A File 770 article asserts that “several indie romance authors recently found themselves banned by Kindle Direct Publishing with no real explanation.” I have no independent confirmation of this, but the article is worth a look.
I use Smashwords as my primary self-publishing outlet. This locks me out of some nice features I could get by giving exclusive publication rights to KDP, but I don’t care to be locked in like that.
Recently I got into a Reddit discussion that included a question about a non-compete clause for a freelance writer. Such clauses have legitimate uses, but broadly written ones can be nasty. They can damage a writer’s ability to earn an income. I’m not an expert in this area, so I’ve gone looking for reliable material.
PublishLawyer.com has an informative article, primarily addressing fiction writers. It quotes a “typical provision”:
During the term of this Agreement, Author has not prepared or published, and shall not prepare or publish, or participate in the preparation or publication of any work that directly competes with the sales of the Work.
A major theme of Lord of the Rings is that power corrupts. It’s impossible to miss. The Ring represents the power to subjugate, conquer, and destroy. Sauron made it for that purpose. It has a magical aura that causes people who stay near it for long to want to possess and use it. It controls people more than they control it. Only Sauron can fully control the Ring.
However, it doesn’t influence everyone equally. Hobbits are, with one major exception, less susceptible. Sam shows little interest in it, taking it only when he has to and returning it to Frodo with relative ease. It’s a huge burden on Frodo, but he doesn’t succumb to it until he reaches Mount Doom and faces the decision to destroy it. Merry and Pippin have no interest in acquiring it.
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You can find author pages for me on LibraryThing and Goodreads. If you’re inclined to follow me on either or both of those sites, please do.
Goodreads displays a popup demanding that you log in or get an account, but it’s a bluff. Click the close box and you can view my page. Of course, you’ll have to log in to follow me.
I’ve started copying some of my existing book reviews to Goodreads, and you’ll find links to them on my page.
This post will automatically be copied to my Goodreads blog, though it’s a bit redundant there.
Several readers have received the beta draft of Spells of War. Now I can ignore it for a while. My purpose wasn’t to do trope-busting, but just to follow up on the implications of The Magic Battery. Even so, it has some unusual features.
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File 770 has an update on the effort to bring back Uncle Hugo’s. The bookstore was destroyed by a fire set by an unknown arsonist during last year’s Minneapolis riots. The article says, “Last month [Don Blyly] found three prospective buildings to consider – one would be satisfactory if he can get it for the right price.”
The fundraiser has raised nearly $200,000 and is still active.
The 2023 World Science Fiction Convention will be in China, a country notorious for suppressing dissent, persecuting minorities, restricting communication, and monitoring its citizens. Worldcon sites are selected among bidders by members of an earlier Worldcon, as just happened at Discon. It appears that the selection was the result of a large number of votes sent in from China from people who purchased supporting memberships. In other words, China bought the Worldcon.
Science fiction is the realm of speculation, exploration of ideas, and examination of alternatives. The idea of a Worldcon in such a repressive nation is absurd. Hopefully few fans in free countries will have any interest in this charade, and they’ll sit it out.
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This week, I’ve started rewriting the first draft of Spells of War. The first eight chapters went pretty quickly, without any huge changes. The biggest departure from the first draft, though, is that the action will now span 1556-1557, instead of all taking place in 1556. Things just got too crammed against the approach of winter and Ramadan. With the new timeline, the mages on each side will be able to develop more weapons and train the Landsknechte and Janissaries respectively in their use. This means adding material about what happens over the winter without letting the story drag.
A character who shows up late in the first draft will make his appearance earlier. This will let me build up his role in the story more effectively.
I’ll be putting out a call for beta readers before long, perhaps in early January.
According to an article by Natylie Baldwin on antiwar.com, the United States Treasury Department has threatened writers with fines of more than $300,000 if they write for the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Russia-based online journal.
The writers, Daniel Lazare and Michael Averko, reportedly got letters from the Treasury Department, delivered by the FBI, claiming they were in violation of sanctions against SCF and could be subject to a “civil monetary penalty of up to the greater of $311,562 or twice the value of the underlying transaction.” They say that other writers have received similar letters.
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Is the world going to hell? Are we all doomed? Steven Pinker has consistently argued that not only is this view mistaken, the long-term trends of the world show steady improvement in human well-being. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress provides many specifics in support of this position.
Alarm and disasters sell in the news media. People want to appear serious by citing problems rather than progress. Organizations looking to raise money or get people involved focus on what needs fixing. Taken together, they can create the impression that only terrible things are happening and they’re getting worse.
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