starting-today-you-are-a-writer

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Michael K Williams literally relapsed after years of being clean specifically because of the racial trauma caused by acting in Lovecraft country. He’s dead because people have an obsession with black trauma and that’s why I told y’all I wasn’t watching that vile shit.

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

I feel like book piracy has become so normalized now and its honestly so ugly and disappointing. Like I totally understand that some people in other countries have straight up no library access but for people in the US/UK?? saying that pubs are their 'free trial' without even trying to use a library??? I truly think younger readers using them don't realize how badly it could fuck an author over

i think book piracy comes down to people not understanding the differences between the film industry and the book industry. i don’t fully understand the film industry bc it’s not my focus, but i do know that pirating movies or shows is not going to directly impact the actors and/or the little people behind the movie or show. (if someone wants to elaborate on how, please do! i’m not really sure.)

however, pirating books is going to directly impact authors, not publishers or CEOs or any other bigwigs. an author is paid thus: they sign a contract for a certain amount of money, say, $100,000 for a two-book deal. that means that each book will be (technically) worth $50,000. depending on the contract, a check will be written for $25,000 upon the author turning in the version of the manuscript that the editor bought. that check will go to the author’s agent, who will take their 15% commission, which will be $3,750. then, the agent will send the remaining $21,250 to the author, minus taxes. with that same scenario, a check with the remaining $25,000 will be written upon the author turning in the final copy of the manuscript, aka the version that will go to the printer, and the process repeats (the check is sent to the agent, the agent takes their 15%, the author gets the remaining $21,250, minus taxes). 

that’s not where this story ends, though: in every contract is a thorough section detailing royalties, aka how much the author will receive per sale of a copy of their book in the book’s entire lifespan. if an agent is good, this will be one of their most important areas they focus on during negotiations. it’s imperative that people know that royalties can make or break an author’s career. it’s better to have larger royalties than a larger advance, bc an advance is only once, whereas royalties will continue as long as the book continues to sell (hardcover, paperback, audiobook, ebook, etc). the higher the author’s advance, the more pressure there is for the author to break even, aka for the author to make back the $50,000 spent on that first book. in a worst case scenario, if an author doesn’t earn back their advance (a big turn of phrase in publishing), they could have book 2 canceled, or they could possibly never be able to sell another book to a publisher again due to a poor sales record. in that case, it’s likely the author will have to re-debut under a pen name so the publisher backing them can treat them like a debut author. or, you’ll see an author’s first printings tank between book 1 and 2 or book 2 and 3 etc etc. for instance, Enchantee by Gita Trelease had a first hardcover printing of 175,000 copies (which is big for a debut!), while book 2 of that series, Everything That Burns, has a first hardcover printing of 75,000 copies. now, i can’t see the sales numbers, but it seems likely a lack of sales is the culprit here. 

so when people say that pirating books will directly influence whether or not your favorite author gets to publish more books, they really mean it. it won’t affect the publisher (who has massive protections in place) nearly as much as it will affect the author (who doesn’t have those same protections), and it could mean that your favorite author never gets to finish that series you love or can never publish another book again. in conclusion, don’t pirate books, kids. 

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

I will not shut up about Shang Chi

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Made this for all my writer peeps.

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

nothing will remind you that eating is good and okay like fantasy books will. “and that night in the valley they brought out the best plum cake and sweet cream, trout and turnips roasted over the fire, mead and goatsmilk and fresh cold water from the spring-“ and it’s like yeah dude you’re absolutely right. then sometimes it’s like “as he slept that night in the woods, he sorely missed the valley, where they brought out the best plum cake-“ and it’s like man that sucks i’ll have some seconds in his honor

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Friendly reminder that is rest is VITAL to your creativity. Yes, of course practice makes perfect, but without proper rest, your body and brain don’t function well. If you continue to push your writing, you run the risk of burn out and that’s something you may never fully recover from.

Give yourself and your creativity the rest you need in order to make your writing flow again :)

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

First Becca Meyers, who is a swimmer, had to drop out of the Olympics because she is deaf and blind but wasn’t allowed to bring her care assistant

Now it turns out that Simone Biles had to drop out of the Olympics because they made her go off of her medication and what’s worse is that we know this because her medical history was leaked

For the record, Biles isn’t accused of using the medication as an enhancement, Japan has banned the medication from the country because they used to use it to drug their soldiers

Not to be that guy but this shit wouldn’t have to keep happening if all of you would add disabled people’s civil rights to the agenda. Maybe right after you get around to banning all plastic straws. I don’t know. Fuck us, I guess

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Emilia Brintnall - Snakes, date unknown

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

People really need to realise that “media can affect real life” doesn’t mean “this character does bad things so people will read that and start doing bad things” and actually means “ideas in fiction especially stereotypes about minority groups can affect how the reader views those groups, an authors implicit prejudices can be passed on to readers”

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

something that would be interesting to do one day is to get a bunch of writers, give them all the same basic plot and premise, and see what stories they make out of it

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Must. Resist. Urge to buy more books.

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Friendly reminder that if you ask about my OCs, you are actually doing me a huge favor.

You are:

Letting me know that my character/fic is important to you, which is so very important to me.

Making me think deeper about my character and therefore expanding his/her personality or backstory.

Making me think about my character which helps me to overcome writer’s block.

Encouraging me in my writing (which, let’s be honest, it’s a battle)

Letting me know that I am seen and that I’m not doing this for nothing.

So thank you, and don’t ever feel like you are wasting my time by asking me anything about anything.

This has been a PSA.

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Growing up being labeled as gifted can be traumatizing, and in my experience most of that trauma is a fairly direct result of the fact that gifted kids are taught by adults that they're better than their peers, and that that superiority is contingent on continued success by fairly narrow metrics. Healing from that, learning to be kinder to yourself and others, then means overcoming both that sense of superiority and the feeling that you need to be superior to other people to be okay.

A lot of the time when people make having been a gifted kid a big part of their identity, that trauma is a major focus, but then frequently they seem to be trying to recover a sense of superiority rather than overcome it. And I don't think that's helpful to anyone.

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

Blooms of Insect Wings Created by Photographer Seb Janiak

(via Blooms of Insect Wings Created by Photographer Seb Janiak | ron beck designs)

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

As of twelve hours ago!

[starting-today-you-are-a-writer]

LET TRAUMATIZED CHARACTERS HAVE THEIR HAPPY ENDINGS YOU COWARDS!!!!!!!!!!