This week's Quote:
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain
FRAUD!
Don't you just love it when someone screws you around and tries getting away with it?
A few months ago you heard about how McAfee . the antivirus company - asked everyone to upload their latest version, which wasn't compatible with windows 7 and caused complete havoc. Worse yet, there was no way to contact them except through the computer, which would be rendered inoperable because of their screwup. On top of that (if you can really top it) McAfee knew of the problem but continued to tell people in automatic updates that they needed the new screwed up version.
I don't know if McAfee fixed the issue or not, as I got so fed up with them I uninstalled it and now use a different antivirus.
This new post is about the frequent ebay fraud that's committed by unscrupulous sellers who get away with selling crap merchandise and slip under the radar when their items stop working soon afterward. Some have learned the hard way that what they bought is worth about as much as the empty claims their sellers make.
Want an example? Check out this guy:
http://myworld.ebay.ca/huoutlet?ssPageName=ADME:X:CEM:CA:1181
His feedback looks impressive!
And yet, after selling me 12 watches that I was to give away to students here in Central America who were graduating, I found out one month later that they stop working fast. Worse yet, taking advantage of the 2 month return Ebay has as a guarentee on some of the items, he promised to credit me for seven, had me ship them back at my expense, and then stretched out the repayment (it was 'in process') until it passed Ebay's two month period. Now, he doesn't bother replying.
How's that for a lesson learned?! When you buy stuff on ebay, watch out for scammers like this! I've bought tons of great stuff on ebay from great sellers. Unfortunately, he's not one of them.
Don't you just love it when someone screws you around and tries getting away with it?
A few months ago you heard about how McAfee . the antivirus company - asked everyone to upload their latest version, which wasn't compatible with windows 7 and caused complete havoc. Worse yet, there was no way to contact them except through the computer, which would be rendered inoperable because of their screwup. On top of that (if you can really top it) McAfee knew of the problem but continued to tell people in automatic updates that they needed the new screwed up version.
I don't know if McAfee fixed the issue or not, as I got so fed up with them I uninstalled it and now use a different antivirus.
This new post is about the frequent ebay fraud that's committed by unscrupulous sellers who get away with selling crap merchandise and slip under the radar when their items stop working soon afterward. Some have learned the hard way that what they bought is worth about as much as the empty claims their sellers make.
Want an example? Check out this guy:
http://myworld.ebay.ca/huoutlet?ssPageName=ADME:X:CEM:CA:1181
His feedback looks impressive!
And yet, after selling me 12 watches that I was to give away to students here in Central America who were graduating, I found out one month later that they stop working fast. Worse yet, taking advantage of the 2 month return Ebay has as a guarentee on some of the items, he promised to credit me for seven, had me ship them back at my expense, and then stretched out the repayment (it was 'in process') until it passed Ebay's two month period. Now, he doesn't bother replying.
How's that for a lesson learned?! When you buy stuff on ebay, watch out for scammers like this! I've bought tons of great stuff on ebay from great sellers. Unfortunately, he's not one of them.
On the issue of self publishing...
Caveat: I am no expert. But having perused writers' forums actively for 8 months as I struggled to get my work known ( http://pauldayton.blogspot.com/ ) I've learned a lot as to why now is possibly the hardest time ever to get anything published, and why more and more people are going the new self pub'd or ebook route.
The economy has severely affected the publishing industry. Yes, you still see book stores busy with customers (who are purchasing much more carefully now, by the way), and although sales are down, the problem isn't really the consumer.
The issue is that every major organization is cutting down. Less T.V. shows, shorter seasons, fewer writers, fewer journalists, fewer, fewer, fewer. The result is of course a huge group of jobless, professional writers, journalists, T.V. show writers and so on, sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. Many of them turn to what they do best and write the novel that has been sitting in their heads for x number of years but never had time to write, until now.
Worse yet, the average Joe/Jane Doe reader is also laid off, and as they get pogey, suddenly get the idea that they can write too, and wouldn't it be a great idea to get some extra income?
Result - slushpiles are now huge. Great MSs get missed because there simply isn't the time or the manpower to go through them all. I've found about half the pub houses haven't sent me a reply to my query, and of those that did, it's the standard reply that has me guessing they haven't even read the first page of my MS.
What IS happening at pub houses:
They stick with known, successful writers, which are less of a gamble. They stick with known formulas - is your book over 100,000 words? Does it have vampires? Are you unpublished?... REJECTED
However,
Publishing an ebook is getting easier and easier, even for major online retailers such as Barnes and Noble.
This also comes with a caveat. Because publishing an ebook is now so easy, the list of crappy ebooks out there is huge and growing. So, an author has two choices in this matter:
Send out queries AFTER your MS is as good as it will ever be, or
publish it in ebook format, and ADVERTISE, PROMOTE, BEG AND PLEAD.
Tough, isn't it?
Caveat: I am no expert. But having perused writers' forums actively for 8 months as I struggled to get my work known ( http://pauldayton.blogspot.com/ ) I've learned a lot as to why now is possibly the hardest time ever to get anything published, and why more and more people are going the new self pub'd or ebook route.
The economy has severely affected the publishing industry. Yes, you still see book stores busy with customers (who are purchasing much more carefully now, by the way), and although sales are down, the problem isn't really the consumer.
The issue is that every major organization is cutting down. Less T.V. shows, shorter seasons, fewer writers, fewer journalists, fewer, fewer, fewer. The result is of course a huge group of jobless, professional writers, journalists, T.V. show writers and so on, sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. Many of them turn to what they do best and write the novel that has been sitting in their heads for x number of years but never had time to write, until now.
Worse yet, the average Joe/Jane Doe reader is also laid off, and as they get pogey, suddenly get the idea that they can write too, and wouldn't it be a great idea to get some extra income?
Result - slushpiles are now huge. Great MSs get missed because there simply isn't the time or the manpower to go through them all. I've found about half the pub houses haven't sent me a reply to my query, and of those that did, it's the standard reply that has me guessing they haven't even read the first page of my MS.
What IS happening at pub houses:
They stick with known, successful writers, which are less of a gamble. They stick with known formulas - is your book over 100,000 words? Does it have vampires? Are you unpublished?... REJECTED
However,
Publishing an ebook is getting easier and easier, even for major online retailers such as Barnes and Noble.
This also comes with a caveat. Because publishing an ebook is now so easy, the list of crappy ebooks out there is huge and growing. So, an author has two choices in this matter:
Send out queries AFTER your MS is as good as it will ever be, or
publish it in ebook format, and ADVERTISE, PROMOTE, BEG AND PLEAD.
Tough, isn't it?
Great Science Fiction!
The Golden Age of Scifi is DEAD.
LONG LIVE THE GOLDEN AGE!
I grew up on Asimov. Asimov, Tolkien, Arthur C. Clark, swallowed up whole all of Doyle’s mysteries, Burroughs and his very populated Mars stories with horrendous endings, and let’s see...George Wells, Jules Verne, Fred Saberhagen, and many, many more. Who can forget Dune, or Foundation, or the robot series? Berserker machines sent out to exterminate all life down to the tiniest microbe? We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
And yet, where is classic, good old fashioned science fiction now? I’m not talking Buck Rogers and rayguns here, I’m talking about good, solid fiction with real science backing it. Scifi has mutated, morphed, evolved in some cases into something less than the sum of its parts. Why do I say this? Because, Science Fiction should be FICTION, with SCIENCE in it. Apparently, I’m not alone in this idea either. How else would the popularity of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate and other movies and shows be explained? Yet in books, although classic scifi can still be found, much of it now comes in the form of a heroin solidly planted in the future (scifi) carrying a sword and wielding some sort of fantastical power unexplained by science(fantasy). Worse yet, sometimes the sword (or whatever prop is used) is the power. This has become so popular today that no longer is there a section at your local book store labelled ‘Science Fiction,’ but instead, ‘Science Fiction/Fantasy’. This is weird. Why? Do you see ‘Murder mystery/Fantasy’? ‘Thriller/Fantasy’? ‘Comedy/Fantasy’?
We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
Are there two different groups of people – readers and watchers? What is your opinion?
As for me, available for your reading are two books I’ve written, based solidly on Science Fiction. You’ll find it solidly in the future, No magic swords anywhere, and solid science backing the fiction. Does this work? Well, Clark’s 2001 and Rama fiction had serious fiction with solid science, as did Asimov’s Foundation series, as did Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth (the book, which is fantastic, by the way), as did Saberhagen’s Beserkers, as did...
Although I’ve kept science to a minimum so as not to interfere with the story, here is an excerpt from my book “We’ve Seen the Enemy”: SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF
“The truth is, the ants stole it. They don’t have Einsteins or Jonathan Diazes.”
“But they have a lot of new stuff though,” Jack said. “Like that stealth craft we stole.” SF SF SF SF SF SF
“You’re right, but even that didn’t come from them, simply because they aren’t able to do it. Think of it this way. Think back to the discovery that most metals could be made transparent. When and how did that happen?”
Jack had to dig deep to remember the article from the teaching unit. “In 2010, a number of scientists expanded on the fact that glass is neither a solid nor a liquid.”
“Exactly! Regular glass, just like your drinking cup. And nobody could classify it. It was such a mystery!” Nan’mtek said as she clapped her hands. And yet, NASA did studies, applied the known information to metals and…
“Within 10 years we had our first continuously transparent piece of aluminum,” Jack finished off.
“Yes. And thirty years later?”
“We were able to turn various metals transparent with the flick of a toggle.”
What’s wrong with this science? Brief, and yet it brings realism to the actual story.
Reach me here, or at pauldayton_scifi (at) hotmail.comby Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
Search Blurb: Sci-fi sci fi scifi Science classic aliens war Armageddon interstellar space craft space ships Paul Dayton e-book ebook We’ve Seen the Enemy Paul Dayton Scifi ireadiwrite ibookstore mobipocket Sony Smashwords Amazon Barnes and Noble science fiction scifi classic scifi sci-fi thriller future We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
LONG LIVE THE GOLDEN AGE!
I grew up on Asimov. Asimov, Tolkien, Arthur C. Clark, swallowed up whole all of Doyle’s mysteries, Burroughs and his very populated Mars stories with horrendous endings, and let’s see...George Wells, Jules Verne, Fred Saberhagen, and many, many more. Who can forget Dune, or Foundation, or the robot series? Berserker machines sent out to exterminate all life down to the tiniest microbe? We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
And yet, where is classic, good old fashioned science fiction now? I’m not talking Buck Rogers and rayguns here, I’m talking about good, solid fiction with real science backing it. Scifi has mutated, morphed, evolved in some cases into something less than the sum of its parts. Why do I say this? Because, Science Fiction should be FICTION, with SCIENCE in it. Apparently, I’m not alone in this idea either. How else would the popularity of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate and other movies and shows be explained? Yet in books, although classic scifi can still be found, much of it now comes in the form of a heroin solidly planted in the future (scifi) carrying a sword and wielding some sort of fantastical power unexplained by science(fantasy). Worse yet, sometimes the sword (or whatever prop is used) is the power. This has become so popular today that no longer is there a section at your local book store labelled ‘Science Fiction,’ but instead, ‘Science Fiction/Fantasy’. This is weird. Why? Do you see ‘Murder mystery/Fantasy’? ‘Thriller/Fantasy’? ‘Comedy/Fantasy’?
We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
Are there two different groups of people – readers and watchers? What is your opinion?
As for me, available for your reading are two books I’ve written, based solidly on Science Fiction. You’ll find it solidly in the future, No magic swords anywhere, and solid science backing the fiction. Does this work? Well, Clark’s 2001 and Rama fiction had serious fiction with solid science, as did Asimov’s Foundation series, as did Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth (the book, which is fantastic, by the way), as did Saberhagen’s Beserkers, as did...
Although I’ve kept science to a minimum so as not to interfere with the story, here is an excerpt from my book “We’ve Seen the Enemy”: SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF SF
“The truth is, the ants stole it. They don’t have Einsteins or Jonathan Diazes.”
“But they have a lot of new stuff though,” Jack said. “Like that stealth craft we stole.” SF SF SF SF SF SF
“You’re right, but even that didn’t come from them, simply because they aren’t able to do it. Think of it this way. Think back to the discovery that most metals could be made transparent. When and how did that happen?”
Jack had to dig deep to remember the article from the teaching unit. “In 2010, a number of scientists expanded on the fact that glass is neither a solid nor a liquid.”
“Exactly! Regular glass, just like your drinking cup. And nobody could classify it. It was such a mystery!” Nan’mtek said as she clapped her hands. And yet, NASA did studies, applied the known information to metals and…
“Within 10 years we had our first continuously transparent piece of aluminum,” Jack finished off.
“Yes. And thirty years later?”
“We were able to turn various metals transparent with the flick of a toggle.”
What’s wrong with this science? Brief, and yet it brings realism to the actual story.
Reach me here, or at pauldayton_scifi (at) hotmail.comby Paul Dayton We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
Search Blurb: Sci-fi sci fi scifi Science classic aliens war Armageddon interstellar space craft space ships Paul Dayton e-book ebook We’ve Seen the Enemy Paul Dayton Scifi ireadiwrite ibookstore mobipocket Sony Smashwords Amazon Barnes and Noble science fiction scifi classic scifi sci-fi thriller future We’ve Seen the Enemy by Paul Dayton
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