The Engine of Cultural Alienation – The Music Algorithm and it’s Discontents
I’m going to link a Variety article and not make fun of it. I’m as shocked as you are.
Category: Books
Unnamed Journal 43 Out Now: Plus Fall Issue Announcement!
So the Summer issue is out, and it is available in the usual places. And, naturally, Amazon. Now, some of you sent things to us for this issue and have not been told yea or nay. We recognize that this is annoying. But that’s because we got so many quality offerings that we decided to… Read More Unnamed Journal 43 Out Now: Plus Fall Issue Announcement!
Ernest Hemingway Can Kiss My Ass
Short stories are good. I’m a fan. Collections of short stories are great. Natural stopping points. But apparently no one buys them, or at least no one buys them except from Established Authors. Ernest Hemingway has probably sold more short-fic since he ate his shotgun than when he was alive. Branding is everything. Probably this… Read More Ernest Hemingway Can Kiss My Ass
The Return of The Collegiate Plays
One of the first things I ever wrote, when I was a wet-behind-the-ears college freshman, was a one-act describing the wild nights I had observed more than taken part in. This was called Send in the Clowns, and because sophomore year we were trying to do a one-act festival, it got put on. I had… Read More The Return of The Collegiate Plays
The Ruins of Westeros
Larry Correia has planted a flag on the mouldering corpse of George R.R. Martin’s literary career. There’s a fisking in the linked article, which involves MSN.com relitigating the whole Sad Puppies/Hugos drama from ten years ago, because they want to sell the narrative that Correia and Martin are rivals, explaining this mockery. Correia fisks the… Read More The Ruins of Westeros
Grignr Emerges From The Grave in ‘The Sacred Crest’
There’s a bit of news in the world of The Eye of Argon, which, as I have previously discussed, is enjoying an expanding universe. The story has always been that Jim Theis, author of Argon, only wrote that, before the blowback to it destroyed in him forever the wish to create. That’s sort of true,… Read More Grignr Emerges From The Grave in ‘The Sacred Crest’
The Joylessness of Reading
There is an idea running through some forms of Internet Discourse, known as Elite Overproduction. Which is to say, the high emphasis on College and University education has produced more people trained to do Academic Thinking then there are actual jobs requiring such. In the old days, of course, a college degree in English was… Read More The Joylessness of Reading
Book Sizes and Countdown Deals
When you create a paperback on Kindle Direct Publishing, the default trim size is 6×9. According to Reedsy, that’s a standard size for trade paperbacks, known as US Trade. The other standard size is 5X8, which Reedsy says is standard for novellas. As in, most of the books I’ve published. Those trim sizes make a… Read More Book Sizes and Countdown Deals
There Are No Rules For Book Sales
I self-published my first book, Solar System Blues, over a decade ago. Back then, I was hopeful enough to believe that if I gave away free copies on Goodreads, that I’d get a bunch of good reviews. I got two, one of which was from Self-Publishing Review. Sales? I got a few. In 2017 I… Read More There Are No Rules For Book Sales
I am Not Enjoying Anthropica
I put Anthropica on my Amazon List a bit ago, due to my previous interest in the Dead Rabbits/Animal Riot podcast and publishing house. I received it for Christmas this past year. David Hollander is a skilled writer, and he has a literary style which paradoxically produces long, Faulknerian sentences, yet the chapters seem short.… Read More I am Not Enjoying Anthropica
