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.