Since we've already discussed how Alex "cares" for James, why not discuss how he treats his other infected (evolved)?
My guess is it's similar to what's shown in the video.
Here's the text:
Is this the beginning of a difficult life again? I don't want!
I don't care what you want. As long as you have a contract with me, your soul, heart, and ASS BELONG to ME.
Why do you need an ass?
FUCK YOU for asking superfluous questions.
PS: Some of the joke or context may have changed due to translation.
It's ironic that this is my first video in CapCut.
To preface, this was prompted by a post I saw about always making sure you read a contract before signing it. I wholeheartedly agree.
So, I write books. A roundabout result of writing books is I occasionally get to speak at conventions. When I do speak at conventions (which hasn’t been for a year. Thanks, covid), a standard question I get asked is about the benefits of self-publishing versus getting a contract. And yes, I fully realize that everyone’s experience in this is different, and I get that. Here’s mine.
So, several years ago, I wrote a book. I put a solid year into it and did numerous rewrites, edits, etc. with three wonderful editors and boom. Book. Done. And then, like many who are impatient or who don’t want to run the risk of rejection, I self-published my first novel.
And to my great shock, I actually sold some copies.
Quick aside. I’m not famous. At. Fucking. All. Some is not millions. Some is several thousand at best. And that’s over YEARS. I am not widely known and I do not claim to be. At all.
So yeah, like, I didn’t sell a million or anything, but I was moving over 100 copies a month when I was putting in the marketing work. Not too shabby. I was hustling on Twitter, FB marketing, Google ad marketing, working the review sites, doing interviews, everything I could. And it actually worked. I can honestly say the number of copies I moved a month directly correlated with how hard I pushed. And when I pushed, I pushed damn hard. I even got to a point where a reviewer who became an editor for DC would routinely provide public reviews for my books, and I was doing a superhero series. Not gonna lie- it was fucking rad.
Anyway, after a couple years of doing this, putting out a second novel which sold okay, a bunch of novellas, and so on, I received an offer out of the blue to have my work officially picked up. For realsies.
Admittedly, I was over the moon about this. I was being contacted by an unsolicited source! AND THEY HAD MONEY!
Now, my work wasn’t Shakespeare. I knew that. They did, too. They offered me a nice little starting sum. Not a lot, but holy shit it was FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS UP FRONT. One of my editors reads my Tumblr and I don’t think I’ve ever told them how much it was. It was 5k. To start. Not a lot, publishing-wise, but that’s because the work was already done. See, most publishers will give you more, but the catch is it’s considered a down payment for more books in a series. They pay you to write future novels, and then they expect you to pay it back. I already had a shit ton of content out, so I essentially skipped that step. Which tells me that publishers really don’t expect to have to actually pay you much, but that’s another post.
To my editor- sorry I never said the exact amount. It felt weird, but it’s been years, so it’s not as weird? I dunno. That logic train made sense as I was writing this.
So, 5k upfront, and then 50% of all sales thereafter, and they would handle EVERYTHING. Marketing, scheduling tours, covers, putting me in stores, the lot. Considering how much time, money, and effort these things took, this was not a terrible deal, but there was a catch.
My story would officially no longer be mine.
Oh, my name would be on it, and I’d write it, but from there on out, the publishing house would have 100% control over how it was marketed, where it went, and so on. If they wanted to option it, I would have zero say and zero rights, meaning they could take it and do fuck-all, and I would be left with nothing. Per the contract, they could even go so far as to issue me a cease and desist on my own work and hire a new person to take over. I was signing away everything in my universe if I said yes.
So, despite the allure of having things offered to me like a legit marketing team, book tours, and money (such as it was), I said no thank you.
Now, it didn’t hurt that I’d already made 5k in sales by that point. I knew my worth and how to push to keep it that way, if I so chose. Also, it helped that I was in an okay place when that offer came in. I could look at it and say, “well, that sure would be nice, but I don’t need it.” A lot of talented writers aren’t in that space, and the offer of several months rent or money for food as well as REALLY-REAL PUBLISHING can be hella tempting. And I get it, for some folks, the deals work out alright. And for some they don’t. And I sure as Hell am not going to judge. Seriously, I still have vivid nightmares about working 60+ hours a week and not being able to afford baby formula. Hell, if they had offered that to me just one year earlier, I would have been forced to take it. At that stage of life, 5k would have been life changing. I was just starting to hit the OK section of life, and only barely. Money when you need it is fucking awesome, and sometimes, you take what you can get.
But if you are a writer? And you’re in a place where it’s not life and death? Read the damn contract. Every single time. Make good and sure you know what you’re getting into and ask yourself, is it worth it to you? If it is, awesome. Again, not gonna judge, and every situation is different.
In my specific case though, it was choosing a nice bit of cash over something I had slaved for years over. I couldn’t do it. I still can’t. It’s the one property I’ll never let go of because when I wrote it, I didn’t even know if I could write a book. It proved to me that yes, I really could, and that was worth more than I can put into words.
TLDR: Read your contracts. Make choices good for you. Some things are worth more than money.
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So about five minutes after I get to work the maintenance guy informs me that room 131 has a dog tired up outside. I've had to call these guys every night for the last week, because they are blasting rap from their truck, because they have 10 drunk men partying in their room, because one of them climbed the fence to the pool and is now peeing in it. So i was not excited, this is how it went. Me: Hi, I'm sorry to bother you but is that your dog outside? Meth mouth guest: yea, I know it's not allowed in the room that's why it's outside. Guest hangs up on me. So I call back. Me: no I'm sorry you can't have the dog on property, it's unfair to the animal. And it's a safety risk for my other guests. Guest: (this is assumed there was a lot of screaming) FUCK YOU CUNT, MY DOG, BURN DOWN. COPS. HARASSMENT. FUCK YOU. HOLD UP. Guest again hangs up on me, then comes up front to inform me that I am harassing his dog and that I am a stupid bitch who needs to mind her own business and leave them alone. So I called animal control, and since this is Texas and it's not okay to chain your dog to a truck In a parking lot with no shade or water they took his dog and gave him a ticket. The police also informed him that he isn't allowed to speak to me. Don't fuck with front desk clerks, we hate all of you.
