Harlan Ellison: "Pay the Writer" - an outdated concept? (repost from other blog)

Harlan Ellison is well known for being . . . forthright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE



(via WritersWeekly)
His point of view is a valid one, but it's also a little dated in this age of new media. For all his maverick bluster Ellison is an established writer who got where he is today by traditional methods. Those methods have become less appropriate now that so much free stuff is available.

New writers ('underpublished' writers, as Evo Terra of Podiobooks.com calls them) would do well to explore the alternatives. Slavishly insisting that every word carries a price-tag can be counterproductive. In essence Ellison is right, but it's worth remembering that writers can receive 'value' for their work in other than money.

Blazing a trail for Podiobook authors: Scott Sigler & Seth Harwood (repost from other blog)

Look what just arrived!



A package from Amazon.com outside my door yesterday evening contained these two new releases:

• Infected by Scott Sigler, (hardcover) published by Crown
• Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood (paperback) published by Breakneck Books

Congrats to both of them, and thanks for drawing the mainstream spotlight onto new media - both of these titles were originally released as free podcast novels.