Episode 1540: Never Thought I'd See The Day...

So while looking up reviews of Unthology No. 3, just to see what people are saying about the anthology, I came across this review, which compares me to China Miéville. In other news, I think I can die happy now. Haha! Very flattered, of course, but I also know I've still got a long way to go before I really earn that compliment. Still, a guy can dream, right? Anyway, despite feeling a bit under the weather today, I still made myself finish the review of Post-Experimentalism, which should be going up at Sabotage Reviews shortly after whenever's the next time Richard checks his e-mail this week. Many thanks to Nathaniel Tower of Bartleby Snopes for sending me a review copy, sorry it's taken a while for the review to happen. (Actually, make that a blanket apology to basically almost all my editors that I owe reviews to. I swear I'll be working on them, even over the Christmas period!) Wanted to get the review done today, so that I can concentrate on finishing Wes Brown's Shark by Wednesday, and writing the review hopefully by the end of the week.

Episode 1539: #EunoiaLIVE

Here's another generous review of Unthology No. 3, which describes my story as one of the collection's highlights, 'leaving behind a labyrinth of psychological contemplation'. Genuinely glad that reviewers seem to be getting what the story's about, and 'labyrinth' is particularly apt in this case, given that 'The Triptych Papers' actually began as an homage to Jorge Luis Borges. Also did the first #EunoiaLIVE Twitter chat between the end of service and dinner, which you should be able to pull up in Twitter here! The chat's a bit messy/choppy because @JonnyAldridge and I had to stick to the 140-character limit, and that sometimes resulted in us tweeting before the other person had finished, but you should be able to work it out. Was a good experiment, although for the next one, I'm thinking I should get someone based in the same timezone as the contributor to do the chat, so that it can happen at a time when more of the journal's Twitter followers are online. This time, it was 6 pm here and 10 am in the UK, but the middle of the night in the USA, where the bulk of the journal's readers/followers are.

Episode 1538: Time To Attack The Backlog!

Attended Jon Chase and Denise's wedding in the morning, and ran into some old Warwick friends, including Jon Lee, who'd come all the way from the UK! Managed to grab some time before that to schedule new work for Eunoia Review, and now I've just done the same for The Cadaverine. (Would've done more, but David, if you're reading this, you need to choose to reattach the original attachments when you forward something to me!) In order to start clearing my reviews backlog in earnest, I'm going to aim for a three-day cycle. Read for two days, then write the review on the third. I'll almost certainly not be able to keep it up until the backlog is gone, if at all, but with a specific timeline like that, I'll definitely get more done than operating with the mentality that 'I'll get this done tomorrow'. Can't afford to let the backlog carry over in its current state into 2013, especially not when I'm starting at NIE in mid-January. I've proven to myself in the past that I can be quite efficient when it comes to turning out reviews, so I just need to make the magic happen again.

Episode 1537: Doing My Tiny Bit

Contributor still wants to send me a copy of her chapbook when it comes out, which makes her the first to offer to do that so far. It's definitely a nice gesture, though by no means do I usually expect to receive one for my (and I hesitate to use the word) efforts. I just think of it as doing my little bit to promote contemporary literature, and I'm flattered that these writers think that my words will help. Speaking of which, I need to set aside time this month to read Scott Dominic Carpenter's collection of short stories, This Jealous Earth, and prepare some interview questions for him. I reprinted one of his stories in Eunoia Review, and MG Press approached me a while ago about doing the interview. The review-cum-interview isn't technically due till January, and since this time I'm uploading it myself to Sabotage Reviews (the interview anyway, haven't asked my editor if he'd prefer the review and interview to be split into separate posts), I could cut the deadline pretty close if I have to. The idea is to post the interview as close to the collection's publication date as possible anyway, to help spread the word about it, which I'm more than happy to do. I've developed a soft spot for independent presses in the past couple of years, and it sounds like exciting things are forthcoming from MG Press.

Episode 1536: Another Blurb...

Just blurbed another chapbook for a Eunoia Review contributor, and I'm going to be doing a Twitter chat with a different contributor on Sunday evening under the hashtag #EunoiaLIVE. Let's get that trending, the total of five people who read my blog! Anyway, lots of shows that I follow are having their winter finales this week, so it means a lot of my time will be freed up for the rest of the month to, you know, actually write reviews. I know, I know. If I didn't procrastinate so much in the first place, I'd be much further along through my review pile than I am right now. Something else I've been putting off doing is buying some books and literary magazines. I've made a couple of one-off purchases in the past month or so, but in terms of taking out subscriptions, I've been trying to hold off until I start drawing a salary. As much as I'm aware that my first month's pay will be more than enough to cover anything that I spend for the rest of this month on my credit card, I also think it's not setting a good precedent for myself, living on credit, right?

Episdoe 1535: Bought Cards Against Humanity!

Not to bang on about Duotrope's Digest, but it's disappointing yet unsurprising to see that the 'debate' over the site's decision to go paid basically consists of two camps of writers talking at each other, convinced that the other side is dead wrong/selfish. It's like contemporary American politics writ small. Sorry to sound like a broken record, and I know I promised not to talk about the whole issue anymore, but it's exposed such a major faultline within the (American) literary community that I almost can't help myself. Anyway, on a brighter note, thanks to Keegan, I've got an American address to ship my order of Cards Against Humanity to, both the original set and the two expansions. Threw in the Christmas set as well, which I could have been a jerk and paid nothing for, but I covered their costs. Would've given more, but I felt like I'd already done a lot, dropping US$45 at one shot on the original set and expansions. Regardless, it'll be great to get the physical cards (the next time Keegan's back in Singapore), since playing with paper slips just isn't the same...

Episode 1534: New Records!

This week's episode of 90210, which contrived out of nowhere to bring the cast back to the show's former high school setting, only emphasised how it's completely unbelievable that the characters are only two years out of high school. Sister show Gossip Girl avoided this awkward visual reminder by sending its characters on to college, and when that proved rather boring, flung them all into the adult world of backstabbing and casual infidelity. To be honest, the only teen drama I've encountered that has done a reasonable job of casting actors that could pass for teenagers is Pretty Little Liars (even sister show to that, The Lying Game, gets it so wrong). Granted, there's the issue of how actual teenagers are probably not legally allowed to work the kind of hours full-time TV filming requires, and that's before we even start talking about their acting abilities (although some of these grownup actors are still pretty terrible). Anyway, Eunoia Review has been setting a couple of viewership records lately. November saw an all-time monthly high, and today, the site has reached what's roughly a six-month daily high, building on yesterday's impressive numbers. Of course, maybe I've just been targeted by a bunch of really aggressive spammers, but Akismet hasn't caught a higher than average number of spam comments, so I'm not really sure where this sudden spike in visitor traffic is coming from. Not complaining though!

Episode 1533: Duotrope: A Developing PR Disaster?

A final word on the Duotrope debacle (unless any striking developments occur): I don't think it's a good sign when a company's way of dealing with criticism is to post a Facebook status that basically boils down to 'We hear you, but we're not going to change our minds until we've had time to see what happens.' After a couple of days of silence, in which its Facebook page and Twitter account were used to repeatedly push the message about the paywall going up in January, Duotrope posted a status that on the surface sounded grateful for all the feedback and support, but was also couched in the sort of corporatese that has got me leaning more towards the belief that the site is just trying to make a quick buck now. I don't blame them, since the pressure to monetise the user base in order to pay employees must have been enormous, but there's still something faintly arrogant about leaping from a free, donation-supported service to what amounts to an all-or-nothing paywall. It's been clarified what is still accessible to non-subscribers come 2013, and in short, the site will be pathetically useless unless you cough up money.

Anyone with a bit of coding savvy should just throw together a website and get the word out immediately. They could even charge, but at a price that's just a fraction of what Duotrope is asking for. A breakdown of exactly how much Duotrope needs to cover the site's operating costs, i.e. hosting fees and employee salaries, would go a long way towards convincing disgruntled writers that a subscription-based model is the only way to fund the site. Still, why not advertising instead? It's not enough to say you considered it, without explaining why it was ultimately rejected, since other literary websites have no qualms about running advertisements. Frankly, this level of secrecy and caginess is something I'd expect from a big corporation like Apple. Do the Duotrope team honestly think their website is too big to fail/be replaced? Why are so many writers apparently happy to continue forking over money unquestioningly? I don't object to the paywall so much as to the manner in which its announcement and implementation are being handled. If Duotrope want to start running themselves like a profit-driven enterprise (or at least to break even), they deserve to be scrutinised like any other company.

Episode 1532: Why The Silence, Duotrope?

As a sort of follow-up to yesterday's post, I have to mention that I don't understand why Duotrope's Digest didn't move to an advertising-driven model instead. Given that the site is run by a bunch of writers and former editors, this whole decision to move towards a subscription-based model seems like a slap in the face to the writing community. I'm sure they chose this path because it's the only way they saw the site ever becoming self-sustaining in terms of enabling them to pay the people who work on it, but their continued silence in the face of mounting criticism on their Facebook page strikes me as rather curious. (Several comments have also pointed out how one month's notice, right as we're entering the Christmas season, is probably the worst time of year to expect people to suddenly part with a chunk of money.) Are they hoping that if they bury their collective heads in the sand and keep pushing the message that a paywall is going up, people will just fall into line with their wallets out? There sure seem to be people who are unquestioningly, nay enthusiastically, forking over the money, and bully for them. I just find it disconcerting that the team behind the site have so far not spoken up to address the legitimate concerns people have raised, beyond a perfunctory claim that in the long run, they believe the paid model will improve the accuracy of their statistics, arguably the most attractive feature of the site, after its massive catalogue of listings. Oh really? When there is no question whatsoever that a sizeable chunk of your 'freeloaders' will just leave the site come January, thus reducing your sample size? (Inverted commas, because I'm not sure it's fair to pin the label on the 90% who typically don't donate to the site. The Internet has raised a whole generation of consumers with an entitlement mentality who are disinclined to pay for something if it's already being provided for free anyway, so you can hardly blame them in this case.)

Episode 1531: Duotrope's Digest Goes Paid

Just heard that Duotrope's Digest is switching to a paid model. I most likely won't miss it, but will other writers? Although I've used it sporadically, it just never became an integral part of my life as a writer. I mean, it was fun for a while, tracking my acceptance percentage and watching Eunoia Review hold steady at the top of the listings for swiftest markets, but as an editor, to be honest the site hasn't actually driven much traffic to my journal lately. Seems that under the new paid model, effective from 2013, most of the features that've been provided for free in the past will now only be available to paid subscribers. What I'm curious to know is whether the site will in fact be able to get enough paying subscribers to carry on running, which is the whole point of transitioning to a subscriber model, rather than relying on donations. Given that only around 10% of its users have donated in the past to the operating costs of the site, how much of that group will now be willing to become subscribers? In addition, how many people who've previously used its features at no cost will now be prepared to start coughing up a little money? The sums are pretty insignificant in my opinion, US$5/month or US$50/year, but intuitively, I'm sceptical that all that many people will be willing to start paying for something that they've managed to get for free in the past. Also, with so little functionality left for non-subscribers, how will the site grow its subscriber base?