I had meant to post this round up on Friday as per normal but the world got away from me and in any case, there's been some other stuff that's popped up then. I'll stick that towards the back though, as it's long and not all that relevant to everyone and who knows, maybe it's all died down enough that I shouldn't even write it?
1) I recently had a good chat on Twitter about the way Small Press is getting squeezed by the publicity machines of the Big Trad Publishers on one side and the determination to support Self-Publishing on the other - which is great but doesn't usually include the Small Presses. I know some places do try to do right by them (The Fantasy Hive has some good pieces and I know Womble is looking for authors to review). I'd like to do a little to highlight and talk about the Small Press thing. The emphasis is very much on the little as this is not a big platform (although I am going to ask some of the bigger places if they want to run it) but hey, I do what I can.
So if anyone reading this is - or knows - a small press publisher or author and would be happy to answer some questions or do an inteview, or just someone who has some recs, please let me know. If you want to go anonymous and complain, that too is cool. Anything to get people talking about it.
2) Right! Cool stuff. Aliette de Bodard has sold a new novella called Fireheart Tiger to Tor and yes, I am already excited for it. I've had a little lull so current novella Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders has only been read a little but it's very charming so far (well, okay, I just got up to the murder victim, but it's a charming murder victim) and I am all about the spate of novellas popping up (speaking of novellas, there's a This is How You Lose The Time War review coming soon). Bonus points for having a really metal name, because that is what matters to me.
3) While I'm touting authors, Jen Williams' art looks really fun and full of character and I keep musing about what I might get if I didn't have lots of moving house in my future. And there's a really good craft twitter thread from Megan O'Keefe here.
4) One of the predictable responses to expressions of support for Black Lives Matter from publishers was black authors asking where the support had been when it came to getting published and paid. There have been some calls for submissions from them but we'll see how this goes. I say this not to criticize, but to highlight the big issue here which is ongoing support. Who wants to put money against there not being many more authors from outside the main cultural strand of fantasy in one or two years? Or five years? If we're looking for equality of opportunity, then people need to be mindful to keep giving opportunities. So far I've done one list of sample reviews that made a big effort to highlight authors from outside the fantasy mainstream. Am I still going to be doing that in a year? I hope I'm still giving them a shot and am challenging myself to do so. And I hope other people are committing to change and if anyone else has recs, let me know - it's a shame a lot of the good ones are more YA (like this one from Jenna) which is not quite my cup of tea but gotta keep looking.
5) A blogger stuck up an account of their experiences with book tours last night that was fairly critical and things went downhill from there very quick, particularly as it was very clear which book tour they were talking about and the organisers (both book bloggers themselves) felt attacked.
Note - I'm not using names here as I'd rather talk about the generalities and those involved have enough heat on them right now. There's no intent to talk about people behind their back
Now, there's two main issues as I'm seeing them. The first is the pressure to stick up a good review. The second is a lack of transparency about why the tour organisers are doing it i.e. are they getting paid. And it all folds into a general mass grumble that goes around every now and again about how book bloggers put in a lot of work that is important in an ecosystem of making money but in which they don't, and all they get is some occasional kudos and satisfaction. The risk of losing that kudos is big; nobody wants to be seen as dishonest. The subject of money in the whole thing, both in terms of integrity and probably secretly in fairness, is sore. This is certainly something that should be born in mind when talking about blogger responses, and ample reason to treat them with a degree of sympathy, rather than shrugs and fuck yous. Not that the organisers deserve that either. It's not pleasant to put a lot of work into something for not a whole lot and be told it's all bullshit. A pinch of empathy would go a long way right now.
Personally, I do think that it is important that there is transparency over who gets paid what and who knows who in an honest review system. I want to know how the reviewer got the book and what strings were attached, I want to know if they're friends with the author. And yes, I'd want to know if the book tour organiser got paid, particularly if they're paying their own review. Do I believe anyone involved in book blogging is crooked? I don't want to, I've never met anyone I'd point a finger at, but we're only human and there are stories of reviewers approaching authors asking for payment for five star reviews. It would be stupid to assume every review is free of bias. Which, to be honest, is what I do do when reading them - unless I have reason to think someone's not being honest about how they came to be reviewing the book.
So, please, let us be transparent. And more important, let's not blow this up more than needs be (said the guy who wrote five paragraphs on it). Not every group activity will work all the time. There's no need to make it more than that. Yes, there some's talking to be done in the community about how it engages with the publicity machine. But the drama probably doesn't help.
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