Reading, Writing, and Publishing Links: 1/23/13

 While you read: I'm not usually into country, but I've heard this song on the radio a couple of times and I really like it.

 
Kacey Musgraves, "Merry-go-Round."  

1. "How To Fight Book Pirates." Jason Boog of AppNewser gives some tips on how to find out if your book is being pirated, and what to do if it is.

2. "PW Select December 2012: Miami Advice: At the Miami Book Fair, a panel of self-publishing experts talks best practices." Writeup by Andrew Richard Albanese.

3. "2012 Writing Income." Fantasy author Jim C. Hines is kind enough to give the internet details about how much money he makes and where each bit comes from. Thanks to Rebekkah Niles for the link.

4. "Six Degrees of Retelling." Post by Marie Brennan of Book View Cafe on what makes a fairy tale retelling work.

5. "20 Books Every Woman Should Read in Her 20s," by Emily Temple of Flavorwire. These all look incredible. I've got a year--think I can get through them?

6. "The Publishing Quest: Hurry Up and Wait." Wendy Lawton of Books & Such Literary Agency discusses the delays involved in traditional publication.

7. "Ownshelf Helps Readers Share Their Digital Libraries With Friends."

 Ownshelf, a free web service that launched in beta Friday, provides readers with a cloud storage platform to share e-books with friends and family. Think of it as a simpler Dropbox intended specifically for e-books, but with a social element built in to foster discovery. Users sign into the service through Facebook and can quickly upload e-book files to create a digital bookshelf or borrow e-books from their contacts' bookshelves.

Via Mashable. So it's like Goodreads but... with sharing? Not quite sure what to think about that.

And that's it for this week! How are you doing?

New thing

So: if you were wondering: I'm (probably) starting a new thing. I will try to start each day's writing with 20 minutes on whatever short story is in the works. Once I finish a piece, I'll submit it down the list of the SFWA's qualifying short fiction venues, in descending order of probable interest. (I doubt, however, that I'll have the patience for the ones that don't allow online submissions.) If none of them bite, I will put the piece up here. That way you (three) get to see what I'm doing, and I get to... practice submitting things.

The first story is tentatively called "Snow on the Beach."

Before writing this, I tabbed up a lot of those venues' websites for a look-see. It just so happened that Apex Magazine has a story about an undine. Who loves a good undine? You know I do. Best: It's not fantasy so much as horror. Very funny; very creepy; beautifully written. An author to watch!

That's all.