Well, on the bright side we have that, if I can finish a first draft within a reasonable amount of time, it will probably do nicely as a secondary project. That is something I’ve been struggling for a while, as I like to write one book while I review or translate another, but all of a sudden I had found myself with three projects in the ‘to write’ category, and none in the ‘to review’ one (as for the ‘to translate’ thing, I admit that I find both Soulless and Citlalli a little too daunting).

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What happened was that while I was working on the interior layout of Citlalli and the Shards of Light I decided to go for a different font and a bit more space between the lines than the one I had used in book one (in fact I decided to go for what was basically the same layout I had used for Laira). The obsessive in me wasn’t particularly happy at the thought that I was going to wind up with two different layouts in two books that were part of the same series, so I decided to update the layout of the first book while I was at it… and then I was made aware of the  fact that not only was there a fee for updating the files of a book that had been signed up for CreateSpace’s expanded distribution package, but also that if the page count changed by more than 10% I was going to need different new ISBN anyway (and seeing how that page count was going to jump from something like 372 to 436, that was definitely me). That was not a happy thought, and then the situation was compounded by the fact that I was going to have to increase the price of Citlalli on the Edge of the Wind from $17.95 to $19.95 just to keep the title commercially viable using the expanded distribution. Things were not looking good, and I was seriously considering the possibility of scraping the whole thing and just learning to live with those two different layout, but then I decided to turn CreateSpace’s update policy to my (and hopefully your) advantage.

What I decided to do was to leave the existing version available for external distribution only, and then to release the new one for sales via amazon, taking a slight hit in the royalties through that particular channel. That way I was able to  retain my original price point while avoiding an unnecessary fee… and then I decided to do the same thing for Soulless, just for the sake of consistency (I did say that this was my obsessive side showing through).

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the original version of both books is perfectly readable (in fact it is far more readable than the one that is to be found in a good chunk of books that are currently sitting on my shelves), and the text itself is identical in both instances.

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So what wonderful alternative majors does this article have in mind  as  being a far more sensible choice for these misinformed youths who dream of pursuing knowledge for the sake of knowledge, or who love beauty. Well, there is accounting, elementary  education, finance, business and healthcare administration.

Now, these are all fine majors if you are passionate about those fields, but while it is true that you have to choose a major with an eye on you professional future, there is more to life that dollars and cents, and pushing kids into fields they hate because it is more ‘sensible’ seems like a terrible idea to me.

Let’s face it, a budding philosopher who despises math would probably make a terrible accountant anyway.

Yes, the article makes a good point when it says that there are some fields that are saturated, and that there are some skills the marketplace doesn’t really value, but the thing it misses is that it’s not all about the marketplace, and the fact that there are some majors the marketplace doesn’t particularly value doesn’t mean that those majors have no value… and unfortunately this dismissive attitude towards most humanistic fields is not limited to this very mercantilistic article. We also see it in speech after speech by politicians, though those seem to be pushing mostly the STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering and math). Again, nothing wrong with encouraging kids to take an interest in these fields, but there is a difference from encouraging them to take an interest in something and discouraging them from taking an interest in something else… not to mention that a world full of engineers and accountants, but devoid of musicians, artists, writers and film-makers is one in which I wouldn’t want to live.

Of course, the good news is that that’s not likely to happen because there is one thing those accountants pushing accountancy, and to a lesser extent those politicians pushing the hard sciences, don’t seem to understand: some things are about passion, they cannot be reduced to a cost/benefit analysis. I can tell you from personal experience that writers write not so much because they want to but because they have to, and the same seems to be true of visual artists, musicians and film-makers. That’s why we are willing to put up with the dismal financial prospects, the mocking, the dismissive attitudes and the questions about our ‘real jobs’. Yes, we dream about making it big, that’s human nature, but in the end our dreams feed us in a way a more traditional job would not.

We may be perpetually broke (and I understand that that’s something no parent ever wants to see), we know there are sacrifices we are going to have to make, but we love what we do… and while I can understand someone being as passionate about science and even math as I am about words, I have a far more difficult time trying to imagine someone being that passionate about accounting.

As for the other choices touted by that article, there was one I found to be downright terrifying: elementary education. Let me be clear about it, I have nothing but respect for a passionate teacher, and I know what a difference such a teacher can make in a child’s life, but at the same time I realize that the passion must come from within… and the truth is that those choosing elementary education as a field because of its potential benefits are unlikely to have it. Just as a good teacher can be a wonderful influence on a child’s life,  a bad one can prove devastating.

There are plenty of paths to happiness, and many more paths to unhappiness. Yes, there are some things that can be described as necessities, but those are fewer than most people seem to think, and you’d be surprised by how happy you can be with less as long as you are true to yourself and you love what you are doing, so don’t be afraid to dream.

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Let me show you what I mean:

Now what do these twelve samples have in common?

The answer, believe it or not, is that they are all supposed to be the same size. Yes, you read that right, they are all supposed to be at 16 pt (or at least they were before they got turned into an image). In fact there are fonts that are both bigger and smaller than the ones I used in this example, but I figured that these would do to get my point across.

The thing is that if you want to get these to look more or less the same size for whatever reason you would have to make the following changes (here I picked four fonts, the first and last, plus two that are a common choice when it comes to a book’s interior layout):

So much for the reliability of that point size as a reference. This means that when you think about your book’s interior layout you should separate these two concepts, pick your typeface first, and then settle on a font size… and please remember that chances are that your book won’t be printed on full sized letter/A4/legal paper. That means that the old standard (dating back to the good old days of typewriters) that says that a page should be printed in a 12/14 point font and double spaced does not apply. In fact, if you are dealing with a work of fiction that is meant for an adult or even young adult audience, you may want to go with something like a 10/12 point font size (depending on your choice of typeface) with an interlineation of 1.2/1.3. If your target audience is under the age of 10/12 you may want to increase that font size a little (one or two points per year should do).

Okay, I know this one came out of the blue, but I figured this was one that maybe would spare someone some headaches.

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Oh, and did I mention that I’m already hard at work in two or three projects that will hopefully be released next year? (and here I had thought that once this batch was done I’d be able to sleep for a month!)

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Yes, I know, I should just paint them every five years or so and forget about it, but I figured I might just as well ask if someone had a better idea. Bonus points for mold resistance (as I have mentioned more than once, I live pretty close to a river, the house gets flooded on a regular basis,  and humidity  usually ranges between 70 and 100%… though sometimes it feels like it’s even higher than that) and for an idea that can accommodate some artwork.

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Yes, I still feel that if you don’t know what you are getting into, have never had anything to do with the publishing business before, and you want to have the comfort of knowing that there is someone in charge you can talk to, who will listen to your concerns, know your name, take care of the details, and who will actually be in a position to help you out if you run into trouble,  you may well be better off with a well-established, small to mid sized publisher that charges a reasonable fee, even if the they can’t match what CreateSpace  has to offer in terms of royalties. Of course, the key words in that statement are ‘well-established’ and ‘reasonable fee’ because this is one field in which there are way too many scam artists. In fact I would go so far as to say that this is one instance in which the belief that ‘you get what you pay for’ will probably come back to bite you. Remember that if your setup fee is more than five hundred times your royalties per copy sold via external channels chances are seriously against you ever breaking even.

Anyway, and getting back to the subject of CreateSpace,  I have to say that, in addition to the fact that you don’t get as much support as you would with a (good) smaller outfit,  I also remain convinced that the issues with CreateSpace‘s TOS (namely the fact that they reserve the right to make any changes they see fit) are a problem. In spite of that, at least for experienced authors who can supply their own cover and their own interior layout (and who are not above playing a round or two of contractual Russian roulette), they offer what is by far the best deal out there. They provide a very efficient service, and a finished product that has a reasonable quality (thought there may be some minor issues with curling covers under certain condition, and with the printing of interior images).  I can also say that, for the most part, the system works as advertised.

BTW, while I mentioned above that a personalized customer support is one of the big advantages of a more traditional publisher, that doesn’t mean that you have no recourse when dealing with CreateSpace. Their customer support is pretty reliable (for the most part), and they will (usually) do their best to help you if you run into trouble, so you are not entirely on your own. It’s just that you don’t have a specific contact you can address your concerns to, and that precisely because they have a such a large staff, you never know what you are going to get.

And finally, in the comparison I gave CreateSpace three stars out of four, but that was based on how they compared to other the other publishers, and it did include their layout and cover design packages, which may have distorted things a bit. If I were to evaluate CreateSpace based only the company’s own merits, without the design extras, and using a one to five scale, I would probably give it four stars for experienced authors, and three for newbies who are at least somewhat familiar with the basics of the publishing business.

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The truth is that I am currently busy working behind the scenes (the new books should be available in about a month, though I don’t have a specific date), plus I am also working on an update to the POD comparison, and on a few other things. Seeing how I still haven’t figured out how to fit twenty-eight hours in a twenty-four hour day something had to give, and unfortunately that something turned out to be the regular blog updates, as demonstrated by the fact that it had been two weeks since I had posted anything.

I’m still reading, I’m still dismayed whenever I read the news… and I am also busy writing. Hopefully in June things will finally be back to normal.

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An easy way to prevent this from happening is to take a pair of long shoelaces, secure the middle of one of these to one the rings, criss-cross them as you wrap it tightly down the arm, and then tie the ends together. Repeat the process with the second shoelace on the other end of your hammock. That’s it. Now all you have to do is push that shoelace up when your hammock goes up, and pull it down when you take it down. This is not the prettiest of solutions, but it works and requires no particular skill.

If you  are worried about the aesthetic aspect of things, and you (or someone you know) can crochet,  then making a fancier version of this thing is pretty straight forward (believe me, crocheting is not my thing, and I couldn’t write a description of how I did it even if I tried, but it took me less than an hour make one of these arm-guards).

The shoelace version (okay, so I used a bit of sting), the crochet version pulled down and the crochet version pushed up side by side

Close-up of the crochet arm-guard before installing.

For quick access to my tips and tricks to make your hammock life easier click here.

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I’ll try to post something about what I’m reading in the next couple of days, but right now I just want to SLEEEEEEPP! (not likely to happen though, not seeing how it’s the middle of the morning and the big lightbulb in the sky doesn’t exactly have an on and off switch).

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As far as I am concerned there is a pretty big difference between connecting over books with other readers via a relatively small, independent network, and opening my reading nook to a large corporation. To me that’s a game-changer… and on top of that I have to admit that my experiences dealing with amazon properties have been decidedly mixed. As a customer I admit they are extremely effective, as a writer my experiences with CreateSpace have been great, but when it comes to their AuthorCentral, the property that most resembles goodreads itself, my experience was a total nightmare, so much so that I decided to end my affiliation with that service… only to be told that I was not allowed to do that, that once I had signed up, so I was basically screwed. It is that experience, that inability to terminate my affiliation with their program, that now makes me so wary of continuing my affiliation with goodreads.

So what am I going to do? The truth is that I’m not sure. For now I guess I’m going to be moving mostly to lurker mode, I may also choose to delete some of my personal information, not that that’s going to do me much good at this stage, and I will abandon the reading challenge. Yes, I will go on reading, and I would love to be able to keep sharing my thoughts on what I read, but I would much rather do this without the mighty amazon looking over my shoulder, so any comments I write will be now restricted to my own blog, where I can be certain I will remain in control of my content.

Still, in spite of everything, and of the fact that I am mourning the death of the goodreads I used to love, I consider this a lesson learned: small private networks may seem like a great alternative to behemoths such as facebook, Google and company, but successful, small. independent networks are also attractive targets for takeovers by large, greedy corporations, and that means that choosing to participate in a small network doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself suddenly in the clutches of a large one… whether you want to or not.

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UPDATE: I’ve identified the culprit, and unfortunately it’s WordPress’s very own Jetpack. I’ve added a privacy-protection plugin to block this ‘feature’… did I ever mention that I really don’t like being tracked?

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