RE: what Larry said - I heard that, to me it just sounded like he had an encounter with this author where the author came off poorly. It happens.
Agreeing with Talia (as usual.) And would further like to ad that we all say dumb stuff that we (later) find ourselves thinking differently about. The internet immortalizes us in regrettable ways sometimes, and in such a ubiquity of ways that perhaps, at this point, we might even be able to scrap together genuine empathy towards one another. Podcast comments that come out a year or two ago (that's like
decades at today's rate!) should be taken as nuggets of learning-- understanding of a
period of
thinking-- rather than the sum of a person's parts. The fact that Tony even said "web 2.0" can't help but make me grin with warm regression at 'better times' when baseball cards came with bubblegum and soda pop cost a nickel.
And besides, Tony (and Larry, I surmise) are
used to getting stories for free. It's part of fanfic culture I guess. There are cultures of sharing and cultures of dollar signs all over the net, and you either belong in one or are trespassing. The very fact that SSS historically gets the Hugo noms probono and was thus peeved at Egan and other unnamed "assholes" for 'passing', tells us that
we're basically making assumptions about a situation that is completely
alien to us. Consider this: SSS says on their site that they don't pay authors-- FACT. And yet they have published Kris Kathryn Rusch, David Levine, Robert Reed, Spider Robinson, Ben Bova, even Neil Gaiman. Despite whatever these 'professionals' have ever said to you in workshops about not being low-balled or taken advantage of by publishers-- they also decided that SSS (for whatever reason) deserved their
product free of charge. Think about that.
Should SSS ever be 'mean'
online in immortal form? No, of course not. Should SSS be shocked by someone turning them down? Look at that track track record and tell me you wouldn't be.
--Seriously Egan, this story is already published on your website for free, you're already
giving it away-- you're gonna tell me that your story is better than Gaiman's? Or better than all these other Hugo nominees who gave their stories away? Why won't you just let me speak the words that you already give away on your website, huh? What makes you so special?!
What makes it special is that he
is Greg Egan. Maybe he doesn't care about Gaiman or the Hugo nominees, maybe he doesn't care about your little podcast wherever the hell. It's. His. Story. End. Of. Story.
That should never change about 'Web 2.0' and I will always defend that.
I was ruffled by both Tony and Larry's comments but in retrospect I realize that this goes back to what Talia and I said originally: These podcasts aren't just different planets, these are different solar systems.
....
Now, if you want to talk about how these environments and 'aliens of different solar systems' are also shockingly anthropomorphic in shape and similar to our own (ala Star Trek's hot green alien babes), that's a different and equally interesting discussion. Don't think I'm not standing here without my hands crossed/eyebrows raised at the these authors that are giving stuff away to competitors of pro-markets like Escapepod (essentially weakening the argument that they should be paid for their work as writers.)
If Egan turns down
100 bucks for the
reprint of his story you will hear a different rant from me. It's still his story and he has every right to do so, but it'll be a different rant from me about a different issue.