Traditional publishing seems to be in a doom spiral at the moment, endlessly proclaiming the death of reading, book buying, lit fiction and indeed authors. Compare and contrast with the world of independent authors, where lots of us are making a decent (some a very good) living from publishing and selling our own books. See Alliance of Independent Author's data - indie authors earn more, made up more than half of Amazon's top 400 last year, indie is the first choice of younger authors. Oh, and we're having a load of fun doing it too! https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/facts/
As one of those desperate wannabe authors who's trying to get a literary agent, while forever laughing at the futility of it all, there's always that tiny hope that we'll be one of the happy few on whom the big publishers will take a punt. The next Rowling or Patterson will be out there somewhere, if they can throw enough darts to find them.
Makes sense, Portuguese meal times tend to be around 13.00 and 20.00, Spain 14.00 and 21.00… although arranging to meet friends for coffee around 23.00 can’t help either…
Yeah, sensitivity readers sure can suck, but so can authors. The quote: "Around the same time, in Canada, there was sonar confirmation of a lot of unmarked graves around former residential school sites."
First off, it was not "sonar" but ground penetrating radar (GPR, of course); it didn't "confirm" anything but - as per the words of the anthropologist GPR operator who did the work - "soil movements;" the search was not for "unmarked graves," which one can readily find in any church graveyard in the Canadian West, the search was for surreptitious graves. Oh, and by the way, not one body has been recovered in any of the alleged grave sites.
This has been well documented by several news organizations and other publications including Quillette, The National Post, and Bari Weiss's The Free Press.
I wrote about the weirdness of the Baby Reindeer TikTok and Twitter stalkers this week, as well as Zoe Williams’s article claiming 7m have been stalked, which seems wrong (but maybe it’s true given the relentless pursuit of the real stalker). I do think Gadd’s decision to use words from her actual tweets is… odd.
A comment in a forum for survivors yesterday: "My stalker is actively back after 8 years. He contacts me every year by email but I never respond. Strangers think it’s my fault. I have managed to start life over and built a support system since I left him. But being afraid he’s going to find me and finish what he started just sucks. I feel like no one believes you until it’s too late." I would be interested in knowing her story, even though it's outside the media spin-sphere. I would guess it would lead us to different conclusions about stalking in general than the ones expressed here, or apparently portrayed in the show.
This is a good follow up to the “no one buys books” piece
https://open.substack.com/pub/countercraft/p/yes-people-do-buy-books?r=1g4uc&utm_medium=ios
It sounds like the book publishing world is similar to musical theatre - people making bets and hoping they have a Hamilton on their hands.
Traditional publishing seems to be in a doom spiral at the moment, endlessly proclaiming the death of reading, book buying, lit fiction and indeed authors. Compare and contrast with the world of independent authors, where lots of us are making a decent (some a very good) living from publishing and selling our own books. See Alliance of Independent Author's data - indie authors earn more, made up more than half of Amazon's top 400 last year, indie is the first choice of younger authors. Oh, and we're having a load of fun doing it too! https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/facts/
That child's seagull impression is remarkable.
As one of those desperate wannabe authors who's trying to get a literary agent, while forever laughing at the futility of it all, there's always that tiny hope that we'll be one of the happy few on whom the big publishers will take a punt. The next Rowling or Patterson will be out there somewhere, if they can throw enough darts to find them.
Makes sense, Portuguese meal times tend to be around 13.00 and 20.00, Spain 14.00 and 21.00… although arranging to meet friends for coffee around 23.00 can’t help either…
Jacobin has never been pro identity politics! The authors they publish have viewed identity politics as a distraction, or just “luxurious suffering.”
Yeah, sensitivity readers sure can suck, but so can authors. The quote: "Around the same time, in Canada, there was sonar confirmation of a lot of unmarked graves around former residential school sites."
First off, it was not "sonar" but ground penetrating radar (GPR, of course); it didn't "confirm" anything but - as per the words of the anthropologist GPR operator who did the work - "soil movements;" the search was not for "unmarked graves," which one can readily find in any church graveyard in the Canadian West, the search was for surreptitious graves. Oh, and by the way, not one body has been recovered in any of the alleged grave sites.
This has been well documented by several news organizations and other publications including Quillette, The National Post, and Bari Weiss's The Free Press.
I wrote about the weirdness of the Baby Reindeer TikTok and Twitter stalkers this week, as well as Zoe Williams’s article claiming 7m have been stalked, which seems wrong (but maybe it’s true given the relentless pursuit of the real stalker). I do think Gadd’s decision to use words from her actual tweets is… odd.
A comment in a forum for survivors yesterday: "My stalker is actively back after 8 years. He contacts me every year by email but I never respond. Strangers think it’s my fault. I have managed to start life over and built a support system since I left him. But being afraid he’s going to find me and finish what he started just sucks. I feel like no one believes you until it’s too late." I would be interested in knowing her story, even though it's outside the media spin-sphere. I would guess it would lead us to different conclusions about stalking in general than the ones expressed here, or apparently portrayed in the show.
I wasn't familiar with Edouard Louis, but that was an extraordinary read. Thanks so much for sharing it.
delightful!!
A pod of dolphins vs the GOP - bring it on!