#there are LOTS AND LOTS of free ebooks out there if you can't afford to get to a library

[puddingvalkyrie]

Learning another language is another one!

[rainofaugustsith]

So the Open Library decision came down, and there's already a lot of hand wringing about it. Before you start waving torches about how this is all moneygrubbing Big Publishing flexing its muscle, I'd beg you to actually read the facts of the case. From the decision:

This appeal presents the following question: is it "fair use" for a nonprofit organization to scan copyright-protected print books in their entirety, and distribute digital copies online in full, for free, subject to a one-to-one-loaned ratio between its print copies and the digital copies it makes available at any given time, all without authorization from the copyright-holding publishers or authors? Applying the relevant privisions of the Copyright Act as well as binding Supreme Court and Second Circuit precedent, we conclude the answer is no. We therefore AFFIRM. (the previous decision). 1. This has never been about the Wayback Machine, Archive.org's historical collections, or out of print books. NOTHING in the court decisions prevent them from continuing that work. 2. This has never been about "libraries being able to have and lend books." 3. Yes. libraries do have ebooks and lend them out. They pay for the ebooks. There are licensing terms. 4. Open Library did not pay licenses. They rebuffed publishers when they were approached about it. They therefore want to claim they are a library without acting like a library.

Oh, and they were marketing this as a positive to other libraries: "get books for free! Don't pay! 5. The issue specifically is about new books, not the out of print stuff.

Here's the thing about that. Unless it ends up being a new timeless classic, most books make most of their money in their first year or so. If sales aren't good, it can impact future book contracts.

Here's the other thing about that. Most authors earn four figures or less annually for their writing, even if they are publishing with a major house. They almost always have to have at least one other job, and often several. I know so many writers who have several jobs just to make rent every month. Often, the money they get for a advance is the only money they ever see from the book - if they even get an advance, which is increasingly rare these days.

Thus, if that license is not purchased, it does hurt them - directly.

"But it's one license at one library!" Cool cool, can we just take a week of your salary and tell you "it's just one week, you won't miss it?" 6. Big Publishing! Money Grubbing Fiends!

Yeah, the big publishers did mount this lawsuit. Do you honestly fucking think that independent midlist writers making four figures a year had the money to hire attorneys to do it? They had the money, they did what the authors alone could not. 7. But people couldn't get the book otherwise.

Okay. Some of those books are like $2 as ebooks or used paper copies. If you can't afford that, there's this wonderful thing called the public library, where you can get a free library card and access to books online for free. Books that have been paid for. If you don't have access to a library in another country - I'm sorry. But this isn't the answer. Maybe when it comes to media you don't always get everything you want all the time. You know, like in the real world with grownups. I'd also add that you can keep using Archive.org's other services that were not questioned here which give you access to lots of other media, with older out of print books, magazines, etc. There are other websites like Issu which offer publications online for free, LEGALLY. This decision isn't the Last Chance Saloon for media access.

I know that a lot of you think authors and other creatives apparently are not entitled to get paid for their work like everyone else, or at least don't translate pirating to "the writer's not getting paid for this." Apparently they're supposed to work for free "for the love of it!" don't need to pay for food, healthcare and housing, and should smile whenever their stuff is pirated. So maybe it truly doesn't matter to you that the big issue here is authors not getting paid, I don't know. That's what it's about, though.

[cherokeegal1975]

Bored...sort of. That and I really want to drum up some interest in my book. This is the one that sells when I do make a sale. None of the other five sell at all. I know it might not be possible, but I'm willing to try to get this book on Netflix as a cartoon in the visual style of either The Dragon Prince or in the visual style of Blue Eye Samurai. I've never seen The Dragon Prince, but hope to do so someday. I've seen blips though and it's caught my interest, though I'm a little confused about the series order. I no longer have access to Netflix, but it's a goal of mine to get my own account someday. I really enjoyed Netflix and it's because of that brief time I did have access to it was when I learned enough about the shows to see that yes, this book of mine really could fit in. It'll take a shit ton of money...like about $3000, which is my ballpark estimate not including the book cover illustrator's fees (the Kindle ebook cover stays put as is, but I want something for my paperback and hardbound cover art, mine looks plain and homemade).

This observation is as unbiased as possible, I'm looking at my story as a whole and as a product. But, if Netflix is willing to post something on their site like Bright, which was a good foundation for an idea, but the movie was crap. Or, a miniseries like He's Expecting, which was based on the comic book of the same name that was only recently translated into English from Japanese, (and that one was okay, though it got a lot of criticism...more than it deserved I think) and Winks, the live action adaptation of the cartoon that was pretty good but I wandered off from it and never returned for no reason. I did want to finish it even if its origins were a bit silly. Then there is Reble Moon, which is getting a lot of advertising but isn't' that great...not terrible, just not great. So, I think mine has a chance there. So, I'm not just boasting or full of hot air. If I could just get the funding, I'd really do my best to get it there.

I'll need to get an editor, then a publisher, then sell one thousand copies of my book and no less, get the interest of a literary agency that works with Netflix (I think I found one) to propose my book and see what happens. I don't have to have it on Netflix, but it would be so cool if it made it. I just hope my Mom will never find out, because I don't want her to know it's an mpreg. I gave her a copy, confident it'll just be a keepsake on her shelf. And that's exactly what happened, along with Eden Symbiotic. Mental shrug. Oh well. I suppose she's a little proud of me anyway for making those books. Too bad I'm not earning a lot of money from them. I'd use it to go back into the books to help them be more successful and to fix a few mistakes I missed. I've spotted a couple of them, but I've got this hands-off policy until I get some professional help for them.

In the meantime, here's the audiobook. And if you can't stand the sound of my voice, or my music that I composed for intros and outros because I couldn't find any free music and made due with what I had, here's the link to the book on Amazon:

How does one get a sponsor...or sponsors for a book? I may never be able to afford to fund the project myself. GoFundMe is a bust. Based on my research and personal experience with being online and trying to get attention for my work, my campaign bomb out even before it gets started. Barely anyone wants to notice my work even though I happen to know that it really does have some good potential.

[mollyringle]

Trad pub and indie pub and small presses: different, but not.

I saw someone say they’ll always leave 5-star reviews for indie authors, but will be more picky about ratings for traditionally published authors. This has been bothering me. I shall discuss. This isn’t pro-trad or pro-indie, just a plea for understanding the nuanced reality. Disclosure: yes, I’m trad pubbed - if you count small presses - so I’m sure I’m biased. Still, this reviewer's attitude assumes all trad pub is some place of ginormous advantage, and, furthermore, that all trad pub has the *same amount and level* of advantages. This is very much not the case. Further disclosure: I’ve never been Big 5 published (i.e., published by one of the Big 5 publishers: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, and Simon & Schuster). My publishers so far have all been small presses. From my own experience, and from other authors' words, I can safely say a) small presses are nowhere near Big 5 in terms of money, marketing, and distribution, and b) there’s gigantic variety among small presses. Let us compare some of the details: Editing: yes, you generally get an editor, free, when you get trad pubbed. Keep in mind you’re giving up a large chunk of royalties for that service (among other services the publisher provides). Editing quality, though, varies from one editor to another. We’re only human. (I’m an editor as well as a writer.) We have our preferences and styles. In some dreadful cases, editors can meddle too much and sow doubt in the author and lead them to change things that were better left unchanged. (This has happened to me as a writer, in the past.) In other cases, the author refuses to listen to wise advice no matter how good the editor, and you get Big 5 books with weird-ass punctuation. (I have read more than a few...) Also, do you really want to suggest that because someone’s indie-published, we should forgive a book riddled with typos and confusing grammar and give it 5 stars anyway? Does that help the good reputation of indie? Something to ponder. $$: small presses don’t give advances. Or at least, I’ve never gotten one in my fifteen years of being published by small presses, except in one case of selling audio rights, and it was only three digits. We get only royalties, same as indie authors. We even get a lesser portion of the royalties than indies do, given the nature of contracts; but we don’t pay for cover art or editing, so that might even out. Marketing: varies SO MUCH among small presses. I’ve seen ones who do as much Big-5-style marketing behavior as they can afford (but keep in mind they can't afford as much), ones who only do email list and online ads, and plenty in between. Trad pub does NOT mean “you will by default get a table devoted to your books in every B&N in the country.” Distribution: in fact, you’re lucky if you GET your books into B&N, if you’re not with the Big 5. As with marketing, this varies hugely, but general rule is small pub can’t afford giant distribution. I make a lot more on ebooks than print, and few bookstores carry my books. Cover art: this, too, can be very good or not so good. Trad contracts often state that you can’t argue your cover, or only can argue it to a point, so you likely have less say in it than an indie does. On the plus side, you might get a publisher who rocks the graphic design, which you benefit from as part of your contract. So look carefully at a press’s covers before submitting, is one tip I’d give.

There are indie books that have done phenomenally well and made the authors rich or at least comfortable, and ones that never blip the radar. THE EXACT SAME IS TRUE FOR TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED BOOKS. The vast majority of trad published authors, just like the vast majority of indie authors, are making only meager amounts of money on royalties. Those who can afford to buy castles thanks to their royalties are a well-known but very short list.

The advantages can be on either side, depending on who you’re fortunate enough to work with. And how awesome your book is, of course. And your cover art. Seriously, the cover art matters; don’t skimp on that. I’ll stop there. Enjoy reading, and be kind to ALL authors who are doing their best out there!

[zeemczed]

Further advice:

There are food banks in most areas that are willing to give food to people without many questions. Never feel weird about visiting them, that's why they exist.

Avoid Dollar General/Family Dollar, but frequent Dollar Tree. DT is the "it's mostly actually $1.25/item" dollar store, the others are horrifically overpriced for what they sell.

If you have a medical emergency, most hospitals in the US that are nonprofits have ways to get your bill written off. Call the billing department and talk to them about it.

Drinking hot tea/hot water is VERY good for soothing minor stomach problems. One cup in the morning helps smooth out a LOT of things.

When you can, pursue a college degree. You can lose your belongings and assets, but you can't lose knowledge and qualifications.

If you aren't a college person (and many are not, I'm not about to judge) then get a certification in a trade. Welding is awesome. Penetration testing and IT. Plumbing. Anything where you can get into a union is golden. If nothing else, learn another language and get up to fluent speech in that language.

Advanced degree + Passport = The world is your oyster.

Thrift stores are your friend for clothing. Less Goodwill and more other, actually-run-by-charity thrift stores, but Goodwill will do in a pinch.

HYDRATE. I say this as a berk who has had 20ish kidney stones. Water is your friend.

If a job sucks, start looking for a new one. Don't quit first unless the situation is horrendously toxic or illegal - it looks better to new employers if you presently have a job (weird as that is).

The best app you can have on your phone is a free/not-ad-supported epub reader, because people can and will share DRM free ebooks if you ask in the right places (or just have decent Google-Fu). I have over 100 novels on mine at the moment.

Whenever possible, buy cars with cash. If you decide to get a beater/auction car, try to have a few grand set aside for the inevitable repairs you'll have to do right away.

Do the research on any car you want to buy. Make sure the model year isn't a lemon and that you can afford the usual repairs.

DO NOT GET A CONTRACT CELL PHONE! Prepaids use the same cell network and are exponentially cheaper. I worked for Verizon, and was astonished at the number of junk fees and scummy deals people had. Use Mint Mobile, or any provider offering $25-35 a month for unlimited talk/text/data WITHOUT A CONTRACT. Any more than that is to be avoided.

Develop a support network. Friends, distant relations, teachers, mentors, spiritual leaders, whoever. A duck may be somebody's brother.

Always ask if a job has mandatory overtime before you take it; this is usually a red flag.

things i wish i had known when i escaped my family household and couldn't ask my parents for help

invest in a good mattress early on. there are many other ends you can save on - sleep is not one of them. this is key to how much energy you'll have throughout the day

you don't need a bedframe but you do need a slatted bed base (even if it's just pallets)

opening a bank account is easy

there's youtube tutorials for everything. how to install your washing machine, how to use tools, fixing stuff around the place. channels like dad, how do i? are a godsend

change energy provider as soon as your old deal runs out. you'll get better offers elsewhere and avoid price gouging

assemble a basic first aid kid at home: painkillers, probiotics, alcohol wipes, bandages, tweezers, antihistamine tablets - anything you might need in a pinch

and an emergency toolkit: flashlight, extra batteries, a utility knife, an adjustable wrench, multi-tool, duct tape

set your fridge to the lowest temperature it can go. the energy consumption is minimal in difference and it'll give you +4/7 days on most foods

off-brand products are almost always the same in quality and taste, if not better, for half the price

coupons will save you a lot of money in the long run

there's no reason to be shy around employees at the bank/laundromat/store; most people will be happy to help

vegetarian diets are generally cheap if you make food from scratch

breakfast is as important as they say

keep track of your budget in a notebook or excel file - e.g. rent, phone and internet bills, food, leisure so you'll have an overlook on your spending over the months

don't gamble

piracy is okay

stealing from big stores and chains is also ethically okay

keep medical bills and pharmacy receipts for tax returns

also, file your tax returns early

take up a hobby that isn't in front of a screen. pottery, music, going for a run every now and then, stuff that'll keep you busy and sane

and most importantly... you're allowed to get the stuff you want. treat yourself to the occasional mundane thing. a good scented candle. a bath bomb. that body lotion that makes you feel like royalty. the good coffee beans.

you're free and you deserve to be happy.

[tiger-moran]

Also there's this post going round where someone who I already had blocked for reasons I don't remember though maybe it was that post that made me block them who knows anyway it's them basically mocking people for not reading loads of books per year and saying essentially anyone who doesn't read many books per year, their opinions on everything are uninformed and worthless, and it pisses me off no end.

I mean not only is it condescending as hell

and absurd to make it sound as if reading books is the only possible way to get information and a broader viewpoint on things

it's also basically ableist as fuck too to expect everyone to be able to read countless books

and it's ignoring the fact that many people can't afford to read countless books (and sorry but 'free ebooks and libraries exist' does not solve that problem, there are loads of reasons why both those options are useless for many people, especially many disabled and poor people)

And I am just... I am sick of wasting my time and money getting and reading books that I turn out to hate. Like even only within the past two or three years, just off the top of my head there's been Caroline Akrill's fourth book in the eventing 'trilogy', a series I loved as a child and still liked when I reread it as an adult but I hated the fourth book, it was like she'd forgotten anything and everything which made the original series engaging (possibly not surprising when she wrote it like 30 years later (and it really really showed, despite it being supposedly set right after the original series) and I really genuinely wish she hadn't bothered); Lights of Prague which was so, so boring; some Sherlock Holmes anthology, I don't know which it was since I sold it months ago, which I didn't give a damn about no not even the story involving Moriarty and Moran because it was the standard 'they are awful people and we have to defeat them' shit and despite how other people made it sound they were barely in it anyway while it was mostly about Mycroft, a character I really don't care about; Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell or whatever it's called which had the distinction of being the first book I ever managed to fall asleep while sitting up in the middle of the day reading it because I found it so tedious; the Frey and McGray series which I stuck with despite not liking a lot of elements but I did at least like the main characters (or at least I liked them when they weren't drugged and being horrible to each other) but I enjoyed the last book in the series so little I've now put the entire series in my 'to sell' box; The Magpie Lord which was just awful anyway and contained a relationship dynamic I really dislike as well. There were probably others I've repressed all memory of. Even some other stuff I liked, it kind of... degenerated for me the further it went. Like for example I did quite like most of Caroline Graham's Inspector Barnaby series but I really didn't like the last one, I didn't like a lot of it anyway and then by the end it went way too weird as well.

I am genuinely at the stage now where I just... don't dare risk buying (and therefore reading) any more books because this keeps happening, so many of the ones I do risk buying I do not like at all, but I am sick of there being nothing I want to read, of every single list of 'recommended books' being lists of stuff I haven't got the slightest interest in reading not least because so, so much now seems to be 'young adult' stuff. I do not want to read about children! I do not want to read about teenagers! And I certainly do not want to read about teenagers and their romantic relationships (or usually, it seems, ~love triangle~ shit)! (What happened to books about adults? Because going by most of the lists I've seen unless you want ~classic literature~ books about adults over the age of about 20 barely exist any more)

I'm sick of it being impossible to find anything else I want to read because nobody is writing it or publishing it, stories with the type of characters and relationships and other things I have an interest in... they do not exist. I have searched time and time again and I am not finding anything.

And if I ask anywhere for recommendations mostly all I seem to get is people recommending me stuff that bears no resemblance to what I'm actually asking for (post-WWII is not Victorian!) and where people seem to assume a book simply being ~diverse~ in some way somehow automatically makes it an amazing flawless book that I'm going to absolutely love every moment of reading, also very often all they recommend are ebooks I can't read anyway and/or books that cost like £15 each which I can't afford.

And then those shits start ridiculing and demeaning people who don't read many books.

[coodix]

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[revginapond]

Dear Americans: My Library doesn't work that way...

I see so many posts by well-meaning Americans saying "Go to your public library and check out books because it's free and it pays authors, and you can get ebooks, and and and..."

And, hey, that's quite true. In the United States. (Canada, too, and maybe a few other countries.)

Elsewhere? Not so much.

Here in Zurich, Switzerland, where I live, there's the University Library (ETH) which gives you a free library card and you can check out books for free, which is great. The city library, though, where they hold the kid's programs and stuff like that? You need to pay about 60 CHF/ year for a library card (about $63/year). Sure, that's not horrible, but it's not FREE.

Then there's the fact that not every book will be available for me here, either, since most of the books are German language books and rightly so (right now my German isn't so good that I can read adult books yet). So, my selection at my local library (for the moment) is relatively small.

All those library apps you lovingly tout? Geoblocked. Can't access them.

But I'm privileged: I have money to buy the books I want from Amazon and other ebook retailers.

But let's think outside the US box, shall we? I read a comment from a person one of these library usage posts the other day where they pointed out that they are from a 3rd world country. They have a library, but it's tiny because the library can't buy a lot of books. Then there's the added problem that most books don't get translated into their language. So, yes, they'd like to use their library, but it's limited, and they have very limted money to buy or subscribe to anything online (they make 3rd world country wages, which, compared to the dollar, are maybe a $100-300/mo. Don't entirely quote me on it, but the point is that they don't make a lot of money in US terms.) And again, most library apps are region locked/geoblocked. Not everyone can afford to use a VPN (or wants to).

And this person got shit on for saying that sometimes the only way they can get a book is to pirate it.

You know what? As an author, I'm ok with that. I'd rather they get to read my book than not. Personally, I'll provide anyone with a copy if they ping me and ask. If you have the cash to buy it, I'd appreciate that, but if you really want to read my book, just ping me and ask.

And Americans, stop being jerks about this. Be greatful that you have free libraries and utilize them, but don't shit on other people who don't have that option. America's systems aren't the rest of the world's systems, no matter how much you think they should be.

(tl;dr: Americans, it's not all about you, so stop being moralistic and shitty to people in other countries who don't have access to the same privileges you do.)

[yvesdot]

I didn't want to vote in the poll and skew anything since I visit my library at least monthly and participate in events, but as a regular patron of multiple libraries throughout my life (& a teen library volunteer at some point), this is a great list of reasons someone might or might not visit the library and I'm very curious about the results... bonus thoughts below. Many, many bonus thoughts below.

Transportation is possibly the largest issue: in my personal experience, most of the younger people I speak to who wind up pirating books instead of getting them from the library simply can't get there. Their parents won't drive them often enough, they aren't within biking/walking distance, and public transportation is awful. (eBook lending is also notoriously difficult due to the deranged copyright contracts involved, leading to massive wait times.)

With that said, many also read a lot more spontaneously than libraries can provide: they want their books available now! I can't tell you how many people of all ages come into the bookshop I work at, hear a book can be available within three days, and immediately go to Amazon. There is a real effect of "easier" and "faster" options: if you can pirate the book right now, the logic goes, why even bother going to the library?

I also find some people like to own their books, however briefly, especially when they can afford to do so. Many people prefer to buy a book, take however long they want to read it (and take it wherever with no fear of losing or muddying it), and then, if they really don't want it, get rid of it.

And of course social anxiety is an increasingly relevant issue in places where resources do not allow for searching library systems (or ILL) on your own, and especially if someone might not understand Dewey or similar organization efforts and not want to ask. Even getting a library card involves talking to people, and I remember getting some strangely brusque responses when I couldn't immediately produce multiple pieces of mail to a new address. I continuously forget that there is anything odd about my extremely transsexual appearance, but if I were a teen concerned about my GNCity, I might not want to interface with some of the largely older folks staffing the library (an institution facing a real staffing and funding crisis, but requiring inaccessibly high amounts of experience and education).

I would also argue that even more than the importance of individual events is the importance of advertising these events the right way. Younger people seem to spend less time on all the nuts and bolts of library websites and newsletters and more time not just on social media but in person: are there flyers clearly visible to people browsing the Teen section? Can you tell just from walking around the library where to go if you want to know more about events?

And with all that said, in case it's not clear, I absolutely adore libraries with every bone in my body and encourage everyone to do a little research into their local one and see if you can discover an exciting secret! Many libraries offer free printing, free magazines to read while you're there, financial advising, author workshops, and more; I like to come to my library's monthly reading series. Get out in your community! ❤︎

As a young librarian, I started trying to figure out why more young people aren't ever coming in; 90% of our demographic are the elderly and parents of children, and the rest are a rough mix of the kids and teenagers who come in just for school projects. As a result, I've been attempting different ways to get the Youth TM to come into libraries, but first I wanted to see why they don't come in. Please reblog to get this poll out to more people! <3

[rigelmejo]

Hi friends! So, if you buy a lot if print chinese stuff like me, may I suggest to you:

https://www.books.com.tw/ open in computer browser and go to top bar and theres an obvious language option, you can switch to English. This book store ships international, sometimes ships extremely quickly (I've gotten books in 2 days before), has traditional and simplified print books and comics, and has a lot of stuff. I found both the simplified print 镇魂 with all the extras, and the traditional print version with the really pretty covers on here.

https://www.aliexpress.com it basically is a taobao reseller. What that means is, it is selling stuff you'd find on taobao, directly on its site. It ships international, prices are usually cheap and shipping is cheap or free. I find it very convenient, it ships slowly (can take 1 week-3 months to ship depending on item) but it's very affordable and reliable. Search chinese books by English name or by pinyin like "mo Dao zu shi" etc, searching in hanzi does not always give you results. Once you do find what you want, it helpfully recommends you more novels/comics regularly. Their app also is easy to use. Usually when I want something on taobao, I check here because if it's been out 1 month or more it's probably for sale on aliexpress. Sometimes aliexpress even has the pre-order brand new stuff. I found the tgcf comic volumes on here and get them as soon as they come out in print, same with 吞海. I find books.com.tw is easier to search through if I'm looking for a very specific version of a print since I can search with hanzi, but aliexpress has a ton of stuff too and will often have older stuff that may be sold out on books.com.tw. I got 4 volumes of 残次品 on here for 20 dollars, sometimes the bookstores have good sales/deals.

Amazon and ebay.* I think Amazon overcharges on chinese print materials, like a 20 dollar book is often 40-60 on Amazon. So I highly recommend checking alternatives first. The only thing I think Amazon sells okay, is chinese ebooks (and I've only bought the Chinese ebooks on my co.jp account so I don't know if it's even an option on English amazon). But if you really want a book and can't find it anywhere, it might be there (it was the only place I could find 他们的故事 vol 1). Ebay is much more affordable, with prices comparable to reasonable sites. Search eBay in pinyin, English name, and hanzi because sometimes results use different ways of labeling. I've found my favorite version of 镇魂 on there (and the Japanese DVD version but of course my DVD player can't play it - but that's where it is if you've been hunting for it), DVDs of cdramas, etc. It is where I found 默读 before I found aliexpress. There's some decent stuff for sale if you look around, and you can sometimes find specific things if you have a particular thing you're looking for.

Amazon.co.jp honorable mention. If you are buying Japanese stuff, amazon.co.jp is the most convenient ebook option and can also sometimes ship international if you want print materials. You simply make an account like usual on Amazon, may need to put in a japanese address, then put in a 2nd shipping address to your house if you plan to buy anything physical. If you plan to read ebooks on kindle, I recommend making your japanese account have a different password than your .Com account. I used the same email for both my jp and us account, but if you use the same password kindle will automatically always log you into your us account. So if you use 2 different passwords (and/or 2 different emails) then kindle app will let you log in to us and jp accounts.

https://www.superbuy.com/en/ a taobao shopping agent, if you want to buy on taobao but cannot do that. It ships to some countries but not all so check the site first to make sure it works for your country. Otherwise Google "taobao shopping agent" and your country's name to find alternatives. I've used superbuy when I can't find the item I want anywhere else but taobao (like when I wanted the brand new 盗墓笔记重启 ost cd, when I wanted the newest 杀破浪 version asap etc). If you can wait, it's usually cheaper to find things on other sites. But if you absolutely want one specific thing you can only find on taobao, a shopping service will allow you to get it. How a shopping service site works: you make an account. You use the shopping service site (like superbuy.com) to search items and select what you want to buy, then buy it like normal. Then the shopping service buys it for you and puts it in storage, and let's you know when it's in their storage. Once it's in your storage, you pay to have the item shipped to you. So you do 2 purchases basically - first buy the item, then buy the shipping to you. It's fairly simple and usually the sites have good directions. But shipping can cost a BIT so if you know you want multiple things it's usually cheapest to buy them all, wait for them all to reach storage, then pay for their shipping together. (Buyee.jp is the shopping service I use for japan).

[acandrewswriter]

Why would you affiliate yourself with Amazon? Is there another place people can buy your books?

Hi disasterhimbo: Because a huge majority of indie LGBTQ authors have little choice but to use Amazon to publish. When you are an indie author, your choices are to go "wide release" through a company like Ingraham Spark (which can theoretically land your book at Barnes and Noble, etc), or to go Amazon exclusive with enrollment in Kindle Unlimited.

Here's the thing: Every author I’m friends with, including quite a few who are making a full-time living writing MM romance and MM fantasy, who has tried wide release has regretted it and gone back to Amazon.

Most books sales these days are ebook sales, and 90% of that market is Amazon. So if you go "wide release," what happens is that you only gain a tiny sliver of marketshare and available audience for your books, but you end up losing out on what turns out to be massively important boosts that Amazon adds to its KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) authors.

Those benefits are:

Higher royalties: Amazon exclusive books earn 70% royalties, as opposed to 35% on Amazon for wide-release books, and much, much lower on other platforms- traditional publishers tend to max out at paying 15% royalties at most. Coupled with Amazon's dominance of the ebook market, that makes wide-release a losing proposition, financially, for any indie author who isn't going to sell millions of books (which is most of us).

Kindle Unlimited: Amazon exclusive content is made available through Kindle Unlimited. Of the thousand or so readers my first book got, 60% of them were on Kindle Unlimited. Without that boost, I would have made even less money on a book I lost money producing. So I would have had 60% fewer readers, and been earning only half the royalty rate.

The effing algorithm: Amazon boosts your sales during the first 90 days of publication by putting your new release higher on search results and category lists. The more sales you make within a short period of time, the more the algorithm boosts the visibility of your book.

It's far more expensive to do wide-release (because, for example, you have to pay out hundreds of dollars to buy ISBN numbers- while Amazon gives them to you for free), and it is never made back in sales (Wide release results in massively lower royalties- a financial loss that is not made up for by the wider release- because Amazon dominates the market). Worse, it is a lot more work to manage- and those of us working full time while trying to write only have so many spoons to go around (especially when we are our own promotion team, our own ARC team, - we are basically doing all the work of a publishing company ourselves).

Even with the support Amazon gives to KDP authors, I'm still not breaking even doing this- I pay out money to produce my books, hire editors so my books aren't awful (dev and copy editing typically costs around $2k dollars), hire out professional artwork for decent covers (around $800), pay sensitivity readers among my beta reading team (again, hundreds of dollars), etc.  And none of that covers the costs of promotion, which is the single most expensive thing in the whole process- more than all of the above combined. In short, to have any prayer of breaking even you need higher sales and higher royalties, and Amazon is the single best chance of either.  

I am lucky that I have a full time job that pays enough that I can afford to do that (a privilege that too many LGBTQ writers can't afford at all). Until I got a higher-paying position at my workplace just before the pandemic, I couldn't afford to do any of that then either. It was a dream out of reach.

If it weren't for Amazon, these books-and a lot of other excellent indie LGBTQ content- literally wouldn't exist. The cost of publishing would be too high, and the returns too low to offset it (let alone make enough actual profit to make a meager living as a starving writer).  

Sure, Amazon is the evil empire- and frankly, it treats its KDP authors in shitty ways a lot of the time (the Amazon marketing platform is a joke, designed to mostly get you to throw your ad money at Amazon while getting almost nothing in return for it- and Amazon frequently jerks authors around without much transparency- we basically can exist as authors only at Amazon's mercy, and that does suck).

That's also why traditional publishers are kind of a joke now- because only the most wildly successful authors stand to gain anything from having a trad publisher (of course, they still have enough clout to “create” wildly successful authors). Small presses force you to do your own promotion (literally, two of my best friends wrote a novel with a trans protagonist published by a Simon and Schuster imprint, and the company did *no promotion at all*, no ARC services, nothing... like, if you are a trad publisher, what's the point of you then? To give an author a lousy 7-15% royalty in exchange for literally nothing except having a publisher's name on spine? wtf?).

Amazon has, smartly and evilly, made itself the only financially viable game in town for niche indie authors.

There are a lot of indie LGBTQ authors on Amazon. A lot of trans authors, queer authors, gay authors, non-binary authors, getting their books published because Amazon/KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) makes it affordable for them to do...

Like most things in the world, Amazon's evil is a mixed bag, and sometimes it's hard to pry apart the good from the bad.  Long story short: If you like or want to read more indie LGBTQ books, Amazon is still evil but it’s also your best bet. 

[asklolard]

Are you tired of your job?

Feel like firing your boss?

Ready too learn to do something new?

Want to work for yourself?

Set your own hours?

Work online?

From home with family?

Work a few hours while on vacation?

Well, that's what i finally have found.

28 years of searching systems online that never seemed to work for me. Spent thousands of dollars in research and finally i found a group of people who are doing just that and are willing to give detailed instructions on how to do it just like they are. They give me instruction on how to keep up to date with the changes that I will need to be aware of in order to stay on top of the changing online Market. They have given me knowledge so quickly that I really cannot even believe it. And it is working already.

I've driven a truck for about 28 years after I sold a pest control company in Phoenix Arizona area in a little town called Maricopa. You can check it out, R&R pest control. My wife at the time and I sold that business and move back to Illinois to be around family because her mother was very sick and family matters more than pretty much anything else on this planet.

Well, it wasn't long and the divorce came. Wasn't seeing that spin of fate. But I live through it and after a little bout with depression and staying home locked in my room with groceries brought by friends, I manned up and stepped out into the world again and the first place I went to apply was for truck driving.

My goal was to work it for a year and enjoy it and save money and start a new business. But I never quite found exactly what I was looking for. I found a lot of things that sounded good, but they just didn't seem to work for me for whatever reason. I could give all the names of all these different things that I've tried, however it doesn't really matter. In the end, they just did not work for me. You might be feeling the same thing.

Well this company started me out inexpensively, actually the first step was free and I'm going to offer that to you in this blog eventually once I get the ending part of my website set up, probably in the next week or two, maybe in the next couple of days even.

I love this company so much that I decided to be an affiliate marketer for the business Institute itself. Well $39 later after that first free ebook, which is only about 20 pages, and I was training to understand what the three business models I was being offered to start work. Pretty soon they offered me an upsell too either the whole package for more money than what I wanted to spend or for one class that I could easily afford. But I already had fallen in love with all three of the business models and in right now putting them all together and bringing them online. Affiliate marketing wasn't really the first love, but I do love their system. I love all the support that they're giving. The openness that they have. The mentorship program where they tie you up with basically and millionaire who's doing one of these three businesses and making it, giving me advice that's a truck driver for nearly 28 years, and knowing pretty much nothing anymore about computers. Everything I ever know about a computer has long since expired in any kind of relevant way.

Yeah I'm that guy who's been dealing with a smartphone as his computer, because it's all I really ever needed up till now. And actually you can do this job with a smartphone, I just think it's easier on the laptop.

Then along the way there's another upsell, if you want it and can afford it, which I do but as of yet can't quite afford it. It is mentorship one-on-one every week a couple times a week with one of these millionaires taking their personal time and selling it to me and or to you in exchange for a fee.

There are also live meetings several times a year and even a mastermind group once you get in and are doing well enough to afford it. I'm really really excited about the Mastermind groups. So far I haven't been offered one and as of now my billfold just doesn't afford it. But if you have good enough credit, you can find a way to finance anything you want. The unfortunate part of the whole deal is that I decided I didn't care about credit and I did their Dave Ramsey thing, I got rid of all my debt. I've decided to move to the Philippines permanently once I get rid of this job as a truck driver, that's where my sweetheart lives. And I don't even keep a house. Live right behind the driver's seat. Yeah that's right no house, for the first time in nearly 50 years, no car. But that also means no insurance for the house, insurance for the car, electric, water, sewer, gas, trash, gasoline, oil changes, flat tire repair cost, etc etc. You know what I'm talking about. And so I don't really want to make personal debt in order to make business happen. Yes I'm stubborn. But I think there's a way to do this the right way, and so I'm taking the slower track and doing it as I go.

The lung and the short of it is I'm getting ready to start a publishing company, I've already started the online affiliate marketing business. I'm also in the process of starting a digital agency that helps businesses get more clients by working in the seo, ppc, and Google my business industry. Once I get all three of these up and running, I will also be starting an audiobooks publishing company and I've already affiliated with Amazon and audible to make that happen. That's a really exciting opportunity right now. Audible and Amazon have 80% of the book Market in America at this time. So in effect, by getting into this business Institute I met someone else who could get me into that business as well. Between the four businesses, I hope to be employing over 500 people within the next 3 years. Yes that's right you heard me. I believe that when we help other people to get ahead in life, our success is destined to just happen. I also believe that unless we set our mind to do something and don't give up by talking ourselves out of it, saying well I knew it it wasn't going to work for me.. which I've said numerous times over the last 28 years, if we set our mind to learn something well and just continue to do it, we can do it. I got this mindset by listening to many many audiobooks on audible which I'll later be requesting that you guys look into. I think mindset is the biggest thing that we need to overcome and change before we can actually be successful in life. Boy do I have a list of books that are amazing for just that. So if you're interested give this page a listen to. Join me. And let's learn together. No I'm not going to give you the link yet but I will shortly. As a matter of fact if you message me privately by sending me your email and telling me you're interested at RevLolardSimmons@gmail.com I would be happy to add you to the list and send you that link ahead of time. Just send me a message saying I want to learn about the Business Institute with the free book and put me on your mailing list. Then I'll send you a link to get into the system and there they'll ask you for your first name and your email one more time and that will put you on the list and get you that first step of the free 20 Page ebook. That particular web pages almost ready to go live online, but this is something I only recently decided to do and I'm still building it. Just like you might have noticed that this is a pretty vacant box so far. But if you join me and hang around and look back often, you're going to notice it gets filled with posts and offers regularly. Again, I believe when we help others succeed by offering them good and useful products, our success is sure to follow. So I will not give you any marketing information that I don't feel I got something out of already. Deal? I'll be looking forward to your email. And I'll catch you the next time.

Lolard

#howtogetanonlinejob #workonline #quitmyjob #affiliatemarketing #onlonemarketing #googlemybusiness #onlinecourses #influencer #howtobeamillionaire #workformyself #onlinejobs #firemyboss #startabusinessonline

https://www.asklolard.com/SuperAffiliateEbook

[lianabrooks]

This is a really good analogy actually, because, like the Library of Alexandria, it wasn't the only library.

The reason it's called The Library of ALEXANDRIA instead of The Library is because every major city had one. When a ship came into port, every scroll and book was confiscated and copied at the library. Sometimes the ship got the original back, sometimes they got the copy back, but either way, the original author was credited and it was done to preserve information.

In every country there is the equivalent of the Library of Congress, which keeps a record of every copyrighted work in perpetua and is free to anyone to access. When a work gets published, part of the agreement that makes it copyrighted to the original author or artist is giving a copy to the LOC as a legal proof.

Internet Archive started as a great way to save other things that the local libraries weren't. Basically, if the LOC is the Library of Alexandria the IA was the person sent to check the walls for cool art and listen for the great gossip so they could record it.

What the IA wasn't meant to do was be a repository for stolen work.

Libraries that you use in your city to access books pay for those copies. Every ebook. Every paperback. Ever hardcovers. Every audio book. They all have special library pricing and renew (or rebuy) after a set number of loans/borrows/whatever.

The IA doesn't. Which means copies of copyrighted works on IA that were not given to the IA under contract (which the LOC has) are pirated and stolen work. The IA went from recording the good gossip and the free internet stuff the LOC wasn't collection to outright thieving copies of books.

Because there's no contract, the IA can loan out a copy of the book to whomever any time they want and the authors get nothing.

If you're not familiar with how much the average modern author gets paid, please understand only a very few authors currently make a living writing. Most are writing as a hobby and working another job to pay the bills because books are undervalued and underpriced.

Pirated books like IA has started offering make writing less viable, and sometimes even impossible. Especially for our high-risk-of-loss authors who are queer, disabled, or from a minority ethnic or racial group. Those people are already underpaid (or unpaid) by their publishing houses and need all the help they can get to earn enough to survive.

The solution would be for IA to sign contracts with authors whose books they want to acquire. Either by letting authors opt-in and give a free copy of their books to IA (a lot of authors do have options for this for underfunded libraries or readers who can't afford their work), or by the IA reaching out themselves and asking permission to upload copies of the work.

That wouldn't cover the cost or loss of sales incurred by having a free copy available, but it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement wherein IA can promote authors (like this? buy your own copy!) and authors supporting IA (can't buy this? IA has a copy you can borrow!).

When asked about something like this the IA has, as of my last contact with them, refused at every turn. They argue that they have the right to the work because they found a copy on the internet and that their mandate to store all data (while being privately held and adhering to no known copyright laws) gives them the right to the author's work.

It does not, in turn, give the author access to the IA's bank account or the IA coder's fridge so the authors can eat.

In a capitalist society where food and shelter are only provided in exchange for work, taking someone's work without returning any way for them to obtain food or shelter is pure evil. It's theft and wage theft.

Will the IA change their procedures and be artist/author-friendly? Maybe.

If they don't, like the Library of Alexandria, it won't actually be a huge loss. There are other libraries doing this exact same thing across the world, and doing it in a way that doesn't hurt the creators of the work you enjoy.

if the significance of the internet archive being threatened has been lost on anyone, maybe these quick comparisons will put it into perspective…

Banning the Internet Archive would be the equivalent of burning the Library of Alexandria hundreds of times…

[lumensuperbis]

do you have any recommendations on where to get free/inexpensive audio books? my nephew has dyslexia and can't really afford to buy them.

sorry, i can’t focus on audio books so i don’t really know a lot about them. i know that a lot of times the free/cheap ebooks i get  on amazon will have a thing under them when you buy that is like ‘add audible narration for $2-4′ depending on the book so that might be something to check out. i’m not sure if it’s like a legit audiobook or just a transcription of the book that’s going to be read in an awkward robot voice though. 

[charlottewinslow]

I wish you had a free workout and meal plan, just a small one. So those who can't afford to buy an ebook because money is tight can still have something to follow :/

I wish I could babe f*ck capitalism 😩 ya girl gotta make a living lol!! I do have free fitness videos on my youtube channel though, I give out a lot of general but good tips, and I even have a follow along Yoga Routine video :) xx - 

http://youtube.com/charlottewinslow

If you’re tight on money, right now the ebooks are on sale for only $15.00 each btw! -

http://charlottewinslow.com

Here’s also a way you can make money for my ebooks :) - 

http://www.charlottewinslow.com/how-to-make--for-my-ebooks.html

Hope this helps, love u guys!! xo 

[walks-the-ages]

This is why I plan that any books I manage to write, the ebook edition will be completely free with a donation link at the end of the book for anyone who liked it enough to toss a few cents or dollars my way, and links to where you can buy official physical copies from me if you want a physical copy.

I also plan on immediately donating at least one or more physical copies to the Internet Archive's lending library, and will probably also directly upload the free ebook version there myself.

People who are poor or in other countries deserve to be able to read even if they can't afford it, let alone the sky high cost of importing physical books.

Especially the books I plan on writing that are directly anti-capitalist themed dystopias, it wouldn't be very anti-capitalist of me to lock my writing behind a paywall while writing a narrative about the horrors of capitalism and how great it is to have free access to literature and information, now would it?

Also, people who are able to read a book in advance are a lot more likely to buy it; there's a reason people will check books out at libraries and then go on to buy the book themselves, sometimes in multiple formats!

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