CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

I think I’ve written about this before, but I’ll write about it again, seeing as many people still ask why I publish independently. So, here you go: Control What can I say? I’m a control freak. When something matters, I like to be in control of as many of the things that are going to make it work as I can. I like being able to decide what goes on my book covers, when my stories and books are published, what formats they are published in, and where they are released. I like it a lot. Responsibility With great control… or was that power? Anyway, with great control, comes great responsibility. This means that I get to control when my book is released, how its formatted, and all the rest, BUT it also means that I’m responsible for how all that turns out. I can’t blame anyone, if the editing isn’t up to scratch, if my cover sucks, or if the book doesn’t release on time. I can’t pass the task of promoting my work to anyone else, and I can’t blame anyone for my sales figu...

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been asked about publishing options by a few different writers, and the first thing I’ve said to both is “don’t pay for publication”, followed quickly by “don’t give away your rights”, and “be careful of agents”. And it strikes me that writers are vulnerable to predation, and there are a lot of predators out there. The problem is that the predators are often legitimate goals of the writers, or mimic them: agents, publishers, and competitions for example. These people prey on an author’s desire to be published and make a living from their work—and an author’s own insecurities, especially the one that haunts us all: am I good enough?, or the fear that saying our work is good enough will have us accused of being arrogant. Now, while I will always recommend going independent and publishing your own work – and I’ll talk about why, next week – this isn’t the path some writers want, and I can’t offer a lot of help, there. I’ve been published by four...

On Saturday, I found David Gaughran on Twitter, and I followed him, and he voiced a bunch of things that concern me – and that should concern every writer. And David is not alone. He’s not barking mad. He’s not some starry-eyed idealist. He just cares. He cares that new authors are coming into an industry that does not have their best interests at heart, an industry that will squeeze that author for every drop of profit, and then not care if they can pay their bills or not. But that’s the way things are. DavidGaughran is not alone. Joe Konrath , Kristine Kathryn Rusch , and Dean WesleySmith are among a host of established authors who are writing about the rights and wrongs of the industry, who warn of agents who represent their own interests and not the author’s, who warn of publishing companies – and we are talking respected publishing companies, who used to at least appear to look after their writers, not just a fly-by-night scammers; no, we are talking established pillar...

I don’t usually write posts like this, but there’s been this debate raging over the Hugos, the manipulation of how entries are voted in (not illegal, and not really out of the spirit or somesuch), the valuations placed on literary over entertainment works, on those written by the young, the gendered or transgendered, the white or the not-white, the female or the male or the whatever—and it’s gotten a lot of people, writers and non-writers, all bent out of shape. To be honest, I don’t know how to feel about it, but it is having an adverse effect on some writers, who find it diminishes the enjoyment they have in their craft, and that actually does bother me. So, it got me thinking—why do I only feel sad? Why am I not outraged? Why don’t I want to get an opinion out there and defend it to the max? Why am I afraid at the thought of being nominated as opposed to never being nominated? And I realised that it’s because awards are nice, and amazing and all that, but that they’re not worth...