On being in fandom and writing for the Interwebs
My publisher finally joined the digital age by getting most of the press's back catalog of books up on Amazon.
This is pretty good news for all involved, since going to conventions to promote dead tree copies is proving to be increasingly less profitable. And writers who aren't big names with east coast publishing contracts seem increasingly unwelcome. Even at smaller regional conventions.
On one hand, going is still useful if you happen to be comfortable with networking. On the other, the demographic of fans going to conventions is changing.
Even at Literary conventions, there are more cosplayers, gamers and anime fans. They may go to see a big name writer, but then they earmark their discretionary funds for things other than books in the dealer's room.
So eBooks allow me to get my work into the hands of fans without worrying about if I'll break even on hotel, food, gas and other expenses.
What I have to figure out now is how to promote my work online, without being just another voice shouting in a crowd of shouters. There seems to be a lot of advice everywhere, some of it contradictory, and not all of it good.
On another subject, I'm kind of glad I'm not in Harry Potter fandom at the moment, since JK Rowling seems to be launching barrels of Greek fire into the shipping wars.
Given some of the epic fan wank and fan dumb I've seen in various fandoms I've been in, I think I enjoy a thing more if I stay away from the fandom. I'm sure I liked Buffy, Harry Potter and even MST3K more than I would have otherwise.
I've met some awesome people in fandom, and enjoyed my shows by doing my own thing. But I've also at one point been compared to a member of the Klan (for being a fan of Chloe Sullivan. Figure out the connection there when you're done WTF ing) and had a supposedly professional review of my work (on IO9, no less) torn apart based on the fact that I was the wrong sort of fan (not a true fan) of Supernatural.
I just think that when fans degenerate something meant for joy into something personal, political and nasty it takes the joy of it for me.
I suppose I feel the same about stupidity in religion and politics. But let's not go there.