Interview with Charles Tan


Welcome to the seventieth in this series of interviews. Today I’m talking with Charles Tan, former blogger at Bibliophile Stalker.

SCy-Fy: Charles, you ran a well known blog for a long time and now you’re looking on from the outside, which must give you a unique perspective. What do you think will be the major future challenges for SFF blogging?

CT: Just like any media, SFF blogging will have to adapt with the times. For example, are they keeping up with the interesting discussions on Twitter? Archiving it?

Also, there is a burnout among the previous generation of bloggers (like myself), but that also means new voices can also appear in the scene.

There is also the question that few bloggers dare to talk about, which is income. I mean yes, most of us do this for the love of the genre. But if you’re doing great work, if you want to keep on doing great work, I think generating ethical income from blogging will also be a key issue in the far future (and thankfully, new methods like Patreon allow this).

SCy-Fy: What advice would you give bloggers?

CT: Have a plan.

Back when I was blogging, I kept a schedule and planned interviews and book reviews in advance, so that I would not have days where no content was posted on the site.

SCy-Fy: What were your most useful resources?

CT: SF Signal. Pretty Terrible. The Book Smugglers. Twitter.

SCy-Fy: Traps in SFF blogging?

CT: I think we can get so trapped in the minutiae that we forget the bigger picture.

Also, don’t forget to have fun.

SCy-Fy: What was the best thing you took away from blogging?

CT: The friendships I’ve developed.

SCy-Fy: What have been the best books you have read recently?

CT: A lot of impressive books have been released by Saga Press, including Persona by Genevieve Valentine and A Grace of Kings by Ken Liu.

SCy-Fy: Which upcoming releases are you most looking forward to?

CT: Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar, The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu.

SCy-Fy: Thank you, Charles. I hope that we will see you back in the blogging world some time!

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