tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post766737650328250768..comments2017-04-25T09:21:43.884-07:00Comments on <b>Smashwords</b>: New Amazon Service Eliminates the Need for Authors (April Fools)Mark Cokerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05039664167177159146noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-17804594451271806202015-04-06T12:19:08.999-07:002015-04-06T12:19:08.999-07:00Hi Shawn, thanks for sharing your perspective. I a...Hi Shawn, thanks for sharing your perspective. I agree with some points but disagree in a few places.<br /><br />From my experience, the vast majority of writers - including the bestsellers - write for the noble reasons you identified. <br /><br />To the extent any author writes to formula, yes, they&#39;ll be threatened first by machine-generated fiction if and when this becomes a reality. But formulas aren&#39;t necessarily a bad thing. I love Tabasco sauce. I hope they never change the formula. I can add it to other things to make other things better. Is it formulaic to say that stories work well with a beginning, a middle and an end? Is it formulaic that most romances have an HEA? Even within formulas, there&#39;s much room for creative expression.<br /><br />I don&#39;t advocate production above all else. In my November post, <a href="http://blog.smashwords.com/2014/11/ebook-publishing-gets-more-difficult.html" rel="nofollow">Things Get More Difficult from Here - Here&#39;s How to Succeed</a> I made 20 recommendations for how indies can do well in this environment where we face a glut of high-quality low-cost books. Only one of those 20 points directly addressed production, and in that context I talked about how the more you write, the more opportunity you have to improve your craft. Craft matters. To the extent you combine production with ever-increasing quality, you&#39;ll reach more readers.<br /><br />Many times on this blog and elsewhere I&#39;ve talked about how every book is valuable regardless of perceived or actual commercial merit. It’s a founding principle of Smashwords, and it’s a core tenet (#9) in the <a href="http://blog.smashwords.com/2014/04/indie-author-manifesto.html" rel="nofollow">Indie Author Manifesto&quot;</a>.<br /><br />I created Smashwords so I could say yes to every writer, something trad pubs can&#39;t do. Trad pubs see poor sellers as a problem. I see them as an opportunity. Every poor-selling author has the opportunity to evolve their book and grow their writing and their business smarts to the point where they can finally start reaching more readers. <br /><br />The most common theme you&#39;ll find in any of my advice is best practices. Best practices are the myriad things you must do to connect with your audience. Best practices matter whether you&#39;re writing literary fiction, popular fiction, nonfiction or poetry. They’re the connectors that make your book more accessible and more desirable to your target readers. Writers write for many reasons, and not all writers publish. For those who publish, the desire to reach readers is almost universal. Best practices help you reach readers.<br /><br />Most authors don&#39;t fully adopt best practices, which is why authors who do embrace best practices have such a significant advantage when it comes to reaching audience.<br /><br />Take a look at preorders, one of the many best practices I recommend. Our bestsellers make much more use of preorders than our poor sellers. This tool is available to all, yet most authors don&#39;t birth their books as preorders (they should!). Authors who use it gain advantage.<br /><br />Few of our bestsellers design their own covers. They know they’re better off hiring a low-cost professional.<br /><br />This is a business where the author&#39;s decisions determine their odds of success.<br /><br />You mention you believe that Smashwords values bestsellers exclusively above all else? I&#39;d disagree. We lose money on the vast majority of our writers, and that&#39;s okay. It&#39;s by design. It&#39;s a necessary part of what it means to truly take a chance on every writer. Our bestsellers emerge from our poor sellers which is why we’ll always invest to give every writer a chance. It’s why we’ll continue investing in tools, knowledge and channels that benefit every writer.<br /><br />As I point out in the last tenet of the Indie Author Manifesto (#10), we should celebrate the success of all indies, because their success is your success, and your success is theirs. We&#39;re all in this together. <br /><br />Thanks for your comments.Mark Cokerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05039664167177159146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-7120979167719056642015-04-05T22:33:38.070-07:002015-04-05T22:33:38.070-07:00I would like to offer my two cents here. I would l...I would like to offer my two cents here. I would like to offer that, for authors who aren&#39;t enslaved to the industrial model of production, any such program that creates novels wouldn&#39;t be a threat, and would, in fact, be welcomed. I know I would welcome it with open arms; so would my partner.<br /><br />But we are in a tiny minority. We don&#39;t write for popularity, for clicks, for cash, for fame, or for glory. The vast majority of authors do. Like modern-day pop music artists, they compose, if you can call it that, to a tried-and-true formula. They concern themselves not with the art of writing, with its soul, with their own unique individuality, with the Muse (or whatever they may call that little voice inside their head, if indeed they have one; indeed, assuming they haven&#39;t destroyed it utterly), but with the business of <i>selling</i>, with increasing their SEO, with social media, with yelling to the masses as loud as they can via any and all channels, with Amazon&#39;s latest corporate outrage, with contests, with &quot;making first impressions,&quot; with converting files to various formats, and on and on <i>ad nauseam.</i><br /><br />Don&#39;t believe me? Pop by any self-publishing blog or &quot;community&quot; and look for yourself. I took several of those examples above directly from the top of one such community on G+. Go check it out for yourself: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/106426489682108553998<br /><br />The vast majority of authors, if they were at all honest, would rate the art of writing well down the list of priorities, if it appears on that list at all. Then again, honesty wouldn&#39;t be very high on that list either, so I don&#39;t expect many would bother owning up. There you go.<br /><br />Industrial authors, the lot of them. Get that conveyor belt crankin&#39;! Get that content out there, and in huge quantities! Isn&#39;t that what you advise authors, Mark? Bam! Bam! Bam! <i>Writing is a business.</i> Isn&#39;t that in fact the first Commandment of all you popster industrial authors? Isn&#39;t that the model we&#39;re all supposed to subscribe to, and if we don&#39;t we&#39;re naive, we&#39;re failures, we&#39;re useless? I&#39;ve seen blog posts from popular authors saying just that. And don&#39;t you encourage this thinking, Mark, by focusing exclusively on your top moneymakers at Smashwords? Aren&#39;t you in fact upholding the very same capitalist/industrialist model that you&#39;ve condemned legacy publishers for enshrining? That is to say, only a very tiny few are worth mentioning; only a handful are worth promoting? I&#39;ve seen this before: the George W. Bush version of democracy, now applied to self-publishing: only the haves are worth a damn; the rest, the have-nots, can languish in obscurity.<br /><br />Ah, heck. All the industrial authors are going to cite one of your Commandments at me now, the one that says: Be nice. I&#39;m not kissing ass, you see; I&#39;m not commenting, &quot;ZOMG, that was hilarious! Still grinning and snort-laughing!&quot; Damnit!<br /><br />So let&#39;s say a program like the one you made up is produced. Who&#39;s going to suffer for it? Who&#39;s going to suffer with a computer program that produces novels via inputs to a formula? Hmmm. That&#39;s a tough one. Such a program would clear out all the human-produced dross, wouldn&#39;t it? Ironically, it would make it easier, I believe, for real writers to find each other and actually commune; and it would make it easier for readers to find us, for the simple reason that computers will never achieve the creativity of a human being, regardless of what AI apologists and materialists think. Garbage in, garbage out, baby. Human beings have souls. Computers have algorithms. Human beings are conscious (well, some of us are, at least). Computers aren&#39;t, and never will be.<br /><br />So let me finish here.<br /><br />ZOMG! I have no idea what the Z stands for, but wow! ZOMG! Double-ZOMG! I am so hoping Amazon really does create this program, because if it does it will put people like EL James out of business! Hells to the yaz!Shawn Michel de Montaignehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00617713016933175728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-70097425537785640202015-04-03T09:09:35.360-07:002015-04-03T09:09:35.360-07:00You had my heart in my throat. The more I read the...You had my heart in my throat. The more I read the more I exclaimed, &quot;I can&#39;t believe this! I can&#39;t believe this!&quot; I was sooo relieved when I reached the end of the article and realized it was only a nightmare with no substance...so far.Verna Clayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750533488439747283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-77506919461956122482015-04-02T17:18:17.147-07:002015-04-02T17:18:17.147-07:00Mark Coker! You naughty man! Next time you&#39;re ...Mark Coker! You naughty man! Next time you&#39;re in Sydney, remind me to hit you over the head :) You really had me going!<br /><br />Sylvia Massara<br /><a href="http://www.sylviamassara.com" rel="nofollow">Author</a> Sylvia Says -- the bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02632532014367305073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-57019297850964352602015-04-02T01:02:46.009-07:002015-04-02T01:02:46.009-07:00Thanks everyone for being such great sports today....Thanks everyone for being such great sports today. I appreciate the comments here and elsewhere as well as the many private messages I received. This post touched a lot of nerves today, including my own. I&#39;m glad most of you came to appreciate it as the satire that it is. My apologies to anyone who experienced this as a War of the Worlds moment. For the next 364 days we&#39;ll return to our regularly schedule programming of non fiction.<br /><br />I updated the headline and the start of the story so future readers are warned to read it as satire. No more fooling! Thanks all.Mark Cokerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05039664167177159146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-78432379166720757642015-04-01T23:51:44.487-07:002015-04-01T23:51:44.487-07:00Good one. You had me right up to the point you sai...Good one. You had me right up to the point you said you thought were witnessing the future of authorship. Thanks for a great start to my day.David Elvarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05010289209924213618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-65758064820089823472015-04-01T23:26:53.799-07:002015-04-01T23:26:53.799-07:00What a fun joke and brilliant criticism of Kindle ...What a fun joke and brilliant criticism of Kindle Unlimited and its supporters.Evahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019769814132397985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-89774578164965800422015-04-01T23:19:24.511-07:002015-04-01T23:19:24.511-07:00Nice one Marc. I knew it was April Fool&#39;s, but...Nice one Marc. I knew it was April Fool&#39;s, but darned if I didn&#39;t Google it. Eventually, Robots will be writing stories, if they are not already.Richard Schneiderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06686724848954355035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-20593571624490903542015-04-01T22:48:18.004-07:002015-04-01T22:48:18.004-07:00Had me going too for while and because it was alre...Had me going too for while and because it was already the 2nd of April here in Australia when the blog arrived in my inbox it took me a while to realise that it was 1 April in the US. Still laughing thinking about it all. Brilliantly done.John Zanettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13875219545397248131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-74183629338398431152015-04-01T22:38:29.662-07:002015-04-01T22:38:29.662-07:00Oh my stars, I nearly had a heart attack! It didn&...Oh my stars, I nearly had a heart attack! It didn&#39;t click till I saw Hugh Howey&#39;s name misspelled. Brilliant! Tima Mariahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12452821656662304913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-36509132411091709392015-04-01T22:18:39.275-07:002015-04-01T22:18:39.275-07:00I&#39;m the owner of Clean Reads and I have to adm...I&#39;m the owner of Clean Reads and I have to admit...I peed a little. However, I&#39;m not very happy that you gave Amazon ideas now...Stephanie Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396676424895522032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-84196322225269822022015-04-01T21:49:06.916-07:002015-04-01T21:49:06.916-07:00But, no! I was doing this in my basement, althoug...But, no! I was doing this in my basement, although at a much slower pace.Virginia Llorcahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08354795459855491623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-13665317416526357002015-04-01T21:27:50.833-07:002015-04-01T21:27:50.833-07:00Oh my goodness! You nearly gave me a heart attack!...Oh my goodness! You nearly gave me a heart attack! (And now I&#39;m afraid that this will become TRUTH not FICTION in the near future...)Rachel Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06181241692016438730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-78717435628748268892015-04-01T20:14:32.663-07:002015-04-01T20:14:32.663-07:00This is not as far fetched as you might believe. I...This is not as far fetched as you might believe. In the last year, I saw an article about AI based software that was writing high quality books. Cost was 20,000 a copy for the software. Several big companies were testing for writing some of their white papers. A novel is a kind of white paper. (this is not a 4/1) joke.editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140751151222555888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-2204183994467378582015-04-01T19:39:49.358-07:002015-04-01T19:39:49.358-07:00I&#39;m such a sucker! Thanks for the heart-stoppi...I&#39;m such a sucker! Thanks for the heart-stopping laugh.Holly Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07248128299153974319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-75932361470772260072015-04-01T17:19:50.317-07:002015-04-01T17:19:50.317-07:00I was already to bish my keyboard across the room ...I was already to bish my keyboard across the room ... forgot it was April 1 in the States when we are April 2 downunder ... but isn&#39;t this the fear of all authors?Shirley Winehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217218758527599944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-82584753732176776572015-04-01T16:59:21.571-07:002015-04-01T16:59:21.571-07:00It was funny, though. I went to Amazon and started...It was funny, though. I went to Amazon and started checking it out. Abe Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05314096922369599670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-89141042554220924052015-04-01T16:58:14.651-07:002015-04-01T16:58:14.651-07:00If you were sitting close to me I would dump a buc...If you were sitting close to me I would dump a bucket of ice water over your head and squirt you with a whole bottle of mustard. Abe Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05314096922369599670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-10067542433977208622015-04-01T16:53:54.831-07:002015-04-01T16:53:54.831-07:00You will be laughing out the other side of the pen...You will be laughing out the other side of the pen when someone makes this a reality...Come on they make body parts on printers these days...can this technology be so far behind? Think Star Trek and all the things that were &quot;predicted&quot; on that show...you have opened Pandora&#39;s Box with this post Mark Coker and I, for one, can&#39;t wait to see who picks up the baton and runs with it making this nightmare a reality...Susan Burdorfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01190683783254917170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-57905640459592807062015-04-01T16:40:56.494-07:002015-04-01T16:40:56.494-07:00Brilliant post. But the scarier thoughts is that t...Brilliant post. But the scarier thoughts is that these are all possible.Chin Kiong Nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07033076517865048832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-74590770494871695002015-04-01T15:57:58.452-07:002015-04-01T15:57:58.452-07:00Brilliant!Brilliant!Jennifer Barracloughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08136888092977104650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-16842036646105806332015-04-01T15:42:46.066-07:002015-04-01T15:42:46.066-07:00That is a terrifyingly good science fiction type o...That is a terrifyingly good science fiction type of prank. Wow.K.N. Schultzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10355066641230947627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-84549008691297642932015-04-01T15:34:16.498-07:002015-04-01T15:34:16.498-07:00Not being familiar with your previous April Fool&#...Not being familiar with your previous April Fool&#39;s posts you had me going for a while. Only problem is, you just gave Jeff Bezos an idea you&#39;ll be writing about for real in about 3 years.Michael Smarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641071096616341648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-45162946539322772842015-04-01T15:10:01.370-07:002015-04-01T15:10:01.370-07:00When I first started the post, I wondered is this ...When I first started the post, I wondered is this for real? Then I thought: Wait a minute. No. It&#39;s April Fool&#39;s Day. <br /><br />You can&#39;t fool a woman whose wedding anniversary is April Fool&#39;s Day!Fiona L. Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13841487756522266914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-9802998615777211872015-04-01T14:15:57.084-07:002015-04-01T14:15:57.084-07:00HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! The saddest...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! The saddest part is even while I thought &quot;This would be horrible&quot; part f me thought &quot;But it would be fun to play with&quot; LOL!Joleene Naylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591967764003541551noreply@blogger.com
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