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Wankathon

Swifty said:
I wonder if they were aware of the (possible urban myth) of 'soggy biscuit' that was said to be played in the forces ? .. basically a circle jerk with a biscuit placed in the middle but the last one to finish had to eat the biscuit.
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I met a German guy who had been to boarding school who said he had played: "I didn't lose, so it was OK" was all he said about it.
 
Available on Amazon:

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"If you are easily offended, do not read this book. If you are normally offended, then do not read this book. If you are not easily offended, this is not the book for you either."
 
ramonmercado said:
Maybe the world's first Republic in the modern meaning of the term? After all Cromwell was the first Republican in Ireland.
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Hmmm…

I’m sticking with monarchy - currently constitutional, formerly absolute - apart from the aberration of 1649-1660.

maximus otter
 
DrPaulLee said:
All my books are independently published. I've never approached a publisher and with good reason. They wring the sponge dry of any profits meaning that the author gets hardly anything.
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You're right there. It's a real racket they're running.
 
Mythopoeika said:
You're right there. It's a real racket they're running.
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That's the 'thing'.
Publishers earn money by producing novels that get sold. The authors get a percentage of this. Fair enough, they're running a business and not an outlet for artists.
Oh ... hang on. Quick, take a different turn.

The Old Road.
An author finishes work on their book. They can either approach the publishers directly or pay a fee/percentage to an agent.
In fairness, an agent has all the 'contacts' and experience and that is what you pay for. If your work is bad - or, with charity - needs work, your agent will advise you. They're not editors - they are letting you know what sells. It's in the agents interests to tell you how to 'sell' your book!
If you don't 'sell' then they get nothing, so an agent will drop you. It costs them nothing and you take nothing.

Approaching a publisher while circumventing an agent is a dream!
"It happened to SIR Terry Pratchett so it can happen to me!"
Yeah.
You do realise how much work TP put in to write his stuff? That he had a day job, that he didn't really like, but he needed to pay the bills? Even he admitted his success was all chance.

The New Road.
An author finishes work on their book. They may or may NOT have had it passed by an editor. And a proofreader. Or someone who doesn't say "HELL, YEAH! This is fantastic - it'll sell!"
You needn't pay to have it published - in paper print - but just go online, have it 'recorded', then promote it.

It might be good. It might be lousy. But the filter process it went through - agent or no agent - HELPED authors!

Selling books online is hard. Publishing books online is easy. It's time to be realistic about publication conferring some form of legitimacy. After all ...

Just because it's online, doesn't mean it's ... believable?
 
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Stormkhan said:
That's the 'thing'.Publishers earn money by producing novels that get sold. The authors get a percentage of this.
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Authors can sometimes get a vanishingly small percentage.
I think the days of publishers are numbered.
 
Selling books online is bloody hard. You have to do all the publicity yourself. I've been advertising my ghost books on my Facebook groups (even going so far as to paying for advertising), with very little result to show for it.
 
DrPaulLee said:
All my books are independently published. I've never approached a publisher and with good reason. They wring the sponge dry of any profits meaning that the author gets hardly anything.
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On the other hand they do do all the hard work of proof reading, editing, cover designing and publicity. It's all stuff I don't have the time, inclination or ability to do myself, so I love my publishers for that. But I know self publishing suits a lot of people.
 
I think we're straying from the topic of rolling the knucklebone dice but one more point:

A friend has a tactic which seems to work. He produces books as an independent publisher and when he thinks they've reached their sale potential he offers them to the mainstream press.
The only downside is that as a self publisher he can put as much as he likes in the book but the publishing houses are quite merciless in their editing. So the initial book is more what he wanted.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Authors can sometimes get a vanishingly small percentage.
I think the days of publishers are numbered.
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I suspect not, like it or not, it helps to have gate-keepers and some sort of institutional oversight. The biggest selling books will always be through publishers, I'm not aware of anything self-published that became enormous without at some point getting picked up by a major publisher. I think a self-published book or series can become big and might outsell the majority of books distributed by publishers but th stuff that becomes "household name" level or even within distant sight of that will be from a publisher and likely a large one.
 
I've seen several authors who were picked up by major publishers and, when interest waned, they had to go down the self-publishing route.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Selling books online is bloody hard. You have to do all the publicity yourself. I've been advertising my ghost books on my Facebook groups (even going so far as to paying for advertising), with very little result to show for it.
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Van Gough had the same problem.
 
catseye said:
On the other hand they do do all the hard work of proof reading, editing, cover designing and publicity. It's all stuff I don't have the time, inclination or ability to do myself, so I love my publishers for that. But I know self publishing suits a lot of people.
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Not only that but every single one of the publishers I approached were kind, encouraging, and took time to help or advise even when my manuscript wasn't considered good or marketable enough for them. Absolute class across the board.

A company eventually published my novella...which made us all the grand total of forty quid. :D Oh and several months later, the company folded.
 
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'Dear Mr Failure,

Thank you for inflicting your - as you term it - 'fiction novull' upon me. You may have described it as a Romance but to me it will forever be a Horror story. However, I am grateful for the distressed Christmas wrapping paper you used to bind it, and for the ten-pound-note into which I blew my nose and threw in the bin. I am afraid, though, that Cat Mechanic 3: Ultimate Showdown isn't suited to our company, as we wish to remain both solvent, and also untarred and feathered by our readers.

Sincerely, stop stalking us etcetera

Ima Twit
Manager'
 
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Steven said:
Not only that but every single one of the publishers I approached were kind, encouraging, and took time to help or advise even when my manuscript wasn't considered good or marketable enough for them. Absolute class across the board.

A company eventually published my novella...which made us all the grand total of forty quid. :D Oh and several months later, the company folded.
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How many copies sold?
 
I don't actually know - most of the 'sales' were free downloads to promote the book. Even I'm laughing at that marketing technique.
 
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