Writing

Is Constant Content stiffing its foreign writers?

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged business Constant Content scams writing on by

The news for Constant Content’s foreign writers doesn’t look good. This Reddit discussion, as of the time I’m writing this post, suggests that no one is getting paid. (The company is based in Canada, but it doesn’t treat US writers as foreign, and at least some of them are getting paid.)

Constant Content is months behind in paying these writers. Its website still doesn’t acknowledge the existence of a payment problem. Its FAQ contains blatantly false information, still claiming “Payments are made through Paypal.” It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the company’s only guiding principle is what it can get away with.

Update #2 on Constant Content

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged Constant Content scams writing on by

The situation with Constant Content remains the same. Payments to writers are long past due, and I’ve seen no indication anyone has been paid recently. Some people have received an email instructing them to set up payments through Stripe. Others say they haven’t received it. They can’t find this information on the website. I used my old account to log in and couldn’t find any information indicating a change of ownership or payment method.

The writers’ FAQ says, “Payment is made the first week of the beginning of each month.” It doesn’t say the first full week, so I take that to mean writers should have been paid last week. Comments on Reddit and elsewhere indicate that’s been their past practice. I let the following Monday go by to be generous, but I’m still seeing no reports of people getting paid.
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Update on Constant Content

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged Constant Content writing on by

There’s a tiny but important change to constant-content.com: The page footer now says it’s “A Division of Moresby Media Inc.” As I mentioned in my earlier post, the footer previously identified RevenueWire as the parent company. The FTC fined RevenueWire for helping shady “tech support” companies to scam people.

Writers are saying that Constant Content has sent out an email telling them they will soon be getting payment through Stripe. Others say they didn’t get the email. It’s plausible that the mail had trouble with spam filters; bulk email promising payment tends to be viewed as spam. Alternatively, CC may be sending the mail out in batches.

Setting up to receive payments by Stripe is straightforward; payments can go to a bank account or a debit card. However, it’s not available in all countries, and that could be an issue for some writers.
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The return of lily-white writing? 1

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged race writing on by

Boskone 58 pocket program coverBack in the “Golden Age of Science Fiction,” all the leading characters were light-skinned by implication. Well, all the human characters. The aliens were often green or blue. It wasn’t that the authors set out to portray white-only casts or mentioned every character’s appearance; it was just the default, and most writers (themselves light-skinned) rarely thought about it.

The situation slowly changed. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, published in 1959, presented a thoroughly international and multi-ethnic military. We’ve reached the point where characters of all physical types and ethnic origins appear in SF. It’s happened in nearly all kinds of fiction; I’m focusing on SF because it’s what I’m familiar with.

But now there’s a nasty push back. Some people want fiction re-segregated. At first I thought it was just a fringe movement with no significance, but it’s gaining in influence. I keep seeing would-be writers apologetically posting to Reddit, asking whether it’s OK for their stories to have characters whose skin color doesn’t match their own. The responses are overwhelmingly “yes,” so it’s still on the fringe, but it’s a toxic idea that needs firm rejection.
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Is Constant Content imploding?

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged Constant Content payment on by

A content mill that writers have never thought much of may be imploding. In May, the FTC fined Constant Content’s parent company, RevenueWire, for participation in scams. Writers for Constant Content are now reporting that they aren’t getting paid.

A Reddit post dated July 8 says:

I joined Constant Content this year and sold my first 2 articles in April. I didn’t get payment on the 1 May for the articles and contacted support on 16 May to query this. I received a response a few days later and was asked to verify my PayPal address. I did this on the same day but didn’t receive any response or payment.

I sold another article in May and still didn’t receive any payment by 1st June. I sent emails on 6th June and 1st July with no response to date.

The user is brand-new on Reddit and has no track record, so take it for what it’s worth, but a reply from a very experienced user says:

Yep, they’ve missed the last two payouts apparently for losing their payment processor. I’ve been there since 2009 and this is the first time it’s happened. It’s disappointing. I stopped uploading to them until they fix it but someone dug up that they got fined by the FTC for allowing their payment processor to be used by Indian call center scammers so idk what’s going to happen.

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Writing accurately about exponential functions

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged mathematics writing on by

“The number A is exponentially greater than the number B!” What does this mean? Nearly nothing. If it has a meaning, it’s that there’s some number x such that Bx = A. But that’s true of any two numbers, as long as they’re both greater than 1 and A > B. Please don’t use that expression in your writing.

You could also say that A is “linearly greater” or “quadratically greater” than B. They’re just as true and just as meaningless. “Exponentially greater” sounds more impressive because exponential curves rise really fast. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases followed something close to an exponential curve. But a single data point doesn’t establish a curve.
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More ways to order The Magic Battery

This entry was posted in My writing Writing and tagged Kindle magic battery on by

I’ve been working on making The Magic Battery available in more ways.

Discount codes work only with Smashwords, sorry. To give a discount for the Kindle version, I’d have to enroll in KDP Select, and I can’t enroll because Amazon doesn’t have an exclusive on the book. Smashwords offers lots of download formats, including ones you can put on a Kindle. Again, the dollar-off discount code for June on Smashwords is RW83R.

It’s your choice how you want to buy it. The Kindle version has nice-looking drop caps at the start of each chapter and some other nifty features.

If you got the book a while back, check the Smashwords page for an update. I’ve fixed some minor errors.

Capitalizing (on) skin color

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged capitalization race usage on by

In the first half of the twentieth century, race was widely considered a scientific concept. Terms like “Caucasian” and “Negro” were capitalized to emphasize their significance. Today science recognizes that no objective division of humanity into genetic races is possible. One group shades into another, and differences within groups are greater than those between them. The view of people as members of races has done only harm, setting people against each other.

I prefer strictly descriptive terms when possible, such as “light-skinned” or “dark-skinned.” At the same time, I recognize that dark-skinned people very often get badly treated. It just lets me avoid giving unwarranted significance to these categories. A person with straight, blonde hair and light skin is as human as one with black, curly hair and dark skin. Their experiences are likely to be very different, but their humanity is the same.
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The Magic Battery and Martin Luther

This entry was posted in My writing Writing and tagged history magic battery on by

One of my first decisions in planning The Magic Battery was to set it in 16th-century Germany. Germany, because that’s the part of Europe I know best. The 16th century, because it was a period of dramatic changes. Copernicus had set out a new view of the universe. Paracelsus had challenged long-held ideas in medicine. Luther had taken on the Catholic Church and divided Christendom.

Luther never appears “on stage” in my novel, but he is frequently mentioned and quoted. Many of the quotes that I use are real; the ones on magic are made up, but I tried to make them true to his character. The main source in my research was Lyndal Roper’s Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet. The book was also an excellent source on life in that period.
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