Technoserfdom

Oh, I almost forgot. Today is international Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch day (or something like that, see the original post about it by Jo Walton), which I think is some kind of mass protest about the grumpy old man comments of Howard V. Hendrix, the outgoing vice-president of SFWA, on how people who offer up their fiction on the internet are selling their souls for free. Basically, it’s an experiment. We are supposed to give away fiction on the internet and see if we still have souls. I am cheating a bit with my contribution, giving away an mp3 audio recording of a story so that I still retain the right to sell the text.

Odyssey peoples will no doubt recognize this from the TNEO Slam 2006.

William-O the Pirate King in: The Rodent Revenge (10 Mb, right-click to download)

I do not normally write cat mysteries.

3 comments

  1. Thanks for posting this bit of news, and for sharing the William-O MP3. You have a great story reading voice.

    For the past couple years I’ve been searching for some way to share my fiction online. There is definitely a stigma attached. If you share it for free then it’s worthless. I wish there was a good way around this. Sites like Strange Horizons seem to be making good progress. The print magazine market for short stories is just so depressing to me.

    I pondered what story to share and decided on this one: “The Devil Head” by Jeff Howell It would do my soul a world of good if it’s read and enjoyed. Better shared than collecting dust in a drawer, or thinking it’s like IBM stock growing in value.

    Later, Jeff

    1. I agree. This Technopeasant free stuff day is kind of problematic because unless you’re already a writer with name recognition, it does no good to give your writing away on the internet, even if it’s the greatest story in the world, because nobody’s going to google search your unknown name out of the blue and come read it just because somebody announced a holiday.

      Thanks for signing up as a subscriber, by the way! Right now it’s just you and Maggie. I’m trying to figure out some way to give subscribers some kind of cool exclusive features that non-subscribers don’t get. Avatars would be kickass, but I haven’t made that work yet. If you’ve got any thoughts, let me know.

      I will go read “The Devil Head”. Great title!

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