Just An Idiot Trying To Do Better

My personal blog for whatever.

[red-garden]

“Do dishes” and “take out trash” both require the use of a spell slot, vs “use phone” is a cantrip, and brother, I am a level one wizard

[vinceaddams]

People who try to copy historical writing styles don't say enough weird stuff in them. I'm listening to a 1909 story about a ghost car right now, and the narrator just said he honked the car horn a bunch of times, but the way he phrased it was "I wrought a wild concerto on the hooter".

[bogleech]

Reblog to wreak a wild concerto on a hooter

[comradesaucegay]

you know those old ‘hentai free’ banners? that’s this blog but with harry potter

[comradesaucegay]

[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.

[mirasmirages]

Amazon Removes Books From Kindle Unlimited After They Appear On Pirate Sites - Slashdot

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Several independent publishers have had their books removed from Kindle Unlimited bec

Sign the Petition

Stop the unfair removal of titles on Amazon — Change the KDP Select Policy!

You are absolutely hurting indie writer by pirating books. This is not the same as pirating popular movies or tv shows. Don't pirate books.

[bug-mp3]

they should make it easier

[mommy-mortis]

what?

[bug-mp3]

Everything. All of it

[gaytanic-panic]

[fanfiction-psas]

Fanfiction PSA:

[toastyglow]

see also

sheath > sheathe

[dogpuppy]

I’m panicking why are the Swedish talking about me

[dorothylarouge]

[badsciencejokes]

I’m just gonna run full blast to the other side of the room. You’re good tho — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/3DW2dnE

[supreme-leader-stoat]

[supreme-leader-stoat]

[queerpeers]

me: “yeah I dated a guy in high school who came out as gay. it was before i knew i was a boy so needless to say it didn’t work out”

coworker: “damn dude was preordering”

[queerpeers]

other things this coworker (who is a cis guy) has done/said:

—got confused about why I’d never been a boy scout because he forgot i was trans

—told me he was gonna get top surgery scar tattoos to match me after i get mine

—laughs at all my trans jokes, even if they’re supremely unfunny

—calls me big dog (and him little dog) even though he is about as tall as two of me

— “I can’t believe she would say that transphobic thing to you. In June? Pride month?”

[the-ladyguinevere]

Once I said "My gender is whatever's funniest at the time" and my coworker stops dead in his tracks, turns slowly and says "So are your pronouns honk/honk?" killing me instantly

[doggirlpaws]

I was talking to a friend I knew before I transitioned about my new relationship (my first one ever!) and I said "Yeah, I think I only indentified as aro/ace most of my life because I didn't have lesbian as an option" and he looked me dead in the eye and said "Oh? Why not? ...Ohhh"

Then he said "You know, I completely forgot you weren't always this way. Femininity really suits you" and let me tell you I started tearing up

Of course, not ten minutes later I mentioned that I had to relearn how to sing and he said "oh no, what happened?" so he might just be a little slow

[doggirlpaws]

Update on that friend: a bunch of people sent me "he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit" gifs in response to that story. I can tell you now with certainty that she definitely has the spirit, and she's not confused anymore

[lobstabear]

To my 25 - 35 year olds, you've reached the age where people around you are starting to give up on themselves because they think it's too late. Don't let that energy rub off on you. It's not too late.

[knittingontheroad]

I became a tattoo artist at 49.

Married the love of my life at 50.

Got my Class A CDL at 59.

You've got time.

As long as you're breathing, you've got time.

[jones-friend]

I’m begging you

Put a reporter and early version of a newspaper in your dnd campaign

At the end of every mission/ordeal have the reporter interview the players as to what happened

After session on the campaign discord type up a hilariously uncharitable summary of the events that took place and start making falsehoods. And most importantly: spell a party member’s name wrong

“Local sea elf beats vandal and promises to kill again”

“Star cross lovers, gangsters come to tragic end at the hands of murderous vigilantes”

[aboutoriginality]

[notaplaceofhonour]

[tanadrin]

Is there a point at which a genuine improvement in public safety in return for mass coordinated government surveillance of public spaces would be a tradeoff worth making? For example, if it almost completely eliminated violent crime in public, or made sure violence by law enforcement in public places was always caught on camera, or could massively reduce car-related deaths through enforcing traffic laws better.

Yes. I'm male and left of center politically.

No. I'm male and left of center politically.

Yes. I'm male and right of center politically.

No. I'm male and right of center politically.

Yes. I'm female and left of center politically.

No. I'm female and left of center politically.

Yes. I'm female and right of center politically.

No. I'm female and right of center politically.

Yes. I'm nonbinary/other and left of center politically.

No. I'm nonbinary/other and left of center politically.

Yes. I'm nonbinary/other and right of center politically.

No. I'm nonbinary/other and right of center politically.

Voting ended onJul 28

Feel free to elaborate on your reasoning in the notes!

[pamelaivygreen]

Nonbinary and left of center, even if mass surveillance systems advanced to the point of eliminating all crime i still dont think that the tradeoff of personal privacy would be worth it, nor the possible abuses of power that could be caused by a system like that.

[tanadrin]

to be clear in case there's confusion on this point, this poll only refers to surveillance of public places, i.e., places where you have no default expectation of privacy to begin with. this does not include direct surveillance of personal communication or surveillance of, e.g., private homes (and the benefits postulated, like crime reduction, wouldn't apply to those domains either)

[eremitical]

costco should sell weed i want to smoke kirkland signature strain

[pirulesenvinagre-deactivated202]

[talldarkandautistic-deactivated]