Two bits for Todd: 1….

Two bits for Todd:

1. The place for up-to-date sf market info is Ralan's Webstravaganza.

2. If you're writing good sex-related fiction and all you want is a large readership (if you don't need to be paid (either for the money or for the sense of external validation)), you really ought to put up a web page dedicated to your fiction. It will very quickly, with very little self-promotion, become very well-read indeed. Especially if you know me and can get me to link to you. :-) With a little luck, you may surpass the top magazines in spec fic for readership within a year or two.

A few numbers: Asimov's annual circulation as a monthly magazine: 35,000. Clean Sheets's visitors for September: 57,178. My own home page has been getting over a thousand visitors daily (I'm not sure how much over a thousand -- I stopped paying attention to that a long time ago) for something like seven years now. The top page is at about 2.5 million hits. I have no idea what that translates to in actual readership, but I suspect it's more than I'm quite comfortable thinking about. (It gets to be disconcerting when you meet people for the first time and they say -- "Oh, I've read your sex stories!" You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but no.)

I think what I find astonishing about Todd (not to single him out, because really, his attitude is one I've run into many times from many fiction authors) is how very self-defeating his attitude is. I mean -- if you maintain such an attitude, you make it impossible for anyone to publish you. Surely that becomes evident if you think about it a little?

Jed tells me that I've been lucky with my publishing, and that I should be careful not to generalize too much to what results other people would get if they tried doing the same thing. Sure, undoubtedly true. There were all kinds of specific factors that went into my career that won't go into another writer's. But another writer will have all kind of specific factors that I don't have too -- and some of them might end up being very marketable long run. Todd writes about all kind of cool kinks that I don't, for example. I've had to really think hard to keep this CYO book varied enough, where I suspect he would have been able to do that part with ease.

Oh, I'm tired, and my words are starting to run together. I just hate waste, y'know? And I hate waste of talent more than almost anything else. Sometimes I can't think, it makes me so angry. Be productive, all you. Be productive, make good things, share them with others. Whether it's a story or a meal or some really good sex -- I don't care what you make, as long as you make it well and with pleasure, and share it with joy and generosity.

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