Unfortunately, even the best fanfic content usually remains underground, shared among fanfic communities but never distributed at the mainstream level, both for copyright reasons and because plenty of authors and publishers hate the idea of strangers swooping in on their creations.

UK sci-fi/fantasy publisher Angry Robot Books is taking a different approach: this fall it will launch WorldBuilderOnline, where anyone can submit pretty much any sort of Creative Commons-licensed original content based on specific works published by Angry Robot. The best submissions will be repackaged in anthologies and published professionally, “with most of the proceeds going to the creators” according to Angry Robot’s blog announcement.

It’s not just about writing, either. Publishing Director Marc Gascoigne says in the comments to that post that they’ll accept “pretty much anything germane to the world – fiction, articles, maps, gazeteers, encyclopedia entries, faux advertising, music, poetry, and of course artwork and designs of all kinds.”

The first title to be opened up to fans will be the forthcoming “Empire State” by Adam Christopher, which the publisher describes as a prohibition-superhero-noir novel set in an alternate New York City. (You can read an excerpt at Tor.com, and ask Amazon to email you when it becomes available.)

The WorldBuilder site will be managed by Mur Lafferty, a writer and editor who is probably best known for her podcasts over the past seven years (including an audio anthology of short fiction in 2006 featuring stories read by the authors). She’s also got her own superhero novel called “Playing For Keeps”, so she’s especially suited for the launch title of WorldBuilder.

There are other communities where fans are being enlisted to help world build, like

• Baen’s Grantville Gazette based on the works of Eric Flint;
• The Mongoliad, a serialized epic where the original fiction is being provided in part by Greg Bear and Neal Stephenson;
• and Runes of Gallidon, which works a lot like WorldBuilder but sprang into existence without a seminal work.

On the other end of the world building spectrum is J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore, which is intended to provide an immersive online world for fans of the Harry Potter series, but which doesn’t welcome user-generated content.

But Angry Robot’s WorldBuilder concept stands out to me as something fresh for the way it plans to formalize the best fanfic, by publishing it traditionally alongside the original work and then compensating the fans who created it. This in turn may help market the official book, and it could help build an audience for future titles in the series. We won’t know until sometime next year, but maybe Angry Robot has figured out a path forward where fans, authors and publishers can all profit by working together.

Update: If you have specific questions about how WorldBuilder will work, you can ask “Empire State” author Adam Christopher over at his official blog.

In case you need a recap of what this is all about, the Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA) was a proposed agreement arranged by some publishers, authors, and author groups as a way to create a compensation and licensing system for Google Book Search, which uses the full text of copyrighted books to provide snippets in search results. Some authors and publishers claim that what Google is doing with Book Search amounts to widespread copyright infringement instead of fair use. For those authors and publishers who had sued Google, the proposed settlement would have protected them from the risk of losing on fair use grounds if the suit proceeded. More controversially, it would have also implemented an opt-out system (instead of opt-in) for authors, and an arbitration system that favored Google and publishers at the expense of authors’ rights. From a competition perspective, it would have also shielded Google from more lawsuits, while leaving competitors unprotected.

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin rejected the ASA this past March, noting among other things that it went too far in giving Google special privileges (especially regarding orphaned works), and that the opt-out system was unfair to authors. While that pretty much left it dead in its current state, it also left the door open for Google and the plaintiffs to amend the agreement and try again.

But with yesterday’s rejection of a settlement in Freelance, it looks like there’s no possible way for the ASA to proceed.

Freelance is a class action case from the 90s (actually Tasini v. New York Times), and it involves freelance writers who claimed newspapers didn’t have permission to post their work online without compensation. Its relevance to the ASA is that in both lawsuits, the plaintiffs tried to create a single class out of all authors who might be affected by the issue, and yesterday’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals said that was more or less impossible:

In a 2-1 ruling, the second circuit yesterday held that the district court which approved a settlement between freelance writers and publishers in the class action case known shorthand as Freelance “abused its discretion in certifying the class and approving the Settlement, because the named plaintiffs failed to adequately represent the interests of all class members.”

In really plain language, essentially the judges who rejected Freelance‘s settlement yesterday acknowledged that getting all authors to agree to the same thing is like herding cats, and therefore you can’t put all authors in a single class and claim to represent their collective best interests. There may indeed be no such thing as “collective best interests” when it comes to authors.

So what happens next for Google Book Search? The plaintiffs could move forward with the suit, but it’s a considerable gamble because if they lose, then they’ll have inadvertently expanded the definition of fair use. Personally I think that’s great for society, but it’s not necessarily so great for publishers’ business models, hence their outrage at Google.

Another possible byproduct of the death of the ASA is that Google’s competitors can move forward with their own digitization projects. They’ll be assuming the same risk of lawsuits over copyright that Google is now facing, but at least they now know that Google isn’t about to carve out a special protected arrangement that will give it an unbeatable competitive edge.

(Photo: Aviruthia)

Here’s why: Gollancz is also acquiring the ebook rights to thousands of out-of-print sci-fi and fantasy classics, and will start offering them for sale this fall. The launch list includes over a thousand titles, and the publisher plans to have around 5,000 titles available by 2014.

According to the press release (PDF) on Gollancz’s new website Science Fiction Gateway, “direct links between the Encyclopedia and the Gateway will provide easy access to eBook editions, for sale through all major online retailers.”

As for which authors will be included:

Authors featured in the launch include such names as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Alice B. Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr), Robert Silverberg, Kate Wilhelm and Connie Willis. A full list of authors so far under contract is appended to this announcement; negotiations are in an advanced state for many more.

Via “Thousands of SF classics return to earth as ebooks” [The Guardian] ]]> http://booksprung.com/1000-classic-sci-fi-and-fantasy-works-to-be-epublished-in-september/feed 1 http://booksprung.com/paper-sculptures-in-pottermore-video-are-beautiful-make-book-hard-to-read http://booksprung.com/paper-sculptures-in-pottermore-video-are-beautiful-make-book-hard-to-read#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:27:05 +0000 Chris Walters http://booksprung.com/?p=6782 Don’t loan J.K. Rowling any first editions! The author of Harry Potter doesn’t just love ebooks now, she hates printed books. Why, look at the lengths she’ll go to deface one in her new video announcing her HP ebook venture:

The hand-cut, stop-motion paper animations are gorgeous. You definitely can’t slice up an E Ink screen to produce such intricate and delicate shapes. On the other hand, you can’t really read the book anymore once you put your knife away. There’s always a trade off.

Here’s the full video so you can see the animations in action:

Related: “Rowling will sell the Harry Potter ebooks on her own starting in October”

Around this time last year, Rowling started hinting that she was no longer completely against having official ebook editions, but nothing more came of it other than a few hopeful articles and blog posts.

But today she finally made an official announcement (one that neatly coincides with the growing marketing push for the final movie). She’s come around to ebooks:

“E-books are here and here to stay. Later than a lot of people, I for the first time downloaded ebooks and it’s miraculous for travel and for children in particular. I feel great about taking Harry into this new medium.”

Accordingly, in October she’ll start selling official DRM-free ebook editions and digital versions of the audiobooks from her own website, Pottermore, which will also be a free online reading community that will contain new Potter-related writing that hasn’t been published before.

Some interesting details of the arrangement:

• Rowling will sell the ebooks, not Amazon, B&N, Sony, Kobo, or any other retailer, but they’ll be compatible across all of the major ebook devices.
• Sony will be handling the online community aspects of the site for easier hacking and account thievery. (Oh snap!)
• The cross-compatibility editions will be managed by OverDrive, the company that handles the vast majority of library ebook lending in the U.S.
• The website will soft launch on July 31st with one million members, then launch officially in October with the accompanying ebook store.
• The site will feature newly-commissioned illustrations and interactive experiences, like shopping for a the right wand or being sorted by the Sorting Hat, that you can participate in as you read the corresponding chapters in the books—think of it as an enhanced ebook where all the enhancement is hosted online.

Although the details on translations and regional availability are a little fuzzy, The Globe and Mail says the website will launch in English, French, German and Spanish, and also says that the ebook editions will be made available in multiple languages. I don’t know who owns the ebook rights to HP… (Update: Rowling indeed holds the ebook rights, not her print publishers, reports Wired UK.)

As for the cross-platform compatibility, which I’d say is the real magic Rowling is performing here, my guess is that it will be possible because of Amazon’s upcoming move to work with OverDrive to allow library lending of the Kindle format. This also suggests that Amazon will launch its U.S. library lending program by October. Update: Via The Digital Reader, the ebooks will be DRM-free but watermarked with the purchaser’s identity to dissuade rampant piracy, so it looks like this isn’t dependent upon Amazon’s library lending program after all.

Another mystery is how the online community will work, and what “free” actually gets you in terms of content on Pottermore. The Bookseller notes that Rowling has 18,000 words worth of new content, including some backstory on Professor McGonagall, that will be available exclusively on the new site.

Gnod’s literature section, Gnooks, includes a free service it calls a Literature Map: simply type in the name of an author who interests you, and Gnod will stop running human extinction scenarios long enough to return a nifty floating cloud of names. The closer two names are to each other, the more similar the authors are, and their proximity to your initial author indicates how closely they match his or her style.

Above is my test for sci-fi author Charles Stross. In my experience, Doctorow’s voice is nothing like Stross’, but I’m not a computer so I’m probably wrong.

Here’s one for Cynthia Ozick, who you may have noticed by now is one of my go-to names when I want to test something with a semi-obscure but highly respected living author:

And here’s another one for Charlie Huston:

Okay, so they’re not going to win any awards for visual design, but robots don’t need eyes. None of us will after the singularity, but that’s a downer of a note to end this post on, so let me close with the word “balloons.”

Update: If you want a more intimate recommendation—meaning just one author’s name instead of a cloud—you can try Gnod’s Suggestions page, where you enter the names of three authors and (hopefully) get back a fourth.

That, in a nutshell, is one of the reasons why Sidney Williams recently teamed up with Crossroad Press to republish his older novels as well as new works.

Williams published his first book in 1989 through Pinnacle, and in the years since he’s written horror, young adult novels, and graphic novels like “The Dusk Society”, as well as an audio adaptation of “War of the Worlds”.

But like many midlist and genre authors his titles have all but disappeared from brick and mortar bookstores, even though there’s still an audience for them.

While the early novels involve werewolves, vampires, and—in the case of “Gnelfs”—malevolent children’s cartoon characters, his latest book, “Midnight Eyes”, is a more realistic suspense thriller about a Louisiana serial killer, a dangerously ambitious newspaper editor, and a sheriff who must ask his estranged son (and former FBI agent) for help if he wants to prevent more deaths.

I asked Williams about his decision to publish through Crossroad Press, and his own experience with ebooks so far.

Booksprung: In your bio and in other interviews, you’ve said that you were a journalist for eleven years, and among other things you covered crime. Was that the genesis for “Midnight Eyes”?

How did you decide to publish digitally, and why did you choose to go with Crossroad Press?

What’s your writing process like, and has it changed much over the years?

What was the first ebook you read?

How was that experience?

Do you have any “guilty pleasures” that you find are easier to read in ebook form?

The cover art for your earlier paperbacks from Pinnacle are definitely of an era, but there’s no denying they were striking and attention-grabbing. What do you think about the role of cover art in digital publishing?

I like cover art a lot. I miss record albums because you had such beautiful big artistic opportunities for covers. I am kind of fanatical about my mp3s. I try to get all the cover art right on my iPod, or my iPhone now, and I still like covers, I like seeing them on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, wherever.

As far as covers with Crossroad, its been fun to have a second edition of my books out and kind of see new directions with them.

It’s challenging to get cover art. David Dodd did “Blood Hunter” and I thought he did a great job. I can remember being on the phone with—you know you didn’t get a lot of input on covers in the old days, and I remember being on the phone with my editor talking about what the cover should be. My original idea was of a moss-covered arm or claw reaching across the cover, but instead we got a swamp scene and a young girl looking through the trees on the original cover. I thought David Dodd did a great job of capturing the setting for the story without giving much away.

Neil Jackson did the new “Gnelfs” cover, and I really like that. The original “Gnelfs” cover is very 80s/90s, and I thought Jackson kind of captured the mood and the flavor of the story without giving too much away or spoiling letting your imagination form the monsters in that one.

You know when you download a book, it usually defaults to the first chapter, and I go in on my Kindle and reset it so that the cover is the first page until I start reading it, because I like even the monochromatic covers.

You have an unlimited budget and a crack team of designers and engineers. What does your ideal ebook device look like?

What are your thoughts on ebook lending and resell rights? How do you think those two issues should be handled in a way that’s fair to all parties involved?

Do you have any preference for print or digital books?

And finally, who are your favorite authors?

Sidney Williams is currently working on a literary thriller as well as a fantasy novel, and he’s re-editing his vampire novel “Night Brothers” for the forthcoming ebook edition.

“Midnight Eyes” is available on the Kindle Store and in multiple formats from Crossroad Press.

Visit Sidney Williams at sidisalive.com

(Photo: treyevan)

If you’re a King fan, or just want free fiction, this is a good opportunity to put one of those free “send to your Kindle” plug-ins to work. I opened the print version of King’s story so that it’s all on one page, then used Klip.me (formerly Send to Kindle). I had to add Klip.me’s email address to my Amazon trusted address list first (the service will walk you through this the first time you use it), and then it worked just fine, and now the story is on my Kindle. One great thing about Klip.me is that it lets you edit the text before sending it off to Amazon, so I was able to delete the sidebar stuff that interrupted the flow of the story. Nice!

“Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” by Stephen King (The Atlantic Magazine)

(Photo: eparales)

One of the big problems with the [orphaned books] agreement was it was only Google. The U.S. Department of Justice in fact [realized it was] sanctioning a monopoly here. Why should Google have the right to circumvent copyright law or supplant copyright law with this private agreement? That may be good for the authors and it may be good for the publishers and it’s certainly going to be good for Google, but they’re not the only game in town. So, now if Amazon wants to do something similar, they’re going to have to go back to square one and renegotiate this whole deal. And Microsoft is going to have to do it all over again, and then we’re going to have multiple bodies out licensing this stuff around.

If you’re still unsure about what the heck’s going on between Google, the Authors Guild, and individual authors and publishers, check it out.

“Google’s ‘Orphaned Books’ Litigation; Effect on Digital Sales” [Practical eCommerce]

(Photo: Ben Woosley)