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moana posted:I want to write what I'm writing for another year and then retire, so I'm not going to take advice from the Serious Writer with a superiority complex and a stick up his dick about genre fiction authors, heyo And I don't mean that as an insult - just pointing out how you're not quite getting the point. You're attacking people because they're not in it to get phat stinking rich fast.
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Jan 10, 2016 01:27
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quote:A person who installs carpets in apartments isn't really who I'd listen to when looking for advice on persian rugs. That's a flawed metaphor, almost to the point at being rear end-backwards. What Moana is doing - finding financial success through the commercial business of self-publishing fiction - is a poo poo-ton more rare than "writing what you find fulfilling." Moana is loving spinning straw into gold here. Any ole' rear end in a top hat can write what they love. Go visit Wattpad and see. Write what you want, but accept and acknowledge the realities of the business of publishing. I'm "successful" at this, but I can guarantee that some of the posters here more with a single release than I've made doing this full time since 2012. You don't have to do what they say, but it might be prudent to accept that they know more about self-publishing than you do. psychopomp fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Jan 10, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 01:44
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I guess it depends. On one end of the scale, you've got AO who is literally researching which kink, book length and price point is selling, and then nailing the marketing to get it in front of as many people as humanly possible. Then on the other end there's Duke, who's having fun writing what he loves and the money is kind of an incidental side effect of that. And plenty of people in between who are doing some variety of the two. From my perspective, writing formulaic romance is not something I can do - I've tried and I just don't think the end result is inspired or enjoyable to read. But i'm not going to pretend it's a miserable grindstone either, a lot of people really enjoy it. Similarly, not everyone who publishes outside of romance is a penniless hippie. So I guess there's room for both? I mean if you want writing to be your main job then romance is certainly more straightforward and more likely to succeed, but that's not to say that you can't be happy with other genres.
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Jan 10, 2016 02:40
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moana posted:I want to write what I'm writing for another year and then retire, so I'm not going to take advice from the Serious Writer with a superiority complex and a stick up his dick about genre fiction authors, heyo I feel writers are all brethren--it takes a certain brain to be a writer of any type. I don't give a gently caress what you like to write. I'm actually a member of the scifi romance subgroup in SFWA, which caused a bit of a kerfuffle when it was created on the forums. The only thing I'm "trying" to help out with is if you're writing what you don't enjoy and feel you must. Because you don't. 
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Jan 10, 2016 02:43
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magnificent7 posted:A person who installs carpets in apartments isn't really who I'd listen to when looking for advice on persian rugs. edit: I am so rooting for you to do better on your own with your next book. I know you can! moana fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Jan 10, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 02:47
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If I could write romance I would probably have a romance pen name to rake in all the romance-bux while writing the stuff I actually enjoy on the side until and unless it eclipsed the romance bux. That's probably the smart way to do it unless you have some weird hate-on for the genre.
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Jan 10, 2016 03:03
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moana posted:Lol, and you handed your persian rug off to some guy who sells rugs out of his trunk of his Dodge Omni
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Jan 10, 2016 03:07
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DukeRustfield posted:I'm a professional genre fiction author who is serious about it. I make my living off it. I pay my rent off it. I think what you're saying is disingenous to the point of being dangerous. Didn't you ever read A Room of One's Own? I'm not telling people not to write what they love. I'm saying that it's not a good way to make a living unless what you love is one of the lucrative genres - thrillers, cozy mysteries, romance, etc. That's all. You're the one attacking people for not being serious writers unless they write their passion - and I think that apart from being judgmental as hell, that's a great way to let mediocre writers write their steampunk/Star Trek slashfic forever and ever without understanding why the hell it isn't selling for beans. Maybe your passion sucks. Maybe it's time to write outside your comfort zone. I don't know, but I know that "write what you love" is advice that produces just as much crap as "write something that readers will want to read." And when you call people cowardly for not writing their passion, that's a direct attack on anyone who wants to try something new. I never knew I loved PNR until I wrote one and it was awesome. So I think you're just plain wrong, and you should get over yourself and how right your advice is and how anyone who doesn't follow it is a coward.
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Jan 10, 2016 03:08
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Daytrading is an absurd analogy to writing what you like. You are not putting your fortunes out on the market and gambling with them. You will never end up in a "cardboard box" unless you're living in a flophouse with one cup of ramen noodles to your name and quite literally have to sell $25 worth of books or be homeless. In which case, you probably aren't reading this. Every writing book that has ever been written, every class on writing that has ever been taught, will say to write what you like and what you know. You are the only one who has brought up some concept of "serious writers." I don't know why you think I'm attacking you. I've stated now numerous times I don't give a gently caress what you write. quote:I never knew I loved PNR until I wrote one and it was awesome quote:I'm not telling people not to write what they love. quote:Maybe your passion sucks. quote:So I think you're just plain wrong, and you should get over yourself and how right your advice is and how anyone who doesn't follow it is a coward.
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Jan 10, 2016 03:57
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but what if, like, i consider making money an artform e: Honestly I think we live in a pretty amazing time for the 'artist purely living for art' lifestyle. In that, there are some people who have been able to sustain a lifestyle doing what they want, for no reason other than what they want; for thousands of years the entire artistic world has revolved around patronage and commission work. Nearly all the major works of 'art' we would recognise today have been the result of someone paying for a product - perhaps writing is more outstanding in allowing for the indulgence of its creators, but not by a huge margin. I see nothing wrong with the idea of art as a product. I don't think anything is lost in the inception of a work if a great deal of that inception comes from the hope of turning a profit from it. And with nearly any creative pursuit, it's almost certainly more fun doing it than any other nine-to-five schlog. I'd rather sit in a room and write about heaving bosoms and Werepolecats who just need a busty outdoorswoman to understand them than do what I currently do, even if the product doesn't interest me. It's just that the lifestyle that the product would bring me if it were successful can be just as much a noble pursuit as 'create something that they'll poo poo out at high school exams for the next 20 years'. The whole starving artist thing is just a tad self-indulgent at the end of the day. I'd like to see less of it. Aaronicon fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Jan 10, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 06:14
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So I got an Alphasmart Neo2 for Christmas, and I just got the chance to try it out. I have to say, I really like it for what it is. It's essentially an electronic typewriter, with a small screen so you can see what you're composing. Editing is a bitch, but considering I use it to just get the rough copy onto the page, it's nice. (You only see about four lines of text at a time, and you have to navigate with the arrow keys to get anywhere during editing, so it really makes me consider whether or not it's worth editing that thing right NOW.) I can check my wordcounts and spell check, and when I upload it, it's really simple, just a printer USB connected to my computer, open Scrivener, and it types my whole chapter where I want it because it emulates a keyboard instead of uploading the thing as a text file. It's really neat, and it keeps me off the drat internet when I should be writing. What a good present.
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Jan 10, 2016 09:33
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I think Moana's caveat is that Duke is incredibly lucky, in that what he loves writing is marketable and has a broad appeal. Duke seems to be using this as proof that anyone can do it without realising exactly how rare that is. You made the point earlier that unless you're extremely weird, other people will share your interests. We are literally discussing this on a site with a front page dedicated to how weird people on the internet are. For every Hard Luck Hank that manages to get away with it, there are a hundred unknowns churning out fanfic and mary sue poo poo and wondering why nobody's buying. And I'm not talking about making big bucks or even a living from it, i'm talking about a basic level of readability. Moana's point was not that writing is a fiscal risk like daytrading, but that not everyone has the right stuff to do it. Daytrading is a good analogy in this respect, because while lotteries are the usual metaphor, you can use research / skill to gain an edge with daytrading and self publishing. But the way the system currently works, not everyone can do it. I mean it's fantastic that it worked for you, but it's slightly disingenuous to pretend that everyone can or should just write what they want.
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Jan 10, 2016 10:55
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Silvyfox posted:So I got an Alphasmart Neo2 for Christmas, and I just got the chance to try it out. They're loving awesome. I just wish the screen angle could be adjusted.
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Jan 10, 2016 14:54
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magnificent7 posted:I'm not in it for the money. If I was, I wouldn't have written a horror novel with a paranormal edge. I might as well write YA post-apocalypse poo poo with a female lead who is dying of cancer as she pursues one last love with a vampire who is into a little BDSM. lol this tired song and dance You can do decent sales with most mainstream genres, and your book doesn't really look too terribly niche. The ceiling is higher in some genres than others but you're nowhere near that. You can certainly do better than this book is doing currently without saying "if I wanted to make a million dollars I'd just write Fifty Shades".
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Jan 10, 2016 16:45
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Does anyone else find the irony staggering that people buy a short story and then leave a review complaining that it was "too short" when the word count is literally right in the blurb along with the page count. You are buying something to read but you can't read the blurb? 
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Jan 10, 2016 22:36
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Arkanomen posted:Does anyone else find the irony staggering that people buy a short story and then leave a review complaining that it was "too short" when the word count is literally right in the blurb along with the page count. You are buying something to read but you can't read the blurb? Before you were a self publisher, did you know how many words were on a printed page? Did you know how many words are on a Kindle screen? Did you know how many words you read a minute? Do you think that your average person knows any of that?
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Jan 10, 2016 22:42
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Common sense to me would be to take book length into account when buying a book regardless of whether it's electronic or print but I suppose I'm just biased.
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Jan 10, 2016 22:49
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EngineerSean posted:lol this tired song and dance
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Jan 10, 2016 23:07
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Arkanomen posted:Does anyone else find the irony staggering that people buy a short story and then leave a review complaining that it was "too short" when the word count is literally right in the blurb along with the page count. You are buying something to read but you can't read the blurb? Not after someone mistook one of my shorts for a hotel staff training manual, no. I assume now that every customer is roughly my grandmother and write blurbs accordingly. Also, nobody but authors thinks in word count. Everyone else thinks in pages.
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Jan 10, 2016 23:09
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Roar posted:Common sense to me would be to take book length into account when buying a book regardless of whether it's electronic or print but I suppose I'm just biased. what is five thousand words anyway? did you know before you became a self publisher? how many people do you think know how long five thousand words is?
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Jan 10, 2016 23:13
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EngineerSean posted:what is five thousand words anyway? did you know before you became a self publisher? how many people do you think know how long five thousand words is? Amazon has the estimated page length which gives people a rough estimate of what kind of experience they're expecting. I get what you're saying but leaving a "it's too short" 1-star review on a short story is petty. Again, may be me being biased, but shrug.
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Jan 11, 2016 00:13
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Roar posted:Amazon has the estimated page length which gives people a rough estimate of what kind of experience they're expecting. It's odd too because our page counts seem to be much lower than equivalent size shorts and we only have one extra page at the end, which is why we advertise word count to be upfront about the length. Maybe I should do the old school trick and nudge the margins over, use 13pt font and double space the whole thing.
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Jan 11, 2016 00:16
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I'm pretty sure I knew what ''short stories'' was before I published anything.
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Jan 11, 2016 00:52
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And they refunded it too. Welp, thanks a lot buddy.
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Jan 11, 2016 01:49
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Arkanomen posted:And they refunded it too. Welp, thanks a lot buddy. The ultimate icing on the poo poo cake 
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Jan 11, 2016 12:24
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That's one of the few nice things about the KU pages-read metric; nobody can refund their pages. 
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Jan 11, 2016 15:39
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You read it. You can't unread it.
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Jan 13, 2016 08:03
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My sales are lovely today.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:54
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The Fuzzy Hulk posted:My sales are lovely today. tuesday and wednesday are typically the worst days
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Jan 14, 2016 01:02
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:You read it. You can't unread it. Oh, but I damned well wish I could sometimes. 
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Jan 14, 2016 15:31
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:You read it. You can't unread it.
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Jan 14, 2016 15:49
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Why is the link to the goonreads site broken?
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Jan 14, 2016 19:12
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Forgot to post here when I actually did the sale, but I have a few left if anybody's looking for a cover on the cheap side. $50 each.  And some new stuff (not $50 each!)  
ravenkult fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Jan 15, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 20:05
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thewhitehand posted:Why is the link to the goonreads site broken?
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Jan 14, 2016 23:34
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The Challenged Reading thread in TBB has a bunch of goons posting their goodreads accounts, and there's a better chance of those people being active.
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Jan 15, 2016 00:21
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I love it when the book that's already been adult filtered has its changes approved within, like, ten minutes and the relatively-vanilla title I uploaded last night is still pending. Amazon 
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Jan 15, 2016 16:58
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So for a while Amazon posted the December reports. Dec KENPC Rate was $0.00461. But then a bunch of authors noticed discrepancies between the dashboard pages read and the amount of pages read in their report (like six figure amounts of pages missing). Now it looks like the December reports have been pulled.
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Jan 16, 2016 02:22
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My erotica bundle, which I haven't touched in months and which was still making like $200/month got adult filtered sometime in the last few weeks (I only noticed now). I guess they are REALLY cracking down on erotica now. I think if anyone is still in erotica...now would be a good time to start writing romance.
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Jan 16, 2016 05:53
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angel opportunity posted:I think if anyone is still in erotica...now would be a good time to start writing romance. I'm not so much lamenting my own position here as imagining an army of socially inept lurkers taking your advice, and Amazon getting flooded with 99c serials about Whiteknight McGoodman arguing his way out of the friendzone.
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Jan 16, 2016 11:50
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I'm just not that good at writing romance really, the idea of making up both sides of the attraction baffles me. I basically have no idea how I attracted my wife, but i'm hardly the most maladjusted goon I've seen, and this isn't even reddit. Read some romance in the top ten,
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Jan 16, 2016 15:05
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