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The July Editorial is courtesy of the Aphelion Forums. There is a
discussion thread there about suggestions for increasing the number of
comments and critiques on the stories and poetry that appears in the
zine every month. Among the various suggestions was one about putting
counters in every story page so that writers could see how many times a
story was read, sort of like a survey tally. I replied with a bit about
why that wouldn't be workable, rambled a bit, then got back onto the
subject of reader commentary. When I was done, I though that I'd save
the Forum reply to use as an editorial. I'll be at a convention when
this issue goes live, so time will be at a premium for the two weeks
before the con. So here's what I wrote:
At one time we had hit counters on a few pages; the table of contents,
the Mare Inebrium stories page, etc. Hit counters fell out of fashion
for some reason, over the years, and they were hard to maintain from
time to time. The main page had two million+ hits on it when we
discontinued it, but that was built up over years and years of readers
visiting the website.
I don't know of any web code that would allow a reader to click to add
to a total, except for something like a survey vote tally. I suppose it
could be done, but it would add to what the Editors already have to do
for each page we lay out, and the votes themselves would quickly eat up
all our web space. There is already a log file of I don't know what
information, specifically--but that has to be deleted periodically or
we run out of room to upload new stories. As it stands now, Aphelion's
total file content can fit on a data DVD. The web space for the site
costs me $60 per month, but for the first 20 years it was only $35. We
finally ran out of room, so I opted to double our web space early this
year--instead of deleting older stories. You may have noticed your
monthly subscription fees double in size two months ago. From nothing
to twice nothing, LOL! No, I'm not going to pass Aphelion's expenses
off to the readers. I'm not going to start putting adverts up either.
Aphelion isn't here to make money for me, it's here so that writers
have a chance to improve their skills enough for a paying publisher to
start buying their work. Sure, I own the site and I've taken the
liberty of putting up a page where people can find where my work is
sold. I have no way of knowing if anyone does go and buy something
because of that page, or not. Writers are encouraged to add a link to
an Amazon search for their work in the bio they send with their
submissions if they like. Or link to your publisher's page for your
work on their website. One more line of code in a bio isn't going to
take up too much of our web space.
And you're exactly right: comments in the Forum are a huge help to the
writers. That's like having many editors giving suggestions on how
something can be improved instead of just the one you sent your
submission to originally. And of course, sometimes there have been feuds
between some of the Forum members over how a comment was worded, or if
someone was being unkind accidentally, or even, rarely, someone set out
to be a troll and hurt other people's feelings intentionally. Sad, but
it happens. Text can be a difficult form of communication because it
lacks all the visual and inflectional cues that speaking in person uses
so often. That's one reason emoticons came about, really. But if Forum
members do take the time to comment on a story, usually that's the best
sort of commentary to have: reader feedback.
Now, there is a valid reason that I rarely comment on anyone stories.
And it's a sad reason, too. I can't allow myself to comment on much
because I'm the Publisher. There is a small, but non-trivial, chance
that any comments I make will be thought of as submissions guidelines.
The logic is simple, and a bit brutal, and it goes like this: "Oh! Dan
really liked that story by Manassas Serengeti about the Bigfoot who
stole a time machine and went back to the stone age to become the
ancestor of all the Neanderthals! That must be the kind of thing he
wants us to submit! I'm gonna write one just like that and send it
in..." The result would be that someone
would think that what I enjoyed is all I want writers to send in. And
that's not true at all. We have readers and writers who enjoy all sorts
of fiction that isn't my cup of tea. My personal likes and dislikes are
not a standard I want Aphelion to go by. What's worse is that I almost
never see a submission before an issue goes online anyway. Unless it's
a Mare Inebrium story, submissions don't come to me. And unless an
Editor has a question about adult content or violence or cuss words and
they want me to make a judgment call on a submission, I don't see
anything sent to them until a new issue goes live. I don't micro-manage
the staff, or the writers, or the readers. I'm a pretty laid-back guy.
The Editors get their submissions, pick and choose by their own rules,
the writers' work gets seen by the public, the readers get to read, and I kick back and pay the
bills to make all that happen. That's my Aphelion job in a nutshell. I
built the original playground and I keep it open, I let the staff
construct new rides and features to improve the playground, and
occasionally I have to keep someone from trying to burn it down or
break the playground equipment. Sometimes an unruly player will have to
be asked to go play elsewhere. Sometimes said unruly player flounces
off in a huff. I don't like either of those situations. I trust y'all,
all y'all, to play nice with one another, to refrain from littering,
and to communicate with each other as clearly and precisely as possible
so the playground remains fun for as many people as possible.
Making time to write comments on each other's work is supposed to be
part of the fun, part of the shared learning experience, and part of
the reason you want to keep coming back. The equipment is there for you
to use. If you're having trouble finding the words to say that "parts
of this were really good, but other parts need work. Have you thought
of trying this
option, or that
option?" That's part of the learning experience as well. So is "I don't
really enjoy that genre very much, but this bit stood out as some
really fine writing." Or even "I can't STAND first person narrators. I
can't get into stories written that way. But I gave your story a chance
and I found a paragraph of how you described the room the scene took
place in, and that was really nice. It worked really well. Now, have
you thought about trying to write something using third person? Might
be something to consider, just to stretch yourself a bit. To step out
of your comfort zine and try something new." Or what I would hear a lot
about my stuff: "ARGH! Passive voice! Everything was going so well
until you slipped into passive voice. That threw me out of the story so
hard I almost broke my hip, LOL! I heard about this trick you can
try..."
We writers can have fragile egos, sometimes. The trick is remembering
that how diplomacy works is to make something negative seem like a
polite gesture, made from genuine good will towards one another.
Remember, the Forum is where you teach one another the trick you've
learned. The Editors are here to teach you as well, but here you are
able to teach one another. Aphelion is about learning, but everyone has
something to learn here as well as something to teach. One big, yet
slightly dysfunctional, family. You are all "cousins" so to speak. What
one learns, another might need to know. One trick you've learned might
just be the key to someone else's success. Don't be shy, don't be
parsimonious with your time here. It's taken me hours to type this
little essay. I didn't mean to write an editorial, but here we are, at
the end of one of my better ones.
Maybe I should save this and use it for July. I'll be at a convention,
so I'll have very little time to come up with a totally new one. What
say ye? Do you think that this ought to be re-run outside of the
Forums? Did it help? Was it instructional? Did it make you think about
commenting in the Forums in a new light?
Thank you for reading this,
Dan
ON
THE COVER
Title: Close-up of the drama of star formation.
Photo Credit: ESO/Sergey Stepanenko
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