Online fiction

[RangerWickett]

What's your opinion of fiction that is published online? I ask in part because we're trying to raise money to defray the cost of the ENnies with the Ceramic DM anthology fundraiser, but I'm also just genuinely curious about the type of stories people read online.

I know web comics are big. They cater to the short attention span we have while we're online, and they're funny. Do you ever seek out non-comic fiction, though? Or perhaps comics that aren't comedy?

I remember a few years ago, I tracked down the scripts for J. Michael Straczynski's unfilmed episodes of Babylon 5: Crusade, and occasionally I read sample chapters of books at the WotC site, but so far I haven't found any authors I love so much that I'd pay to read their stuff online. I'm normally content to wait for it to come to my local library.

Except for a few storyhours, that is. I read Pkitty's and Sagiro's because I got into them from the beginning, but I'm not interested much by other storyhours. I know there are great ones out there, but nothing has really jumped out at me. The (I think) Barsoom storyhour, which started with pirates on floating islands in the atmosphere of Jupiter was really cool conceptually, but (no offense) the writing style was a little awkward. I'm really just waiting for a cool setting with interesting characters, and I'd gladly pay an author a little to keep up the work.

 

[Lazybones]

I publish all my writing online. Mostly because no one will buy it.

I read a lot online at work when projects are slow. Mostly gutenberg e-texts, and stuff from the Baen library of free e-books. I personally don't pay for e-books, because there is so much good free stuff out there. Between my excellent local library system and e-books I probably only spend $50 or so a year on new books.

I used to spend about a grand a year on books, but my wife drew the line at more bookshelves. Plus I don't reread books as much as I used to.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Yeah, I'm one of the ones that gets hooked to the online web comics (I have probably 15 listed in my favorites that I check off and on). Other than that, sometimes I read SH, mostly for campaign ideas (though several got my attention just for sheer coolness, like Blackdirge's), and the occassional fanfic. I haven't frequented Baen's free online library much, mostly because I already own the paper copies of the books I'm interested in.

 

[MonsterMash]

I don't like long texts, story hour installments tend to be the upper limit of what I really choose to read online, but with fiction it would work for short stories for me, but I do like printed forms.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Ummm....*mutters, scuffs shoes* Mostly pr0n

 

[takyris]

I've got no problems reading fiction online. Several online magazines pay pro rates, and one of my stories is up on one of them in the archives.

Of course, I also have no problem reading my friends' novel rough-drafts onscreen, so I might be one of the small percentage of people who can read online for long periods of time without trouble.

 

[RangerWickett]

What do you think about the development of fiction distribution and authors being able to make a living in the new digital age? I'm not really seeing much talk about online novels, perhaps because there's so little barrier to entry, even crappy authors can get published.

What if there was some sort of high-quality fiction website, which showcased new authors. Would anyone be interested, or are we all movie and TV junkies now?

 

[KaosDevice]

There are some good sites out there for fiction; www.quantummuse.com is always fun, www.scifi.com has an extensive fiction section, www.revolutionSF.com does occasional fiction and on and on. The fiction, much like the truth, is out there.

 

[takyris]

What do you think about the development of fiction distribution and authors being able to make a living in the new digital age? I'm not really seeing much talk about online novels, perhaps because there's so little barrier to entry, even crappy authors can get published.

What if there was some sort of high-quality fiction website, which showcased new authors. Would anyone be interested, or are we all movie and TV junkies now?

What KaosDevice said, and I'd add Strange Horizons, Abyss & Apex, Fortean Bureau, Lenox Avenue, and several others -- Strange Horizons is the only official pro 'zine of that list, but they all generally have high-quality stuff. (I've had one story in Strange Horizons, and none in the others.)

As far as the development of fiction distribution goes, I don't pay it much attention, to be honest, for the reasons you've mentioned. I think that online novel sales (published in e-reader or other e-book formats) are great ways for an established author to build presence, but for me at least, there's little to no reason to buy an online book by an author who's never been published in print. I'm sure there are a few authors who were good enough to make it in print but chose to have their books only published in e-book format, either because they didn't want to wait for print publishers or because they wanted their works to be digital and free... but there are only a few, and they're surrounded by lousy authors who couldn't get published at a real place. (I say this as an author who does not have a published novel at this time. I am currently one of those guys, but I have faith that my stuff will sell eventually, and I'm not going to waste a novel that will eventually sell by putting it out through a small e-press that won't make me any money and won't build me any name recognition.)

That's not to say that I haven't bought e-books by authors I didn't know. In fact, if it's available online, I'll buy it there first, because it's slightly cheaper, and it won't take up room on my bookshelf -- but still, I prefer to buy only fiction that was good enough to be print-published by a publishing house I've heard of.

 

[Umbran]

Unfortunately, I find computer screens to be horrible for pleasure reading of fiction. If and when they come up with an e-reader that does the job well, I'll consider online fiction. Until then, I'd have to print it out, and that's usually not worth the bother.