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.
Realistically, I think if you buy that many grapes you’ll probably get a bit of a discount.
@ Moggie
Pfft, if that cat had any real talent it would be self publishing.
She was a shelter cat who has since been adopted and gone out into the wide, wild world, so she may very well be self-publishing and sharing her talent without any pesky middlemen.
@Alan
Or as you’re buying up all the grapes the increased demand will drive up the price and it’ll get progressively more expensive? I’m not much of an economist, so not sure how that’d play out exactly.
Erm, isn’t that completely disproven by the existence of the Sad/Rabid Puppies?
[soccer announcer voice] AND IT’S AN OWN GOAL! OWN GOOOAL! [/soccer announcer voice]
I can’t see a cat self-publishing, to be honest. That’s too much like work.
As if Vox Day would turn down the deal. Good lord, does ANYONE believe that?
@ Spindthrift
He, someone once tried to explain a particular economics related thing to me thusly:
“Right, I borrow your lawnmower. I then sell it to someone who needs a lawnmower desperately. I then hope that by the time you want your lawnmower back there’s a sale on at B&Q so I can get one cheaper than what I got for selling yours”.
Nope, I didn’t get it either. [At the time I didn’t even have a lawnmower; I lived in a flat in the middle of London]
@ Moggie
They probably use ghostwriters. They get someone else to do every other bloody thing for them.
Alan Robertshaw:
Ah, shorting lawnmowers.
*Nods sagely*
That’s what nearly killed AiG in 2008, you know.
As for cats and ghostwriters, you’re probably right. Soseki Natsume claimed to have written I Am A Cat, but I reckon he just ghosted it.
And now we know why Beale’s blog is called “Alpha Game”. It’s because a guy who thinks he’s “alpha”, has to GAME the system in order to make himself that! Ha ha! Checkmate, beta mangina who’s actually EARNING his millions!
Scalzi’s attitude towards Beale always reminds me of the one scene from “The Fountainhead”* that I liked. Ellsworth Toohey, the hack who has dedicated his career to destroying Howard Roark, is at a public place and manages to get a private moment with Roark. He tells him, “Nobody else can hear us – you can tell me what you really think of me.” Roark, puzzled, replies, “But I don’t think of you.”
*The book – I haven’t seen the movie. Full disclosure – Roark is not otherwise admirable in any way, shape or form.
Signing a multi-million dollar contract with one of the largest and most well-known publishing houses is so totally un-alpha…
Reblogged this on The Monster's Ink and commented:
Congratulations, John Scalzi!
*points and laughs at Vox Day*
This thread is full of funny. 🙂
@Kootiepatra – that’s cool! I wish you all the best with that.
@A.A. Wils – “Signing a multi-million dollar contract with one of the largest and most well-known publishing houses is so totally un-alpha…” I know, right? It’s a weird way to criticize. Rather than calling Scalzi a “sellout” or the like, Vox says, “Ha! You could have done so much better.” He could have? Okay. How is that an insult again?
@Robert Yup, that’s in the movie. It’s portrayed not-so-subtly as Toohey’s frustrated homosexuality and attraction to Roark. To bring the comments full circle, Toohey also has lines like “I play the stock market of the spirit and I sell short.”
The film version of the FOUNTAINHEAD is easily one of the top ten unintentional comedies of all time.
Because absolutely nobody reads and enjoys Ender’s Game and other books by Orson Scott Card, a man who injected his right-wing politics into a WorldCon speech/appearance…after they had originally cancelled his appearance and people who largely did NOT share his politics argued that he still had a place at the con.
Yup. Also, as a data-point, the way they go into frothing rage over Anita Skarseesian. Newsflash, you poor, pathetic libertarian wastrels. Crowdfunding is the purest example of the free market in action, and look who came out on top! The market has seen what you’re pushing, and it doesn’t want it.
Castalia House is run by Markku, one of the commenters on his blog. Probably the worst of the lot, if you ask me. And that’s quite the accomplishment when he’s competing with Mekadave and Bob K. Mando.
Also, the way they Hulk out over boycotts (well, certain boycotts, because a right-winger boycotting Oreos is the free market at work but a liberal boycotting Chick-Fil-A is shutting down the free market – hmm, where have I seen that pile of hypocrisy before?).
Slow posting. That was about Libertarians.
But it’s so unfaiiiiir that marmalade someone else, and my pulp fiction didn’t get a multimillion publishing deal.
So is Analog have a right-wing or military SF bend to it? I never read it before.
It’s one of the classic SF magazines, and I guess it has a reputation for more old-fashioned SF and “hard” SF, which is the type of fiction the Puppies like. When the Puppies want to deny they’re just out to piss off liberals/win awards for themselves and their friends, they claim their goal is to promote old-fashioned Golden Age tales of derring-do and manly adventure. (Or, more accurately, the gilded nostalgic idea of Golden Age science fiction. Basically, “Star Wars.”)
So far, the only nominee I’ve read that fits this description is “A Single Samurai,” which wasn’t a Puppy pick. It’s not that good, but it’s an action-packed adventure story. Most of the Puppy works are remarkably inert. Too much of people talking to each other about what the plot is, not enough plot.
Man, I really like some hard scifi- I feel like it takes real talent and a depth of knowledge to pull off well- but holy shit the kind of people who obsess over it, or who insist that it’s the only *true* scifi, they are almost always universally terrible people.
Defenders of “golden age science fiction” always remind me of the Onion headline “Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be”