Trying to knock out the book before Christmas. Here's some linkage.
"Why Feminists Can't Have Nice Things."
I don't remember seeing this. Glad I did.
More advice for young ladies from our Canadian regiment.
You morons voted for this. I didn't.
You youth voted for this. I didn't.
Just can't make it up. Then again, I've never given teenage girls much credit.
I call it tornado chasing, some people call it the Beartooth Rally, others call it "Mancation."
Was at the coffee store the other day. Writing my book. Saw a guy with his laptop out, also seeming to be writing a book, which he was. The conversation ensued and we had the following observations:
1. You stand a better shot at being successful self-publishing than trying to find a publisher.
2. The traditional publishing houses will be gone in about 2 decades time with only a handful of nepotist, cronyist remnants remaining for east coast trustfunders who can't figure out how to upload a book.
3. "Agents" are just as worthless as most publishers.
4. You will not make a ton of money scoring one big hit with one successful book. However, you will make enough money writing multiple books of moderate success.
5. Write series so you get people hooked on the first book, you have them for 4 more.
Here's his book. Former Lt. Colonel suffers from PTSD and becomes serial killer. Again, not economics or the genre we discuss here, but something for you book worms who may like that thriller suspense sort of thing.
True.
ReplyDeleteRegarding 1: Very much true.
The "formal" writing community online pushes the whole traditional route a lot. There's a lot of browbeating the view that self-published books don't have quality control, they're slapped together haphazardly via print-on-demand...
Anyone who looks at the rows upon rows of paranormal romances these days can guess as to the "quality control" those guys are up to.
Part of the allure, I think, is about the validation. "My book was accepted by an agent/major publishing house! Yay me!"
I remember writing my damn query letters, polishing them to perfection, and then receiving a standard rejection. Publishing is (still) a buyer's market when it comes to thousands of hopefuls finishing their NaNos and chucking them at the nearest agency. Sturgeon's law rules, no matter where you go.
In reference to Jamie Lee Curtis in "A Fish Called Wanda", calling the teenaged girl bank robber stupid is an insult to stupid people.
ReplyDeleteMy one concern with Amazon is their ability to take away a book you purchased if they feel you shouldn't have it. This happened with a Kindle copy of Orwell's 1984, of all things. There was a dispute between the publisher and Orwell's estate, and BAM! everybody who'd bought the book woke up the next morning and no longer had it.
ReplyDeleteI've got no desire to see my collection wiped out, so whenever I purchase from Amazon the first thing I do is copy it to Calibre and strip off the DRM, and then transfer it to a Kindle which has never been registered with them. I did that with your book, for instance, as well as Vox Day's "Return of the Great Depression."
Paranoid? Sure. But I have no desire to see my books vanish because Amazon decided they don't want me reading them.
You might want to check out this guys book about self publishing.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your stuff for a while now, I think that you would appreciate his style and approach.
http://www.johntreed.com/HTWP.html
Linkage: MSM finally picking up the worthless degrees story. http://education.yahoo.net/articles/degrees_to_avoid2.htm?kid=1NQM0
ReplyDelete