23rd April is the day Shakespeare and Cervantes died, and in most parts of the world it is also World Book Day. (For reasons known only to the UK book trade, World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is held on 1st March) This year 23rd April also was International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, on which science fiction and fantasy writers were encouraged to post free stuff on the web. This was in response to a shirty article in which a Vice-President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America complained that authors who posted free stuff online were devaluing the work of those who still asked for payment from publishers. A lively debate ensued, in which numerous authors explained how putting free stuff on the web had emerged as a sensible marketing enterprise, helping to demonstrate interest in their work etc. so they could then get money from publishers and readers that they wouldn't otherwise have earned. There are links to lots of free works celebrating this day linked at http://papersky.livejournal.com/320114.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: a prospectus-type view of Sheffield Uni, April 2007
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