Authors we should hunt down in a dark alley and force to come to EP

[sirana]

I read a science fiction story collection called Axiomatic by Greg Egan over the holidays and thought that these would be perfect in the context of Escapepod. I wanted to contact him, but couldn't find any adress or e-mail on his homepage.
Anyways, this got me wondering: What authors would you like to be presented on Escapepod and how could we get them to do it? Because my thinking is, that there are a lot of authors out who would like (or at least wouldn't mind) to have a story on Escape Pod, but who just don't know that it exists.

[Swamp]

Orson Scott Card, not doubt about it.

If yopu haven't read him, you should.  He's most famous for the Ender's Game series, but he has many great short stories as well.  You can find a few of them at his website:
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/index.shtml   This small collection includes his original Ender's GAme short story.

One of my favorites is The Lost Boys, though it may be to long for EscapePod. 

[Brian Reilly]

I'd go for Charlie Stross. He has a lot of good short stories to his name (some of which you can read online at http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/index.html, and is a frequent collaborator with EP fave Cory Doctorow.

How we make authors come to EP is another story. If anyone is interested in an author appearing here, the best option would be to contact them rather than expect the EP staff to chase down authors.

[SFEley]

How we make authors come to EP is another story. If anyone is interested in an author appearing here, the best option would be to contact them rather than expect the EP staff to chase down authors.

Huzzah!  Thank you for saying that.

It also makes a stronger impression on the author.  Seriously.  Just one example: I got an e-mail two weeks ago from a Major Hard SF Author With a Four-Letter Last Name that began "Hi... fans have been telling me I should get in touch about podcasting some of my stories."

That's a great basis to start a conversation.  >8->

(And yes, that description was deliberately chosen to not give away the author.)

[scottjanssens]

That'll make my job a lot easier at conventions

[bowen008]

Neil Gaiman

[Russell Nash]

Neil Gaiman

Go ahead and send him an email asking him to submit work to EP.

[Ryuujin]

Kevin J. Anderson - definately him. He's done some great science fiction.

Also, Brian Herbert, but he's probably too busy working on his father's legacy. I think I remember him talking about some ideas for short stories at one point though. Both inside and outside the Duniverse.

[Michael]

I have already suggested to a couple of author friends from my "travelling fen" days submit some of their stories... the way this creative commons license seems to work it is a great way to re-tell or repackage stories published prior in pulps or limited distribution forums to a new audience.  One of the major authors of the "Thieves World" series has a whole stack of stories that never made it into the books.  I think this is what we need to do--reach out and touch people using the "Kevin Bacon" approach.

http://www-distance.syr.edu/bacon.html

[scottjanssens]

Neil Gaiman

Generally, the audio rights to Neil's work aren't available.

[SFEley]

Neil Gaiman

Generally, the audio rights to Neil's work aren't available.

It could happen; a lot of doors stay open when we say we want nonexclusive rights.  I spoke with Neil briefly last year at Balticon (I ran the sound board for his interview with Mur Lafferty and Paul Fischer), and asked about short story availability, and he said I'd have to talk to his agent.  Which I haven't done yet, so I wouldn't rule things out entirely, but meanwhile, you can already get most of his short work in audio.  (His collections are available as audiobooks, mostly narrated by Neil himself.)

[ClintMemo]

Fred Pohl

[Vanamonde]

Whoever owns the rights to the short stories of Fredric Brown.

[Djerrid]

Ted Chiang. Although his stories might be too cerebral and long for this format. His stuff is real brain-food.

[J.R. Blackwell]

Hmm, it might not be a bad idea for someone to pen a respectful form letter explaining Escape Pod to a prospective author and asking them to submit. People who want to ask an author can use this as a basis for writing their own letter, or could alter such a letter for their own purposes.

Just trying to think of some way to facilitate the process. . . .

[deflective]

i'd love to hear Chuck Palahniuk read some of his work, he's more pseudopod though

Neil Gaiman

check out snow, glass, apples

[Roney]

I'd go for Charlie Stross.

Definitely.  He can throw out more ideas in one story than some genre authors manage in a career.  And he seems unlikely to be afraid of Creative Commons.

Time to get nagging -- in a non-annoying way, of course.  He does seem to be nearly as busy as Steve...

[Mur Lafferty]

I would totally swoon for one of Chuck's stories. Man. What a twisted guy. He's so awesome.

[Russell Nash]

Hmm, it might not be a bad idea for someone to pen a respectful form letter explaining Escape Pod to a prospective author and asking them to submit. People who want to ask an author can use this as a basis for writing their own letter, or could alter such a letter for their own purposes.

Just trying to think of some way to facilitate the process. . . .

There's a problem with form letters. When someone receives 500 emails that are all very similiar, it doesn't have the impact of 50 emails that are all very differently written.

[J.R. Blackwell]

I have to still argue that getting 500 e-mails would probabbly make an impact.

[ClintMemo]

What about a petition?  a single email with 500 names on it?

[SFEley]

I have to still argue that getting 500 e-mails would probabbly make an impact.

Heh.  But not necessarily a good one.  I for one don't want authors to get the impression that they've just been threatened by the Robot Army.

But for what it's worth, it does look like people are getting the word out.  I've had a couple more e-mails now from people saying fans have suggested they send some stories to Escape Pod.  This is a Happy Making Thing.

[DKT]

Anyone mentioned China Mieville?  His stuff would work for either Escape Pod or Pseudopod (depending on the story, I guess). 

[Kronikarz]

Sergey Lukyanenko - the man behind the original story of the (fairly adapted) movies "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" and one of the best Russian science fiction authors.

[Brian Reilly]

I've emailed Charlie Stross, but apparently he's busy. He seems to write an incredible amount of novels (by modern-day standards), so isn't writing much short fiction atm. Still, he now knows about EP so maybe we'll get something in the future. He does have a large back catalogue of short fiction he could submit some of when he has the time.

Forum members- don't be shy about informing your favourite authors about Escape Pod.