As if that wasn't enough, Scalzi maintains this funny and personal blog for American Online. He's figured out all the angles, building a career that blends old and new media in some amazing ways. We should listen to him when he gives us advice about building a web community. In Writing on Writing, John Scalzi answers readers' questions about this mad mad mad writing world...
"The Internet certainly creates and fosters a forum for amateurs -- people who make things up for the fun of it and who don't particularly care whether they get paid for it or not. I'm certainly part of that myself; I used it to my advantage with Agent to the Stars, and I've also posted music I've made online, and I never expect to be paid for that. People like playing and sampling and having fun: The Web is one big amateur sandbox.
But it's also not stopped me from making money: My books are doing well, even Agent, which is available for free, so people really do have to make the conscious decision to buy it. Giving away a certain amount for free fostered those sales, I'm sure, both by assuring people of the quality of the work and also creating a community of people who are happy to see me succeed (and help me do so buy occasionally buying something of mine)."
I recently posted my novel online on my blog after failing at the agent query dance. I've gotten great reaction from a wide variety of readers (see the homepage comments) and I'm often asked why my book hasn't been published. Hard to answer that one........
James Aach
"Rad Decision" is a novel about a nuclear plant accident, written by a longtime nuclear worker.
"I'd like to see Rad Decision widely read." - Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.
Posted by: James Aach | March 28, 2006 12:22 PM | Permalink to Comment