tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1411894864312049426.post194044785868786039..comments2024-03-27T08:18:53.376-07:00Comments on JustJoshin Publishing, Inc.: War of the WorldsJosh Lanyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11944091956589831656noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1411894864312049426.post-30516116910699705012018-05-15T10:12:36.014-07:002018-05-15T10:12:36.014-07:00I do agree with that.
I think Amazon has changed ...I do agree with that.<br /><br />I think Amazon has changed how people read--and a lot of what's happening in KU right now serves an audience that really was ignored for a long time. <br /><br />Frankly, those aren't my readers so what happens in that area of the market doesn't affect me one way or the other.<br /><br />The danger, as you point out, comes from relying entirely on Amazon. Amazon is all about the long game and every so often -- inevitably -- they change things up again and authors have to scramble. <br /><br />But even more than that is quality of life. I see this discussions in groups like Dirty Discourse and so forth, and so many of these authors are miserable. They're writing at an unsustainable pace--and half the time they're writing stuff they have no interest in. Yeesh. <br /><br />How is that better than any other high paying but horrible day job?<br /><br />Besides which, it isn't high paying for most of them. Most of them aren't earning big bucks because it's ALWAYS the same rule. A few people at the top earn most of the money. It doesn't matter what the industry is and it doesn't matter what the magic formula is. The breakdown is always the same. Josh Lanyonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11944091956589831656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1411894864312049426.post-83972210415044193272018-05-14T01:24:44.361-07:002018-05-14T01:24:44.361-07:00No, I agree with you. Sure, there's a gravy tr...No, I agree with you. Sure, there's a gravy train you can try to hop on if you want to, but I honestly don't think it's going to last. It certainly won't last in its current form, and the people who do best in KU are the ones who are gaming the system as hard as they can. More power to them, but it just makes them that much more vulnerable to any change Amazon makes.<br /><br />Like you, I haven't been very productive lately, and most of what I've done (and everything I've published) has been on the SFF or mystery side, under another name. Both my personas could be much more productive, and that they're not is on me. Like you, I recognize that no tricks or gimmicks are going to change things for me.<br /><br />But you're right that there's a lot of success to be had just writing and publishing, going wide rather than exclusive with Amazon or anyone else, and ignoring the gimmicks. I might not be terribly productive right now, but I know people who are, and who are making as much as you (and without, I think, your name recognition in their genres) so it <i>does</i> work. That approach is building a steady career, rather than hopping on a roller coaster that could end at any time.Angela Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15429371768739779494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1411894864312049426.post-35081475502871591282018-05-13T16:17:21.444-07:002018-05-13T16:17:21.444-07:00I went through a kind of panicky period where I fe...I went through a kind of panicky period where I felt like I had to figure out some way to compete with KU while still doing what I do. Eventually it sank in that even if that was possible, it wasn't necessary. The thing that has been a problem for me during the past couple of years is my lack of productivity--and that's not something that can be fixed by any gimmick out there. I actually LIKE my writing process when I'm not feeling stressed and pushed beyond my limits. <br /><br />I think there's a little bit of that happening all across publishing right now. People who should know better are seeing some of the, in fairness, *staggering* success stories from KU authors and others, and they feel like they need to do something different to compete.<br /><br />And it's very possible they DO need to do something different--I could certainly make more effort to advertise--but I still believe that for me I can best reach the type of reader who enjoys my work, simply by consistently producing the best quality writing I can. <br /><br /><br />I think that is still true for all of us who came to writing and publishing through those original channels. <br /><br />Or maybe I'm just being naive.Josh Lanyonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11944091956589831656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1411894864312049426.post-72060189913335496122018-05-13T11:17:40.383-07:002018-05-13T11:17:40.383-07:00I agree with your live-and-let-live philosophy, bu...I agree with your live-and-let-live philosophy, but I'm not so sure the other world is viable in the long term.<br /><br />The first thing that jumps out at me is the "buying reviews" thing. That smells like something that's rotten and festering, and at any moment it could burst open and release its stink for everyone to see/smell/notice. Seriously, if someone, maybe an ambitious blogger, decides to go poking around, figures out who the really busy reviewers-for-pay are, or hacks into the client database of one or more of the companies offering this service, and makes it all public, a writer whose reviews were (I'll be kind and assume <i>mostly)</i> bought could find themselves getting a whole lot of exactly the wrong kind of publicity.<br /><br />And the more successful they were, the more people who've heard their name, the better their results were in the 20-books-to-50K thing or similar? The more shit is going to rain down on their heads, because people are more likely to repeat negative gossip about someone famous than someone obscure.<br /><br />And in general, every time some key factor about the business changes -- like every time Amazon tries to fumigate the roaches out of KU by changing how the payment system works yet again -- the writers who were gaming that system the hardest, the people who were dancing right on the edge of the cliff and using every exploit they could find, are the ones to suffer the most (even if they weren't actually scamming) and scream the loudest. (Like all the folks who'd been breaking up their novels into twenty little chapter-long "books" and calling them "serials," so they could get a KU share for each read of a chapter instead of one read of the book, as a particularly scammy example. When Amazon plugged that hole, you'd think these folks were being skinned alive with a dull grapefruit spoon. [eyeroll]) And again, these are usually people who are following some kind of get-rich-quick blueprint.<br /><br />Sure, you can pull that off for a while, make your bank and then go do whatever it is you actually want to do with your life. But there also seem to be a lot of writers who think that this -- gaming the system as hard as you can -- is <i>the</i> way to make writing and especially indie publishing work. The people screaming the loudest whenever Amazon tweaks KU aren't usually griping about their investment savings, so far as I can tell; they're griping about how they now can't pay their mortgage, or can't pay their kids' private school fees, or whatever. That's not someone looking to earn a pile of money to invest in something real later on, or using their not-going-to-last income to buy a new car, or take the family on vacation. These seem to be folks who thinks this is The System, and that (very foolishly, especially considering how many times this house of cards has collapsed so far) surely This Time it'll last forever.<br /><br />I feel sorry for these folks, and I'll feel just as sorry for the next batch of people who find they can't pay their mortgage next time Amazon cleans house. But at the same time, I get very impatient with people who read a book or watch a video and figure, "Cool! I'll do this and be rich forever!" and then rest their (and their family's [sigh]) financial stability on what's clearly, to anyone paying attention, a collection of short-term tricks.<br /><br />I can feel sorry for someone while at the same time wanting to smack them upside the head in hopes of jarring a few brain cells loose. :/<br /><br />AngieAngela Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15429371768739779494noreply@blogger.com