Where I talk about Marvel Now, Smashwords, a Kickstarter project, and lots and lots of cool links and one rant.

     So I was going to write about Marvels new NEWS OF THE DECADE! Marvel's doing a relaunch/reboot/rethink but are they making the same mistakes DC made? In a word. Yes. But this one incoherent grouping of words pretty much says all I have to say on the subject. Though I'll probably rant on it later when a lot of the trades start coming out in hardcovers.


      Also my mind changed to me wishing to write about something that came up yesterday in a conversation with a reader of my stuffs. That person of conversation wasn't the first one to bring this subject up, I get a lot of emails from people when I release a free project to my Smashwords store saying they do't like that they have to create a account with Smashwords, which is free, to download said free projects.
     Let me talk for a bit  here and hopefully I can address this subject.
     The whole having to create an account thing happens because I'm not releasing as free per say but as a You Set The Price! method of payment; which can be free or however much you wish to pay. You can always read the thing for free first and then if you liked and want to pay something by download again and this time pay. A lot of people choice to do it this way and many for the second download were they pay they choose to send that copy as a gift to a friend which you can do now on Smaswords.
     The reason this whole thing is better for a writer to do is it gives the creator information on downloads/sales. I need this to know what people like and might like more of from me or others I work with. Raw numbers are still a very valuable tool because so many people don't comment or send emails or anything outside of the download/purchase.
     This is especially important when doing ongoing series. Lets say I'm writing two series, which I've been doing, with one I get a lot of responses from readers and the other nothing. You would think the one I get responses for would be the most popular? Not always the case. Take for example Chaos Read and Tin Universe, my two ongoing story series. Tin Universe gets way more emails than Chaos Read which gets hardly any but Chaos Read is downloaded three times more. Now you also have to factor in that one is You Set The Price! and the other is $0.99usd but you get the point in that example which I admit isn't very adapt at all.
     Moving on.
     The point I'm trying to make is that I factor in all of these things when deciding if people would like to see more of one character or groups of characters or types of stories over another. The best thing to happen would be for every reader to email or leave a comment or post a review but that's not going to happen. Some people might hate it so much they don't even want to talk about it but there are also others who just don't do the whole comment or email thing. I view tons of web shows daily but have only commented twice but I make sure to Like, Tweet, Share, or Dislike things.... though to be honest I never dislike something. If I don't like it I just don't hit Like or anything after viewing.
     I know signing up for yet another site sucks. I know if you're purchasing something that means giving another site your credit card information and that sucks, but all of these things help the artists. The process and information gathered through the process is something all independent artist need to learn and use.
     With that said I also know this can drive away readers. I know this was a big issue when I left LuLu and I'm still trying to built back that readership.
     Things like Smashwords, Kickstarter, LuLu and such are attempts to put more control and money in the hands of the artists who do the work. These systems are nowhere near perfect but they are building to something truly special if we all keep working hard to get it there.
     I thought I should mention this since it's come up quite a bit lately. I know when I left LuLu I lost readers but that was a choice because Smashwords offered more to creators in many ways. It's my home right now and I'm working to build that catalog into something that is worth setting up a new account there for.

Check Out my Smashwords store here.

COOL LINKS TO CHECK OUT:
     Found this the other day on the sidebar watching John Green videos. "I Just Need A Mate" a Ballad to Doctor Who The artist had other songs I liked also. Hope to see more from her in the future. I love the internet. Put your work out there. The internet is a reason why we should never forget to be awesome. DFTBA
     Speaking of someone who never forgets to be awesome. Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - Want It Back (Uncensored)
     Ivy's Journal has been one of my favorite blogs to follow for years. Check it out.

     Check out the below Kickstarter. I'm a big fan of Moon Freight 3. One of my favorite webcomics.

     This Maureen Johnson shirt needs to be in my closet. This is like her official logo in my brain and you would know what I mean if you have meet her in person. That lady looks like she has so much energy inside her it might explode from her eyes at any moment.
     Today is Nikola Tesla's 156th Birthday. Celebrate by sharing this song for him by 8in8 (Ben Folds, Neil Gaiman, Damian Kulash, and Amanda Palmer)
     Probably the worst thing that could happen for one team and totally be awesome to the other. Google Autofill - Can I...?: The Miracle of Swindon Town #139
     Who are you sir or madam? Chordates - CrashCourse Biology #24
     


RANTS AND SCREAMS:
     Florida ignores reality and reasoning when it comes to most things. Reasoning, intelligence, and independent thought are sure to be illegal here soon. They are already hardly used in the state so people probably wont miss them much. Florida Ignores FBI Database When Granting Gun Carry Permits
     Only one rant today but if you check out my Facebook there might be more but I need to get off the computer now. I hear the thunders outside.

Where I talk about Marvel Now, Smashwords, a Kickstarter project, and lots and lots of cool links and one rant.

Thursday: Where I talk about the Department of Justice, Wal-Mart, and a Suicide Forest

I see people’s dislike of Amazon, because they can underprice books lower than anyone else, the same as people going after Wal-Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart has strong armed suppliers in a “We charge what we wish to charge or we’ll just not carry your product.”

That the Wal-Mart way.

But here’s the thing. Wal-Mart isn’t breaking the law doing that. It’s a shitty thing to do and hell knows Wal-Mart has broken enough laws when it comes to how they treat their employees but basically they’ve just built a better business from the ground up than a lot of others.

When it comes to the publishers/Department of Justice fight- if publishers are actually colluding, that’s illegal. You can’t say, “You’re hurting us by going after us for doing something illegal.”

Now all of this is if they did do anything illegal.

Here’s another thought. I’ve worked for several printing companies, big and small, and I have seen many publishers, big and small, pressure printers to not work with their competitors or lose their business.

I mentioned that to end this thought because it’s a Who Is The Enemy thing. Small bookstores hate chain stores, chain stores hate Amazon, small publishers are pushed around by big publishers, big publishers claim to be bullied by Amazon.

Publisher have laid a bad situation at the feet of modern publishers and creators. If they hadn’t been so resident to new technology one of them could have launched ebooks in CDRom age, they could have been Amazon.

But in the end when I talk about this with people who don’t care and just want to read they all say around the same thing in response to big publisher and ebooks. “The same price for a ebook that I don’t physically own?”

My finally line is always is that publishers, like record companies have drowned themselves in a mess of piracy and pricing because they have lagged so far behind the demand for digital media that now it’s a snow ball and people are going to get hurt in this snow fall because of a lack of creative business thinking.

Here’s some things by smarter people than me on the subject:

maureenjohnson ‏ @maureenjohnson “In which I (foolishly) attempt to explain what it going on with ebooks and end up with more questions than answers” http://maureenjohnsonbooks.tumblr.com/

Maureen Johnson always has good thoughts on subjects. Follow her on Twitter and her Tumblr. Always interesting things from her.

John Green ‏ @realjohngreen “Publishing nerds only: It's important to note that the publishers who settled WON'T have to abandon agency pricing” http://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2012/04/settling-publishers-are-allowed-modified-agency-for-two-years-that-could-limit-predatory-pricing/ “(But more generally, if publishers were any good at colluding, how could we explain the insane advances they pay at auction?) But the DOJ's pursuit of this is very unfortunate, as it only strengthens Amazon's near-monopolistic grip on the ebook side of the business.”

On the subject of Advances paid. The same could be said about baseball teams over paying players. You hear ever couple years a ton of clubs saying no more over paying then  some small and large clubs dish out stupid levels of money for not so great players. But again, that’s what the courts are for to prove if something illegal did happen.

And to the unfortunate nature of this all it’s like I said earlier. If publishers are colluding they can’t say- we can’t compete with Amazon so don’t get angry if we are breaking the law. If they are breaking the law then, they are breaking law.

And some more links without comment because I’ve run my mouth enough:

16 States Join in on Publishers Antitrust Action — The Digital Shift http://ow.ly/adxqi

Macmillan Publishing John Sargent responds to Department of Justice lawsuit claiming "collusion" by ibook publishers. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/a-message-from-john-sargent

Lets end this entry with this.

Ben Templesmith & Squid Friends The suicide forest of Japan: Mount Fuji beauty spot where up to 100 bodies are found every year: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127414/The-suicide-forest-Japan-Mystery-Mount-Fuji-beauty-spot-100-bodies-year.html?ICO=most_read_module

And as always here are some of the places you can find me online:

CHAOS READ: Bimonthly Short Story Series

http://chaosread.blogspot.com/

TIN UNIVERSE: Bimonthly Short Story Series

http://tinuniverse.blogspot.com/

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Williams/100000358371201

Twitter

https://twitter.com/hangofwednesday

Smashwords Store:

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hangbrian

Thursday: Where I talk about the Department of Justice, Wal-Mart, and a Suicide Forest

REVIEW: The Name Of The Star

THE NAME OF THE STAR

Written by Maureen Johnson

Published by 

G.P. Putnam's Sons

An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Release Date September 2011

*As always I'll start by saying my reviews are more book discussions than the reviews most people write. I talk about feelings before, during, and after reading a book.

I was able to get a signed ARC of this book while attending ALA11 in New Orleans with Mar and I want to start by saying this. The Penguin staff were one of the better groups at organizing, informing, and moving a signing. I just wanted to say that because there were a couple of publishers, big publishers, who acted like this was there first time at the dance so to speak.

The whole ALA11 experience was hugely positive but because of a couple unprofessional things in terms of stupidity I wanted to get that out of the way to showcase a positive when it came to professionalism.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to ALA11 was to get to meet Maureen Johnson. I've become a big fan of  her writing but in a some what different way than how most readers find a writer. Let me explain, I'll try to keep it short, and then get on with my review of The Name Of The Star.

I had heard the name Maureen Johnson a lot. That sort of thing happens when you live with a YA Librarian(Mar) who reads tons, you end of at least knowing the names and books that are making impacts, but I didn't have any sort of introduction to her writing until I added her on Twitter. Mar at the time wasn't on Twitter so I added a bunch of writers, people, and things she was interested in so I could let her know about things. But of all of those adds Maureen Johnson's Twitter feed stood out. She was smart, funny, entertaining, and her Twitter actually had better writing than a number of books I was reading at the time. So once we planned to go to ALA11, and unlike Chicago last year, this time I wanted to attend the floor show so to speak, I decided I wanted to get something signed by her. 

Going into ALA11 the only thing I had read of her's besides her Twitter feed was her short story in Zombies Vs. Unicorns, which I liked a lot. My plan was to print out a page from her Twitter feed and have her sign that and I would turn that into a bookmark; which I ended up doing. I was in line to get an ARC of her new book when I learned the book had a Jack The Ripper connection. I've been a reader of Ripper information since I was in my very early teens.

Thank God my parents never questioned my reading choices because they were pretty messed up back then and continue to be than God. See those of you questioning what kids read. I'm was obsessed with Jack The Ripper as a kid and I turned out ok. Yes my fragile little kid brain survived reading about murder and the truth about humanities depths to joyfully play in evil.

I didn't have a moment to start reading The Name Of The Star while in New Orleans, mainly due to my own writing while there, but when I got home, rested a bit, the first book I picked out of my ALA11 stacks was this fine book.

The story begins with Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux starting her studies at her new school in London. Like a lot of horror stories this tale is about life transfers from one portion of life to the next. Yes, as in a lot of horror stories this one is about a young persons life transfer into adulthood but just as the original Jack The Ripper killings were a transfer of the world at large from a time of modern society thinking it was civilized to the realization that it wasn't. Evil wasn't just for fairy tales but inside the human heart. And not very deep inside the heart either. The Ripper killings showed the world the brutality of the individual seemingly for no reason that it had tried to shield its eyes from but the inventions of technology and thinking of the time started to show all how brutally animal we are, were, and always will be. In that aspect Jack The Ripper was the craftsman of the modern worlds sense of self.

In The Name Of The Star Maureen Johnson gives you a story about life, growth, death. She introduces characters you care about. I found myself wondering who would die? Would this character? I liked that character I hope she doesn't die? Also knowing this was part one of a series made me hope none of my favorite character ended up dead. 

And while she built characters I cared about she also lead me down one road from what I was expecting from this book into something else. Then when you get comfortable as a avid reader thinking you can calm yourself into the rest of the book she shakes you with shouts that just because this story has gone this way doesn't mean you know the road these characters are on.

I think a lot of Ripper stories tend to fall flat because the writers take the source material as a excuse to write graphic scenes of violence after graphic scene. The writer here does not shy away from the brutal nature of the original killings or death itself but instead plays the story like the feeling of being in a graveyard even in the daytime and no matter what, even during smiles, and laughter, for at least seconds that you are there you just know deep down you could die here. And that's the crafting of the writer here. Even when the characters find moments of normality and peace you still get those fillings that these moments the most dangerous of their lives.

As usual I will not go into great detail about the story itself, trying not to spoil things, but I have to say I plowed throw most of this book in one day while out with Mar geocaching and if I didn't have such a huge stack of ARCs to read and review from ALA11 I would going for another Maureen Johnson book right away. Maureen Johnson writes with a talent that makes you want to know whats next, from her and her characters, and that is what a very good writer does I think.

I will not be giving this book ARC away here on the blog because I had it personally signed to me but promise future blog giveaways of materials I picked up while at ALA11.

Shades Of London, Book One: The Name Of The Star

by Maureen Johnson

4 out of 5 stars

REVIEW: The Name Of The Star