What is the Price of Creativity?

April 12, 2012 — Pat Bertram

The book business continues to dishearten me. The recent pursuit by the government against the major publishers and Apple on antitrust charges gives Amazon a virtual monopoly with the ability to charge whatever prices they want, eternally undercutting the competition. This also gives Amazon control of the royalties the authors earn, which is little enough to begin with, and makes self-publishing on Amazon an even more attractive option. Which gives Amazon even more control.

Perhaps the publishers were charging more than people would have liked, but frankly, as much as I hate the major publishers, there is more at stake here than simple manufacturing costs. Admittedly, it doesn’t cost anything beyond an initial investment to produce an ebook, but what about the value of the contents, the creative output, the artistry of the writing itself? No one complains that the painting they bought for $100,000 is overpriced even though it merely cost the artist a few dollars worth of paint and canvas, so why do readers begrudge writers compensation for their creativity? What didn’t exist now does. Shouldn’t there be value to that?

And that is the real issue here. Value.

Readers don’t seem to care that the art of writing no longer has any value. They can get an endless supply of books free or close to free. They seem to believe that good writing will rise to the top, that bad writing will simply fade away, but that is not true. What sells is adequate writing, writing that is just good enough to get the job done. Some good books might find a readership, but if they don’t, it does not negate the inherent value of the book. Nor does a barely adequate book become a good book simply because it sells.

Huge numbers of people shrug and say, “Ebooks are here, get over it.” They are thrilled at the disappearance of any “elitism” that might once have been conferred upon published authors. Anyone can write. Anyone can publish. What everyone believes they can do, no one values. People are reading more now because of the low cost and ease of ebooks, but are they reading anything of value, are they becoming better human beings because of the books, or are they simply passing time?

I was shocked the first time I heard that books are considered entertainment, that books compete with movies and video games for entertainment dollars. Books are more than entertainment. Or they should be. The written word becomes part of us. What was conceived in one mind comes to life in another. It’s a connection between two human beings who have never met. Isn’t that of greater consideration than a fight over entertainment dollars? Through books you can travel to other places in the world, and you can travel to other places in your own mind. You can experience feelings, ideas, philosophies that you never knew you had. Isn’t that more than mere entertainment?

I’m not sure I want to participate in a book world that places such a small value on the written word. I’ve been trying to find a reason to write again, but frankly, I don’t I see the point.

Posted in books, internet, writing. Tags: , , , , . 15 Comments »

Help! I Need Blog Talk Radio Topics

April 10, 2012 — Pat Bertram

I’m scheduled to be interviewed on a blog radio show in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure how that happened because I never actually said I’d do it. Still, there it is. Or rather, there I will be. The problem is, they want me to send them a list of five things I would like to discuss about me and my work, and I don’t have anything in particular I’d like to say. (Seems strange, doesn’t it? It’s their show, so obviously they have some sort of agenda. I have no agenda, yet I have to supply the questions.)

So, I’m asking you: what topics should I send them? Is there anything about my books or writing you’d be interested in hearing about? Any noteworthy questions you were asked in an interview that you’d like to pass along? Any questions about books or writing that haven’t been asked ad nauseum? Anything?

Posted in blogging, internet, writing. Tags: , , . 10 Comments »

The Internet is My Tranquilizer

April 6, 2012 — Pat Bertram

I read an amusing, beautiful, and wise article on Malcolm’s Round Table yesterday: The Internet is Drugs.

Malcolm R. Campbell wrote: As I sit here in the sunny kitchen of my father-in-law’s farmhouse, I’m going through withdrawal because the Internet does not exist here. On a typical morning, I would have checked e-mail (pot), looked at several news screens (cocaine) and read everything in my Facebook (meth) news feed.

My Facebook status would be a no-brainer: blitzed, spaced out, and higher than the summit of Mount Everest. I recall those old, fried-egg-in-a-skillet public service announcements: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? [Click here to read the rest of the article.]

Malcolm makes the very good point that on the internet, everything is instant gratification, whereas on the farm, everything moves slower, can’t move at the speed of light from one location to another, can’t give you the drug-like gratification one gets from the internet.

For me, the internet is a tranquilizer. It’s a quiet place (since the sound on my computer is turned off), and it quiets my mind. Grief brought me much confusion, not only because of the pain of losing my life mate/soul mate and the loneliness of struggling on by myself, but because of the eternal questions that haunt me.

A couple of days ago I wrote about the physiological changes that grief brings (Grief and Our Lizard Brain). Besides these physiological disturbances and the more commonly known psychological anguish, people who lose a life mate are subject to spiritual and philosophical traumas that upset our normal way of thinking. Death gives life a whole new perspective, and so we are compelled to rethink everything we thought we knew, everything we held dear. Some people find a deeper comfort in religion while others are assailed by new doubts. I found myself with a multitude of questions.

Who am I now that I am no longer part of our survival unit? If he is in a better place, why am still here? If life is a gift, why was it taken from him? In the presence of life, what is the meaning of death? In the presence of death, what is the meaning of life? So many questions!

Yet on the internet, there is no question of who am I. I know who I am. I can see me on Facebook. I can Google me. I can check me out on my website, on my publisher’s website, on Amazon. And I know why I’m here. I’m here to make an impression so maybe people will read my blogs and perhaps buy my books. I don’t need to question the meaning of life and death, because the internet is eternal. (Or at least the electrons are.) As long as there is an internet, there I am.

Walking out in the desert in the real world brings a semblance of peace, but along with that peace come the questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life and death? Where do I go from here?

As my grief fades a bit, some of the bigger questions are fading, too, and I’m mostly left with the last question. Where do I go from here? On the internet, I am always “here.” In real life, I will need to relocate, to find a place to start over. But that question, for now, is as unanswerable as all the others that haunt me, so here I am, on the internet, where there is an answer for everything. And if there isn’t, I’m too tranquilized to care.

Posted in blogging, grief, internet, life. Tags: , , , . 4 Comments »

File Not Found

April 5, 2012 — Pat Bertram

While searching for information about ravens for my upcoming chapter of Rubicon Ranch, the collaborative novel project I’m involved in, I clicked on a dead link. Instead of getting a generic “error” page, I landed on the following, which was just too amusing not to share:

The page which you requested was not found on this server, or the server was instructed not to let you have it. There could be a number of reasons for this error. The most common include:

– The Web Master for this page is a Lazy Git. The page which you requested may not have been built yet, and as such is not available for viewing.

– The page which you are looking for may have moved, or been deleted.

– The Web Master may have been working on these pages very late at night, and run out of caffeine. This causes frequent minor errors such as misspelled hypertext links, misplaced files, and mystery documents which disappear into thin air (or thinner electrons). You may have been directed to the wrong page. Mea Culpa. I’ll try not to do it again.

– You yourself may be working under the influence of too little caffeine, and have typed in the address incorrectly. Double check the address, and try again.

– The little spiders living in your computer are feeling neglected, and have decided to play tricks on you. Tell them you love them, beg with them, plead with them, and try reloading the page. Maybe they’ll give you what you’re looking for on your second attempt.

– You might simply not exist. This server regularly refuses service to people who do not exist. Double check your reality, and come back when you have the answer to life, the universe, and everything. (Are you really sure it’s 42?)

If all else fails, you could try sending email to the webmaster with a description of the problem you encountered, and perhaps the universe will see fit to serve you better in the future.

Thank you for your understanding, tolerance, and sense of humor.

***

The website I stole that from is: Shades of Night/Aviary.

It’s good to know about the neglected spiders in my computer. I cajoled my arachnids and told them I loved them and still, the page didn’t load. But my computer works much better now.

***

“If Dreams could be bottled… if the essence of Night could be distilled and captured in a jar… Who would not have a storehouse of poison and passion?”

Posted in internet. Tags: , , , . 4 Comments »

Way Cool Global View of My Blog!

March 31, 2012 — Pat Bertram

Here is a global view of the views of my blog for the last week:

As you can see, the vast majority of my blog views come from the United States, but here are the number of views I’ve had from other countries during the past week:

United Kingdom FlagUnited Kingdom 111
Canada FlagCanada 106
India FlagIndia 59
Australia FlagAustralia 55
Philippines FlagPhilippines 19
Singapore FlagSingapore 18
New Zealand FlagNew Zealand 11
Malaysia FlagMalaysia 10
Viet Nam FlagViet Nam 8
Germany FlagGermany 6
Pakistan FlagPakistan 6
Botswana FlagBotswana 6
Denmark FlagDenmark 5
Nepal FlagNepal 5
South Africa FlagSouth Africa 5
Switzerland FlagSwitzerland 5
Turkey FlagTurkey 4
Taiwan, Province of China FlagTaiwan 4
Japan FlagJapan 4
Greece FlagGreece 3
United Arab Emirates FlagUnited Arab Emirates 3
France FlagFrance 3
Lebanon FlagLebanon 3
Thailand FlagThailand 3
Finland FlagFinland 3
Norway FlagNorway 3
Georgia FlagGeorgia 2
Czech Republic FlagCzech Republic 2
Belgium FlagBelgium 2
Qatar FlagQatar 2
Iceland FlagIceland 2
Bulgaria FlagBulgaria 2
Bosnia and Herzegovina FlagBosnia and Herzegovina 2
Sweden FlagSweden 2
Hong Kong FlagHong Kong 2
Ethiopia FlagEthiopia 2
Portugal FlagPortugal 2
Russian Federation FlagRussian Federation 2
Netherlands FlagNetherlands 2
Korea, Republic of FlagRepublic of Korea 2
Jamaica FlagJamaica 2
Trinidad and Tobago FlagTrinidad and Tobago 2
Poland FlagPoland 2
Brunei Darussalam FlagBrunei Darussalam 1
Uganda FlagUganda 1
Ireland FlagIreland 1
Spain FlagSpain 1
Bahamas FlagBahamas 1
Indonesia FlagIndonesia 1
Albania FlagAlbania 1
Brazil FlagBrazil 1
Armenia FlagArmenia 1
Tunisia FlagTunisia 1
Cyprus FlagCyprus 1
Paraguay FlagParaguay 1
Argentina FlagArgentina 1
Namibia FlagNamibia 1
Peru FlagPeru 1
Chile FlagChile 1
Costa Rica FlagCosta Rica 1

There was also one view from Italy, which didn’t show up on the table for some reason.

If you have a WordPress blog, you too can see these amazing statistics for your blog. Just go to http://wordpress.com, log in, then click on the My Stats tab on the WordPress home page, then scroll down a bit to find the global stats. If you’d like to see your views by country for a week, click on summaries. Isn’t that cool?

So, where do your viewers come from?

Posted in blogging, culture, internet. Tags: , , , , , . 3 Comments »

Big Brother, Thy Name is Facebook

February 14, 2012 — Pat Bertram

I feel as if I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole, and that rabbit hole has a name — Facebook. A couple of months ago, I met a reviewer on Facebook who had been prohibited from posting her reviews of mysteries on the Mystery Writer’s of America Page by MWA. (Isn’t that bizarre? Wouldn’t you think they would have wanted her reviews.) I invited her to post her reviews in my Suspense/Thriller Writers Group. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve banned most promotions except for reviews of other authors’ works, interviews with other authors, and excerpts from other authors’ novels. I’ve been trying to foster a sense of camaraderie, of authors helping authors rather than letting the authors inundate us with book links everyone is sick of seeing, and this reviewer’s posts seemed to fit with my concept.

But now she has been banned from posting links to her reviews in my group, not by me but by Facebook. Apparently, FB now have new rules banning any sort of promotion on one’s profile and from one’s profile. You have to use a business page for that. And so for now, people are still being allowed to blatantly promote their books, but unpaid reviewers are banned. Not just prohibited, but blocked — the links from her WordPress account and Networked blogs no longer post to her profile. And if she posts the links manually, her account will be suspended.

Technically, Facebook has always prohibited promotion. The profiles are supposed to be about socializing and connecting with real life friends, but people posted books links, giveaways, and all sorts of promos anyway, and Facebook never enforced it. A major change is coming now that FB is traded publicly. If FB allows promo anywhere on the site, the pages lose their competitive edge. FB also loses potential advertising bucks. (A related issue is that FB is not being welcomed by investors as enthusiastically as they had expected — huge numbers of users are accessing the site via phone and tablet and are bypassing the advertising, which makes FB not quite so lucrative as it was just a few months ago.)

But still . . . not to allow book reviews? Why is that a business? For some people it might be, but for this particular reviewer, it is a hobby, nothing more.

I asked the reviewer how FB found her and why they singled her out. She responded, “They tripped over me on another site and they FOLLOWED ME THERE! Yes, THEY FOLLOWED ME and about 4,000 OTHER people! That’s how they knew about my reviews, reviews that are free mind you. In time, though, I believe this will get to everyone. I’m betting I’m just in the first batch, but I’m sure they will be more.”

Yikes. Shades of big brother. I generally presume articles about Facebook fall under the category of urban legend until corroborated, but this reviewer’s experience seems to corroborate the following article: Wow. Facebook Rules Prohibit Users From Promoting Their Work, Company, And Much, Much More . . .

Posted in blogging, culture, internet, life. Tags: , , , , , . 9 Comments »

How Do You Discover the Books You Want to Read?

February 12, 2012 — Pat Bertram

Two-and-a-half-years ago, I took an informal poll to find out how people discover new authors. I posted the following on discussion boards on both Goodreads and Facebook:

It seems as if there are as many ways of discovering books as there are readers, but I’m curious as to how you choose the books you want to read. Do you go by reviews? By recommendations from friends? Because you’re familiar with other works by the author? Do you ever read a book because of an ad you saw? Because of a blog article? Because of a mention on a website such as Goodreads? Do you cruise book stores, libraries, or online sites like Amazon? Do you find them some way I haven’t mentioned, such as gifts, perhaps?

Admittedly, the questions were loaded, but I still got an interesting and probably quite accurate overview:

Favorite authors or previously read authors: 36
Word of mouth: 26
Blog reviews/Book websites: 26
Goodreads/Shelfari: 24
Local bookstores: 21
Amazon/B&N/other online stores: 15
Library: 13
Publisher sites/newsletters: 5
Social networking sites like Facebook: 5
Book Clubs: 5
Author appearances/writing conferences: 5
NY Times bestseller list: 5
Offline reviews: 5
Yard sales/second hand bookstores: 4
Advertising: 3
Saw the movie: 3
Oprah: 1
Free downloads: 1
Gifts: 1

Recently, I posed the questions and got similar responses (though from a much smaller group):

books by favorite authors: 8
recommendations from friends: 5
browsing in bookstores: 4
libraries: 2
imprints (the trade name under which the book is published): 1
newspaper reviews: 1
blog reviews:1
recommendations from Amazon: 1
book clubs: 1

So, even with small independent publishing houses springing up like new forest growth, and self-published books proliferating like elm tree seeds, the means of finding books are still the same. That means, if you are an author looking for a readership, you need to be everyone’s favorite author and have your readers recommend you. An almost impossible task when most people already have their favorite authors.

What about you? How do you discover the books you want to read? Or rather where. (A lot of people said they found books to read by the front cover or the blurb on the back, but I’m more curious as to where they saw the cover.)

Posted in blogging, books, internet, writing. Tags: , , , , , , . 9 Comments »

Celebrating Twenty Weeks of Daily Blogging

February 11, 2012 — Pat Bertram

On September 25, 2011, I made a vow to blog for 100 days straight without fail. I wanted to get back into the discipline of daily writing, but didn’t want to make a major commitment such as writing a novel. I figured daily blog posts would satisfy the discipline and also satisfy the part in me that needs the reinforcement of completing a project. I passed the 100 day mark without even noticing, and now I’ve been posting a blog every day for twenty weeks — 140 posts.  Surprisingly, very few are frivolous, posted just for the sake of posting something. So today, let’s forget the seriousness of my usual posts. Let’s forget that this is Saturday, my sadder day. Let’s forget that my publisher, Second Wind Publishing, has moved to a new website and I have thousands of now-dead links to update. Let’s forget all of that, and just play.

And if that isn’t any fun, here’s a jigsaw puzzle (I get such a kick out of these!)

Want more fun?

Click here to read the first chapter of: Light Bringer

Click here to read the back cover copy and an excerpt: Light Bringer

Click here to check out (and buy at $2.00 off!) Light Bringer at Second Wind Publishing’s new site: Light Bringer

Posted in blogging, internet, life. Tags: , , , , , . 3 Comments »

Is “No Promotion” Really so Hard to Understand?

February 9, 2012 — Pat Bertram

I moderate a writing discussion group on Facebook where we’ve banned any kind of promotion. The point is to develop a sense of camaraderie among members, and to share writing tips, techniques, friendship. It’s supposed to be a destination, a fun place to hang out, rather than a bulletin board with links to other sites. It’s almost impossible to get people to understand the benefits of such a group. The following correspondence I had with a Facebook Friend (now a former Facebook friend) is a graphic example. FBF joined the group on December 18, participated in a few discussions, and then sent me an interview for my interview blog.

December 20 — FBF: Did you receive my interview? I felt really good about my answers. What did you think?

December 23 — PB: Yes, I received it. Haven’t read it yet, but I did see it. I’ll read it when I format it for the site. It will be perhaps in a week.

December 23 — FBF: Yeah. You answered me on a post in the group so I already knew. I’m very excited. Thank you for doing this for me. You are amazing. Don’t let those promo people bug you. They obviously lack the social skills necessary to make friends and understand what professional respect means.

December 23 — PB: Actually, the one that bothered me the most was the guy who posted on the wall that what he hated was my whining about no promo. Before you joined, all anyone posted was promo, and some of the members rebelled. I was pleased because I’d just about decided to dismantle the whole thing. I think we’re developing a great group. Thank you for joining and for participating in our discussions.

December 23 — FBF: Your welcome. I’ve already gotten my book on two websites. An interview and two reviews in progress. And I never promoted my book once! So thank you.

December 23 — PB: See, that’s the whole point. Get to know people, and let them promote your book! And you’re welcome. I am glad to do what I can.

December 31 — PB: Hi. I posted your interview. Thank you! Sorry it took so long. Let me know if you need me to make any changes.

January 1 — FBF: It’s great. Thank you.

January 10 — FBF (in response to the question what three words describe your writing?): Comical, dialogue, needs-improvement. But that’s why I’m here.

February 8 — FBF: I posted a promo (a book trailer) on the group wall yesterday for a good writer, and it was removed. I’ve had enough. I’m outa here. [And then he used a lot of not-so-nice words.]

Posted in internet, life, writing. Tags: , , . 12 Comments »
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