groggyYou know, when you are telling women what they have to do to be a good feminist, you've failed as a feminist. This goes double if you also happen to be male.
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Day before yesterday, I got this comment to the LJ from
mrs_ralph: "I suppose you aren't allowed to sell photo ops or autographed head shots either. How the heck do they expect the low paid authors to make a living? (that's a rhetorical question...I'm too aware of the answer.)"Generally speaking, no we're not. A bookstore hosts an author, it expects no competition whatsoever from the author for what little revenue the event may bring in. But I think this raises a larger question, one I've been asking since about 2003 or 2004, when I tried to sell Low Red Moon merchandise on Cafe Press and failed miserably. Why can't authors approach merch this way, the way that other "celebrities" do? You can be an actor who played a minor character in a TV series that was cancelled thirty-seven years ago and people will happily pay to have their picture taken with you. They'll pay for your autograph at an event. But authors? No way. I mean, there might be five authors on earth who could get away with that, maybe. But mostly we are treated entirely differently from actors, musicians, and so on. And it's weird. And sometimes it's weird and financially inconvenient.
That said, I have decided to keep all the dates that have been announced for the Fungus Among Us mini-tour to support the release of Agents of Dreamland. I spoke with Katherine Duckett, my publicity person at Tor, and they're announcing the schedule this afternoon. The tour will begin here in Providence on February 25th, at Lovecraft Arts and Sciences at the Providence Arcade on Weybosset Street. There's now a Facebook page for the launch party.
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Yesterday, I spent a couple more hours on "Tupelo (1998)," and then I put together everything else for Sirenia Digest #132. This morning, as I type this, Spooky is mailing it out to subscribers, who should have it waiting in their inboxes. I hope you enjoy it. I'm very pleased with this story.
Today, I get serious again about work on the Next New Novel.
Spooky goes out into the world and brings back amazing sights for her agoraphobic, sky-fearing beast. I know there's a story waiting in this house:
Resistance, Peace, and Compassion,
Aunt Beast