Hello everybody, glad to see you again. So there's a few thoughts on indie-author work. What's the best thing to go for? Is it better to write a short story, or a novelette? Is a Novella the better deal? Or should you go right for the novel, giving your fans what they want: more story for their buck? I'm of two minds on the matter, and I'll be happy to tell you about it. After all, that's what I do!
So first, let's look at the monetary aspect. Writers want to get paid, whether they are indie or traditionally published. While the quality, and quantity, of your work should determine the price, that doesn't always happen. Personally, I'm of the mind that a short story should go for a dollar or two, same for a novelette. Novella should go for a bit more, say three to four, and a novel for five dollars. As it gets older, start lowering the price. So, after a year or so, cut that price back by a dollar! What do you think, are my price points reasonable for a self-published affair?
But that leads us to content. I like the idea of having a few short stories available, so people can get a taste of my writing style without having to go for the whole novel. Then again, there's kindle unlimited these days, so more pages mean I'll get paid more per viewing. Not sure how I feel about Kindle Unlimited, but it's a neat concept. I like the idea of a digital library, mind, but... yeah
So I've got a short story released, available as part of an anthology being released on the 1st. Maybe I'd better get my book done, huh? Eandyil Nathar made a guest appearance in my short, it's only fitting I get back to him. And my loyal fandom deserves to know I've not forgotten him. So, see you all soon!
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
A new adventure
I know, I make this sound like a sexy new book, or even a good action movie. We are now in Nebraska, hanging out with the Zombie Queen herself! That's got to be good for morale! We hit a few state capitals on our list, too. YAY Bucketlist! So, Kentucky down, West Virginia down, and Missouri down. We didn't go near Illinois capital for the obvious reasons, but we plan to eventually. First words we heard when we got here? Welcome home! So, yeah!
Plans from here are straightforward. Finish that book, job acquired, and selling tickets to see The Hobbit. Okay, that last one is a joke. Hobbit doesn't leave the dungeon. I mean, wait, what? Right, so we have the Burglar, we need a crazy old man for the Wizard. Casting starts with you. This is a short update, but that's life. Cheers, folks! We'll see you again, soon!
Plans from here are straightforward. Finish that book, job acquired, and selling tickets to see The Hobbit. Okay, that last one is a joke. Hobbit doesn't leave the dungeon. I mean, wait, what? Right, so we have the Burglar, we need a crazy old man for the Wizard. Casting starts with you. This is a short update, but that's life. Cheers, folks! We'll see you again, soon!
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
My thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, and some alternatives.
With the recent changes in Facebook's policy, especially right on the heels of the twitter controversy, it would be very easy for me to start ranting and raving. I will rise above such base impulses, however, and we'll chat about it. There's no guarantee that things will not get heated, alas, but you wouldn't want this to get too boring, now would you? Yeah, me neither.
The Tweet That Was
Twitter has gone completely 1984 on us. In this particular instance, Big Brother is actually a team of men and women on the "Trust and Safety Council." My problems with them are legion, but I'll try and keep it simple. I'm going to break this up a little bit. I'll tell you the way I think they should have done this, and then what they actually did. I'm even going to try to keep the name calling down. Aren't I nice?
What they should have done is appointed their 40 people from a variety of different views, both conservative and liberal, libertarian as well as authoritarian. While a government doesn't work so well as a committee, suppressing free speech (even on a privately owned platform) that will lead to people hating your dying business should only be done as a last resort. If a user spends a great deal of time tweeting about killing all white people, then delete those posts and issue a warning about racist comments. They get three chances, third strike and bring down the ban hammer.
I think my idea sounds reasonable, I'm sure there are thousands of people with a better idea. That's awesome! But here is what the 'wise' folks in charge of twitter decided to do instead. The filled their 40-person team with Leftists with a Cause. We're talking about the kind of Leftists that most Democrats are embarrassed to admit share the same party ticket. The majority of them are known ONLY for their anti-harassment work, the ban first and ask questions if they get in trouble types.
People such as Anita Sarkeesian, who's first act upon becoming a member was to BAN a person who tended to pick on her favorite subject, in this case feminism. I've tried to be polite, but this woman needs to put on her big girl panties and grow up. Want to run a fun experiment? Try using #FreeStacy and see how long your post stays up. If you are conservative, or even if you tend to post positive thoughts on anything that is felt to be a Right Wing Issue, then you've probably noticed that your posts have been disappearing, or that your followers aren't SEEING them. TaSC seems to feel like it's their task to censor the Right, because they are Evil and Wrong and they do not follow The Way. I mean, really, censorship is un-American!
Which leads to a conclusion, of sorts. Why doesn't Twitter's leadership do something about this? Is it because they don't care? Or are they actively supporting this behavior? Several popular conservative, and even moderate, Twitter users are actively leaving the sight. What else can we do? When even people with huge followings, like Adam Baldwin, or even large followings like Larry Correia, are being shadow-banned and censored it feels like it's time to leave Twitter. My account is active only in the sense that I'm posting links to my blog and various ads. I've deleted the vast majority of my tweets in protest, not that I think The Leadership of Twitter cares in the slightest about me. If things continue to digress, I'll quit. Quite a few have done so already.
Which Brings Us To Facebook
Look, those of us who remembered Facebook when it was young remember how cool it seemed. It had so much potential! Yes, there have been some good changes since those days, but there is a limit to that. Now it is all about "Facebook Games" which are nothing more than an annoying time sink, at best, and click-bait/malware waiting to happen at worst. Then there's all the advertisements, and the fact that you can have a thousand people who like your page, follow you, really want to know more about you and your books yet they never SEE your stuff because Facebook wants you to PAY for that privilege.
Excuse me? Even if a HUNDRED of that thousand chooses to share a post, less than half of your page's "likers" will ever see it. I posted a link the other day and didn't share, like, or anything to it. Two people saw it, one of them was my girl. Alright, so my page was just a little inactive! I also manage a new page, just over find hundred folks, and at LEAST ten of us are sharing and liking the posts. Of the five hundred and twelve people who like our page, only 86 people saw it. Many that saw it didn't like the page until they saw our reposts, So even with a highly active page, with people actively sharing and talking about it, less than twenty percent of our page's viewers actually see our posts. This is a problem!
But this isn't even my main problem with the social media outlet. This is just the beginning. Fortunately, there isn't enough alcohol or drugs in the world to make me get into all of it. The above about pages applies to your personal wall as well, only you have a slightly higher reach. I've got less than four hundred friends, but more than 300. Let's round it down, call it the even three oh, oh.... Of that lot, I see about a dozen people's posts regularly, then maybe a few of the more 'popular' pages and a bunch of "sponsored" posts I could care less about. So I've tried a few experiments. I went through my friends list, posting stuff on their walls, just saying hey. Did you know that over half of my wall has NEVER seen a single one of my posts? Quite a few asked me who I was? I didn't even hit everyone, some! Forgive me, but that is RUBBISH! That's not even getting into Zuckerberg's "I don't care if black people post racist stuff, they are cool, don't block them. But them white folks, you block that stuff HARD." Not an exact quote, but it's what came out of a few articles on the subject. Racism is racism, it doesn't matter what skin color the person has, or the culture they come from. But I'm moving past it.
Which Leads Us To Alternatives
Granted this is one of my more verbose blog articles written to date, I'm pretty sure "the most" is accurate, but I am not a hundred and twenty characters kind of guy. It is a bit hard to take a Tweet seriously when you don't have enough sentence options to argue a case, and it leads to dropping punctuation almost altogether. I make mistakes, who doesn't? I don't like when I have to do it willfully, however. So when I went looking for alternative social media sites, I wanted something my friends would actually use. For that reason, Google+ is out. I love it, myself, but it's kind of too little, too late for many. Then the author, Stephanie Osborn, who gave us the Displaced Detectives series, introduced me to MeWe.
Before I talk about this funny sounding social media site, I do want to take a minute to expand on the person who told me about it. I met her at a science fiction convention and found her to be a great person. We don't always agree on a subject, but she doesn't hold being a rocket scientist over my head. Unlike some friends, she will actually take the time to explain why she feels the way she does on a subject, and she isn't condescending about it. For that reason alone I bought her first Omnibus. If you haven't read it, I'll give you one little spoiler. It's a modern day story with Sherlock Holmes. There's a couple of people, whom I often refer to as fools or ignorant jackasses, who started trolling her store posts and trying to tell people that her books are crap. I'm sorry, but these people haven't even read the books. Having read the first four, I recommend them. Click my amazon link below, look up Stephanie Osborne, buy the omnibus. Now. GO! Read them for yourself and be the judge. I'll wait for you. Back? Let's continue then.
MeWe is the way Facebook should be. Are there ads? Adblocker is off at the moment and I don't see any. Am I blind? No, there could be an ad in there somewhere, but I don't see any. MeWe is the reason that Facebook now has five little emotes you can do now, instead of just a like. MeWe, however, has dozens of those little emoji/smiley things you can use on a post. Hate something AND it makes you laugh? Post a smiling imp and a thumbs down. Groups are easy to create and moderate, and while I am experimenting I have personally found I like it more than Facebook. Give it a shot, add me as a friend. This post has gone on long enough, so I'm going to call it here. I've obviously saved this and reworked parts of it, but any errors are my own. See you around, hey neighbor?
https://mewe.com/i/steve.moynier
UPDATE: So, I've been informed about another site, minds.com and... Well, I don't know yet. I'm @Eandyil there, so come find me.
The Tweet That Was
Twitter has gone completely 1984 on us. In this particular instance, Big Brother is actually a team of men and women on the "Trust and Safety Council." My problems with them are legion, but I'll try and keep it simple. I'm going to break this up a little bit. I'll tell you the way I think they should have done this, and then what they actually did. I'm even going to try to keep the name calling down. Aren't I nice?
What they should have done is appointed their 40 people from a variety of different views, both conservative and liberal, libertarian as well as authoritarian. While a government doesn't work so well as a committee, suppressing free speech (even on a privately owned platform) that will lead to people hating your dying business should only be done as a last resort. If a user spends a great deal of time tweeting about killing all white people, then delete those posts and issue a warning about racist comments. They get three chances, third strike and bring down the ban hammer.
I think my idea sounds reasonable, I'm sure there are thousands of people with a better idea. That's awesome! But here is what the 'wise' folks in charge of twitter decided to do instead. The filled their 40-person team with Leftists with a Cause. We're talking about the kind of Leftists that most Democrats are embarrassed to admit share the same party ticket. The majority of them are known ONLY for their anti-harassment work, the ban first and ask questions if they get in trouble types.
People such as Anita Sarkeesian, who's first act upon becoming a member was to BAN a person who tended to pick on her favorite subject, in this case feminism. I've tried to be polite, but this woman needs to put on her big girl panties and grow up. Want to run a fun experiment? Try using #FreeStacy and see how long your post stays up. If you are conservative, or even if you tend to post positive thoughts on anything that is felt to be a Right Wing Issue, then you've probably noticed that your posts have been disappearing, or that your followers aren't SEEING them. TaSC seems to feel like it's their task to censor the Right, because they are Evil and Wrong and they do not follow The Way. I mean, really, censorship is un-American!
Which leads to a conclusion, of sorts. Why doesn't Twitter's leadership do something about this? Is it because they don't care? Or are they actively supporting this behavior? Several popular conservative, and even moderate, Twitter users are actively leaving the sight. What else can we do? When even people with huge followings, like Adam Baldwin, or even large followings like Larry Correia, are being shadow-banned and censored it feels like it's time to leave Twitter. My account is active only in the sense that I'm posting links to my blog and various ads. I've deleted the vast majority of my tweets in protest, not that I think The Leadership of Twitter cares in the slightest about me. If things continue to digress, I'll quit. Quite a few have done so already.
Which Brings Us To Facebook
Look, those of us who remembered Facebook when it was young remember how cool it seemed. It had so much potential! Yes, there have been some good changes since those days, but there is a limit to that. Now it is all about "Facebook Games" which are nothing more than an annoying time sink, at best, and click-bait/malware waiting to happen at worst. Then there's all the advertisements, and the fact that you can have a thousand people who like your page, follow you, really want to know more about you and your books yet they never SEE your stuff because Facebook wants you to PAY for that privilege.
Excuse me? Even if a HUNDRED of that thousand chooses to share a post, less than half of your page's "likers" will ever see it. I posted a link the other day and didn't share, like, or anything to it. Two people saw it, one of them was my girl. Alright, so my page was just a little inactive! I also manage a new page, just over find hundred folks, and at LEAST ten of us are sharing and liking the posts. Of the five hundred and twelve people who like our page, only 86 people saw it. Many that saw it didn't like the page until they saw our reposts, So even with a highly active page, with people actively sharing and talking about it, less than twenty percent of our page's viewers actually see our posts. This is a problem!
But this isn't even my main problem with the social media outlet. This is just the beginning. Fortunately, there isn't enough alcohol or drugs in the world to make me get into all of it. The above about pages applies to your personal wall as well, only you have a slightly higher reach. I've got less than four hundred friends, but more than 300. Let's round it down, call it the even three oh, oh.... Of that lot, I see about a dozen people's posts regularly, then maybe a few of the more 'popular' pages and a bunch of "sponsored" posts I could care less about. So I've tried a few experiments. I went through my friends list, posting stuff on their walls, just saying hey. Did you know that over half of my wall has NEVER seen a single one of my posts? Quite a few asked me who I was? I didn't even hit everyone, some! Forgive me, but that is RUBBISH! That's not even getting into Zuckerberg's "I don't care if black people post racist stuff, they are cool, don't block them. But them white folks, you block that stuff HARD." Not an exact quote, but it's what came out of a few articles on the subject. Racism is racism, it doesn't matter what skin color the person has, or the culture they come from. But I'm moving past it.
Which Leads Us To Alternatives
Granted this is one of my more verbose blog articles written to date, I'm pretty sure "the most" is accurate, but I am not a hundred and twenty characters kind of guy. It is a bit hard to take a Tweet seriously when you don't have enough sentence options to argue a case, and it leads to dropping punctuation almost altogether. I make mistakes, who doesn't? I don't like when I have to do it willfully, however. So when I went looking for alternative social media sites, I wanted something my friends would actually use. For that reason, Google+ is out. I love it, myself, but it's kind of too little, too late for many. Then the author, Stephanie Osborn, who gave us the Displaced Detectives series, introduced me to MeWe.
Before I talk about this funny sounding social media site, I do want to take a minute to expand on the person who told me about it. I met her at a science fiction convention and found her to be a great person. We don't always agree on a subject, but she doesn't hold being a rocket scientist over my head. Unlike some friends, she will actually take the time to explain why she feels the way she does on a subject, and she isn't condescending about it. For that reason alone I bought her first Omnibus. If you haven't read it, I'll give you one little spoiler. It's a modern day story with Sherlock Holmes. There's a couple of people, whom I often refer to as fools or ignorant jackasses, who started trolling her store posts and trying to tell people that her books are crap. I'm sorry, but these people haven't even read the books. Having read the first four, I recommend them. Click my amazon link below, look up Stephanie Osborne, buy the omnibus. Now. GO! Read them for yourself and be the judge. I'll wait for you. Back? Let's continue then.
MeWe is the way Facebook should be. Are there ads? Adblocker is off at the moment and I don't see any. Am I blind? No, there could be an ad in there somewhere, but I don't see any. MeWe is the reason that Facebook now has five little emotes you can do now, instead of just a like. MeWe, however, has dozens of those little emoji/smiley things you can use on a post. Hate something AND it makes you laugh? Post a smiling imp and a thumbs down. Groups are easy to create and moderate, and while I am experimenting I have personally found I like it more than Facebook. Give it a shot, add me as a friend. This post has gone on long enough, so I'm going to call it here. I've obviously saved this and reworked parts of it, but any errors are my own. See you around, hey neighbor?
https://mewe.com/i/steve.moynier
UPDATE: So, I've been informed about another site, minds.com and... Well, I don't know yet. I'm @Eandyil there, so come find me.
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