O'SkyeLeaf Little Corner

A blog about games, anime, and cartoons. Also along the way, showing my art to everyone as well. Drawings and other stuff are posted on Weekdays.

[blumineck]

I’ve got a lot of Thoughts(tm) about The Odyssey at the moment, but damnit Blum I’m an archer, not a film critic, so here’s something in my lane!

[pangur-and-grim]

I won't publish the ask (they asked me not to), but I thought I'd still answer it publicly!

no, royalties are not a significant source of income for most authors. if you wrote something like Project Hail Mary, then absolutely, the royalties would be substantial! but that's like winning the lottery. Ryan Gosling is not starring in the movie adaption of most books.

when you sell a book to a publisher, you get what's called 'an advance against royalties'. it's usually split into multiple parts, so you might get one third for the initial sale, one third for the final revised manuscript, and one third on the publishing date.

an advance against royalties is the publisher saying "we believe you will eventually make X amount in royalties, so here it is ahead of time." and then you don't actually see any money from royalties until the advance is paid off. most books do not make enough in royalties to pay off the advance (I have two children's books and one fiction book, and have yet to see royalties for any of them).

advances are still great, but you need to make them stretch! for instance, last year my net income was about 30k Canadian (21k USD), which is fantastic when you consider that I mostly made it through writing. but I'm definitely not a millionaire. I can live off my writing (not trying to undersell that!) but I'll probably remain in a low income bracket for the foreseeable future.

this isn't meant to discourage anyone from seeking out writing as a career! however, there is a reason that many authors have alternate jobs with writing on the side. or, you know, rich spouses.

[pangur-and-grim]

this isn't me making a fuss about pirating (I've pirated way too many shows to run my mouth on that lmao), but there IS actually a financial incentive to having people buy your books!

buying books shows the publisher that they can make money off you, which means they're more likely to give you advances for future books. and advances are what authors live off (if they don't have a side job). that's why I always push pre-orders so hard! you have to be a racehorse worth betting on, or else they send you to the glue factory....

if I can offer one alternative to pirating: asking your library to stock the book also helps authors, and doesn't cost anything. the only downside is the patience required.

[pangur-and-grim]

OOPS yes, @stjohnstarling makes a good point! everything I'm saying is from the perspective of traditional publishing, but it's a very different game if you're a self-published author

[gollancz]

I will also add that this is why pre-orders can make a HUGE difference to authors - because if there's enough hype, publishers can pull more levers to build that momentum and reach more readers to help authors earn out their advance faster.

[gudgercollege]

Trad publishing contracts person here to co-sign everything in this post. If you want to support an author you really like but are broke as hell, then you can buy their book when it's discounted, buy it used, borrow it from a friend, or use the library. The first step as an author is to get your book read, not to get it bought. The important thing for you as a reader is to spread the word about how good the book is so the publisher knows the audience is there even if sales aren't spectacular. Piracy of books, especially books from small/indie publishers, means the publisher will print fewer copies of their next book, and sometimes if it's an ongoing series the next books in the series will be canceled, either to be replaced by a book with a different premise or they'll cancel the contract for the next books entirely. The "hack" where you buy the ebook or audiobook and then return it for a credit also takes money directly out of the author's pocket since those payment/royalty systems are set up differently than if you were to buy a book from a bookstore and return it. In that situation the bookstore absorbs that loss, but returning the ebook means the money gets clawed back from the author's advance or royalties and they'll have to earn that back.

Pre-orders and Amazon/Goodreads reviews are used as a gauge by publishers to predict how many copies they are likely to sell and therefore how many copies they want to print. They want to sell most of what they print rather than print too many and end up with a bunch of copies no one wants that they'll have to pay to store or sell at a huge discount or recycle, which is what happens to unsold books. Most publishers have a limited amount of money and manpower to dedicate to any particular book, so if there's a book building up a lot of buzz, that'll give them reason to put their resources towards promoting that book to get a better return on their investment. If the publisher can't make money off a book or author they'll dump them.

Generally, every aspect of the publishing and book industries, including writers, agents, publishing employees, librarians, and booksellers are overworked and underpaid. Unless you're Stephen King or already famous, you don't make money off of books. We do it for sheer love of the game.

Use your library! Publishers have a whole department dedicated to selling their books to libraries and the author gets part of those sales. Increasing circulation of library resources means the libraries can make a better case to get more money from the government to buy more books that you want to read and they're a place to hang out for free. Libraries are the best gift humanity gave itself, use yours as often as possible.

[hisuianserperior]

Well this is interesting

He's most likely full of shit, but that raises the question of what he actually wants and what Float does. As well as the question of what if he's at least partially telling the truth. Because we know nothing about Dusk and I hate to judge a book by its cover but he looks like every hot evil vampire

There's definitely more information we need and I look forward to getting it

[averagerollerbrawl]

Gobbles’ iPad obsession

[repositoryofmalarky]

HOLD THE FRONT DOOR IS THAT?

That paper! Don't that seem perhaps a little familiar to a different character

This paper looks familiar doesn't it, that is fold, aka our good friend Mr. Paper! now here me out, you might be saying, that that's just a regular sheet of paper, the plan they were drawing at in the first few frames of the pilot. but have you considered these lines

Fold Here has knowledge about Kit and Kaboodle, knowledge that kit doesn't know he knows. Which means that that folds' Org was the one that pushed Kit into finishing her quest in the first place. Something thats supported in two moments. the obvious on is at the end of the episode, where we see the antognists of Kit and Daboodle having been recovered by the villian Org. if Kit finished her game all by herself, how would have that org been there in time to recover the villians,

In fact, How Did Kit Survive her planet being destroyed in the first place! Simple,

The Hero org was watching this go down the whole time. Her world is another world that was failed by this organization, Just like Flappers, Kit's world was one infiltrated and guided into ruin.

[hisuianserperior]

I feel called out lol

[silviaflowers]

Since the Gameoverse pilot just dropped, I wanted to screenshot all the outfits Kit wears throughout it, since i ADORE them and kit's character design. Figured I'd share them for any fanartists who don't wanna scrub through the whole pilot!

[nijigasakilove]

The 80s ending is perfect as we head into spring/summer too. Such warm vibes and perfectly matches the old fashioned art style

[smallpwbbles]

The realisation that the others still care about him DESPITE everything just kills me like he’s surrounded by such good and forgiving people

[estchiyu]

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

[breanimator]

✨Indie Animation Black Magical Girls ✨

⭐☀️🌹♦️

Aika - "Pretty Please I Don't Want to Be a Magical girl" - @kianamaiart

Tammy - "The Three Tomes" - @thethreetomes / @breanimator

Sahara - "Wheels and Roses " - @fumichun

Ami - "Towards Galaxy's End" - @towardsgalaxysend / @kenzyxluv

What happens when you get 4 Black Animation Industry femmes/folks that love magical girls ? You get 4 BLACK magical girls with 4 different spins on the genre. Black girls belong in every genre, Black girls can go on adventures. Black girls can be loved. Black girls are silly, whimsical, witches , skaters , space vampires , and magical.

✨Black. Girl. Magic. ✨

(A celebration of the work of my friends/industry peers as we tell our stories the way we want because we deserve to be seen in all ways. You can watch all of these magical girls on youtube)

[lydiaskyeleaf]

Everyone keeps saying this is giving them Learning With Pibby vibes.

To me, it giving me Reboot vibes. I can't wait for this to come out.

[emdeejaydraws]

if we're gonna compare Caine to AM we've got to do it right

[partycoffin]

I lost all of my Animal Crossing data so I've been quietly starting from scratch again And this happened... Very Funny House placement on my part...

[smallpwbbles]

Poppy: puts a bong right in front of Frank

Frank: are you trying to lay me out on my ass?

I was clutching my PEARLS, this update is CRAZY

[mossbee0]

this was insanely funny to me and has probably been the best feature in this update

[kianamaiart]

would it be out of line to ask the general ballpark for the cost of the IDWTBAMG VA work? asking for a friend that is trying to budget for their own indie project

For indie stuff, VAs usually ask for around $150-$300/hr

[cryoverkiltmilk]

Is that based on gross studio time, or the length of recorded lines as written?

[kianamaiart]

studio time/length of recording session

[lydiaskyeleaf]

Watching season two of Hazbin Hotel is making me want to make a AU all of the sudden.