Aphelion

And here we go, kicking off another year of Aphelion. This is the start of our fifteenth year, which is pretty exciting. On behalf of all the editors of Aphelion, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every single member of the Aphelion community for making this one of the best places on the web.

We not only have a bunch of new stories, poems and features for you this month, but our editors have selected their favourite items from 2010 for you to revisit.

Enjoy, and thanks again! Here's to another outstanding year!

I have to say, I really feel bad about not participating yet this month, but the writing is on a roll, and I'm going with it. Ironic; the portion I'm working on has a heavy romantic theme . . . and I couldn't break away from it to do a measly romantic flash.

I've only read the poems so far, nothing else . . . if my muse lets go of me for a few hours, I'll be back. The way this is going, though, I really hope she (?) doesn't.

So when your eyes glaze over Lester, check out this month's feature!

Tao, I'd completely forgotten that I had indeed read the feature . . . not bad.

And, I just now looked over the short stories section and found one of mine as year's best! Again, I am humbly honored, and thanks to the editors!

Vila wrote:How about a whole series of Mare anthologies featuring other writer's stories? Yes, I have "a cunning plan!"

Now you begin to understand. It's not just me. I'm aiming higher than that. I want to see the *whole* series in bookstores all over the world! I've got to break the trail, just like in '95 with the first story in the series. Just exactly like starting the series originally, it falls to me to establish the market we'll need.

First, I wish you the best of luck. There's some great fiction in there, and more of the world should see it.

I'm not sure which way you're going, but the "other writers" work part may be a lot harder than you think. Speaking from difficulties I had with the Flash Anthology as Print on Demand, multi-author limits you a lot on POD or ebook options. For example, Lulu distribution is very limited without buying extras. The iBookstore is virtually impossible to go directly to because of the multi-author without Lulu to siphon it through. (And it's taken six months to still not hear a yes or no from them. We're still "on review.") I'd love to spread to Amazon and Kindle, but Amazon won't split up author revenues like Lulu would, and Lulu and Amazon don't have an agreement for distribution. At least, not yet. In my case, they'd be paying me, and I'd have to pay the individuals, which is a level of work and headaches I was not looking for.

Mare, Nightwatch, etc. They're all good enough to be in print. The trick is how, and how to get them read.

Nate

kailhofer wrote:

Vila wrote:How about a whole series of Mare anthologies featuring other writer's stories? Yes, I have "a cunning plan!"

Now you begin to understand. It's not just me. I'm aiming higher than that. I want to see the *whole* series in bookstores all over the world! I've got to break the trail, just like in '95 with the first story in the series. Just exactly like starting the series originally, it falls to me to establish the market we'll need.

First, I wish you the best of luck. There's some great fiction in there, and more of the world should see it.

I'm not sure which way you're going, but the "other writers" work part may be a lot harder than you think. Speaking from difficulties I had with the Flash Anthology as Print on Demand, multi-author limits you a lot on POD or ebook options. For example, Lulu distribution is very limited without buying extras. The iBookstore is virtually impossible to go directly to because of the multi-author without Lulu to siphon it through. (And it's taken six months to still not hear a yes or no from them. We're still "on review.") I'd love to spread to Amazon and Kindle, but Amazon won't split up author revenues like Lulu would, and Lulu and Amazon don't have an agreement for distribution. At least, not yet. In my case, they'd be paying me, and I'd have to pay the individuals, which is a level of work and headaches I was not looking for.

Mare, Nightwatch, etc. They're all good enough to be in print. The trick is how, and how to get them read.

Nate

I think Dan is hoping for an Actual Publisher to take him up on a second, multi-author / multi-national Mare anthology. That would reduce (if not eliminate) the weirdness involved in getting "Flash of Aphelion" into print (or POD). George R. R. Martin's "Wild Cards" anthologies are shared-world projects that have been appearing (frequently in the early years, sporadically lately) for a couple of decades, more or less. Mind you, they are mostly in the form of "mosaic novels" where the individual pieces fit into an overall plot... (The interesting thing is that the authors who created particular recurring characters are the ones who generally write the pieces in which their characters play the leading role.)

So we should all buy multiple copies of Dan's book (and coerce -- er, encourage our friends and relatives to do likewise) to make a multi-author followup book seem like a money-making (or at least not money-losing) proposition!