Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Superversive Recovery and PulpRev Direction

Well, it's been an interesting couple of days. Brian Niemeier got a much needed conversation started through this post, based on some long and meandering conversations I happened to be a part of(yes, some of that is from me, but certainly not all). I wasn't going to blog on this, but given some of the more recent outputs, I think I should.

At Cirsova, Alexander talked about how this would push change, and a warning to the PulpRev movement.  Part of his concern is the PulpRev website, branding being a killer to a movement. If you haven't, go read it. Part of it is the concern over it becoming ideological, rather than methodical. In response to the second, I have to say, there are a certain amount of ideals(no, I'm not defining, let's not go to purity tests) that are, I'll go with common and consistent with the storytelling that the PulpRev is both rediscovering for the public, and writing. To the first, Todd Everhart has made a good post on the PulpRev site.

Now, to Todd's post. Todd writes clearly and plainly that if you want to join the Discord(I have, but haven't done more than lurk a little), or the website, you can. Todd also then talks a little about quality control, infiltrators, merch, and a bit more. I'm guilty of doing a pulprev shirt myself. I figured it might get some real life conversations started, that's it. Todd's  points are solid all around, and I hope they pin the post permanently for easy access.

And, lastly, a post on the Superversive blog by Anthony M. It's great to see an official post about them taking it seriously. They're looking at some changes, and I've got some comments to them. Edit: This post was deleted, so I've put up an archive of it.

To the changing of the Press name, or possibly making Superversive Press an imprint: STOP. You need one Press; it's fine. Imprints are largely silly, they don't get you more money, they get you less, especially when you don't have a deep catalog(50+titles). All imprints do is confuse people. I say this because I didn't even know Jon Del Arroz's For Steam and Country was from them until he told me at LibertyCon. Get the Press website in shape; there's no active links, no text entries, no author pages, etc. In fact, just migrate the blog over to make it easier to find all the stuff. Get an "about us" page up. UPDATE information as it becomes available(you're missing several contributors). Put submission calls/guidelines up, yes, ON THE SUPERVERSIVE PRESS WEBSITE.

To the second, I really hope the WHOLE group takes this to heart. But, I'll believe it when I see John C. Wright, Tom Simon, and Anthony having a blatantly silly chat about something being superversive on Twitter. This is about actively building relationships with readers and each other in public. And some of the folks who have accounts need to be active(Jagi, Marina, Jason).  To the other side of publicity, you need to seek out reviewers BEFORE you release, not after. My book money goes to way too many places on my meager pay. I won't complain over more free books. Really.

To the proposed livestream changes: GREAT. I like you guys, but your Roundtables seriously feel like I'm at a family reunion and everybody's talking, when I want to hear stories from my grandfather, uncle, and that weird cousin of mine. It's about focus, and I've not felt that from the few Roundtables I really tried to listen to. Chaos ensued, and I couldn't get a feel for much of anything.

Changing the comments: YEAH. I can't get disqus to remember me, and I use it so little I can't get to remember my account/password. I have to use a different browser so I can use this ID, and Brave is not cooperating right now.  I am eminently terminable, and won't endanger my job to comment on your blog.

To Focusing less on the details: If you mean less trying to define Superversive, and more talking about stuff that is, great. Get people think in those terms, show them what is deliberately or inadvertently uplifting and why.

On the whole, I am greatly encouraged by Anthony's post, and I hope they start the structural changes so more people can feel part of it.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.




6 comments:

  1. I've been aiming stories at superversive and pulprev ideals since before the names gained traction simply because I like adventure and a positive view of human nature. I'll happily follow along with both for the ride.

    I hadn't really considered the background behind both and the identity challenges they face until I started to read all these linked blogs today. It's good food for thought.

    No matter how it all turns out, I'll still enjoy action-filled stories with uplifting views of the human condition and what people can accomplish.

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    1. Well said! Every author needs to understand that our job is to write for readers like you.

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    2. Here, here, John.

      I feel the same way.

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  2. Some advance publicity for new releases would help too. (Willing to assist with this), I'm constantly looking for new titles and preorders to push on the CH blog. It's hard to help raise awareness when the first sign that a book has been released is when it shows up on Amazon searches a week later. (This is a generalized indie problem.)

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  3. To Focusing less on the details: If you mean less trying to define Superversive, and more talking about stuff that is, great. Get people think in those terms, show them what is deliberately or inadvertently uplifting and why.

    Yep.

    You might notice the post was taken down. The reason is that I was informed quickly that I shouldn't be talking about business decisions publicly. I'm not the leader here, so off it went.

    Buuuuuut rest assured there's lots of discussion going on.

    (I'm Anthony, this is my google username and it's a pain to change it.)

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  4. Successful indie publishers would have a lot of good advice on this.
    Networking, cross promotion, and persistence.
    Personally I think the basic key to everything is commercial success.

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