Friday, March 31, 2023

End of March, the Streetvendor's Guide

Pardon me as I interrupt this series.  It's the end of March and I promised a 5-page preview of the Streetvendor's Guide at this time.  If the link doesn't work, you can find the preview on my Patreon page.

It's been a helluva month. I roared through March, finishing up the livestock and the 20 pages related to foodstuffs, as well as nearly six pages of fish, plus all the research for these things and other details written besides ... and I have, I confess, finally hit my wall.  It was threatening as of two weeks ago and then I had that experience where I deleted my own work ...

And yeah, it's felt like I'm not superhuman and I've needed a vacation.  The book is not the only thing on my agenda.

I've reached the stage in the creative process where it's necessary to remind myself that it's not important how quickly I complete the work, nor does it matter what other people are going to think about it.  Those are things that I can deal with later.  For the present, I know, the only thing that matters is that I keep moving forward, at whatever pace I need to at this moment.  I've got a good start under me; the response has been completely positive.  The work, I think, is good; the research has been enlightening.  The only burden on my imagination at this point is the sheer scope of the thing.  I've completed 60 pages, 56,000 words, and I can see the remaining text to write being three or four times that.

Jeebus.

I'm going to take a few moments and address a question that's been asked enough that it needs a public reply.  No, I'm not going to provide a pdf version of the book.  I understand the benefit of such a thing: that it's readable on all platforms, that it's uniform, that it can be read easily on a phone, for those who don't own a laptop or a computer.  But understand ... the primary benefit that a pdf has for the reader is that it's sharable.  That is of zero benefit to the writer and publisher.  For corporations with great big pockets, they can afford to lose some business online for the sake of advertising, a "loss leader," as it were, but here's the thing.  I don't have deep pockets.  I don't have a lot of other products that this one work will help sell.  I can't cash in on a smash of publicity, except in book sales ... and there will be no meaningful book sales if I produce an official pdf.

Now, some diligent thief can easily produce a pdf from the physical book, if they wish to buy it, and put that pdf online ... but the thing with that is, it's not "official."  An "official" copy says, effectively, please give this to all your friends and take money out of my pocket; after all, I've only struggled to write the thing, I don't deserve to earn more than peanuts for it.

Whereas a bootleg copy says, I've decided to fuck the artist out of some money because I'm a prick, especially since I'm getting nothing out of this effort except some unearned cred.  Here's a free copy of the guy's book.

With the second one, users tend to feel, ah, guilty.  And if they like the pdf, they tend to think, I ought to give that artist a little money and buy his book, since I do in fact like it.  But with the first one, that guilt goes away.

And sorry, I want that guilt.  I want to be able to impress people with the heavy volume I'm writing.  I don't want them to easily get a copy online; I want them to pay for the privilege of reading the product of my exhaustion, misery, sweat and nagging creative burnout.

I don't mind that people ask.  I do think, though, that if you could possibly forego wanting to possess the book in a manner that's convenient for you, you could pause and consider for a moment if that manner is convenient for the author.

Please be well, all.


3 comments:

  1. wrote a lengthy note, realized it was WAY to heavy on the ass-kissin' .... so I'll just leave a simple "thanks."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree and try to support writers and artists. But that comes with a big BUT. For new things absolutely I want to pay the artist, but for old things that have been out of print for 30 years, and I can only get second hand anyway(and for some reason I don't feel the need to get a print version) where the money is absolutely not going to the original artist or is going to some big corpo that owns the rights but didn't do any of the work, then I feel no guilt about pirating something. With a lot of out of print material collectors artificially drive up the prices so the only way for us poor plebians to see the material is through some bootleg pdf. Sorry not trying to be argumentative, just saying why I'm fine with sharing certain pdfs.

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  3. Actually, Lance, I agree with you completely.

    I recently saw this long interview with Cory Doctorow, the writer:

    https://youtu.be/vluAOGJPPoM

    In it, he talks at length about all the ways that various publishers and others screw the writer, musician and so on ... it's a good watch, but I found myself extremely unsettled by it, for reasons relating to time I've spent at Game Cons.

    Doctorow's clearly harping on issues that he feels very close to; it's his business after all. However, this is a man who, if he wants, can show up to any science convention he chooses, probably without notice, and be given a table where he can easily sign his name for a long, long line of fans for $5 or $10 a crack. He can literally, at will, make around $300 an hour for as long as he cares to. If he only keeps three-quarters of that money, because he has to give some to the venue, he can make $1,800 a day, $5,400 a weekend ... pretty much at will. It just means he has to "write," which is what he does for a living. More than $10,000 at $10 a pop.

    If I had that kind of option, I'd be in a position to release my work on a PDF. I could eat the difference in sales, since I could "make it up" with direct communication with my fans, while at the same time selling my physical book at the con itself, or having an associate do the selling (like my daughter, for example), as I chatted and wrote.

    When I was at the Toronto Fan Expo in 2014, R.A. Salvatore's table was in sight of mine. When he was there (which wasn't much, as he seemed only to be able to stand his fans for about 40 minutes at a time), the line was instant and piled up quickly. The sign with his name said right under his name that it was $10 a pop.

    This circumstance, of course, is NEVER mentioned when a famous writer or some other artist talks at length about getting "screwed" by the industry. I've heard many stories about writers who, finding out their house needed a complete foundation repair, turned to their spouse with the words, "Well, dear, I'm going to have to take that speaking engagement at Columbia," which would pay the cost. Fame has it's own personal benefits ... ones that I simply do not have, because I'm not worthy. As such, I have to oppose piracy, until it really doesn't affect me.

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