Online Science Fiction

[sqbr]

Here is the final list from the Online SFF panel, edited to add all the suggestions I got from my wonderful co-panelist Zara Baxter and the ten or so people who turned up (well, everything I wrote down, anyway) Have added to my big page of panel synopses etc.

Thanks to deathwombat, here is a photo of the whiteboard with everyone ideas on it (though things got overwritten a bit)

Sorry it's this huge mass of largely undifferentiated information, I've about reached the limit of how much more effort I can be bothered expending on this now the con is over. There really is some good stuff in here!

People are encouraged to add anything they like in the comments, but since I'm feeling lazy I'm probably not going to add them to the page so you'll have to read the comments to see them :)

Art

I don't recall any good links, but... sff art! It's a thing! Which you can find online! Somewhere! :)

Comics

Webcomics

There is something of a community of webcomic writers and critics, from small collectives of like minded individuals like Half pixel to sprawling open collectives like Drunk Duck. Some run successfully from livejournal.

Some examples of good science fiction/fantasy comics:

• Schlock Mercenary Humourous space opera
  
• Girl Genius (Started as a printed comic) Steampunk
  
• Narbonic Mad scientists
  
• Kukuburi
  
• Bite Me Vampires in the french revolution
  
• Dresden Codak Many different strange science fictiony things
  
• Order of the Stick Life as a Role Playing character
  
• Errant Story
  
• Dreamland Chronicles 3D rendered
  
• Miracle of Science
  
• Newt and Jon About an ant and a newt? Not sure it's sff.
  
• Alien Dice
  
• Storm Corps
  
• A Circle of Stars This is a blatant plug for my own comic :)
  

And of course there are countless webcomics about sff Fans...

Other less sff-y comics people mentioned:

• Doc Rat by one of our audience members
  
• Book of Biff
  
• Alien Loves Predator
  
• Alter Meta
  
• Kevin and Kell
  

Mainstream Comics

• Marvel comics Paid access to thousands of back issues
  
• DC Comics Free access to the first issues of many comics, plus Zuda, an attempt to recruit new writers via webcomics competitions.
  
• Scans Daily People post their favourite (or least favourite) pages from comics.
  

Books and short stories

Many authors offer free e-books of their works as a "free sample" to get people to by a paper copy. Also, ebooks provide a great way to distribute short stories.

Repositories of online books/short stories

• Baen Free Library Many free books and excerpts of Baen Books.
  
• Project Gutenburg Out of copyright books (Zara adds: and mags! Newish! Golden age and new age!)
  
• Many Books Collects free e-books from all over the place
  
• Wowio Free e-books, money is made from ads
  
• Metafilter post about free online sff
  
• Lots of audio-books are available, both free (ie from Project Gutenburg )
  or for a price (ie from Audible)
  
• Amazon, Slow Glass Books and other online retailers
  
• Fictionwise and other e-book stores offer access to some stories which are very hard to find in paper. Has Nebula and Hugo nominees each year for free, as do F&SF and Asimov's.
  
• Bards and Sages Online sff publishing and ebooks (I think, I find the site too ugly to read much :))
  

Magazines:

• Ticonderoga Online
  
• e-fanzines.com
  
• Asimov's Has hugo and nebula nominees free
  
• Fantasy and Science Fiction Ditto
  

Books

There are HEAPS of really good books available for free online, here's a a sample:

• Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge
  
• Lots of Charles Stross (he has a rant as to why he gives them away for free)
  
• Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" (Limited time which is nearly over)
  
• Stefan Gagne Notable in that his books come out online first, in serial format
  
• Corey Doctorow He has lots of interesting opinions about online.. stuff too.
  

Writers resources

• Fanfiction and other fanworks are their own huge online subculture with lots of resources and communities, I'm not even going to bother trying to describe them here, go to a dedicated panel :)
  
• There are many resources for writers of original fiction too, such as the SF&F Critters writers workshop.
  

Movies/Games/Other

Tv shows like "The Sanctuary" get made on the cheap and uploaded on the internet. From there they can go straight to dvd or even get a tv deal.

• Youtube has lots of really interesting stuff
  
• Stephen Brust releases unauthorised Firefly spin-off comic
  
• Shadow Unit 'a fansite for a TV show that doesn't exist.'
  
• Sanctuary
  
• The Lost Room Made by SciFi.com
  
• The Matrix Online
  

Discussion and analysis

Blogs/communities

The internet abounds with nerds with an opinion, so this is a just brief selection.

• Metafandom Collects links to interesting lj entries about fandom.
  Based in fanfic fandom but discusses other stuff too.
  
• Science Fiction with Bite and lots of other similar discussion communities
  
• Girls Read Comics (and they're pissed), DeadBroWalking
  and lots of other blogs and communities dissecting sff from a particular perspective.
  
• Podcasts! (I don't listen to any, but they are out there)
  
• Big Blog of Cheese
  
• Talking Squid
  
• Eve's Alexandria
  

Magazines

• ASIF (Yes, link is broken, google was not my friend)
  
• Internet review of science fiction
  
• Tangent
  
• Strange Horizons
  
• Locus Online Magazine
  
• Flow Media stuff
  

Tie-ins with commercial offline content

These are attempts to create a buzz through a viral marketing campaign, creating emotionally involved consumers.

• I Love Bees An "Alternate Reality Game" to do with the computer game Halo
  
• Heroes has lots of tie in stuff, including comics set between episodes, character blogs, and official spaces for fanworks.
  

Ways to make it pay

Free Content

• Not done for profit, just for fun/fame/skills. See the success of fanfic writers like our own Lainey Cairo.
  
• Money made off related merchandise, ie paper versions of free ebooks or webcomics, or spin-offs like t-shirts etc see Alexandra Erin
  
• Advertising ie most webcomics
  

Non-free Content

• Pay per download, ie e-books
  
• Pay a subscription, ie Modern Tales, Webscriptions
  
• Online magazines like Jim Baen's Universe
  

Why Online?

Consumers

• Free stuff!
  
• Convenient access to global resources
  
• Some content/formats only available online
  
• Connect with an online community of like minded people
  

Producers

• Reach a wider audience
  
• Lower overheads (at least while you're unpopular, it can get pretty expensive if everyone clicks and noone pays)
  
• Create a positive "buzz"/community/fanbase which then translates to offline sales
  
• Take advantage of people's willingness to create content for you via "Web 2.0" ie Zuda, using fanart etc
  

The attitude of copyright holders to fanworks varies from enthusiastically encouraging it via competitions etc to harsh "cease and desist" notices.

Misc

Zara had a bunch more interesting ideas which I didn't write down, but from the notes she wrote on the back of my notes:

People upload whole books and scan them in, ie latest Harry Potter prerelease.

Spacejock.com has a good e-reader

The Internet Archive/Wayback Machine is useful for looking up old stuff.

Comments

[leahcim.livejournal.com]

Any comments, corrections or additions, flist?

A few links are missing their "http://" bits (Narbonic, Faans, Marvel, Fictionwise, Youtube) causing them to not go to the right place. HTH.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks! Fixed.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Looks interesting. If I'm there when its on I'll come look at it. :P

[alias_sqbr]

High praise indeed :)

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

Some examples of good science fiction/fantasy comics:

Gunnerkrigg Court (http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/) (released a book on Lulu, didn't go extraordinarily well iirc, has now been picked up by a publisher, still free online)
Kukuburi (http://www.kukuburi.com/)
Bite Me (http://www.projectkooky.com/dylan/biteme/) (was on GAM, or the one that Narbonic was on, I can't remember - such sites might be good to mention)
Dresden Codak (http://dresdencodak.com/)

The Order of the Stick (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript), although a free on-line comic, has released two only-available-offline-if-you-pay-monies books.

(you know Shaenon's got a fantastic new daily comic, right, RIGHT (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/skinhorse/series.php)?)


Possibly something about how the internet makes it easier to get a hold of/learn about/etc. foreign SFF TV shows and anime/manga?


(Also, Girl Genius' characterisation is so terrible sometimes, it makes me wish the colours weren't so pretty so that I could stop reading it. .___.)

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

+ Errant Story (http://www.errantstory.com/) - one sff webcomicer who now relies on book purchases/donations etc. for his living

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

ALSO ALSO Wowio probably deserves a mention. Zap (http://zapinspace.com/)'s doing quite well with it.

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

And Neil Gaiman's recent free!! American Gods?

[alias_sqbr]

Wow, those are all awesome suggestions. If you were coming to Swancon I'd totally coopt you for the panel :)

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. I would be so terrible on a panel.

Things I am not sure if you'd want to use, but may be interesting :
- Brust releases Firefly fanfic online because Whedon wouldn't publish it (http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_lounge/657951.html)
- Cassie Cla(i)re's shitty YA books selling well because of her HP fanfic fans; similarly Naomi Novik.

[alias_sqbr]

Mmm, people like Cassie Claire etc are interesting. And we have the local version in Lainey Cairo (from fanfic to published porn)

[gyges-ring.livejournal.com]

Vernor Vinge's newest book was released in a free pdf version

[alias_sqbr]

So it is, thanks!

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

That panel is teetering on the edge, currently, because it needs extra panellists. Given that you've got enough there, I think its going back in, but I could really do with some extra panellists, if you can suggest any.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

I suppose I can volunteer myself if you still need panelists for it.

As for Speculative Fiction online: Shadow Unit (www.shadowunit.org) is 'a fansite for a TV show that doesn't exist.'

Co-written/herded by Elizabeth Bear, Emma Bull, Sarah Monette and Will Shetterly.

(It's very good, and very much shaped by it's web presence.)

[alias_sqbr]

I think we're ok, but thanks for offering.

Thanks for reminding me about Shadow Unit, like "I love Bees" it's one of those things that really needs to be online to work properly.

[alias_sqbr]

Well, I have three volunteers so far :)

Also, randomly before I forget: I realise you may not be 100% able to accommodate this, but I would REALLY prefer not to be on any evening panels. My brain turns increasingly to mush after about 5pm, and I not infrequently am in bed by 9:30. On the plus side, unlike most Swanconners I'm bright and perky at 9am :)

[tryce.livejournal.com]

I could plug quite a few webcomics here, but I'll just mention a couple of titles which seem interesting from the distribution point of view:

get_medieval is a comic about aliens stranded in medieval France, and was released entirely on Livejournal, making the cost of distribution almost zero. There was enough demand to produce hardcopy books, but not enough for the creator to live off the proceeds.

I notice you have no examples of online serial novels; this may be because they're quite rare. :P Stefan Gagne (http://pixelscapes.com/twoflower) has produced a couple of original series, although he also still works full-time (and has mostly moved on to making money from programming arcade games on Second Life).

The only amateur I know of who has gained enough popularity to write independent fantasy/SF serials online for a living is Alexandra Erin (http://www.alexandraerin.com/), who makes money from donations and hardcopy book sales (the online versions are free). How much this has to do with her most popular stories being NSFW is possibly best left as an exercise for the reader, but she does seem to have an effective strategy. She also blogs about other artists doing small-publisher online/independent works on her site.

[alias_sqbr]

Those are all really interesting, thanks!

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the Baen Webscriptions which is the paid version of the free libary, but also still unencrypted. I believe a number of other publishers (Tor?) are joining Webscriptions, and there is also Jim Baen's Universe which is an e-magazine paying what I believe are professional publication rates.

[alias_sqbr]

Ooh, thanks. *Adds to newly created "payment models" section* :)

[trs80.ucc.asn.au (from livejournal.com)]

http://escapepod.org/ SF short fiction podcast
http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_nominees.php (all of the fiction but a few novels are online)
http://trs80.ucc.asn.au/bookmarks.html if I'm bored sometime I'll pick out the relevant links

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks! I am so totally not going to bother adding them, but hopefully someone will scroll down :)