Refilling The Well

The Greatest Show on Earth
Richard Dawkins 
Over the weekend, my writing productivity plummeted as I sat down and read the big pile of eBooks that had been, predictably, piling up all around me. I started with this one because evolution is fun and it has pretty pictures (for which I should probably have got the hardback edition). Lots of cool writing ideas, obviously. I'm much better at biological and political SF than I am at mechanical and technical SF. Biopunk?

Guns, Germs, and Steel
Jared Diamond
I should say anthropological SF, because that's even more fun. This book really gives me a lot of solid tools and ideas for world-building. It has also enlightened me to the point where I can never right classic Fantasy, ever. Without hanging a lampshade on everything by saying MAGIC a lot. So. Sorry? It's probably for the best. There are so many writers who are so much more qualified to write Fantasy than I am. This is an excellent source for alternate history, though. I need to write more of that.

Packing for Mars
Mary Roach
This book was surprisingly unhelpful when it comes to the kind of SF I like to write, but it's pretty awesome nonetheless. If I ever write a 'mundane hard SF', this'll be the book I turn to for the space portions. That'd be pretty interesting, really...

1491: New Revelations of America Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
Going back to anthropology by way of focusing on the interesting bits, reading this rather horrifying book about how there were whole unknown civilizations running the length of the Americas, doing their own thing and being ridiculously well-fed because they mastered the environment...and then they all pretty much died of DEATH (and also being stabbed sometimes.) Admittedly, it did encourage me to write Fantasy again, because there's a lot of mysterious stuff lying around for people to explore.

The Lost City of Z
David Grann
Like this. Pretty cool, eh? Some guy wanders into a jungle looking for stuff while his comrades drop like flies of horrible illnesses, interacting with tribes of Indians and getting a more dim view of the civilized world every second. Then he doesn't come back and a journalist has to find him 100 years later. Neat.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Susanna Clarke
This was surprisingly good in eBook form, mostly because all the illustrations were already black and white so you didn't miss anything. Still, I'm glad I have the hardcover already. This one deserves it. Oh, and something about magic.

Back to writing, so I can get another book out on Kindle and totally link to it in one of these articles at some point.

Science Fantasy Romance

Science Fantasy Romance

What do I write? Science Fiction by consulting the Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness and shooting for "Physics Plus". Usually that fails upon contact with my imagination, so I have to call it Fantasy, usually Urban Fantasy. That doesn't give my characters much to do, so they end up with some Romance, and since even wizards have sex in the future it's Paranormal Romance. Still, there's a bunch of side characters who don't have time for sex, and what do they get to do? Comedy.

So, do I write Speculative Fiction? No.

I write Science Fantasy Romance.

And now, an animated GIF that I just found in a mysterious part of my computer. It seems to fit.

To Smashwords: An Open Letter

Smashwords,

First of all, let me say: You're pretty cool. Easy distribution to a bunch of different markets, well-organized site, good accounting and payment, I get $0.59 out of $0.99? Good stuff. That's why I care about this one thing so much: Formatting for your Meatgrinder is obnoxious and my books still look kinda ugly after it all.

Let's break my problem down:

One, DOC format. I shouldn't have to own Microsoft Word in order to format an eBook. It not only complicates the process (see Two) but it also makes it more difficult for me to work on multiple computers with different operating systems (see Three). It's limiting, and unnecessarily so.

Two, Meatgrinder limitations, most egregiously 'Linked Table of Contents' & Space After Paragraphs. Creating a linked table of contents in Word is a time-consuming and annoying process fraught with peril, especially considering that properly formatted EPUB and MOBI files will create one automatically (see Three). Then there's the matter of restrictive formatting: I read a lot of eBooks while preparing to format my own, and the ones that looked best (to my taste) had indented paragraphs and a little (.2em) space after each paragraph for easier reading. When I put that space into the DOC for Meatgrinder, it rejects it for Premium Distribution. This makes my product look bad, unnecessarily, and I'm tired of dealing with Premium Distribution errors.

Three, HTML. It takes 15 minutes to format an eBook from plain-text into HTML, and that eBook will convert, via Calibre, to pretty much any format and look good doing it (and have a Linked Table of Contents appended in EPUB and MOBI, the two main formats). Doing it via the Smashwords Style Guide takes much longer, especially considering creating a Linked Table of Contents.

Four, Pictures. All those combined means that there is no way that I would ever put pictures in a file going to Smashwords, unless it was only for PDF distribution. Which is, again, unnecessarily limiting.

Solution (for you):
First of all, I love that you've focused on expanding distribution channels! Keep it up, that's one half of your selling point. But I need you to upgrade focus on upgrading your Meatgrinder to accept HTML (or at least EPUB) and convert it from that file. Let people continue submitting via DOC if you want, but let those what can handle it submit via a method that's both more convenient to prepare and looks more professional.

Solution (for me):
All this really only applies to longer fiction where more complicated formatting is necessary. I'll certainly still use Smashwords for short story distribution. I write a lot of short stories and I sell lots of short stories through your distribution networks, so you earn your 10% there (and I get more than the Amazon 35% Great!) But! Until Meatgrinder is upgraded, I'll upload my books (and short story collections) directly to my three focus sites: Amazon, B&N, and Kobo, so that I can be sure of my formatting and the quality of my product.

Thanks for your time,
David Barron

Update: November 3, 2011, Mark Coker announces "Smashwords Direct", "a Meatgrinder bypass option", to be available "by the end of 2012". I await developments.

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