#how to sell used books

[greenconverses]

this fucking guy lmao

[onpie]

Noodles and Tea’s work inspired me fr

[dykedvonte]

I dislike takes that Danse would be just as conservative in modernized aus when it's clearly shown his staunch views of things come from his time in the Brotherhood and his deep-rooted desire to belong to something with a greater purpose.

Not to mention lines that show much more open-mindedness that get overlooked for his harsher sentiments when you first meet him. Like the oppurtunity to be a part of something is why Danse fell so far into Brotherhood dogma and it doesn't negate the offense things he does but I feel like it's just lazy to be like "hmmm he'd def be racist" just so it aligns to his BoS beliefs.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Sorry guys, rant incoming. I considered deleting this but I put too much effort in.

"girlboss" "girl dinner" "girl math" "boy math" "gen z are making fun of us for wearing x" "here's how to dress like gen z:" "girlies" "girl's night" "boy's night" "me and the boys" "90s kid"

"I don't feel like an adult" "I'm 34 and I can tell you, I still don't feel like an adult either." "My parents seemed like real adults when they were my age." "I still feel like a teenager."

Maybe you'd feel more like an adult if you started calling yourself one. Maybe you'd feel more like an adult if you stopped trying to dress like a teenager. Maybe you should move your bed out from the wall and get a wallet. Maybe find a calendar app that works for you.

You are an adult. Even if you live with your parents. Even if you do part-time shift work at minimum wage. Even if you haven't graduated college. Even if you are single. These are adult things to do. Because you are doing them. And you are an adult. Start treating yourself like an adult. Fake it 'till you make it if you have to.

In other, writing-related, news:

That trend on TikTok of 20-40 something women authors (and writers yet to be published) promoting their books like,

"Omg! I can't believe I've sold X number of copies!! I never thought I would!" "Ahhhh imagine publishing your book and all your dreams come true and now you get to meet famous authors and work with big names in the industry!!" "Would you read a book where [proceeds to list a bunch of oversaturated tropes that tell me nothing about the actual plot]?"

It reeks of infantilization. If you didn't believe anyone would want to read your book, why should I? You made it on the NYT bestseller list! Stop acting like a mega-fan who got to meet a celebrity. You are their peer! "Would you read a book--" What if I wouldn't? Why does it matter to you what I think of your book? And for the love of god stop hiding behind tropes you know are already popular. "Here is my book: This is what it is about." Have some goddamn confidence.

It is fine to mention in passing "this idea was really far-fetched so I didn't know if it would appeal" or "I was struggling with self-esteem when I wrote this". It's fine to fan a little bit. It's fine to discuss the tropes in your book. But why are you building your brand as an author off of your inferiority complex? You are using your poor self-esteem as a marketing tactic to seem "humble" and "relatable" but it's coming across as unprofessional and desperate for reassurance. You are an adult. You are competent. The more you act like it the more you will believe it.

And of course, I haven't seen a man promote his book this way...

On another note, do any of the 20-40 something women writers who do "write with me" videos on TikTok actually enjoy writing or are they just doing it for the aesthetic?

They all have gorgeous minimalism writing spaces full of white and pink and a macbook beneath a window. Their makeup is done and they are conventionally pretty to start with. But their entire video is just them talking about how little progress they made, how many pages they deleted, how often they got distracted, how frustrated they are. And like, yeah. We all have those days. But what about the good lines you can't wait to share? The days when the words just flow? The cool stuff you learned while researching? Why don't you ever make videos about that?

Is this some other attempt to seem "relatable" by only talking about the "bad" side of writing? Because again, it's coming across as lacking confidence at best and, at worst, that you don't actually know how to write. And that is not the brand you want as an author.

Again, its always women. Why must women market their self-esteem issues in order to sell their art? Why must we be perpetually awestruck children (girlies, book girls) in over our heads?

[lovelaceisntdead]

The binding of Mabel has Begun.

[lily4731]

Sometimes I think I don't get that attached to my favorite fictional universes and then I remember I wrote a 23k words analysis of The Owl House, and I used to take my high-school notes in aurebesh (the Star Wars alphabet).

Apparently not everyone does that

[ridocgamlynenthusiast]

no one in the fourth wing/empyrean/WHATEVER fandom is talking about how baide is miraculously changed from male to female with zero acknowledgment and it's driving me insane

[tearfest]

sorry to log on n rant but i need to rant

[sherlock-is-ace]

.

[akkivee]

within the first hour of the episode’s release btw, fans were able to figure out that

kuukou’s temple wasn’t far up a mountain as suggested in auxiliary media and more like at a halfway point

found a shop that looks exactly like the one kuukou’s looking into in the same area

written a mini dissertation on what the intended purpose of using that egyptian mural with bat

and man the bat community is cool lol

[gailynovelry]

There are lots of reasons to hate AI generators right now. But aside from the plagiarism, the impact on career artists of all stripes, and the general use of AI for grifting schemes, they also just really suck if you already have trouble with unreality.

I'm not talking about "oooh those AI images sure are creepy."

I'm talking about "folks with low media literacy are telling me, a nervous, obsessive wreck, that Unreality-Type Things are Definitely Real because the Smart Science Fiction Machine told them so."

There's an old lady who frequents my workplace as a customer, and she likes me, y'know? I keep the place clean, I let her chat. I'm polite. So, she's decided that I'm a nice person who deserves to be warned if something bad is happening in the world. Trouble is, she eats up every news source without scrutiny, and has chipperly informed me that "ignorance is not bliss" when I've admitted that I don't follow the news very closely (for mental health reasons.)

Anyway, her daughter's taken to addressing the AI software in her phone about current political events. So the old lady came to me one day, very nervous, and quietly informed me that World War Three is probably going to happen in November.

Because the AI said so. And the AI, it's smart right? That's why it's callled "artificial intelligence." It's gotten fed all that knowledge, so it must know these things.

Except that it doesn't. Text AI are just sentence generators. No context, no awareness, no thought process to speak of.

I know this. I'm not socially competent enough to inform her of this in-person, since that requires more talking than an "uh-huh, yep," but I know this. I know that World War Three is not happening in November just because an AI said so. Ask an AI "when is WW3 happening?" ten different times, and it'll give you ten different answers. Tell it that it's full of crap, and it'll automatically apologize right before spitting out the next crap answer.

But she doesn't know this.

She's trying to warn me about something that scares her.

And she does not know that in trying to warning me, she is a) ineffective, and b) inflicting a different kind of harm.

Because my terrible, frustrating brain, with its ten different kinds of internal malware and software glitches, is looking over my shoulder at the future just in case. And so is she.

AI is misinformation and misinformation is hell.

[magicmalcolm]

Zidane is a harsh (but fair!) book critic.

[biddy-biddy-biddy]

maybe i should talk/show more about my oc now that i’m thinking… idk! everyone is doing something for their ocs/self inserts idfkkkk…

like i just made her for funsies like haha what if i’m eltingville also everyone is eltingville/northwest why not do it…

[corellianhounds]

And we didn’t even get to see Boba and Mando kvetch over ships like a couple of old men

[roughentumble]

little mermaid AU with ariel!geralt. he doesnt have a father telling him that the land is forbidden or anything, but he's different from other merpeople and he can feel it. the loneliness of having his own territory eats at him, and even thought it's dangerous he cant help but poke at human inventions, sneak close to their ships. that's where he finds jaskier, the human prince who almost dies in a storm at sea.

yennefer is the sea witch, but she doesnt have an evil motive. magic comes at a price. they've known each other long enough that she does this for him, gives him legs and takes his voice, sets him free so he can go find the mysterious man he saved, so he can maybe find somewhere he belongs better than the sea.

[sanguith]

"enjoy the freedom of having everything in your phone!" , "get rid of all that stuff lying around and get this app that does this thing!" , "gather all your things needed to live right in your pocket!"

no i refuse to have all my entertainment and tools in my phone. i refuse to live in a small apartment surrounded by minimalist decor and nothing to look at or work with or use, with empty bookshelves and sterile-looking surroundings. i refuse to sit there idle during a power-out on my sofa in the dim candlelight without anything to do or lost in the woods without a physical compass, emergency whistle, kinetic-generator flashlight or any idea of how to do anything survival-based, watching as my phone battery dies and the clock inevitably ticks down until i'm as isolated and helpless as i could be. my phone and all its compact functions, though an invaluable tool in itself if used properly during ideal conditions, i regard as a second-hand backup for other primary tools, used only when i have no other option or when things actually break. sorry for the rant lmfao but i've been thinking a lot about these things and how reliant on one single rectangular piece of often internet-reliant technology i'm becoming.