Where I talk about Reviews, Self-Publishing, Apple, Amazon, Game Of Thrones, the Department Of Justice, and John Green’s skills at FIFA

The first thing I’d like to talk about today is reviews. Not that I get a ton of them but I’m getting more and more.

Also I consider micro reviews, reviews, nothing wrong with them except when you dive into being critical about the work. You just don’t have enough time for anything besides a star rating on Twitter or in that limit of words. Going for more in that sort of environment leads to- “This sucks.” “Best thing ever” and “I will never get those min/hrs of my life back after reading this.”

 Currently in my thoughts when it comes to reviews, besides the fact that I might stop reading them good or bad, is that I find it interesting that some people get angry that I don’t respond to their bad review of something I wrote.

These people take time to write me an email to say why haven’t I gotten into a pissing contest with them? Sorry you didn’t like the story but writers don’t owe readers an internet duel.

Also I’ve never gotten how reading a story or seeing a movie you didn’t like is somehow a personal issue. Move on.

“If you make art, people will talk about it. Some of the things they say will be nice, some won’t. You’ll already have made that art, and when they’re talking about the last thing you did, you should already be making the next thing.

If bad reviews (of whatever kind) upset you, just don’t read them. It’s not like you’ve signed an agreement with the person buying the book to exchange your book for their opinion.

Do whatever you have to do to keep making art. I know people who love bad reviews, because it means they’ve made something happen and made people talk; I know people who have never read any of their reviews. It’s their call. You get on with making art.” ― Neil Gaiman

And another quote I found today that I like.

"...I know that I suck. I know I suck balls and I know I suck other things. Thank you for being specific about all the things I suck." -- John Green talking about people commenting on him playing FIFA but I think it fits reviews also.

I say as Neil Gaiman has said, “do your art.” I believe the very act of doing so will piss off a lot of people and there is no better reason.

I’m going to say something here that might piss off some people I know who are published with big publishers or work for them, but I think even though you win in sheer volume of good and bad views heading your way, it’s nothing like what self-publishers tend to receive.

I just think the spit and boil towards self-publishers is almost more personal from reviewers but also that might be part of the internet age of trolls and hiding behind a handle? Maybe self-publishers look like easier targets also.

Maybe, I don’t know, just a thought.

I could just be sitting here in my side of the yard thinking the dog shit over here stinks worse than the dog shit over there?

Now to the hot bed topic just about everyone is talking about in publishing- The Department Of Justice suit against a number of publishers. I’ll just throw out some things I said on Twitter about this.

I love that publishers are standing with Apple against the evil Amazon. Now this is a Game of Thrones.

Apples predatory software and operations make Amazon look holy. These enemies we choose to sleep with?

The DOJ/publisher/Amazon mess is that, a mess, but there is no golden army to stand with.

And in other news I’ve decided to stop releasing my monthly free stories and just focus on Tin Universe and Chaos Read. One story a month is enough for me right now to center in on writing, revising, editing, and releasing each month.

Here’s some cool things by others:

Want to read a free Graphic Novel. Here's a good one: Texas Steampunk I Cathedral Child http://www.webcomicsnation.com/divalea/cc/series.php If you like it cash up the creator.

"I think Own Goal is our second leading scorer this year." Pre-Yeti Love Life: The Miracle of Swindon Town #99: http://youtu.be/Tbdsp2hYaEg I liked this discussion of YA Fiction and Love during The Miracle of Swindon Town #100: http://youtu.be/4FfYYZCa61w

And Once again I’ll say it. I would love to do something like what John Green does with this if I had the hardware but focused on me playing Madden.

And that leads me to say that I still haven’t started playing Madden 11 that I recently picked up. Too much writing and other life events going on.

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

CHAOS READ: Bimonthly Short Story Series. You Pick The Price!

http://chaosread.blogspot.com/

TIN UNIVERSE: Bimonthly Short Story Series. $0.99USD

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

Where I talk about Reviews, Self-Publishing, Apple, Amazon, Game Of Thrones, the Department Of Justice, and John Green’s skills at FIFA

April's Free Short Story

What does the year 2013 have to offer the world? 

What does it mean to history? 

Is it the end of history... 

or just another year? 

Hell

A free short story

by Brian C. Williams

April's Free Short Story

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

KIRKMANS RULES

I was talking about this earlier today with people on Twitter. Remember a few years ago when Robert Kirkman went on his little rant after becoming one of the heads at Image, his rant about how creators should never work for Marvel or DC and are basically a discredit to the industry by not self-publishing? Remember that. At the time I said he was a douche because just as its easy for creators who've made their cash say piracy is ok its easy for him to say that about work for big publishers. But today a thought hit me when it was announced AMC is going to produce another of his series. Why isn't Mr. Independent independently self-producing his own shows? Just saying.

C.

KIRKMANS RULES

Where I talk about working for free, the DOJ, ads in ebooks, and whip cream fun.

Where I talk about working for free, the DOJ, ads in ebooks, and whip cream fun.

Since I’ve created several System * Publishing sites I’m going to go back to Under The Training Book being my personal blogging outlet.

Getting back into blogging is just another writer meal to consume. I haven’t decided if I will be completely taking down my Live Journal site but more than likely that will be the case.

I’m going to start this by talking about some quotes on writing I recently came across.

Cory Doctorow ‏ @doctorow  “Any writer who indemnifies a nonpaying publisher is a sucker; any publisher who asks is a jerk.” #businessOfWriting

I think that quote by Cory Doctorow is largely true. I'd love to work with a ton of people but don’t have the money to hire them and wouldn't ask them to work for free.

And the people I do work with I always work out some sort of payment even when people are saying they would work for free. I don’t like playing that game.

I’ve also had a number of people ask me to write comics or TV reviews for their sites for “exposure” I barely have enough time to write my own stuff, I’m not going to write for you for some kind of mythological golden exposure.

Jason Arnopp ‏ @JasonArnopp “Rejection can be tough. Rant privately, learn what you need to, then forge ahead like the unstoppable steamroller you need to be to survive.”

I think in the internet age this is usually a lesson writers learn by fire so to speak. I use to take rejection so bad I would stop writing for long periods of time and that was just stupid. Writing is like playing baseball, no matter what you do, you ant ever Ever going to even have a 500 batting average. At least in my view failure is not only a option, its required to tough the skin and skill.

Tony Lee ‏ @mrtonylee “What's worse than a writer that gets rejected? A writer that's so scared that they don't even TRY, and never write the story they dream.”

So true and this was me for some long. I took my own weakness as a pre-birth failure before even trying.

Tony Lee ‏ @mrtonylee “If you can't accept that your first draft isn't perfect? Then GET OUT OF WRITING. Because it won't be. Change = improvement.”

This is actually something you learn fast when writing monthly releases or you die. I’m still finding the proper structure for my work towards making my releases the best they can be but rewriting, revising, editing- that a lot of time turns into the real writing.

People have asked me what doing monthly releases are doing for me personal for than anything else and I say it’s training under gun fire. It’s harsh and sometimes cruel but it’s the best writing learning process I’ve ever been involved with.

There are only two things that have given me as much pain and joy as writings and that’s sex and trying to play good defense on any version of Madden.

Here are some things I’ve found interesting online:

Department of Justice sues Apple & publishers for allegedly colluding to set eBook prices. http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/doj-sues-apple-publishers-over-ebook-prices_b49963

I’m sort of back and forth on this issue but in the long and painful road maybe it might be the best things to slap the publishing industry in the head about getting their drive in gear about digital works.

I like her even more now. PETA does nothing really for animal abuse. Well, except kill a ton in their shelters so I guess they can’t…be abused…when Dead? All they do is masturbate to their own self promotion actions. http://www.gossipcop.com/jennifer-lawrence-peta-feud-squirrel-scene-winters-bone-rolling-stone-interview/

Oh, and before someone jumps down my throat about PETA. I know someone who had blood thrown on them by PETA people. If I had been there I would have beaten that asshole. PETA should go fuck themselves. They get away with assault and playing look at me and doing nothing real.

PETA, “I love animals so lets puts somes ladies naked on a billboards. YES YES YES!”

I've thought about putting ads in my books but still resist. Yes it would bring in money but would it be worth it for me and also the people buying ads? http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17657859

Santorum's biggest mistake. He went after porn. I'm not kidding. Porn is such a huge industry you know some of his supporters were all, "You can go after women, you can go after anything else, but let us row back that talk."

Go Jalen Rose, ESPN never calls out Skip Bayless. He's a character now, not a journalist. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/jalen-rose-skip-bayless-basketball-lie_n_1415422.html ESPN has becoming a sports copy of Fox News. They want to be called pure News when it benefits them and they want to be called entertainment when attacked. And just to add I've always said Fox New took a lot of lessons for doing their thing from the early success days of ESPN. ESPN perfected the newscaster is more important than the news itself structure.

Time to post this and knuckle down and get some writing down. The writer in me says go put more whip cream on my coffee. My body says "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"

At least I don’t funnel that stuff into my mouth like Mar does.

Oh, that just sounded bad, didn’t it? She’s going to kick my ass.

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

UNDER THE TRAINING BOOK: Official site of Brian C. Williams

http://underthetrainingbook.blogspot.com/

CHAOS READ: Bimonthly Short Story Series

http://chaosread.blogspot.com/

TIN UNIVERSE: Bimonthly Short Story Series

http://tinuniverse.blogspot.com/

The  Facebook page of Brian C. Williams

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

Twitter feed of Brian C. Williams

https://twitter.com/hangofwednesday

Smashwords Store:

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

Where I talk about working for free, the DOJ, ads in ebooks, and whip cream fun.

FIFTY SHADES OF DO YOUR DANCE

People have been asking me what I think about Fifty Shades of Gray for a while? I haven't commented because I haven't read the books or know much about them. All I knew is it was I guess originally a Twilight type fan fiction or something along those line? Here's my thing. I have a lot of comments that come in basically saying How Dare You Self-Publish when it comes to my own writing and because of comments like that I say go for your story no matter what form it is or what its about or what others have to say. Listen, learn, and go to your story. Own it, hold it, defend it, and do your thing because as an old Garth Brooks song said, "Critics are those who put their own dreams on the shelf." There is and has always been a little in fan fiction and self publishing that is Fuck You I'm Doing My Thing.

C.

FIFTY SHADES OF DO YOUR DANCE

Poetry Month 2012

For poetry month I'm re-releasing a small poetry collection I did a few years ago. YEAR OF THE SLOW EMPIRE. You can get it for free with just the poems at my Smashwords store or with photos for $2.00 at my LuLu store

Poetry Month 2012