Jo Robinson's Blog, page 79
August 23, 2014
The Joys of Editing
Originally posted on Christine Plouvier, Novelist:
Writing gurus repeatedly issue august pronouncements, such as, “Professional editing is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.” The perception seems to be that “Indie Author” means “Independently wealthy but foolishly stingy dilettante scribbler.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
The going rate for editing is 1½ to 2 cents (that’s $0.015 to $0.02 USD) per word, paid in advance. Depending on whose counter is used, IrishFirebrands clocks in at 196,131 to 199,230 words. Anyone can do the math, even without a calculator. The editing fee would be on top of three years of writing labor without pay (plus research expenses); and, mind you, this is for a service that bears the caveat that no guarantee or warranty will be made as to the subsequent merchantability of the manuscript.
This writer happens to be a pensioner who is living far below the poverty line, so hiring an editor would…
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August 22, 2014
As the Writer of the Story, Does it Honestly Grab You?
Originally posted on Have We Had Help?:
If it doesn’t, move on to the next one…
How many stories have you written during your lifetime – tens, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands? Over the past nineteen years I’ve written slightly over four thousand. Or to put it another way, thats over four thousand ideas for potential novels that I have come up with.
Each time I got an idea, I started typing like mad to get it down for posterity, even though in the vast majority of cases, I’m the only one who will ever read them. Because of my self imposed standards, out of that number I considered that only six were worthy of expansion into a novel, novella, and in one case, an anthology. As for the rest of them – the phrase ‘been there, done that’ pretty much covers them. The majority of those ideas seemed good at the time (usually at three or…
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Read Tuesday, 2014
Originally posted on ReadTuesday:
READ TUESDAY
It’s a Black Friday type of sales event, but just for books.
In 2014, Read Tuesday will fall on Tuesday, December 9.
It will be a great opportunity to buy and gift books at amazing sales prices.
It will also be a great marketing opportunity for authors and publishers.
The Read Tuesday website will feature the following deals on Tuesday, December 9, 2014:
Kindle Countdown Deals (in the US and in the UK).
Kindle freebies.
Smashwords discount codes (40% minimum).
Amazon MatchBook offers with FREE Kindle offers. Give the print edition as a gift, keep the free Kindle e-book for yourself. (With the MatchBook offers, the Kindle edition will only be free if the print edition is purchased from Amazon first.)
New releases available for preorder.
Free supplemental material for children’s, tween, and teen books, with the spirit of promoting literacy and improving reading fluency and comprehension.
Authors…
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South Africa: Police Officer Arrested For Rhino Poaching
Originally posted on Ann Novek--With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors:
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Environmental Investigation Agency
South Africa: Police Officer Arrested for Rhino Poaching
A police constable attached to Crime Prevention Unit at Hillbrow police station in Gauteng and eight other suspects were arrested on Sunday morning for attempted rhino poaching at a private game farm in Rakin’s Pass said police spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi.
He said three suspects, two Mozambicans and one Zimbabwean national, w…ere arrested inside the farm and were caught in the act while attempting to poach rhinos. Two others, a local resident and a Botswana woman were arrested outside the farm just after offloading the poaching trio.
Another three suspects, all from within South Africa, were arrested at Vaalwater where they waited for rhino horns with a getaway vehicle. A .375…
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Originally posted on 
August 19, 2014
Your Number One Fan
Us indie scribblers are a hardworking bunch. We write. We read. We (try) to learn marketing. As well as that we get to poke our mostly non-techie brains with big sticks to figure out how to produce books and cover art that can measure up – and then some if you want to be noticed in a good way – to traditionally published works. And those who really want to get there inevitably do I reckon. The nicest thing for me about indie websites is always when the formal author disappears now and then, and up pops a wonderfully relatable to rant, or recipe for homemade bunion buster. Writers are creative souls, and so often share other parts of their creativity too. I love it all, and those are the guys who catch my eye, make me eyeball their book blurb, and generally buy them. My TBR pile is epically proportioned, but I’ll get to read all of them eventually.
One of my favourite things about Stephen King’s books have always been his lengthy forwards. Talking about his life and thoughts, and mundane things. His website though these days is a little clinical – only talking about new and upcoming releases – so as a new reader you’d have to buy one of his books first to get sucked into that King magic. Ann Rice has a fan base that would follow her to death into battle with plastic swords if she asked, because she chats to her fans every day. Those vampire lovers didn’t bat an eye when she embraced religion and wrote a couple of very un-vampire books.
These are the writers I follow, and find fascinating. There is nothing at all interesting about seeing blog after blog extolling the virtues of a single book for months and months. I like the real looks into my favourite author’s lives much more. I’m a peeper – I admit it – but so are most of us after all. Anyway.
I’m getting less and less fall down, head in the sand tired day by day, and today I realised that I must be on the mend when I decided to make up my own new LOL, ROTFL type thingys to confuse people on Twitter, just off the cuff as I go along. I’m betting nobody will call me on these things. #QBA
PS. I will post a plastic bottle of my very own home-made, cranium exploding, but suspiciously addictive, chilli sauce to anyone who fancies procrastinating long enough to tell me what #QBA means.
Add your website to your Gravatar.com site . . . PLEASE!
This is a really good instruction – I never realised that my WordPress blog wasn’t connected.
Originally posted on ronovanwrites:
This is just a quick reminder to those who my have not given it a thought.
When I am wandering the blogs and see great comments I click on who left those comments. I don’t do that just to see a larger version of a pretty face, or to read a bio, I do it to find the website, their blog. I rarely find a blog and thus miss out on following that person.
So PLEASE:
go to your Gravatar.com,
your profile, then web sites
and add your blog site
You can even add your facebook and Twitter or whatever, but PLEASE add your blog site.
Thank you!
Ronovan
August 18, 2014
The Vanishing Faces of African Wildlife
Originally posted on Trópico de cáncer:
The Vanishing Faces of African Wildlife – Photographer Fred von Winckelmann and poet Andrew Mercer combine their significant talents to make us think about The Vanishing Faces Of African Wildlife – and the pressing need to preserve their safety and their habitat. We must insist that all endangered species and those who are suffering from human encroachment and poaching are protected.
It is never too late for human beings to become all that we are capable of being: kind – compassionate – forgiving – courageous – loving – moral – just and fair.
Now – 2014 – in this unique, beautiful and precious moment in time – we must stand up together and preserve our planet and the sentient beings with whom we are privileged to share it.
We have a moral responsibility to confront – power – corruption – money – ego and ignorance and to champion those who have…
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Over 6,500 Views!
Congrats to Janice, and an offer of interviews and reviews for scribblers.
Originally posted on jemsbooks:
Wow, my blog has now received more than 6,500 views!
Thank you all for visiting and viewing my humble blog. I can’t thank you enough!
I will be working hard to provide more interesting posts about talented indie authors, exciting book reviews, news about my own books and travels, writing and publishing and other things that tickle my fancy.
Please keep coming back for more, my friends! I appreciate your support. If you would like to be interviewed on my blog or have a book that needs a review please leave your name and info and I will get back to you as soon as possible. I do have many other books I will be reviewing but I promise to put you on a list. Interviews will work the same way.
Thank you for your continuing support! Blessings to all!
REMEMBER: READING GIVES YOU WINGS TO FLY!
Stock up on some…
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Mihran Kalaydjian with his Musical Band Mino Performing ” Habibi I Love You”
Originally posted on mihran Kalaydjian:
Mihran Kalaydjian with his Musical Band Mino Performing ” Habibi I Love You”
The song in English & Arabic Languages
- Special Guest PitBull
- Habibi I Love You
Music Arrangement – Mino & Ahmad
Produced By RedOne
La Jolla – San Diego
Special Guest – Pitbull
Members of the Musical Group:
Aram Kasabian – Lead Guitar
Sevan Manoukian – Drummer
Hratch Panossian – Bass
Samer Khoury – Violin
Tony Amer – Saxophone
Haim Cohen – KeyBoard
Albert Panikian – Trumpet
Nicole Del Sol – Percussion
Dana Debos – Trombone
Lyrics:
My love, I love you,
I need you,
My love sing for me and keep me with you,
My love, I love you,
I need you, my love,
Make me melt in the fire of your love,
The first time I saw you, I changed completely,
I felt something different, I didn’t know what was wrong with…
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