tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post6788797386269258406..comments2023-07-14T06:17:49.677-04:00Comments on The Daring Novelist: Kris Rusch, Joe Konrath, Amazon and MeThe Daring Novelisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01676188266569869059noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-24186941592668199512012-10-01T19:04:46.086-04:002012-10-01T19:04:46.086-04:00Exactly.
Part of the problem for young writers, t...Exactly.<br /><br />Part of the problem for young writers, though, is that they don't have a lot of other things to take up their attention, so it's easier to obsess.<br /><br />Time cures an awful lot.The Daring Novelisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01676188266569869059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-14337667614283272732012-10-01T09:24:19.472-04:002012-10-01T09:24:19.472-04:00Great post.
Like everything our brains have chang...Great post.<br /><br />Like everything our brains have changed with technology and those nasty MTV shows - we demand immediate gratification even if it's meaningless.<br /><br />I used to tell my students not to worry about their web stats. Sure, keep an eye out, tweak a bit, re-visit every three months to look for patterns. But the real meaningful information will reveal itself after a year of collecting and that only if you know how to look at the charts and what to look for.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ManOfLaBook.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.ManOfLaBook.com</a>Man of la Bookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11561603511163982556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-63153351264339573112012-09-30T16:05:03.639-04:002012-09-30T16:05:03.639-04:00Thanks, Melissa,
And yeah, you know, as the whole...Thanks, Melissa,<br /><br />And yeah, you know, as the whole system breaks down and re-forms, we get to build new models, and we find that we are no longer dealing with a monolith.<br /><br />I think it's overlooked, but we get to mix-and-match all sorts of things to satisfy our motives and needs. We're no longer in a world where we choose between money and art or audience and income or any of those "either/or" sorts of things. We may not be able to do everything, but we have much more choice about how we do any of it.The Daring Novelisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01676188266569869059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-25506241367728733932012-09-30T12:48:07.638-04:002012-09-30T12:48:07.638-04:00I love your reflections on writing.
Your comment a...I love your reflections on writing.<br />Your comment also made me realize that I'm focusing on the personal more, too, as Olo Books begins to move my books to print.<br />Stats and money are much appreciated, but most of the online customers buy silently, without feedback. When your friends and colleagues say, "I love it!" or "I cried," it's food for the soul.Melissa Yuan-Inneshttp://melissayuaninnes.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-81324697096781147402012-09-28T13:21:26.337-04:002012-09-28T13:21:26.337-04:00You know, I'm starting to think more in terms ...You know, I'm starting to think more in terms of one-on-one validations. Back in the old days, we used to get a lot of our validation from friends and beta readers, and we were a little shy and embarrassed about that, but we wrote. Because it was one-on-one, we recognized it as something personal and psychological, and not as some business metric.<br /><br />The problem is now that people are substituting business metrics for that personal neediness, and while it can actually make you feel good, that's not really what it's for.<br /><br />So I'm kinda doing the opposite right now. I'm investing in the personal.The Daring Novelisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01676188266569869059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-16243984882426203302012-09-27T18:21:34.147-04:002012-09-27T18:21:34.147-04:00The need for external validation is still so stron...The need for external validation is still so strong. It went from needing it with agents and editors, to needing it with sale numbers. That said, the sale numbers do reflect our ability to catch and hook readers, but if it's stopping us from writing more then there is a problem.<br /><br />Personally, I would rather make it with hard work and a backlist than to rely on getting lucky. Not all of us do, and I'm a seriously unlucky kind of person. I can't really control sales, but I can control my output. As Kevin J. Anderson says, “The harder I work, the luckier I am.”<br /><br />Time to get back to work, writers, and that means words and finished projects!J.A. Marlowhttp://jamarlow.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-66844101549923649692012-09-27T11:54:31.085-04:002012-09-27T11:54:31.085-04:00That's exactly it.
Our brains are wired to ge...That's exactly it.<br /><br />Our brains are wired to get get hooked on stuff like that. (It was once useful; when the more primitive part of our brain was evolving: looking for patterns as a learning mechanism, an early kluge for getting at cause and effect -- but it's just a kluge.)<br /><br />I still look at my numbers. It's... entertaining in a mind-numbing kind of way.The Daring Novelisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01676188266569869059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3982837118358902227.post-1605888903071633532012-09-27T11:46:02.100-04:002012-09-27T11:46:02.100-04:00I'm wondering if the immediacy of Amazon's...I'm wondering if the immediacy of Amazon's sales reports is like a slot machine. Put in penny, or ten, pull the lever and...the machine does it's thing. What you get has nothing to do with anything you did, it's the machine doing it's thing to 'hook' you into putting another penny, or ten, in that slot. <br /><br />When I play slots, I put in my dime, get six cents back. It looks like I won six cents, but really, I lost four. <br /><br />With Amazon, I'm just as hooked on the numbers. What I'm losing is time to write, edit and get my Real Life stuff done. <br /><br />Smashwords is slower - so it isn't as addictive. I'm seeing some progress there with e-books I've kept out of Select. <br /><br />What I've noticed is that it's very difficult to NOT LOOK. I want to at least peek...just one more time. That's why it reminds me of a slot machine. K. A. Jordanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07020119815910396933noreply@blogger.com