So the noted science fiction author (and evil Social Justice Warrior) John Scalzi just signed a $3.4 million dollar, 13-book deal with Tor books, his publisher.
Scalzi’s longtime nemesis, far-right fantasy author and garbage human Vox Day, wants us to know that Scalzi’s grapes, all $3.4 million worth of them, are very sour indeed.
In a post today on his Vox Popoli blog, Vox sniffs that Scalzi’s book deal is “an interesting indication of his intrinsic insecurity.”
For you see, as Vox tries to convince his readers (and, presumably, himself), only timid souls sign $3.4 million deals with actual publishers; real men self-publish.
This isn’t a bad deal for Scalzi, it is merely a very conservative deal. What Johnny Con is attempting to do is to secure his retirement and look for any upside to come out of the various media deals he’s got going. It’s a perfectly reasonable strategy, particularly in these uncertain economic times. The bolder strategy would have been for him to go into self-publishing, where as I’ve demonstrated, there is considerably more upside to be had. But Scalzi is neither a self-confident man nor an entrepreneur, so it is entirely in character that he’d prefer to give up the equivalent of about five birds in the bush in favor of the one in Tor’s hand.
Yeah, those grapes are really, really sour.
After dismissing the $3.4 million deal as really no big deal, when you look at it, seriously, what can you buy for $3.4 million anyway these days, Vox goes on to mock what he sees as Scalzi’s inadequate blog traffic.
The fact that a mediocre and derivative hack without any discernible talent beyond self-promotion and petty snark could turn 300k monthly pageviews and a color-by-numbers Heinlein ripoff into a near-guaranteed $250k per year is borderline astonishing. If he’d somehow managed to do it without repeatedly lying his ample ass off and consistently misrepresenting himself, I’d consider him to be downright brilliant.
Vox is indeed mad jelly.
NOTE: I calculated the tonnage of grapes used in the headline using what I think was the most recent price of seedless red grapes, my favorite, at my local supermarket. At $3.49/pound, $3.4 million buys you roughly 442 metric tons of grapes, before taxes.
@Paradoxical
I read it in Maggie Smith’s voice, just ‘cuz.
I don’t see the sour grapes in any of Vox Day’s comments.
Meh, I never thought OSC was a particularly good writer. His characterization is so heavy-handed.
I think the Ender books require a certain level of “nobody-understands-me” teen angst to really click.
Vox Day says:
I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!
Speaking of Vox, he took another opportunity to display what an awful person a few days ago. Ken of Popehat wrote a pretty impressive blog post on his experiences with depression and being institutionalized.
Apparently he asked his co-bloggers if they thought any of the people he pisses off online would attack him over it, and particularly if Vox would. For reasons I can’t comprehend, one of them stuck up for Vox and promised to have Ken’s back if Vox did attack him.
Vox immediately attacked him, because of course he did, and the other guy at Popehat decided that, instead of having Ken’s back like he said, he would issue this pathetic nonpology instead, making sure we all know what a swell guy Vox is and that Ken probably started it anyway. The whole thing is bizarre and kind of sad, watching this guy stick up for Vox rather than his friend.
@Kootiepatra – through work, I know of William B. Eerdman’s and Westminster/John Knox (who publish academic books on Christianity) – not sure what their political slant is, if any.
Also, it’s *such* a relief to see that Westboro Baptist Church opposes Gandalf and Dumbledore getting married! It’s time somebody took a strong and principled stand against crossover fanfiction! Sure, the SJW liberrulz think it’s cool and all when characters from different fantasy series celebrate their “love,” but what’s next? What will all this LEAD to? What’s if someone from a book wants to marry someone from a (gasp) VIDEO GAME??? Wake up, sheeple!!!
Tesformes: Another trick is just to use his initials, VD. Also, not being able to search his own name for egoboo and publicity purposes might make him feel ignored, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Thus, when discussing certain parties involved in the Hugo kerfuffle,, they become ‘VD and the Sad Ps.’
> The bolder strategy would have been for him to go into self-publishing, where as I’ve demonstrated, there is considerably more upside to be had.
Vox, I don’t know much about you, but I have serious doubts you’ve made more than 3.4 million through self publishing. Let alone considerably more.
And I’d be careful belittling Scalzi’s blog’s traffic, considering compete.com says you get even less.
derangeddan:
And why did I know even before clicking over there that it would have been Clark to do that… Clark’s the same one that came out with Gamergater support articles months ago. And referring to it as a ‘slap fight’ is exactly the sort of trivializing tactics I would expect from him.
Vox Day needs to count his sour grapes before they hatch.
Count me as one of the people who was totally not surprised that it’s Clark issuing that mealy-mouthed nonpology. He’s my least favourite of the Popehats by a fair margin.
I’m late to this party, but I couldn’t resist looking up both authors on Amazon. Scalzi’s top book, Old Man’s War, has 1,552 reviews and is listed at 4,588 on the bestseller ranking. Vox Day’s Throne of Bones has a mere 161 reviews and is listed at 309,707.
Basically, he’s doing a tenth as well as Scalzi. So I wonder where Vox Day is getting the idea that self publishing is the courageous, lucrative thing to do, because it’s not working well for him at all.
Unless, of course, Vox Day is just a really crap writer who couldn’t get a big publishing deal.
Oh, wait…
Seconding Catherine Reed: John W. Campbell Jr. was one hell of an editor, and was very good for science fiction as a genre/field. Yes, JWC was also a hell of a racist, but seeing as how (a) his term as editor of Analog ended with extreme prejudice when the man died in 1971, and (b) Analog is on its third editor in the post-JWC era, it may not be just or accurate to tar today’s magazine with the sins of JWC.