Catch Up Blog: Amazon Acquires Goodreads

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Ileandra Young

WAH! I missed a post. Even in the most knackering of days after no sleep whatsoever when my boys were born I didn’t miss a post. Now…? Oh well. It had to happen eventually I suppose.

Anyway, I was going to talk about this tomorrow, but I guess I can pop it up now and talk about something different tomorrow. Easy. 🙂

Amazon logoJust when I was congratulating myself on keeping up with the news I found this little gem lurking in the back of the press releases section. Well… it wasn’t really lurking but I wouldn’t have found it without already being there.

Amazon has acquired Goodreads.

For those of you who don’t know, Goodreads is a fabulous forum of readers and writers all talking about what they love. Books. They review, share, discuss and hotly debate the merits, pitfalls and cheery memories of their favourite books.

I log in there once a week to sniff out the ripples of conversation with regards to books I’m reading or plan to read. I like to get an idea of the lay of the land, though reviews seldom influence my choices any more. It’s also a great place to hook up with fellow book lovers across the world and promote your own works. When I finally have a release of my own to rave about, you’ll be sure I’ll head there.

So what’s so the problem? Any of you familiar with this blog and my style are, by now, probably already aware of the fact that I’m unhappy. You’re certainly right. I am unhappy. Why?

http://openclipart.org/detail/9160/fast-food-desserts-pies-by-gerald_gBecause Amazon has enough. Enough already, damnit! Do they really need to jam whatever fingers they have left into any more pies? Can’t they leave something alone for other people to enjoy? Can’t they leave one scrap of the book writing, promoting, publishing process to someone else? Apparently not.

At the end of the day, Amazon is rather like methane gas. You hate the smell of it, you’d rather it wasn’t around, but in truth, it’s bloody useful at times, so you grudgingly use it. There are few better substitutes, right? I’ll readily admit; if there is something I want to buy online, there are three places I look first; Amazon, Play.com and Ebay. Usually in that order. But every time I do it a little piece of me dies when I realise I’m feeding more and more money into the guzzling maw of a company on the verge monopolising everything.

What can I do about it on my own? Very little (other than shop elsewhere and it’s not like they’ll miss me. And I’ll just end up paying through the nose at other places that can’t afford to keep their prices low because they just don’t have the customer base).

What I can do, is piss and moan about it and write a jerky, irritated blog post.

Ah… done.

Posted in Ileandra's Posts, News, Procrastination | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Launch of Kindle Worlds

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Ileandra Young

Amazon has found another way to rape the casual reader/writer for more money to stuff into their bulging pockets! Don’t believe me, take a look at this press release.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that there is now another way for writers to get paid for their work. Fan fiction is no less of an art form (though the whole of my thoughts in that regard will need a separate post) and the desire to be paid for it is not unusual. Nor should it be considered such. But fan fiction, to my memory, has always been posted to blogs, dedicated sites and forums where it could be enjoyed without lining some massive giant’s pockets.

Following this announcement, all those fan fiction writers wanting to get paid for their work will be able to do so. A measly 35%. And, if you’re really unlucky and writing in that dead bracket between 5,000 and 10,000 words you’ll get 20%.

I used to write fan fiction. I posted it to places like FanFiction.net and FictionPress.net so I could share it with others. That’s all I ever wanted to do because those characters and those worlds, amazing as they were, weren’t mine. I didn’t want to profit from someone else’s hard work and I didn’t think anybody else should. Besides, if I was going to get recognition and pay for something, I wanted it to be my own. I don’t think that’s unusual.

I’m so torn over this new development.

In recent months I’ve become more and more of a cynic and these days all I can see is companies like Amazon, Google and PayPal clutching at the few lose pound notes floating around with superglue on their grubby little fingers. They catch them all and leave nothing behind for the rest of us who actually need to be able to put food in our mouths and roofs over our heads. When we do make a little money, they chase us down, pin us to the floor and steal it like playground bullies.

On the other hand, isn’t it lovely that there are more opportunities springing up to be paid for the hard work that goes into writing?

On the other hand, hasn’t someone (ahem E. L. James) already been paid significant amounts for fan fiction, proving that this is an idea late in coming?

On the other hand why should somebody with no time, desire (skill?) to come up with their own characters and worlds, get paid for ripping off someone else’s?

How many hands do I have, anyway? O.o

Not enough for this post, that much is plain. What do you guys think? Will you be hopping on board the Amazon Express, next stop Kindle Worlds? What do you think about fan fiction anyway? Should somebody be paid for using someone else’s ideas, even if they have been given permission?

Posted in Ileandra's Posts, News, Procrastination | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

#15kinMay Third Update

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Ileandra Young

15kinmay LogoWhile the beginning of this week started really well it went downhill towards the end. I should focus on the things that went well rather than beating myself up about perceived lack of progress, but this challenge is proving harder than I thought.

This time last week I was playing catch up. Today I’m still not quite where I ‘should’ be if I were keeping up to my daily word counts, but I’m further along than I thought I would be, which is handy.

As of today, but chart looks like this:15k In May Wordcount

Funky thermometer kindly supplied by Fundraiser Insight

This includes two short stories I wrote in the middle of last week and some flash fiction I hammered together. Since then I’ve been pretty focused on editing (making it very difficult to record new words) but since I’m getting items submitted to various places I can’t really complain.

This week I imagine that I’ll struggle to keep up the pace. I still feel rather poorly and I have to give more attention to The Write Feeling to get some work in. I also have more family visiting this week (woop!) so it’s going to be another busy one.

Meanwhile, the rest of the 15k crowd are still quietly plugging away. Why not hop over to them to see how they’re getting on?
Alison Wells
Dee Kirkby
Lisa Redmond
Lynne Collins
Maria Smith
Rinelle Grey
Ruth Livingstone
Wayne Kelly

Posted in #15KinMay2013, Ileandra's Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Doing Nothing

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Ileandra Young

I’m doing nothing. Actually… I’m supposed to be doing nothing because I’m in. In fact I’m doing a hell of a lot.

I’ve spent most of the day in bed drifting in and out of sleep, not eating and sipping stale water. Going up and down the stairs was a bit of a mission, so I’ve kept that to a minimum too. Call this the ultimate pyjama day.

Doing nothing in the hopes of speeding up my recovery.

And I’ve felt guilty all day! I’ve barely spent any time with Dave or the boys and I’ve not done any of the odd jobs I would normally do on a weekend. I just about managed to wash up after dinner. The logical part of me states that to feel guilt about this is foolish; I’m ill and need to rest. But doing nothing has become such a terrible thing that I can hardly stand it.

But the value of doing nothing shouldn’t be over looked. Because – and this is the really interesting thing – I’m not really doing nothing. I’m thinking. I’m planning. I’m organising. I’m recovering. Even if I’m not washing clothes, buying groceries, cleaning up or playing with my boys, my brain is working as hard as ever it was.

Today, despite doing nothing I have decided on a plan of action for SORB. I have flesh out some of the ideas from the critique I received yesterday on short story I plan to enter into a competition in June. I have also made myself feel somewhat better by catching up on sleep and resting my body. Doing nothing is more valuable than I ever realised. Giving myself that time and space, by ignoring all those other things I usually do has made future activities potentially easier.

What about you? Do you find yourself freaking out at the idea of doing nothing? How often do you stop to do exactly that… nothing?

Posted in Ileandra's Posts, Real Life Chatter | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Do You Trust Online Reviews?

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Ileandra Young

Following my mini moan about Freelancer the other day I decided that I’d look into how Freelancer has worked out for others. I trawled through review after review and was stunned to find that many people are of the opinion that the site and everything about it is a terrible, terrible scam. They say that it is impossible to get your money once you’ve earned it and that Freelancer employs people to make fake profiles and post jobs, encouraging freelancers to bid. And of course, with the free subscription you only have so many bids a month, so very soon you have to take a paid subscription to give you more bids in an attempt to find work.

Needless to say this was all very upsetting. In all my searching I have found only two positive reviews about the site and the way it function. The rest is very damning. My own experience is such that I’m not best happy with it at the moment. Even as a new freelancer I had hoped to find some work, but even the job I was invited to bid for by the host, went to another freelancer. I assume it did anyway; all communication with the chap involved stopped dead as soon as I placed my bid and provided my ‘100 word sample’ to ‘show off my skills.’ I did think it was a bit peculiar that the test was an article when the job was a proofreading role, but I thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt.

That, however, is neither here nor there. The point of this post is to tell you that reviews are difficult to trust in any forum. Folk are far more vocal about things they don’t like, which is why it is so easy to find negative reviews about something. However it has recently become the trend for businesses (and some authors) to pay people to write reviews for them and leave them to be found scattered across the internet. When I was searching the internet for a good place to host The Write Feeling, I found lots of glowing reviews about every single host company. However I had to visit blogs to get what I felt was a real and true account of what people had actually experienced. After all, no business is going to post negative testimonials about themselves on the internet are they? My testimonials are from people I’ve provided a service who were happy with the end result. Why would I ask for a testimonial from someone who wasn’t happy (not that such a thing has happened – so far)?

Since everybody depends on word of mouth these days, reviews should be incredibly helpful. And yet, these days, I find that I trust them less and less because everyone, from those posting them, to those writing them seems to have an agenda. To that end, how do you know whether a review, positive or negative is true? How do you guys handle it? When picking a new service what helps you make the decision about who to go for?

Posted in Ileandra's Posts, Real Life Chatter, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments