John August

Books

The Variant, a new short story

Books, News

book coverAs a screenwriter, most of my writing takes place in the third-person present tense. Movie characters run, shoot and misbehave within a small subset of the words, senses and actions that other literary characters take for granted. We never know what Indiana Jones is thinking, unless he tells us. We don’t know what a Wookie smells like, unless another character mentions it.

Don’t get me wrong: I love screenwriting. But it’s limited.

So when a friend asked me to write a short story, I jumped at the chance. The thing I wrote, The Variant, was and maybe still is supposed to be part of an anthology of short stories written by well-known screenwriters. It falls in that loose genre of spy-fi which encompasses both The Prisoner and Jorge Luis Borges.

After leaving it to sit on the shelf a few months, I considered sending the story out to the usual magazines that publish short fiction. But it’s not really a New Yorker story. It probably belongs in a sci-fi quarterly, one that I would never buy unless specifically instructed. And I would have a hard time nudging all my friends to drop five dollars on a magazine they had never heard of.

So, in the spirit of iPhone apps and [Jonathan Coulton](http://www.jonathancoulton.com/) tracks, ((I discovered the delivery system (E-Junkie) through Coulton.)) I’m releasing it myself for 99 cents. You can get it as a pretty .pdf, or on your Kindle through Amazon. ((And if you live in the U.S, keep in mind that every iPhone can now read Kindle books with the Kindle app.))

You can find all these options here: [johnagust.com/variant](http:/johnaugust.com/variant)

This is all an experiment, obviously. I’m lucky to have a career where it doesn’t matter if this generates $15 or $1,500. But I’m curious whether this is a feasible model for a writer. In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting the results.

I’m well aware that there are going to be some people who simply can’t pay 99 cents for something online. And while I can’t anticipate every scenario, I’ve set up an email account (sales@johnaugust.com) to figure out solutions.

Kindle for iPhone

Books, Geek Alert, Reading

Long rumored, and [now here](http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302584613&mt=8). It’s free, and pretty darn good.

The Whispersync feature suddenly makes a lot more sense. If you’re reading a book on your “real” Kindle at home, but find yourself with ten minutes to kill at the car wash, you can open the book to the exact same place on your iPhone.

Movie speak

Books, Film Industry, Rave

When the AD calls out that this is the Abby Singer, what should you do?

Well, nothing, because you’re the screenwriter. But being the observant sort, you might notice that the gaffers start tidying up. Craft service begins putting away the vegetable dip. The second AD dispatches some PAs to make copies of the call sheet.

movie speak bookThe Abby Singer is the next-to-last shot of the day, or at a given location. And if you’ve never heard of it, or some of the other terms mentioned above, I can recommend Tony Bill’s book Movie Speak: How to Talk Like You Belong on a Movie Set. It’s by far the best guide and glossary I’ve seen to all the esoteric terms you hear on a movie set. And real terms, not goofy had-to-be-there catchphrases.

Keep in mind: as a screenwriter sitting at a computer, you’ll never use most of these terms. You’ll never, ever type them in a script. It’s only when you’re on a working set that you’ll hear them. But knowing them might save you some embarrassment and confusion.

(As a reminder, I’ve previously recommended The Hollywood Standard
as a go-to guide for screenplay formatting.)

Authors’ Guild vs. Kindle

Books, Follow Up, Rights and Copyright

Cory Doctorow makes [many of the points](http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/25/authors-guild-vs-rea.html) I would about the Authors’ Guild’s grumpiness over the Kindle’s text-to-speech function:

> Continuing to take Blount at his word, let’s assume that he’s right on the copyright question, namely, that:

> 1) Converting text to speech infringes copyright

> 2) Providing the software that is capable of committing copyright infringement makes you liable for copyright infringement, too

> 1) is going to be sticky — the Author’s Guild is setting itself up to fight the World Blind Union, phone makers, free software authors, ebook makers, and a whole host of people engaged in teaching computers to talk.

> But 2 is really hairy. If Blount believes that making a device capable of infringing copyright is the same as infringing copyright (something refuted by the Supreme Court in Betamax in 1984, the decision that legalized VCRs), then email, web-browsers, computers, photocopiers, cameras, and typewriters are all illegal, too.

That said, a colleague of mine made a good point: It’s sort of the Authors’ Guild’s job to stir the pot. They might be wrong — they might know they’re wrong — but it’s important to have a group trumpeting the issues of concern to their members.

I think the potential win here will be for Amazon and authors/publishers to find well-priced ways to bundle the text and (real, professional) audiobook versions. I’ve never bought an audiobook, but would consider it if the premium weren’t too high.