Tag Archives: publicity

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Introducing guestblogger Gareth L Powell

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Please give a warm welcome to a new guest blogger here at Futurismic!

Gareth L Powell will need no introduction to some of you, but for those who don’t recognise the name, he’s a science fiction writer with a growing list of short story publication credits in magazines such as Interzone; his first collection, The Last Reef, was published by Elastic Press in the summer of 2008. He’s also a jolly decent chap, as we Brits say – you can find out more about him at his website.

By day, Gareth is a professional copywriter and publicist, and this week-long series of guest posts will lay out some tactics for authors, editors and publishers on the genre fiction scene to increase the profile of their writings and publications using the same techniques he deploys for big corporations and other organisations. Feel free to leave feedback; both Gareth and Futurismic would love to get your input.

Gareth’s first post will arrive tomorrow, so keep ’em peeled.

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Will the Phoenix rise again?

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander - artist's impressionVia pretty much everywhere comes the news that NASA has pronounced the Phoenix Mars Lander “silent, presumed dead”. The Martian winter is settling in, and the resulting cold and darkness have put the plucky robot out of action, though there is a vague hope it might revive itself when the seasons change. [image courtesy NASA]

In addition to finally confirming the water-on-Mars matter, Phoenix has been a real (and much-needed) media success for NASA; they tapped into the right channels to keep the mission in the public consciousness, not just through a regular (but very sexy and content-laden) website, but through Twitter as well. It feels as if now, after two decades of disappointments, disasters and disillusionment, space is something to get excited about again. Let’s hope it stays that way, eh?

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Gibson’s Spook Country comes to the metaverse

Following on from the interview I linked to yesterday, it looks like the Gibsonian publicity engine is moving into high gear ahead of the release of his forthcoming novel, Spook Country – which esteemed genre critic John Clute has reviewed for SciFi.com. In a move that makes perfect sense for the man whose name will forever be associated with cyberpunk (whether he wants it that way or not), his publishers are using the metaverse as a promotional tool; as reported by UKSF Book News and Forbidden Planet, Second Life is going to be full of promotional events connected to the release of Spook Country. Just what I need – more reasons to hang about in SL instead of getting any real work done. If I were a published author, though, I could probably justify it as self-promotion – maybe Walter John Williams should add it to his list of ways to grow a Long Tail?