Paul Witcover's Home Page

[Paul] Hi, I'm now taped down in the hot seat.
[Paul] Ouch!
[Riesengrosser] Hi Paul.
[Xephyr] sort of lurking for half an hour
[Cybling] Folks let's say hi to Paul Witcover.
[Pam_M] hi, Paul
[DavE] Break out the superglue...
[Cybling] Live from the Chicon Green Room in the Hyatt! Chats from Chicon!
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one before asking another. Thanks!
[DavE] On your website, it says your second novel will be out in 1998. Will it?
[Cybling] Folks, Paul, you just became editor at iPublish.com. Are you accepting submissions?
[Paul] In an alternate universe, DavE.
[DavE] Gotcha.
[Paul] But I'm working on it now, and I hope it'll be out next year.
[Paul] It's called Tumbling After.
[DavE] No Pyan?
[DavE] Not Pyan?
[Paul] Well, Pynn was the original title.
[Paul] My editor didn't like it.
[Paul] So I came up with the new title.
[DavE] Okay
[Pam_M] Fantasy novel?
[Cybling] I think an author's allowed to do that from time to time. lol
[Paul] It's contemporary fantasy in the spirit of PK Dick.
[RWC] Paul, you're cute, how many fans are coming on to you? (euh, I hope I do not get the pillow for this one;))
[Paul] About a brother and sister who are identical twins and become lovers.
[Paul] RWC, not enough fans are coming onto me!
[RWC] Bad taste;)
[Cybling] Paul, sorry...I think my question got a little lost up there. Are you currently accepting submissions for iPublish.com?
[DavE] That's the main reason to become a writer: Groupies.
[Paul] Yes, I am accepting submissions.
[Paul] Ipublish.com is looking for new writers for ebooks.
[DavE] How about radio scripts?
[Paul] I invite everyone to check out the site. It's an exciting opportunity.
[Paul] Ipublish doesn't do radio scripts.
[RWC] [censored];)
[Paul] But I'm currently writing a serial drama in the tradition of the radio serials
[Paul] of yesteryear.
[DavE] Nifty
[Paul] Called Avalon; it'll be streamed at www.tuneintomorrow.com next year.
[DavE] Of course, 'yesteryear' could be 1993.
[RWC] What is your ivolvment with manga?
[Paul] Actually, Avalon is set in Avalon, New York in the present, but the spirit is that of the 40s.
[RWC] If any?
[Paul] RWC, I have no manga involvement, other than at an admiring distance.
[RWC] Okay
[Cybling] Paul...let's talk a little about you. Your short fiction has appeared in Asimov's and other magazines and anthologies.
[DavE] Do you think online publishing will overtake dead tree publishing?
[Cybling] Would you say you're more of a SF author? How would you describe your genre?
[Paul] DavE, the answer is no.
[Paul] The printed book is the apex of thousands of years of technology.
[Paul] It will not be, and should not be, supplanted.
[RWC] You like Jane Siberry, what about the other artists of the canadian scene? Have they inspired you to write stories?
[Paul] But ebooks will fill a valuable role as niche publishers.
[DavE] But a big niche, perhaps...
[Paul] I became a Jane Siberry fanatic after the breakup of a relationship.
[Paul] Her music made me feel worse -- i.e., better.
[DavE] Siberry is really good.
[Paul] I ran into her on the street in NYC once.
[RWC] Like Rose chronicles or Sarah McLachlan?
[Paul] I don't know the former, but I like Sarah.
[Cybling] Funny. NYC is a lot like a convention....you can run into anyone there, lol.
[DavE] Or William Shatner
[Paul] Yes, although I've never yet run into Iggy Pop or Lou Reed, alas.
[RWC] Willian Shatner does not compare to Jane Siberry....
[RWC] Even in a drugged state
[Paul] Have you heard his version of "Lucy in the Sky"? The man is multi-talented!
[DavE] He's a Canadian with influence.
[Paul] He does a mean "Mr. Tambourine Man" too.
[Pam_M] rotfl
[Cybling] Folks we have Paul Witcover here to answer your questions.
[DavE] Indeed!
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one before asking another. Thanks!
[DavE] Are you a musician?]
[Cybling] Paul...tell me about your style, and whether you consider yourself SF or Fantasy or what.
[Paul] I love music but am not a musician. I'm listening to a lot of Pavement and Mekons now.
[Paul] I consider myself a mix of the two.
[Pam_M] Are you going to stay with Del Rey and its workshop?
[Cybling] Heavier in one genre or the other?
[Paul] No -- I've left the Del Rey Workshop and am now the science fiction editor of iPublish.com, the
[Paul] ebook division of Time Warner Books.
[Cybling] Cool.
[DavE] Nifty
[Pam_M] okay.
[RWC] Are you going to revive speculative fiction?
[Paul] I'm going to try.
[Cybling] You also have been doing reviews for www.scifi.com and galaxyonline. Will those go by the wayside too?
[RWC] Cool
[Paul] I will be publishing undiscovered writers in ebook form.
[Paul] There will be open submissions.
[Pam_M] any promotion of the writers?
[Paul] I hope to continue doing movie reviews for scifi.com, and my interviews with scientists will continue to appear
[Paul] at galaxyonline.com.
[DavE] Does Space Cowboys count as science fiction?
[Paul] Yes, the writers will be promoted on the internet and in print.
[Cybling] And the New York Review of Science Fiction will still get your critical pieces as well.
[RWC] What kind of scientists do you interview?
[Paul] Perhaps not all individual writers, but certainly as part of the sf list of ebooks.
[Paul] I would say yes, but it's a kind of sf we don't see much anymore.
[Cybling] That would be Space Cowboys?
[Paul] Yes.
[DavE] I liked the 'space' part more than the 'cowboy' part.
[Cybling] LOL.
[Paul] As for the scientists I interview, it's mostly physicists, but I'm hoping to get some geneticists soon.
[Paul] I think the current interview up at galaxy is with the scientists involved in the Galileo probe.
[DavE] Any nonotechnology scientists worth talking to, or is the field still speculative?
[Paul] Including the Planetary Protection Officer!
[RWC] Virologists would do?;)
[Paul] I have an upcoming interview with a gentleman who's working on something called
[Paul] "genetic applets."
[DavE] heh
[Cybling] Paul, things have been flying so fast here that I don't recall if I asked you if you have any stories in the Publishing pipeline right now? Anything just finished? About to be published?
[Paul] Unfortunately no. I'm emerging from a period of writer's block. And working on Tumbling After.
[Paul] And trying to find authors for ipublish!
[Cybling] Paul, for the aspiring authors here and who will be reading the log of this chat...
[Cybling] is there any advice you can give them about starting out?
[DavE] You're in the right place to find undiscovered talent.
[RWC] Writer's block is a mess, man. Try to take it easy, it will come back on time:)
[DavE] What I have to say about Writers Block is, um, er... uh.... never mind.
[Paul] The best advice for an aspiring writers is to be persistent. Write and submit exhaustively and don't take no for an answer.
[RWC] Ahem...
[RWC] Thanks:)
[Cybling] LOL. Would you suggest that authors self-publish on the web if they can't make a sale with a story elsewhere?
[DavE]
[-- you can hear examples of 20 years of my work online.
[Paul] This is a difficult question. Some publishers feel online publishing constitutes a prior publication
[Paul] and may be wary to buy your stuff.
[RWC] Nope, he means that authors should be competitive if they want tto access to the supreme realm;)
[Paul] I hasten to add that ipublish is not among them!
[DavE] How do you feel about the controversy over Napster?
[RWC] Otherwise, it's up to the fanxines to be published and maybe promote your prose
[Paul] As a Napster user, I support it, although not without guilt.
[Cybling] Will iPublish.com be putting up a chapter or two of excerpts of the stories it publishes, so that we can get a taste?
[Paul] For novels, the answer is yes.
[Cybling] Oh..you'll be publishing shorter pieces?
[Paul] The ipublish site is going to be similar to the Del Rey Workshop.
[Paul] There will be the opportunity for members to submit works of any
[Paul] length and critique each other.
[Pam_M] Oh?
[RWC] What's the adress of the ipublisher site?
[Paul] Based on critiques, I will review the work and if I like it, I'll publish it.
[Paul] www.ipublish.com.
[Cybling] Okay..but you'll have to be a member of the group to access those stories, won't you?
[RWC] Thanks, Paul
[Cybling] The short ones?
[Paul] Yes, but membership is free. All you will need to do to post is review three other submissions.
[Paul] I should clarify that the site is not launching until spring of 2001.
[Paul] But I'm already looking for new authors.
[Cybling] Folks we have about 9 more minutes with the new editor of iPublish.com, Paul Witcover.
[DavE] What's Gregory Voynow really like?
[Paul] Well, he gets to wear jeans to work, and I don't!
[DavE] Sounds good!
[Cybling] lol
[Paul] Yeah, good for Voynow!
[Cybling] So you won't be telecommuting with iPublish then?
[Paul] I hope too work from home a few days a week once we're up and running.
[Paul] Gotta read those manuscripts somewhere!
[Cybling] But you'll start out in an office in the main officers.
[DavE] Who reads your slushpile?
[Paul] Yep -- 9-5.
[Paul] I do.
[Cybling] offices, sorry, not officers.
[Cybling] Looks like you're about to get a lot of reading material Paul.
[DavE] I pity you...
[Paul] I don't mind. The awful stuff is quickly identifiable, and the excitement of
[Paul] finding a talented new writer is really unbeatable.
[DavE] True, you can probably reject a bunch of submissions on the first sentence or two.
[Paul] Amen!
[Cybling] Paul, we've been speculating in chat for a while that the importance of the critic will increase with the number of online publishers that appear on the Web. Until folks know which publisher's taste to trust.
[Paul] Well, I don't know. Who are these critics?
[Cybling] Exactly. Is it going to be hit or miss for a while?
[Paul] Not at ipublish. Because we're using all the editorial facilities of Time Warner.
[RWC] Loosers?
[DavE] Do you get unlimited AOL disks?
[Paul] We're not going to be publishing works that weren't good enough for traditional print publishing;
[RWC] That's good
[Paul] we're going to publish works that were judged not to be sufficiently salable in print.
[Cybling] Do you have any idea what format the books will be in? Disk, proprietary software?
[Paul] The format will be what they're calling "platform agnostic."
[Paul] It will be readable by all major platforms.
[Cybling] Folks we have 3 more minutes with Paul...just enough time for one last question.
[Cybling] Excellent on the format.
[RWC] We don't know what format it is but we know it exxists?
[Cybling] No, RWC.
[Cybling] What he means is that you ...
[RWC] Yes?
[Cybling] will be able to read the ebooks whether you have a laptop...
[DavE] What question do you have for us?
[Cybling] iMac or PC. Right Paul?
[Paul] Yes, but also rocket ebook, palm pilot, microsoft softbook, etc.
[RWC] Okay
[Cybling] You won't have to run out an buy a special reader JUST for iPublish books.
[Paul] No!
[Paul] And you'll be able to buy our ebooks not only from our site, but from every major ebook retailer.
[RWC] The mafia would get him otherwise;)
[DavE] Well, thanks for joining us!
[Paul] Thanks, DavE!
[Cybling] So glad I don't have to choose between this $500 platform or that $1000 one, thanks for that Paul.
[RWC] Thanks, have a nice convention:)
[Cybling] Folks let's give Paul a hand and send him running off to the convention.
* Cybling applauds
[Paul] Bye all! (bows)
[Cybling] Thanks for *all* the great info Paul.
* Preus says hi to everybody
[Pam_M] Thanks for the chat , Paul