It’s a bit of a grab bag post today, but I think you’ll like the interesting links.
First, last week saw John Scalzi (author and soon-to-be outgoing President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)) blogging about the awful contract Random House’s new science fiction e-book imprint, Hydra, was offering. Ultimately, SFWA de-listed Hydra as a qualifying publication market. Around the same time, the Wall Street Journal printed a story about Hugh Howey. Howey wrote the e-book bestseller Wool series. The key takeaway from the WSJ article? While Random House was trying to screw over new authors, Simon & Schuster created a brand new, and very intriguing, contract with Howey: Simon & Schuster would get the print rights, but Howey kept the e-book rights. It was an interesting study in contrast.
Second, for those writers who are considering/fearing showing off their pasty bodies in public this summer, maybe it’s time to start thinking about getting into better shape. While I’m not going to list any workout plans, I will suggest reading this article from The Atlantic about writers getting fit. Perhaps you can read it while on the treadmill. Or maybe while having a coffee and snack break later today. Either way.
I read through most of Wool on our last cruise. It’s pretty solid. Smart choice to do it in five chapters, each of which gets progressively longer and reveals more about the world over time.