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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Kickstarting the Red Team Blues audiobook, which Amazon won't sell (read by Wil Wheaton!)

Red Team Blues is my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller; it’s a major title for my publishers Tor Books and Head of Zeus, and it’s swept the trade press with starred reviews all ‘round. Despite all that, Audible will not sell the audiobook. In fact, Audible won’t sell any of my audiobooks. Instead, I have to independently produce them and sell them through Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/21/anti-finance-finance-thriller/#marty-hench

Audible is Amazon’s monopoly audiobook platform. It has a death-grip on the audiobook market, commanding more than 90% of genre audiobook sales, and every single one of those audiobooks is sold with Amazon’s DRM on it. That means that you can’t break up with Amazon without throwing away those audiobooks. Under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, I can’t give you a tool to convert my own copyrighted audiobooks to a non-Amazon format. Doing so is a felony carrying a five year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for an act that in no way infringes anyone’s copyright! Indeed, merely infringing copyright is much less illegal than removing Amazon’s mandatory DRM from my own books!

I’ve got amazing publishers who support my crusade against DRM, but they’re not charities. If they can’t sell my audiobooks on the platform that represents 90% of the market, they’re not going to make audio editions at all. Instead, I make my own audiobooks, using brilliant voice actors like Amber Benson and @neil-gaiman, and I sell them everywhere except Audible.

Doing this isn’t cheap: I’m paying for an incredible studio (Skyboat Media), a world-class director (Gabrielle de Cuir), top-notch sound editing and mastering, and, of course, killer narrators. And while indie audiobook platforms like Libro.fm and downpour.com are amazing, the brutal fees extracted by Apple and Google on app sales means that users have to jump through a thousand hoops to shop with indie stores. Most audiobook listeners don’t even know that these stores exist: if a title isn’t available on Audible, they assume no audiobook exists.

That’s where Kickstarter comes in: twice now, I’ve crowdfunded presales of my audiobooks through KS, and these campaigns were astoundingly successful, smashing records and selling thousands of audiobooks. These campaigns didn’t just pay my bills (especially during lockdown, when our household income plunged), but they also showed other authors that it was possible to evade Amazon’s monopoly chokepoint and sell books that aren’t sticky-traps for Audible’s walled garden/prison:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/cory-doctorow/article/90282-we-wrote-a-book-about-why-audible-won-t-sell-our-book-and-snuck-it-onto-audible.html

And today, I’m launching the Kickstarter for Red Team Blues, and even by the standards of my previous efforts, I think this one’s gonna be incredible.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell

For starters, there’s the narrator: @wilwheaton, whose work on my previous books is outstanding, hands-down my favorite (don’t tell my other narrators! They’re great too!):

https://wilwheaton.net/

Beyond Wil’s narration, there’s the subject matter. The hero of Red Team Blues is a hard-charging forensic accountant who’s untangled every Silicon Valley finance scam since he fell in love with spreadsheets as as a MIT freshman, dropped out, got his CPA ticket, and moved west. Now, at the age of 67, Marty Hench is ready to retire, but a dear old friend — a legendary cryptographer — drags him back for one last job — locating the stolen keys to the backdoor he foolishly hid in a cryptocurrency that’s worth more than a billion dollars.

That’s the starting gun for a “grabby next-Tuesday thriller” that sees Marty in between three-letter agencies and international crime syndicates, all of whom view digital technology as a carrier medium for scams, violence and predation. Marty’s final adventure involves dodgy banks, crooked crypto, and complicit officials in a fallen paradise where computers’ libertory promise has been sucked dry by billionaire vampires.

It’s a pretty contemporary story, in other words.

I wrote this one before SVB, before Sam Bankman0Fried and FTX — just like I wrote Little Brother before Snowden’s revelations. It’s not that I’m prescient — fortune-telling is a fatalist’s delusion — it’s that these phenomena are just the most spectacular, most recent examples in a long string of ghastly and increasingly dire scandals.

Red Team Blues blasted out of my fingertips in six weeks flat, during lockdown, when technology was simultaneously a lifeline, connecting us to one another during our enforced isolation; and a tool of predatory control, as bossware turned our “work from home” into “live at work.”

The last time I wrote a book that quickly, it was Little Brother, and, as with Little Brother, Red Team Blues is a way of working out my own anxieties and hopes for technology on the page, in story.

These books tap into a nerve. I knew I had something special in my hands when, the night after I finished the first draft, I rolled over at 2AM to find my wife sitting up in bed, reading.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I had to find out how it ended,” she answered.

The next day, my editor sent me a four-line email:

That. Was. A! Fucking! Ride! Whoa!

Within a week, he’d bought Red Team Blues…and two sequels. I finished writing the second of these on Monday, and all three are coming out in the next 22 months. It’s gonna be a wild ride.

Kickstarter backers can get the usual goodies: DRM-free audiobooks and ebooks, hardcovers (including signed and personalized copies), and three very special, very limited-run goodies.

First, there’s naming rights for characters in the sequels — I’m selling three of these; they’re a form of cheap (or at least, reasonably priced) literary immortality for you or a loved one. The sequels are a lot of fun — they go in reverse chronology, and the next one is The Bezzle, out in Feb 2024, a book about prison-tech scams, crooked LA County Sheriff’s Deputy gangs, and real-estate scumbags turned techbros.

The third book is Picks and Shovels (Jan 2025), and it’s Marty’s first adventure after he comes west to San Francisco and ends up working for the bad guys, an affinity scam PC company called “Three Wise Men” that’s run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest and an orthodox rabbi who fleece their faithful with proprietary, underpowered computers and peripherals, and front for some very bad, very violent money-men.

Next, there’s three Marty Hench short story commissions: the Hench stories are machines for turning opaque finance scams into technothrillers. While finance bros use MEGO (“my eyes glaze over”) as a weapon to bore their marks into submission, I use the same performative complexity as the engines of taut detective stories. Commissioning a Hench story lets you turn your favorite MEGO scam into a science fiction story, which I’ll then shop to fiction websites (every story I’ve written for the past 20 years has sold, though in the event that one of these doesn’t, I’ll put it up under a CC license).

Finally, there’s a super-ultra-limited deluxe hardcover edition — and I do mean limited, just four copies! These leather-bound editions have Will Staehle’s fantastic graphic motif embossed in their covers, and the type design legend John D Berry is laying out the pages so that there’s space for a hidden cavity. Nestled in that cavity is a hand-bound early draft edition of The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues. The binding is being done by the fantastic book-artist John DeMerritt. Each copy’s endpapers will feature a custom cryptographic puzzle created especially for it by the cryptographer Bruce Schneier.

I often hear from readers who want to thank me for the work I do, from the free podcast I’ve put out since 2006 to the free, CC BY columns I’ve written for Pluralistic for the past three years. There is no better way to thank me than to back this Kickstarter and encourage your friends to do the same:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell

Preselling a ton of audiobooks, ebooks, and print books is a huge boost to the book on its launch — incomparable, really. Invaluable.

What’s more, helping me find a viable way to produce popular, widely heard audiobooks without submitting to Amazon’s DRM lock-in sets an example for other creators and publishers: we have a hell of a collective action problem to solve, but if we could coordinate a response to Audible demanding the right to decide whether our work should have their DRM, it would force Audible to treat all of us — creators, publishers and listeners — more fairly.

I’ll be heading out on tour to the US, Canada, the UK and Germany once the book is out. I’m really looking forward to as many backers in person as I can! Thank you for your support over these many long years — and for your support on this Kickstarter.

Today (Mar 22), I’m doing a remote talk for the Institute for the Future’s “Changing the Register” series.

[Image ID: A graphic showing a phone playing the Red Team Blues audiobok, along with a quote from Booklist, 'Jam-packed with cutting-edge ideas about cybersecurity and crypto. Another winner from an sf wizard.']

#pluralistic #wil wheaton #drm #chokepoint capitalism #Monopoly #audible #amazon #audiobooks #sf #science fiction #post cyberpunk #cyberpunk #technothrillers #thrillers #heists #cryptocurrency #red team blues #marty hench #kickstarter

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jnexttech · 1 year

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The most influential & flawless Audio editor application for the music lover. Audio editor allows you to manage almost everything for Audio and music files. Audio MP3 All in one editor has many features compared to other applications.

The application is completely free and performance is far better than the other application. So take the full use of this application and make music more enjoyable.

#Audio Editor Application #MP3 All in one Editor #Audio Editor App #Audio MP3 All In One Editor #All in One Audio Editor #MP3 All in one Audio Editor #MP3 Ringtone maker #MP3 Audio Editor App #MP3 Audio Editor #MP3 All in one Audio Editor App #Audio Converter App #Video To Audio converter #MP3 Mixer #MP3 Merger #MP3 Ringtone cutter #MP3 Cutter

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creativitycache · 27 days

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My other post was getting very unwieldy, so I'm making a simplified version of what we know about lore.fm's legal setup. This information does NOT come from any TikTok posted by unravel.me.now (the apps creator). I am ONLY using the information posted on lore.fm's official website and their page on the app store.

My previous posts included information Reddit had compiled from unravel.me.now's TikTok account. I found conflicting information on their official sources, and so I am making this post only using what she has posted officially and not just on her TikTok.

It advertises itself explicitly for AO3

2. There is no way that any of the in-app-store screenshots have shown that allows its users to leave comments, kudos, or any feedback on the original work.

3. It does NOT have a way for fanfic writers to opt out. It DOES say in their TOS that if you are a copywrite holder and you know your information is on the app you can file a DMCA request by emailing [email protected] with your full name, phone number, and email address.

4. They will turn over all your data including your IP address to authorities upon subpoena, and are governed by United States Law, specifically the State of New York.

5. If you use the app at all you have bound yourself to an arbitration agreement and cannot sue them. You must go through arbitration in New York County (Manhattan), New York. You can still use pre-litigation or small claims court.

6. The screenshots provided in the app store do not show any mechanism for sharing, but the TOS does make explicit mention of what you can and cannot share via the app so that leads me to believe sharing will be a function.

7. The data taken from the link the users provide the app to generate an audio file is converted to an audio file that is stored both locally on your device and on their servers. It is unclear how much other data from the source they hold onto.

#lore.fm #ao3 #archive of our own #archiveofourown #2024

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a--ttano · 25 days

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For those looking to have fanfiction read to them: we have the technology.

Utilising ao3's download function and a TTS (text to speech) robot, you can have any fic read to you. This IS a different experience to listening to a podfic, and you're not likely to find a 1:1 human sounding voice for this, but you will very much have a fic read to you. If this kind of assistive technology will help you out, please use it. That's what it's there for. You don't have to be ticking any kind of disability box to use it.

AI doesn't need to be involved. You can search ao3 as you normally would, download the fic (in epub format ideally), open it in your ebook app, and have your TTS read it to you. Google search "ffn to epub" to find sites converting fanfiction.net links to epub format (other formats are usually available as well).

I have an android phone, and I use:

Librera PRO ebook reader - you can use the free version, Librera, if you don't want to pay/want to try it out first. I use this app every day, and since it is a one time purchase, it was very worth it to buy. This app has hands down the best performance when it comes to integrating TTS functions into its ebook reader that I've experienced.

Acapela TTS voices - these are BOUGHT voices. The TTS most devices come with is, uh, bad, so when I wanted to listen to multiple hours of TTS reading, I decided to buy. Acapela has a wide range of voices in various languages and accents. The basic ones (ideal for reading you a story) cost 3.99 €‎

This post is not about podfic, which is an entirely different thing, but it is also not NOT about podfic. There are more podfics out there than you may realise: fics performed by human artists, recorded, edited, and uploaded to the internet for your listening pleasure. If you prefer an audio experience and the fic you want to read has a podfic available, why not give it a try!

#assistive technology #tts #podfic #audiofic #fic

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whencartoonsruletheworld · 2 years

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So we’re talking Media Piracy a lot for good reason but I haven’t seen anyone talking about illegally downloading music on an Apple computer (which I unfortunately have) so if anyone needs it, here we go.

I learned how to do this when I was like. Eight? But apparently everyone just listens to Spotify now so lemme teach you some stuff because guess what, now you will no longer be at the mercy of "What's on Spotify" or "They removed this from Spotify" or "There are too many ads on Spotify" NO MORE

First of all: don’t pirate indie music you cowards. Pirate music from big corporations and pay small creators. ok so now we’ve got that out of the way,

1. Find the song you want to download on YouTube. If it’s a song that’s officially on sale, often times adding “topic” to the end of the search will get you the official audio.

2. Put the link into a Youtube to Mp3 converter and download the file. Most YouTube to mp3 converters are easily found on google, but this is the one I use currently.

3. Open the Music app. I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t use it which is fair because it sucks. Does anyone remember iTunes in like 2008–2014 that shit fucking SLAPPED i miss it being good. But anyway it’s the app just called “music.”

4. Go to the bookmarks bar. Click File > Import.

It will automatically take you to your downloads folder. Then select the file(s) you want to download, and hit “Open.”

5. It will automatically be added to your Recently Added. Once there, right-click “Get Info.”

That IMMEDIATELY gives you a VERY easy-to-edit box for all of the information you want to put in. Title, artist, album, album artwork, lyrics, etc. Some useful notes: “File” will show you the technical data, the app doesn’t tend to load images that are over 2000x2000, and the “Options” tab can give you the opportunity to cut out beginnings or endings of songs or adjust the volume.

Soon as you hit "OK," it's all saved!

Also, if you plug your phone into the computer and import, this will automatically be added to your Music app so it'll be on your phone too.

yar har and all that

#music #pirating #piracy #mine

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genshinresource · 1 year

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N0va Desktop Live Wallpapers Collection

Hey there, I guess everyone already knew about the N0va Desktop app right? I've converted all Genshin live wallpapers from N0va (Windows version) to MP4 and I'm sharing them in case anyone wants to grab their favorites without having to download the app.

There are two types of Genshin live wallpapers in N0va, one with audio and one without. Those with audio are the same scenes and BGM we see from HoYo's extended plays while those without audio are mostly game version key visuals and preview page home screen artworks. I'll leave both links here for your convenience, enjoy!

Google Drive: With Audio | Without Audio

New LWs will be uploaded to these folders when they're out. Edit: They're all at 1080p as I think the 2K version is redundant (and to save more GDrive space).

#genshin impact #assets #videos #N0va Desktop Live Wallpapers

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magicalmeily · 1 year

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I've made a google doc collection of 150 useful design and art resources! Whether youre just starting commissions or want to make your workflow more streamlined, I recommend checking it out

The full list is below the read more, but I suggest looking at the google doc as well sincce it will be updated more often.

This list was created by @MagicalMeily

I encourage you to share this list with other designers, artists, or even students via this tumblr post, the google doc, or my tweet. Links marked as ‘Free/Paid’ usually means the free version has a lot of features anyway and the paid just has some extra templates or storage space. *Disclaimer - I haven’t used all of these services myself, so please let me know if anything dodgy slipped through the cracks, or if you have any others I should add.

I do not support NFTs or AI Art generators, so hopefully you won’t find any listed. Always double check commercial usage rights

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMMISSION SETUP

Collection of designers rates - Graphic Design Rates Master Sheet

TOS Example, Free to use (by kawa_kunn) - Twitter / kawa-kun.art

Tiktok walkthrough of a commission TOS form - artofthecatt

Longer Video of commission TOS form - How to Create a Commission Form

Commission Advice (by AerlyaGraphics) - Aerlya Graphics

Merchandise/printing services (by @sunshinehoney6) - Merchandise Resources

COMMISSION TRACKERS/MANAGEMENT

(Free/Paid) Clients can see your progress - Trello

(Free/Paid) Single user or collaborative project tracker - Notion

(Free) General Commission Management - Commiss.io

TEAM DESIGN/COLLABORATION

(Free/Paid) - Zeplin

(Free/Paid) - Notion

(Free/Paid) - Figma

(Free for Individuals) - Box

(Paid) - Sketch

FILE SHARING

(Free) - Google Drive

(Free/Paid) - WeTransfer

(Free/Paid) - Jumpshare

(Free for individuals) - Box

(Free) - Blindsend

MOODBOARDS

Design Inspiration

Image search for inspiration - Muzli Search

Makes and automatically sets out moodboards - Visualist

DESIGN PROGRAMS

2d Animation (Free/Paid) - Cavalry

Graphics, Photo editing, Publishing (One -off payment) - Affinity

Graphics, Audio, Video (Free, Browser) - Artboard Studio

Graphics (Free) - Inkscape

Graphics/Layout (Free/Paid, Browser) - Canva

Graphics, Photo Editing (Free, Browser. Can open Adobe files) - Photopea

Vector making (Free, Browser) - Vectr

Vector making (Free, Browser) - Vector Ink

Wireframing (Free, Browser) - Moqups App

GENERAL HELPFUL TOOLS/PROGRAMS

Bulk file renamer - Bulk Rename Utility

Bulk image resizer - ImageResizer

File Converters - FreeConvert

Image Upscaler - Waifu2x

Floating view of reference images - PureRef

Timezone converter - World Time Buddy

Twitter image crop guide by @dripchirp - Twitter Crop Guide

Learning how to use the pen tool - The Bézier Game

PORTFOLIO HOSTING/WEBSITE MAKERS

Portfolio hosting (Free) - Foriio

Portfolio hosting (Free with Adobe Subscription) - Adobe Portfolio

Portfolio hosting (Paid) - Portfoliobox

Website builder (Free) - Carrd

Website builder (Free) - Google Sites

Website builder (Free) - Weebly

Website builder (Free) - Wix

Website builder (Paid) - Squarespace

Make a blog you can use as a folio - Tumblr

(Posts Selective Folios) - Bestfolios

(Posts Selective Folios) - PFolios

(Posts Selective Folios) - Pafolios

(Posts Selective showreels) - Showreelz

LINK AGGREGATORS

(Free) Linktree

(Free) Lnk.Bio

(Paid/Free) Later

(Free) Solo.to

(Free) Campsite.bio

DESIGN MARKETPLACES

BOOTH

Gumroad

Ko-fi Shop

COLOUR

Various colour palette tools - Adobe Color

Colour palette search and generator - Coolors

Colour palette generator - Color Space

Colour converter, make colour palettes - RGB.to

Displays big brands colour schemes - BrandColors

ACCESSIBILITY

General design accessibility tips - Lemonly Infographics

Font accessibility tips - UXdesign.cc

Accessible colour combination generator 1 - Accessible color palette builder

Accessible colour combination generator 2 - Color Safe

FONTS FOR DOWNLOAD

Google Fonts

Adobe Fonts

Pixel Surplus

Fontesk

Befonts

Behance

Gumroad

Free Japanese Fonts

BOOTH

TYPE TOOLS

Displays inputted text in fonts installed on your computer - Wordmark

Identifies fonts on a web page - Fonts Ninja

Typography Resources - Typewolf

Font Pairing Help - Fontjoy

Examples of fonts in context - Fonts In Use

Font Management - FontBase

MOCKUPS

Mockup World

Mr.Mockup

Unblast

ls.graphics

Anthonyboyd.graphics

Anagram Design

DesignHooks

Mockups-Design

STOCK PHOTOS/TEXTURES

Pexels

Unsplash

Barnimages

LostAndTaken

Freepik

Rawpixel

PATTERNS

Pattern Inspiration - Pattern Collection

Customisable Repeating SVG Patterns - Pattern Monster

Seamless background pattern maker - Patternico

Mesh Gradient Maker - Mesh Gradient

Make and print your own grids - Gridzzly.com

Downloadable Patterns - Subtle Patterns

ILLUSTRATION LIBRARIES

Toools Design

Irasutoya / いらすとや

Open Peeps

Humaaans

Open Doodles

ICON LIBRARIES

Paid/Free - Streamline Icons

Paid/Free - Flaticon

INSPIRATION GATHERING

abdz

Mindsparkle Mag

Behance

Dribbble

Muzli Search

100 Archive

Design Inspiration

BP&O

Pentagram

It's Nice That

DESIGN ADVICE/EXAMPLES/BLOGS/ ARTICLES

(Free) - World Brand Design Society

(Free) - AIGA Eye on Design

(Free) - Creative Boom

(Free) - The Design Team

(Paid) - UnderConsideration

LOGO/BRANDING DESIGN

Company logos categorised by letter/number/symbol etc - Logobook

Logo/Branding Examples - Logoed

PACKAGING DESIGN

Kawacolle

Packaging Design Archive

Packaging Of The World

WEB DESIGN

Siteinspire

Httpster

Lapa Ninja

Best Website Gallery

Dark Mode Design

Awwwards

Dribbble

(Wireframing) Moqups App

PUBLICATION/EDITORIAL DESIGN

Zine Creation Tips Masterpost - How to Organize a Zine 101

Editorial Design Examples 1 - Formagramma

Editorial Design Examples 2 - Pentagram

POSTER DESIGN

Typographic Poster Design Examples - Typographic posters

Poster Design Examples - Poster Poster

CHARACTER DESIGN

Character Design Library, Challenges, etc - Character Design References

Anime Settei/Reference Sheets - Settei Dreams

Historical Costume references - OSF Costume Rentals

V-DESIGNER/V-ARTIST

‘How to Design Your Own Vtuber Logo’ (by the-tragic-heroine) - The-tragic-heroine

Discover V-artists/V-designers - Heartist

V-Artist/V-designers Catalogue (Hiatus) - VTuber Catalog

Vtuber Resource Collection (by VTResources) - VTuber Resources

View badges/emotes will look like on Twitch - Twitch Elements

Resize badges/emotes to actual sizes - Twitch Emote Resizer

Vtuber based commission hub (beta) - VGen

PAYPAL ALTERNATIVES

Square

Stripe

Wise (previously TransferWise)

Kofi

Direct Bank Transfer

OTHER RESOURCE COLLECTIONS

Vtuber Resource Collection (by VTResources) - VTuber Resources

Designer Resources Collection - Design Resources

Merchandise/printing services (by sunshinehoney6) - Merchandise Resources

Typography Resources - Typewolf

#resource #design #Vtuber Support #masterpost #Master post

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