Daniel R. Vertrees's Blog, page 3

Pamphlets: The Blogs of Colonial America

I am reading The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn. It is a in-depth look at the pamphlets published in the years leading up to, and during the Revolutionary War. It occurred to me that these writings were much the same as many of the Blogs of our time.

The pamphlets were polemics seeking to convince through the various writing techniques of the time, the opposing side. They were quite spirited, and pointed. The writers often used satire, however Bailyn points out that other styles were used as well.

In addition to satire there is an abundance of other devices: elusive irony and flat parody; extended allegory and direct vituperation; sarcasm, calculated and naive. (1)

There is a similarity within blogs, but there is also a dissimilarity.  The American Pamphleteers were not destructive in their language. To be sure there were personal representations that might have been libelous in today’s terms, but in general they were persuasive polemics.

Their pamphlets convey scorn, anger, and indignation; but rarely blind hate , rarely panic fear. They sought to convince their opponents, not, like the English pamphleteers of the eighteenth century, to annihilate them. (2)

I see scorn, anger, and indignation in the Blogs of our era, but many do contain blind hate, panic fear, and vitriolic rhetoric mean to divide, not unite.  Many of the political Blogs, “News” Blogs, and religious Blogs are merely vehicles for the vomit of blind hate, fear, and wished-for destruction.  It pits opposing philosophical views against one another with no attempt to truly understand the position of the other side.  Misrepresentation and falsehood have replaced satire and scorn.  Exclusionary language has replaced indignation. There is more the language of anarchy than revision for the improvement of our society in them.

Anarchy was not the language exhibited in the polemic writing of Revolutionary Americans.  The pamphlets were a vehicle to persuade, not destroy.

The communication of understanding, therefore, lay at the heart of the Revolutionary movement, and its great expressions, embodied in the best of the pamphlets, are consequently expository and explanatory: (3)

In the relatively recent history of the Colonials, the French and Russians had undergone revolution.  The lives of thousands of people were changed drastically.  The Patriots saw themselves as deliverers of Providence.  John Adams wrote in the year of the Stamp Act. “America was designed by Providence for the theatre on which man was to make his true figure, on which science, virtue, liberty, happiness, and glory were to exist in peace.” (4)

The primary goal of the American Revolution was to conserve political liberty, not the overthrow of government. The rhetoric was not destructive, but persuasive in nature.

What was essentially involved in the American Revolution was not the disruption of society , with all the fear, despair, and hatred that that entails, but the realization, the comprehension and fulfillment, of the inheritance of liberty and of what was taken to be America’s destiny in the context of world history. (5)

(1) Bailyn, Bernard (2012-11-01). THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Kindle Locations 311-312). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

(2) Bailyn, Bernard (2012-11-01). THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Kindle Locations 426-427). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

(3) Bailyn, Bernard (2012-11-01). THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION   (indle Locations 431-432). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

(4) Bailyn, Bernard (2012-11-01). THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION  Kindle Locations 452-453). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

(5) Bailyn, Bernard (2012-11-01). THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Kindle Locations 435-437). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

Independent book shop woes

What a difficult time Independent Booksellers have at this time. With the big box bookstores, Amazon, and other outlets, it is a real conundrum for them when deciding what to place on their shelves. I understand that completely and as an Indie author I sympathize with them.

However. I approached the Independent shop in the town near me and asked if, as a local author, I could place a few books with them on consignment and give them 20% of the profit.

They declined. If it is not from a publishing house of some repute, their customers will not buy it, they claimed.

Strange. In the past month I have sold 30 books from the NAPA auto parts store in Deary, a town a few miles away from me.

I suggest that if you are having trouble getting an outlet for your print books, try putting a stack of them on the counter of your local NAPA store. It may rev up your sales

The Pirating Issue

Like with the music industry, electronic publishing is the target of thieves.  The quest for free books has always been a problem, that is why there is an inscription on paperbacks to warn that if you are buying the book without a cover, you are helping with the theft of the book and taking the compensation from the hands of an author.

I am posting a link to Erika M Szabo’s recent entry the gives a good breakdown of what it costs, in effort and money to offer an independent book to the public.  Help authors, and musicians for that matter, put an end to piracy.

Piracy

Some Good Insights

Indie publishing is a liberating phenomenon for authors. No more trying to find a gatekeeper who just might like your work enough to hawk it to a publisher.  No more hoping that the agent is good enough to convince a publisher to give it a go.  No more long preparation time with editors, proofs, and demands from the publisher. Let the readers decide, by God! Let the market decide, the intelligence and discerning readers who all know the difference between fine literature, or at least entertaining stories, and pap.

Ahhh, the writer’s bliss.

But wait!

Now the Indie author must write, design, find an editor, re-write, copy edit, re-write, proof, re-write, format, oops – re-write, fit the cover, fit the cover, fit then cover (finally), proof, upload, fix price, decide distribution, and. . .

All of that along with the really important part: staring out the window for a few hours to see if the muse might be walking about your lawn.

So all of the above done we can sit back and let the money roll in.  Oh. Wait. I forgot marketing.  Another part of the process the publisher does that is now under the purview of  your independent-ness.

The link below is a bit out of date (anything that is more than twenty minutes old is out of date in the electronic universe) but gives great insights about the tricky and time consuming business of publicity for the indie author.

This is from the successful author J.A. Konrath:

Promoting Ebooks

 

 

First Shipment

   The First Shipment of John.  I thought I ordered enough, but they are all accounted for except one.  Time to re-order.  CreateSpace service is phenomenal. I placed the order Tuesday morning, 2/10.  It arrived today 2/13 – printed, shipped, delivered in 3.5 days.

Click Here or on picture to order a copy.

Print Version Live

The print version of John: The Making of a Long Hunter is live on CreateSpace Store.  It will be live along with the Kindle version on Amazon within a day or so.  Kindle version is live.

NOW! On to John2…

John: The Making of a Long Hunter

Proofing Proofed!

I finished going through the proof of the print edition.  In the morning the files get uploaded. Then, the gods willing, both Kindle edition and print edition will be live.

I will take it!

I checked my Amazon page for John: The making of a Long Hunter and saw I had a couple of reviews – five stars no less. One of them had the following tucked away in it:  “Feel like I’m reading a Louis Lamour story.”

I will take that –

That makes me want to dive back into the John-2 draft.  Have to set the scifi short story aside perhaps.

Something to think about

It used to be common practice in magazines and other publications for authors to offer serials. I was thinking about releasing a short story/novella as a serial on my blog; perhaps scene-by-scene, or in quarters.  My question for anyone following my blog:  would such a serial be of interest to you?

Here is a post from Roz Morris, that gives some interesting background on her experience.

Reading Revolutions

Updating the Kindle Version

I recently updated the content of the Kindle edition of John: The Making of a Long Hunter.  The revisions were not major, consisting of cleaning up some typos, etc.  If you wish to have the updated version, you can get that from Amazon.  Here is the process:

“2. If we determine the corrections made to your content are minor, we will not be able to notify all customers by email, but we will enable them to update the book’s content through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.

“If you have already purchased a copy of your own book, you do not need to purchase it again each time you make a revision correction. Simply click the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the page so we can manually send the updated content to your device.

“If you’d like to receive updates to your Kindle books that we have confirmed improvements were made in automatically, you can turn on automatic updates* for your books from the Manage Your Content and Devices page.    (From KDP Authors Site)

I hope this information is helpful to those of you who purchased the book.

Thank you for your support