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phantomato · 3 years

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Five Tom Riddle Crossover Fics to Read

Tom Riddle is a difficult character to ship. For those of us who want to see pairings beyond the Big Two (Tomarry and Tomione), canonical options peter out relatively quickly. Sure, we can invent our own pairings by fleshing out side characters, but sometimes, the itch is best scratched by borrowing from another canon.

And it makes sense for Tom more than nearly anyone else in HP. Tom was born into an era that is the subject of so much literature, so it’s easy to find another person kicking around postwar Europe if that’s your goal. He’s an archetypal character, the villain seeking immortality, and can be matched against other villains with the same aims. Hell, even his quest to recover lost artifacts turns into the basis for two of these works—Tom Riddle has the perfect combination of a recognizable context and character model, plus the ambiguity of his canon timeline, to slot him alongside so many other fictional figures.

I want to pause on some of these themes for a second. Immortality or relationship to age, for one, is something that comes up in three of these pairings: the Darkling and Koschei the Deathless are both immortal characters in their own canons, and Edmund Pevensie is not immortal but has aged and de-aged repeatedly in his travels to and from Narnia. The HP series doesn’t give us nearly this wealth of different perspectives on age and immortality, which is fair—HP makes it clear that immortality is unnatural and undesirable, and Flamel is notably a ‘good person’ because of his willingness to accept his own death—but for a character as obsessed with the idea as Tom, some emotions can only be explored when you match him with another character who has a complicated relationship to aging. Even someone like Indiana Jones, not immortal and not trying to be, has an interesting perspective to bring to a story because he has seen so many other quests for power gone terribly awry.

Of course, the other thing we get from crossover pairings is the ability to match Tom with a villainous character. And whether you’re a fan of conflict at the start of a relationship or not, I think there’s something to be found in putting two villains together: moral arguments, when they exist, are rarely about whether death is necessary but about what kinds of death are best used when; the entire concept of either a redemption arc or a breaking bad arc can be thrown out a window. It’s a space wherein our two villains are allowed to be themselves, and the reveal of the extent of each character’s villainy becomes a strange form of celebration. This is challenging to achieve if one sticks to HP canon alone, whereas crossovers are a fruitful space.

My selection methodology was to read every crossover fic with a clear focus on Tom Riddle or Voldemort on AO3. I found crossover pairings by visiting the meta pages for the Tom Riddle, Voldemort, and Tom Riddle | Voldemort tags—I may have missed some pairings for Tom Riddle, as the character has over 300 child relationship tags and AO3 cuts off at 300 displayed. If you know of any ships I missed and should check out, do tell! I’ll also make a note here that one of these fics is my own—if self-recs bother you, skip Bluebird.

The following five fics are ordered by wordcount. Let me know what you think!

Neurotic Virtuosi, by skazka

Crossover: Hannibal Rising (movie version). The wizarding world exists, and Tom and Hannibal encounter each other in non-magical Eastern Europe.

Summary: Tom and Hannibal ride the same train when Tom is hunting down the diadem. Tom shares an apple and thinks about keeping Hannibal.

Mature, <1k, Graphic Torture Fantasies

Why?: This is one of those pairings that I wouldn’t have thought to do when the characters were both young, but it’s so much better for that choice! The length of this fic means we only get a taste of their interactions, but what a taste it is. Tom’s internal fantasies are horrifying and described in a very erotic way, which fits both characters.

This also serves as an interesting vision of what Tom might have experienced during his world tour to find the diadem, a period we rarely get to see. I particularly like that the author chose to write it as frustrating and mostly fruitless; a Tom who is stymied and unsuccessful is a particular weakness of mine.

Two Sides of the Same Coin, by Anonymous

Crossover: Chronicles of Narnia. Both Hogwarts and Narnia are real, and the characters meet in Britain. The magic isn’t the same, but there’s mutual recognition.

Summary: Tom tries to use sex to seduce secrets out of Edmund. Edmund sees something reminiscent of his younger self, the version of him who could join the White Witch, in Tom Riddle.

Explicit, 2k

Why?: Edmund and Tom are a pairing made in crossover heaven, both boys of a similar age born into war in the same country and whose discoveries of magical worlds help them escape it. Both lust for power and make poor choices; Edmund canonically recovers and finds redemption from his actions, and Tom does not.

This fic wears the hat of something pure smut, starting in the middle of a sex scene and tagged with top/bottom roles, etc., and it is that and does that well. But give it a shot for Edmund’s reflection at the end, his hopeful musings that he can apply the lessons learned from Aslan to help Tom before Tom’s utterly lost. It’s a crossover ship with unbelievable potential for both characters, and this fic makes me want so much more.

Shedding Skin, by electric_typewriter

Crossover: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. Both the wizarding world and the magic of Deathless exist.

Summary: Tom meets Koschei before splitting his soul. They keep meeting, and Tom keeps attempting to match Koschei’s immortality.

Not Rated, 2k

Why?: Immortality via relocation or storage of souls is an idea that easily predates Harry Potter as a series, and seeing two different versions of the some core idea interacting with one another is precisely what crossovers exist to enable. Koschei as an immortal being that found his immortality in a way he considers superior is a fascinating concept, because it creates a power imbalance between them that leaves Tom always running to catch up. And Tom, poor Tom, feels like a desperate man, finding sensation only when he’s around Koschei and feeling nothing at any other time.

This reads a bit like you’re dissociating. The author uses descriptive language to keep the reader a little distant from the grounded reality of the events happening, which has the effect of keeping you focused on the metaphysical question of what it means to have part of a soul.

Bluebird, by Phantomato

Crossover: Shadow and Bone. S&B summoning powers instead of HP magic, set in the real world, with characters’ histories preserved.

Summary: Tom is the second sun summoner to exist, born long after the first gave up her powers and lived out her natural life. He tracks down the Darkling, the shadow summoner who never really died.

Explicit, 17k

Why?: Tom is an immortal being for at least part of his life, and his character arc is about pursuit of immortality, but he is fundamentally a young immortal, and is killed before he can graduate to old immortality. Aleksander, the Darkling, is canonically an old immortal, and his character arc is about the burden of living with the knowledge that you will likely always be alone. That loneliness sets the scene for the relationship between Tom and Aleksander, driving Aleksander’s behavior—he fundamentally believes he will always be alone, even an immortal like Tom passes through his life.

There is a high proportion of smut in this, serving in place of the emotional honesty that neither character can muster, and I recommend it for that. But the story also relies on investment in quiet everyday moments shared between the characters. It’s a fic told through behavior because both men are so cautious around one another, where they nevertheless manage to find sympathy for the other.

Riddles of the Dead, by Maeglin_Yedi

Crossover: Indiana Jones. Blends together the wizarding world and the mysticism present in Indiana Jones films.

Summary: Tom Riddle hires an expert archaeologist and gentleman adventurer, Dr. Indiana Jones, to help him pursue an artifact that might grant him immortality. There’s fucking, fighting, magic, snakes, and some difficult choices in store for our leading men.

Explicit, 18k, Angst

Why?: Maeglin Yedi has been a mainstay of the Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort ficspace for nearly two decades, but an old crossover like this can unfortunately slip through the cracks. It shouldn’t! With an original publishing date in early 2005, this predates the concept of horcruxes, the knowledge of Tom’s early years at Wool’s orphanage, and, well, so much of what we would eventually learn about Tom Riddle as a person. It’s a testament to the author that the story manages to capture Tom’s character in such a way that he’s still fully recognizable to a current-day reader, despite working with so much less canon.

This fic is fun. It’s an adventure, featuring hazards and traps and assassination attempts that you would expect from an Indiana Jones film, but the magic and mystery never overwhelms the relationship at the core of this story. It’s set up beautifully, with a mirrored structure between the front and back halves of the fic that foreshadows the inevitable end of the story. Watching older, confident Indy seduce young, hungry Tom is a delight. One (possible) mark of a great Tom-centric fic, imo, is to be able to portray Tom enjoying the exchange of power, giving it to someone as well as taking it from them, and this Tom is able to revel in giving up some perceived power as he practices being vulnerable with Indy. The romance is quite sweet, especially considering that ‘angst’ tag at the top of the fic!

#tom riddle #tomato fic rec

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ceciliatan · 7 years

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Live at #RT17 – Mark Coker @Smashwords Ten Trends Shaping Authorship

I’m at RT Booklovers this week, which is one of the largest reader/writer conferences out there. RT started life as “Romantic Times” but it now encompasses all commercial fiction genres including YA, mystery, women’s fiction, science fiction, and so on, but retains a strong romance focus. One of the major forces that has reshaped the book industry, and the romance genre in particular, of course, is ebook publishing and ebook SELF-publishing. A major figure in that revolution over the past ten years has been Mark Coker of Smashwords, one of the early self-publishing platforms and not only an online retail store but a distributor to the other retailers (Kobo, Apple, B&N, etc.)

Mark always has insightful things to say about the state of the ebook market, and later today he’ll be unveiling the annual Smashwords data survey, where they slice and dice the big data of what’s happening in sales across all retailers that they can see. But his earlier session today was “Ten Trends Shaping the Future of Romance Authorship.” With Mark’s permission I’ll now present you those ten trends as a listicle.

(Caveat: This is very close to verbatim what Mark said, but as a typist I can only capture about 60% to 70% of the true transcript, and any errors you may find in here are purely mine.)

Mark Coker: So much news happening every day, every month, it can be bewildering, and it’s easy to mistake ephemeral news for trends. Today I’m going to talk about firmly entrenched macro trends that are going to persist for a long time. These are what are driving your threats and opportunities in publishing forward. Some may be obvious, some may not. These may provoke some strong feelings. These are some important issues that should provoke greater discussion so please share this information widely:

1. Rise of Ebooks Screens are the new paper. Until about 2012-2013 we saw exponential growth in ebook sales. Overall now ebooks are 25% of the retail book market (in terms of units). In romance ebooks and self-publishing are a much larger portion than in other genres, and if we look at the amount of time spent reading or pages read on screens (rather than unit sales), 50% of all pages are now read on screens. But growth has slowed and we’ve reached a print/ebook equilibrium now. Ebooks are going to continue to be a top choice for many readers. Instant delivery of reading pleasure is what continues to drive ebooks, along with low prices and huge diversity of choices, and convenient sample and purchase selections.

All authors are indie authors because you have the freedom to choose whether you indie publish, trad publish, or hybrid.

2. Democratization of the publishing process. The gatekeepers used to control the entire industry. Publishers were the gatekeepers at the pearly gates of authordom. But because of digital, publishing is now democratized. You also couldn’t have a million books in a store, meaning distribution was artificially constrained by the footprint of the store. But shelfspace online is free/cheap and unlimited. Even if your book doesn’t sell a single copy, every retailer wants to keep your book “in stock.” It’s the reader judgement that matters more than others. Readers are the gatekeepers now. The best practices knowledge has also become democratized. You’re learning how to become a more professional author and publisher. Authors are starting to wonder what they need a publisher for and this is pushing publishers to be better partners to authors.

40% of all sales via the Apple store are in other countries.

3. Ebooks are going global. Free from the logistical limitations of print, it’s now possible for readers around the world to have access to millions of books. Kobo was the first to go global. Apple was in 51 different countries. Amazon is now in 14 to 200 countries depending how you count. Smashwords is in every country we can reach. 90% of what is at Smashwords is English, but 40% of all sales via the Apple store are in other countries. As these retailers build out their global footprints, ebooks on sale in them will grow, too.

Being pro-author doesn’t mean being anti-publisher.

4. The rise of indie authorship. Self-publishing has been around for a long time. Dan Poynter published his self-pub manual for decades (before he passed away a year and a half ago) but it’s really the ebook revolution that changed indie authorship and made it the most viable. Being pro-author doesn’t mean being anti-publisher. I wrote an indie author manifesto about how every writer deserves to be a published author. Every writer deserves to have a chance to be judged by readers. The manifesto talks about the professionalism that indie authors have. Don’t let anyone tell you you are an amateur if you have the knowledge and capabilities to do it. All authors are indie authors because you have the freedom to choose whether you indie publish, trad publish, or hybrid. Some in the indie community have tried to turn it into a religious war against the publishers. That’s toxic. There are plenty of reasons publishers can be criticized, but all options make for a more vibrant publishing ecosystem. In the early days of Smashwords we had some early authors in 2008 and 2009 who hit the NY Times list and then were recruited away by the publishers. At first I was sad about losing them but then I realized it’s really a reason to celebrate. How many here are already self-publishing? (*most hands raised*) How many here are considering self-publishing (who haven’t before)? (*a few more hands raised*) A few. Self-publishers love that they have total creative control. They have faster time to market. They keep all their rights. You can go global without having licenses divvied up all among various markets as if it’s a print world. You have access to the same professional grade tools that the big publishers do. You have lower expenses than a big publisher. You can offer your customer a lower-priced product than the big publisher and earn a higher royalty. You earn from 60 to 80 percent of the list price as a royalty per sale. A trad published author earns 17% to 20% in royalty (25% on the NET, not on the list price).

5. Indie authors are hitting all the bestseller lists. It used to be only every once in a while that a self-published book would hit the lists. Now it’s commonplace, almost every week. I know the NY Times has screwed up their lists a little bit for romance, but this trend isn’t going away. I truly feel indie ebooks are going to dominate the ebook bestseller lists in the future. The larger macro trend here is that indie ebook authors will continue to use their strategic advantages over big publishers. You spend 24 hours a day thikning about your readers. Your publisher can’t do that.

6. The stigma on self-publishing is melting away. In the olden days self-publishing was “vanity publishing.” Ten years ago the thinking was that only publishers could decide which books were good enough to publish. The idea was you took your rejection and you worked harder on another book and another book until you wrote one good enough to get published. That was hogwash. It was toxic. The authors who published themselves with Smashwords in 2008 are my heroes for breaking free of that mindset, for daring to publish themselves. Some of those romance authors achieved commercial success with books their publishers had given back to them as “worthless.” Those romance authors were the first ones who showed us you could self-publish with pride, professionalism, and commercial success. That’s what is causing the stigma to melt away. Jamie Maguire was one of the indie authors who hit the Times list with Beautiful Disaster, then worked with a publisher. She really appreciated what they did for her, but then she decided to go back to self-publishing. She felt she could serve herself and her readers better with self-publishing. It’s great to have this freedom to choose. Others feel very disillusioned by the publishers. 25% on the net is too low. Publishers need to raise their ebook royalties. They’re still too slow to market. Kristin Ashley was another one couldn’t even find an agent, much less a publisher, but she was judged by readers [to be a commercial success]. Work with publishers and your agent to make sure you have a reasonable reversion clause so you can have your books back in the future when the publisher is no longer actively supporting your book. Again, they can’t love your book as much as you do.

7. The glut. We’ve reached a point where there are nearly unlimited numbers of good quality low priced ebooks. Everyone and their cat can–and has–become an author. No really, we have cats who are authors at Smashwords. (*laughter*) The supply of product is growing faster than the supply of customers. The trad publishers are starting to come down in price as a result. (Author’s note: but some Big 5 publishers still have $12.99 and $9.99 prices on their romance ebooks, which is nuts IMHO.)

The other ebook retailers are slowly being bled dry.

8. Amazon is driving massive devaluation of ebooks because of this glut. Take what I say with a grain of salt: I’ll try to be nice about it but I’m about to rip into Amazon. A lot of people don’t understand the brilliance of the Amazon business model: lowest possible prices and largest possible selection. It’s great as a customer to have that and their great service. But they also have KDP Select, their opt-in self-publishing option where you give them exclusivity for 90 days in exchange for better placement in the Kindle store. We don’t know how many books are in KU at any given time but it’s over a million books and is probably more than three million books. That’s a million reasons for customers to abandon other retailers and only purchase at Amazon. The other ebook retailers are slowly being bled dry. Amazon doesn’t have to make a profit on ebooks. They can keep squeezing the suppliers to keep offering their customers lower and lower prices. If you, the author, are the publisher, you can’t outsource your writing to a cheaper labor market like China. You still need to put food on your table. If the dominant ebook retailer–Amazon has 70% of the market–forces you to take less money, they are bullying you. They are bullying you into making your book more discoverable and more attractive to Amazon’s customers for the tradeoff of choking off the supply to other retailers, and forcing you to take a lower price than $2.99 or even 99 cents. Here you’ve finally achieved independence from the publishers and then bam, now you’re giving your independence back to Amazon. 9. Kindle Unlimited KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited is undermining the single copy sales of ebooks. One single copy sales you’re earning 60-80 percent of the list price. Not in KU. They are training the largest community of readers out there to read for what FEELS LIKE FREE. Even 99 cent books start to look expensive when you could read for free. At Amazon on the retail page the largest thing you see says “Read this book for free” with Kindle Unlimited. Now your amazing romance readers, who read more than a book a day, can just pay that $9.99 a month to Amazon and never pay for another book again. Even if you read five books a day you never run out of books at KU. I’ve already heard from Smashwords authors who have heard from readers “I won’t read your books unless you make your books available in Kindle Unlimited.” Millions of readers are being trained to think your $2.99 ebook is too expensive, and then the other level of devaluation is you are also being paid less. Amazon pays you out of the monthly pool with page reads. Yes, they make that pool bigger and bigger but they offer you less and less and put more restrictions on what you can do with your books. Amazon HAS to do that because their business model IS to offer the lowest possible prices for the largest selection. It makes it impossible for the other retailers to compete. As a reader, how many reading hours to you get per dollar spent? With KU you get more. The slippery slope has started and the only way for other retailers to compete is going to be to do the same thing and keep paying you less.

So you may be asking, are we all screwed?

10. Indie authors are writing the next chapter for this industry. YOU decide when, where, and how you publish. And it’s the collective decisions of everyone in this room over the next 24 months that determine the course of this industry for the nexy generation. That will determine if the sell-per-copy ebook retailers are going to survive. If there are only one or two sellers of a product, they will control your destiny. First let’s talk about the good news: indie authors are continuing to capture larger and larger parts of the reader market and you have access to those readers that you didn’t have ten years ago. Let’s celebrate that the power center moved from publishers to authors. But the bad news is that authors are surrendering their independence to KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited. Every book that goes in there is a vote to kill off the other retailers and a vote to surrender your independence. It’s hurting Amazon’s pure play retail competitors. Kobo and Barnes & Noble are very committed to you. But because their businesses are under stress, they can’t invest as much in you as they might want. So you may be asking, are we all screwed? And I mean that in a bad way! (*laughter*) Are we all going to become zombies leaving a sticky trail of unfinished adult coloring books in our wake? (*laughter*)

It’s partly up to us what happens. We lamented how Walmart moved in and put our local businesses out of business. We lamented how our manufacturing jobs moved to China. But it was to feed our gluttony. Amazon just feeds our gluttony. They do it to the big distributors and they do it to us. Squeezing their suppliers is the only way their business model can work. You as an author are relegated to the status of commodity producer. Commodities are indistinguishable from each other. You write a unique book, but reading is subjected to commodification. Reading is pleasure and experiences, and if there are so many great books out there, they will find another writer to go to. When Amazon launched KDP Select in 2011, I wrote a blog post that day saying it would lead authors to being tenant farmers tilling Amazon’s soil. You want your own soil and not to lose your independence. We fed the pet tiger that we knew would grow up to be a predator. We need to tame the beast. We need to say no to exclusivity. Authors and publishers must diversify sales channels. Amazon can suddenly crush you in the night when they roll over and change their algorithm. They can bury you so no one can find you. Publishers need to be more author-centric. Publishers are a service-provider to the author. They need to abandon the idea that only certain books are worthy. They are losing the pipeline of new authors. I’d like to see publishers adopt the best practices of self-publishing platforms so they don’t die off. Yeah, it would be great for my business if all publishers went out of business because it would drive authors to Smashwords, but I want a healthy ecosystem where we can all thrive.

Think long term. I have authors who tell me they hate KDP Select but they tell me they have to provide for their family and they need the bird in the hand instead of two in the bush. As an author, though, you have to say no to anyone who wants to take away your independence. Be paid for your own work, decide your own prices, don’t be limited where you sell. The more retailers in the world the better. Even if you never work with a trad publisher, the fact that they are out there is good for you. You may need them later.

Author asked a question question: I have eight books out there right now that were selling well on Amazon, but they changed the algorithm on February 28 and buried me. Sales dropped to 10-12 percent of what they were. So I put one book into KU on May 1st hoping it would help my name pop up again because I was desperate.

Mark: I understand that. But you’re poisoning the well. You cut off your other retailers and hurt them. Kobo and Barnes & Noble need your help because they don’t have another business. Apple will be fine because they have more money than god. So do Google even if they don’t know what they’re doing. But for the retailers who depend on ebooks it really hurts them.

Eventually what’s going to happen is only authors who PAY to be read on Amazon will be read on Amazon. Authors have been subsidizing the trad publishing industry for decades. Most writers in trad publishing couldn’t live without also having a day job. So publishers depended on not paying them enough to actually live. This is even worse than that.

Amazon makes it tricky. They make it seem like you have to be in KDP Select. Every step of the way there are check boxes and things that tell you “don’t you want to make the most money? click here.” Some authors don’t even know it’s optional. (And some customers don’t realize they can pay for the book instead of joining KU, too. -ctan)

Promote all retailers on your websites, not just Amazon. Have links to all the others.

Author question: But the reason we link to Amazon from our websites is because Amazon gives us a kickback with affiliate links. Does Smashwords do that?

Mark: Smashwords offers a commission but we are a small store. Our store pays the highest percentages, up to 80% list, so that’s the way we do it, you set your own price, your own percentages. I know Kobo and Barnes & Noble supposedly have affiliate programs also.

Author: They do but they’re much more complicated. You have to set up a Rakuten Linkshare account and it’s nowhere near as easy as Amazon makes it.

Mark: They need to make it easier for authors if they’re going to continue to compete. That’s an easy thing they could do.

Author question: What alternative are there in print to using Amazon’s Createspace?

Mark: Ingram Spark is the best POD alternative to Createspace. Ingram is the biggest book distributor in the world and they’re great people. They’re the old publishing world but with Spark they are moving into the indie world.

(That was all we had time for. I’ll be back to see the results of the annual Smashwords data analysis later today!)

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#cecilia tan

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amazonauthorinsights-live · 7 years

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How to write a nonfiction book

By Joanna Penn

{Article_Date}

A step-by-step guide to getting it done.

Do you want to write a nonfiction book? Are you struggling with where to start or how to get it done?

This article will take you through a step-by-step guide to the process. It starts with thinking about your book and structuring it before diving into the actual writing.

The more work you do upfront, the easier the book will be to produce.

I’m currently writing my seventh nonfiction book with more planned, and my process is quite defined these days. I find writing nonfiction books a “palate cleanser” between novels. It’s a very different form of writing, more structured and more aimed at helping others.

This article is relevant for most nonfiction, but excludes memoir or narrative nonfiction, as they are quite specific forms.

(1) Decide on your definition of success

Before you jump into actually writing, it’s worth deciding on your own definition of success as this can be critical to whether the process is satisfying for you.

Some authors “just want to help people” with their nonfiction books, others want to win literary prizes, others want to make money. It’s very unlikely that the same book will satisfy all of these desires, so you have to decide which is most important to you.

These are the main reasons why authors want to write nonfiction books in particular and some of the possible definitions of success:

You want to help people around a specific topic and usually you will have been through an experience yourself that drives the writing of the book. This was my experience with Career Change, a book I wrote to change my own life and now helps others discover what they really want to do. It sells small numbers consistently every month but it’s not a book I spend time marketing. It was my first book and it’s successful because I finished it, published it, and it continues to help people.

You have a business already and want a book to demonstrate authority, augment your business, and open doors to speaking and other business opportunities. The point of the book is not necessarily to make money in itself but to drive people to the rest of your business. This is the “book as business card” model. For example, my book, How to Make a Living with your Writing, drives people to my Creative Freedom course. The aim of the book is to provide an introduction to that extended material. The definition of success is based on how many people sign up to a specific email list, and we’ll explore these possible business models a little further on in the article.

You are deeply fascinated with a topic and want to produce a seminal work on it. These are the type of nonfiction books that go on to win literary prizes, books that may be commissioned and that consume the author for a long time. One example would be The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

You have an audience and write to fulfill their needs, which often coincide with your own interests. I started out writing nonfiction to learn what I needed to know myself about self-publishing and book marketing. I discover what I think by writing a book about it these days. I wrote How to Market a Book when I was learning about marketing, and Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur as my own writing career transitioned into a global business.

You want to use nonfiction book sales as the basis of your income, so you want to write multiple books in a niche and dominate that market. Some authors do make a full-time living writing these kinds of books. One example is S.J. Scott.

Once you have decided on your definition of success, you must then decide on the specific topic for your book.

(2) Decide on the specific topic for your book

You’ll most likely have some idea of the broader aspects/topic of your book. Some examples might be:

You’re a speaker on corporate communication

You’ve discovered a diet that works for you

You’re an expert on the history of the USA

But now you need to narrow the topic down further.

Firstly, put yourself in the mind of the reader. Why do people READ nonfiction? And how does that relate to your idea?

They want an answer to a specific problem. This explains the popularity of weight loss and self-help books every January. What specific problem will your book solve?

They are interested in a specific topic and buy lots of books on that area. I have a ton of books on writing, and most likely, so do you! What sub-categories does your book fit into on the online bookstore and is this a niche that people are buying lots of books in?

They like the writer. This is why anyone with a large platform will likely get a book deal. Just check out those YouTubers, celebs, and anyone with a big enough blog or podcast or TED talk. If you have an audience, you can get a book deal because people will buy and read it anyway. Do you have an audience already? What do they want from you?

These questions will help you define your target market, your ideal reader.

If you already have an author platform, a blog, podcast, speaking or other business, then you will already know who your readers are, but for many nonfiction writers, a consideration of audience comes after the book is written and they are wondering how to market it. But understanding who your reader is in advance of writing will help a lot, and any time spent on it now will help later on.

Next, research your niche on the bookstores.

You should know of 5-10 books that are similar to the book you want to write, or at least are targeted to the same audience.

Search for those books on Amazon and then look at the sub-categories on the left-hand side of the page. These are where the book sits in the virtual store. You can then click into those sub-categories and find other books that are in the same niche.

These questions should help you narrow down the specific topic you want to tackle in the book as well as your target market. Expanding on my earlier examples, the more specific topics might be:

Employee engagement: how to communicate to employees in order to drive your business to success. Aimed at CEOs and corporate managers.

Easy gluten free and vegan dieting for weight loss and health. Aimed at busy women who have struggled with other diets and can’t spend a long time in the kitchen preparing food.

Military history of the USA in the 20th century, and how that has shaped the current situation. Aimed at men who buy in the military history category and intended to be the first in a series on US military history.

(3) Brainstorm your table of contents and get into the research fun!

Now you have your specific topic, you can brainstorm what areas you will explore in detail in the book. At this point, you want to go wild, and just put everything down. You’ll likely cut a lot of it out, and some of your ideas might even end up in another book.

For example, when I wrote Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, I had a whole section on mindset. But it turned into a monster topic so I carved that part off and am currently writing a separate book on the psychology of writing.

This part of the process is where I start to use Scrivener. I create a project for the book and a document per idea. Many of those will be concatenated or discarded later but I will just write down anything that comes to mind at this stage. You can use a Word document or Evernote or physical index cards, but you do need to capture everything at this stage, even just a few words per idea.

This is also the time to focus on research and expanding your knowledge on whatever topic you’re writing on. I usually read a number of other books on the topic to get more ideas, and because I’m a research junkie, I can definitely spend a lot of time on this part of the process!

Some authors can get stuck in this phase for way too long, so set some deadlines and make sure you keep focused on the final result. Click here for more productivity tips.

(4) Decide on your book title

I always like to know my book title upfront, but of course, you can decide on it later.

Nonfiction book titles have an advantage over fiction because they can be keyword rich and specific enough to be found through search as well as still making sense to the reader, whereas fiction can be more difficult to title with related keywords.

For example, my thriller, Gates of Hell, is more likely to be found by those shopping in the sub-categories of action adventure and supernatural thriller, rather than by people specifically searching for “gates of hell.”

Readers of nonfiction often shop by sub-category or by keyword search e.g. my book, How to Market a Book, is titled specifically for keyword search reasons and comes up at the #1 spot on Amazon for that search term.

But how do you know what readers are searching for?

Just go to Amazon and do some research using the search bar within the Kindle sub-category. Start typing and there will be a text drop-down that includes the most popular search terms people are looking for.

This will give you some ideas as to what people want, and you may find it surprising!

I spend a good amount of time thinking about different words and checking them out this way before I decide on a title. Longer keywords (keyword phrases) are sometimes even more useful, so I will just add a letter on the end of the search e.g. gluten free a, gluten free b, gluten free c, in order to see what else is there.

Write down as many relevant keywords as you can find, even if you don’t use them in the title, as these will be useful later if you self-publish.

(5) Create your first draft

You may already have a lot of material for the book in some form. If you’re a speaker on a topic, you might have a PowerPoint deck or handouts. You might have piles of notes for your research or lists of recipes. Or it might just all be in your head.

Now you have to turn that into a first draft…and this can be harder than it sounds! Most people who want to write a book never finish one, and completing a first draft is usually where they fall down.

My definition of a first draft is a version of your book that can be read end to end and stands as a coherent whole. It doesn’t have “fill this in later,” or “write other section here,” in it.

Yes, it will be rough, and it will need editing, but to get to a finished book, you need a first draft to work on. Your finished book can be equated to Michelangelo’s David, a perfect statue that emerged from the rough block of marble. But first you have to create that block of marble, and for authors, that’s the first draft.

Here are some tips for getting it done:

Dictate your book.

This is particularly good if you’re a speaker already and you have a lot of material in PowerPoint slides or even recordings of your talks or just rough notes. Speak into a digital recorder, create an mp3 file, and then use a service like speechpad.com to get that transcribed into text, which you can then take into the editing phase.

This is what J. Thorn and I did recently to create the first draft of Co-writing a Book: Collaboration and Co-creation for Authors. We recorded a discussion around specific chapter topics and then paid for transcription, which we then wrangled into book form. You can also use Dragon Dictate or other real-time dictation tools, as discussed in a podcast interview with Monica Leonelle or check out her book, Dictate Your Book.

Use timed writing sessions.

This method changed my own writing life as if you allocate a specific time to write when you’re not allowed to do anything else, you WILL produce something!

I generally write first draft material away from the desk I use for other things – like blogging, podcasting, email, social media, and other business stuff. I find it easier to create elsewhere so I go to a library or a coffee shop. I set my timer, plug in my earphones and turn on rain and thunderstorms, and write.

For nonfiction, it can help to focus on a chapter at a time during these timed writing sessions. If you write 2000 words per session and you’re aiming for 60,000 words, it will take 30 writing sessions. Do the math and schedule the sessions. No excuses!

Monitor your progress.

I use Scrivener flags to indicate my progress through the draft. When I brainstorm topics and just dump words into the chapter, I leave the document as a default white. When I have “processed” the chapter and written it into a first draft state, I add a yellow flag. I use blue and green flags for different parts of the editing process.

Once the whole project has yellow flags, my first draft is done and I can move into editing (covered further below).

You can use Scrivener to set word count goals for the whole book and also for each writing session to keep you accountable. I’m pretty much obsessive about checking these per session as I love watching the status bar turn green!

Once you have a first draft, you can start to think seriously about the next steps.

For nonfiction authors, you will want to consider how the book fits into your existing business, or how you can use it to build one.

(6) Design and incorporate your funnel and back-end products

A “funnel” is a way to direct your readers through a journey with you, preferably through your books, services, and other products, so that they are a happy customer and you make a decent return.

For fiction authors, the funnel usually involves a series or books in a similar genre as well as getting people onto your email list.

For example, if you check out Stone of Fire for free on any of the online bookstores, you will then be prompted to get Day of the Vikings for free if you sign up to my email list. Stone of Fire is also the first in the seven-book ARKANE series, so you might go on and read the others if you enjoyed the first. That’s about the extent of it, and fiction authors rarely have more premium products to offer.

But nonfiction authors can design a much more lucrative funnel to back-end products, which are separate to the book.

For example, our communication consultant author has a lot of potential for up-sell as she is aiming at the corporate market. She could have the following:

Nonfiction book – priced $6.99 – $9.99 as a way for people to discover her work and build her credibility (this is a niche where people expect to pay more for books).

The book offers people a specific audio and video download if they sign up on her email list.

This email list then offers a series of video tutorials that lead into a premium course, which she sells for $499.

She offers 1:1 corporate consulting at $1000 per session based on the expertise in her book.

She offers one-day seminars on site to corporates at $20,000 per day.

This is a pretty typical funnel for a nonfiction author aimed at the corporate market, but many authors aren’t selling at this level. So let’s take our gluten free cook. She could have:

Nonfiction book – 101 delicious gluten free, vegan, easy and fast recipes for the busy woman who wants to lose weight – priced $2.99 – $6.99.

The book offers extra recipes and a shopping list with favorite brands and maybe a free video download if they sign up on her email list.

This email list then offers a series of video tutorials that lead into a premium cookery course, which she sells for $99. The email list also contains recipes that utilize kitchen equipment that she can link affiliate codes to and make commission on.

Or perhaps she offers a membership site, where the customer pays $9.99 a month for access to new recipes and tips and a community where she can get support around this type of life change. Communities with support are really popular and can be lucrative, but they do take a lot of work to manage.

Of course, if you want to become an authority in your niche, you can also focus on writing multiple books under the same sub-category, providing a similar funnel to the fiction author model. This is most likely what our military history author would do.

If these types of business models interest you, check out How to Make a Living with Your Writing, which goes into more detail on how you can build this type of business yourself.

(7) Get a professional book cover designed

You could do this step as soon as you decide on your book title, and it’s definitely worth doing early so you can use it as marketing collateral on your website.

For nonfiction book covers:

Look at the top 100 books in your sub-category and take screen prints of the ones that you like and resonate with. The current trend for nonfiction, certainly in the business niche, is to have very clear text and one dominant image. You can give these screen prints to your designer as a guide for the type of cover you’re looking for.

Remember that many readers shop on devices and see the cover at thumbnail size, so there is little point putting quotes in small text on eBook covers. You can always add it onto your print version at the publishing stage, but remember to optimize for browsing at a small image size.

Research book cover designers and check out their portfolios to see if they work in your genre. Here’s my own curated list of designers, although of course, there are many more.

Get feedback from your target market. I go back and forth on this as sometimes the feedback can just be confusing! But if you use a design service like 99Designs, then you will get multiple designs and can do a poll to your email list and social media followers. You can also use a service like Pickfu, where you can get opinions from people outside of your network.

Finally, don’t design your cover yourself unless you are a designer already. A pro book cover will make a HUGE difference to the way your book is perceived. When you get the book cover files, get a 3D image as well as a flat one, as you will use these in a lot of different marketing materials going forward.

(8) Go through the editing process

A first draft is just that. You now have to go through the process of turning that draft into a professional finished product.

Here’s an overview of my own editing process:

Self-editing. I work in Scrivener and once my whole project has yellow flags, my first draft is done and I print the whole book. I do my first self-editing pass on paper, old-school style! I scribble all over it and make notes where I need to write more and restructure the book, often rearranging chapters. Scrivener makes this very easy as you just drag and drop to rearrange chapters. [If you need help with learning how to use Scrivener effectively, check out the Learn Scrivener Fast course, which is excellent.]

Rewrites and more self-editing. Once I’ve been through the whole book on paper, I make all the changes back into Scrivener and often print and go through the same process again until I am happy with the book.

Beta readers. These are readers in your target market who read the book and offer comments on the content. For my book Career Change, I gave an early copy to people working in my department in the day job who I knew were dissatisfied with what they were doing. They came back with questions and suggestions for what to include as additional material. After feedback from beta readers, you may do further rewrites to incorporate any changes you agree with.

Professional editor. There are different types of editors and it will depend on your confidence with your draft as to which you use. You can engage a structural editor to help you with the overall arc of the book. A line edit is the classic red pen approach to the detail of the book, and you can also get technical editors to help with terminology. After feedback from the editor/s, you will likely do another rewrite to incorporate any changes you agree with. If it’s your first book, the editing process will be hard on your ego, but remember, the editor’s job is to make your book better and help you learn the craft. Every dollar I have spent on editing has been worth it and I continue to use editors for every book. The more eyes on your book before publication, the better it will be on launch.

After I have made all the changes, I send the book to a proofreader who does the final read before publication. This is to avoid the inevitable typos that occur in rewriting. Of course, some will always slip through but I like having this final check in the process.

You can find my own curated list of editors and proofreaders here, as well as more articles on the editing process.

Congratulations! You’ve now finished a nonfiction book!

This article originally appeared on The Creative Penn.

Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling thriller author, creative entrepreneur, podcaster, professional speaker, and travel junkie. For more, visit www.jfpenn.com

#write #craft #nonfiction #editing #writing

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limejuicer1862 · 4 years

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Shaindel Beers

is author of the poetry collections A Brief History of Time (Salt Publishing, 2009), The Children’s War and Other Poems (Salt, 2013), and Secure Your Own Mask (White Pine Press, 2018). Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She is currently an instructor of English at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, in eastern Oregon’s high desert, and serves as poetry editor of Contrary.

Yiu can buy a signed copy of her latest book directly from her: http://shaindelbeers.com You can also purchase her books on Amazon, B&N, etc.

The Interview

When and why did you start writing poetry?

I think that most writers probably start as kids because everyone finds their art that helps them process things. Some people paint, some people dance, some people write. Poetry was the least structured and most free, so I think it chose me. My first poem I wrote, not for an assignment, was at about age ten when my cousin shot my dog. I was really distraught, and that was the way I channeled it. It was a poem with the refrain “And the cold wind blows.”

Who introduced you to poetry?

I read the regular “kids’ poetry” we all find in our elementary school readers, but I think my greatest discovery was finding my mom’s college textbooks of The Victorian Era Poets , and a volume of Byron, Keats, and Shelley. Those are what I would consider my first poetry idols, and I’m forever indebted to the Romantics, especially.

How are you “indebted”?

I learned to really value nature and nature imagery in my poetry. The egalitarian bent of their works spoke to me, and the view of the poet as the spokesman for the Everyman. I think we can look at a lot of poets who influenced us and see the wisdom of the Romantics in that. Who hasn’t gone hiking or seen a breathtaking spot in nature and thought of Wordsworth?

What is your daily writing routine?

I actually don’t have one. I do try to write whenever my students are writing. So, if I’m teaching poetry and give students a poetry prompt, I write with them. If I’m teaching fiction and give them a fiction prompt, I write with them. Otherwise, I just write whenever I can, especially if I have an idea that feels like I must get it down on paper.

What motivates you to write?

I think Robert Frost put it best when he said, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Sometimes you just feel something, and poetry is the only way to channel that.

How do the writers you read when you were young influence your work today?

I think they gave me an intellectual curiosity, especially about nature. They taught me to look at the world closely, to notice a single lady bug on a Queen Anne’s Lace to listen to the sound of a river rushing around a bend and burbling over rocks. They taught me how to really see the world.

Which writers gave you this “intellectual curiosity”?

You can look at the beginning of William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence,” and it’s all there:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour

Or any of the details in Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”:

Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft inland murmur.—

I don’t think you can read those poems and not want to go out and explore nature on your own…

Whom of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

There are so many. Jenn Givhan’s work continues to blow me away. I’ve read all of her poetry, but I have to admit I haven’t read her fiction yet. I have her novel, Trinity Sight, on its way to me now and can’t wait to read it. I love her blending of her Latinx culture and myth, her personal life. It’s so powerful. I can’t wait to see what she does with sci-fi.

I continue to be amazed by Kelly Sundberg and Alice Anderson, who both wrote memoirs that were, for me, in some ways life-changing. Kelly’s honest, complex treatment of an abusive marriage was so powerful, and the beauty of language that Alice wrote in her memoir will always stay with me. I think it’s easy to feel like you have a “big story” and forget about the beauty of language, but each word in Alice’s memoir was like the finest brush stroke on a painting.

Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I still enjoy other arts. I sing with a local chorale, and I’m learning to do fiber arts with loom knitting. I think it’s unfair to assume that artists don’t work in various media. Writing is among the easiest arts for anyone to try because you don’t really need any “tools,” like you do with visual arts or instrumental music, but I do think we should all take part in as many artistic endeavours as we can to discover what we enjoy and what we feel drawn to.

What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I really feel like there is only one piece of advice. You have to read. Read everything in your chosen genre that you can get your hands on, and then read everything in your non-fiction interests, whatever those may be because those are your passions, and they’ll find their way into your work, so you’ll want to know everything about them you can. If your interest is nature — read nature books, science journals, etc. If your interest is history, read history and biographies. That’s the only way you can do a deep dive into your work.

Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I recently took Kathy Fish’s Fast Flash Workshop, which was AMAZING, so I’ve been working on sending out those short stories. I tend to switch back and forth between genres. Since the big push to get my third (poetry) book out there and spend time promoting it, I wanted to switch gears and work on fiction for a while. I’ve been working with an editor on one piece, and she’s had such insightful questions for me. I hope to really hone this particular story into something special and can’t wait to see what it becomes!

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Shaindel Beers Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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wtfallonauthor-blog · 5 years

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I recently watched season one of Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I found hilarious and thoroughly entertaining. I don’t watch a lot of comedies—I find the writing is better on serious shows that also happen to be funny. However, I found The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to be the perfect blend of plot and humor. SPOILER WARNING: This review contains spoilers for season one.

As a creative person, I noticed the show, while entertaining, also offered many truths to be learned about pursuing a career in the arts. Now, the show is set in 1958, and there are obviously hundreds of things that are different about pursuing a career in show business, or other creative pursuits, today. Social media. The internet. Society. Stupid people going viral and stealing my spotlight. And not just people. I mean, a rat dragging a piece of pizza down the street can go viral but I can’t get 100 claps on Medium? Anyway….

This show revealed so many epiphanies about pursuing a creative career that are still true today. Here are 4 funny (okay, some are not so funny) epiphanies I learned about the creative life from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel:

Lesson 1: If at first you succeed, fail, fail again. The main character, Midge, embarks on a career in comedy after her husband, a would-be comedian himself, leaves her for his secretary. She—Midge, not the secretary—gets drunk and goesto the humble nightclub where he performed earlier to collect a pyrex dish she used to bribe the club’s manager for a good time slot. While there, she wanders up on stage and drunkenly explains her very bad evening to the audience, who finds her hilarious. Later, the nightclub’s scheduler, Suzie—one of my favorite supporting characters ever—offers to manage Midge’s comedy career. Midge has a few more good shows, then some not-so-good shows, after which she decides to quit. She later realizes she wants to keep performing.

As a writer, I want to quit pretty much all the time. I’d probably be a lot happier if I did. It occurred to me a few months ago that if I’d known just how much work there is in writing—not just the writing, but the editing, the rewriting—I probably would not have started. I’d have a lot less stress and a lot more time to sit on my ass and watch Amazon Prime, that’s for sure. Hell, I might even have time to vacuum my room twice a year instead of once. But I probably wouldn’t, because I don’t care. Anyway….

But I don’t quit. I keep failing. I try to learn something from my failures. On the show, Midge goes to comedy clubs, watches the most successful comedians, takes diligent notes. Then she tries to apply what she learns to her own writing. She figures out what works for her, what doesn’t, how long to ride the laughs, how to plan her show instead of just rambling and hoping something funny comes out.

This can be applied to other creative pursuits. I read a lot, and have always read a lot, but now I really try to notice how my favorite authors do things. How do they explain back story so seamlessly you don’t even notice, instead of just making a big infodump on page one? How do they explain a fictional world without spending three pages on the scenery? How do they disseminate a large amount of info in snappy dialogue?

When I think I figure it out, I try to do these things myself. It doesn’t always work. I’m still learning, and more importantly, still failing.

Lesson 2: The more privilege you have, the better.

This one sucks, because privilege isn’t usually something you can gain through hard work, and you can’t buy it on Amazon, either. It would be nice if pursuing a creative career was equally easy—or hard—for everyone. But that’s not how the world works. It wasn’t in 1958, and it isn’t today.

In trying to improve her act, Midge finds an ad in an entertainment magazine and hires a guy to help her. She tells him a few things about her act, and he tells her he can write five minutes of material for $15. Now, that’s a pretty cheap rate today, but back in 1958 it would have been pretty expensive.

Can everyone afford to hire a script writer, or an editor, or a cover designer, or whoever they need to help hone their craft? Can we all afford to take acting classes or singing lessons or improv classes? No. Midge lives with her decently well-off parents after her husband leaves and her father-in-law kicks her out. She seems to have some cash left over from the marriage as well, and could probably sell some of their nicer items if need be. She gets a job at the department store so she can buy a television for her room. If she wants to spend fifteen dollars on a script writer (who turns out to be a scammer), she can do so without thinking too hard about it. She can also call her husband and get $200 for bail after being arrested for swearing and flashing her boobs during a show. That shows a tremendous amount of privilege not everyone has. (Money, of course, is only one of many kinds of privilege.)

The one benefit to not having money privilege is that it somewhat protects you from lesson #3….

Lesson 3: Scammers are everywhere.

The best thing to do is ignore them, or be unable to afford them in the first place.

There is no area of show business in which you’ll fail to find grifters promising fame and fortune for a price. Midge meets one when she hires the script writer, who gives everyone the same tired jokes for “$15 for five minutes.” Hollywood is full of acting coaches, voice lessons, etc. who aren’t worth the money. There are, of course, people who are worth the money. Good luck figuring out the difference!

Unless, of course, you have no money to spend on classes in the first place. That’s a surefire way to avoid getting ripped off. It’s also a surefire way to spend all your time working five jobs, leaving you with little time to write, go to auditions, paint, or whatever.

In the publishing world, there used to be a thing called vanity presses, where you paid them to print your book. Today, thanks to the magic of Amazon—aside from Prime, I mean—you no longer need a vanity press to self-publish. Anyone can publish anything on Amazon. Now, some people take the time to learn Photoshop and make their own covers. Some edit and format their own books. These things are time-consuming and not every writer is a cover designer. Not to mention, it’s a really good idea to have at least one other person besides yourself edit your book because it’s hard to do all your own editing.

So there is a genuine need for these services. However, many vanity presses have morphed into “self-publishing services” firms that charge an exorbitant amount of money to edit, design covers, and promote self-published books. Some packages run into the thousands. Again, the way to avoid this nightmare is to either A) do a whole lot of research or B) Just be too broke to pay for any of it anyway.

If you are in the market, read reviews, inspect the company’s website thoroughly, check its ranking, do a search to see what people are saying about it on social media, etc. Also quiz friends who have purchased such services about what they paid to make sure your price is reasonable. In general, avoid spending money if at all possible.

Lesson 4: Trolls Are Everywhere

Every performer gets heckled, but Midge gets a lot of heckling from guys who think women can’t be funny. And say so. It would be nice if we could write this off as a backwards view common in the 1950’s. Sadly, it’s also a backwards view some people still have today in the 21st century. In 2007, there was even a Vanity Fair article in which Christopher Hitchens attempted to mansplain why women aren’t funny. (Apparently, we never evolved this skill because we already appeal to men, and obvs., that’s the only reason for anyone to be funny!)

Midge learns to handle hecklers with aplomb. When an audience member calls her a bitch, she puts her hands on her hips and says, “Who told you?” The audience laughs, and the heckling loser is forgotten. She’s funny, he’s not. It’s a great scene.

Of course today, it’s not just hecklers at shows. There’s the morass of social media, and the evolution of hecklers into what we call “trolls.” (Also known as “hecklers who hide behind computer screens.”) Trolls are happy to attack women, minorities, people who disagree with them politically, and pretty much anyone they don’t like because, I don’t know, it’s Tuesday. As long as you have a big following, of course—for some reason, trolls rarely seem to take offense at people who have, like, 3 followers. Could it be they’re desperate for attention? Or just jealous of anyone who’s even slightly more successful? Anyway…

If you’re going to have a creative career, you’re going to need social media, and if you manage to get a decent following, you’re going to have to deal with the trolls.

I follow a lot of my favorite writers on Twitter, including one who was accused of “ruining science fiction.” Which is pretty bizarre. I mean, it’s one thing not to like an author’s books. I’ve read or tried to read lots of books that just weren’t for me. But the idea that any one author can ruin an entire genre by writing a book you don’t like is pretty fucking ridiculous. (Of course, this particular troll was also upset because the author supports things like diversity in the genre.)

So a few days ago, the writer posted a screenshot about his ruination of an entire fiction genre, with an addendum about how he’s made a lot of money in royalties lately, and “ruining science fiction” is apparently really profitable. It is now my goal in life to ruin science fiction…okay, make it ruinier…and also ruin satire. NOW I know why I’m broke—I haven’t worked hard enough at ruining things!

Of course, if you don’t have the time or desire to personally respond to every troll, there’s another option: Just block and ignore the haters. This advice is easier to give than take. I know I shouldn’t engage with trolls, but, well, sometimes I can’t resist. If you can’t either, at least try to find a clever way to do it, instead of sinking to their level.

One last thing…

So, those are the 4 funny epiphanies I learned from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Before I conclude my review of season one (love it, you should watch it if you haven’t already), I’m going to leave you with some epiphanies I had watching the first two episodes of season 2:

My new favorite quote from any TV show ever: “My goal is money. I don’t have any and I want some.” Suzie, who speaks for me and my goals as well.

Also, I wish my parents would go to Paris, rekindle whatever romantic feelings they must have once had for each other (which I REALLY don’t want to think about), and leave me alone in their house. I’d be so much happier.

Forcing students to take four semesters of a foreign language is just a way greedy colleges make money, because after four semesters of French I still need subtitles when characters speak French. I want a refund from my university.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to finish watching season 2 and see what other great epiphanies I can find. Hey, the idea for my next novel would be great….

V. R. Craft is the author of Stupid Humans, a thought-provoking science fiction book series that asks the question, “What if all the intelligent humans abandoned Earth—and we’re what’s left?” Her first political satire book, Fail to the Chief, will be released soon.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s 4 Funny Epiphanies for Every Creative I recently watched season one of Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I found hilarious and thoroughly entertaining.

#marvelous mrs maisel #marvelous mrs maisel review #The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel #The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel review #The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 2

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go-vijay-blog1 · 6 years

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Trends in Block chain and Bitcoin App Development

1. Blockchain sauce

We all want a bit of blockchain. It is hard to think of any digital project in 2017 where you can’t add a bit of blockchain on top and it suddenly becomes the tastiest tech on the menu. Share it with your friends, tell your investors! Why? That is the million dollar question (in some cases quite literally). We all realize that blockchain technology has massive potential, and we all know that we definitely HAVE to be using it because it is going to be revolutionary, but we haven’t quite figured out exactly how just yet. This is especially true in my sector. From a web development perspective, we all want to be working with blockchain technologies, but we are still a little bit green as to how it will add value to our day to day projects. Massive corporations are integrating blockchain technology into their business processes; we already know that it adds tremendous value for auditing data and that it could eventually become a neutral arbitrator of all our processes. A referee with no hidden motives. This is great for commerce and useful for creating distributed ledgers of information that belong to everyone and no-one, public voting records for example. Or in the case of a bank or giant multinational, incorruptible transaction records. But how… How in the name of all that we hold sacred can this technology possibly be useful for a humble website? In 2017 something happened. You may not have noticed it, you may not have the slightest clue. But it happened all the same. Like most things with Open Source, the significance of it escaped most of us, and it certainly didn’t happen with a launch party. It just slowly came to be. What has happened in 2017 is that Open Source technology became mature enough for us to quickly and easily deploy our own distributed ledger using blockchain technology. Although the quickly and easily is quite exciting, there doesn’t seem to be anything revolutionary about this, until we look at the detail. Or rather, instead of looking at the detail, we’ll look at the JSON.

2. It’s all about the JSON!

So why am I excited? I’ve been been keeping tabs on distributed ledger and blockchain technology for quite some time. I will happily admit that the intimidating learning curve of blockchain / ether and smart contracts rather curbed my enthusiasm for taking on client projects, as simply put from a web development perspective I found it hard to come up with a use case that justified the time it would take to get up to speed. I understand the use case for a bank, a conglomerate or a massive supply chain operator; but I make websites for a living! I’m far more interested in web applications of blockchain technology, and to me this centers more around distributed, secure ledgers rather than the asset management / contract executing aspects of blockchain. Until recently, the tools I’ve been using to explore blockchain technology are all focused around assets and ownership. It comes down to cash, contracts, big business. https://blockgeeks.com/guides/smart-contracts/. All this stuff is important and a good use of the technology, but doesn’t really have much of an influence on how I build websites or what type of websites I would build. I’ve recently discovered one Open Source blockchain based distributed ledger called https://www.multichain.com/. This for me was a ground-breaking moment as finally the penny dropped and I had a tool where I could use blockchain technology to actually do useful things online! Let me explain… Like most modern web developers, I work almost exclusively with JSON. This is basically a uniform way of providing and consuming data so that your data can be adapted the technology of your choice. What I’ve just realized (and maybe I’m behind the curve, but I don’t see anyone shouting about this yet!), but what I’ve just realized is… We can now easily store and retrieve JSON objects from distributed ledger blockchain technology. This whole JSON detail basically means that blockchain now speaks MY language. I can do anything with a JSON (within reason!). So, let’s think about the advantages of ‘blockchain’ technology and change our thinking hat from banks and supply chains, and simply apply it to a JSON instead of to a transaction / ownership structure. I’ll borrow a list from here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-of-blockchain-technology.

Blockchain advantages:

Security of data and transactions Safe data storage and exchange There is no central authority or a single administrator There are no intermediaries (banks, financial institutions, etc.). transactions are direct Each network participant has access to data There is a variety of Blockchain use cases: while the tool is the same, it can be applied in many situations and solve a wide range of tasks.

3. Why?

So, the whole point of blockchain is that it is a neutral, ultimate proof of data. This is why we use it for contracts, ownership, resolution disputes etc. Well, now let’s think of some of the biggest problems on the internet. Off the top of my head I can come up with another hot topic of 2017, ‘Fake news’. Let’s take the fake news as an example. So, the problem with ‘fake’ news is that people invent information and sources and distribute that content. We as consumers lap it up with our tiny attention spans and is so shocked by this unpleasant fiction, we share it with our friends and family. Well, that doesn’t have to be a problem anymore. We can use blockchain technology to create a blockchain of ‘trusted’ news referees, transparent to everyone. Every reputable news outlet (could be the 1000’s) has permission to access this blockchain, and when a news story is submitted it will instantly get peer review from every member of this blockchain (or whoever has time in any moment). Every time we want to distribute a news article, we simply put the JSON on the blockchain. In 2017 this is a trivial automation task. This feed we’ve just created can hook up to an API, and through this API any member of blockchain can have a cursory glance to see if it is fake news. The API will return a permalink or ‘stamp’ that this news has been published to an official news network and has been subject to peer review. Any consumer of this news can now see an immutable record of who has published the content, when, and whether there were any concerns raised by verified networks. Should there be a high proportion of ‘negative’ reviews on the article, the information can be flagged and then reputable news networks would have an opportunity to not distribute this particular article. Simply by referring to the blockchain stamp prior to sharing or redistributing. Why is a blockchain helpful for this? Because it can be a transparent, public incorruptible record of this data. We can see exactly who created/ approved/disapproved this content, when, and why. Without even exploring the potential in great detail we’ve just created a blockchain peer-review arbitration system to address fake news… What we end up with is a permanent immutable record of news from source to distribution. Much like the supply chain ‘field to fork’ principal, but applied to our news sources instead of our food sources! Blockchain verified JSON. The immutable self-certified data to rule them all.

4. The ramblings of a lunatic

You are suspicious! I know you are. I read about my first blockchain this morning, right? Well, that’s why I made a proof of concept because if you don’t believe me, you’d better believe the blockchain… https://theline.digital/blockchain So, the potential of what I’ve mocked up above is simple to see — A. It was really easy. B. it is a webpage working off JSON embedded in blockchains as the data source. Now before you accuse me of creating the worlds most pointless blockchain (although it can’t be far off!), I would like to point out that this simple blockchain could be easily adapted in terms of permissions, data storage, workflow, owners etc. As it feeds off the JSON that we define through the front-end (in this case Angular 5), we have the potential to define the datatypes that will be immortalized in our blockchain. While we are simply saving pointless tags and messages (because why not!), this could just as easily be an immutable series of JSON reviewing our fake news, or referencing the change history of our recently for sale bungalow. Blockchain ledger is the data source, JSON is the data, which means that whatever technology we want to use can power the front-end. All the data on the page is being fed from blockchain streams. The tags can be integrated into Angular and filtered like any other tags from any other data source. We have an interface to interact with our blockchain data. The only difference to any other API interface is that we have no control over the underlying data because it belongs to all members of the blockchain. Define your data, define your blockchain, then everyone who is part of your network can build and verify their applications with one data source to rule them all… And that is why websites could be on the verge of changing forever…

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