David Drazul's Blog, page 9

Proofreading Services Offered

In light of the recent deluge of spam I’ve received on this blog, I’m a bit reluctant to post this, but maybe Askimet’s spam filter will work.

I’m offering proofreading/light editing services to indie authors. In my reviews of novels over at the New Podler Review, I’ve had a habit of compiling lists of typos as I read. For the stories I liked, I’d send the author a list of the typos I found. For the self-edited works, it wasn’t surprising. After staring at a document for weeks or months, an a...

Cover Story

You can’t judge a book by its cover.

While that statement is generally true in the figurative sense, when it comes to actual books we readers really do judge books by their covers. Despite all the lofty talk about literature being a form of art, the hardcore truth is that it is primarily a form of entertainment. The publisher, whether corporate behemoth or indie author, has to convince people that reading the book will entertain them. How do they do that? By capturing your eye with an appealin...

Short Story Collection Coming This Fall

Ok, that’s it. I’m done wallowing in slush piles. I’m tired of researching zines to determine if they’re suitable candidates to send my stories to, then waiting weeks (the great ones respond in days; the decent ones within a month) or months for a reply, only to be told that my story isn’t what they’re looking for right now. Even acceptance isn’t a guarantee of publication as zines die if they don’t reach that critical mass of revenue vs. cost (I’ve had that happen to me). Life is too short t...

Remembering Ray Bradbury

Over at the

New Podler blog, Rob Steiner and I offer our thoughts about what Ray Bradbury meant to us. Plus there’s a link to NSFW fan video. =)

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DED

Magazine Collections Are Obsolete

I originally pitched this to Wired magazine two years ago. They passed so I figured that I'd put it here in the blog.

I got my first magazine subscription in 1980, when I was 12. It was to the now defunct Science 80. My parents got it for me at Christmas. I still remember the first issue I received. The front cover was of a helicopter flyover of Mt. St. Helens shortly after it erupted. Oh man, I was hooked on science after that.

I read every issue cover to cover. And I saved them all. When...

Short Story Status Update

With several short stories completed, it was time to return to the local writers workshop. This semester it was a small group of four, including the instructor and me. Two additional people were no shows, something I don't understand that. They're throwing their money away. It worked to my benefit as I was guaranteed to have my work read during each class. And the feedback from this group has been quite helpful.

Here are the results:

"The Recruiter" would appear to be unpublishable in its...

Kickstart Your Next Novel

While printers like Lulu and CreateSpace have made it possible to create physical copies of an author's work without money from the author (they recoup the costs of printing each book as it is sold), there's more to self-publishing than just printing a book.

Before indie authors send their manuscript off to the printer, they need to hire an editor to proofread their work and an illustrator to design a cover. As an indie book reviewer, I've seen my share of bad covers and poorly edited works...

Kyuss Lives!

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In the early 90′s, Kyuss arose from the California desert to help forge the foundation for what has become known as stoner rock. It's a crappy moniker but it stuck. Yeah, the music can be trippy and evoke spacey imagery but that's what makes it great! The style is a mixture of pscyhedelia and the doom metal sound of Black Sabbath. The music is bass heavy with a thick guitar sound. There are no caterwauling vocals, screeching guitar solos or spandex.

While compatible with grunge, it didn't...

15% Off Armistice Day This Month

The folks at Lulu have given me a 15% off coupon to share with you for the month of September. Here's the details from Lulu:

Enter coupon code AWESOME305 at checkout and receive 15% off your order. The maximum savings for this offer is $25. Sorry, but this offer is only valid in US Dollars and cannot be applied to previous orders. You can only use this code once per account, and unfortunately you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer expires on...

Borders Post-Mortem

You've all heard about the death of Borders. There have been some who were quick to accredit its demise to upheaval in the publishing industry, but it's actually amazing the company lasted as long as it did. Rather than there being one cause of death, Borders suffered from several mistakes over the last two decades.

Hijacked by Kmart. Kmart was struggling to properly manage Waldenbooks. After eight years of mediocrity, they bought Borders in 1992 hoping that the executives there could help...