Digital Books Should (still) Not Just Mean PDF

It was years ago when I first started emphatically noting that PDFs were fundamentally different than eBooks. I've not been alone in that, and kind of assumed by this point that it was common knowledge.

So I was surprised to learn ¹that any publishers - let alone a big publisher - will still just sends out PDFs when they send digital advance review copies.²

An advance review copy is not supposed to be the finished product. While I am a huge proponent of having excellent eBook design (and not relying on automatic converters), that simply does not apply here.

You don't send ARCs to the public at large. They are for reviewers. For people who are wanting to review the words.

I'm not bashing on folks who use PDF- or those who primarily read on a tablet. A PDF works fine if you have a tablet. And it kind of sucks on everything else. The last book that I reviewed, I half read on my eReader and half on my phone. It would have been difficult to read on the eReader and impossible to read on my phone.

There is no reason to make it hard for a reviewer to review your book.

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¹ After making an ass of myself by asking questions and not scrolling far enough back to get context first. D'oh.
² Let alone password protected or otherwise DRM'd versions - but that's another post.

Location:Woodland Ave,Dayton,United States

What I Did With My Five Minutes Speaking To A Group of Local Authors

This weekend, I was at a local author's and artists event.  Other than knowing I'd have five minutes to speak, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Despite the table-oriented setup, I quickly realized that it was more of a networking kind of event instead of a public-facing sales event.   I didn't want to make the common indie-author mistake of trying to sell to authors, so I spent a few minutes hashing out and reworking what I wanted to say.

I'm glad I did.

I got a little carried away - this is a topic I'm highly passionate about - but these are my notes.  If you know someone who is just getting into writing and being published, this is a good place for them to start knowing what questions to ask.

And maybe it was best that there were few genre writers there.  For some reason, those of us in the genre ghettos seem to be more aware of pay rates and contracts than our literary brethren.  

And for those of you who were there (or are reading this now) who have been scammed, A.C. Crispin has some good advice on what to do next.

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My name is Steven Saus. I pay the bills by injecting people with radioactive stuff. For the forces of good.

Mostly.

I am an author, with fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appearing in magazines and anthologies both online and off. I am a member in good standing of both SFWA and HWA.

I am a small publisher who focuses on anthologies - mostly genre fiction, though you might be interested in 8th Day Genesis, my worldbuilding book for writers and creatives.

I also provide publishing services, including eBook conversion, digital distribution, and more.

And that brings me to my big point.

The world of publishing is changing. And that's good. It lets stories be heard that would otherwise be silenced. But it has a dark side - it lets lots of people call themselves publishers and prey on you - on us.

There are a lot of scammers out there. There are a lot of folks taking advantage of writers. And sometimes the scammers are even owned by the big New York houses.

As an author, this annoys me to no end because I want fair contracts and professional deals.  As a publisher, it annoys me because their bad practices drag down the reputation of the rest of us.

Part of my mission statement is helping authors know what is fair. To know that you don't have to pay a publisher to be published, and what fair rates are for publishing services.

My contract templates are online, with plain language descriptions.  I talk about what's fair on my blog, and help point people to trustworthy resources.

For example: Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors.

And questions are free. Work costs money - but questions are always free.

You do not have to pay someone else to tell your story.

Money flows toward the author.

Value flows toward the creator.

Always.

Old Scabs - Free Flash Fiction

You don't want to, you really don't. But the scab - dried platelets and blood - can't be ignored.

Try to concentrate on the smooth skin - not the red raised inflammation around the scab - focus, dammit, focus.

Your fingers, your clothes, the air brushes against the scab.

The invisible elephant makes it impossible to move, to breathe, to think.

Dig with fingernails chewed and peeled and bitten with worry. The sharp flashes of pain are relief, any sensation besides the crusted deadened dread.

You are surprised by the blood, by the wound.

It will stain your clothes.

It will leave a scar.

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Please note that the 100 Word Story Podcast is changing URLS to http://oneadayuntilthedayidie.com/!

Based around Laurence Simon's weekly challenge for the 100 word-stories podcast. The player above should have the audio for this week; if it doesn't, you can find the audio here to download.

I am updating these in a podcast feed (dubbed "Radio Free Steven the Nuclear Man" by Laurence). You can subscribe with this link (http://feeds.feedburner.com/Ideatrash) in your podcatcher or phone. You can also read and hear the rest of the entries at the 100 Word Stories podcast site.

The Three Things That Make or Break Relationships

At a recent party¹, the conversation turned to relationships. Capital-R relationships. Serious relationships. Romantic relationships. And I shared my biggest relationship tip of them all: Listen to the polyamorous folks. Even if you’re straight-up monogamous, poly people have to manage more relationships at once - and so it stands to reason that they’ve got to have some ideas that can help a monogamous relationship as well.²

And that got us talking about the benefits and drawbacks of the relationship models each of us is in. The people in the discussion spanned the range of relationship models - from purely monogamous to fully polyamorous. And each person (or in some cases, couples) were in pretty functional relationships. As we all talked about what kind of relationship we were in, and why we were doing the kinds of relationships we were, one thing kept coming up again and again:

Each person in the relationship trusted each other, was honest about their needs and fears - and the other people in the relationship were flexible enough to address those needs and fears to make the relationship stronger.

The people different relationship models - polyamorous, monogamous, monogamish, some mix of all of the above - had all talked openly to their partner(s). They were honest about their needs and fears. And their partners addressed those fears - even to the point of changing the relationship model.

One couple told how they had an “open” relationship - but when there was extra stress and anxiety due to life events, they closed their relationship to help each other feel more secure. Another couple said they’d done the opposite - that having a more “open” relationship and being honest about it with each other had reduced their insecurity.

Those two couples addressed their insecurity issues in completely different ways. And that’s the point - there is no one-size fits all relationship model. It doesn’t matter what aspect of the relationship you’re talking about: kids, how long an engagement should be, what kinds of living arrangements you choose, or even how many partners you should (or shouldn’t) have.

Heck, look at the example above. The relationship model you’re in (or want) now may change as your life changes. You may realize you have needs or fears that you were unaware of. That’s okay.

You build your relationship based on trust, honesty, and a commitment to be flexible enough to meet your partner's needs. Flexible enough that you can even change the relationship model you're in order to strengthen the relationship itself.

That’s what is important.

That’s what makes relationships work.

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¹ I’m one of those guys who likes to talk about “real stuff” at parties. So this scenario is fairly common for me - and is actually cobbled together from a few different conversations at a few different locations. Identities are, of course, mungled and smeared, genders sometimes changed, and so on.

² Polyweekly is a good place to start. I also recommend Dan Savage as well; the guy has consistently good advice, and is funny to boot. Reading-wise, I'd start with Wendy-O Matik's "Redefining Our Relationships". There's even more recommendations here