Wattpad – Reaching the Next Generation of Readers?

Today I opened my email to find this message, delivered via my website:

Wattpad

Subject: Reaching the Next Generation of Readers
 
Dear Mike,Please forgive the slightly skewed approach, but my name is Gavin and I work for Wattpad. We’re a community of readers and writers, and I work as part of their content team. As I’m responsible for Science Fiction and Fantasy on the site I wondered if I could entice you to join.Wattpad are a worldwide community of some 18 Million + readers and Writers, and we’ve attracted some great authors to the community like Brandon Sanderson, Cory Doctorow, Margaret Atwood and David Moody, who’ve posted everything from poetry and short stories to excerpts of ‘in progress’ works and full novels so their fans across the world can read them.The community is very much virtual, in that all the reading is done either online or via Mobile App, but that means that we can reach people even in the poorest parts of the world who have the odd position of having mobile devices but no books.I’d love to be able to talk more to you more about this, and if we’re able to pop up even a drabble or a short story for the community to read it would be wonderful to see.Thank you for your time, and I hope this email finds you well,Best Regards,Gavin

 The approach seemed genuine rather than a phishing attempt, which I also regularly receive, and I checked out the website and the entry on Wikipedia to see what they were about. It’s an interesting pitch because it invites me to reach out to the millions of people in the world who can’t afford books, but who are in the odd position (their words) of having an Android, Blackberry or IOS device, but no books. Still, an audience of 18 million is not to be sneezed at.

Then I started reading more carefully. Gavin says he works for Wattpad as part of the content team. He names a number of well-known authors as contributors, not least Cory Doctorow who is notable for his advocacy of free content. And then it struck me – if Gavin works for Wattpad, then he is getting paid.

I checked out the website further and discovered that not only is Gavin getting paid, but so is the HR Manager, the Business Development Manager, the Content Manager, together with a team of developers and marketing people. All these people are employees – indeed, Wattpad are recruiting if you are a talented developer and you live within reach of Toronto.

The message invites me to contribute some of my work to the Wattpad site for the benefit of the Wattpad Community, people who have joined the community for free, so they are not paying customers, and I wondered how Wattpad was paying all these employees if it’s free to join? So, I joined the site and soon found the advertising content on the search results pages. With an audience of 18 million, the advertising revenue potential must be considerable.

It was at this point that I decided to reply to Wattpad in this post, rather than send them a simple ‘not interested’ email. It seemed to me that there was a wider issue that should be aired.

The proposition from Gavin is that I provide them with a short story, part-work, novel or drabble, for free. This content is donated to Wattpad under the following conditions extracted from their Terms of Service:

6.C For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to Wattpad.com, you hereby grant Wattpad.com a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the Wattpad.com Website and its affiliates. You also hereby waive any moral rights you may have in your User Submissions and grant each user of the Wattpad.com Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website. You understand and agree, however, that Wattpad.com may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of User Submissions that have been removed or deleted.

Not only is the license for this content royalty-free, but it is also transferrable and applies not only to the Wattpad.com site but also to its affiliates, whatever they may be.

My answer to Gavin and his colleagues at Wattpad, is no, I will not provide my work for your benefit, even if it means missing the opportunity to put my writing into the hands of people starved of books, but who are in the odd position of having an iPhone, Android device or Blackberry. By the way, countries where smartphones and tablets are in use widely tend not to be the poorest parts of the world.

Far too often authors are being asked to contribute their work for no reward other than the pleasure of pleasing others. It’s insidious, and at the base of it is the implicit assumption that an author’s work has little or no value, particularly when there is so much available for free. That leaves corporates like Wattpad, whose investors are looking for a return on shareholder capital from dividends and a rising share price, free to exploit both writers and readers.

So if you want to keep Gavin and his colleagues in work, and reward co-founders Allen Lau (Chief Technology Officer) and Ivan Yuen (CEO and winner of the Impact Infused Award, sponsored by Deloitte) with a big fat bonus, join Wattpad and contribute your efforts for nothing.

To Gavin, thanks for the offer. I know you’d love to talk to me about the benefits of contributing to a worldwide community of readers and writers, but the beauty of the Internet is that I am already doing that.

 

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Standing at the Crossroads

Recently I wrote a piece for Bastard Books about standing at the crossroads of writing and the decisions I am making about what comes next. There is a brief extract below, but click the link for the full article:

With the completion of the fourth and final book in The Courts of the Feyre I find myself at a cross-roads. Up until now I’ve styled myself as an Urban Fantasy Author, because that’s what I’ve written and it makes it easier for readers who are likely to enjoy my work to find me. For most people, though, urban fantasy isn’t a genre, and the words urban and fantasy simply don’t mean anything together. I might as well say goldfish collider for all the sense it makes to them. (Now I have an image of two goldfish swimming around a giant toroidal tank in opposite directions until they collide and scales and fins fly off in spiral patterns. That’s what an imagination will do to you. Be warned.) Click here to go to the full article…

 

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Review: Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovich

I haven’t been doing book reviews on this site; I’ve been posting them on GoodReads and I’ve generally reviewed favorite books. There is always room for change, though, and this is a little different because (a) it’s a review of Urban Fantasy, and (b) it’s a book by someone I’ve met.

The meeting is a story in itself. Back in 2009 when Sixty-One Nails was first published I was working in London quite close to Covent Garden. The first book in the Courts of the Feyre series features that area quite strongly, partly because I knew it well. I have paced along many of the paths traced in the book, though it has changed somewhat since that time. Given that the main character in the book practically walked past the door of Waterstones Bookshop on New Row, I felt it was appropriate that they should stock the book, especially for those readers wanting something local but also something different from the usual ghost tours and old London books. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

So being the brazen self-promoter that I am, I went in and introduced myself to the staff, explaining that I wanted to speak to the person responsible for SF and Fantasy. I was politely told that he wasn’t in that day but that if I called in another day I should ask for Ben. A couple of days later I returned and was introduced to a large guy who met my enquiries with a strangely bemused look – yes, he knew what urban fantasy was, no he didn’t know about my book, yes he would accept a copy from me. It was a short meeting, but I pressed the book into his hand and felt that my work was done.

What I didn’t know was that the guy in Waterstones had just started work on his own urban fantasy, and was ten thousand words into his opener, Rivers of London. The other side of that story is here, at Ben’s website: The Folly.  I have been asked on numerous occasions if I knew of Ben’s work, and had to admit guiltily that I had not read it, but having finally finished The Courts of the Feyre, I was determined to catch up on some reading and this was top of my list.

Rivers of London

It’s a good read. If you haven’t caught up with Ben’s work by now, then you probably should. Certainly if you are here and reading this article and like the mix of history and fiction in my work, then you will not be disappointed by Ben’s story.

Like me, Ben writes in the real world, but his is the world of policemen and crime scenes, mixed with wizardry and genius loci – the spirits of place that come to embody a sense of belonging. His characters are strong and likeable – his hero, Peter Grant is someone you would be glad to meet and get to know. The character’s humour is infectious and his indefatigable optimism becomes a driving force in the story – you just can’t keep a good guy down. Contrast this with Mike Carey’s Felix Castor (another favorite) and you see two sides to the same coin – one darkly sardonic, the other an irrepressible optimist. Both work, but for entirely different reasons.

I liked the initial motivation to become involved in supernatural crime – it’s that or the case progression unit (the desk job) – this sets the rookie police officer Peter on a path that is only partly revealed in this book. There is so much left unexplained, which for me is an attraction. It left me wanting to know more about this character and the world he is only beginning to know. In this sense there is a parallel with my own work, in that you discover the world through Peter’s eyes and it is revealed as he finds it, as we do with Niall in Sixty-One Nails. We benefit from his knowledge and suffer with his mistakes. It’s a great way to expose magic in the real world and it works well.

There are now three other books in the series – Moon Over Soho, Whispers Underground and, released at the end of July 2013, Broken Homes, and while I have not caught up with the full series yet I think it’s safe to say that they will be well worth reading – I look forward to it.

A final word – thanks to Ben for being okay about the strange man who pressed a novel into his hand that day. It was good to meet you and I hope we’ll get the opportunity to renew our acquaintance soon.

 

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The Eighth Court: End-Notes and Acknowledgements

Some of you may be aware that the deadlines for The Eighth Court were very tight, and an extension was needed to get the book to where it needed to be. I am immensely grateful to my Editor, Lee Harris, for his patience and understanding while all this was going on. He’s a star, and he gave me the time I needed.

Unfortunately, that didn’t leave Lee much time to get everything done for the release date, and when things get pressured mistakes can be made – in this case, the acknowledgements and end-notes for The Eighth Court were missed and the paper version went to press without them. This is not so bad in the case of the electronic versions – they are being updated and if you delete the book and reload it you should get the newly uploaded version. I’m not sure exactly when this will happen, as it’s down to the eBook Store concerned when it gets updated, but it’s being worked on and the update is in progress.

The paper version is much more difficult as it’s been type-set and it’s really difficult to change once that has happened. However, we live in the age of the Internet and there are things we can do. If you go to the following address, you will find the End-Notes and the Acknowledgements for The Eighth Court.

https://shevdon.com/extras

Apologies that they are not in the back of the paper version – all I can say is that these things happen and, through the miracle of technology, we can still make them available.

I hope they will add to your enjoyment of the conclusion of Niall’s story.

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EasterCon 2013 – EightSquared Bradford

I’ll be in Bradford for Easter weekend for the 64th EasterCon and I’m thoroughly looking forward to the event. I have a number of sessions programmed throughout the weekend – see below for details:

Friday 29th March

  • 6:00 PM – Avalon, Sherwood Forest and Alderley Edge: The Magical British Countryside
    • How does the landscape of Britain affect stories set in it? Where does the magic lurk, and how does it inspire writers? Sue Mason moderates Tiffani Angus, Anne Sudworth, Mike Shevdon and Freda Warrington.
  • 9:00 PM – Underground London
    • Take one London. Add magical society hidden from most people. Mix in famous places from the city, and optionally garnish with police procedural. Why is this such a great recipe? With Paul Cornell, Roz Kaveney, Anne Lyle, Simon Morden and Mike Shevdon.

Saturday 30th March

  • Genre Get-Together – Fantasy
    • A chance to meet the authors, get books signed and chat about books, stories and other stuff.

Sunday March 31st

  • Author Readings
    • I will be reading from The Eight Court, along with the lovely Emma Newman who will (I hope) be reading from her new book – Between Two Thorns.

If you would like a book signed or just to say hello, I will be around the convention for most of the weekend. There are a host of events, panels, games and discussions with plenty to do throughout the weekend.

If you’re at the event, please come and say Hi – it’s always nice to meet new friends. See you there!

 

 

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Messed About Chicken

Someone close to me once said that they like Roast Chicken, but they don’t like it messed about. That’s fine, but unless you get a really good chicken they can taste a bit bland and dry. Personally, I like my chicken messed about with, so here’s a recipe for that.

Ingredients

  • One medium-sized chicken
  • Two cloves of garlic
  • The zest and juice of a lemon
  • A handful of rosemary (preferably fresh)
  • A sprinkle of salt
  • A teaspoon of cornflour
  • A glass of dry white wine

You will need:

  • small bowl
  • garlic press
  • lemon juicer
  • fine grater or sharp knife
  • cooks brush
  • As much time as you can spare

Lemon, rosemary and garlic are one of the classic combinations, with which it’s hard to go wrong. The quality of the chicken makes a difference, but you can compensate for a lesser bird with time in the marinade. Start this dish in the morning and it will reward you in the evening.

Marinading Chicken

Marinading Chicken

Wash the lemon in hot water and rub it in kitchen paper to remove the wax (unless it’s unwaxed, but that’s rarer). Using a grater, or even a sharp knife, put finely chopped or grated zest into a bowl. Juice the lemon and add it to the bowl. Add twice as much olive oil as lemon juice. Wash and strip the leaves from the rosemary and then chop finely, and add them to the bowl. Crush two cloves of garlic in the press (or chop very finely) and add them to the mixture. Whip together with a fork.

Using a cooks brush (a pastry brush will do, but one of those silicone ones works very well) paint the chicken all over with the mixture and leave on the side to marinade. Throughout the day, as you pass, paint some more marinade on the bird. Just keep adding more marinade and let the flavours penetrate the skin.

After at least an hour, or if possible all day, pour any remaining marinade inside the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and place in a roasting tin in the oven at 180C for about an hour. If you have a rotisserie, this is a perfect way to use it.

At the end of an hour, remove the chicken and raise the temperature to 200C. Remove the chicken to a resting plate, then pour as much of the fat off from the roasting tin into a bowl to cool without loosing any of the browned bits or the juices. Add a glass of white wine to the tin and with a wooden spoon scrape off as much of the brown bits as you can into the liquid. When the tin is mostly clean (this makes washing up easier) pour the scraping and mixture off into a pan and heat slowly. It will spit, so be careful.

Return the chicken to the roasting tin and roast at 200C for ten minutes. This will brown the skin and add to the flavour. Meanwhile wait until the saucepan is near boiling. Mix a teaspoon of cornflour with just enough cold water to make it liquid and add this slowly a bit at a time until the sauce starts to thicken. bear in mind the sauce will thicken further as it cools.

Remove the chicken from the oven after about ten minutes and place on the resting plate under foil for about five minutes while you finish off vegetables. Carrots, steamed broccoli, french beans and mashed or new potato all go well with this. Alternatively you can eat it with a mushroom or saffron risotto, or even pasta.

Carve the chicken into slices onto a warmed plate. Pour any juices from the resting plate into the sauce. Serve slices of chicken with a small jug of sauce to pour over the meat. It elevates a chicken to dish worthy of a feast, and yet it is simple and yet, for a messed about meal, it requires very little attention.

 

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I’ve been making Marmalade

No, really. I’ve posted the recipe on The Fayre of the Courts?

IMG_0373

Yumm

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