27/08/2009 In Music by William Aicher
With the news about the recent decisions in both the Joel Tennenbaum case and the Jammie Thomas Rasset case, there has been a lot of uninformed complaining going on. The biggest error among the misinformed is this: they think people were fined for downloading music.
They weren’t.
In most articles you’ll read online, the act of downloading is the focus, like this one over at Gizmodo. I understand that a lot of people online like to steal music, and that they’re upset that some people got in trouble for it – but the fact is, they’re wrong about what the people got in trouble for. The people (Tennenbaum and Thomas-Rasset) got in trouble for downloading and distributing music. They were found to do so willingly, and while knowing that to do so was illegal. (more…)
11/08/2009 In Marketing, Web by William Aicher
In our current state of constant communication and sharing of information we take for granted the fact that we can say pretty much whatever, whenever we want. Because of this, it’s fairly easy for us to let our guard down now and say what we really feel – at least the moment we say it – without thinking too hard about who might be listening.
Sure, there’s a lot of talk about making sure that you’re Google-search-safe and “OMG what if my prospective employer looks me up on Facebook” – but for the most part we’re fairly secure of anonymity. Or maybe we’re just understanding of the fact that the world is changing, and that we all might have some warts and that that’s okay. (more…)
10/08/2009 In Life, Publishing, Technology, Web, Writing by William Aicher
In a recent post, I mentioned that I was working on a new novel. This is true, but what I didn’t mention is that I’m also working on a new piece of nonfiction. This work focuses primarily on the cost and value of creation, and the damages that are happening to the creative class due to some aspects of modern culture. In fact, a working subtitle for the book (at least as I’m writing it) is The Genocide of the Creative Class.
Here’s a snippet of the current work-in-progress.
For a lot of people, creation is their livelihood. For others, it’s where their livelihood should be. I may be modest at times, but I know I’m no Picasso. For people like him, there obviously was a motivation to create – but there was also a cost. In his lifetime, Picasso created an estimated 50,000 individual works. If nothing else, that’s a lot of paint, paper and time.
Still, the obvious question here is “What if Picasso had not been able to create as his profession?” Of course there is no way he’d have created 50,000 works – there simply isn’t enough time in one’s life to do something like that as a hobby. Or, if somehow he could have still produced as many works, it is highly unlikely he would have had the drive to do so, much less perfect his craft to the level which he did.
(more…)
08/08/2009 In Publishing, Writing by William Aicher
Have an Amazon Kindle? Looking for a low price on a quick read?
Now you can get The Trouble With Being God, my debut philosophical / psychological thriller, for just $3.50 on the Kindle. (Or download the free sample to take a peek first).
Also, if you have an iPhone, don’t forget you can also download Kindle books to it with the Kindle iPhone app.
11/07/2009 In Publishing, Writing by William Aicher
I’m an indie author. Or self-published author … or whatever it is you call someone who wrote a book and decided to publish it through channels other than the traditional ones. At least, that is, as far as my debut novel, The Trouble With Being God, goes.
As you probably know, I’m working on my next book – albeit a bit slowly (we just had our second son, so I am obliged to take a break). This second book is definitely superior to my first – and is a rather marked departure from the contents of my first (there are no murders – so far). But the biggest difference with the new book is that I am probably not going to publish it myself.
Obviously I don’t have anything against indie publishing. After all, I’ve been waving the indie flag for quite a while now. But the thing is, indie publishing has a specific purpose and that purpose was to let books like The Trouble With Being God exist. It wasn’t a regular book – and I definitely took some big risks in the way I wrote it. I never expected it to be a huge success (and so far it hasn’t been) but the goal with that book was to write the story I wanted to tell – even though it wasn’t likely to be a hit with any sort of mainstream audience (in fact, I expected the ending to probably piss a lot of people off. It did – and for those of you who felt cheated, I’m sorry). Still, indie publishing is made for that kind of thing – trying something new to put it out there when traditional channels just aren’t ready to take that kind of financial risk. (more…)
01/07/2009 In Life, Money, Publishing, Writing by William Aicher
With the experiences I’ve had so far as an independent author, I’ve come across quite a few like-minded individuals. The problem is that some of them aren’t that great at writing something that grabs me (sorry, but it’s true). Some of them, however, are. This is where Scott C. Rogers falls with his debut, Celluloid Cowboy.
To be honest, at first I really wasn’t very interested in reading his book. The cover art definitely screamed indie, and the premise seemed a bit cliche (man’s life sucks, is presented with chance to change), and I am also usually pretty wary of author’s soliciting their works to me to read. (I already have quite a few books on my to-read list.) But Rogers and I emailed back and forth a few times (full disclosure here) and I told him that if he put it up on Kindle I’d maybe read it. He did, he emailed me, and I went ahead and read it.
The thing is, this really isn’t my kind of book. From some of the reviews out there he supposedly has some similarities to Bukowski, who I’ve never really cared enough about to read (and therefore can’t comment as to if he really is like Bukowski). I will say this though: Celluloid Cowboy is really damn weird. (more…)
18/06/2009 In Life by William Aicher
Talk to me, people – and talk to each other.
That’s the most important message I try to get across to my team members. As the Director of both the Web Team and Marketing/Editorial Team at Musicnotes.com, I have a lot on my schedule. I directly manage and work with six extraordinarily talented individuals across these two groups, each of which is truly a master of his or her domain. But along with being masters of their domains, they are also multi-talented individuals who are quite capable of helping each other out by stepping out of their specialty and into someone else’s (or a specialty we didn’t know we even needed).
With such a talented group, and at a continually growing and forward-thinking company like Musicnotes, there’s always a lot going on. When one project ends, another is always there to take its place – and oftentimes there are multiple projects being worked on at once. These kinds of circumstances are the ideal cocktail for confusion and failure to brew; with so much going on, almost all of it “high priority,” it’s easy to see how things could quickly spiral out of control. (more…)
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