Star Pirates & Anthology Builder
Posted July 8th, 2009 by Howard TaylerThe folks at Star Pirates have been itching to get me to design ads for them for over a year now. Unfortunately for them I’ve been too busy to pay much attention to advertising — which is kind of strange, because you’d expect a good mercenary like me to be taking to that particular revenue stream like a fish takes to water, but I digress — so they had to go stand in line for slots via Project Wonderful.
By way of thanks to them for their persistence (and apology to them for not being able to follow through) here is linkage: Go play Star Pirates! There’s a “Tagon Toughs” fleet out there for you to join, even. Their imagined future is a bit darker than mine, but the game is still a thematic fit with Schlock Mercenary. That’s why I’m letting them use some of my stuff in their ads.
While we’re on the subject of me not being able to follow through… Sandra’s sister Nancy has invented the salvation of short speculative fiction. I promised her some artwork, but have yet to deliver.
So what is this miracle project? It is Anthology Builder, and it lets you assemble a print collection of short fiction, selecting stories from among hundreds of reprints from popular magazines. Then you pick cover art, drop coin, and your customized anthology is printed on-demand and sent to you in the mail.
How will this save short fiction? Let’s describe the problem, first: Most short fiction is published in magazines with a very limited circulation and shelf-life. Once published, those stories rarely see reprints in anthologies because the market is a too small to support more than a few runs of mass-market paperbacks. The result is that authors have little incentive to write short stories, so they don’t. The art form stagnates.
Enter Anthology Builder: Print-on-demand (POD) technology makes it possible for extremely small print runs to turn a profit, in turn making it possible for these short stories to be marketed to the niche that loves them. This means that authors get residual royalties for work that is technically out-of-print, and that incents them to create similar work. The art form again blooms.
(On an only-slightly nepotistic note: Anthology Builder now has three Sandra Tayler stories in it.)
Anyway, Nancy asked me if I’d like to contribute cover art for Anthology Builder, and even though this is something I’d get paid for I still haven’t managed to submit something. Too busy making comics, I guess.
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July 8th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I’m a big fan of Anthology Builder, and have been talking them up here and there–but I do take some exception to the suggestion that the art form of short stories has been stagnating without them.
I’m also a big fan of feeding royalties to authors and keeping an “indefinitely long” shelf life. GUD’s been doing our best to do that as well. There are many magazines publishing amazing things–many authors _writing_ amazing things, without us.
Then again, maybe you’re thinking more galactic with your hyperbolizing–I’m not too good at thinking twenty years out, let alone thousands ;)
July 8th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
@kaolin: Every literary SF convention I attend has a panel or two on “saving short fiction.” Authors and publishers alike bemoan the state of the art. I didn’t mean to suggest that there isn’t good short fiction being written, but I don’t think that market is currently thriving, either. And without a thriving market the products created for that market will, over time, suffer.
Did I speak with hyperbole? Yes, but only a little.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Star Pirates is a bit addictive, btw, although a new player has to really be careful; the players there are a bit Obsessive compulsive (losing 30k in 30 seconds? I laughed though.)
July 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I suppose this is the only way I can ever create the Automotive-
Based SF Collection I’ve been wanting — there is exactly *one* out
there (_Car Sinister_), and it doesn’t even have “Why Johnny Can’t
Speed” in it, for cryin’ out loud! [headsteeringwheel]
July 9th, 2009 at 12:27 am
@Howard–fair enough. The market certainly isn’t thriving, while the genre, I think, is. I have high hopes for AB. :)
July 9th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Are any of the old TT folks from TDZK over in the Star Pirates TT fleet?
July 9th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I’d see if I was interested in _Star Pirates_, but they don’t have any
actual information about the game on the website — only a login/
new-user-account screen. (If there’s any actual info, it’s well hidden.)
July 10th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I hear that. I’d be willing to give my e-mail to find out more, but having to give them my e-mail to find out anything at all is a little off-putting.
It somehow feels like one of those “DON’T READ THIS!!! OH, NOW YOU MUST DO EXACTLY AS THIS MESSAGE SAYS” spams. Even though I’m almost positive it isn’t. Almost.
Okay, not at all.
July 11th, 2009 at 5:18 am
The “sign up give us info or you see nothing” may be because you’re coming in from Schlock Mercenary.
If you delete the “referer=15″ you get the options of taking a tour (not too much info) but there is also a time line (it’s in the same reality as “Spy Battle 2165″, but about 30 some years after (2194).
Looks mildly interesting, but if I signed up, I’d leave the “referrer” info in.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Hey csadn, Normad & hswoolve: good points. We tried to streamline the process for you by having a *relevant* referral link, but obviously we left out something pretty important.
Thanks for that feedback; it’s a Sunday but I’ll get on it now.
And brenatevi: I’ve seen you on there already :) Glad you’re having fun. Most folks don’t take themselves too seriously; for many it’s more community than game. If you have questions, ask a moderator or a greeter (they should have PM’d you).
Cheers,
Admin ArrBilly
July 12th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Actually, the simple fact that there is someone actually manning the…whatevers…is very reassuring. But presumably you won’t want to have to do this every single time someone is coming in through the referral links, so Goodspeed on that end too.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Thanks for the feedback. Actually, we have real players greet every player that joins the game. The “greeters” are mentors until the players feel comfortable enough to join their own fleets etc. Not sure how we got so lucky to have such a great community.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Any other questions I can help out with here?
Oh and, the TT fleet in StarPirates is up to 66 active members. Cool…