Marty’s Blog

Fresh from researching necrotizing fasciitis, a damn horrible disease if ever there was one, I needed some lighter entertainment—okay, some entertainment—and turned to my collection of mid-20^th century Amazing Stories issues. They always take me to a place of pure fantastic adventures, in a time when things were simpler.

Today’s adventure was with the June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories. The special issue Shaver Mysteries.

For those who don’t know, Richard Sharpe Shaver was a writer who penned a number of stories set in a surreal world deep below ground, a world filled with bizarre robots and ancient civilizations. These were stories that were all true, according to Shaver. He’d experienced the events he wrote about firsthand.

It caused an uproar when the issue was published, with folks either demanding his head for sprouting such nonsense (and that of the editor of Amazing Stories, Ray Palmer, for believing in him), or thinking that Shaver had uncovered the biggest, baddest secret of them all. Giant underground caverns, mysterious ancient races, advanced technologies, aliens, teleportation…  Pshaw. What gump.

It all began in September 1943, when Shaver posted a letter to the editors of Amazing Stories, giving them the key to an ancient alphabet (‘Mantong’), which was supposed to have been the mother tongue of all languages. Shaver didn’t want to die without getting this out into the world, so he said, and it was published in the January 1944 issue.

Then the letters began; numerous readers had tried out the key and said that it worked brilliantly in many languages, especially the older ones. Encouraged by this response, Palmer asked Shaver to write about his adventures in this world. Shaver did, and the end result was called ‘I Remember Lemuria,’ published in the March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories (actually, it was the editor, Palmer, who gave the story its title, as he refused to believe at that stage that Shaver had gotten the story from the underground world). It was hugely successful, with thousands of readers claiming identical experiences or even correcting certain mistakes!

This saw the magazine’s circulation increase dramatically, and as such, they ran a new Shaver story in each issue, culminating the June 1947 The Shaver Mystery special issue. The editor and staff were convinced that Shaver was telling the truth after they visited him in Barto, and saw for themselves that the man wasn’t a raving nutter with wild frizzy hair and whirlpools of insanity spiraling out of control in his eyes. They even heard the so-called “voices” that Shaver first picked up through a welding machine he was operating, and were now being beamed straight into peoples’ brains from deep caves by means of a telaug ray (Shaver had first picked up his co-workers’ thoughts, then weird things like screams from someone being tortured, unseen people discussing various odd things in a world that couldn’t exist).

So the June 1947 was born. This is from the editorial of the 1947 issue:

“Here it is, readers, in spite of Hell and High Water! The special Shaver Mystery issue! And if you think that first sentence isn’t sincere, you should have been in this editorial office to help put the June issue to bed! Never in our nine years of editing have such fantastic things happened to make an issue almost impossible.”

Palmer goes on to explain a myriad of bizarre happenings, including the whole manuscript vanishing for 3-4 weeks, only for it to be found in the place it should have been all along—except riddled with spelling and grammar errors. This, of course, after the proof readers had gone over it in detail, and found none. Galleys were incorrectly numbered, duplicated, disappeared, or subtly changed, there was an inexplicable paper shortage, errors in titles painted into illustrations… The “dozens of almost maliciously planned (so it seemed) interruptions from every conceivable source…”

The tales in this special issue were promoted as a blend of fact and fiction—fictional tales based on true events. There are articles too, ‘How to Use the Shaver Alphabet’ (written by the editors due to repeated requests), ‘Proofs’ by Shaver himself, giving his complete thoughts on the whole shebang. I like this bit:

“To those who cannot accept my work as anything but misguided imagination, or who think the whole “Shaver Mystery” is a rather stupid hoax, the following words are to be considered exactly that: more stupid contributions from a man who is purposely hoaxing stupid readers into believing silly things that could not possibly be true.”

(This article is actually pretty good—and for a work of fiction, Shaver put a hell of a lot of thought into this. Or maybe it is all true…..)

So just what in all blazes was this all about? Well, here’s a recap, taken directly from editorial of that issue:

“…an “adventure” in caves beneath the earth at incredible depths, where lived a race of people known as dero (detrimental robot) who were evil in intent, and tero (integrative robot) who were good in intent. These people, he explained, were descendants of the “abandondero,” or those human beings who were abandoned here 12,000 (?) years ago when a race of people (giants) called the Titans and another race called the Atlans left the earth in space ships because they had discovered that the sun was throwing off radioactives which were causing them to age and die who had been immortal.

“Since the Titan and Atlan cities were underground, and their vast civilization immovable, all their machines and cities were left intact; thus the abandondero, taking refuge in them inherited many wonderful things, which, because of their sun-polared destructive thinking processes, they turned to destructive purposes.

“With the aid of such machines as the telaug (telepathic augmentor) and disintegrating rays, plus various instruments such as the “stim” which enhanced physical and emotional pleasures, these dero took to tormenting surface people and thereby being the basis for all of our legends of cavern wights, little people, demons, ghosts and—during the war—gremlins.”

I love it! Ah, those were the days… Such unbound freedom, unrestrained by the weight of science.

So then, now I’m sufficiently recharged, I’ll take this ‘ere glass of scotch and resume the horrid horror story I’m writing about rot and death. Just great, I tells ya. Still, at least my shifty sideshow muse is happy. You should see the smile on his creepy damn face…

I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder.
(Leonard Cohen)

We truly are in the midst of some huge changes—and perhaps a big war or two before the new world order asserts itself.

I read somewhere that the future could see paper books existing as limited editions, or signed editions, mostly for collectors, only. In fact, Neilson BookScan reported in their end of year figures for 2011 that sales of Adult Fiction and Mass Market Paperbacks declined by -17.7% and -23% respectively. This reduction is double that of 2010. Neilson BookScan captures approximately 75% of all print book unit sales. The other side of this is, of course, the continued sky-rocketing of ebooks.

Who knows that will happen to our beloved paper book in the coming years (it would be a brave person indeed to predict what the world will be like in five years’ time, given the speed of technological advances we’re seeing), but you can’t doubt there remain some big changes ahead.

As an aside, my wife and I own two horses. A few years’ ago, we decided to sell one of them and buy a quieter one, but there was a period when we had all 3 horses on our property. Boy, did the dynamics change when we introduced the new horse. The whole status quo was upset, and it took a little while for the balance to return.

It’s the same with the Digital Era of Amazon we find ourselves in. Everything is out of whack right now, and it will probably be so for some time before the new balance asserts itself.

[A good digital publishing timeline showing the surge of ebooks can be found here]

Amazon isn’t making any friends at the moment, that’s for sure. I’m nowhere near clued up enough on all that’s going on to discuss the details or ramifications, but you have to admit—particularly if you’re a writer—it is interesting. You can do a Google search and find a long, long list of blog posts dedicated to this current publishing hot potato and there’s no point in me reiterating what others have said. For a bit of a history lesson on what’s going on, have a read of this article.

One thing that I would like to mention is this: the fourth quarter figures were released the other day and while Amazon’s sales rose 35% to $17.4 billion compared to the previous year, profits plunged 58% to $177 million. This was due to heavy spending on infrastructure and development. The Kindle Fire is a strong seller but it’s believed Amazon sells the unit near to a loss. Like current thinking though, it’s all part of a strategy plan…

And this from www.seekingalpha.com was most intriguing: “If Amazon has decided to accept single-digit margins during this Kindle “investment phase,” and the result is that the company has set itself up to own a 50 per cent market share of the entire U.S. book business by the end of 2012, there will be no shortage of happy investors — and devastated competitors — at that point in the relatively near future.”

Despite the problems this could undoubtedly lead to (ie, when there is a monopoly and no competition, we are at the whims and mercy of the big dog), you have to admit that it’s not bad for a company that, prior to the launch of the Kindle back in 2007, only owned ~15% of the US book industry. They have one heck of a business plan.

But what might this actually mean? Well again, there are all manner of stirrings out there in Blogland and Facebook World; if you’re interested, have a read here.

Like a lot of others have been saying, it’s all reminiscent of what happened in the music industry, when Apple gave us iTunes and the $1.99 song. We still have iTunes—and the $1.99 song.

Some other key things happening:

• The Digital Book World conference wrapped up on January 25, and on the first day, Amazon confirmed its deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who will publish all of Amazon’s Publishing’s New York-based titles and distribute them in North America outside of the Amazon.com platform under a new imprint, New Harvest.

Great, somewhat creepy name, all things considering…

• Barnes and Noble recently refused to stock Amazon books in their ‘showrooms.’ Likewise Books-A-Million (BAM), and Canada’s number one book retailer, Chapters Indigo, have also boycotted Amazon books from their bookshops.

• Amazon will be setting up its own retail store in Seattle soon. The first of many..?

• This from www.futurebook.net: Forrester Research’s James McQuivey “definitely spoke to the times not being so easy. His latest survey of 74 executives tapped from the biggest, many mid-tier and some smaller publishers revealed that “optimism is waning.”

“Last year 89% of executives were optimistic about the digital transformation; in the new survey that figure decreased to 82%.  In the previous survey 74% felt readers would be better off; the current figure is 61%. Last year 66% felt more people will be reading books; the equivalent this year is 47%. And whereas last year 51% felt their companies would be stronger, only 28% do now.” (Source: http://futurebook.net/content/if-amazon-really-are-going-kill-publishers-what-can-they-do-about-it)

• Random House recently began breaking short stories out of anthologies and selling them digitally. They have recently launched a company-wide, new digital short story brand called Story-cuts. As RH digital editor Dan Franklin said: “This is the iTunes model, really. It hasn’t ever been applied to books yet . . . People can consume things on the hoof so intuitively there will be an audience there.”

I personally love this. I think it’s great. It’s like buying a single song instead of the whole album. Expect to see a lot more of this.

A lot of people have been discussing many of the above points, especially no’s 1-3, but I read another good post asking if this boycotting is the right way to go about things. And a part of me wonders if readers really care about this, or is it just us writer folks? Sure a monopoly is bad, don’t get me wrong, and a world in which Amazon was the ruling force could end up pretty dire, but face facts; Amazon isn’t going away. They have a huge selection and a gigantic audience. We live in a rapid pace world where we want things now, this instant, because our lives are just too hectic and we don’t have time to stop and enjoy the scenery. I know a lot of people who shop on Amazon because they can get what they’re after for a good price.

Yes, I know all the counter-arguments, just as I also know folks who won’t touch Amazon. And furthermore, I know that competition is good. I just hope those against Amazon aren’t waging a war in a way they won’t win.

Anyway, with the surge in indie publishing, one thing I’ve been wondering about is, if I self-publish, can I still hunt down an agent? Well, it turns out the answer is yes—mostly. Jim Levine, founding partner at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, among the top 5 overall most active agencies in the business, was asked (back in 2010) if he was accepting self-published books, to which he replied Yes! Read about it here on Forbes. Nathan Bransford, from ex-Curtis Brown fame, held the same view (before he stepped aside to focus on his own writing).

Jennifer Enderlin, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at St Martin’s Press, one of the largest publishers in the USA, said “Absolutely” when asked if agents would consider authors who originally self-publish on Alan Rinzler’s blog in October 2011. Chuck Adams, Exec Editor at Algonquin Books, and George Gibson from Bloomsbury USA, both likewise said yes. Adams went on to say:  “I think publishers are increasingly open to considering books that have proven themselves, albeit in a fairly limited market…”

Literary Agent Rachelle Gardender (Books and Such Literary Agency), when asked “Am I hurting my traditional career by self-pubbing? My pressing goal is to become a best-selling, traditionally published author,” replied by saying, No. Self-publishing probably will not hurt your chances of traditional publishing. She goes on to discuss the rapid turn-around of the perception of self-publishing as astonishing, and how it is now longer viewed as a negative thing by traditional publishers. This was back in June 2011.

Not all agents will be of the same mind, but it’s a sign of the changing times that self-publishing is now a viable option. Check this out for more.

Some places are even suggesting that, should you self-publish, send a print copy of your book to an agent straight away, as it’s easier for them to get a feel for the book as a whole if they can see it in the flesh, so to speak. Of course, that bit about making sure your book is as good as it could possibly be in paramount here…

I saw yet another good post on the reasons indie authors aren’t taken seriously and it’s all just common sense. Edit your damn book. It’s simple really. Be proud of what you’ve produced, make it the best it can be—and then make sure it’s just a little bit better still. Yet it’s astounding how many people don’t do this. I’ve read a lot of self-published books that really need a good editing, and I bet a lot of others have, too. This, and poorly designed covers, are the two biggest crimes.

Self-publishing (or Indie publishing?) has really taken off with the popularity of ebooks, empowering writers with control over their own careers, and one of the things I’m beginning to see more and more of are groups of writers/editors getting together to publish their own books (eg, Dark Continents Publishing, and the WG2E Street Team). There is a lot of sense in this. Do you think this is the way of the future? Strength in numbers, so to speak. A number of people out there are claiming it is. Because I guess at the end of the day, one of the hardest things about self-publishing is marketing and promotion, right? With more people involved, this increases your reach and helps spread the workload.

Here’s what David Youngquist, President of Dark Continents Publishing, had to say when I asked him these questions:

“And I agree that the publishing world is changing at lightning speed. Back in the summer of 2010, when the founding members of DCP came together, there were no other groups out there like us. Some were thinking about trying it, but we were out there on the top of the wave alone at that time. After we made our official launch with our operating system, at the World Horror Convention in Austin spring of 2011, more companies have come along on the same business plan.

“We looked at what did and didn’t work. Print runs with thousands of books produced and sitting in warehouses or on store shelves were not feasible for us. We went with Lightning Source, which is the print on demand arm of Ingram’s Publishing. That way, small, indie presses like us can compete with the big boys like Penguin. We have a distribution system through 21 wholesalers world-wide. Lightning Source itself has plants not only in the US, but in the UK and Australia as well.

“We use e-files only in DCP. This is for a number of reasons. We want to stay as green as we can, so this way there aren’t tons of manuscripts to recycle. We can also send the files to be edited to the people we work with in the US, UK, and other places. We have two layout people in the US, and one in England as well. This way, we can send those files, once edited to be laid out into book form. From there, they go to the main print plant in LaVerne, Tennessee. Once into their system, if Waterstone in London wants 15 copies of Campfire Chillers, the order is placed, the books are printed and shipped in England. No sending paper copies overseas. It cuts shipping cost, eliminates import fees, and it keeps jobs in the local economy.

“Promotion is a huge thing, as you mentioned. And as you mentioned, the more folks out there promoting books, the farther word gets. Word travels well with a lot of people in a lot of places spreading word. What helps is everyone has connections who have connections. And not all our connections are connected, but when ten people start putting word out to all their people, it’s just a domino effect.

“Another thing we’re trying is our Darkness and Dismay series of books. These are a collection of novellas available only through DCP and Amazon as e-books. They’re written by both up and coming writers like Andy Taylor, and established masters like Dave Jeffrey. These novellas are with the Kindle Direct Publishing system for the next few weeks, and after that, they’ll be available to everyone. It’ll be an ongoing series of e-books that DCP publishes. So far, it’s been a great program for us. In the first four weeks, we’ve sold 120 books.

“As for the future of publishing, I believe it’s going to be a combination e-books and tree books. Brick and mortar stores will always be around, but they’ll most likely be specialized stores with a narrower focus. The e-book market will sort itself out. I don’t believe big publishers will be able to control that particular market as they are trying to at this moment. Joe Hill put it well at WHC last spring. Right now, it’s like the ’70′s with technology. The microwave oven was making big inroads in the appliance industry. A lot of people predicted the end of standard ovens. But now, the vast majority of kitchens have both a standard oven and a microwave. Seems to make the most sense.”

Cripes… It turns out I’ve written a bloody novel here. Sorry about that. Best I end now and get about my way. I’ll end by saying this, I was one of those who didn’t want a Kindle, didn’t like the idea of ebooks. Then I got my Kindle, and now I buy way more ebooks than paper ones. Actually, most of the print books I buy now are signed collector editions. I love my Kindle! True, it will never beat a real paper book but I know the world changes. LPs became cassettes, which became CDs and then digital files. Folks used to say nothing beats the sound of an LP. Well, I wasn’t born of that generation so for me, LPs only ever sounded crackly, skippy, and plain horrible. Give me digital any day. And our kids certainly aren’t going to crave paper books over digital. Hell, they’re three-quarters digital as it is.

As for me, I have 2 completed novels now, both of which have gone to a professional editor and been given a thorough working over. They are just about as good as I can make them. So this year I will be aiming to get them published, one way or another…

The HWA, in conjunction with the Bram Stoker Family Estate and the Rosenbach Museum & Library, recently put out the nominees for the Vampire Novel of the Century Award (which really would be something cool to have on your mantle…).

And embarrassingly enough, it turns out I’ve only read two of them (I’ve seen the movie version of one other, does that count?).

Here are the contenders:

The Soft Whisper of the Dead by Charles L. Grant (1983)

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (1975)

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman (1992)

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976)

Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1978)

I’ve read the novels by King and Matheson and thought them both brilliant. I’ve had Kim Newman’s book on my bookshelf for about 5 years now and still haven’t read it, so maybe I should dust it off and go find my scotch and comfy chair.

The rest… well I’ve seen the film adaptation of Rice’s book (which I enjoyed) but have never read the book. So it looks as if I have a good excuse to go out and buy some more books. I’m a big Charles L Grant fan too, so this is great news.

One of my favourite vampire novels is Necroscope by Briam Lumley. I read this when I was in my teens and just loved it. Only problem was, after I’d finished it, I forgot who the author was and, er, the title, so I had a hell of a time trying to get hold of part two!

Without having read all of the above nominees, any prediction I make is pretty pointless but I’m going to make one anyway; Stephen King–or no, wait. Richard Matheson. No, King. Ah shite, I’m glad I don’t have to pick a winner…

The winner will be announced at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet at World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 31, 2012 (the centenary of Bram Stoker’s death). Wouldn’t that be a cool convention to go to–it’s also the 25th anniversary of the HWA.

Hmm… that just got me thinking. Do vampires feature in science fiction stories very often? By sci-fi I mean futuristic stories, ones in which interplanetary travel is common. Anyone know?

…I mean it this time. But then I probably always mean it when I first say it…

2012 has already started with a bang though, with a new website and this joint blog, which has been an idea we’ve cultivated for some time. It’s great to finally see it coming to life. The Screaming Ink crew–AJ, Jules, Mark, and Dave–are a great bunch of kids, all immensely talented with skills covering all manner of things. As it says on the About page:

More than just writers, we’re writers, artists, photographers, graphic novelists, and gamers, too. One of us may even be a mad scientist. Between the five of us we have seven children, four spouses, assorted pets, four Bachelor degrees, a PhD, a geologist, two journalists, a graphic designer, a perpetual student, a photographer, a copy editor and wannabe poet. We’re colleagues, we’re conspirators, we’re friends.

So expect to see some wild and awesome things happening here–we already have one huge surprise in store for later this year (keeping it secret til then will mean no more scotch for me, as I always spill my secrets when I’m drunk…).

And me? Well, I have some pretty big juicy plans, too. I’ll have both novels finished within the first half of this year, and will begin novel #3 in the second half, plus there will be some short stories in-between. I’ll be writing a hell of a lot more than ever before, plus I’ll be starting a new job–a consulting job. Huge changes are in store, and damn it if I’m not excited to all hell.

My muse and I have had our difficulties this past year but we’ve sorted it all out and now that shifty sideshow freak is well fed and ready to lead me backstage once again. Oh look, here he comes now……..

…I know I have. I’m seeing shadows everywhere and they’re getting closer. I know they are. When it’s quiet, I can hear them whispering, too…