News & views
My aim is very simple: I should like to generate a passive income. I could do so by selling affiliate products or by having ads all over the place. But I prefer to do it, mainly at least, by writing.
But there’s a problem.
Amazon very recently introduced a new way of calculating royalties for books borrowed in the Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library schemes. Whereas previously royalties were based on the number of times a book has been borrowed, they will now be based on the number of pages read. Amazon will define what a page is according to font size and other parameters, so authors can’t pull a fast one by making the font huge!
If, like me, you enjoy writing and you would like to earn money from it, should you go down the freelance writing route or write books, or both?
From my experience, here are the pros and cons of freelancing.
This article is not about writing or related matters as such; it's more about my experience of attitudes to paying for work. It's worth reading, I think, if any of the following applies to you:
A couple of weeks ago I asked: Is Digital Rights Management effective against piracy?
Well, the London Book Fair has been and gone. Is it only a week ago that I was trudging home with publishers’ catalogues and notes from the various sessions I attended?
I found it really useful: three days’-worth of excellent talks and discussions, for the princely sum of £35.
A recent piece of research from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) makes for some depressing reading – unless you are extremely optimistic.
The figures relate to 2013, and are not as good as their equivalents of ten years ago, in 2005. Well, not for the most part anyway. Here are some of them:
I spent another day at the London Book Fair today. This time, I had earmarked just two talks to go to, the rest of my time being given over to wandering around and seeing what looked interesting.
I always look forward to the London Book Fair – I think it’s the thrill of being surrounded by so many books! Today was the first of three, and I used it to attend seminars for the most part.
After quite a long gap, I’ve decided to self-publish a few books. I thought it might be interesting to write up my journey, because perhaps the research I undertake will be beneficial to others.
One of the things I’ve learnt over the years is that if my antivirus program tells me there is a new version that I need to install, I always create a system restore point (I’m using a PC). Why? Because on almost every occasion something doesn’t work afterwards.
After quite a long gap, I’ve decided to self-publish a few books. I thought it might be interesting to write up my journey, because perhaps the research I undertake will be beneficial to others.
Today I’m looking at whether or not you should choose Digital Rights Management, or DRM, as a way of preventing your ebooks being illegally copied.
After quite a long gap, I’ve decided to self-publish a few books. I thought it might be interesting to write up my journey, because perhaps the research I undertake will be beneficial to others.
Today I’m looking at why have I chosen self-publishing rather than traditional publishing.
After quite a long gap, I’ve decided to self-publish a few books. I thought it might be interesting to write up my journey, because perhaps the research I undertake will be beneficial to others.
Today, I’m clarifying what the term self-publishing means because, unfortunately, it’s not as obvious as you might think.
Starting tomorrow, a new series of occasional posts about my research into self-publishing.
The first two articles are:
Like many people I suppose, when I have written about the effects of the new rule on value-added tax, I’ve done so from the point of view of myself, as a seller of ebooks. But what of the costs to readers?I would love to be able to write blog posts or conduct my social media affairs in such a way that I became an overnight sensation, as verified by an astronomical rise in my bank balance.
That’s why I tend to read a lot of adverts that say things like “How I turned my blog into a licence to print money in just three months!”
Victorian humour? A contradiction in terms, surely? Not according to Bob Nicholson, a lecturer in history who is on a mission to make Victorian jokes funny again (which presupposes they were funny in the first place, of course, but one assumes they were!).
Now, you may think this has nothing to do with writing, but it has. Bob is using a computing technique known as “text mining” to trawl through loads of Victorian publications held by the British Library, and extract jokes.
I think this notice about parking illustrates why it’s not a good idea to rely solely on yourself when it comes to proofreading and editing. The notice contains two errors that could, and should, have been avoided.
Many moons ago I took up amateur dramatics for a while. That may seem a bit odd for someone who likes to keep himself to himself, but someone invited me to see a play he was in, and I thought it looked like fun.
I have to say that the thought of going on stage was a terrifying experience. Note that I said the thought of it, not the experience itself. I’ll try to explain.