I was spurred to do this by a very helpful post by Michael Stackpole on a writer’s listserv I’m on laying out the steps for putting work up on Amazon for the Kindle.  Since I decided to take the plunge on that, I did a little extra work and made the stories available online through my own website as well, using PayPal, for a very low fee — usually $1.99.  I’m not sure if this is the best route, so I may tinker with the delivery, but I’m committed to putting at least two or three stories up a week until I get most of my work online.  For the most part, these will be stories I’ve already sold, though I am usually contractually bound to wait six months to a year after a story appears before making it available elsewhere.  Plus it would be bad form anyway to upstage the places that have bought my work. 

This is going to be part of a larger effort to start being more active in selling my work.  Like most writers, flogging my wares is not the first thing I’d like to do with my time, but with the way publishing is changing, the lines between writer, publisher, and bookstore are getting more blurred every day, and technological advances are making it more feasible for writers to reach their audience with fewer middlemen in between.  Plus the stigma of self-publishing — a real problem for me, I admit, because I really do like the stamp of approval from editors — is beginning to fade.  It won’t replace the NY presses, but it is another viable route to go. 

So while I’m still going to be pursuing the traditional publishing route (after all, the best publishers are better at getting my work in front of readers, which is what they’re paid to do), you’ll probably see me using my website, print on demand, and other tools to augment what I’m doing with traditional publishers.  Of course, the trick is to do this in a way that doesn’t suck up a lot of time that should go to writing.  We’ll see how it goes.  One thing’s for certain:  There’s never been a better time to be a writer.  Not all writers may agree with this, but if you want to write, and reach an audience, there’s more ways to do it now than every before. 

Of course, you also have to write well.  That’ll never change, no matter how much publishing does.

Your generous donation can provide them such things as:

• Printer paper
• Top Ramen
• Toner Cartridges
• Gift cards to Goodwill
• Subscriptions to Writer’s Digest
• Crisis intervention with distraught parents and/or marriage counseling
• Personal hygiene kits

As a HopeWriter sponsor, you are connected to one special writer who will know your name and be warmed by the thought that they have at least one dedicated reader in the world.

In return for your kindness, you will receive monthly, well-written emails from your sponsored writer, including snippets from their works in progress, as well as the occasional photo of them sitting at a computer.

You are also encouraged to correspond with your writer, and your letter, email, or Facebook post will offer these wordy souls a moment of hope in their daily struggle against a brutal, heartless regime that threatens to crush their spirits. In the end, your generosity might make the difference between a life of obscurity and bestsellerdom. You could be the answer to a writer’s prayers. Act now.

One of the many writers you could sponsor . . . 

Scott William Carter from Oregon

Gender: Still married male
Grade: Some post grad
Country: United States
Health: Very pale due to lack of sun exposure
Word Processor: Microsoft Word

For those of you who have read some of my other science fiction stories, it’s set in the “Unity Worlds” universe, which I’ve used for a number of tales.  Each one stands completely on its own, but some of the shared details give the stories a little extra flavor.  Maybe I’ll put all of these stories into a collection one day, who knows.

Here’s the first page of the story . . .

The Bear Who Sang Opera
by Scott William Carter

The bear wanted his voice back. That’s what I thought he said, and I asked him to repeat it. The cochlear implant in my left ear had been acting up a lot lately — I blamed it on Targal’s frequent lightning storms — and I assumed he must have said something else.

“My voice,” he said. “I think someone’s stolen it.”

I took my boots down from the desk and leaned a little closer. “Your voice?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But you’re speaking right now.”

“Yes.” He bobbed his big furry head. “Oh. No, I see the problem. Not my voice. My singing voice. I need your help getting it back. You do help people find things, don’t you? That’s what I heard.”

His voice was deep and gruff, but he sounded sincere. Of course, I was no expert on bears, so how would I know? Maybe bears were good at lying . . .

If you’re interested in subsribing to Analog, you can do so here.

If you haven’t looked into Fantasy Magazine, you should check them out.  They’re doing great work — both with fiction and nonfiction.  Everything’s free to read.  There’s been a lot of folks trying to do online magazines, but from what I can tell, these guys are doing it right. I love the fact that they have a broad focus, everything from fantasy in popular culture to obscure slipstream.

I enjoy collaborating and will probably do it again — selectively.  Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t take less time to collaborate; it usually takes more, since you’re trying to combine two styles into one, and depending on the method of collaboration, there can be lots of back and forth involved.  Plus, in most cases, you’re splitting anything you make 50/50.  But it’s fun and the main reason to do it is to learn.  In a way, it gives you an opportunity to crawl inside the head of another writer for a while.  That, in turn, can make you look at your own writing in a new way, and allow you to incorporate techniques you may not have tried before.  And of course, the best collaborations produce something that neither of you could have produced on your own.  I think that’s what Ray and I managed to accomplish.  Of course, we’ll let the readers judge.

My website and blog:  http://www.scottwilliamcarter.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/people/Scott-William-Carter/600351984

Myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/scottwilliamcarter

I’ve been experimenting with posting a little more, though I’ll never be one of those people who blogs about what he had for breakfast.  The key, for me, is to do it in a way where the cost doesn’t outweigh the benefit.  I find the Internet in general very addictive, and since I have so little time for my fiction what with the day job, two kids, and everything else, I have to go to great pains to make sure I don’t spend an excessive amount of time sitting in front of a computer not writing fiction.  That said, I find the social networking sites to be a fun way to connect with both good friends and casual acquaintances, as well as to network with people in which you have a common interest — like writing!

Speaking of writing, my productivity is back where I want it to be, which took me a long time to achieve after my son was born.  Most of this had more to do with me finding the right approach, since the “write in the evening” method was no longer working.  Now I just squeeze it in whenever I can, withholding all those guilty pleasures I love so much (like the Internet) until I’ve met my daily word count.  It’s not ideal, but it’s getting me to write (translate:  practice) as much I as I need to, and that’s what matters.

About two-thirds the way through a mystery, with a character I wouldn’t mind writing a while slew of novels about.  After that, I have to finish the YA book that would be a good follow-up to Water Balloon Boys; I’d already written the first 50 pages and a proposal, so that one’s well on its way.  I just mailed off another short story featuring a character that’s appearing in Analog next month — a sort of Travis McGee in space named Dexter Duff.  It’s the first time I’ve written a short story with the same character and I really enjoyed it.  I’ve also committed to writing one short story a month.  I’d been focusing a lot more on novels the last two years, writing only a handful of short stories, thinking this was necessary because of the demands on my time, but I was cranky from not writing them.  Plus I can experiment and stretch in ways that are easier.  There are lots of benefits; I just have to maintain the balance between the two.

And, on the personal front, our house remodel is nearly finished.  It’s been a crazy couple of months living with my mother (I never thought that would happen again), but we’re a week away from moving back in, and it’s going to be a great house to raise our family in.  There’s a long list of projects waiting for us even after we move in, but that’s all right.  It’ll be nice sleeping in our own beds again.

What else?  Kat just turned six.  Can you believe?  She’s almost in first grade.  Calvin’s three and growing up fast.  Me, I realized I’m now twice the age of the kids graduating from high school.  Ouch.