Where Did Things Go So Wrong?!?

[Marseille]

For the record, I don't think having controversial opinions or passionate detractors is a handicap. My suggestion would be to embrace the notoriety and encourage it. A considerable portion of the tech blogosphere is passionate about internet openness. Being a respectful and responsive/engaging dissenting voice could drive attention (even if you do only post 3 times a month -- not all successful blogs are daily regurg) and traffic to you, and drive interest in your books. It would mean becoming a known commenter elsewhere, and becoming grateful, rather than dismissive of your detractors (though I do understand the context of this thread is different than your own venues), which would take time, and it wouldn't necessarily work. It just seems like a possible way forward to me.

You may not get any love from the average blog commenter, but lots of people like reading things that are different from what they read everyday, and commenters don't speak for everyone. All you really need is for bloggers you respond to to start responding to you. I don't know that I could do it, but I've seen others manage.

I'm about to start investing much larger amounts of time in my own venture than I have to this point, and I'm just starting out. I have no doubt my wide-eyed optimism and naivety could evoke chuckles from battle-torn veterans, but at the end of the day, I'm going to do this because I can't not do it. If you've been at it for 5 years, perhaps you're the same way.

[Penforhire]

Mr Ploppy, post your Amazon password and see what happens today. No different.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by David Marseilles

I'm about to start investing much larger amounts of time in my own venture than I have to this point, and I'm just starting out. I have no doubt my wide-eyed optimism and naivety could evoke chuckles from battle-torn veterans, but at the end of the day, I'm going to do this because I can't not do it. If you've been at it for 5 years, perhaps you're the same way.

Better luck to you.

[altworld]

Jumped through this thread and I get a general feeling of tiredness from the Author, and as a writer I can agree.

I do feel all the time we spend promoting, talking about, joining in, smiling, jumping up and down, and all other activities related to getting the word out about our stories can, at times be better spent.

I am a writer, therefore I should be writing more than worrying about how to get Likes on my Facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nick-...27302163985721 right?

I don't have anything to tell you that will make you feel better, I would say you have people reading your work and that in itself is gratifying. Someone out there like what you've written enough to buy it and read it.

Write new stories, write different stories, explore what you want to explore in your writing, tell tall tales, tell small tales, we are story tellers and that is what we want to do. In the past year I've written gritty fantasy, amazing fairy tales and a humorous short about what happens when a writers characters really come alive. Enjoy what you do and challenge yourself.

Keep going and doing what you want to do, by doing that you are already ahead in the race
Arigato,
Nick Davis

[ficbot]

Nick, all jobs have a grunt work aspect. Writing as a job is no exception. I'm a teacher and love my job. I don't love playground duty though, for instance. Nonetheless, it's part of the job so I do it when my turn comes up. If writing is just a fun hobby for so done, then they can totally pick and choose to only do the parts they like. But if they are aiming for a career, them IMHO that means accepting that the PR and promo aspects ofmit, tedious though the may be, are a necessary part of the equation.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Mr Ploppy, post your Amazon password and see what happens today. No different.

No different to what?

[altworld]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Nick, all jobs have a grunt work aspect. Writing as a job is no exception. I'm a teacher and love my job. I don't love playground duty though, for instance. Nonetheless, it's part of the job so I do it when my turn comes up. If writing is just a fun hobby for so done, then they can totally pick and choose to only do the parts they like. But if they are aiming for a career, them IMHO that means accepting that the PR and promo aspects ofmit, tedious though the may be, are a necessary part of the equation.

I think its okay to admit that sometimes it is tiring riding the promo pony, I feel the drag of it sometimes especially now its spring, a time when book sales slow down. I always look to the long term in this career I'm trying to build for myself.

My suggestion is more of a get yourself out of the rut type thing, I found after I wrote The Wonder Tales I was energized again. I feel our friend here would be in the same place, write something short, fun, light and a little fluffy, get back to enjoying your craft a little bit and experiment for a couple of weeks.
Arigato,
Nick Davis

[Penforhire]

Ploppy, you said "What would stop people from sharing their ebook password with their 50 billion Faceache friends? Surely to make it secure you would need to incorporate some form of DNA testing as well as fingerprint/password. " along with some more reductio ad adsurdum.

Biometric authentication is ideally device dependent. My prints are associated with my laptop. They have zero value to 50 billion Facebook users. My laptop is safe from them, lol, as would be my e-reader that happened to use biometric authentication.

Perhaps you missed the point that biometrics is a convenience technique and an alternative, not a replacement, for passwords? When authentication is more convenient it becomes less onerous to apply DRM, for example whenever you power up your e-reader. We can continue to argue the merit of DRM itself. I don't like it but I'd rather have a biometric entry into my DRM material than not have one.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Denial of Service and The Onuissance Cells are on Smashwords, free for doanload. (Correction: Something happened to Onuissance, I'll have to restore it.)

I have been meeting you here on Mobileread for a long time (mostly in threads about piracy, but I avoid those recently, because I have already seen most of the arguments). Yet, I didn't get to checking up your books. Too many other books to read, too many other distractions.
I have a soft spot for a free e-books, especially for free e-books by indie writers.
I have just downloaded Denial and I will start reading as soon as I finish the book I am reading at the moment. If I like the book I will post a review and I will try to spread the word. I will check The Onuissance to see if I can download it later.
Forgive me, please one stupid question. What does "Onuissance" mean? You might have noticed that I am not native English speaker (writer ;-) )

Before reading your books I can not say much about why your book business isn't going as well as you might wish.
One thing to consider is huge, staggeringly huge, choice people have for reading nowadays. I have just recently came across a number - one million e-books self-published in the USA alone, just the last year. Plus you are competing with netflix, youtube videos, Angry birds or even threads on Mobileread. I personally read less books than I used to (long time ago) because I spend more time online in discussions such as this one.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kacir

...
Forgive me, please one stupid question. What does "Onuissance" mean? You might have noticed that I am not native English speaker (writer ;-) )
....

I don't know either, but:

http://forums.syfy.com/index.php?showuser=3026517&f=60

[Tome Keeper]

Originally Posted by kacir

Forgive me, please one stupid question. What does "Onuissance" mean? You might have noticed that I am not native English speaker (writer ;-) )

Could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the author has made the word up. It's not in any of the English (UK) dictionaries I have.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Perhaps you missed the point that biometrics is a convenience technique and an alternative, not a replacement, for passwords? When authentication is more convenient it becomes less onerous to apply DRM, for example whenever you power up your e-reader. We can continue to argue the merit of DRM itself. I don't like it but I'd rather have a biometric entry into my DRM material than not have one.

No, it was being offered as a replacement, as user-based rather than device-based DRM. Steve was suggesting a fingerprint check instead of the current PID-based encryption for DRM'd ebooks.

Your laptop is fingerprint-locked for your benefit; ebooks are DRM'd for the seller's benefit. You have the choice of handing your password to anyone you feel comfortable accessing your laptop. They don't want to switch to a password-opens-this-book method; that allows more sharing than they want to allow.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by intheendofdays

Could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the author has made the word up. It's not in any of the English (UK) dictionaries I have.

Yes, I agree that it is a madeup word. Perhaps it is pronounced "one nusiance"?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by kacir

Forgive me, please one stupid question. What does "Onuissance" mean? You might have noticed that I am not native English speaker (writer ;-) )

It's not a stupid question, as this is a word I coined myself years ago: It's a combination of the terms "Renaissance" and "Onus" (which means responsibility); put together, Onuissance (pronounced "Own-e-sonse") means "The Age of Responsibility." It is the term I gave to the future period in Human history when we devote ourselves to acting responsibly, for ourselves and for our planet.

Originally Posted by rhadin

Yes, I agree that it is a madeup word. Perhaps it is pronounced "one nusiance"?

This guy enjoys pushing my buttons...

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

It's not a stupid question, as this is a word I coined myself years ago: It's a combination of the terms "Renaissance" and "Onus" (which means responsibility); put together, Onuissance means "The Age of Responsibility." It is the term I gave to the future period in Human history when we devote ourselves to acting responsibly, for ourselves and for our planet.

I notice you advertise one of your books as being a bit like Star Trek. Do they have any form of replicator type device, or did the corporations crush it at patent stage?