-STAR WARS pt 3: lots of the cut scenes and concept drawings from New Hope + Empire Strikes Back got recycled for ROGUE ONE....like Vaders iron castle in a sea of lava, and the slow ground effect destruction of the death star in Rogue One also got predicted in SFL chat, either as cut effects or as physics discussion about blowing a planet apart.
-came across a SFL poster that I have mentally badged "DolphinF**ker". This person whipped out 3 detailed posts about dolphins and dolphin research lore by John Lily over the course of 3 days. Keep in mind this is circa 1980, and no gopher search protocol exists, no html exists, no google...this person had to have had everything on hand....hence "DolphinF**ker"
-first case of "Asimov non-consent" at a convention/award ceremony mentioned in SFL. Asimov kissed two ladies mouth-on-mouth on the stage, then defused everything by kissing Silverberg mouth-on-mouth the same exact way
-a Heinlein Defense Squad has emerged, composed of the people who heavily espoused Robert Heinlein Libertarianism. the most strident member of the squad is unshockingly the SuperMechaGodzilla poster
-the first book of Julian May's absolutely insane SAGA OF THE PLIOCENE EXILE gets teased for a mid 1981 release (I look forward to reading the SFL reviews of it).
-the SFL SuperMechaGodzilla poster cemented their shitbag-troll status by mentioning how they have centaur on centaur artwork porn hanging in their work office just to troll for reactions.
-the Heinlein defense squad are also the SFLers whom constantly hypothesize that Leia is going to get knocked up (as all women do in Heinlein stories) and the kid Leia will have is the "Other hope" mentioned by Yoda & Ghost ObiWan in Empire Strikes back.
-DolphinF**ker appeared a few more times, dropping more dolphin research lore & tidbits like their first name and that they have a roommate. (Pity that roommate).
-Carl Sagan's tv series COSMOS came out and most of the SFL talk about it has been "INANE GRIN", "great teeth", "amazing toothpaste commercial", etc.
-f**king in mil-scifi stories, homosexual animal behavior observed in captivity and the wild (both topics are related so they got combined here)
-a resurgence of MZB's DARKOVER series chat (ugh)
-SFL slams about PJF ripping off RZ then RZ ripping off PJF then thread agreement that both PJF + RZ are pastiche rip-offs
-Dr Robert Forward pimped the appearance of his daughter-in-law in a upcoming (now 39.5 yrs past) episode of THREE'S COMPANY. Also in that same post Dr Forward doxxed his son who it turns out also posts in the SFL mailing list
-Dr Forward's doxxed son proposed a ID badge for SFL members to wear at future scifi/fantasy conventions for physical SFL meet and greet purposes, and the SFL people that go to conventions started proposing logo ideas.
-Dr Robert Forward discloses his contract with BALLANTINE BOOKS for DRAGON'S EGG royalties. Reposting it in full, because I feel it might of archival interest to any current or future authors curious to see what a first time author circa 1980 book contract financial numbers/payout terms would be.
-------------------------------------------
Date: 21 DEC 1980 1001-PST
From: FORWARD at USC-ECL
Subject: Financial arrangements of writing
I don't know about the more complicated financial
arrangements of well-known authors, but I can say something about
a typical first-author contract with a good publishing house.
My contract with Ballantine for DRAGON'S EGG pays the
following royalties:
10% of the retail price for hardcover copies
8% of the retail price for the first 150,000 paperbacks
10% of the retail price for paperbacks above 150,000
It gets more complicated as we get into trade editions, book
clubs, foreign publications, and other rights that Ballantine's
staff sells to others. Typically Ballantine keeps 50% of book
club license fees (the SF Book Club is paying a royalty of 30
cents or about 5% of their price. I get half of that.), and
keeps 25% of foreign rights, which vary widely with country and
difficulty of translation. There will be English, German, and
Japanese versions of DE.
In order to keep beans on the table of the author while he
is finishing off the manuscript and waiting the typical year
between delivery of MS and publication of book, and an additional
year before the sales are counted and the royalty calculated, the
publisher makes an estimate of the minimum amount of royalties
that can be expected and gives the author a portion of that as an
advance payment against the royalties. If the book does well,
then the advance is paid off in the first year and from then on
the author gets royalty checks. If the book does poorly, it may
never sell enough copies to pay off the advance.
As an author becomes better known and gets better agents,
then the agents keep the foreign and other rights and sell them
separately, the percentages rise, the advances become larger, and
other clauses dictating print run sizes and advertising budgets
start to appear.
In answer to Steve Zeve's specific question, since the
payment is based on a percentage of the retail selling price, the
payments to the authors have been in general keeping up with the
increases in book costs.
Bob Forward
-------------------------------------------
-SFL Vol 02 ended maybe 30 messages after that Robert Forward post royalty payment disclosure.
originally posted between June 26th-June 29th in the SomethingAwful forums Science Fiction Fantasy Megathread 3
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