Wiscon 36, Day Two
Day Two. I attended three panels, three parties, and the Tiptree Auction. I have to say: The panels this year, at least the ones I got to, were extraordinarily good. Vibrant, well-moderated, funny, and well-attended by an engaged audience.
[Edited to Add: Here's a link to my Day One post.
And here's one to my Day Three post.]
The Tiptree auction is something I try never to miss; Ellen Klages, the auctioneer, is simply awesome. This year, she literally auctioned the shirt off her back: a t-shirt that said "Brontosaurus is still a planet," then stood around in a black long bra tucked into her jeans, looking rather elegant. "I could be embarrassed," she said, looking not embarrassed at all, "If I could, it would be around now." And she proceeded to auction the next two items before slipping on another t-shirt, this one saying "I'm not short, I'm fun size."
Yes.
She quite outdid the Space Babe, the mascot of the Tiptree Awards.
So, to the panels.
MAGIC SYSTEMS
Having stayed up way too late - I always seem to forget I need a couple of hours to unwind *after* the parties - I made it down just in time to attend a panel on devising magic systems at 10 a.m. It was packed, and it was excellent.This panel turned into a far-ranging discussion of magic systems and their impact on technology; on social systems; and on economies. Some of the points:
[ETA: Here's a link to Catherine Schaff Stump's report on the panel.]
ASIAN ANCESTRESSES
The Asian Ancestresses panel was fun. The panelists were mostly second gen Asians; though the panel proposer, Jaymie Goh actually grew up in Malaysia as Malaysian Chinese, and now lives in Canada. Annie Chen is Chinese-American; Saira Ali Pakistani-American/Latina; Angeli Primlani is Indian-American; Emily Jiang's parents came from Taiwan and Mainland China. They all talked about *how* they accessed the stories that belonged to their cultures. It was generally mediated through English, because most of them did not read their parents' languages well. For many of them, they were stories they came to as young adults, rather than the actual stories they were told as children.
(Though I grew up in India, that was my experience too. The stories my parents told me weren't folk-tales or myths; they were made up and contemporary. In the Indian tradition, it's the grandmothers who tell the old stories, and my grandparents did not live near us. So the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharat, and the stories from the Panchatantra and folk-tales from various parts of India - I read those in English, in translations and re-tellings. They did make an impression; there was a book of Bengali stories given me by a favorite aunt and of course lost as childhood books often are. I recently re-found a copy on Amazon.)
The only bad thing was the panel ran out of time before it could be turned over to the audience. Still, hearing interesting re-told tales was worth it: Hang Lipo, the possibly mythic Chinese princess who married the Sultan of Malacca; the princess and rabbit on the moon; the story of Noor Jehan; the princess of Mt Ledang.
CROWD FUNDING AND SELF PUBLISHING
The next panel I went to was on crowd-funding and self-publishing. Cecilia Tan of Circlet Press talked about how she maintains a web presence and promotes her books. She has a long-running serial she offers free on her website; from time to time, she gathers a chunk of it into an e-book. She also spoke about Kickstarter, (a site that allows people to try to crowd-fund creative endeavors). Amanda Palmer (the musician who is married to Neil Gaiman) had a huge success when she tried to raise $100,000 and ended up raising $1 mn. Cecilia had success raising her targeted $2,750; but she pointed out that it needs constant promotion or people won't know (or remember) to make payments. It works best if you already have a platform: a well-frequented blog or website, a successful Twitter feed, a popular Facebook page. Some points:
CLARION'S 2012 WRITEATHON IS OPEN FOR SIGN-UPS!
(Oops, didn't mean to shout. And there isn't yet a button to click on to sign up. But it's coming... be prepared!)
[Edited to Add: Here's a link to my Day One post.
And here's one to my Day Three post.]
The Tiptree auction is something I try never to miss; Ellen Klages, the auctioneer, is simply awesome. This year, she literally auctioned the shirt off her back: a t-shirt that said "Brontosaurus is still a planet," then stood around in a black long bra tucked into her jeans, looking rather elegant. "I could be embarrassed," she said, looking not embarrassed at all, "If I could, it would be around now." And she proceeded to auction the next two items before slipping on another t-shirt, this one saying "I'm not short, I'm fun size."
Yes.
She quite outdid the Space Babe, the mascot of the Tiptree Awards.
So, to the panels.
MAGIC SYSTEMS
Having stayed up way too late - I always seem to forget I need a couple of hours to unwind *after* the parties - I made it down just in time to attend a panel on devising magic systems at 10 a.m. It was packed, and it was excellent.This panel turned into a far-ranging discussion of magic systems and their impact on technology; on social systems; and on economies. Some of the points:
- Magic as an eco-system. Damming a river to get water can give rise to silt build-ups and have far-reaching effects elsewhere in the eco-system. What if we considered magic in the same way?
- Common magic vs Deep magic. Simple magic with limited effects may or may not have a cost; but magic that could be world-changing *must* have an associated cost.
- Magic as a craft. One possible cost is the effort of acquiring the skill, and the opportunity cost as well - what are the kids at Hogwarts *not* learning while they spend so much time learning magic?
- Magic as a sacrifice. The cost may literally require a sacrifice. E.g. karmic sacrifices, where the devil keeps a tally and you sully your soul each time you use magic. Or Paolini's concept of magic tapping into the web of life-force, so for instance casting a spell kills a mouse - or worse.
- Magic and class. Who has the magic? Are they the rich and powerful? Would they share that, or keep control of it?
- Magic and technology. Would magic delay the introduction of technology? If you have mage-light, do you need an electric lamp? Or would it allow for leap-frogging technologies, like using "farsight" to study stars or microscopic creatures instead of telescopes or microscopes.
[ETA: Here's a link to Catherine Schaff Stump's report on the panel.]
ASIAN ANCESTRESSES
The Asian Ancestresses panel was fun. The panelists were mostly second gen Asians; though the panel proposer, Jaymie Goh actually grew up in Malaysia as Malaysian Chinese, and now lives in Canada. Annie Chen is Chinese-American; Saira Ali Pakistani-American/Latina; Angeli Primlani is Indian-American; Emily Jiang's parents came from Taiwan and Mainland China. They all talked about *how* they accessed the stories that belonged to their cultures. It was generally mediated through English, because most of them did not read their parents' languages well. For many of them, they were stories they came to as young adults, rather than the actual stories they were told as children.
(Though I grew up in India, that was my experience too. The stories my parents told me weren't folk-tales or myths; they were made up and contemporary. In the Indian tradition, it's the grandmothers who tell the old stories, and my grandparents did not live near us. So the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharat, and the stories from the Panchatantra and folk-tales from various parts of India - I read those in English, in translations and re-tellings. They did make an impression; there was a book of Bengali stories given me by a favorite aunt and of course lost as childhood books often are. I recently re-found a copy on Amazon.)
The only bad thing was the panel ran out of time before it could be turned over to the audience. Still, hearing interesting re-told tales was worth it: Hang Lipo, the possibly mythic Chinese princess who married the Sultan of Malacca; the princess and rabbit on the moon; the story of Noor Jehan; the princess of Mt Ledang.
CROWD FUNDING AND SELF PUBLISHING
The next panel I went to was on crowd-funding and self-publishing. Cecilia Tan of Circlet Press talked about how she maintains a web presence and promotes her books. She has a long-running serial she offers free on her website; from time to time, she gathers a chunk of it into an e-book. She also spoke about Kickstarter, (a site that allows people to try to crowd-fund creative endeavors). Amanda Palmer (the musician who is married to Neil Gaiman) had a huge success when she tried to raise $100,000 and ended up raising $1 mn. Cecilia had success raising her targeted $2,750; but she pointed out that it needs constant promotion or people won't know (or remember) to make payments. It works best if you already have a platform: a well-frequented blog or website, a successful Twitter feed, a popular Facebook page. Some points:
- Effort is not enough. You need a plan that feeds your efforts into marketing either you as a person, or your project or both. Otherwise, you may use a lot of effort, but not actually build a buying audience.
- Know your audience. Octavia Butler said that her books had three audiences that didn't necessarily overlap: African-Americans, feminists, and spec-fic readers. Each needed to be marketed to separately.
- Leverage the internet. If you can find the right thing to say, you can get an audience of hundreds of thousands of people.
- Be creative. People on the internet are always looking for new things, so repeating old promotional methods won't necessarily work.
- Engage with your audience. This is part of building a platform.
- Offer prizes. Authors offer prizes for clicking on links, for comments on blog posts, for reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, and certainly for contributions on Kickstarter.
- Make loss leaders (stories or books) free on Amazon by making them free on Smashwords first.
- For paper copies of books, Createspace is the least-cost alternative now, and for a small extra fee will get you broader distribution via Bowker.
CLARION'S 2012 WRITEATHON IS OPEN FOR SIGN-UPS!
(Oops, didn't mean to shout. And there isn't yet a button to click on to sign up. But it's coming... be prepared!)