Atomic Fez Publishing

Before we get into anything ‘newsy’, let’s have a look at what’s been consuming me nearly steady for a couple of weeks or more on the main site: “platform compatibility”.

There were a few things I didn’t like about the main site, but didn’t much feel like trying to hard-​​code the HTML and so on. There are ways to do just about anything on a site, but unless you want to have nested tables galore, complicated style-​​sheets with floating location specifics, and a shed-​​load of other things I can’t even spell, it wasn’t easy. Possible, yes; but not easy.

Then an old friend of mine said “you know, I think we should re-​​do my site again”. So, I poked around a bit trying to find some way to do what I knew had to be easier now that HTML standards have actually become more… well, standardised. Heavens be praised, things have gotten far easier and more compliant across various browsers. No longer do Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari make things look so different you wonder if you’re looking at the same site sometimes!

The new headache: multiple viewing devices with screens anywhere from a mobile handset all the way up to a Cinema Display. Something that looks great on your 28″ wide-​​screen monitor isn’t going to look great on a 3 1/​2″ phone. Plus, even if it does look decent, there’s a hell of a lot of scrolling to be done on that tiny screen to find the bit on the page you want.

So… after a steep learning curve shoving the knowledge of multi-​​media aware style sheets into my tiny brain, he’s got his site, and I’ve got the same sort of stuff going on here as well. Hooray!

All of that sounds quite geeky, but what it comes down to is that, no matter how you’re looking at the main part of the site (as opposed to this blog; I’ve still got to sort this part out), it’ll adjust to the screen you’re looking at it with, and the site will look pretty as well as be practical.

Here’s how things looked on the three major screen dimensions originally (using a post from a week ago as an example; click for embiggenization):

Full-​​Size View of Page

Tablet View of Page

Smartphone View of Page

Basically, what you have is an increasingly smaller section of the top left corner.

Here’s how it looks on the three major dimensions now (again, click for embiggenization)!

NEW Full-​​Size View of Page

NEW Tablet View of Page

NEW Smartphone View of Page

Quite an improvement! Now the navigation buttons adjust where they are as the screen narrows in, plus the header graphic changes to take-​​up less space. When you get small enough for the smartphone, everything turns into a long, single column arrangement, no longer requiring things to work much wider than a single picture (because that’s all the width we’ve got really).

With 16% of traffic to the site identifying itself as a tablet (to say nothing of monitors using resolutions near tablet-​​dimensions), it’s important for any site to have these things in mind, but especially when you’re selling eBooks which some people want to read on their tablets, iPods, or smartphones.

In theory, it should be so easy to use now you shouldn’t notice any change has happened until it’s pointed out to you. However, I hope you find the site easier to use as a result.

Electronic Sales v. Retail Sales v. On-Line Retail Electronic Sales

Apparently, WH Smith and Kobo have teamed up to provide equipment for the people to read their eBooks on. Kobo supplies the back-​​end to the WH Smith site, plus possibly arranges for re-​​branding their wi-​​fi touch-​​screen readers (which will be the first in the UK) with the high-​​street shop’s logo. It’s the second time Kobo has scored a European deal, as they announced a deal in France just the week prior to the UK deal with WH Smith, and only a few days after the announcement of the Kindle France Store opening.

The move is a smart one for both the UK and French firms, apparently. According to Bloomsbury executive director Richard Charkin speaking to delegates at Frankfurt Book Fair as part of a Google panel about e-​​books, if retailers are to compete with Amazon, they have to create their own devices to sell to people, presumably to keep the customer inside their particular garden. It’s worked quite well for both Apple and Amazon, as both companies have found ways to not only sell equipment to people, but the content to go on that equipment as well. “One stop shopping”, if you will. Add to that houses such as Hyperion as well as Macmillan Bellow and others finally realizing they can make people happy by re-​​releasing their back catalogues and actually have people buy the stuff that’s been out of print and un-​​available for years (and it’s about bloody time, say I), the sooner the shops get wise to the ways of the Big Companies Who Are Beating Them At Their Own Game, the better.

It’s a bit of a losing proposition, though, as the UK has been seen as the worst nation to protect the chains. Some might see that as a damned good thing. Maybe there’s a point there, too. However, the independents flourish by being able to point at the major shops and say “we deliver something they can’t: speciality in selection”. Thus, if all the big stores up and disappear, then the independents will suddenly have to make a go of it without the large stores to do their constant barrage of advertising which serves to remind everyone that “books is good”. It seems a bit odd, suggesting that the little guys are served well by the big guys plastering their 3-​​for-​​2 sales everywhere, but there is a give-​​and-​​take relationship where both sides benefit from each other more than is apparent initially. Certainly it’s a more balanced relationship than the competition between high street shops and the Sainsbury’s of the world (and there’ll be a digital edge to that one soon), and one which John Lecarré now admits he was part of the push that opened to the door to.

Granted, if the big publishers and the large distribution corps keep slapping DRM all over everything, the more electronic reading devices there are out there, the faster and more frustrating the arrival at “but I can’t read my book now” will be. If you buy a book through Amazon, then try to read it on your iPad using Amazon’s app, you might find that book’s digital lock isn’t iOS 5 compliant. Or, possibly, the book you bought at Penguin’s site might not be something your Sony Reader wants to open for you. Why not? Well, it’s the Digital Rights Management that prevents you “trying to do something that’s not allowed”: basically, anything they hadn’t thought about two years ago. Even if your eBook file opens on your Samsung tablet today, who’s to say the next Android operating system up-​​grade won’t do something ever-​​so-​​slightly differently than it used to, the file’s pre-​​programmed settings have a look at things, don’t recognize the way things are done as “correct”, and then shut the door and refuse to open it again.

This is why Atomic Fez sells all its eBooks clean of DRM. You should be able to read that eBook file on whatever equipment you’ve got today, tomorrow, and in the next decade. People basically are honest. You’re not going to try to sell CDs of the books on a street corner next week. Publishers have more trouble getting people to buy any books these days, and really ought to stop worrying about people buying books “the right way”.

Price eBooks fairly, skip the DRM rubbish, drag out the books that have been out-​​of-​​print for a couple of decades and do the same, and everyone’s happy.

Seems simple, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Over on FutureBook (part of “The BookSeller”), there’s a post explaining how Kobo’s recent in-​​roads in Europe actually demonstrate how it’s better at market penetration than both Apple and Kindle. Mostly, it’s because of the minimum of DRM-​​control and lack of “you buy from us, yo0u read with us, you are owned by us” approach to things, thus completely contrary to the other two big players.

“This Week’s Fish Wrap” is an on-​​​​going series of posts summing up the news of the previous seven days in the publishing industry, and/​or announce the latest news Atomic Fez has about the publishing house, and appears here each Monday. It’s also quite possible that the posts merely serve as a dumping ground of links so that Atomic Fez Proprietor Ian Alexander Martin can find articles later to include in his occasional rants about how ‘EVERYONE ELSE IS ENTIRELY WRONG’ about various things.

This Saturday John Llewellyn Probert can be seen at The Dracula Society’s autumn meeting in London, who are hosting “An Evening with JLP (and puppets!)”, where he shall read, be interviewed, and then the Lord & Lady Probert shall perform their little stage show again (which explains how the puppets got involved).

For those of you not in London (aka: “the Centre of All Known Culture”) that particular evening, herewith is a videographic record – complete! with colour! and sound! – of the Brighton performance of Blood on Satan’s Claw (The Pantomime), presented for your entertainment by Theatro Proberto! Thanks to Martin Roberts for his mad skillz with video production (not the least of which is his ability to shoot live on-​​stage insanity with nary a clue what’s about to happen).

Those ‘in the know’ regarding Mr. Probert’s writing will recognise this is not the first time he has attended an event of the Dracula Society’s creation. No no! He won the “Children of the Night Award” in 2006 for his collection The Faculty of Terror, which is a dashed good read (even if it was published by some other house [judgemental sniff])

But wait! There’s more JLP fun! You can also revel in his genius by reading THIS INTERVIEW over on the web-​​site Read Horror. It’s a bit of a shock, one realises. “JLP reads… [gasp!] horror?!? It’s too much to take in at once!” Yet, he does. He obviously also writes horror, watches horror, and even performs horror. Rumours of him eating and sleeping with horror have been found to be just that: baseless rumours.

JLP reads Horror!

I admit to finding the title of the blog Read Horror a tad counter to its aim, frankly. There not being a conjugated verb there, one takes the initial word to be presented in the imperitive, thus we are ordered to rush from the screen and locate something by Poe, Wilkie Collins, or Bram Stoker. If we are to to infer that the site itself presents horror, then we are destined to run from our computers screaming in terror. Adding the pronoun “we” at the front of the title would go a long way to explaining the people responsible for the content are afficianadoes and enthusiasts of the genre.

But, I digress…

In the future, we can look forward to more about Mr. Probert, as the chap at Professor Gruntsplatter’s Spookatorium wants Mr. Probert to read a story and provide a few comments on it. Specifically the good Professor – whose real name is Scott E. Candey, apparently – wants to hear the author “The Iconostasis of Imperfections”, which you can read along with by ordering a copy of Wicked Delights.

Meanwhile, he continues to work on his first novel (which Atomic Fez will publish), and write horror-​​film reviews which you can read on THIS BLOG (see, I told you he watches horror!).

To keep up to date with all things JLP, head to his official site RIGHT HERE.

Well, well, well. The British Fantasy Society (of which Atomic Fez is a member) has got itself in the newspaper again, as well as the Daily Mail and Sunday Express *. Oddly, the last time they were given space in the press resulted in a huge push to publish more female authors of horror, fantasy, and of other forms of ‘speculative fiction’, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes of this in the end.

The Logo of the British Fantasy Society

I wasn’t going to say anything about this, but it all seems to be coming to a resolution, and for me not to have some sort of acknowledgement of the existence of the matter as part of this supposed “wrap-​​up of the publishing news” dog-​​and-​​pony show of mine seems a tad remiss. So, now that we can see the end of the thing, let’s whip though the main points.

It all got started when the ‘Short List’ for the British Fantasy Awards was announced and there was a great deal of space taken up in the list by Telos Publishing’s output as well the partner of one of the directors of Telos: David Howe. So far so good, except that he’s not only the chair of the BFS, which oversees the awards, he’s also the Acting Awards Administrator and thus is directly involved in the awarding of awards to winners. The votes are all tallied using a web-​​based spreadsheet, and everyone’s votes are registered using their BFS membership number and/​or their e-​​mail, so there’s no chances of his having done anything untoward at this stage.

Indeed, the BFS’s President Ramsey Campbell stated yesterday the following:

[I]t is our firm belief that no corruption or wrongdoing took place during the administration of the British Fantasy Awards, and that in this respect all awards should still stand as presented. We confirm that the summation of the votes cast was performed electronically and once the results were checked they were confirmed and verified by another member of the committee.

So, we’re all fine there; in retrospect, you understand.

During the awards, as well as right after, there was entirely a different tone to the vox populi. Given that five of the dozen awards – every single award for which they were nominated – went to either the publishing house of the Awards Admin or the lady the Daily Mail terms his “live-​​in lover” (as though the only thing that she does is snog the man silly), grumping was probably bound to occur. It just seemed a tad ‘too perfect’ for some people’s liking.

This is where Stephen Jones’s article on his web-​​site come Tuesday starts making the wheels of things turn, the title alone sufficient to getting eyebrows raised: “Putting the ‘Con’ into FantasyCon”. I urge you to read it, as there are number of excellent points to consider made within it. Note, however that “diplomatic” is not a frequently used word to describe the noted Editor and long-​​time BFS mover and shaker who is Stephen Jones. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Jones and his accomplishments. His tastes and business acumen are excellent, and – though his selections for stories to include in his anthologies are occasionally at odds with my own – he certainly knows what he’s doing. He’s not known for the most politic in ways of expressing his views, however, and this is something I can certainly nod my head at in complete understanding, as I possess the same trait.

Anyway, the point here is that even though Mr. Howe didn’t do anything at all wrong, everyone agrees that the appearance of something possibly have been fiddled with isn’t something one should permit to exist, as it then permits someone to rightly ask the questions posed by Mr. Jones. For deeper examination of that in this situation, head over to Pádraig Ó Méalóid’s LiveJournal ENTRY HERE, as he’s got a fairly good run-​​down of the ‘optics’ of the matter. Also good is Simon Morden’s entry RIGHT HERE examining both the time line of the decisions as well as a fairly good neutral examination of both sides of ‘the saga’.

As a result of the above: Mr.Howe has resigned as Chairman of the Society; Samantha Stone has returned her “Best Novel (2010)” Award; the next FantasyCon which was to be in Corby now might not be anywhere as the organizers have backed out, there’s no definite replacement for them, and it’s not east to find a venue for 500-​​or-​​so people for a week-​​end event in an Olympic year with a great deal of ease; and Graham Joyce has agreed to take on the position of ‘Acting Chair’ until such time as an Emergency General Meeting can be held in about six weeks’ time or so. Here’s Mr. Joyce’s statement, in which he says the following to put all of the above to rest (hopefully once and for all):

Meanwhile I will charge the committee with a priority agenda, which will include overhauling the Awards system; identifying and recommending new committee members; ensuring that proper records of meetings, decisions and accounts are transparent to all members of the society; and seeking  to enfranchise a wider “Fantasy” base for the Society.
     The proposed Corby FantasyCon will not now go head and we are looking for an alternative for 2012. The situation at this moment is fluid and we will attempt to keep members informed.

Something to keep in mind at this point is that the BFS is a dashed-​​fine organization and has had far more influence than it’s often given credit. The terms “horror” or “fantasy” fiction cause people to either picture a giant, blood-​​covered chainsaw; or a dragon flying above an impossibly-​​magenta mountain peak. Both images are incorrect for about ninety percent of the literary form. The UK is especially downwards in their glance when considering the genres, seeing either of them as ‘not actually literature, you know’, yet will happily praise Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Mervyn Peake for their Great Works of Literature. To form a society which aims to promote those sorts of works is quite brave, really. To continue to do this for so very many years is laudable, and hopefully the world of the ‘legitimate literature’ will re-​​welcome them to the fold.

If you need any more convincing of the worth of the BFS, have a look at THIS ARTICLE on the aforementioned site of Mr. Jones, and perhaps you’ll get a deeper understanding of the importance the Society has had in his career as well as the careers of others over the years. Another view on the same subject is THIS POST on the Theaker’s Quarterly and Paperbacks blog of Stephen Theaker which goes a long way to explain what effect the BFS can have on those who are less involved in the ‘pointy-​​end of the stick’ when it comes to creating or publishing ‘fantasy’, and simply like reading the stuff.

Atomic Fez is proud to be a member of the BFS and to play a part in supporting it both financially through that membership and adverts, as well as supporting its goal of promoting ‘weird’ and ‘fantastical’ fiction in all its forms.

LINKS FROM THIS ARTICLE

• The British Fantasy Society (Official Site): BritishFantasySociety.org
• The British Fantasy Society (Facebook Page): Facebook.com/BritishFantasySociety
• The British Fantasy Society (Twitter Feed): twitter.com/britfantasysoc
• Stephen Jones’s post about how the BFS is something worth supporting to anyone’s benefit: StephenJonesEditor.com/article-sj-bfs01.htm
• Stephen Theaker’s “welcome message” for FantasyCon in September 2010: TheakersQuarterly.Blogspot.com/2011/10/British-Fantasy-Society.html
• The official British Fantasy Awards’ rules: BritishFantasySociety.co.uk/the-British-Fantasy-Awards-Constitution-ii/
• Video of the recent awards ceremony here: YouTube.com/playlist?list=PL32260EBC2F88BAD1
• Stephen Jones’s post about the awards ceremony et al: StephenJonesEditor.com/article-sj-FantasyCon201101.htm
• Official BFS statement on the awards results and Mr. Howe’s resignation as Chairman of the Society: BritishFantasySociety.co.uk/news/Official-BFS-Statement-Concerning-Awards/
• Graham Joyce’s statement upon accepting the Acting Chair position: BritishFantasySociety.co.uk/news/Statement-to-Members-of-the-BFS-from-Graham-Joyce/
• Pádraig Ó Méalóid taking a very level-​​headed and long-​​view oriented analysis of it all: SlovoBooks.LiveJournal.com/307917.html
• Simon Morden’s views of the matter: SimonMorden.com/2011/10/09/the-British-Fantasy-Awards-2011/

“This Week’s Fish Wrap” is an on-​​​​going series of posts summing up the news of the previous seven days in the publishing industry, and/​or announce the latest news Atomic Fez has about the publishing house, and appears here each Monday. It’s also quite possible that the posts merely serve as a dumping ground of links so that Atomic Fez Proprietor Ian Alexander Martin can find articles later to include in his occasional rants about how ‘EVERYONE ELSE IS ENTIRELY WRONG’ about various things.

* Non-​​UK residents ought to know that the Sunday Express is read by people who think they run the country, the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who actually do run the country, and the Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. Those who read London’s Sun don’t care who runs it as long as she’s got a good-​​sized pair of “fun bags”. [Full credit to the writers of Yes, Minister] ↑ RETURN ↑

Greetings! Two things first:

1. the main part of the site is now iPad and Smart-​​phone compliant (the layout automagically adjusts things the smaller your screen is), as well as newly re-​​designed so that you can get where you want to easier, as well as hopefully find things you weren’t aware of in the “information” category;
2. all of the titles have their eBooks on sale, as well as the “September Sale-​​A-​​Bration” prices being still in effect for the printed versions of most of the titles! I’m too good to you, I really am…

Now for some “less than serious” stuff.

There’s a few images in a folder I keep meaning to share with everyone that have something to do with books, or with inspiration generally. So, in a flurry of “let’s clean things up”, here’s the lot of them. Enjoy!

Gracious me, that was fun! VCon, I mean! What’s that? You weren’t there? You didn’t LIVE THE EXCITEMENT!?!

VCon 36, Vendor Room (via HDR technology)

Okay, no sarcasm: this really was a fun event. The energy level was really good this year, after last year’s slightly tetchy mood of grumbly “why can’t I find the room my panel is in and why are all these people ahead of me in a line-​​up for something I’m not sure I’m even interested in?” Not that last year was a disaster; far from it! Just that there seemed to be a general air of muttering around many areas (or, possibly, around areas in which I manoeuvred).

Certainly this year I enjoyed  myself more than last year,  for whatever reason that was.

Particularly fun were the panels I got to participate in.

The one which I dreaded the most was “Are You Prepared to be Published?” with EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing brainchild Brian Hades. Given the panel was set for 11 PM – Midnight, was concurrent with the dance, and a Saturday night infamous for its room parties, we anticipated an audience of three, all of whom hadn’t seen the outside world in the eight years it has taken to complete their 16-​​volume saga about space-​​exploring cats with ray-​​guns, all sitting in the front row, staring unblinking at us with intense expressions of “answer my question or I will follow you home and eat your entire garden.” Thankfully, instead we had a room of 25 people who all asked reasonably intelligent questions and were interested in the discussion without being scary enough to make me want to run screaming for my life at any point.

A happy addition to the panel was Barbara Gordon (no, not that one; the one who’s a mostly unpublished author living in Victoria). Providing the author’s perspective about the process of submitting to a publisher was a welcome one, and also something which made the variety of content more interesting. Granted, both she and her boy are a bundle of laughs, so it was good to have the warmth of them attending the panel in the first place, but dragging her up on the platform to help out was a brilliant idea and I’m glad Brian had it.

 After stumbling home – completely sober, mind you – at 1:30 AM, I then next appeared almost entirely awake at a panel the next morning at 10:00 AM called “Listen to This! Listen to This!” for which I was entirely un-​​prepared. To begin with, I hadn’t any real idea about the format of the thi9ng, for Programming never replied to my eMail asking for clarification of how much material to bring, or the degree of specificity of SF & F content desired. The three books I considered selecting material from – including Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes and an early scene in the “Gormenghast” trilogy – would have required a goodly chunk of time due to their sheer length of material, as well as a section of text either side to provide framing material for the passage. I explained the latter point to the few people there, including the white-​​haired gentleman sitting directly in front of me in the first row. He looks a tad familiar, I thought to myself, and wondering if he was in fact… and then he sat back up from putting his back-​​pack on the chair next to him, his name tag straightened out on his chest and declared that, yes indeed, I had just explained to Larry Niven that I was a complete loss when it came time to proper participation in the panel he had taken the time to attend. At one point I noticed him staring at my chest to see my name tag, then glancing into the souvenir programme’s section of biographies of those on panels, no doubt memorizing the name of the complete nit-​​wit sitting in front of him, swearing he will avoid all things connected with me henceforth.

Then again, apparently he’s got a bit of a hearing problem, so perhaps he wasn’t able to pick-​​up the conversation at that point so he decided to review the listing for the next panel.

 
British Fantasy Awards

Yes, sadly, the two categories that Atomic Fez was short-​​listed in went to other people: both the “Best Novella (2010)” and the “Best Small Press” awards. That said, getting that far with things in the first year one even qualifies for the awards is pretty dang good: long list in all of the categories but one that apply, and short-​​listing in two, is hardly something to sneeze at.

Thus, while no shiny “WINNER!” graphic gets to be placed on the site, there’s no shame being felt or soul-​​crushing disappointment hanging over the mighty laboratories of Atomic Fez Publishing.

After all, there’s always next year…

“This Week’s Fish Wrap” is an on-​​​​going series of posts summing up the news of the previous seven days in the publishing industry, and/​or announce the latest news Atomic Fez has about the publishing house, and appears here each Monday. It’s also quite possible that the posts merely serve as a dumping ground of links so that Atomic Fez Proprietor Ian Alexander Martin can find articles later to include in his occasional rants about how ‘EVERYONE ELSE IS ENTIRELY WRONG’ about various things.

Conventions, that is. FantasyCon 2011 is all about the fun, including – and especially – the Burlesque event which features Theatro Proberto performing both Corruption and Blood on Satan’s Claw (A Pantomime) in one glorious evening of ridiculous insanity! Learn more about that from the man behind this lunacy: John Llewellyn Probert. FantasyCon also has a bunch of extra Guests of Honour and things than originally expected, so head over to the FantasyCon 2011 site by clicking their name above.

I heartily encourage anyone attending the convention to go to anything involving either Mr. Probert or anyone of his retinue. Also recommended is placing a pint in the hand of Christopher Teague in the Dealers Room downstairs. While you’re doing that, why not hand him some money and purchase a copy of one of the splendid Atomic Fez titles on offer? You know it’s right…

The other event of note is the British Fantasy Awards which get announced on Sunday afternoon (which is around 8 AM in the Pacific Time zone). There’s two categories in which Atomic Fez figures: “Best Novella (2010)” has Andrew Hook’s Ponthe Oldenguine among the five possible recipients, as well as Atomic Fez itself considered along with four UK publishers for “Best Small Press (2010)”. ‘Fingers crossed…’, and all that.

Poster for VCon №36 uses art by Artist Guest of Honour Jean-​​Pierre Normand

But the Publisher /​ Proprietor will be at VCon №36 in scenic Richmond, BC! This year’s VCon theme: “Visions of the Future; Imagining Tomorrow from the Past to the Present”

Those attending will not only have the chance to rub elbows with Guests of Honour Larry Niven (well-​​known for the “Ringworld” series, as well as other works employing solid science in its fiction), the artist Jean-​​Pierre Normand, and the film editor Lisa Lassek (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pushing Daisies, Firefly, etc.); you’ll also have the opportunity to meet me!

Further down the post you’ll see a floor plan of the Vendor Hall for the event, so that you can more easily rush to the Atomic Fez table and hand over all of your dough discover just how wonderful all the books are.  Plus – prior to their official publication date – copies of Terribilis and Dirk Danger Loves Life will be available for purchase for ready money! Copies sold directly, however, will not qualify for the “Pre-​​Order & Win!” competition, which will continue until the official publishing date of about a fortnight from now.

Remember: pre-​​order a copy of either – or both – of those two brand-​​new titles through this site, and your copy might be one of the four which are personally signed and dedicated to you by the author(s)!

Plus, if you live in North America, you’ll be able to win one of the two copies of the hardback edition of Terribilis, which is not available in your area in that binding! Additionally, you’ll only pay for the Trade Paperback edition, so it’s like a double-​​win!

The Vendors Hall at VCon №36 (with subtle notation locating Atomic Fez table of excitement)

But let’s get back to VCon №36, shall we…?

VCon is the oldest general-​​interest science fiction and fantasy convention in Canada and the Pacific Northwest. The convention has promoted the interests of science fiction and fantasy fan culture in Vancouver, BC and its environs since 1971, offering events and exhibits focused on a variety of Science Fiction and Fantasy fandom interest areas such as literature, art, media, music, costumes, comics, games, etc.

VCon is organized by a subcommittee of the West Coast Science Fiction Association–a non-​​profit organization dedicated to the advancement and understanding of science fiction and fantasy fan culture in Vancouver BC and its environs. VCon is not, nor will it ever be, owned by a big business or corporation. For now, and for as long as efforts continue, VCon will be a convention built “For the Fans, By the Fans”.

If you’re interested in more about the history of VCon and its events this year, their official Media Release can be read by CLICKING HERE.

Thus, as is fitting an event which celebrates the genre itself, topics of discussion on panels are rife with ways to better explore the books, art, movies, and games inspired by SF & F style of story-​​telling! Here’s four panel discussions which specifically interest me, as I’m going to be a part of them (while I’m doing that, the table will be taken care of by two able-​​bodied former educators):

Panelling for VCon [full schedule grid here]

 Yes, it’ll be one action-​​packed, excitement-​​filled experience after another, Kids! Come on along!

…especially for the one on Saturday which I expect will be attended by the two panellists, three drunken louts, and every poetry-​​writing 68-​​year-​​old woman desperate to get their name on the front of a book before they die of anonymity.

“This Week’s Fish Wrap” is an on-​​​​going series of posts summing up the news of the previous seven days in the publishing industry, and/​or announce the latest news Atomic Fez has about the publishing house, and appears here each Monday. It’s also quite possible that the posts merely serve as a dumping ground of links so that Atomic Fez Proprietor Ian Alexander Martin can find articles later to include in his occasional rants about how ‘EVERYONE ELSE IS ENTIRELY WRONG’ about various things.

With the autumnal period comes a return to school, a return to the day-​​to-​​day routine of the office drones, and the excitement of the literary conventions organized by the British Fantasy Society and the West Coast Science Fiction Association. Hooray!

’40s-​​era Works Progress Administration poster

This year creates a bit of a problem for Atomic Fez, as both of those organizations have rather inconsiderately scheduled their events on the same week-​​end. As much as we prize our forward-​​thinking, new-​​frontier located technology around here, it’s not yet possible to be in two places at the same time, and travel from Brighton (in the UK) to Richmond (in Canada) isn’t possible under about eleven hours, at least when using commercial air travel.

Thus, while the books Atomic Fez publishes will be available in the Dealers’ Room at FantasyCon 2011 in Brighton, the brains behind Atomic Fez will not be. Instead, the Proprietor /​ Publisher will be spreading the joy of all things “Eclectic and Genre-​​Busting” at VCon №36, held at the beautiful Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel, in exciting Richmond, BC, from Friday, September 30^th – Sunday, October 2^nd. You can find him in the gigantic Dealers’ Room at the mighty Table 502 (just on your left as you come in the door), or possibly taking part in a panel discussion and explaining to everyone JUST HOW WRONG THEY ALL ARE!

The additional reason that it would be so nice to be beside the sea-​​side is that the prestigious British Fantasy Awards Ceremony is held on Sunday 2^nd October 2011 after the fabulous FantasyCon 2011 Banquet. Andrew Hook’s Ponthe Oldenguine is nominated in the “Best Novella (2010)” category, and Atomic Fez is the sole non-​​UK house among those on the “Best Small Press (2010)” short-​​list. The best of luck to everyone on the short-​​list, including that “Steve King” fellah, whoever he might be (but frankly, I think he’s trying to get into the literary game by grabbing his son’s coat-​​tails).

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something to get you in the mood for the Richmond event, here are three of them.

September is “Science Fiction and Fantasy month” at the Vancouver Public Library, and VCon is partnering with the VPL’s Downtown Branch (350 West Georgia) in three events: “Fantastic Art” on September 19^th; a “Vogon Poetry Slam and “Vog-​​Off” on September 22^nd; and a panel discussion, “Page to Screen”, on September 27^th. All three events are free, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Alice MacKay Room (on the library’s lower level).

Fantastic Art

 Tonight, September 19^th, come to hear George Metzger (“Moondog”) and Tarol Hunt (“Goblins”) discuss Fantastic Art, with an emphasis on sequential art and graphic novels. Then join in some audience-​​participation fun with previews of two VCon favourites: “Pencils at High Noon” and “SF Pictionary”. Both are quick-​​draw competitions that depend more on wit and imagination than artistic ability. On view will be examples of art from VCon-​​s past.

 Vogon Poetry Slam

The (Second Annual) Vogon Poetry Slam and Vog-​​Off is on Thursday, September 22^nd. Stormtroopers from The 501^st Garrison will be on hand to keep order as contestants vie for cash prizes by reciting their worst possible poems. There’s even a $42 prize for the worst poem by someone under 14. See details at the VPL’s website: Vancouver Public Library – News & Press Releases

Page to Screen

The third event is “Page to Screen”, a discussion of how well – or badly – science fiction works have been adapted for the screen. That’s on Tuesday, September 27^th.

By next week details of which panels at VCon №36 the Proprietor /​ Publisher will be participating in, during which time the table in the Dealers’ Room will be ably taken care of by whichever passing gypsies or miscreants have the misfortune to be passing by shortly before the discussion commences. It’s also possible that the site will look a fair bit different at that point, but those sorts of things have a habit of throwing complexities at one when one least expects it, so let’s not get our hopes up for that. A fortnight from now, however, all should look more exciting and the site be easier navigate one’s way around in.

In the meantime, become a “job creator” by buying some books – shipping’s free after $50/£35 – and then give them to someone who could use some entertainment in these economically challenging times.

“This Week’s Fish Wrap” is an on-​​​​going series of posts summing up the news of the previous seven days in the publishing industry, and/​or announce the latest news Atomic Fez has about the publishing house, and appears here each Monday. It’s also quite possible that the posts merely serve as a dumping ground of links so that Atomic Fez Proprietor Ian Alexander Martin can find articles later to include in his occasional rants about how ‘EVERYONE ELSE IS ENTIRELY WRONG’ about various things.

As a follow-​​up to last week’s post (mostly because no one was around, plus today’s post is on a Tuesday owing to yesterday’s Labour Day holiday), I’d like to take this opportunity to direct your attention to the subtle graphic above about the SEPTEMBER SALE-​​A-​​BRATION!!! that’s on right now. Did you notice it? It’s easy-​​to-​​miss, I know.

Yes, as a run-​​up to the two big events of the year – the British Fantasy Society’s “FantasyCon” in Brightin UK, as well as the West Coast Science Fiction Association-​​organized VCon in Richmond, BC – all of the printed editions of Atomic Fez books are on sale! Paperbacks for as little as $10 /​ £8, and hardbacks for just $25 /​ £15! Hooray! The same price as if you were attending the events in person without the bother of carting the books around to all of the panel discussions (although you have the postage to pay for by ordering them through the site). Get a load of all the special prices RIGHT HERE!!

DIRK DANGER LOVES LIFE, by Chris Rothe! Order your copy today!

In addition to the special pricing, by ordering copies of Dirk Danger Loves Life or Terribilis in their printed editions gets you in on the opportunity to win a copy of those books with the author’s personal scribbling in them!

Not only that, the difficulty of “pre-​​ordering” those titles has been thought about a bit more carefully since last week. In the UK, not only is Terribilis being done in a hardback binding for the International Edition as the North American Edition’s paperback binding, there’s a second run of Dirk Danger Loves Life that will be done in the UK shortly in addition to the North American printing that’s being done right now. So, what with both titles having a print run on each side of the Atlantic, the ‘pre-​​order’ period depends wildly due to production and delivery times wherever people happen to be.

Here’s the solution: each title gets TWO DRAWS! There’ll be a North American Draw for each of the two titles, then an International Draw for them once more. North American winners will still receive either a personalized, signed copy of either Dirk Danger Loves Life in paperback, or Terribilis in the International hardback edition, and now the “Rest of the World” will have their own opportunity to win one of each of those based on their production dates.

Hooray!

So, pre-​​order now and save some money, plus possibly win a signed copy! Plus, because you forgot to get copies when they came out originally, you can also order some other books and save on those as well! Either way, you win!

As a slight change to the usual format of things here on a Monday – probably due to the fact that everyone and their brother seem to be on holiday, busy entertaining friends who are on their  holiday, or generally not doing anything except either trying to stay away from the summer heat or the gigantic storm raging through their area – Atomic Fez announces the second of its AMAZING BOOK CONTESTS!

Pre-​​order a printed copy of Dirk Danger Loves Life by Chris Rothe, or Terribilis by Carol Weekes, and you’re entered to win a COPY SIGNED AND DEDICATED TO YOU BY THE AUTHOR! Atomic Fez doesn’t do “limited, numbered editions” of its books, this is even more special as a result!

In March of last year, people purchasing a copy of Wicked Delights at the World Horror Convention (imaginatively named “World HorrorCon”) were able to Win Breakfast With Author John Llewellyn Probert and His Retinue! …which basically consisted of his girlfriend and the publisher, so the last bit was more of something akin to “by the way, if you accept the prize, you also get stuck with this lot; sorry about that, but them’s the rules”. Here’s the post about how that went.

TERRIBILIS, by Carol Weekes! Order your copy today!

This time, things are much better, and far more people get to participate! You don’t have to go anywhere, nor do you have to put up with a couple of extra loonies barging their way into the situation! No no! All it takes is your money!

Terribilis comes in a hardback edition for the UK & International markets, and a paperback binding for the North American market. Thus, the winner of this title, no matter where in the world they happen to reside, will receive a hardback copy even if they’ve only paid for a paperback one!

Dirk Danger Loves Life only comes in the one, paperback binding, so there’s only the scribble of the author to make it special, but he’ll be encouraged to write something particularly funny in your book. If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll do it, too!

So, what are you waiting for? Click the titles of those books, pre-​​order you copies today (they’re in the middle of production right now), and wait for the happy message that you get a book which has been defaced by the author themselves!

TINY PRINT
All valid entries will be drawn from orders for books placed on or before September 26^th, 2011. Payment must be received by that time. Entrants will be included in the drawing only if they are ‘civilians’, none shall pass from those who are ‘book dealers’, ‘wholesalers’, or libraries and are already being granted preferential discounts form the Recommended Retail Price of the book(s). The draw to decide the winner will be conducted by the Publisher, using an elaborate system of bits of paper with people’s names on them, which have been stuffed into a pillow case, hat, or some sort of vessel that’s handy at the time. Two draws will be conducted, one for each of the two (2) titles (books). The winner(s) shall be notified of their win prior to the author(s) making mark(s) on the book(s), thereby permitting the winner(s) to specify their name(s) and/​or the name of a cherished love one and/​or someone they’re going to give the book at holiday time. The decision of the Management is final, and no appeal will be permitted or even listened; no really, cry all you like it’s not going to change a blessed thing. This offer is unrepeatable, mostly due to the details being so complicated it’s impossible to remember them all, but it does permit a lovely Elvis Costello reference, doesn’t it?

“This Week’s Fish Wrap” is an on-​​​​going series of posts summing up the news of the previous seven days in the publishing industry, and appears here each Monday. It’s also quite possible that the posts merely serve as a dumping ground of links so that Atomic Fez Proprietor Ian Alexander Martin can find articles later to include in his occasional rants about how ‘EVERYONE ELSE IS ENTIRELY WRONG’ about various things.

Whilst an actual post is not quite yet finsihed here, there will be a complete examination of the topic once I’ve sorted out a few things with Amazon®, the IRS, and who knows who else.

This all arises as a result of the development of THIS POST, which I thought was the end of the matter, more fool I.

It turns out that Amazon doesn’t have the same definition of “publisher” as most other people – including the IRS which is how this whole thing is supposed to work you would think – and considers itself to be the publisher, as “Vicky” in their “Tax Information Reporting” department explained Saturday in the following statement to me:

Pursuant to the terms of the agreements, Amazon considers the transaction to be an acquisition of one or more copyright rights pursuant to Treasury Regulation § 1.861−18 with the rights to distribute the content to the customers. Amazon views the payments made to you under these circumstances as royalty payments subject to US income tax withholding under the relevant laws. As a publisher, you may yourself license content from your authors and pay royalties.  Amazon is still required to apply withholding rules to your payments.

Well well… This is intriguing. It’s also quite wrong, in fact. I actually have to license content from ym authors, and pay them royalties, because otherwise it’s called “theft”. Amazon might be ‘distributing’ the works, but they ain’t ‘publishing’ it.

I recall a massive hue and cry at one point of “don’t sign away your publishing rights to the Amazon Overlords™”, but that seemed a tad odd and more than a little alarmist at the time. Amazon wasn’t in the business of actually publishing books (although they are now), and they certainly didn’t have any intention of ripping people off for their book’s profits. I recall noting the specific section referred to, and did a double-​​take at the language.

Re-​​reading the defining clauses at the start of the contract, the fact that they were using the verb “to publish” seemed more clear and appropriate to what Amazon does as a distributor, if still awkward and open to misinterpretation when taken out of context. Due to this being electronic books, you can’t define “publishing” as the entity that arranges for the books to be printed, or even shipped, because there’s no physical entity to be moved around. “Publish” suddenly becomes damned close to “make available for purchase” and the already-​​thin line becomes pretty damned thin indeed.

Frankly it’s pretty damned surprising that Amazon is playing it so damned safe with the question of withholding amounts pending tax assessments, given their problems with various States regarding sales taxes in their jurisdictions. Why they suddenly are willing to kow-​​tow to a Federal Office is a bit of a mystery.

The actual problem with the possible interpretation of the contractual statement of Amazon being considered the ‘publisher’ of the works sold through the now-​​called “Digital Publishing Platform” (IE: “The Kindle Store”) is what I’m now facing, as is every other Canadian publisher: until such time as you acquire some sort of US Tax Identity Number (SSN EIN, or ITIN; the last of which will probably run me about $650 dollars or more once the thing’s properly completed and certified and prepared by an IRS-​​authorized agent), you’re not going to get the final 30% of all monies earned from the sale of your books, due to Amazon withholding that amount “in trust” for the IRS, pending the review of tax assessments, which will basically state “if I owe anything, it’ll be owed to the Canada Revenue Agency, so you’re not gettin’ nothing anyway”.

Why not just file the returns every year there? Well, for a start I couldn’t do that because, once again, I don’t have one of those magical US-​​tax numbers. Additionally, preparing those forms is unnecessary because Canada and the USA have a “tax treaty” that basically negates the need to file those forms. Plus, well, the IRS really doesn’t want to be bothered about all this rubbish, they have enough on their plate as it is. I’m in the middle of getting hold of someone in the Philadelphia office of the IRS who seem to be well-​​acquainted with the whole complex issue of Canadians earning money through the USA without actually standing in the USA at the time.

What’s the stumbling block here? Amazon, and not–as stated by article’s writer in the comments of this post of theirs on the interwebs – the IRS at all. My interpretation of it is this: due to their daft insistence on covering their asses based on a very bizarre interpretation of previous tax regulations, we now have this weird policy stating that I’ve got to jump through expensive hoops in order to get the amount that ought to not even be withheld anymore.

There’s also that rather over-​​inclusive concept about who has the publishing rights to a book, but let’s leave that for another day.

Look for more about this later. Possibly after I’ve be released from custody by the US Customs Agents at Blaine.

NOTE: the last bit is a joke, and I am not about to enter the USA using armed force.