L'Ombre de l'Olivier

The Shadow of the Olive Tree

being the maunderings of an Englishman on the Côte d'Azur

04 October 2006 Blog Home : October 2006 : Permalink

Booky Bits and Bobs

Campbell Award winning author John Scalzi has decided to raise lots of dosh for the John M Ford Book Endowment by auctioning off a very limited edition version of his upcoming book "The Lost Colony". Bidding is currently up at $5000.

Another author - Jo Walton - has decided to get in on the act and is offering a number of inducements for people who donate.

The Baen model of giving the first book away for free electronically in order to drive paper sales of it and subsequent books has been taken up by Dilbert author Scott Adams:

God’s Debris is still free for download. No strings attached.

http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/

So far, my clever marketing scheme of giving away my book so people will buy the sequel has garnered literally dozens of new sales. Apparently there’s a strong crossover between people who love provocative thought experiments and people who are cheap.

Oh and seeing as I've been reviewing a number of books recently I though Prof Mary Beard's thoughts on academic reviewing to be interesting.

I submitted a short story to Clarkesworld. It hasn't been rejected yet - if it is I may inflict it on all and sundry anyway by self publishing it here. I rather enjoyed the submission guidelines about things they dislike - maybe I can find a way to write a story involing all of them:

Though no particular setting, theme, or plot is anathema to us, the following are likely hard sells:

The bit I wrote last week about Petite Anglaise and her apparently wonderful book deal seems to be remarkably popular - mostly because I put a link to it on the blog of soon to be made redundant Torygraph reporter Colin Randall. He's now got a brand spanking new blog where he will no doubt be only too keen to receive offers telephone number sized advances for his memoirs.

Finally Baen author and fellow inhabitant of France (albeit about as far away from me as it is possible to be), Chris Dolley, has discovered 5 terribly cute kittens and can't advertise to give them away as French law requires that the ad include either their tattoo or that of their mother - since they'd been dumped this is not as simple as it might seem. Oh and PS they are incredibly cute.



I despise l'Escroc and Vile Pin