Writing

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3
Jun 10

Starving the Artist: Amazon 4-for-3 Promotion / BN.com Sale

Just a quick update for those of you who are interested in picking up a physical paperback copy of my new book, Starving the Artist: How the Internet Culture of Free Threatens to Exterminate the Creative Class and What Can Be Done to Save It – the book is now eligible for Amazon.com’s 4-for-3 promotion, where when you purchase any three eligible items, you receive a fourth for free.  So, if you were looking to get three other eligible books you could get Starving the Artist for FREE.  Also, if you want a quick preview of the book, the Look Inside feature is now live on Amazon’s listing as well.

If you’re a fan of Barnes & Noble, or just like to save a buck or two, Starving the Artist is currently on sale there for 10% off at just $8.95.

And of course you can also get it on Kindle for the everyday low price of just $4.95.

Intellectual Property / Music / Publishing / Technology / Web / Writing — No Comments
5
May 10

My New Book: “Starving the Artist” Is Now Available

If you’ve been following my updates here or on Twitter, you are likely aware that over the last nine months or so I’ve been working on a new, nonfiction book, discussing the value of creative works.  The book, Starving the Artist, focuses on how in today’s Internet age where information can be transferred for a negligible amount of money (basically for free), the underlying creation that makes up the music, movies, books, art and other types of media that we enjoy, is being viewed as something that should be free as well.  A lot of this comes from the thought process that the actual cost of a product should be determined in great part to the physical cost of the packaged good, as well as the general philosophy of those that argue “Information should be free.”

The full title of the book is Starving the Artist: How the Internet Culture of “Free” Threatens to Exterminate the Creative Class and What Can Be Done to Save It.  It’s not a book about copyright law or an argument that “free is evil” – instead it’s a discussion of our current state of how we value other people’s work and creations, and how it should not be up to us as consumers to decide whether or not we want to pay what the creator is asking (if they are asking for anything at all). In some ways it’s a response to Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price and tangential to Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur.

Continue reading →

Life / Publishing / Technology / Web / Writing — 4 Comments
10
Aug 09

The Genocide of the Creative Class (A Work-in-Progress)

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.

Continue reading →

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8
Aug 09

Kindle Edition of My Debut Thriller, The Trouble With Being God, Now only $3.50

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.

Publishing / Writing — 2 Comments
11
Jul 09

Why My Next Book May Very Likely Not Be Self-Published

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. Continue reading →

Life / Money / Publishing / Writing — 1 Comment
1
Jul 09

Celluloid Cowboy: What Indie Publishing is For

Celluloid CowboyWith 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. Continue reading →

Publishing / Writing — 3 Comments
15
May 09

A Lot of Self-Published Books Really Suck

I’m a self-published (i.e. “indie”) author, and I’ll be the first to say it: a lot of self-published books really suck.  I mean really.  They’re horrible – filled with typos, grammatical errors, poor storytelling, bad research, and so on. That’s the biggest problem with how easy it is to publish your own book now – these suckfests bring down the name of self-publishing and tarnish anything with “self-published” immediately as being suspect. Continue reading →

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