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.
Your only mistake here is in calling Vox Day a “far-right rival’ of Scalzi’s. He is in truth no rival at all to Scalzi. To be rivals one must be at some approximation of the same level to one another. Scalzi is a talented and successful professional. Vox is a bitter, bigoted internet ranter who self-publishes because his crap wouldn’t make it out of even the lowest-tier agent’s slush pile.
Ah. Well, they say that sometimes. Other times I seem them claiming the goal is to give more recognition to conservative-themed SF, and still other times claiming that the works being nominated are about icky things like same-sex love and women’s rights which are offensive to old-fashioned SF fans and must be opposed. It’s really funny when they complain that the Hugos have become too political and respond by nominating overtly right-wing works.
Yes, but consistency is beyond this lot.
>Defenders of “golden age science fiction” always remind me of the Onion headline “Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be”
Yer not wrong. I once spent a month reading all of Astounding/Analog from 1960 to 1985. It was well worth it culturally! But MY GOD STURGEON APPLIES. So much of it was just unbelievably terrible. Turns out the stuff that didn’t get anthologised is, um.
I miss the old school science fiction. Asimov. Foundation series. James P. Hogan, inherit the stars. Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Ringworld. I hope some authors like Scalzi come along to pick up the torch and bring back the adventure. For so many years Science Fiction feels like the life and optimism has been sucked out of it. Everything these days is apocalyptic or depressing dystopias. Need the adventure and hope back.
Vox can’t do arithmetic, either. $3.4 million over 10 years isn’t $250k per year.
Cool, what are you writing?
Low overhead, yes, but the risk is much higher than traditional publishing. You’re putting your most valuable resource (first publication rights) on the line, and there’s no marketing team out there with a vested interest in preventing you from cocking it up.
Self-pub is still a rapidly evolving market, but it isn’t shaping up the way people expected at all.
What an ass! Team Scalzi! : D
I met one of the guys over the weekend. He was thinking about going to Sasquan. He said he was afraid he’d be “Jack Rubied” at Sasquan. I think my jaw dropped at that point. I wasn’t going to push my POV on this year’s bruhaha, but finally said “Speaking as a Social Justice Warrior, I can assure you that most of us don’t carry guns.”
Konrath is indeed making the bucks, and anyone who thinks they can do both artist-brain and business-brain needs to read his whole blog on the subject – but Scalzi and Stross have both set out in detail why self-publishing is really not the sort of thing almost any writers want to bother with.
I’ve never read any of Scalzi’s books before, but I might just go out and buy one just to spite Vox
“Hard Scifi” is stuff that has decent science in it, not chiseled abs. You know. Stuff like global warming, that beating a child doesn’t work, that the universe is several billion years old.
Punching things isn’t very scientific and seriously, who really needs another killer robot or space-zombies story? They’re friggin’ dull. Robots probably got better things to do than kill humans and if they didn’t, they’d be so efficient at it that the plucky hero would never be able to dodge in time. Robot’s laser cannon has already cut him in two while he’s still processing that the thing he sees is a Ron Popeil DëthBot™ 2000 just like the one he saw in an infomercial while wanking to reruns of The Patty Duke Show. Unless maybe the DethBots were running Windows ME or something but we’re talking about ‘Hard Scifi’, not ‘Fantasy’. It’s kind of the antithesis of Sad Puppies.
I’ve read Scalzi’s “Red Shirts”. It was as much fun as I expected it to be, and better than I had expected. I think if you’re a “I don’t really read SF, but want to try it”, it would be a good book to try. It would help to be at least marginally familiar with Star Trek, but a lot of people who don’t think of themselves as SF people probably are.
Scalzi’s blog is almost as entertaining as WHTM. He keeps his comments section under control with judicious use of what he calls the Mallet of Loving Correction.
Can we please stop referring to Vox as an author, and start referring to him as “former Psykosonik band member Teddy “Voice of God” Beale?” Let’s make him sound as pathetic and self-aggrandizing as he actually is.
Thanks Robert! I’ll definitely give that one a shot. I’m mostly a Philip K. Dick guy when it comes to sci-fi but it’ll be nice to try something new for a change
@tesformes Seconded!
I self-publish … there probably is more money in it for the average author; but of course rockstar trad published authors are going to earn more. Most people still prefer paperbacks, and traditional publishers can help at that. But particularly in sci-fi/fantasy, the prospects for the *average* trad published author are dim. I’ve seen award winning authors out there who earn less than me and I am NO ONE.
This post doesn’t go into the intricacies of Scalzi’s deal (Is there more he can earn on top of the 3.4 mil? Does he own the movie rights?) I really don’t want to go read Vox’s post to find out (and doubt how informed Vox is). I’m sure Scalzi knows what he is doing.
The last SF book I read was Ender’s Game. For about the fourth time. In one sitting. It’s fairly simple in terms of reading level, and it’s very well-paced, so it’s easy to read all at once like that. Mind you, I find the author’s anti-gay views really disappointing… although it’s unintentionally hilarious that the misunderstood enemy aliens are called “buggers.” No kidding!
For new (to me) SF books, I’m curious about Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods. I got it from the library and I liked what I read, but I never finished it. Even in my favourite books of hers, like Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthousekeeping, she goes off on philosophical tangents that don’t always seem to fit, but she can be really funny and thought-provoking.
As for authors specializing in sci-fi, a friend suggested Iain Banks and Samuel R. Delany. I will add John Scalzi to that list and look for his name in the library stacks.
Differences between Vox and John Scalzi can be boiled down to a couple of points:
1. Scalzi wants to make a living, not a killing; and
2. Scalzi likes to work.
These are predispositions beyond the Vox ken. Of course they don’t fit into his definition of success — they don’t fit into his definition of anything else either.
@Chir
It’s the cultural climate right now. I think our SF/F may have become less escapist and more cathartic because so many people are frustrated with the world. Of course, I’m speaking from an American viewpoint. Things may be better elsewhere?
@All
Semi-off topic: If anyone needs an absolutely fabulous, quick read, low fantasy and they don’t mind crying their heart out, I recommend /A Monster Calls/ by Patrick Ness. It’s best if you can find an illustrated copy because wow. It’s kidlit/YA, but adults can absolutely enjoy it.
Iain Banks was wonderful.
Anon E Mouse: he’s written more about the details of the deal in Whatever today: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/05/26/view-from-a-hotel-window-52615-thoughts-on-the-deal-money/
Chir:
This is one thing which made Iain Banks’s Culture novels so enjoyable, for me. He wanted to show how advanced technology could bring about a good society. If you haven’t read any of this work, google for his essay “a few notes on the Culture”.
A while ago I read Shine: an Anthology of Near-Future, Optimistic Science Fiction, edited by Jetse de Vries. I thought most of it was rather poor, to be honest, but you might give it a try. One point of interest for WHTM readers: the premise of one of the stories was “what if PUA game actually worked?” The results were not what you might expect.
[singsong voice]
Why must you act like you’ve got a hole in you head?
Why don’t you split the squares and love me instead?
You’re all shiny and clean, I’ve seen you in my dreams
Like the Rolls Royce I can’t have
Your presence makes me scream
Sour grapes – you leave such a bad taste
Sour grapes – I don’t need you anyways
Sour grapes – feeding, feeding my rage
[/singsong voice]
Pfffttt… Do you even STEM, bro?
XD
Currently Reading Ancillary Sword and having a blast, a great ripping yarn of a space opera but with characters with genders, skin tones and cultural backgrounds that make the Puppies heads explode.
@Laurie Mann
Sadly your friend faces a horrid fate 🙂
http://blog.sadpuppies.org/2015/04/all-analogies-are-approrpriate.html