New Hampshire author takes the Nebula Award

New Hampshire writer James Patrick Kelly recently received the Nebula Award for his novella “Burn.” The science fiction writer joins the ranks of previous winners Frank Hebert, Isaac Asimov and Neil Gaiman. Hearing the beat of a different drummer, Kelly released his Walden-inspired science fiction book as a free podcast just as the book hit retail shelves. The action that might have seemed crazy to traditional publishers gave an otherwise small-print book the opportunity to develop a wide readership. According to the author, the whole thing was an experiment that turned out really well. He is now being called a pioneer.

The Wire caught up with Kelly hot off of his Nebula win. We asked him about how his small print book, simultaneously released as a free podcast, won such a prestigious science fiction award, and what’s next in the unlikely marriage of new media and traditional publishing.

First of all, congratulations on the Nebula Award. I have seen “Burn” described in comments and reviews as more than just science fiction. I wondered what you felt about the role science fiction plays in the literary world. Will it ever be okay to be just science fiction?

For years, science fiction has been dismissed by some as escapist crap. It’s popular fiction, right? So it can’t be any good. It’s as if “popular” were an epithet and not a compliment. Was Mark Twain popular? Was F. Scott Fitzgerald a best seller? Don’t get me started! By the way, both Twain and Fitzgerald had occasion to write science fiction or something like it, but ssssh! Let’s just keep that our little secret. Actually, I think science fiction is getting some grudging acceptance in literary circles, if only because it’s hard for the critics to ignore the talented writers—both from the genre side and increasingly from the literary side—who have decided to try their hands at imagining strange new worlds.

What about “Burn” do you think captured the imaginations of the Nebula judges?

Science fiction has been undergoing a kind of crisis of confidence. Some have worried that our stories are too often pitched at that narrowest of science fiction audiences, those who have spent lifetimes reading the stuff. The world building had gotten so complex that readers who are new to the genre get confused, then frustrated and then many give up. There has been a call for a more accessible science fiction, which still maintains the virtues of the genre. I was hoping to answer that call with “Burn.”  It takes place in the far future on a distant planet, but since it is founded on the philosophy of living simply that Thoreau advocated, it unfolds in a way that almost all readers will be able to understand. Also, it’s a book with a sense of humor.

Henry David Thoreau has a strong presence throughout “Burn,” but the plight of simplicity seems to be more complex in the novella than Thoreau ever imagined. In our increasingly tech-dependent world, is there room for Thoreau’s message of a simple life?

I will admit that never has the Luddite point of view been advanced quite so eloquently as in “Walden.” And while I agree that simplicity can be a virtue, and that cultivation of one’s inner resources is necessary for the good life, it seems clear to me that the habit of thought which Thoreau urges on us is antithetical to the enterprise of science fiction and the reality of modern life. Thoreau had little use for the technology of his own time, dismissing both the telegraph and the railroad. I can imagine his horror at the spread of our own asphalt and information superhighways. Hey, I’m all for spirituality, but not if it means I can’t check my email.

You released your book for free as a Creative Commons licensed podcast. You did this at the very same time that the dead tree edition (your words), hit the bookstore shelves. First off, what is the Creative Common license?

The Creative Commons license offers a middle ground between an author enforcing the sometimes draconian rules of copyright (“You stole my work, swine. Now talk to my lawyers!”) and the self-denial of releasing work directly into the public domain. Information deserves to be free, and I don’t really need to eat, la, la, la! I’ve granted permission for people to distribute the podcast of “Burn” for free to anyone they choose, as long as they meet three conditions: They have to attribute the work to me, they must not alter it and they can’t charge anyone for it. That right is reserved by me.

What made you think it was a good idea to give away for free what you were hoping to sell?

I wanted to grow my readership, or listenership. At first, what I gave away was a podcast of me reading “Burn” that anyone could listen to on an IPod or mp3 player.  I posted the first chapter on the day the book was published and posted a new chapter every week thereafter. So the entire book wasn’t available until almost three months after publication. Several months later, it was nominated for the Hugo Award (came in third!) and I convinced my publisher to let me post the actual text so that anyone could download it. By the way, you can still listen to me reading “Burn” if you nip over to my website, www.jimkelly.net.

Did your publisher think you were crazy?

Umm, nope. He knew what I was after. I think maybe he thought he was crazy for letting me do it.

Do you think the podcast had anything to do with “Burn”winning the Nebula?

I think it had everything to do with it. The writers who were my competition for the award—all friends, by the way, and two former students—had published their work in the popular science fiction magazines Asimov’s and Analog, which have circulations of 20,000 to 30,000. The dead tree version of “Burn” from Tachyon Publications had a print run of maybe 3,000 to 4,000. How did the Hugo and Nebula voters find out about my little novella? It was because tens of thousands of readers and listeners downloaded it from my site.

This is the first Creative Commons licensed story to win a major science fiction award. You’ve been called a pioneer. Is this the future? Is traditional publishing dead?

I think there are two publishing futures we need to talk about here. One is the future of print publishing. At the moment, the transition from print book to e-book still seems to me to be still pretty far away. I’m not all that keen to read novels on a screen. I looked at a freaking screen all day, why would I want to relax with one? We’ve been promised this stuff called e-paper, which is as easy to read—and as cheap—as the stuff that gets printed on dead trees. It’s probably coming someday, but it’s not here yet. When it does arrive, traditional publishing will get a very hard shake, indeed.

The other publishing future is that of audio books. Here, the electronic versions of audio books have it all over those published on physical media. If you want to listen to Stephen King’s latest on cassettes or CDs, you’re going to be lugging around a large and very awkward package of relatively fragile media. But if you can load not only “Lisey’s Story,” but also “The Shining,” “The Green Mile,” “Carrie” and “The Tommyknockers” onto a gizmo the size of a Bic lighter, and never have to worry about scratches or jammed tape, which are you going to choose? Plus, unlike the vast difference between reading a book off a screen versus reading it off paper, there is no difference whatsoever between listening to a reading on mp3 versus a CD. Audio book publishing is one of the fastest growing segments of the industry.

What can the readers or listeners of James Patrick Kelly look forward to in the future?

Soon after I chose to give “Burn” away for free, I was offered an unprecedented opportunity to transform my podcast. Back in February, Audible.com, the largest seller of audio books online, launched James Patrick Kelly’s StoryPod, a for-pay podcast that features me reading 52 of my previously published stories over the next year. This audio collection represents almost all of the short fiction I’ve published to date. In effect, I have become my own publisher. The idea behind StoryPod is to mash up the traditional audio book and the new form of podcasting. I introduce each story, read it and then in an afterward I discuss some of the ideas behind the story, or talk about how it came to be written. I don’t know of any other writer who is doing anything like StoryPod. I still feel a little stunned that Audible gave the green light to this experiment.

Meanwhile, I still am giving my fiction away on my free podcast, Free Reads, http://feeds.feedburner.com/freereads. So maybe I wasn’t so crazy after all.