“Sex with Ghosts” (Strange Horizons, August 2008) was my first fiction sale and my first appearance in a web-only magazine, but not the first time I’d been published. Prior to that, I’d had several things published in print: poems, a review, and an author interview in literary journals and magazines, a nonfiction “how to research writing markets” piece for The Writer, and a few other odds and ends.
Let me tell you, publishing on the web is really different.
In less than 24 hours, two readers came and posted responses to the story on this blog.
Within 48 hours, there was a blog post about the story, pointing out that it was the first one they recall with a main character who self-identifies as an asexual person, and doing some thoughtful analysis.
Within one week, somebody added a link to the story into TVTropes.org, a wiki that indexes story elements used in TV, movies, literature, comics, and games. It’s filed under the heading “Screw Yourself” (!) and is in the very good company of the story “–All You Zombies–,” one of my favorites from Robert Heinlein.
Since then, Kelley Eskridge has given the story a mention in her blog, which is wunderbar (thanks, Kelley!), and I’ve had a few people zip me a message via Facebook to tell me what they thought of the story.
With a print publication, I might just now, a few weeks after publication, hear something from someone about it – and likely only from people I already know. Or I might hear nothing, ever.
Of course, there’s plenty of stuff that languishes unread on the web, and stuff in print that causes a great buzz. I feel very lucky to have Strange Horizons publish the story; it’s a strong magazine with strong readership, and that makes a huge difference. But the medium definitely plays a role in how readers can respond, and how soon.
Anyway, I dig it.
* Carrie Fisher, Postcards from the Edge
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