Because of these several impediments, as well as other technical difficulties, you will find typos and occasional replication of text. In our humble opinion, typos show that the logs are of *live* chats, not canned interviews, and minimal editing of these logs has taken place.

Paul Pence's Home Page

[Cybling] Hi Paul!
[Cybling] Live from the Chicon Green Room in the Hyatt! Chats from Chicon!
[Paul_Pence] Hi! Glad to be here, Cybling.
[Horus] Cybling privs
[Cybling] Paul, let's give folks a little background on you...
[Cybling] you've just started selling you work...when was your first sale?
[Paul_Pence] It was a little over two years ago, to Jackhammer.
[Cybling] And it's been primarily sales on the net?
[Paul_Pence] Nothing in print that pays. ;Yet
[Cybling] I'm assuming that means you've been sending things around like quite a few of our chatters here.
[Paul_Pence] Absolutely. I've managed to collect nice comments, even a finalist
[Paul_Pence] in the writer's of the future contest
[Paul_Pence] but no professional sales.
[Cybling] WEll...selling online could be considered a professional sale, imho...
[Cybling] they do pay, though perhaps not as much. Correct?
[Paul_Pence] Some pay professional rates.
[Paul_Pence] Jackhammer is just under pro rates, but a great market.
[Cybling] I hear that they've just put a voting booth up on their site and are getting some interesting results.
[Paul_Pence] Some, like Omni Online (now dead) paid great rates.
[Cybling] True. Omni was always up there on the top of the submission list for most authors.
[Paul_Pence] Jackhammer's new publishing model is driven by customer demand\
[Paul_Pence] They want to keep up the most popular stories longer and reward authors accordingly
[Cybling] That's cool. Changing the format to one that is more in line with the media.
[Cybling] Do you currently have a story on line that we could read?
[Paul_Pence] Sure. I've put some of my reprints on Themestream.
[Paul_Pence] You can access it through my personal site
[Paul_Pence] http://paul.pence.com/writing
[Cybling] Thanks! Now Paul...do you see yourself primarily as a short length writer...
[Cybling] or are you doing the "sell short stories *then* write the novel"?
[Paul_Pence] Online publication is best for short format.
[Paul_Pence] I write both poetry and short stories for web publication
[Cybling] Poetry...in a fantasy/SF/HOrror theme?
[Paul_Pence] Yes
[Paul_Pence] But I have a completed novel looking for a home,
[Paul_Pence] and working on the next.
[Paul_Pence] I realized a couple years ago that short stories
[Paul_Pence] will never let me quit my day job
[Cybling] No they won't.
[Cybling] I've heard the same thing from some of the older authors who've been here.
[Paul_Pence] The old path to becoming a novelist doesn't apply any more
[Cybling] Love the size, but the emotional and time commitment is as great but not as lucrative as novels.
[Paul_Pence] about half of the pro writers I've spoken with went straight to novels
[Paul_Pence] and did not start as short story writers.
[Cybling] Paul, you're on some panels at Worldcon this year... one was Authors Who Are Best Forgotten. Can you name names?
[Paul_Pence] Authors who are best forgotten... uh... who were they???\
[Paul_Pence] Okay, we listed a large number of folks who were truely bad
[Paul_Pence] like the author of the Gor novels and Galaxy 666
[Paul_Pence] But we also discussed authors who should be forgotten so that we could rediscover them
[Paul_Pence] and other authors who have so influenced the genre that they have locked
[Paul_Pence] us into a mold that we can't escape from.
[Cybling] I've never heard of those novels, but I have a feeling they may be a lot like Plan 9 from Outer Space.
[Paul_Pence] The literary equivelent.
[Paul_Pence] One of the most famous was Kirk Poland
[Paul_Pence] He was a well-distributed author who self-published
[Paul_Pence] back in the 60's. Truly, someone you need to forget.
[Cybling] Paul...why did you first consider publishing on the web. I know a lot of authors avoid it like the plague.
[Paul_Pence] You can't use web publishing as decent credentials in most
[Paul_Pence] areas. The problem is that online publishing
[Paul_Pence] is being seen as "too easy"
[Paul_Pence] that there is no insurance of quality.
[Paul_Pence] And in fact, that is the case in much of web publishing.
[Paul_Pence] If a publisher has no economic stake in the quality of the stories
[Paul_Pence] then there is little incentive for them to weed out the poor quality
[Paul_Pence] stories and work at improving the quality of the writing.
[Paul_Pence] Jackhammer, though, is one of the best. They pay their authors
[Paul_Pence] and Raechel is a stern editor.
[Cybling] Do you feel that editorial quality on the web is lower than print?
[Paul_Pence] Depends on what you mean by print.
[Paul_Pence] Print ranges all the way from xeroxed fanzines
[Paul_Pence] or "very small press" magazines
[Paul_Pence] all the way up to the coffee table photo books.
[Paul_Pence] So yes, there is a difference between the quality of writing
[Paul_Pence] that the high end of the print market needs to justify itself
[Paul_Pence] and most of what the web uses.
[Paul_Pence] The web has a low entry cost for the publishers
[Paul_Pence] compared to a major magazine, so many people
[Paul_Pence] who should never be publishing are getting involved
[Paul_Pence] in starting up their own magazines.
[Cybling] Paul...you mentioned early that you're not in print yet, and yet you had an autographing.
[Cybling] Don't they usually make you autograph something other than a cocktail napkin?
[Paul_Pence] It's a little hard to autograph electrons...
[Cybling] Yes.
[Cybling] lol
[Paul_Pence] I've printed up "Rookie Cards" with my picture and writing credits
[Paul_Pence] and distributed them at my various panels.
[Cybling] Oh...what a novel idea!!!
[Paul_Pence] Another author who haunts the same online markets I do
[Paul_Pence] has taken his electronic stories and compiled them into a
[Paul_Pence] floppy disk, which he is giving away at his
[Paul_Pence] autograph session.
[Paul_Pence] That's the only way he can "compete" with the big-name authors who
[Paul_Pence] he's sharing a table with.
[Cybling] Would that be Steve?
[Paul_Pence] Hard to miss Steve
[Cybling] LOL.
[Horus|busy] :)
[Cybling] Okay...one last question Paul and then we'll need to move on to our next guest.
[Cybling] Folks...any last questions?
[Horus|busy] i have a question please
[Horus|busy] do you see online publishing as a viable modium for the future?
[Cybling] Please...ask away.
[Horus|busy] medium
[Paul_Pence] Online publishing with become the dominant medium for publishing.
[Paul_Pence] Paperbacks are dying already with the death of
[Paul_Pence] the paperback racks in the supermarkets and the
[Horus|busy] :[
[Paul_Pence] newstands. They're being replaced by hardbounds
[Paul_Pence] more and more in the big bookstores.
[Horus|busy] well to be honest id rather read a paperpack then sit at a monitor and read book
[Paul_Pence] The costs of producing print is getting worse and worse
[Paul_Pence] and corporations, as they are, will go for the higher profit margin that
[Paul_Pence] electronic publication allows them.
[Horus|busy] yeah
[Paul_Pence] Yes, I agree that print is easier to read
[Paul_Pence] in the bathtub or beach.
[Horus|busy] i paid £7.99 for 1984 a few weeks ago
[Horus|busy] normally i would only pay £4.99 for a paperback
[Horus|busy] heh
[reb] 5i can't take my monitor on vacation or the beach
[Paul_Pence] But electronic medium is getting better and better.
[Paul_Pence] Already, I can read entire novels on my palm pilot
[Paul_Pence] and download, in many cases, for pennies.
[Horus|busy] you can taje a palm pilot to the boach :)
[Cybling] Folks, thanks, and than you Paul for taking time away from this busy and exciting convention to be with us online.
[Horus|busy] excuse me typing
[Horus|busy] thanks
[Cybling] HOpe to have you in chat again in the near future!
[reb] 1yeah but can you throw it in the sand to put your child ou the surf
[Paul_Pence] Thanks, Horus, Jpo, reb, and Ryan!
[Horus|busy] np