#I've posted all this before
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
Great info!! Thanks!!
@dollypegs-blog
This is more of a problem on Facebook and Twitter, but there are some fellow authors who get a tad... upset when you talk about money and royalty earnings.
Needless to say, my frankness about how royalties work and just how little many of us are earning from our labor has drawn the ire of a few people, even here on Tumblr.hell.
I'm not particularly bothered by this. In my view, they're the same people who won't discuss wages in the workplace because they don't want anyone else to earn what they do. They know the system is unfairly rigged, but they like it that way because they're scared if more people are educated about how things work, they'll lose whatever competitive edge they think they have, thus enforcing the status quo.
Needless to say, I don't care for this view.
I'm very much a "holy shit, two cakes" kind of creator. I also very firmly believe in pulling people up behind me and spreading the wealth of information that was shared freely with me by other like-minded individuals who also believe that the mysteries around publishing are gatekeeping bullshit and everyone deserves the chance to earn money from their creative endeavors, not just the people who can afford to.
Anyway, David Gaughran's 'Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish And Why You Should' is an invaluable resource for indie authors and provides great insight into how publishing and distribution work. It is available for free through the retailers listed on his website.
If you don't want to publish exclusively through Amazon, draft2digital.com does global ebook and also paperback distribution. (I've only used it for ebooks, but I'll be trying out their paperback options for my next book.) You can pair it up with a books2read account to create easy-to-post buy links. Draft2Digital also allows for distribution through library lending services like Overdrive. So that's neat. (NB: if you use d2d, you can't use Kindle Unlimited, so be aware of what links you have active and where if you decide to enroll in KU. You can always opt for wide distribution again once your KU time expires.)
D2D also recently partnered with FindawayVoices.com for audiobook distribution. You can find voice actors there, or you can upload your own files if you already have them. You can submit to Audible through them, too, but you'll earn a pittance more if you upload directly through Audible. Findaway also allows for library lending distribution through Libby and several other global equivalents.
If you need ISBNs, you can buy them cheaper in bulk from Bowker at myidentifiers.com
Individual storefront options like Payhip.com and Gumroad.com are also great ways to allow people to buy directly from you, though I soured on Gumroad after the whole NFT thing and their CEO harassing people on Twitter over it. Payhip is now my preferred storefront, and as an added bonus, they calculate VAT in European countries as well, so that's one less thing for me as an indie author to work out. As an added bonus, Payhip can be directly integrated into your author website if you have one. It's a feature I'll be implementing soon.
itch.io also allows for the sale and distribution of ebook files, though I haven't used it yet.
If you don't have the means to hire a cover designer or the means to do it yourself in photoshop, Canva.com has some decent-ish ebook templates. Just make sure the images and fonts you're using have the right licenses for commercial use.
Editing and formatting are also extremely important, though I know not everyone can afford them. If you can, I highly suggest doing so and shelling out extra to have them format your work across mediums. Ebook formatting is different from paperback formatting, and it can look very strange if you just try to format an ebook into a pdf. It is a skill you can teach yourself (plenty of youtube videos) if you really want to, but I prefer to throw money at my editors, who provide formatting as an additional service. Whatever you can afford to do to streamline the process is money well spent.
Also, do not be shy about using affiliate links to sell your work. Authors lose a solid chunk of money to places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc., in distribution fees. Whatever pennies you can scrape back through affiliate links for directing traffic to those sites is hard-earned--and it is literal pennies sometimes. You can also integrate any affiliate links you do have into draft2digital, so they auto-generate, which is handy.
When it comes to paperbacks, BookShop.org offers the best affiliate earnings, and a percentage of the sale goes toward supporting indie bookstores. They do not take that percentage from your earnings, they pay it themselves. Libro.FM is the audiobook equivalent of BookShop.org, and they also give a percentage of sales to supporting indie book stores.
Anyway, I hope that helps someone. Good luck out there.
Also, if you're the person who sent me the irate email about "giving away trade secrets," feel free to die mad about it. 😘
#long post#indie publishing#indie author#author resources#i've posted all this before#also lol at that email#what a sad and bitter view#great info and advice
13K notes
·
View notes
Text
should've just let Vil be the one to fly, it would've gone SO much easier. 😔
also HEY how are everyone else's pulls going, because I have had the most RIDICULOUS luck, seriously, halloween magic is 100% real
#art#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland spoilers#lost in the book with nightmare before christmas#hajimari no halloween#kicking around some ideas for scully's UM poster so i'll talk about all that when we get to it#in the meantime i just have to show this off because...seriously look at it#is the halloween pickup count cumulative?! because i only did two ten-pulls for jamil...#i've only done three ten-pulls total in this event and yet somehow ended up with leona and two consecutive jamils#now it would be extremely funny if i didn't get sebek when he's the one i want the most...but let me hope#(i choose to believe this is an apology from the universe for my lack of both fairy gala ortho and masquerade malleus)#(thank you universe)#anyway i realize there is some irony in bragging about my jamil pulls and yet drawing vil instead#but...i just really wanted to draw nightmare vil okay#i thought i had posted art of good ol' pumpkin-stroker jamil already but i think i might actually have just dreamt that#brb gotta get onto fixing this problem
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
cool new life series! very serious very dramatic!
#mcyt#life series#life series spoilers#oh god i actually need to tag this as real life. sorry to any fans of. the real world i guess#real life#real life smp#grian#grian fanart#impulsesv#impulsesv fanart#solidaritygaming#solidaritygaming fanart#smallishbeans#smallishbeans fanart#goodtimeswithscar#goodtimeswithscar fanart#wotchart#can you believe they ALL died in that mineshaft. except for jimmy.#fastest i've ever scrambled to draw and post a fanart#haven't even drawn half these people before
6K notes
·
View notes
Text
In the past, people in the Animal Crossing community would make fun of Tom Nook as a sleazy landlord. Since then, he's really rehabilitated his image as this 'heart of gold' businessman (he's the one who puts bells and furniture in trees for you to find! he adopted orphans! he donates to charity!), but New Horizons genuinely paints the most devious version of him.
He's successfully privatized settler colonialism: you pay HIM to move to a "deserted island" (which apparently the oceans in the AC world are just full of) and start a colony that he is directly invested in. At best he's running a weird vacation package scam (you arrive on the island with no money and in debt for "using his services"). At worst, he's using you to set up company towns. For god's sake, he literally has his own fake currency that he forces you to use to pay off your debt. But don't worry, he's repackaged it in a way that definitely doesn't sound like an MLM scam: the Nook Mileage Program!
You're no longer just his tenant or his temporary part-timer, you're his business lackey. The entire tutorial section of the game has you spending actual weeks running around completing tasks and doing hard labor to set up his colony. You're even tasked with preparing his properties and finding buyers for them. No, you aren't a tenant anymore. You work for the landlord. You are directly responsible for finding tenants for him. And he doesn't even fucking pay you. Not for setting up town hall and museum, or his nephew's shop –– which is the ONLY store on the entire island that sells necessities –– or bringing KK Slider to town, or helping populate his town. Not a single cent. No, actually, you have to pay HIM to BUY infrastructure like bridges and stairs and park benches. And all the while, he's telling you're the "resident representative"; you get to call the shots! That the reward is the community's progress. That what you're doing is in everyone's best interest (but most importantly, his).
Since NH's release, people have done a lot of legwork to say that Tom Nook isn't a capitalist while the game shows him at his very worst. He owns the only general store in town. You're forced to use a phone that he modified and branded as his own. Buy Nook-branded furniture and merchandise at the self-serve kiosk in the town hall, a governmental building! There's no conflict of interest here!
But hey, if you're tired of being the landlord/business mogul's goon, you can also find work as a deluxe resort home designer for a company that also pays you in their special company currency that can only be used to buy their products instead of a real salary! Because that's what the Animal Crossing franchise needs! More vacation homes!!!
#this is a really long winded way to say i really really really really hate new horizon's storyline and player role#i really hate that not only your house but the entire TOWN. the whole COMMUNITY you're a part of is owed to tom nook's business#i really hate the “vacation getaway package” angle because it shows just how commercialized the entire premise of nh is#and how lost the game is in its original core concept#animal crossing is about the experience of moving to a new town and becoming a part of that community#just to compare: all past ac games have a similar opening#you're on a bus or train or taxi to someplace new. a stranger strikes up a conversation and you get to know them before arriving#new horizons opens with you at customer service desk filling out an client application before a flight.#in prev games working for nook in the tutorial is meant to be demeaning. you want it to be over with so you can actually start living life#but in new horizons working for tom nook IS your life. and it's so rewarding! don't you feel rewarded?#you aren't a person. you aren't a new neighbor. you're tom nook's client. and then his unpaid employee. and the game insists it's fun to be#that's how void the game is#because it's bad enough that a rpg life sim got turned into a sandbox game where you have to build the town yourself#but the only reason why you're building it is because the landlord who you're in debt to TOLD you to build it.#everything is a rewards program! everything is a tour service! be sure to do your daily tasks to earn nook bucks to spend on nook merch!#that really sucks imo.#i mean. the entire game is based around the vacationing industry. of course it all feels fake and temporary. it's only a vacation.#long post#rant#not art#god the fact that your starter villagers can't even decide where to live you have to decide for them#i've never played a game that does the opposite of handholding#where instead it's the PLAYER who has to handhold the npcs through everything. and newsflash!! it's really exhausting and boring
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
3 years of this godforsaken show
#murder drones has genuinely shaped me so much#drawing stuff from it has been one of my greatest motivators to learn more art stuff#i've been able to iron out my interests and sense of humor due to it#i've corrupted the sekaiju discord with it#much to half the servers dismay#ive grown so attached to these characters. it was heartbreaking to see them go those months ago#who knows where i would have been without this show entering my life#wouldn't have obtained this audience without it. i owe you all that#i messed up the perspective in that one spot im posting this before i can get more upset about it#art#murder drones#murder drones uzi#murder drones v#murder drones n#serial designation v#serial designation n#murder drones j#serial designation j#a little bonus i thought of while sketching out the og poses#Tessa would've loved this.
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
new york city amirite
#submas#pokemon#submas reunion#for all of half a second before they accidentally knock each other out lmao#subway boss emmet#subway boss ingo#emmet#ingo#*checks calendar* it's been way too long since I've posted these two#or drawn a comic. i need to draw comics more#the crowd gets more sparse in the last panels because i grew. very tired of coming up with random people lmao
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Penelope is also Athena's pet/blorbo/special little mortal/etc. and if you think otherwise you're straight up wrong.
You're also wrong if you think Athena only likes Penelope because of Odysseus and/or Telemachus. As if Athena didn't see a young Penelope pull some shit and immediately think "Oh! Another mind to mold! C'mere you! Let's do some riddles and weaving!". Athena was happy that two of her favorite pets have met and fell in love!
#maybe even Athena introduced them! idk#I mean c'mon. Pen is KNOWN for her weaving AND her Cunning and she basically knew that was Odysseus that was in disguise#Athena had to make Penelope go to sleep because she was sad AND she would've figured shit out.#Idc who Athena favored first but Athena definitely favored Penelope even before she was married. I will die/kill on that hill#everytime I see someone minimize/erase/devalue/etc. Penelope I want to bash my head against the wall.#*bangs pots and pans together in rage*#I think some of you only like Penelope because Odysseus likes her :') not all but... enough that it makes me sad.#like I've noticed some people only like my odysseus posts and not my Penelope ones. and oof. ;~; that tells me a lot😞#like yes. she's a bit of an enigma...AND THAT'S THE POINT. She's so intelligent that she's tricking the narrator/audience AND Odysseus!#Mad rambles#penelope#penelope of ithaca#penelope odyssey#penelope of sparta#Water Wife#odyssey#the odyssey#greek mythology#tagamemnon#athena#epic the musical#shot by odysseus#essay
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Haruhi comes out as agender and Tamaki goes "well fine, I will simply have to be the boyfriend and the girlfriend in this relationship." It still takes him several years to realize he's also not cis.
#in the spirit of the 'i see no difference love is love' but it's all the same couple post#ouran#ohshc#since it's apparently late 2000s anime night over here#if i've made this post before then don't worry about it
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
Um I like Dungeon Meshi. Btw
#dungeon meshi#dunmeshi#delicious in dungeon#<- ew#i drew something#IT'S BEEN LIKE 6 MONTHS. HI#did you guys know i've been obsessed with dunmeshi for 8 years and never drawn fanart of it before. what's wrong with me#when i first got into it there were less than 20 chapters. look at us now#something about it being everywhere now instilled a fire in me after all this time... I WANNA DRAW RAUUUGHGHHH#i am really hoping to get in the habit of posting regularly again may marcille give me strength
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
2024 Brazilian GP | x
#franco colapinto#autumn posts#I'm so conflicted about all the rumors!!#I want him to have a spot for 2025!! but rbr is kinda falling apart!! and we've seen how especially callous they can be 😢#I miss Daniel so much 🥺 I've been on my usual insta dives and everytime I see vcarb I still pause out of habit#still I agree with so many folks that its good he got away from rbr who never were going to give him the respect and opportunities!!#so I worry for Franco!!!#and poor Max gosh this FiA balogna and the car just not performing 🥲#tbh I've been hiding in like 2017 posts just soaking up content I missed from bygone days!#I spam my sideblog verstappen100 if anyone wants like mostly Daniel throwback yearning hehe 🙂↕️#idk the vibes feel off this GP especially so like...idk how to explain it!!#but anyways I think I'm just new and I'm sick irl so just kinda stewing in the feels#nothing some gifs can't fix 🙂↕️#and I have to work tomorrow 🥲 but then!!! freedom!!!#anyways just rambling...#I like to hide in the tags and the side blog but I know that#hiding how I feel is blocking me from making true connections in fandom!!#I worry I'll say something silly or something#but maybe I should be more brave instead of hiding#oh anyways!!!#if you're reading all this!! thank you! hehe nothing huge just feeling dumping before slumber 😴#I hope all is well!!#sending good energy out to Franco on such a hard weekend#and to Daniel hopefully chilling and dreaming up something excellent 💞#and to y'all!! have a good night morning and afternoon!! 🌙☀️☁️#going to add a few more photos before I go!!
671 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm so lonesome all the time
Some sweet day
Gonna take away
This hurting inside
#trolls#trolls 3#it would have been so dark if floyd wasnt able to sing at the end of the movie#but wouldnt that have been interesting#i almost thought thats what they were doing with lonely people cause i didnt think troye sounded that good ... 👀#trolls band together#dreamworks trolls#floyd trolls#trolls floyd#Brozone#velvet and veneer#this was originally and idea i had that involved assistant creek au but .. i think its nice on its own#I've never added a song on a post before!!!#i have a lot of thoughts about floyd. none of them coherent and all of them very very sad#Spotify
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
Sometimes I want to bring Morrigan but then I remember I play as a face-tanking rogue and I bring Wynne. Warden Cousland, Morrigan, Wynne / Dragon Age Origins (c) Bioware
#dragon age#dragon age fan art#comic#morrigan#warden cousland#healer#bioware#dao#dragon age origins#hero of ferelden#cousland#wynne#I'm back. I guess.#I did not notice at first but apparently I took a break from tumblr. I've already had several breakdowns over the dashboard.#(turns out I was on the 'for you' tab rather than the 'following' tab. the theme had changed as well. absolutely insufferable.)#I've felt really unconnected for a while but it actually feels better now? as if my tumblr mutuals was the missing link.#very healthy and hot of me ngl#so. I had a two week holiday this year and they were instantly slurped up. it went so fast!#there was this big football thing the week before my holiday - basically teams of teens come from all around the world to play etc.#I heard a girl tell her teammates that 'I'd love to travel on this bus every morning; happy people all around you; just add some music...'#she was also very excited when the bridge opened. the 'happy people' around her sighed bitterly and leaned back for a ten minute wait.#it is thankfully over now. the bus home is no longer stuffed full of football teams. but it's a fun experience for the players etc etc etc#well. in other thrilling news I went to spy on our sister shops during my time off. to see what they do differently. maybe steal some ideas#one store was like an instagram post with fancy teacups and stylish outfits. who knew a second-hand store could be so boring.#the other was like a man-cave with furniture and a passively-aggressive note by the toys stating that 'if u break it u pay. idiot. tnx<3'.#the man-cave was my favourite :)#rant over now! take care and bye etc!
808 notes
·
View notes
Text
Weird dream.
#art#tmnt#tmnt original iteration#tmnt au#tmnt au leo#leo#teenage mutant ninja turtles#tmta#artists on tumblr#Hi I came up with an AU idea like. Last November#*Oops October actually#And I'm only just posting about it on main. I'm so good at this#Tbf I'm quite happy to just work on it slowly I've got a lot of plot points to iron out anyway#Also I'm primarily doing this for myself#So sorry if the stuff I post doesn't have much substance to it. This mostly only exists inside my brain#Only thing I will share is that I've been referring to the setting as Teenage Mutant Transgender Allegories in my head lmao#They're not explicitly trans. But they may as well be because I am projecting Hard onto this#The turtles are also. Kind of dicks to begin with. Less so Donnie but he has other problems to deal with#The whole thing is about growth and learning to change. So yea#And obviously family too. This is TMNT after all.#ANYWAY. I WILL STOP RAMBLING IN THE TAGS NOW.#Gonna go through my drafts and post the other stuff I made before this one so it's at least in the right order even if I am posting it late
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
When Merlin was helping Arthur draft an address, which meant writing it for him with the rare privilege of sitting at his desk, Arthur came over and hovered at Merlin’s shoulder. That wasn’t unusual—Arthur was prone to hovering, especially when he was a little nervous before a speech, something he would never admit but showed clear as day to Merlin—but he was lingering longer between his stints of pacing. Upon one such loom, he placed a hand on the back of the chair and his other on the desk, leaning in so close that Merlin could smell his sun-baked hair and feel the tickle of his breath on his ear.
a little comic based on something I wrote :)
[ID: a two page comic featuring merlin and arthur from bbc's merlin set in arthur's chambers. merlin is sat at arthur's desk writing with a quill and arthur is pacing and standing beside merlin to pester him. detailed IDs in alt text]
#merlin#bbc merlin#merthur#arthur pendragon#art#merlin emrys#digital art#comic#fic#writing#fan art#merlin series#merlin x arthur#arthur x merlin#I want to share the fic but I've never posted fics before so yknow. greenhorn and all that
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
evan who almost dies when he sees barty in a suit, his hair brushed back. he looks all clean, and powerful. barty is standing by his father side, with that fake polite smile evan is so used to from people at galas like these
his original plan was to make fun of barty for looking like an idiot... but barty doesn't look like an idiot at all. he looks hot. really hot
#i don't thinkk I've ever made a rosekiller post before#shit#maybe i should call myself the king if rarepairs bc holy fuck#they're really all i ever talk about#marauders#marauders era#marauders fandom#barty crouch jr#evan rosier#barty x evan#rosekiller
675 notes
·
View notes
Text
oh shit look who it is!!
please click him for better quality
#aoex#rin okumura#blue exorcist#ao no exorcist#blue exorcist is my favorite manga i can't believe i've ever posted anything for it before#i found some really old fanart i made when i was prolly like 9 and it made me pick the books up again#there are 30 now?? when did that happen#i physically can't watch season 3. why is rin so ugly#also sorry for not posting for um. 4 months. my winter break was so shit i kinda lost all motivation for a while#i had to work my way back up to actual stuff on the computer#anyways aoex was like formative media for me. so many of my character designs had/still have elements from the show in them somewhere#all my rat
819 notes
·
View notes