The Empire Strikes Back
Published December 9th, 2009 | 
No, I’m not referring to what is arguably the best film in the long-running Star Wars franchise — I’m referring to yesterday’s announcement that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and several other media heavyweights including Time-Warner, Hearst and Conde Nast would be co-conspirators in launching a digital publishing platform and storefront to sell their digital content.
This announcement comes with both good and bad tidings for consumers of digital content.
The good news here is that it’s a clear sign that big media is finally waking up to the fact that digital publishing isn’t some kind of fad — that it is the future. It’s also good news that these companies clearly recognize that with so many devices coming into the marketplace on which to display this content, its not good business to publish their content to only one device.
The bad news is that this move is obviously the latest attempt by big media to force consumers to pay for digital content. News Corp., for example, has been on the frontlines of the movement to create a pay-for-content Internet.
I’m not against publishers making money, but I am against monopolies. More digital media properties in the hands of a few leads not only to higher prices for consumers, but allows those few companies to control the flow of information and makes it harder for smaller publishers to compete. Up until now, digital media was the last bastion of renegade publishers. Outfits like News Corp. weren’t as heavily invested in digital media in the past. That has changed with big media gobbling up smaller providers and even the large Telecoms jumping the fence to become not only access-providers, but owners and distributors of digital content, the digital universe is getting smaller — less democratic and less friendly. I’m still betting that many consumers still won’t want to pay for most digital content, but if I’m wrong, this could mean the end of the digital revolution as we know it and the beginning of a digital publishing hegemony that rivals the level of control big media has had over print publishing for decades.
*This post is brought to you byMinka Aire
Posted in Books, Current Events, Magazines, New Media, Old Media, Publishing, ebooks, ezines, newspapersMy Bad, You’re Bad
Published December 4th, 2009 | I was feeling a little ambitious lately — a bit of a departure for me as I’m one of the most unambitious people I know. Anyway, a couple months back, I’d decided that before the end of the year, I would not only write a novel, I would publish two new issues of my ezines, The 13th Warrior Review and Gnome. Well, I did manage the first during NanoWriMo and I was on my way to accomplishing the latter two items on my list, but then problems arose to thwart my efforts yet again.
The first thing that happened was my mistake — a big mistake, actually. See, I had these two poems I was going to publish in Gnome and I thought I’d actually accepted them months ago as I had them in my folder to the upcoming issue and, as per my normal routine, only accepted submissions end-up in the folder for upcoming issues. What I realized was that I’d accidentally sent this poet a rejection instead of an acceptance. Now, I’ve made some mistakes in the past. In fact, by my calculations in the last twelve years, I’ve averaged at leasts half a dozen mistakes a year. But I’ve never done anything this stupid before. Of course, I feel like a huge honking tool and of course, after all this time the poems in question are no longer available. My bad, I guess . . . really and truly.
And then we come to the submission withdrawals which have been coming en masse of late. Remember my little hissy fit a while back about simultaneous submissions and how I hate it when writers don’t inform me about that then pull the rug out from under me later? Well, in the last two weeks, no less than five writers have pulled this crap — the latest just yesterday. I’m especially disappointed about yesterday’s loss because that was a fucking awesome story. More importantly, though, I now have two issues with major holes in them, so the likelihood that I will be able to publish both of these ezines before the end of the year is less likely than it was two weeks ago. It’s very frustrating. Especially considering that with maybe one exception none of these writers waited more than a couple of weeks for a response from me. You would think with all I’ve said and written about simultaneous submissions, these people would know better. Anyway . . . <sigh>
Posted in Current Events, Happy Horseshit, Magazines, Publishing, The Writing Life, editing, ezines, poetry, short stories, websitesThe 13th Warrior Review Volume 7, Issue 13 is Online Now!
Published September 26th, 2009 | Finally, after a whole summer of slacking-off, I was able to complete and publish the latest issue of The 13th Warrior Review. In this issue (if your inclined to take a look) is:
Poetry by Genine Hanns, P.Q. Perron, Langston Kerman, Peter Layton, Martin Rock, Lyn Lifshin, Howard Good, Tony Leuzzi, Janet Butler, Michael S. Morris, Holly Day, George Moore, Jessica Reidy, Charles Musser, Farren Stanley, Anne Britting Oleson and William L. Bingham
Fiction by Jeff Blechle, Katie Runde, Tom Deiker, Roland Goity, Gail Francis, John Bruce, Mathias Nelson, George Held, Nels Hanson and Hunter Stern
Reviews of Pygmy, Close Encounters, No Place Like Home and The Winter Diary
and a nonfiction piece by your truly which you may or may not enjoy.
Posted in Current Events, Magazines, New Media, Publishing, ezines, fiction, poetry, reviews, short stories, websites