[ExI] sf with pathos

[Damien Broderick]

At 03:40 PM 4/19/2009 -0700, Spike wrote:

> > POST MORTAL SYNDROME, by me and Barbara Lamar. It was online
> > for a year as a free download...
>
>Please sir, what is the point of giving away your valuable labors?  Is the
>local grocery store offering any free downloads?

No, we were paid by COSMOS, who used the free download serialized 
version as an attractant to their website. Other stories (also paid 
for, and rather well) are posted there after they appear in the 
magazine. (Luckily for USians and UKians, since COSMOS is mostly 
available in all its slick paper glory only in Oz). There are also 
some stories on the website original to the site. All are compensated.

But why didn't we sell POST MORTAL SYNDROME to a major book publisher 
first, and then to Hollywood? Beats the hell outta me. My big-time 
agent of the time fell out with me over his disinclination to 
represent the book (he didn't think I'd make enough so his cut would 
be worth the effort). Some major Aussie publishers (HarperCollins and 
Penguin, e.g.) knocked it back, although they'd done some of my 
earlier books. Once it went up there were in excess of 100,000 hits, 
which isn't terrific on a global scale but it shows a few people 
liked it enough to keep reading.

Our commercial mistake (which we understood as we wrote the book, and 
did it deliberately, gritting our teeth) was to present a transhuman 
technology--viral-vectored genetic enhancement/rejuvenation--as a 
feature rather than a horrendous Crichtonesque bug. Insufficiently 
Technophobic! People only want to read or see everything smashed and 
ruined by science! Waddaya mean, make life better? Sigh.

Damien Broderick