1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. REC.ARTS.SF.WRITTEN

  • Turmoil at the big 3?

    From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 15 03:21:37 2025
    Youtube has started pitching me videos from indie SF author Jon Del Arroz
    from time to time. I usually don't have the patience to listen all the
    way through a video essay (these things should be text on Usenet!)
    but I get enough to see that the guy has a definite point of view which
    will not be universally appreciated. That said, he has had a couple of
    videos on the big 3 magazines lately and apparently there is a lot of controversy around AI cover art and now changes to author contract terms.

    I have to agree with his point about short fiction dying: I don't think
    I have actually read an issue of _Analog_ (which I have subscribed to since
    the last 1970s I think) in a decade. I'm not sure what it is, but I find
    I have to put as much effort getting into a short story these days as
    into a novel, and then, bam! it's over...

    Anyway, his vid on the contract controversy is

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZwp9WlpmE
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Garrett Wollman@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Jul 15 18:46:45 2025
    In article <105606b$68a1$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 7/14/2025 11:21 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
    Anyway, his vid on the contract controversy is

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZwp9WlpmE

    Interesting. I hope we don't see the demise of the short story outlets.

    I think there are quite a lot more outlets now than there were thirty
    or forty years ago, it's just that most of them are online rather than
    in the magazine rack. If we look at this year's Hugo nominees, three
    were in Uncanny, two were in Lightspeed, and one was in Clarkesworld
    -- all online venues, all established in this millennium.

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, [email protected]| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Lurndal@21:1/5 to Garrett Wollman on Tue Jul 15 18:51:44 2025
    [email protected] (Garrett Wollman) writes:
    In article <105606b$68a1$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 7/14/2025 11:21 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
    Anyway, his vid on the contract controversy is

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZwp9WlpmE

    Interesting. I hope we don't see the demise of the short story outlets.

    I think there are quite a lot more outlets now than there were thirty
    or forty years ago, it's just that most of them are online rather than
    in the magazine rack. If we look at this year's Hugo nominees, three
    were in Uncanny, two were in Lightspeed, and one was in Clarkesworld
    -- all online venues, all established in this millennium.

    Not to mention fan fiction, which is sometimes even pretty good.

    Don Sample comes to mind.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 15 19:38:43 2025
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:
    Youtube has started pitching me videos from indie SF author Jon Del Arroz >from time to time. I usually don't have the patience to listen all the
    way through a video essay (these things should be text on Usenet!)
    but I get enough to see that the guy has a definite point of view which
    will not be universally appreciated. That said, he has had a couple of >videos on the big 3 magazines lately and apparently there is a lot of >controversy around AI cover art and now changes to author contract terms.

    The man is a troll, and prone to spurious lawsuits and attempts to control
    the Hugo awards. This is a point of view few here are likely to appreciate.

    But it is true that short fiction is less popular, and I think that is
    because it is so much easier to sell a long format work than it used to be. --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jul 20 02:03:02 2025
    On Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:38:35 -0400, Cryptoengineer
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    I have to agree with his point about short fiction dying: I don't think
    I have actually read an issue of _Analog_ (which I have subscribed to since >> the last 1970s I think) in a decade. I'm not sure what it is, but I find
    I have to put as much effort getting into a short story these days as
    into a novel, and then, bam! it's over...

    Anyway, his vid on the contract controversy is

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZwp9WlpmE

    Interesting. I hope we don't see the demise of the short story outlets.

    Agreed - long ago I subscribed to both Asimov's and Analog but gave
    them up when I moved 2000 miles away for grad school. (My folks kept
    the remaining issues of my subscriptions for me and gave them to me
    when I came home for Christmas which was a very pleasant shock) Not
    sure why I didn't re-subscribe but didn't but have read plenty of SF
    from our local library. One story I remember well from Analog was "The Mountains of Mourning" - it was the first Miles Vorkosigan story which
    of course led to many more from Bujold.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)