About That Last Post
Posted on September 7, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 11 Comments
I’ve been meaning to update the Big Idea guidelines for a while, so I went ahead and did it. The big changes:
1. Now I’ll accept books that are ebook-only;
2. I’m asking people to provide more links and formatting so it’s easier for me to get pieces up more quickly. Because hunting down links, etc actually takes a fair amount of time.
Note that although I’m accepting ebook-only releases, I’m still largely not accepting self-pubbed ebooks. The reason for that is simple: I can’t possibly read every book submitted for a Big Idea, and so I need an at least minimal standard of assurance that the books being featured are competently written. Having a third party publisher who says “hey, I will pay money to publish this book!” is a good way to do that.
(Mind you, lots of books published by third parties are less than good, and many self-published works are good — remember I self-pubbed Old Man’s War before it was picked up. But again, I can’t take the time to read every single submitted book. This is my sorting process.)
As I’m updating these guidelines on the week, sometime in the week, probably Tuesday, when editors and publicists are actually online, I’ll make a general post noting the updated guidelines. Try to look surprised when it happens. In the meantime you, my weekend readers, just got a soft release of those guides. Don’t say I never did anything for you.
Typo: “Try to be look surprised when it happens.”
(Do you want to be notified of typos in the comments? I looked around briefly but I couldn’t find anything about it in the comment policy. My apologies if I was supposed to use email instead.)
I prefer e-mail, but in the comment thread is fine as long as it’s done matter-of-factly. Also, if it’s within ten minutes of the post going up, wait — I almost always go through immediately after to root out the obvious typos (some I miss, clearly).
On behalf of myself and several other fantasy, urban fantasy, and SF authors who’ve published with Carina Press, thank you very much for allowing ebook-only entries to your Big Idea column! We really appreciate that. :)
Cool!
“Now I’ll accept books that are ebook-only;”
I initially read that to mean that you would ONLY accept ebooks.
“must have an editorial staff that is not comprised of the author or their immediate family”
Which makes me frightened to think that this has to have happened at least once for it to be in the rules.
“must have an editorial staff that is not comprised of the author or their immediate family”
Which makes me frightened to think that this has to have happened at least once for it to be in the rules.
Uhmm, Eragon?
Not That Frank, I believe Eragon was published by a small press that was run by the author’s parents; the editorial stuff may or may not have had members that were not relatives, but the press was a legitimate bussiness that published other authors. I think this part of the rules is about people who try to hide the fact that their book is self-publised by setting-up a press that is comprised of their family and friends. On the other hand, I don’t know how reassuring it is to have “a third party publisher willing to pay money to publish this book”, when said third party is highly prejudiced in the author’s favor.
Interesting tidbit about “Old Man’s War” as last week I was in the public library looking for any books of yours and I found three. I chose this particular one as it stated on the blurb that it was your first published novel.
I look forward to reading it.
Thanks again for the existence of ‘The Big Idea’ and the opportunity to contribute to it. It’s introduced me to a lot of books I wouldn’t otherwise have encountered.
There seem to be a disproportionate number of books that are urban fantasy and alot of young adult literature. There does not seem to be a lot of harder science fiction or epic fantasy (non-young adult). I know you just posted John Barnes and Peter F Hamilton books, but those types of books seem to be few and far between.
I could be wrong on this. This is not empirical, so don’t go off on me…. I just prefer these types of books and just pointing out what I think I am seeing. Could be that this genre just publishes less books of the type that I tend to like than from others.
That being said, I like the Big ideas and I have found several books to read from it. I like the way authors do more than just summarize their books.