03-11-2014, 01:42 AM | #242 | |
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03-11-2014, 02:46 PM | #243 |
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The sheer volume of hot air, notional thinking, and number of characters devoted to the exploration of a non issue has me thinking that this thread readily casts doubt on the theory that an infinite number of monkeys in a room full of word processors would eventually produce all the works of William Shakespeare... or at least not yet. Sadly, I am now included in the throng of contributing chimps.
The word Author is well defined. What someone calls themself, or represents themself as being, likely has so little actual personal impact on anyone else as not to matter. Get over it, unless you're marrying the "author", or doing their taxes, specifics may just amount to the picking of nits. I have designed and built electronic hardware, done systems analysis and design, programming, installation, repair, management, sales, etc. I hold no degree despite a fair number of credits, but was paid for my work professionally, and my official title is "Tinkerer", but that in no way minimizes the work I have done. A rose by any other name... still costs too damned much at your local florist! |
03-11-2014, 02:49 PM | #244 |
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"If a man builds a thousand bridges and writes one book, they don't call him a bridge-builder... they call him an author."
The original joke that I modified above is a bit too raunchy for me to post to this forum, so if you don't recognize it you'll have to get Google to help you out. |
03-11-2014, 03:15 PM | #245 |
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Mobile Read. Not Mobile Write.
eReaders are for the reader. Another way to read books, more convenient for some. It is also, by default, more convenient for people who write 'stuff' to have this 'stuff' displayed with 'proper' books and their e reader version. Sort of gate crashing the party. If this generation of new writers are so keen to have their work read then they should at least offer it for free, much like software and apps developers do, in the hope that it is noticed and is good enough to be developed further with maybe a publishing deal. But for someone to write and upload this 'stuff' as a book and charge for it without it being expertly proof-read and checked or money back guarantee offered, this is being delusional. Ok there are exceptions to every rule but that percentage is very very small. (Like the new author of 'Half Bad'. Her first book, sent to a publisher, accepted straight away, then given to a film company to read and they bought the rights to make the movie). A writers dream, but a exception to the rule. Since all these small fish share the same ocean as the more established ones, we the reader need to be able to distinguish one from the other. Maybe by a vanity notice on these books, could be the line in the sand. One exception might be a person writing a one off story, in their own words about an event in their life, where they state that it is 'in their own words' and has not been proof read. Last edited by moonshot; 03-11-2014 at 03:23 PM. |
03-11-2014, 03:20 PM | #246 |
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03-11-2014, 03:39 PM | #247 |
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Would you say the same about those who upload stuff onto a blog/website? Are they a 'journalist', 'editor,' etc?
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03-11-2014, 04:06 PM | #248 | |
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Yes, this is Mobile Read, not Mobile Write, but so what? You seem to assuming that anyone who objects to your bizarre definition of "author" must be doing so because they are writers. A person who writes a bad, unedited book expecting to sell a lot of copies may be delusional, but that person is still in fact an author. A bad artist is still an artist, a bad musician is still an musician and a bad author is still an author. Is an actor not an actor if he only gets a few roles as an extra? We do need methods to tell good books from bad books but: 1) Redefining author doesn't do this for us. Redefining author doesn't help anyone find a good book. 2) Redefining author to meet some arbitrary criteria only leads to confusion. It leaves us with illogic like a book not having an author. 3) We already have ample means to tell good books from bad. Critics, reviews, sales numbers, awards, recommendations, word of mouth, etc. You keep insisting that it's so difficult to find good books, yet you ignore these ample means. What is it that you find so faulty about them? |
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03-11-2014, 04:08 PM | #249 |
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03-11-2014, 04:23 PM | #250 |
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Time to stir up another round of responses to mine, huh?
(not "mine" as in me, but miner-forty-niner.) Last edited by DiapDealer; 03-11-2014 at 05:35 PM. |
03-11-2014, 05:04 PM | #251 |
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Well I guess Charles Dickens wasn't an author. A good part of his early works if not his later ones were published serially in the newspaper long before they were between covers. Of course the argument of "just because you have written a book that doesn't mean you're an author" can be applied to other things too like "just because you're 21 that doesn't make you an adult" or "Just because you graduated from college that doesn't mean you're intelligent." That kind of argument can be applied many ways. Myself I tend to think that if someone has written a book they are an author (an unpublished author perhaps, but still an author).
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03-11-2014, 06:02 PM | #252 | |
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Anyway good to know you are not quite so adamant as you appeared at the outset. Helen |
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03-11-2014, 06:03 PM | #253 |
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and by extention: just because you are on mobileread doesn't mean you read ebooks or are an expert on the matter
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03-11-2014, 06:04 PM | #254 |
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@crich btw
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03-11-2014, 06:04 PM | #255 |
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but talking to moon
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