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The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

compellingsciencefiction.com

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Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#11

Post by ericrosedev »

I saw this on amazon the other day and picked it up. As an avid reader of short form science fiction, I was really excited to see an anthology that focused on interesting ideas. I'm three stories in and my only gripe so far is Twenty-Four Hours, I just can't find the outstanding idea in it. I think it is a lovely and touching story, it just lacks the punch I'd expect to find in this type of collection. I'd love to hear more about your selection process and what we can expect from future volumes. A+ for the quality of the books printing and presentation, extremely impressive!

edit: just found your article with more info on your process! https://compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/how-i-curate-an-a...

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#12

Post by mojoe »

ericrosedev wrote: post #11

I saw this on amazon the other day and picked it up. As an avid reader of short form science fiction, I was really excited to see an anthology that focused on interesting ideas. I'm three stories in and my only gripe so far is Twenty-Four Hours, I just can't find the outstanding idea in it. I think it is a lovely and touching story, it just lacks the punch I'd expect to find in this type of collection. I'd love to he…

Thanks for your support! I believe I understand where you're coming from, some of the stories have more novel concepts than others -- Twenty-Four Hours is hard to discuss without spoilers, but I selected it because the characters and setting felt very real, while at the same time it would completely fall apart without the technological concept.

As I wrote in that blog you linked, I tried to interleave the stories so that you get alternating vibes as you go through the book. I know not every story will be for everyone, but I hope you find most of them interesting!

I plan on pursuing as close to the same process as I can next year, I want to put out the most consistently concept-focused Year's Best out there.

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#13

Post by TimorousBestie »

__mharrison__ wrote: post #2

I did this 10 or so years ago when I taught an ebook course to elementary students. We learned about ebooks, HTML, and they each write a short story, which was included in an ebook (and a physical book). Pretty amazing the tools we have access to. Of course, now I would use typst instead of latex for the physical book part.

Have a preferred typst template for ebooks?

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#14

Post by __mharrison__ »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #13
__mharrison__ wrote: post #2

I did this 10 or so years ago when I taught an ebook course to elementary students. We learned about ebooks, HTML, and they each write a short story, which was included in an ebook (and a physical book). Pretty amazing the tools we have access to. Of course, now I would use typst instead of latex for the physical book part.

Have a preferred typst template for ebooks?

I made my own... Based on my latex stuff.

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#15

Post by ssivark »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

It's quite an achievement. I was once interested in publishing a SF anthology. Formatting and editing was nbd -- I was going to use Amazon's KDP software package for most of it, which can take a .docx and output an ebook in 5 minutes. I've done it before for non-anthology books I've published, and it couldn't be easier, though I understand why people might avoid Amazon in this day and age. The real trouble was gettin…

Just a thought... would it make sense to maintain a govt/central registry of copyright owners, and have an "official" means of contacting them, on which they have an SLA to respond (say 3 months) which might be part of the ground rules for maintaining rights.

From a macro societal perspective, would this evolve "copyright" into a more balanced (value generating) deal for all of society?

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#16

Post by helterskelter »

ssivark wrote: post #15
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

It's quite an achievement. I was once interested in publishing a SF anthology. Formatting and editing was nbd -- I was going to use Amazon's KDP software package for most of it, which can take a .docx and output an ebook in 5 minutes. I've done it before for non-anthology books I've published, and it couldn't be easier, though I understand why people might avoid Amazon in this day and age. The real trouble was gettin…

Just a thought... would it make sense to maintain a govt/central registry of copyright owners, and have an "official" means of contacting them, on which they have an SLA to respond (say 3 months) which might be part of the ground rules for maintaining rights. From a macro societal perspective, would this evolve "copyright" into a more balanced (value generating) deal for all of society?

I have no idea how accurate this comment from last week is, or if it applies beyond games, but the model is interesting:

> Japan has a scheme for orphaned games where if you can prove you did due diligence in searching for a rightsholder and couldn't find one, you can go ahead with rereleasing the game and the royalty payments get held in escrow by the government in case the rightsholder comes forward. I wish the US had something similar for cases like these.

Source:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45877983#45878084

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#17

Post by ashton314 »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #13
__mharrison__ wrote: post #2

I did this 10 or so years ago when I taught an ebook course to elementary students. We learned about ebooks, HTML, and they each write a short story, which was included in an ebook (and a physical book). Pretty amazing the tools we have access to. Of course, now I would use typst instead of latex for the physical book part.

Have a preferred typst template for ebooks?

Typst is so stupidly easy to use. It took me an hour to go from zero Typst knowledge to reproducing my résumé perfectly. The docs are easy to read and there’s a guide for making templates. I feel like if you’ve written CSS and are familiar with associating some kind of selector with some properties, then you’ll be able to pick up Typst and make whatever template you want in no time.

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#18

Post by jll29 »

ssivark wrote: post #15
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

It's quite an achievement. I was once interested in publishing a SF anthology. Formatting and editing was nbd -- I was going to use Amazon's KDP software package for most of it, which can take a .docx and output an ebook in 5 minutes. I've done it before for non-anthology books I've published, and it couldn't be easier, though I understand why people might avoid Amazon in this day and age. The real trouble was gettin…

Just a thought... would it make sense to maintain a govt/central registry of copyright owners, and have an "official" means of contacting them, on which they have an SLA to respond (say 3 months) which might be part of the ground rules for maintaining rights. From a macro societal perspective, would this evolve "copyright" into a more balanced (value generating) deal for all of society?

The whole basis of licensing law is everything is forbidden unless you have a written license permitting it from the copyright owner.

This is contrary to most (all?) other parts of the law where everything is allowed that isn't forbidden.

So it's the right of authors to ignore email requests to discuss a re-publication if they so wish.

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#19

Post by noufalibrahim »

This is a lovely example of the value of being a programmer.

The leverage the simple (perhaps messy) scripts and code that these tools gave the author is simply incredible. So satisfying to read and a a really great achievement. Congratulations and thanks for the write up.

Re: The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology

#20

Post by jll29 »

mojoe wrote: post #12
ericrosedev wrote: post #11

I saw this on amazon the other day and picked it up. As an avid reader of short form science fiction, I was really excited to see an anthology that focused on interesting ideas. I'm three stories in and my only gripe so far is Twenty-Four Hours, I just can't find the outstanding idea in it. I think it is a lovely and touching story, it just lacks the punch I'd expect to find in this type of collection. I'd love to he…

Thanks for your support! I believe I understand where you're coming from, some of the stories have more novel concepts than others -- Twenty-Four Hours is hard to discuss without spoilers, but I selected it because the characters and setting felt very real, while at the same time it would completely fall apart without the technological concept. As I wrote in that blog you linked, I tried to interleave the stories so…

Thanks for sharing some of the methodology and code for how you put your book together.

Are you comfortable speaking about the financial side? What does an editor get per copy sold, what does an author get? (In the science world, for instance, editors tend to get money often, but authors never get paid for articles or book chapters.)

Hopefully, now that you have experience in the process and all your code ready, you can repeat the exercise with higher efficiency and profitability.

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