111–120 of 134 posts
I think this author has the misconception that people only write to be successful, others, like you, write for their own reasons. I had a relative who once wrote a book about her life, honestly the book was not very good (both the writing style and content), and largely "sold" (or was given away to) only to family (despite her paying for a book run out of her own pocket and shopping it around to bookstores on her own…
>I put it like this: I have been running since I was about a year old. Almost 40 years! But I cannot for the life of me run a marathon. I am not physically capable of it, even though I can run a few miles in a row. Yes, you are. You just tell yourself that you are not. And yes, you can write a book. Whether it gets published or not is another story. I don't understand why someone whose job it is to find the next best…
>Yes, you are. You just tell yourself that you are not. Eeesh. Any able-bodied person can walk a marathon, given sufficient motivation. You might be able to run parts of it, but you can't run a marathon through sheer force of will if you haven't done the training. A book is technically just a bunch of bound pages, so anyone can write one in the loosest sense of the word. I can just type the word "beige" 80,000 times…
Yes, and you can't write a book if you can't read, or structure a sentence, or have a computer/typewriter/crayon, etc...
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It's really sad. The original idea is that application interfaces should make programming accessible. Think the vi editor as used by AT&T secretaries, or Excel spreadsheets. Some concepts and interfaces simply can't be shrouded in clickable widgets that command the computer to perform some pre-scripted task. Just like people need to use math directly and require the ability to input and manipulate simple equations, s…
The fact of the matter is that, broadly speaking, basic programming is a suite of cognitive processes that pretty much all come online at the same, reasonably above-average IQ, and they are irreducibly complex; they cannot be further simplified except by rote execution of formal process, at which point you should just let the computer handle it.
A negative article. I spent 2 years writing a sci-fi about a guy who builds a blackhole powered computer to simulate another universe. It got less than 150 downloads in 18months. I did it because I was doing nothing else with my life. Ultimately it failed to be succesful. But I gained a lot. It really helped me get a lot of crap off my mind. I learned a lot. I also read 400 books and graphic novels over 4 years. It w…
I have a couple of questions:
i) Have you been able to apply the skills you gained for something else? Did it help you career-wise in any way, or do you just feel like it made you a better, more well-rounded person?
ii) Did you have a job at the same time to sustain yourself?
I think this author has the misconception that people only write to be successful, others, like you, write for their own reasons. I had a relative who once wrote a book about her life, honestly the book was not very good (both the writing style and content), and largely "sold" (or was given away to) only to family (despite her paying for a book run out of her own pocket and shopping it around to bookstores on her own…
Simply documenting people's story has value. I know someone who wrote an autobiography that was basically a chronological description of their life. It wasn't an enjoyable read however it was a largely unvarnished description of their long and varied life. A large library happily took some copies to go into their archives. First hand descriptions of events are hard to come by. Chances are it will sit unread in their…
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I guess my point was that success in these things at a reasonable (i.e. definitely not expert ) level has far more to do with perseverance than "natural" talent or physiological characteristics - you seemed to be suggesting that the latter has far more to do with it than it really does. Neither of them are out of the normal range of human capability the way, say running a 10s 100m is. People consistently underestimat…
>I belive most people could write a book that a significant number of people they didn't already know would pay to read (this may fall well below the numbers that would make a publisher interested) What's mostly missing from this discussion is marketing. Sorry, but even pretty good books will languish on Amazon (which is mostly what matters) if you just put a book out there, fiction or non-fiction, with the attitude…
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Charlie Stross detailed this in a blog post (which I can’t easily find). Basically, printing a book is easy in comparison to editing, typesetting, and marketing.
I may have mentioned this before, but that's not what publishers said in the '90s, when book prices were increasing rather quickly. Then, it was "paper is costing more and more!" And, of course, editing and typesetting are done once and should be a flat fee, not a percentage of profits. Finally, "marketing" is something that doesn't seem to happen to most authors.
Then hire a professional copyeditor to do line edits, an illustrator/designer for the cover, and a professional typesetter for the content, a professional indexer if it is non-fiction. Pay for targeted ads to reach 1000 click-throughs of consumers with an interest in your book.
What proportion of the cost was printing?
It is true that a lot of publishers don't spend a lot on marketing. This has noticeably dropped off since 2004 when my first book was published. But it is not true that a publisher who is investing the cost in getting the book out the door is likely to do no marketing. Of course they want the author to market as much as possible. But there will typically be a budget line, at least as big as the advance, often an order of magnitude bigger.
> should be a flat fee, not a percentage of profits
You are welcome to publish via vanity press. Where you pay this flat fee upfront. It is a percentage, for the same reason that investors take a percentage of your business, to distribute the risk. Most books lose money. Most books never make their 'flat fee'.
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Simply documenting people's story has value. I know someone who wrote an autobiography that was basically a chronological description of their life. It wasn't an enjoyable read however it was a largely unvarnished description of their long and varied life. A large library happily took some copies to go into their archives. First hand descriptions of events are hard to come by. Chances are it will sit unread in their…
I wonder how valuable something like that will be now that there already exists so much online data and documentation about our lives. Maybe traditional memoirs will still provide some insight, considering that they do at least give an organized account.
>I put it like this: I have been running since I was about a year old. Almost 40 years! But I cannot for the life of me run a marathon. I am not physically capable of it, even though I can run a few miles in a row. Yes, you are. You just tell yourself that you are not. And yes, you can write a book. Whether it gets published or not is another story. I don't understand why someone whose job it is to find the next best…
Agreed. I could run a marathon if I put in the effort. The reason I "can't" is truthfully that I can't be arsed . If you want to run a marathon what you're saying is that you're happy for training for that marathon to take over your life for, probably, about a year, and I'm not motivated to do that. With that being said Eddie Izzard, with little training, ran 43 marathons in 51 days. He didn't break any records or wi…
Well, so could any human being. I've run a bunch of Marathons, and I've personally seen people with no legs complete them. The only significant difference between those who have completed a Marathon and those who haven't is who could be arsed to do it. But I don't think that extrapolates to any human endeavour. Highly motivated people can work their entire lives and something, and still fail.
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Tell that to my knees Almost came here with this exact same comment. Absolutely not amount of motivation or feel good thinking about my own capabilities and willingness to 'do the damn thing' can surmount the sheer agony and pain I feel after a 2 mile run (because that's the most I can bear to stand) after years of jumping out of airplanes for a living (US Military) over 12 years. Ever have your knee shattered to pie…
The motivational quotes are told to people because for every ex-paratrooper or person with naturally bad knees, there are hundreds of people with perfectly fine health that they're neglecting or abusing. Being a paratrooper is almost as uncommon as being lazy is common. People with chronic health problem just end up caught in the crossfire between lazy people telling each other to work harder.
Also, training for marathon requires a lot of time and there is opportunity cost there. I will not blame father for spending his time with kids instead of training for marathon or what not. Nor someone who spends time educating himself rather then physically training. Or reading book, washing dishes or just having time consuming job.
The motivational quotes are told to make people feel good.