Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
we should remember the Fourth Estate is also a "power" with agendas and biases
Agreed, hence the tussle
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Oh, that's a good line - stealing that
Welcome (quite like it myself)
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O'Reilly picks up the fuss around Amanda Hocking.
Also links to her own blog post about it:Traditional publishing and indie publishing aren't all that different, and I don't think people realize that. Some books and authors are best sellers, but most aren't. It may be easier to self-publish than it is to traditionally publish, but in all honesty, it's harder to be a best seller self-publishing than it is with a house.
I don't think people really grasp how much work I do. I think there is this very big misconception that I was like, "Hey, paranormal is pretty hot right now," and then I spent a weekend smashing out some words, threw it up online, and woke up the next day with a million dollars in my bank account.
This is literally years of work you're seeing. And hours and hours of work each day. The amount of time and energy I put into marketing is exhausting. I am continuously overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do that isn't writing a book. I hardly have time to write anymore, which sucks and terrifies me.
The O'Reilly story expands on what publishers offer.
Many characterize Hocking as a self publisher, but that's not quite right. The companies that own the distribution/sales platforms Hocking and other authors use are in many ways the real publishers. In the email thread, Tim O'Reilly used Amazon to illustrate this point:
"I think it's important to frame all this correctly. We're not really talking about a situation where authors are self-publishing so much as one where we're watching Amazon become a publisher.
"Amazon is starting with the now standard Internet approach of 'publish first, curate afterwards' (vs. the old scarcity model of 'curate, then publish'), but it's also clear that as the ecosystem develops, Amazon will offer more of the kinds of services that Russell [Jones, excerpted on same page] is talking about."
If Amazon and Apple and others are publishers now, what competitive advantage can traditional publishers claim?
Brett McLaughlin [excerpted on same page] said the things that happen around the writing process — the conversations, the shaping, and the author-editor relationships — are key differentiators...
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Kracklite,
subversive of them
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Think of it as whispering truth to power
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I’d prefer they do it upfront not passive-aggressively.
I believe that mainly tells us something about the power struggle between corporate journos and politicians with spin rottweilers.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Kracklite,
So US Police are just being worshipful then
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to chris,
I wonder whether those using the term Aspie are the very same I regularly hear in my local McDs attempting to order hambies
Yep, we just want snakes on our burgers. Not too much to ask..
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The prevailing governmental relaxation about accuracy and evidence has sparked the inevitable Twitter meme: #BackofEnvelopeGuess
"The economy will be right, by, oh, I dunno, 2015"
"People who go to food banks probably made some bad choices, yeah, that's probably it"
"Pansy Wong? I heard from a mate she's pretty honest"
etc
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Question One from parliament today, to the Prime Minister - "Is he satisfied that actions to address the Christchurch earthquake are an adequate response; if not, what are his areas of concern? "
At about 2m into the embedded clip, Key acknowledges that they do not have the relevant geotechnical advice yet.
At about 4m30 there's a supplementary about Brownlee's mindfart about heritage buildings. Key answers that it's not what was said (and of course, being a parliament of honourable gentlemen, gets away with making shit up). Awful lot of that going on right now. Thank goodness for recording devces, eh.