Identifying an Essence

I THINK PUBLISHERS HAVE LOST THE BATTLE & THE WAR

"The problem is that the publishing system as it stands is being ripped to shreds by digital change. We do need a publishing industry, we don’t necessarily need THIS publishing industry, the legacy one. There is no reason why any individual publisher MUST survive or that quality publishing won’t happen if the legacy publishers do fail.
The Agency battle was and is not really one over the creation or publishing of quality works nor even one over the price we might charge for those quality works or who sets that price, it is over the allocation of profit/revenue within the system that allows for the creation and publishing of quality works."
Teleread | @eoinpurcell

WHAT AMAZON'S EBOOK STRATEGY MEANS

"As noted, Bezos targeted bookselling because it was ripe for disintermediation. By purchasing from the publisher directly when a customer had already bought a copy, his company could keep its overheads down—and in particular, minimize its warehouse space (never mind the cost of running premium retail outlets and paying shop sales staff). This allowed him to buy wholesale and sell retail, at a big discount compared to the regular retail trade (with their higher overheads).
So. What's wrong with this?"
Charlie's Diary

THE E-BOOK WARS: WHO IS LESS EVIL, AMAZON OR BOOK PUBLISHERS?

"That said, however, the fact remains that virtually every major disruptive or innovative move the book-publishing industry has seen over the past decade has come from Amazon and Google, rather than from the mainstream publishing houses. They seem to have spent most of their time dragging their feet and throwing up roadblocks to any kind of innovation, whether it’s e-book pricing or Google’s book-scanning project (Matt Yglesias at Slate argues the antitrust case is irrelevant because publishers are doomed anyway). Their defense of the agency-pricing model feels like yet another attempt to stave off the forces of disruption. Why not try to adapt instead?"
GigaOm

THE ANTI-AMAZON CAMPAIGN JUMPS THE SHARK

"This raises a number of questions. First of all, isn’t Amazon fully within their rights to charge what they like for advertising on their site and marketing to its customers? Do publishers think they can name their price and Amazon must accept? What planet are they on?
It makes perfect sense that Amazon would raise their prices. In the last twelve months, the e-book market has grown dramatically. I think it’s safe to assume that the number of visitors to the Kindle Store has also risen by a huge amount. If a newspaper doubled its circulation, wouldn’t it be prudent of them to raise their advertising rates?"
Let's Go Digital

E-BOOKS: WHAT NEXT?

"I have no idea what to make of all this, and no way of predicting the future. We’re living through a weird era where giant companies like Apple and Amazon, who don’t create knowledge but simply provide platforms for consuming it one app or download at a time, are hastening the demise of traditional publishing. Publishers are having a harder time explaining the value they add in an era when (as Clay Shirky recently put it) publishing isn’t a job, it’s a button. Academic books seem poised to go the big deal license route we went with journals, (even as open access publishing becomes an easier proposition with simple tools like PressBooks). And readers and the libraries they serve are wondering what’s going to happen next."
Inside Higher Ed

WHAT THE DOJ E-BOOK LAWSUIT MEANS FOR READERS NOW

"As soon as the new contracts are in place (and Justice will be holding onto a copy of each of those contracts), let the discounting begin. Forrester analyst James McQuivey told Digital Book World last week that he expects Amazon to discount e-books slowly and strategically, starting with bestsellers. Publishing industry consultant Mike Shatzkin, on the other hand, believes Amazon “will do the splashiest discounting they possibly can, making the point as loudly as possible that they deliver the lowest prices to the consumer and daring their competiton to match them.”"
PaidContent | @laurahazardowen

AFTER THE DOJ ACTION, WHERE DO WE STAND?

"I would summarize the situation this way. Amazon (which includes any other player largely dependent on Amazon) and the most price-conscious ebook consumers have won. Everybody else in the ecosystem: authors, publishers, and other vendors, have lost. The reaction from all quarters seems to confirm that analysis."
The Idea Logical Company | @MikeShatzkin

PEW SURVEY SHOWS HOW E-BOOKS ARE CHANGING THE EQUATION FOR PUBLISHERS, READERS

"E-book users earn a gold star for reading more avidly than any other group. The Pew study finds e-book readers are "relatively avid readers of books in all formats: 88 percent of those who read e-books in the past 12 months also read printed books. Compared with other book readers, they read more books. They read more frequently for a host of reasons: for pleasure, for research, for current events, and for work or school. They are also more likely than others to have bought their most recent book, rather than borrowed it, and they are more likely than others to say they prefer to purchase books in general, often starting their search online."
Significantly for publishers who feel the ground shifting under their feet with recent developments such as the demise of Borders and some other traditional bookstores, e-book readers are more likely to buy the books they read, while other readers are more apt to borrow."
MediaShift

BONUS

NPR » On Writing A Best-Seller (Shhh, There's a Formula)
The Atlantic » Can the Computers at Narrative Science Replace Paid Writers?
Granta » The Reader and Technology
Wired » James Bridle: Literature needs much more than ebooks

Angela Slatter is a Brisbane-based writer of speculative fiction.
Her short stories have appeared in anthologies such as Jack Dann’s Dreaming Again, Tartarus Press’ Strange Tales II, Twelfth Planet Press’ 2012, Dirk Flinthart’s Canterbury 2100, and in journals such as Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Shimmer, ONSPEC and Doorways Magazine. Her work has had several Honourable Mentions in the Datlow, Link, Grant Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies #20 and #21; and three of her stories have been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards in the Best Fantasy Short Story category.
Blog

Find out more on Goodreads.

The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

I think that the whole idea – in fact, not just the idea, but the actuality, the reality of how technology is impacting the book trade is causing a lot of upset for traditional publishers. Many of them don’t seem to grasp that this can be an opportunity rather than a threat to their business. They need to rework their business models so that they are accommodating both the print and ebook markets. There’s no point in burying heads in sand and hoping ebooks will go away. They won’t – but that also doesn’t mean that they are the death knell of the print book. They aren’t – this is simply a time of disruption while the market adjusts to accommodate new forms/media. You can either see the changes as an obstacle or as an opportunity.

The ebook is a great development for authors as it can mean an extra income stream (as long as publishers understand that they are not going to be able to pay the same amount for print and ebook advances as they were paying for print advances alone – it’s like going to the supermarket and paying for the eggs then saying ‘Well, I’ve bought the eggs, so I’ll help myself to some bacon too – what? More money for more goods? Oh, no, don’t be silly!’)

A downside of the whole DYI side of the ebook industry is the flood of self-published books that are not subjected to an editing or proofing process. It’s sad because it means there is a lot of unfiltered crap out there, and that impacts on readers’ buying choices, because no one wants to pay good money for bad writing. Writers need to understand that just because they can now self-publish with ease doesn’t mean that the onus of producing a book that is the equal in quality of a trade published book is any less. A quality book, well edited and proofed, with a consistent integrated plot is still the end product for which you need to aim.

The Girl With No Hands (and Other Tales) is a collection of fairy tales inspired by classics from all over the world, in many cases. How do you deal with tradition in your writing and which is your way to keep it relevant?

I grew up with fairy tales, particularly European ones and am very lucky I missed a lot of the Disney-fication of the stories I read. I think the tales themselves have a backbone that is recognisable to readers and if you use that same background for your own story, your own reworking, you can tap into a huge amount of stuff the reader already knows. There’s a certain amount of cultural capital you can pretty much bank on a particular reader-audience already having in their possession – for example, the phrase ‘Once upon a time’ is a very weighted phrase. It conjures a very specific reading experience for someone who recognises it as the start of a fairy tale – as does the start ‘There was and was not ...’

When I work with fairy tales I try to pick out the salient plot points and themes that are already at work in an existing tale, for example, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is (for me) about bravery and the cycle of life and transformation, so those are the themes I stick to when I’m writing. The essential characters are the villain (wolf), the heroine (a growing girl), and the grandmother (a figure of wisdom, and also a destination – not only is the heroine going to physically visit granny, she’s moving forward in her life and along the path of her life to become granny – and take her place in the greater cycle).

Fairy tales theme are universal and so I like to hold on to the original ones as well as weaving in ones of my own; the same thing with recognisable characters. My story ‘Dresses, three’ is a version of ‘Donkeyskin’ as is another story ‘Sourdough’ – or rather, each contains elements of the original. ‘Dresses, three’ has the demand for three very specific dresses, and ‘Sourdough’ has the ‘princess’ putting her jewellery into food in order to achieve a result. Modernising the location and situation can help keep them relevant to a new more modern audience. But I do tend to stick with traditional settings as they are my preference as both writer and reader.

"Short short stories, excellently written with enough beauty and darkness to balance every page", says Paul Haines in a review of The Girl With No Hands. What do you love the most on writing short stories and how do you create quickly the right dark atmosphere and feel in the reader?

That’s a very kind review from the excellent Paul Haines!

For me short stories are very much about identifying an essence, the most essential thing you want to show a reader and that translates all the way across the story: what is the main story question? What are the critical things I need to show a reader about my characters, my setting, my dialogue? The short story doesn’t have the luxury of a long roll-out and a lot of words, or a huge cast of characters. Everything in a short story needs to work hard (but seem to do so effortlessly!); you’re showing a slice of life, what’s been called a ‘widened moment’, so you have to be quite ruthless about what you leave in and what you take out. I think I really love that challenge. How to build something that implies so much using as little as possible. There’s a certain magic to the short story, a kind of smoke and mirrors and the challenge is to see how cunning one can make one’s sleight of hand.

With fairy tales, you have tropes and motifs you can rely on to elicit a reaction in a reader – for example, a wolf in the woods suggests something frightening and untamed, something uncontrollable and dangerous. Similarly, a wicked stepmother, a fairy godmother, a widowed queen, a castle on a hill, a spinning wheel and a spindle, are all rich stock items in fairy tales that can be deployed to create the right atmosphere.

What do you think about the current speculative fiction stories? Which are the main qualities you can see in them, today?

That’s difficult to answer as there are just so many across the world, all doing different things. There’s a lot of post-apocalyptica out there and it’s always interesting to see what other people envision for our future. I’m kind of hoping the vampire romances will die a natural death as my personal preference for a vampire is as a scary creature – something with teeth! I’d like to see a renaissance of the ghost story – I think that would be a wonderful direction for writers to try once more.

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

Oh, only three! Okay: Lisa Hannett’s Bluegrass Symphony; Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle; and John Arvjide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advice: do you have three tips for them?

1. Read a lot – a good writer is also a good reader.
2. Know, accept and embrace the fact that the first draft is never the last draft – writing is re-writing.
3. Get a thick skin and realise that not everyone will like your work, and remember that your writing is not you, it’s just something that you do.

Rhys Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, from Calvino to Borges. Much of his work is of a humorously eccentric bent, often parodies and pastiches with surreal and absurdist overtones.
Blog | @rhysaurus

Find out more about The Mischief Maker on Goodreads
Buy: Amazon | iBookstore | Barnes & Noble

The future of books is a big challenge for anyone in these days, from authors to readers. As an author how do you see things change in the book universe? Which aspects do you think are going to move faster?

To be honest, I really have no idea about what is going to happen in the book world. I have finally accepted the fact that I'm not very good at predicting trends. I grew up in the 1970s when futurologists were respected as authentic prophets by many people. They would make confident and absolute claims about the future, explaining how we were all going to live in cities under the sea and listen to music played by robots and nobody would ever work for a living, but none of their claims ever came true. So I think that maybe I was somehow infected with a defective sense of how the future will unfold and that includes the future of anything at all.

Ever since I started my writing career, people in the book business have told me that things were "better in the old days." I think that maybe the first person who ever created a book on paper was told that things were better when all books were chiselled on stone tablets. Things were always better in the old days. As I get older I find myself starting to say the same thing. But it's just a mantra, I don't believe the words, because I don't really know if things are better or worse. Personally I welcome the rise of ebooks. I know many writers of talent who don't. It's a question of taste, of course, but also a question of immediacy. An ebook can be prepared in less time than a normal book. That's good for prolific writers like myself, but is probably less important for writers who are less productive. Whatever happens in the book world, my only strategy is to attempt to adapt to it if I can!

Sampietro Mischief, the renowned "Absurdity Investigator", is the main character of your Mischief Maker series. If you ever have the chance to meet what would you like to ask him?

I think I would be very reluctant to ask him anything at all. There's something devious about him and I don't think he's trustworthy. Of course, all his stories are told from his point of view, so he's able to keep hidden the darker aspects of his personality. The way he treats Chives, his pet monster, isn't very nice. He always tries to justify his behaviour in this regard by stressing how disobedient Chives is, but we must question the circumstance of owning a pet monster at all. If I was feeling brave on the day I might ask Sampietro, "What gives you the right to treat poor Chives like a slave? And please don't give me details of those occasions when he didn't follow your orders or when he tried to trick you. It's wrong to abuse any sentient being!" I am sure that Sampietro would have some clever answer to my accusation or perhaps he would simply play the oboe very loudly to drown out my question.

You draw a map of Litalia, the land in which the series takes place, where cities take their names from Italian famous writers. We read about Buzzati and Calvino in the previous adventures: where are you planning to bring us next, and why?

I have always enjoyed drawing maps of places that don't exist. When those places almost exist it's even more fun. I'm not sure how many adventures Sampietro Mischief is going to have. All of them will take place in one of the cities of Litalia.

I have just finished writing the third adventure in the series, The Memory Fumes, which is set in Svevo. The cities aren't just inspired by the works of the writers they are named after but also by any connection that strikes me at the time. So the adventure set in Svevo is about memory, about addiction, about starting again, but it is also concerned with the paradoxes of Zeno. I think it's my favourite of the adventures so far.

The fourth adventure will take place in Eco. I don't know about the stories after that. Boccaccio? Gadda? Certainly I want to set one in Luther Blissett and maybe one also in Primo Levi. How many adventures will there be in total? I don't know. I believe that I once said there would be eight and that seems a good number.

What do you think about the current weird detective stories? Which are the main quality you can see in them, today?

One of the reasons I started writing this series of stories is because I have never really attempted to write any kind of detective stories before. And I have read very little detective fiction, weird or otherwise, in my life. I haven't even read any 'Sherlock Holmes' yet! The only detective stories I read when I was younger were the 'Bustos Domecq' tales of Jorge Luis Borges and Bioy Casares. So I'm certainly not knowledgable in the genre.

Then it seemed to me that maybe I could approach the genre from a fresh perspective, but as I didn't know the rules this was taking a risk. I do like logical puzzles, riddles, but maybe that's not enough to create an entertaining and effective detective story by itself. The only thing to do was to make an attempt. Of course, one of the things about my 'Sampietro Mischief' stories are that the criminal is never really punished and the crimes are never really very serious. They might lead to temporary discomfort for some people, but the idea is that the situations created by the crimes actually cause a readjustment of society, an opportunity to try living in a different way, temporarily.

I'd like you to give your best reading suggestions to our readers. Could you pick three titles that they can't miss?

Do you mean books by other writers? Or books that I have written myself? My favourite work of fiction ever is probably The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, which is all his 'cosmicomic' stories collected together in one big volume. If I hadn't discovered the first of these stories more than twenty years ago, I wouldn't be the writer I am today. I'd be a different sort of writer. I also would recommend Froth on the Daydream, a novel by Boris Vian, and The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. All these books are clever, funny and delightful!

But if you mean my own works, then I would recommend two story collections, The Brothel Creeper and Link Arms With Toads! Both these books are still in print. Some of my favourite books are out of print now and very difficult to obtain, but I think that those two books represent my work properly. The first one is quite dark, more dark than my usual work; the second is lighter in mood, tone and effect. I would also recommend a book that is due out in the future called The Truth Spinner, which I think might be my best book of all. I don't know when it's going to be published, but with luck it will be sometime in 2012.

And then, for those who are looking for good writing advices: do you have three tips for them?

Yes, I do. Here are my three tips:

1. Be rigorous.
2. Be mischievous.
3. And ignore all advice!