I posted about this writer’s remorse over the decline of book sales, especially fiction – The Beautiful Afterlife of Dead Books. In a related article the next day was a glimmer of hope for fiction – if not for the dead tree form – by way of digital media – Authors of Kindle Singles Are Raking in Tens of Thousands of Dollars
But while the form may hold literary promise, does it also carry the hope of remuneration? A new report from PaidContent finds that yes, a few authors are doing quite well from their Kindle Single efforts. One, Mishka Shubaly, author of “The Long Run,” the ninth-best-selling Single of all time, told PaidContent that he is so pleased with the experiment, he hopes to name his first child Amazon. PaidContent estimates that Shubaly has made about $130,000 from his three Singles. The other four writers in PaidContent’s report have brought in amounts ranging from a bit less than $9,000 to $65,000. The Singles in PaidContent’s round-up all sell for either $0.99 or $1.99 a pop, and authors see 70 percent of the revenue.
Science fiction seems to be the best among genres. Others may disagree but the line between general fiction and science fiction has become increasingly blurred. Richard Powers novels such as The Gold Bug Variations ( a particular favorite of mine) and in the neuroscience fiction themed The Echo Maker, Powers has received literary accolades as well as a science fiction following. Ray Bradbury has said that he just sees himself as a writer. Certainly Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 employs a minimal amount of sci-fi hardware. The story is compelling because of the characters and their deeply emotional reactions to the dystopian world they live in. Though many writers are bound to feel uncomfortable writing in a genre that they do not have a passion about. Not fiction, but a recent short-short essay I recently read called Tomato Plant by Ying Ying Li was so honest and intimate, the descriptions of this other worldly place so spare that it transports the reader, this reader anyway, to another place and time. yet was on the reasons i could relate it so well including the memories invoked by smell, “‘And if you are close enough to it like I am, you can smell that tomato plant smell, you know? “. When I was growing up there were almost always tomato plants in the summer. They manage to emit a combination of sweet green sweat and wet earth all at once. There is a lot of not so great fiction on-line which makes it daunting to shift through to find the occasional gem. Amazon’s Singles shop does have an editor so the work they publish does have some kind of vetting process. The self published stuff, not so much.
iceland turf house sunset wallpaper. actually a modern stone and wood take on the old turf house design.
@BettyBowers, Blessed is the GOP, for it believes a child’s life is sacred. Unless he can breathe. Then, a stray cat has a better shot at sustenance.
New compound discovered that rapidly kills liver cancer.
Using the compound Factor Qunolinone Inhibitor 1 (FQI1), the scientists prevented LSF from binding to HCC DNA during the transcription process, which is the first step in a series of actions that lead to cell division and duplication. This action caused rapid HCC cell death in laboratory experiments and a dramatic reduction in tumor growth in mouse models with no observable toxicity to normal liver cells.
A familiar story. The antagonists are eventually slain while the protagonist hobbles on a little worn and weary from the fight, though wiser and thankful for another day.
mayan baseball player. The description from The Library of Congress,
Ritual ballgames were an integral part of the political and ritual life of ancient Mesoamerica. Many of the most vivid images of the game come from Maya artifacts. This limestone relief shows an ornately dressed player—most likely a nobleman—kneeling and about to strike a ball. Two hieroglyphs are lightly incised into the background of the relief near the forearm of the player, giving his name and title. On the second of the two glyphs is the spelling of the word “pitz,” translated as “ballgame” or “ballplayer.
While the original Spanish conquistadores gave it a good try they did not kill off Mayan civilization completely. There are still Mayan peoples, languages and influences from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Northern El Salvador.
You Know Photographer Ansel, But Who Is Robert Adams (And Why Should You Care)? from the Daily Picture Show.
The Conservative Funhouse Mirror Has Two Faces – One Says Job Growth Sucks- The Other Says Job Growth is Great
AMC’s “The Killing”, Superviewers and How Social Media Can Make or Break a TV Show. I’m glad The Killing will be back. Sure they hedge about the mistakes they made in the interview – which superviewers made clear were unacceptable, but that feedback will likely show up in the new season with fewer improbable plot twists.Unfortunately How to make it in America and the quirky Bored to Death were canceled. For all its strange on toast Enlightened manged to survive for another season. Fingers crossed they’ll have Robin Wright back for another guest appearance.
An update: Excuse the language, but fu*k me: Rick Santorum is arguing that CO2 is not dangerous because plants breathe it. There is a point at which science illiteracy is not just about some people not being interested in the subject. It is about the disastrous moral implications of being a knuckle dragging menace to public health.
Andreya Triana ‘A Town Called Obsolete’ (Official Video)
inkbluesky 