One of the nice things about the looming threat of unemployment was the kick in the pants it gave me to gather together all the half-done writing projects.
Peter M. Ball
@petermball.bsky.social
Genrepunk. Writing/Publishing Nerd. Writing neo-pulp stories at GenrePunk Books and publishing outstanding genre fiction at BrainJarPress. He/him.
The real curse of doing a long stint of freelancing is finding a reasonable answer to "please give us a list of referees who you reported to directly over the last five years"
A redundancy when you can line up another gig and use the payout to clear a bunch of debt is actually not so bad. A redundancy when you have nothing else and have to live on the payout is...not so great. At the eleventh hour, yesterday, it started looking like I'm getting to go with option A...
Judging by the most recent round of Author Spam, they've relaised pretending ot be a high profile editor making contact from a GMail address is...suss. Instead they're going for that luster of authenticy that comes from using AOL instead.
Final work day before redundancy hits. Sitting on the bus singing the doom song.
Lin002 and Stash: Door Appears
ALT: Lin002 and Stash: Door Appears
static.klipy.com
Officially at the stage of impending unemployment where I convince myself everything will be fine, and I'll just write 26 books a year until I brute force my way back to a sustainable income.
Me: I've been sick for a week. I'll ease myself back into drafting. Also me: Writes a 2,000 word essay in one sitting.
Good morning to all my fellow gamers still old enough to remember THAC0. How are your joints doing today? Did you also injure yourself by standing up too fast?
If you've never read Theadora Goss's story "The Rapid Advance of Sorrow", you really should.
When I inevitably retreat from social media, it will be because I can no longer deal with indie authors being slightly bewildered to discover that Amazon isn’t in their side.
Quitting time for the day job today. Looking forward to the weekend writer sprint.
Hey fellow writers. My coffee mug just gave me a useful reminder. Perhaps it would be useful for you, too?
So I managed the Australia Writers Marketplace around the time Amazon revolutionsed self publishing and digital reading through the launch of the Kindle in Australia. Which means I saw a lot of "we're going to disrupt publishing" pitches for people who wanted to be listed in AWM.
It's been a good week on the book recommendation front. One of my Call of Cthulhu group has been reading Morning Glory Milking Farm. Another is reading The Reverse Unicorn's Guide to Surviving Life After AI. Turns out, if you bang on about books enough, people eventually get interested in them.
I'm a grump this week, and answering questions about writing-while-working-full-time on threads yesterday largely helped me figure out why.
I'm very much of the opinion that social media doesn't sell books the way most people hope. On the other hand, Threads has sold so many of these mugs over the last three years its fucking embaressing.
I have hit the "time to shave off the beard" phase of searching for a new job.
There is nothing like revisiting book layouts and cover designs you did at the start of your publishing career, some twenty odd years back, to remind you of just how far you have com
Ooooh, look, Fitcher's Bird at @barnesandnoble! Members get 25% off their pre-orders. Just saying... @https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fitchers-bird-ag-slatter/1149137042 #agslatter #fitchersbird #barnesandnoble #titanbooks #preorders
So I may have convinced other people in my Call of Cthulhu group to read Morning Glory Milking Farm. I await the sounds of SAN checks being made.
Good morning to everyone else who just fielded a queries about a series you wrote back in 2005-2006, even if the response is "crap, sorry, those files aren't in a publishable form anymore"
RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.
Jill Weinberger@jillybobww.bsky.social · 2mo agoRT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.
Thing about technology that actually does make life better is you don't need to write 1,437 different op-eds to try to persuade people that it will make your life better.
My general rule of thumb: once you see courses about “how to find your readers/sell books on x”, it’s a sign that the days of organic reach are over and rapid enshittification is about to start. I’ve seen two ads for Substack courses this week. Do with that what you will.
I spend a lot of time looking at old pulp era stories and art, whether it's through Facebook groups that provide a steady stream of covers or tracking down any biolgraphy I can find. From a publishing point of view, I find myself fascinated by things like this one.
This beautiful little book arrived today for me to review. I finished it in a few hours. Fitcher's Bird by @angelaslatter.bsky.social is a terrific read. Review on its way to @horrortree.com 😊 Highly recommend! #booksky #gothic #horror #FridayReads
A very happy morning to everyone else awake far earlier on a Saturday than they want to be.
Apparently I have chosen my distraction for the final four weeks of work before the redundancy kicks in.
