For those who don’t know, Twitter is a social media site where folks exchange conversation, ideas, and — most importantly for me — information.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter, finding out more about publishing, writing, markets, and agents. I’ve also been sending this information to my Twitter followers.

For those who use Twitter, you can follow me at @BJMuntain. For those who’d rather not, I’ve now set up Twitter here on my blog. If you look to the right of this blog, you’ll see my 5 latest tweets, under the heading Writing and Publishing news from Twitter.

Now, not all my tweets will be about writing or publishing, but most will. I post about 20 tweets per day, so there will be a lot of information.

I will, of course, still update this blog — I’ve actually been updating it more since becoming active on Twitter. It’s a lot easier to find the types of news I like on Twitter.

I hope you find this new source of news useful!

I was on Neil Gaiman’s blog today, reading about the death of his father, when a link caught my eye. It said:

My current crusade is to make sure creative people have wills. Read the blog post about it, and see a sample will.

Well, since my parents have been bugging me about making out a will (since they’d have to deal with all the crap anyway), I checked it out.

There’s some very good advice there, and a lawyer-drawn sample will. Very useful. I thought I should share.

Thanks, Neil, for this great resource. I’m sorry about your father. He must have been a wise man to have raised such a wise son.

A busy day today.

Tangent Online – which has published reviews of short genre fiction for 14 years – is “closing shop permanently March 1, 2009, unless someone steps forward to host the site.” This notice was given on a SFF newsgroup.

The website itself says they are on sabbatical “while we give the site a new look”. This was posted September 2007.

So, is anyone interested in hosting Tangent Online?

Warren Lapine — former publisher of DNA Publications, which “at its heyday published fiction magazines Absolute Magnitude, Fantastic Stories, Weird Tales, Dreams of Decadence, and Mythic Delirium, news magazine Science Fiction Chronicle, the non-genre Whole Cat Magazine, and KISS: The Official Magazine ” — has returned. SFScope reports on the man’s past and future in their article Warren Lapine returns to sf with magazine, books, and checks By Ian Randal Strock.

Keep an eye out for his new publishing venture, Tir Na Nog, which will bring out a reconstituted Fantastic Stories.

Information on submissions from Apex Book Company, via Twitter:

• It is helpful when submitting a story to include a professional cover letter.
• Don’t send submissions directly to the editorial staff – please send submissions to the e-mail address listed in our guidelines.
• Please do not paste your story into the body of your email. It is an instant rejection and not helpful to anybody.
• Plausible story lines and science also go a long way.

I read this in today’s Ansible:

“GORDON VAN GELDER’s _The Magazine of Fantasy & SF_ is switching to
bimonthly publication. ‘Rising costs — especially postal costs — and
the economy put us in a position where we either had to raise our rates
severely or cut back somewhere. Given the state of the economy, I decided
a cutback on frequency made the most sense. We’ll lose a little more than
10% of our content this year, but publishing on a bimonthly schedule
should put us in a great position for the coming years.’ (2 January)”

Of course, me being me, I had to confirm it. This from the F&SF forum, posted by Mr. Gelder himself just 23 hours before this little post of mine:

“I thought I’d better start a new thread for this subject, but as mentioned in the “thin December issue” thread, F&SF is going bimonthly.

The March 2009 issue will be the last monthly issue. Starting with the April/May 2009 issue, we’ll be publishing one issue every two months. Each issue will be 256 pages (16 pages longer than our last Oct/Nov issue) except for this year’s anniversary issue, which will be a jumbo.

Subscribers don’t need to take any action. If your current sub expires with the April 2009 issue or with the May 2009 issue, your sub now expires with the April/May 2009 issue.

We’ve made the change because rising costs—especially postal costs—and the current economy put us in a position where we either had to raise our rates severely or cut back somewhere. Given the state of the economy, I decided a cutback in frequency made the most sense. We’ll lose a little more than 10% of our content this year, but we should be in a great position for the coming years.

I know it’s a big change and it will take a little while to get used to it, but I think it will work out fine. Thank you all for your support.”

If it keeps them in business, I say Best of Luck to Mr. Gelder and The
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction!

I was just pointed at this new e-zine today. Pays professional rates, yet lets readers read for free. And it looks very high quality, too. I’m very impressed.

Here’s what they’re looking for:

“Beneath Ceaseless Skies publishes “literary adventure fantasy”: stories with a secondary-world setting and some traditional or classic fantasy feel, but written with a literary flair.”

They go into more detail in their guidelines.

Under 10,000 words, pays 5 cents per word. E-mail only. Aiming to reply in 4-6 weeks. They also have a forum, where the editor — Scott H. Andrews — posts Slush Updates.

The Bellingham Review: Literature of palpable quality is looking for submissions. Associate editor Spencer Ellsworth says:

“We get a whole lot of stories from people more interested in experimenting with form than telling about interesting characters. I think everyone is pretty sold on ‘fantastic elements’ so while we wouldn’t consider something hard enough to be in, say, Analog, the kind of stuff that shows up in F&SF or Strange Horizons would be great.”

The general submission period is Sept. 15th – Feb. 1st. The guidelines say, “The editors welcome submissions of poems, stories, and essays. There are no limitations on form or subject matter.” Maximum length 9000 words or 3-5 poems. No electronic submissions. Pay: as funds permit.

On her blog, Lit Soup, agent Jenny Rappaport is offering a chance to get books advertised on her blog.  Here is her offer, called Book Blocks:

“This is an open invitation for any author who has a book coming out to write up a short piece about one of the building blocks of their upcoming book. It can be about the characters, the plot, the theme, the actual writing structure, the idea behind the novel (or non-fiction work), the worldbuilding, etc.”

It looks like it could be both interesting and educational – and possibly profitable.  Let’s watch and see how it goes.  With Jenny in charge, we know there won’t be any really lame entries! I also encourage others to read Jenny’s blog, and the blogs of other agents.  You can really get an education on the writing business this way.

Thanks, Jenny!  And good for you!

Cindi Myers had this in her weekly newsletter:

A survey conducted at BEA by Zogby International for Random House sought information about the book-buying habits on Americans. Pollsters surveyed 8000 adults. Among their findings:

82% said they prefer to curl up with a printed book over using the latest in reading technology. Women (85%) are more likely than men (79%) to say they prefer reading printed books. Reading printed books also has greater appeal among older respondents, although it is by far the preferred method among all age groups.

11% of respondents said they are comfortable reading books in other formats, such as online or with an e-book reader or PDA. Men (13%) are more open than women (8%) to reading books in other formats, as are 13% of those younger than age 30, compared to just 6% of those age 65 and older.

43% of respondents said they “somewhat often” head to the bookstore with a specific book in mind, while nearly as many (38%) “very often” head to a bookstore with a particular book in mind.

77% said that when they go into a bookstore for a specific book, they sometimes make additional, unplanned book purchases.

For 48%, the first thing that draws them to a book while browsing in a bookstore is the subject, followed by the author (24%) and the book’s title (11%).

When asked about their most recent book purchase, 43% said the book’s subject was the most important factor, followed by the author (29%) and a good recommendation or word of mouth (11%).

When asked what makes them want to buy a book, 60% said suggestions from friends and family members, while nearly half (49%) said they are influenced by book reviews.

You can read all about the survey at http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1513

You can sign up for Cindi Myers newsletter — lots of good market information, especially for Romance — at her web site.