Survival By Storytelling: Win a Copy at LitDrift

This will be brief, because there's not much to say. If you'd like to win a free copy of the first issue of Survival By Storytelling, head on over to LitDrift. All you have to do is leave a comment! The giveaway closes fairly soon, I believe.

Anywho!

P.S.: I was going to add the cover image for SBS to this post, but apparently Blogger is having a fit today. So, if you don't remember what the image looks like, you can click here to see it. And yes, the image is freaking gorgeous. Thanks, Kaolin Fire!

Quick Note: Catnip Pete and Survival By Storytelling Open to Submissions

I have a big announcement at the end of this post. Stick around!

First, to "Catnip Pete and the Suricata Symbol":

I am working on the final piece to the story. My apologies it has taken so long, but I have been inundated with an inordinate amount of work, both in the actual sense, and for my education. Being a graduate student who teaches means I don't have nearly as much free time as I would like for writing, and this is a particularly difficult story because of how the pieces need to come together so the ending makes sense. If you have no idea what I'm talking about--either because you're new or you simply missed it--you can learn a bit more about this here and here. It's a story I'm working on, the first parts of which I put up to help raise funds for Haiti (the third part will be for that project as well. I hope to have part three finished and posted by this weekend, but I am working on a paper that I am presenting next week, so we'll see.

Now the big announcement! Survival By Storytelling is open for submissions! The magazine is officially theme-based and our current theme is Steampunk!

You can learn more about our theme here and our guidelines are here. We'll take submissions until we fill the issue!

So, if you have something steampunk-ish, whether it is on the adventurous/pulpy end or the literary end, or even a poem or article, consider submitting it to SBS!

The first issue of Survival By Storytelling Magazine is still available for purchase if you haven't already added it to your collection. You can learn more about that here.

Ebooks Prices: Now I Understand

I've recently been trying to convert the first issue of Survival By Storytelling into a Kindle ebook, thinking it would be a fairly easy process. Technology had other ideas.

Here's what I thought was going to happen:

1. I'd go online, pop the file into Amazon's conversion tool, and end up with a slightly imperfect file.
2. I'd fiddle a little bit by fixing the small problems.
3. Finish, publish, and rake in the dough to give to all my contributors.

How it actually happened:

1. I went online, popped the file into Amazon's conversion tool, and realized that the final product was so screwed up it was practically unreadable.
2. Tried to figure out how to fix it and found out the following:
   a) There are no magic, simple ways to change the conversion problems.
   b) It will take ten times the amount of time it took to make the print version of the book to put together a suitable Kindle version.
3. I'm currently not finished, despite many hours of trying to figure out how to do it. I may end up throwing my hands up when the file is in "acceptable" state and get it out there.
   

So, having gone through all of this, I now understand why it costs so much to produce eBooks, because you could not pay me enough money to sit down and do this, day in and day out. No way. I'd rather chew on broken glass or cut my own heart out with a spoon. Seriously.

And this is supposed to be the wave of the future?

P.S.: Yes, I'm still going to get Survival By Storytelling, Issue One up on the Kindle. It'll just take me some time, because the whole thing is a pain in the butt.

Survival By Storytelling, Issue One for sale!

Well, I know you've all been waiting for this for quite a while, and it's finally here. Survival By Storytelling Magazine, Issue One is up for sale at Lulu for a mere $9.00 in print and $5.00 in electronic format! You can purchase it here.

The magazine will also be appearing on Createspace and Amazon in time, but the process for those two is different from Lulu, and longer, but you'll hear from me as soon as it happens. For now, you can get your copy of SBS from Lulu.

And in case you wanted to know why you should purchase the issue, here's some incentive:
--We have some amazing fiction and poetry from writers new and old, all twenty-five and under, many of them members of YWO (Diocletian, Mercy, Adri, Nyx, Tegzz, and Crocolyle, unless I'm missing anyone).
--We have an interview with author Paul Genesse (The Golden Cord and The Dragon Hunters; he has also written many short stories for collections published by DAW). He also wrote us a fine article about writing.
--There is also an article by author T. M. Hunter in here, author of Heroes Die Young.
--Every sale of SBS pays our authors. Since we pay by royalties, every sale is directly helping the contributors, and that's a good thing, right?
--Every sale also helps Young Writers Online, which is also good. Mostly the money goes to contributors, but YWO gets a little bit out of it too, and that goes to making sure we can have more contests in the future!
--It'll make you feel good inside. Trust me. SBS is like chocolate, only better.

So go out and get your copy now! As for the contributors: you'll be getting an email from me shortly in regards to free copies for you, which wasn't in the contract, but, hey, I feel that you deserve something for your patience. Plus, it's standard practice anyway!

Lastly, please advertise about SBS. I'll try to get some promotional images together, but if you could blog about us, that would be great. Spread the word and let everyone know what you think about the magazine!

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive of this endeavor over the last year+. It's been a lot of work and we're glad to be done, if not a little misty-eyed about it. Thanks to all who contributed, and here's to a good opening run!