#Adding Surveys to Substack

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Section 17: Adding Surveys to Substack

Summary of my Udemy Course “From Zero to Substack Hero.” Image source from the video location Purpose of this Series for New Readers If you are following this series, you can skip this intro and start from the next section. I have to introduce it to new readers as otherwise it will not make sense to them. This is a new series upon request from my readers. I recently developed a course titled…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Robert Reich:

Friends, If you are experiencing rage and despair about what is happening in America and the world right now because of the Trump-Vance-Musk regime, you are hardly alone. A groundswell of opposition is growing — not as loud and boisterous as the resistance to Trump 1.0, but just as, if not more, committed to ending the scourge. Here’s a partial summary — 10 reasons for modest optimism.

1. Boycotts are taking hold.

Americans are changing shopping habits in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with Trump. Millions are pledging to halt discretionary spending for 24 hours on February 28 in protest against major retailers — chiefly Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy — for scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in response to Trump. Four out of 10 Americans have already shifted their spending over the last few months to be more consistent with their moral views, according to the Harris poll. (Far more Democrats — 50 percent — are changing their spending habits compared with Republicans — 41 percent.) Calls to boycott Tesla apparently are having an effect. After a disappointing 2024, Tesla sales declined further in January. In California, a key market for Tesla, nearly 12 percent fewer Teslas were registered in January 2025 than in January 2024. An analysis by Electrek points to even more trouble for Tesla in Europe, where Tesla sales have dropped in every market. X users are shifting over to Bluesky at a rapid rate, even as Musk adds more advertisers to his ongoing lawsuit against those that have justifiably boycotted X after he turned it into a cesspool of lies and hate (this week, he added Lego, Nestle, Tyson Foods, and Shell).

2. International resistance is rising.

Canada has helped lead the way: A grassroots boycott of American products and tourism is underway there. Prime Minister Trudeau has in effect become a “wartime prime minister” as he stands up to Trump’s bullying. Jean Chrétien, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003, is urging Canada to join with leaders in Denmark, Panama, and Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to fight back against Trump’s threats. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is standing up to Trump. She has defended not just Mexico but also the sovereignty of Latin American countries Trump has threatened and insulted. In the wake of JD Vance’s offensive speech at the Munich security conference last week, European democracies are standing together — condemning his speech and making it clear they will support Ukraine and never capitulate to Putin, as Trump has done.

3. Independent and alternative media are growing.

Trump and Musk’s “shock and awe” strategy was premised on their control of all major information outlets — not just Fox News and its right-wing imitators but the mainstream corporate media as well. It hasn’t worked. The New York Times has done sharp and accurate reporting on what’s happening. Even the non-editorial side of The Wall Street Journal has shown some gumption. The biggest news, though, is the increasing role now being played by independent and alternative media. Subscriptions have surged at Democracy Now, The American Prospect, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, and, of course, this and other Substacks. As a result, although Trump and Musk continue to flood the zone with lies, Americans aren’t as readily falling for their scams.

4. Musk’s popularity is plunging.

Elon Musk is underwater in public opinion, according to polls published Wednesday. Surveys by Quinnipiac University and Pew Research Center — coming just after Trump and Musk were interviewed together by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, with Trump calling Musk a “great guy” who “really cares for the country” — show a growing majority of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Musk. In Pew’s findings, 54 percent report disliking Musk compared to 42 percent with a positive view; 36 percent report a very unfavorable view of Musk. Quinnipiac’s results show 55 percent believe Musk has too big a role in the government.

5. Musk’s Doge is losing credibility.

On Monday, DOGE listed government contracts it has canceled, claiming that they amount to some $16 billion in savings — itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half were attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — but that contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation. In addition, Musk and Trump say tens of millions of “dead people” may be receiving fraudulent Social Security payments from the government. The table Musk shared on social media over the weekend showed about 20 million people in the Social Security Administration’s database over the age of 100 and with no known death. But as the agency’s inspector general found in 2023, “almost none” of them were receiving payments; most had died before the advent of electronic records. These kinds of rudimentary errors are destroying DOGE’s credibility and causing even more to question allowing Musk’s muskrats unfettered access to personal data on Americans.

6. The federal courts are hitting back.

So far, at least 74 lawsuits have been filed by state attorneys general, nonprofits, and unions against the Trump regime. And at least 17 judges — including several appointed by Republicans — already have issued orders blocking or temporarily halting actions by the Trump regime. The blocking orders include Trump initiatives to restrict birthright citizenship, suspend or cut off domestic and foreign U.S. spending, shrink the federal workforce, oust independent agency heads, and roll back legal protections and medical care for transgender adults and youths. In other cases, the Trump regime has agreed to a pause to give judges time to rule, another way that legal fights are forcing a slowdown.

[...] 9. Trump is overreaching — pretending to be “king” and abandoning Ukraine for Putin. Trump’s threats of annexation, conquest, and “unleashing hell” have been exposed as farcical bluffs — and his displays this week of being “king” and siding with Putin have unleashed a new level of public ridicule. [...] 10. The Trump-Vance-Musk “shock and awe” plan is faltering. In all these ways and for all of these reasons, the regime’s efforts to overwhelm us are failing. Make no mistake: Trump, Vance, and Musk continue to be an indiscriminate wrecking ball that has already caused major destruction and will continue to weaken and isolate America. But their takeover has been slowed. Their plan was based on doing so much, so fast that the rest of us would give in to negativity and despair. They want a dictatorship built on hopelessness and fear.

Robert Reich wrote a solid Substack piece on the 10 reasons anti-Trump Americans should feel some optimism in.

[lesmisletters-daily]

The Beginning Of Repose

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Misérables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.6.1

M. Madeleine had Fantine removed to that infirmary which he had established in his own house. He confided her to the sisters, who put her to bed. A burning fever had come on. She passed a part of the night in delirium and raving. At length, however, she fell asleep.

On the morrow, towards midday, Fantine awoke. She heard some one breathing close to her bed; she drew aside the curtain and saw M. Madeleine standing there and looking at something over her head. His gaze was full of pity, anguish, and supplication. She followed its direction, and saw that it was fixed on a crucifix which was nailed to the wall.

Thenceforth, M. Madeleine was transfigured in Fantine’s eyes. He seemed to her to be clothed in light. He was absorbed in a sort of prayer. She gazed at him for a long time without daring to interrupt him. At last she said timidly:—

“What are you doing?”

M. Madeleine had been there for an hour. He had been waiting for Fantine to awake. He took her hand, felt of her pulse, and replied:—

“How do you feel?”

“Well, I have slept,” she replied; “I think that I am better. It is nothing.”

He answered, responding to the first question which she had put to him as though he had just heard it:—

“I was praying to the martyr there on high.”

And he added in his own mind, “For the martyr here below.”

M. Madeleine had passed the night and the morning in making inquiries. He knew all now. He knew Fantine’s history in all its heart-rending details. He went on:—

“You have suffered much, poor mother. Oh! do not complain; you now have the dowry of the elect. It is thus that men are transformed into angels. It is not their fault they do not know how to go to work otherwise. You see this hell from which you have just emerged is the first form of heaven. It was necessary to begin there.”

He sighed deeply. But she smiled on him with that sublime smile in which two teeth were lacking.

That same night, Javert wrote a letter. The next morning be posted it himself at the office of M. sur M. It was addressed to Paris, and the superscription ran: <i>To Monsieur Chabouillet, Secretary of Monsieur le Préfet of Police</i>. As the affair in the station-house had been bruited about, the post-mistress and some other persons who saw the letter before it was sent off, and who recognized Javert’s handwriting on the cover, thought that he was sending in his resignation.

M. Madeleine made haste to write to the Thénardiers. Fantine owed them one hundred and twenty francs. He sent them three hundred francs, telling them to pay themselves from that sum, and to fetch the child instantly to M. sur M., where her sick mother required her presence.

This dazzled Thénardier. “The devil!” said the man to his wife; “don’t let’s allow the child to go. This lark is going to turn into a milch cow. I see through it. Some ninny has taken a fancy to the mother.”

He replied with a very well drawn-up bill for five hundred and some odd francs. In this memorandum two indisputable items figured up over three hundred francs,—one for the doctor, the other for the apothecary who had attended and physicked Éponine and Azelma through two long illnesses. Cosette, as we have already said, had not been ill. It was only a question of a trifling substitution of names. At the foot of the memorandum Thénardier wrote, <i>Received on account, three hundred francs</i>.

M. Madeleine immediately sent three hundred francs more, and wrote, “Make haste to bring Cosette.”

“Christi!” said Thénardier, “let’s not give up the child.”

In the meantime, Fantine did not recover. She still remained in the infirmary.

The sisters had at first only received and nursed “that woman” with repugnance. Those who have seen the bas-reliefs of Rheims will recall the inflation of the lower lip of the wise virgins as they survey the foolish virgins. The ancient scorn of the vestals for the ambubajæ is one of the most profound instincts of feminine dignity; the sisters felt it with the double force contributed by religion. But in a few days Fantine disarmed them. She said all kinds of humble and gentle things, and the mother in her provoked tenderness. One day the sisters heard her say amid her fever: “I have been a sinner; but when I have my child beside me, it will be a sign that God has pardoned me. While I was leading a bad life, I should not have liked to have my Cosette with me; I could not have borne her sad, astonished eyes. It was for her sake that I did evil, and that is why God pardons me. I shall feel the benediction of the good God when Cosette is here. I shall gaze at her; it will do me good to see that innocent creature. She knows nothing at all. She is an angel, you see, my sisters. At that age the wings have not fallen off.”

M. Madeleine went to see her twice a day, and each time she asked him:—

“Shall I see my Cosette soon?”

He answered:—

“To-morrow, perhaps. She may arrive at any moment. I am expecting her.”

And the mother’s pale face grew radiant.

“Oh!” she said, “how happy I am going to be!”

We have just said that she did not recover her health. On the contrary, her condition seemed to become more grave from week to week. That handful of snow applied to her bare skin between her shoulder-blades had brought about a sudden suppression of perspiration, as a consequence of which the malady which had been smouldering within her for many years was violently developed at last. At that time people were beginning to follow the fine Laënnec’s fine suggestions in the study and treatment of chest maladies. The doctor sounded Fantine’s chest and shook his head.

M. Madeleine said to the doctor:—

“Well?”

“Has she not a child which she desires to see?” said the doctor.

“Yes.”

“Well! Make haste and get it here!”

M. Madeleine shuddered.

Fantine inquired:—

“What did the doctor say?”

M. Madeleine forced himself to smile.

“He said that your child was to be brought speedily. That that would restore your health.”

“Oh!” she rejoined, “he is right! But what do those Thénardiers mean by keeping my Cosette from me! Oh! she is coming. At last I behold happiness close beside me!”

In the meantime Thénardier did not “let go of the child,” and gave a hundred insufficient reasons for it. Cosette was not quite well enough to take a journey in the winter. And then, there still remained some petty but pressing debts in the neighborhood, and they were collecting the bills for them, etc., etc.

“I shall send some one to fetch Cosette!” said Father Madeleine. “If necessary, I will go myself.”

He wrote the following letter to Fantine’s dictation, and made her sign it:—

“MONSIEUR THÉNARDIER:—

You will deliver Cosette to this person.

You will be paid for all the little things.

I have the honor to salute you with respect. - FANTINE

In the meantime a serious incident occurred. Carve as we will the mysterious block of which our life is made, the black vein of destiny constantly reappears in it.

[misfitwashere]

If you are experiencing rage and despair about what is happening in America and the world right now because of the Trump-Vance-Musk regime, you are hardly alone. A groundswell of opposition is growing — not as loud and boisterous as the resistance to Tump 1.0, but just as, if not more, committed to ending the scourge. 

Here’s a partial summary — 10 reasons for modest optimism. 

1. Boycotts are taking hold. 

Americans are changing shopping habits in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with Trump.

Millions are pledging to halt discretionary spending for 24 hours on February 28 in protest against major retailers — chiefly Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy — for scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in response to Trump. 

Four out of 10 Americans have already shifted their spending over the last few months to be more consistent with their moral views, according to the Harris poll. (Far more Democrats — 50 percent — are changing their spending habits compared with Republicans — 41 percent.)

Calls to boycott Tesla apparently are having an effect. After a disappointing 2024, Tesla sales declined further in January. In California, a key market for Tesla, nearly 12 percent fewer Teslas were registered in January 2025 than in January 2024. An analysis by Electrek points to even more trouble for Tesla in Europe, where Tesla sales have dropped in every market.

X users are shifting over to Bluesky at a rapid rate, even as Musk adds more advertisers to his ongoing lawsuit against those that have justifiably boycotted X after he turned it into a cesspool of lies and hate (this week, he added Lego, Nestle, Tyson Foods, and Shell). 

2. International resistance is rising. 

Canada has helped lead the way: A grassroots boycott of American products and tourism is underway there. Prime Minister Trudeau has in effect become a “wartime prime minister” as he stands up to Trump’s bullying. 

Jean Chrétien, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003, is urging Canada to join with leaders in Denmark, Panama, and Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to fight back against Trump’s threats. 

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is standing up to Trump. She has defended not just Mexico but also the sovereignty of Latin American countries Trump has threatened and insulted. 

In the wake of JD Vance’s offensive speech at the Munich security conference last week, European democracies are standing together — condemning his speech and making it clear they will support Ukraine and never capitulate to Putin, as Trump has done. 

3. Independent and alternative media are growing.

Trump and Musk’s “shock and awe” strategy was premised on their control of all major information outlets — not just Fox News and its right-wing imitators but the mainstream corporate media as well. 

It hasn’t worked. The New York Times has done sharp and accurate reporting on what’s happening. Even the non-editorial side of The Wall Street Journal has shown some gumption. 

The biggest news, though, is the increasing role now being played by independent and alternative media. Subscriptions have surged at Democracy Now, The American Prospect, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, and, of course, this and other Substacks. 

As a result, although Trump and Musk continue to flood the zone with lies, Americans aren’t as readily falling for their scams. 

4. Musk’s popularity is plunging.

Elon Musk is underwater in public opinion, according to polls published Wednesday.

Surveys by Quinnipiac University and Pew Research Center — coming just after Trump and Musk were interviewed together by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, with Trump calling Musk a “great guy” who “really cares for the country” — show a growing majority of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Musk. 

In Pew’s findings, 54 percent report disliking Musk compared to 42 percent with a positive view; 36 percent report a very unfavorable view of Musk. Quinnipiac’s results show 55 percent believe Musk has too big a role in the government.

5. Musk’s Doge is losing credibility.

On Monday, DOGE listed government contracts it has canceled, claiming that they amount to some $16 billion in savings — itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website.

Almost half were attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — but that contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation.

In addition, Musk and Trump say tens of millions of “dead people” may be receiving fraudulent Social Security payments from the government. The table Musk shared on social media over the weekend showed about 20 million people in the Social Security Administration’s database over the age of 100 and with no known death.

But as the agency’s inspector general found in 2023, “almost none” of them were receiving payments; most had died before the advent of electronic records.

These kinds of rudimentary errors are destroying DOGE’s credibility and causing even more to question allowing Musk’s muskrats unfettered access to personal data on Americans. 

6. The federal courts are hitting back. 

So far, at least 74 lawsuits have been filed by state attorneys general, nonprofits, and unions against the Trump regime. And at least 17 judges — including several appointed by Republicans — already have issued orders blocking or temporarily halting actions by the Trump regime. 

The blocking orders include Trump initiatives to restrict birthright citizenship, suspend or cut off domestic and foreign U.S. spending, shrink the federal workforce, oust independent agency heads, and roll back legal protections and medical care for transgender adults and youths. 

In other cases, the Trump regime has agreed to a pause to give judges time to rule, another way that legal fights are forcing a slowdown.

7. Demonstrations are on the rise. 

We haven’t seen anything like the January 2017 Women’s March, the day after Trump 1.0 began, but over the past weeks, demonstrations have been increasing across the country. Last Monday, on Presidents Day, demonstrators descended upon state capitol buildings.

In Washington, D.C., thousands gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool, chanting “Where is Congress?” and urging members of Congress to “Do your job!” despite nearly 40-degree temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts.

The nationwide protests are part of the 50501 Movement, which stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.” One of its leaders, Potus Black, urged the crowd of protesters in Washington to stand united in order to “uphold the Constitution.”

“To oppose tyranny is to stand behind democracy and remind our elected officials that we, the people, are who they’re elected to serve, not themselves. The events over the past month have been built to exhaust us, to break our wills. But we are the American people. We will not break.”

I expect that in the coming weeks and months protests will grow larger and louder — and by summer perhaps a “Summer of Democracy” will sweep the nation.

Acts of civil disobedience are also on the rise, as are resignations in protest against the regime. This week, former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was hauled out of a Huntington Beach City Council meeting after speaking out against Trump during public comments against plans to include a MAGA reference in the design of a library plaque.

As cheers erupted from the audience, Kluwe told the council, in words that should be repeated across the land:

“MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.”

When he was done speaking, Kluwe said he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.”

8. Stock and bond markets are trembling.

Trump has not lowered prices; in fact, inflation is rising under his control.

Trump’s wild talk of 25 percent tariffs is spooking the market. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which measures the performance of 30 large-cap U.S. stocks, dropped by more than 1.40 percent. 

Treasury bonds also dropped after a report showed more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected — an indication the pace of layoffs could be worsening.

Transcripts of the last Fed meeting showed that officials discussed how Trump's proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, as well as strong consumer spending, could push inflation higher this year.

Economic storm clouds like these should be troubling for everyone but especially for a regime that measures its success by stock and bond markets. 

9. Trump is overreaching — pretending to be “king” and abandoning Ukraine for Putin.

Trump’s threats of annexation, conquest, and “unleashing hell” have been exposed as farcical bluffs — and his displays this week of being “king” and siding with Putin have unleashed a new level of public ridicule. 

On Wednesday, following his attempt to kill a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The White House shared the quote accompanied by a computer-generated image of Trump grinning on a fake Time magazine cover while donning a golden crown.

Negative reaction was swift and overwhelming. Social media has exploded with derision. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king.” Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, said, “My oath is to the Constitution of our state and our nation. We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.”

The reaction to Trump’s abandoning Ukraine and siding with Putin has been more devastating, putting congressional Republicans on the defensive. Prominent Republican senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi and John Kennedy of Louisiana criticized Putin. Bill Kristol, a former official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, noted that “Nato and the US commitment to Europe has kept the European peace for 80 years. It’s foolish and reckless to put that at risk. And for what? To get along with Putin?”

10. The Trump-Vance-Musk “shock and awe” plan is faltering.

In all these ways and for all of these reasons, the regime’s efforts to overwhelm us are failing. 

Make no mistake: Trump, Vance, and Musk continue to be an indiscriminate wrecking ball that has already caused major destruction and will continue to weaken and isolate America. But their takeover has been slowed.

Their plan was based on doing so much, so fast that the rest of us would give in to negativity and despair. They want a dictatorship built on hopelessness and fear. 

That may have been the case initially, but we can take courage from the green shoots of rebellion now appearing across America and the world. 

As several of you have pointed out, successful resistance movements maintain hope and a positive vision of the future, no matter how dark the present.

More than 55 years ago, I participated in the resistance to the Vietnam War — a resistance that ultimately ended the war and caused a once powerful president to resign. That resistance gave us courage we didn’t even know we had. It changed American culture, inspiring songs such as “The Times They Are A Changing,” and “Blowin’ In The Wind.”

No one person led that anti-war movement. It was an amalgam of groups and leaders spanning more than six years of mobilization and organization, at all levels of society. 

The Civil Rights Movement that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required over 18 years of organizing, demonstrating, and mobilizing. 

The current coup is less than five weeks old, and resistance has only begun. The Trump-Vance-Musk regime will fail. Even so, the Democracy Movement now emerging will require at least a decade, if not a generation, to rebuild and strengthen what has been destroyed, and to fix the raging inequalities, injustices, and corruption that led so many to vote for Trump for a second time. 

Those of you who want the leaders of the Democratic Party to step up and be heard are right, of course. But political parties do not lead. The anti-war movement and the Civil Rights Movement didn’t depend on the Democratic Party for their successes. They depended on a mass mobilization of all of us who accepted the responsibilities of being American. 

We will prevail because we are relearning the basic truth — that we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

[strangebiology]

Just wanted to update: Someone else did a similar (better, 133 data points) analysis and found the same thing that I did, sort of.

Jane Friedman is a popular and very experienced book professional who writes (emphasis added):

Alarmist articles in recent years have claimed that novelists, in order to land a traditional publishing deal, need to be online superstars. But my analysis of debut deals in Publishers Marketplace (PM) shows that’s outright false. While it is true that most authors who land deals—especially agented deals, the majority of those reported to PM—have some visibility within or connections to the traditional publishing community, it’s rarely online visibility.

One should take Friedman's book-analysis work more seriously than mine; she is a superstar in the book-publishing world.

The only reason I did my survey was that I could not find any data that was remotely similar addressing the "you need social media to get a book deal" claim. (Friedman's came later.) And neither can anyone else I've asked. Technically, even one person with a book deal without much social media would disprove that claim, but even loosening up to make the claim "social media is the best/most common way to get a book deal" is also unlikely to be correct, considering how rare it appears to be among people with actual deals.

If you want to improve the data for the next time I make these charts, and you have a book deal, please fill out the survey yourself! I'm also VERY interested in any other data, no matter what conclusion it comes to! No matter what specific group of people it might cater to or what reasonable caveats it has. I talk at conferences enough and write enough in Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress, so I really want to have the best information possible! I do not gain or lose anything by promoting or criticizing social media, I just want to give the most accurate, contextual, nuanced advice I can. (Note: I mostly talk about traditional publishing of nonfiction non-memoir books, just because that's what I know. Maybe someone else would be better to talk to for other types of books.)

(Also note: I am interested in stories, anecdotes, thoughts, and data, but try to keep your comments value-adding, rather than just "how dare you criticize TT when I already spent too much time on it??")

Data Value and Caveats

Don't look too hard at the percentages in my pie chart, it's not meant to represent the entire industry, but to be better than the advice you find on FB groups, which is usually based on one person's experience. (And usually, that person did not get a book deal.)

^I appreciate the time this person took to type out this comment, but it's wrong AF, and harmful to ignore the significance of writing skill and experience.

Recently someone complained that my analysis was wrong because none of the people responding to my survey use TikTok much at all (not enough to mention), and I should remove all non-TikTok-users from the data and start over.

No, I...won't be removing the data because someone thinks only people with TT should count...nor would I remove data because it upsets an anti-TikTok person...

My tiny survey is far from perfectly representative of people with book deals--honestly, think of it more like 16 anecdotes from people who have book deals, and consider the caveats mentioned in the linked Substack post--but "including people who don't use TikTok" is not an issue. Excluding them would be an issue. Seriously, authors who don't use TikTok exist, and if that's a large portion of responders, then it likely does say something about publishing in general.

I'd love to interview TikTok authors for some sort of survey, but it would be a completely different survey with a different main question.

Examples of Successful Nonfiction, Trad Authors on TikTok

I've asked around to see if there are any nonfiction authors who are successful both on TikTok and with trad publishing. Here's an article listing a few TikTok nonfiction authors with big followings but IDK if they fit what I'm talking about otherwise. (I'm still happy to hear if you know of any; maybe I'll include them in a presentation, especially if they're non-memoir and/or science-focused!)

That said, here are 3 examples of exactly that; authors I would consider successful in trad publishing and with TikTok accounts that are relevant to their nonfiction non-memoir books:

John Green This might not be the best example because John Green does a LOT of media stuff well, so it's hard to narrow him down to being a nonfiction author with a successful TikTok.

Myself (sorry) I have 217,700 followers on TT and I'm pretty happy with the money I got before the book, Carcass, is out. I'll post about sales at some point, when I have some data to share. (It is OK if you don't like these numbers and don't consider me a good example, I'm just trying to be transparent!) Also, I have some comments from my agent and other agents who were interested in my book about how social media was a part of their interest.

Geo Rutherford (Spooky Lakes!) 1.7 million followers, and her trad book, Spooky Lakes, published this month is already a New York Times Best seller! The cover even says "The Official Book Based on the Hit TikTok Series!" She'll probably be in a presentation of mine in the future! Note: We respect the work these authors put into their art and media. (Er...you don't have to respect me personally; how about just the other two?) We are not jealous; we do not lament that they are so lucky to have followers to exploit. We are inspired by the work they put into making valuable content, and we are happy that they can capitalize on their work. We may strategize in a similar way to leverage our skills, build followings, analyze content performance, etc. Sorry for the long post! Remember, I like social media and I really think more nonfiction writers/journalists/outlets should use it more! But it's complicated, and I sadly have very little good data to work with.

Do nonfiction authors really need social media to get a book deal?

I asked successful agents and trad signed authors how important social media is to getting book contracts. Here are some data and quotes about how they responded on my Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress Substack! Read if you want more details and caveats to the data, as well as my story and why I like social media anyway.

TLDR: Social media is NOT necessary!

Here's an editorial explaining why. But for nonfiction non-memoir, you have to do something to prove that you know what you’re talking about, as you'll see repeated over and over in my Substack article. That proof could be social media.

Trad publishing is very hard and competitive, and sometimes even unfair. But the people who say "you can't get a deal unless you know someone or are TikTok famous" are flat-out wrong. (Also, you can become a person who knows someone by joining communities, attending conferences...hell, you can DM me if you have writing experience and I might hook you up with my agent. There, now you know someone and have no excuse. I've successfully hooked up 4 people I knew from communities I'm in, or something like that, not because they're my family members. I have said "come back when your query and/or experience are better" to 3 people, and 2 people didn't get the deal despite having good pitches and my recommendation, it just wasn't a match.)

Unfortunately, I think some aspiring authors are looking for an excuse, as many of these people don't often tend their writing craft. That is a much bigger indicator as to whether you'll get a deal, even if the trad world still isn't a perfect meritocracy.

Remember, I LOVE social media and have over 300,000 followers across platforms. I mostly do recommend that writers and journalists should use it! I find it sad, even, that there are so many writers with no audiences, when there are huge social audiences who would love to hear what these writers have to say! (But there are downsides too, so it's not ideal for all. Check out the pros and cons for science journalists being on TikTok.)

If you’d like to share your experience with trad publishing and social media (or lack of social media!), I still look at the survey results, so feel free to fill it out here and I may share the results in the future. Some questions are optional and of course I redact the (optional, anyway) emails:

[mycoderesist]

A blog post about How to Build an Online Survey with No-Code Platforms Building an online survey can be easy if you choose a platform that doesn't require coding. This often means the survey will take a while to set up, but it will be much easier to navigate. With no-code platforms, you can easily create a survey with a couple of clicks, and you can also view the results on a dashboard. To build a survey free with no-code platforms, this blog will look at the steps you should take.Table of ContentHow to build an online survey?Why online surveys are important?How to build your survey with a free online survey platformWhat are trending online survey platforms? How to build an online survey? Online surveys are a great way to assess customer satisfaction, market research, and market trends without having to go through the hassle of hiring a survey company. Why online surveys are important? Online surveys are one of the best ways to collect data with minimal effort and time. They are easy to use and are accessible on a variety of devices. They also provide a greater opportunity for respondents to be honest about their attitudes, thoughts, and feelings.Whether you need to collect data for a marketing campaign, service, or product, or if you’re simply looking for feedback from your customers or consumers, online surveys can help you get the information you need. How to build your survey with a free online survey platform. Building a survey is a lot easier than you think, and all you need is a free online survey platform. There are plenty of these platforms out there. The best part is that they are all no-code, meaning that you don't need any knowledge of coding to get started. With these platforms, you can build your survey in no time. There are many different features you can use to make your survey. What are trending survey platforms? 1 Substack Substack is an online platform based in the United States that allows subscription newsletters to be published, paid for, analyzed, and designed. It enables writers to deliver digital newsletters to subscribers directly. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 2 Survey Junkie Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 3 Google Forms Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 4 SurveySparrow SurveySparrow is a customer experience solution that helps organizations of all kinds create interactive feedback surveys in the cloud. Using a single dashboard, users may enter contacts and organize them into custom lists based on job titles, area, and age categories.

Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 2 Add to compare $19.00 Demo Read full review 5 Formstack Formstack is a cloud-based solution for organizations to develop and collect data for overviews, leads, and enlistments. Routing, file uploads, data encryption, discount coupons, and form analytics are all possible options. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $50.00 Demo Read full review Analyst Choice 6 AppSheet AppSheet is a no-code application development platform that allows users to construct mobile, tablet, and online apps utilizing data from Google Drive, DropBox, Office 365, and other cloud-based spreadsheet and database systems. Project management, client relationship management, field inspections, and tailored reporting are just a few of the corporate use cases that the platform can handle. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 1 Add to compare $5.00 Demo and Details Read full review 7 Enveu Businesses may use the Enveu suite of solutions to develop OTT applications on several platforms, track and better understand user behavior, monetize content, and perform digital marketing campaigns against the experience. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 8 SurveyLegend Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $15.00 Demo Read full review 9 survicat Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $89.00 Demo Read full review 10 Heyflow Heyfow

is indeed a customer management system that helps companies engage visitors, manage sales, and turn visitors into customers. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $33.00 Demo Read full review 11 Caspio Caspio is a one-of-a-kind, cloud-based, and simple-to-use program that offers an all-in-one platform for customers to easily construct bespoke database applications. This tool includes all of the capabilities you'll need to quickly design, construct, and deploy your bespoke database applications. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 1 Add to compare $119.00 Demo Read full review Show next Keep Updated On Latest News Subscribe now to receive interesting news, articles, blogs and event details Subscribe Now Interesting Articles5 Best Smart Low-Code Survey Builder5 Best Survey & Feedback Apps Development Low-Code PlatformsHow to Build an Online Survey with No-CodeBest 13 Online Free Survey Builders9 Top Paid Survey Platforms to Make Money

[cyle]

the internet diverges again

(if you're a regular Garbage Day reader, a lot of this may sound very familiar to you, as i'm borrowing heavily from conclusions Ryan keeps drawing as well. my thoughts below are my own, and kinda rambling because i don't really have any strong conclusions yet, just speculation that keeps me up at night.)

feels to me like the internet is diverging yet again, into two primary modes of user experience:

the new FM radio. this is what TikTok is, and YouTube has been for a long time. it's massive, it's impossible to ingest all of it or even a fraction of it, and it moves so fast that the vast majority of people can be nothing but passive consumers. it's a lean-back, wayyy back, experience on these platforms. the key difference today, from actual FM radio, is how much the experience is personalized and molds itself in real time to you as the consumer. more and more people want to tune out of the active social media model and into the hyper-passive radio model. you don't have to even follow anybody, the content comes to you, just like the radio. sit back, relax, swipe up, watch, keep swiping, the next piece of content will be more suited to you than the last, head empty no thoughts.

the archipelago. this is what Discord is, and what Reddit subreddits are, and what Substack newsletters are, and Minecraft servers, and why people gravitate towards them. people do still want a sense of belonging, and we've all agreed lately that such a thing is way too much work on the slightly-customizable-algo-feeds of Twitter or Facebook. this is a polar opposite of the new FM radio model above, because this archipelago requires deep commitment, buy-in, and time investment. and the islands are inherently getting smaller and smaller and smaller and more nostalgic and like the message boards of the 00s. the key point being that they're independent, separate, and feel owned and controlled by their inhabitants. there can't/won't be an index of them.

i think these two paths are in stark contrast with what the predominant UX model has been over the last 15 years, which is that slightly-customizable centralized walled garden algorithmic feed that is what Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have been perfecting, and is now wholly inadequate. and those platforms keep trying to compete with TikTok, but in the wrong way. it's not about video, nor even the infinite feed, it's about the extremes of ownership and depth of involvement.

in this new context, the traditional walled garden feeds now feel like work with little reward, and TikTok doesn't feel like work at all, with lots of reward. Discord feels like deliberate work with reward. it's those different patterns of passive and active reward that feel so disrupted by TikTok, which is not a UI feature, it's the whole thing. you can't just slap a feed of recommended videos into Instagram and get the same result, now that we consumers are all more wise to it.

i'm somewhat excited about this shift because underneath these new-but-old paradigms are important shifts in our relationship to the products and our actual ownership of them. Discord relies on subscription money, not ads; they survey paying users to figure out what to build next, and it seems to work at scale and make people feel like they really own their servers. TikTok runs ads the way radio runs ads, except far more deeply personalized, because they have the mount everest of attention data (which is not the same as Facebook's relational targeting data). it's very clear that you own nothing on TikTok or YouTube, you're just a passively floating leaf in an ocean of content.

i'm also excited about this shift because it means we're in fertile territory for products, both new and existing, to figure out where they belong and if they can adapt. TikTok and Discord feel like the two opposite axis points to me, in terms of product ownership, anonymity, tracking behavior, attention economy, etc. if both worlds are feasibly sustainable, then that's great news for those of us who want to cultivate safer, smaller places to coexist on the internet. there is a whole spectrum of possibility to explore here and lean into. it comes with a myriad of new problems, but arguably, we never figured out a lot of the core problems with the old model anyway, so what's it worth?

no conclusions here, just a lot of thoughts.

[shirlleycoyle]

It’s Impossible To Make Money for Most Writers and Artists in Comics

Comic books—and the characters that inhabit their pages—have never been more mainstream, but the writers and artists who work in comics say it's way too hard to make a living in the industry.

Last week, some of the biggest names in comics announced that they were making a deal with Substack to publish original works on the platform. Batman writer James Tynion IV said in the inaugural post that he was excited to "dedicate my whole brain to building a bunch of really cool stuff on my own terms, without having to get permission from any publisher to make it."

Substack framed this as an investment in talent, pouring money into an industry where creators say that they aren't earning much. But people who work in comics have seen this happen before, and sources told Motherboard that they are unsure the kinds of deals that the biggest names in comics have made with Substack will benefit other people in the industry much, if at all.

"Every once in a while an outfit will show up just with millions burning holes in their pockets, and they will absolutely be the coolest kid in the room for two, three years. They will pay huge amounts to fan favorites to produce work," C. Spike Trotman, founder and editor of independent comics publisher Iron Circus, told Motherboard. "More often than they don't, they reach the bottom of the war chest and they kind of drop out of sight. They sink beneath the waves. I'm not going to say that's what's going to happen to Substack, I don't know their financial situation. But it's not an unfamiliar phenomenon."

Multiple surveys of comic book writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers show how bad the underlying problem is. According to an industry survey from Fair Page Rates, which surveyed 123 creators in 2015, Marvel offered an average rate of $81.43 per page for writers, and $372 for line art. DC's breakdown was broadly similar, at $111 for writers and $352 for line art. In a 2017 Creator Resource Survey, the average rate per page for writing at Marvel was $60, and the average page rate for line art was $173. DC fared slightly better, with an average of $99 per page of writing, though there wasn't enough data to determine an average rate for line art. (These low rates mean that the production of comics art for even major companies is in many cases essentially subsidized by the artists' relatively lucrative sales of their original, physical art.) 

Motherboard reached out to Marvel and DC to ask about the rates they pay for art and writing, but they did not respond in time for publication.

Are you a comic book creator? Has your work been used for movies or TV? We'd love to talk to you. You can reach Gita Jackson by email at gita.jackson@vice.com, or securely over Signal at +1 267 713 9832.

Multiple sources told Motherboard that in the time since those surveys, not a lot has changed. One artist, who asked to remain anonymous because they still work in the industry, provided art for a popular licensed intellectual property on a work-for-hire basis and said that they were paid $170 per page. They said that each page took from six to eight hours. Assuming one keeps an eight hour work day, for a full day of work, pay at this rate works out to $21.25 an hour. Because this work is for hire, it means this artist also has to deal with all the economic difficulties of not having a regular salaried job.

"Because comics are SO labor intensive, it's hard to balance multiple comics gigs, and so often folks have to find alternate revenue sources like Patreon or Twitch or making prints & merchandise (which is all still laborious), or relying on employed partners," this artist said. "And since cons couldn't be a thing during the pandemic, that was also a huge loss of income for a lot of people."

Substack's entrance into the field—and that of rivals, should any decide to join the fray—may or may not lead to direct increases in income for writers and artists. It will, though, do something to address another central problem in the industry, one that has long contributed to the success of independent publishers like Image.

One consequence of doing work for hire is that ultimately, what you produce doesn't belong to you—in a literal sense, writers and artists for major publishers generally don't own the characters they're writing and drawing. Superman is owned by DC, and Spider-Man is owned by Marvel, even if I write stories about them on the company's behalf, and that's almost invariably still true even if I invent new friends and foes for them. Writers like Ed Brubaker, who created the Winter Soldier featuring in the eponymous Falcon and Winter Soldier show, get little more than token recognition when their creations are turned into derivative properties, even ones featuring in movies grossing billions. A check in the area of $5,000—reportedly what Marvel creators are paid when their inventions are used in movies—does not reflect the work he put into what is now a popular, and lucrative, character for Marvel and its parent company Disney, or its value. But comics corporations have no obligation to offer more. If you want to write about the characters you grew up reading, you don't have a lot of leverage—there are so many other writers and artists who grow up with the same dream.

Original and new creations also fall prey to this system. In December of last year, Disney announced a show based on RiRi Williams, a young Black girl who builds her own Iron Man-style suit. The character was popularized by Eve L. Ewing, who wrote the Ironheart series, whose assistant told Motherboard, "She does not retain any rights pertaining to Ironheart nor is she expecting any additional compensation from the forthcoming Disney+ show."

One-sided work arrangements don't only affect writers and artists economically, but creatively. Imagine you're a writer at Marvel, and you have a great idea for an arc. Your bosses love this idea so much they cancel the book you've been working on—after only 10 issues—so you can concentrate on turning your pitch into a huge event. During an already bittersweet moment, you have to rush a final issue of your book out the door, and the final product includes things you didn't write, some of which end up becoming a minor scandal. 

In a recent podcast with Leah Williams, writer for the recently canceled X-Factor book and writer for the upcoming Trial of Magneto, she describes this happening to her. She also says at the end of the day, Marvel has the right to use its intellectual property in this way.

"X-Factor #10 was kind of my first experience learning how little control I have. There are pages I didn't write and were added to the issue after the fact. There was dialogue I didn't write. I kind of found out around the same time readers did," Williams said. "This is a huge company, this is their IP and they're allowed to do that kind of thing without me being involved in the process."

That's the reality for many people working on comics—when you work for Marvel or DC, the things you create aren't owned by you, and what becomes of them is ultimately dictated by a myriad of forces outside of your control. And even for the most successful creators, it's hard to access the fruits of your success. Marvel and DC use their characters to tell stories about justice, heroism, and, increasingly, righting historical wrongs. The fact that the increasingly diverse creators who tell them get the same old treatment seems like an ever-more glaring blind spot.

Correction: Due to an editorial error, this story initially referred to Ironheart as Eve Ewing's creation; Brian Michael Bendis created the character.

It’s Impossible To Make Money for Most Writers and Artists in Comics syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[noloveforned]

an economic argument for piracy by damon krukowski

this piece was intentionally pirated from damon krukowski's (of damon and naomi) weekly substack called 'dada drummer almanach'. it convinced me to subscribe though, so i'm guessing he still wins. please consider signing up for the free version if you enjoy it (or even paid, i'm sure he wouldn't mind)!

"An Economic Argument for Piracy"

I’ve often expressed feelings sympathetic to piracy – piracy of intellectual property for the purpose of sharing, not calculated profit. Those feelings are based on personal experience with music and other information that would have otherwise remained inaccessible to me, as well as an ethical belief that information should be equally available to all. The library is a social good, I think we can all agree. But when the library fails us – whether for information that is not collected by libraries, or information that is collected but kept behind paywalls some can’t afford – piracy will save the day.

That kind of argument presumes that whatever damage is done by piracy to commercial interests is outweighed by the public good it can contribute. In other words, there are supra-economic reasons to tolerate piracy.

But what I want to set out here is a positive economic argument for piracy. Not a reason it should be tolerated, but the way it actually contributes to industries based on digital intellectual property.

And to make that argument more dramatic… I’m going to put the rest of this essay behind a paywall.

That means fewer will read what follows – unless, of course, it is itself pirated. I leave it to those of you with access (paid subscribers, or free subscribers who now switch to paid) to decide about that.

After all, if you believe in piracy, you’ll have access to this essay regardless. And if you don’t, I think you need to read this – so go ahead and pay for it.

You can find innumerable articles asserting that piracy in the digital age has devastated industries dependent on intellectual property like film and music. But the number of academic studies on the topic is actually quite limited. In 2015, the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a synthesis of these “disinterested” academic studies, to determine what the evidence on the topic is, as opposed to the usual assumptions and/or industry assertions.

The authors of that paper reported back that,

“As of 2014, we are aware of 21 studies that attempted to determine the impact of piracy on sales and that were accepted into peer-reviewed journals. Eighteen of these studies find a negative impact of piracy on sales, with only three finding no impact… In short, there is general consensus among economists who study piracy that it negatively impacts sales. This is true across various forms of media including music, television, and film.”

This “general consensus” that there is a negative impact on sales from piracy breaks down when the question becomes how much, however. In a follow-up blog post for the Technology Policy Institute, the same authors detailed the variety of conclusions drawn by all the academic studies they catalogued, adding three more since their WIPO report had been completed.

Of the now 25 total studies surveyed, five described the change only in words such as “significant,” and two estimated dollar losses for specific releases (both in the film industry, not music), but didn’t try and pinpoint broader trends.

Here are the conclusions of the remaining 18 studies that took a stab at determining the precise reduction of sales due to online piracy of intellectual property, ranked by degree of severity:

3 found 0% change

1 found a loss of 6.5%-8.5%

1 found a loss of 11.4%

1 found a loss of 13%

1 found a loss of 14%

1 found a loss of 19.1%

3 found a loss of 20%

1 found a loss of 22%-25%

1 found a loss of 30%

1 found a loss of 33.3%-66.6%

1 found a loss of 36%

2 found a loss of 50%

1 found a loss of 60%

Obviously, there is no general consensus from academic studies on the degree of impact from piracy. But let’s take what we can from this evidence, and conclude that the damage is somewhere between 0% change and a 60% reduction in sales.

This wild swing in value in fact matches other aspects of digital media.

Take the value of CDs. At present, they are either valueless ($0) – left on street corners when people clean house or move, unsorted in the dankest corner of thrift stores – or they are shockingly expensive ($60) on Discogs or eBay, where sellers know that a lack of ordinary value means scarcity for anyone who seeks out a particular title.

CDs have, at the moment, no intrinsic value. In that regard they have come to resemble their non-physical counterpart, digital downloads. Downloads never had intrinsic value – how could they, when there are no materials to help determine price? On Napster, they were free. Once Napster was shut down by recording industry lawsuits, Apple assigned a 99-cent charge for downloads on the iTunes store. Why 99 cents? The choice was random – it could have been anything, from 0 to 60.

Digital files have no natural price. And this is how I see piracy contributing economic value to intellectual property online: Piracy is a means to determine value for non-physical media.

Let’s take some specific examples. You are reading one now.

Substack told me that 10% of my readers would elect to pay for a subscription. Their prediction was based on experience with the platform and its users, not on my specific content (which they hadn’t yet seen). And so far, it has been accurate for this newsletter.

10% paid subscriptions to Substack is evidently a social fact. It is not dependent on individual readers and writers, it is an expression of their aggregate determination of value. In that regard, it is equivalent to a market-determined price - for what is essentially a free product.

All digital is essentially a free product. Even if you don’t believe that (as I do), piracy makes it so.

But piracy is also therefore a means toward determination of value, because it has a limit. A predictable segment of the market will elect to pay rather than pirate.

Here is another example, from another medium: Bandcamp gives musicians the option of removing prices from digital downloads of their recordings, letting listeners choose to pay for them or not.

For the Damon & Naomi catalogue, the response to this free/pay-as-you-wish option has been statistically consistent ever since we started using it in 2017 – 25% of our listeners elect to pay. I don’t know if this is true for other artists on Bandcamp, in the way Substack gave me a figure across newsletters by different writers. But I do know that, so far as our own recordings are concerned, we can treat 25% paid downloads as a social fact. It is not about individual choices, or particular albums. It is a collective response to the free availability of our recordings. That percentage is, in other words, the market’s determination of the value of our digital music.

This is my argument for piracy as a positive economic contribution. Digital media has no intrinsic value – that is part of the reason why the music industry, when it introduced digital via CD, boomed uncontrollably and busted just as easily. There was no natural price for CDs, and no natural price for downloads. They have been both priced too high, and priced too low, because no one could say how the market truly values them.

Piracy answers that crucial commercial question. Without it, the market for digital media will forever flip between zero and sixty.

Was this argument worth paying for? If I’ve done my job well, 90% of you shouldn’t think it is.

Listening to: The Lijadu Sisters, Danger (on an expensive used CD)

Cooking: Pasta with squash, garlic and sage

[lesmisletters-daily]

An Entrance By Favor

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Misérables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.7.8

Although he did not suspect the fact, the mayor of M. sur M. enjoyed a sort of celebrity. For the space of seven years his reputation for virtue had filled the whole of Bas Boulonnais; it had eventually passed the confines of a small district and had been spread abroad through two or three neighboring departments. Besides the service which he had rendered to the chief town by resuscitating the black jet industry, there was not one out of the hundred and forty communes of the arrondissement of M. sur M. which was not indebted to him for some benefit. He had even at need contrived to aid and multiply the industries of other arrondissements. It was thus that he had, when occasion offered, supported with his credit and his funds the linen factory at Boulogne, the flax-spinning industry at Frévent, and the hydraulic manufacture of cloth at Boubers-sur-Canche. Everywhere the name of M. Madeleine was pronounced with veneration. Arras and Douai envied the happy little town of M. sur M. its mayor.

The Councillor of the Royal Court of Douai, who was presiding over this session of the Assizes at Arras, was acquainted, in common with the rest of the world, with this name which was so profoundly and universally honored. When the usher, discreetly opening the door which connected the council-chamber with the court-room, bent over the back of the President’s armchair and handed him the paper on which was inscribed the line which we have just perused, adding: “The gentleman desires to be present at the trial,” the President, with a quick and deferential movement, seized a pen and wrote a few words at the bottom of the paper and returned it to the usher, saying, “Admit him.”

The unhappy man whose history we are relating had remained near the door of the hall, in the same place and the same attitude in which the usher had left him. In the midst of his reverie he heard some one saying to him, “Will Monsieur do me the honor to follow me?” It was the same usher who had turned his back upon him but a moment previously, and who was now bowing to the earth before him. At the same time, the usher handed him the paper. He unfolded it, and as he chanced to be near the light, he could read it.

“The President of the Court of Assizes presents his respects to M. Madeleine.”

He crushed the paper in his hand as though those words contained for him a strange and bitter aftertaste.

He followed the usher.

A few minutes later he found himself alone in a sort of wainscoted cabinet of severe aspect, lighted by two wax candles, placed upon a table with a green cloth. The last words of the usher who had just quitted him still rang in his ears: “Monsieur, you are now in the council-chamber; you have only to turn the copper handle of yonder door, and you will find yourself in the court-room, behind the President’s chair.” These words were mingled in his thoughts with a vague memory of narrow corridors and dark staircases which he had recently traversed.

The usher had left him alone. The supreme moment had arrived. He sought to collect his faculties, but could not. It is chiefly at the moment when there is the greatest need for attaching them to the painful realities of life, that the threads of thought snap within the brain. He was in the very place where the judges deliberated and condemned. With stupid tranquillity he surveyed this peaceful and terrible apartment, where so many lives had been broken, which was soon to ring with his name, and which his fate was at that moment traversing. He stared at the wall, then he looked at himself, wondering that it should be that chamber and that it should be he.

He had eaten nothing for four and twenty hours; he was worn out by the jolts of the cart, but he was not conscious of it. It seemed to him that he felt nothing.

He approached a black frame which was suspended on the wall, and which contained, under glass, an ancient autograph letter of Jean Nicolas Pache, mayor of Paris and minister, and dated, through an error, no doubt, the <i>9th of June</i>, of the year II., and in which Pache forwarded to the commune the list of ministers and deputies held in arrest by them. Any spectator who had chanced to see him at that moment, and who had watched him, would have imagined, doubtless, that this letter struck him as very curious, for he did not take his eyes from it, and he read it two or three times. He read it without paying any attention to it, and unconsciously. He was thinking of Fantine and Cosette.

As he dreamed, he turned round, and his eyes fell upon the brass knob of the door which separated him from the Court of Assizes. He had almost forgotten that door. His glance, calm at first, paused there, remained fixed on that brass handle, then grew terrified, and little by little became impregnated with fear. Beads of perspiration burst forth among his hair and trickled down upon his temples.

At a certain moment he made that indescribable gesture of a sort of authority mingled with rebellion, which is intended to convey, and which does so well convey, <i>“Pardieu! who compels me to this?”</i> Then he wheeled briskly round, caught sight of the door through which he had entered in front of him, went to it, opened it, and passed out. He was no longer in that chamber; he was outside in a corridor, a long, narrow corridor, broken by steps and gratings, making all sorts of angles, lighted here and there by lanterns similar to the night taper of invalids, the corridor through which he had approached. He breathed, he listened; not a sound in front, not a sound behind him, and he fled as though pursued.

When he had turned many angles in this corridor, he still listened. The same silence reigned, and there was the same darkness around him. He was out of breath; he staggered; he leaned against the wall. The stone was cold; the perspiration lay ice-cold on his brow; he straightened himself up with a shiver.

Then, there alone in the darkness, trembling with cold and with something else, too, perchance, he meditated.

He had meditated all night long; he had meditated all the day: he heard within him but one voice, which said, “Alas!”

A quarter of an hour passed thus. At length he bowed his head, sighed with agony, dropped his arms, and retraced his steps. He walked slowly, and as though crushed. It seemed as though some one had overtaken him in his flight and was leading him back.

He re-entered the council-chamber. The first thing he caught sight of was the knob of the door. This knob, which was round and of polished brass, shone like a terrible star for him. He gazed at it as a lamb might gaze into the eye of a tiger.

He could not take his eyes from it. From time to time he advanced a step and approached the door.

Had he listened, he would have heard the sound of the adjoining hall like a sort of confused murmur; but he did not listen, and he did not hear.

Suddenly, without himself knowing how it happened, he found himself near the door; he grasped the knob convulsively; the door opened.

He was in the court-room.

[vicshush]

[Text ID :

ID 1 : Images of @hauntedfalcoln's responses to the Tumblr "Post+" feedback survey.

Survey question : "Do you currently follow anyone on Tumblr you would consider supporting with a paid membership service?"

Response : "No. That is not why I go here. And even if it was, why should I trust Tumblr to allow its user base to make revenue after what happened at to be early adopters using Google ads?"

Survey question : "How would you look for creators with subscription feeds or paid content to follow?"

Response : "I wouldn't. Not only is Tumblr's search function so laughably unusable I don't trust it to find anything I'm looking for, but as stated above, I don't go here for paid content."

Survey question : "What kind of content would you look for in a paid subscription feed?"

Response : "I wouldn't. Tumblr should stay 100% free. Stop trying to be something you're not. The homogenization of social media is a plague. Resist it."

Survey question : "How much free content would you want in a paid feed? How frequently do you think it should be updated?"

Response : "Literally please leave this BS to Patreon and OnlyFans."

Survey question : "Do you currently support any creator or artist with a paid subscription from services such as Patreon, Substack, OnlyFans, Ko-Fi, or similar? *"

[radio button options for the following responses : "Yes ; No ; Maybe ; Other"]

Response : "No"

ID 2, additional questions' responses from @vapegod69420 :

Survey question : "This is the survey creator's cat informing you that you're halfway done. [photo of a fluffy black cat with a white bib] Thank you for sticking with this survey. You're making Tumblr a better place.

[radio button options for the following responses : "Max looks great here ; Please don't do this again"]

Response : "Please don't do this again"

Survey question : "Would you ever consider setting up a Post+ account so your followers could support you with a paid membership or subscription service? *"

[radio button options for the following responses : "Yes ; No ; Maybe ; Other"]

Response : "[Other] Fuck you"

/end text]

Hi There 👋

As you might have noticed, we’re beta-testing something new: Tumblr Post+. What’s Post+? A big deal, for starters. Post+ is our new subscription feature that allows you to use our existing multi-media post form to create unique paid feeds or support other blogs by subscribing to theirs. Fear not, Tumblr will always be free to use, this is just a way to continue to empower unique voices and throw a little coin to your favorite artists, fanfic writers, or maybe even that one mashup Supernatural/Studyblr blog you’ve been following since 2016.

(3 a.m. infomercial voice) But wait, there’s more. We want to know every possible way we can make Post+ the best experience for you and your community. To do that, we’d love to hear from you. Specifically, we want your thoughts on how you’d use a feature that provides a feed of exclusive posts on Tumblr. What would you like to see? Don’t be shy 👉👈. Get in touch. Do it often, if you like. We’re excited to hear your thoughts. And keep your eyes on this space (go ahead now, click follow ☝️). Teamwork makes the dream work, etc.

[mycoderesist]

Best 13 Online Free Survey Builder Nowadays, technology has made it easy for companies to collect customer or employee data. Free Survey Builders allow companies to create free surveys for their customers and employees to give them a chance to provide feedback on the company. These surveys are used to gain more insight into what the company is doing well and what it can do better. Free Survey Builders are also a great way for companies to get feedback on new products. Companies can create a survey that asks their customers or employees if they would be interested in purchasing a new product. Let's find out Best 13 Online Free Survey Builders. Online Free Survey Builders 1 More details + Survey Junkie Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 2 More details + survicat Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $89.00 Demo Read full review 3 More details + SurveyLegend Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $15.00 Demo Read full review 4 More details + AskNicely Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 5 More details + JotForms Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $34.00 Demo Read full review 6 More details + Google Forms Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 7 More details + Alchemer Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $49.00 Demo Read full review 8 More details + Qualtrics Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 9 More details + Tyepforms Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare $25.00 Demo Read full review 10 More details + Enveu Businesses may use the Enveu suite of solutions to develop OTT applications on several platforms, track and better understand user behavior, monetize content, and perform digital marketing campaigns against the experience. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare 7.6 Demo Read full review 11 More details + Substack Substack is an online platform based in the United States that allows subscription newsletters to be published, paid for, analyzed, and designed. It enables writers to deliver digital newsletters to subscribers directly. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare Demo Read full review 12 More details + Joonbot Joonbot is a simple no-code chatbot builder that may help businesses increase interaction, generate leads, and increase sales. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare 7.6 $28.00 Demo Read full review 13 More details + Heyflow Heyfow is indeed a customer management system that helps companies engage visitors, manage sales, and turn visitors into customers. Added to wishlistRemoved from wishlist 0 Add to compare 8.2 $33.00 Demo Read full review Interesting Articles 5 Best Smart Low-Code Survey Builder 5 Best Survey & Feedback Apps Development Low-Code Platforms How to Build an Online Survey with No-Code Best 13 Online Free Survey Builders 9 Top Paid Survey Platforms to Make Money

[truemedian]

The New Model Media Star Is Famous Only to You

The Media EquationWith short videos and paid newsletters, everyone from superstars to half-forgotten former athletes and even journalists can, as one tech figure put it, “monetize individuality.”

Recent videos by, from left, Gwen Jorgensen, Leonard Marshall and Terry Francona available on Cameo, a service that allows fans to buy personalized messages.Credit...CameoPublished May 24, 2020Updated May 25, 2020, 3:43 a.m. ETBack in March, I was trying to persuade my dad to stop taking the subway to work in Manhattan and join me upstate. So I paid $75 to Leonard Marshall, a retired New York Giants defensive lineman we both loved in the 1980s, to send the message.“I put a few guys in the hospital, Bob,” he told my father solemnly. “I need you to play defense in these crazy times.”It worked, and my father hasn’t been to Times Square since.I had reached Mr. Marshall through Cameo, a service that allows you to buy short videos from minor celebrities. I also used Cameo to purchase a pep talk from an Olympic triathlete for my daughter ($15), an ingratiating monologue for my new boss from a former Boston Red Sox manager ($100) and a failed Twitter joke delivered by the action star Chuck Norris ($229.99).Cameo is blowing up in this strange season because “every celebrity is really a gig economy worker,” says Steven Galanis, the company’s chief executive. They’re stuck at home, bored and sometimes hard up for cash as performances, productions and sporting events dry up. The company’s weekly bookings have grown to 70,000 from about 9,000 in early January, it says, and Mr. Galanis said he anticipated bringing in more than $100 million in bookings this year, of which the company keeps 25 percent. The company expects to sell its millionth video this week.Cameo is, on its face, a service that allows housebound idiots to blow money on silly shout-outs. Seen another way, however, it’s a new model media company, sitting at the intersection of a set of powerful trends that are accelerating in the present crisis. There’s the rise of simple, digital direct payments, which are replacing advertising as the major source of media revenue. There’s the growing power of talent, trickling down from superstars to half-forgotten former athletes and even working journalists. And there’s the old promise of the earlier internet that you could make a living if you just had “1,000 true fans" — a promise that advertising-based businesses from blogs to YouTube channels failed to deliver.In fact, in this new economy, some people may be able to make a living off just 100 true fans, as Li Jin, a former partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, argued recently. Ms. Jin calls this new landscape the “passion economy.” She argues that apps like Uber and DoorDash are built to erase the differences between individual drivers or food delivery people. But similar tools, she says, can be used to “monetize individuality.”Many of these trends are well developed in China, but here in the United States the passion economy covers everyone from the small merchants using Shopify to the drawing instructors of the education platform Udemy.In the mainstream heart of the media business, both artists and writers are moving quickly to find new business models as huge swaths of the media business have been wounded or shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. At Patreon, the first and broadest of the big services connecting writers and performers to audiences, the co-founder Jack Conte said he was delighted recently to see one of his favorite bands, Of Montreal, release music on the platform.“Traditional music coming to Patreon is a watershed moment,” he said.In the news business, journalists are carving out new paths on Substack, a newsletter service. Its most successful individual voices — like the China expert Bill Bishop and the liberal political writer Judd Legum — are earning well into six figures annually for sending regular newsletters to subscribers, though no individual has crossed the million-dollar mark, the company said.For some writers, Substack is a way to get their work out of the shadow of an institution. Emily Atkin felt that need intensely when a climate forum she organized last year for presidential candidates, while she was a writer for The New Republic, collapsed amid a scandal over an unrelated column about Mayor Pete Buttigieg that appeared in that publication.Image

For writers like Emily Atkin, formerly of The New Republic, Substack is a way to get their work out of the shadow of an institution.Credit...Rozette RagoNow, said Ms. Atkin, who writes a confrontational climate newsletter called Heated, she’s “shockingly hopeful.”“I don’t have any layoffs happening at my newsletter, so I’m doing better than most of the news industry,�� she said.Ms. Atkin, who is 11th on Substack’s ranking of paid newsletters and was more willing than Mr. Bishop or Mr. Legum to talk in detail about the business, said she was on track to gross $175,000 this year from more than 2,500 subscribers. Out of that, she’ll pay for health care, a research assistant and a 10 percent fee to Substack, among other costs.For others, Substack is a way to carry on with work they’re passionate about when a job goes away, as Lindsay Gibbs found when the liberal news site ThinkProgress shut down last year and took her beat on sexism in sports with it.Now, she has more than 1,000 subscribers to Power Plays, paying as much as $72 a year.Both of them started with $20,000 advances from the platform.“The audience connecting directly with you and paying directly is a revolutionary change to the business model,” Substack’s chief executive, Chris Best, told me.It’s hard to imagine even the most successful writers, like Mr. Bishop and Ms. Atkin, posing a major threat to the titans of media anytime soon, especially as a few big institutions — whether in news or streaming video — dominate each market. But the two writers’ path to success points to the reality that the biggest threat to those institutions may come from their talented employees. Updated May 20, 2020 How can I protect myself while flying? If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.) What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days. How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.? Over 38 million people have filed for unemployment since March. One in five who were working in February reported losing a job or being furloughed in March or the beginning of April, data from a Federal Reserve survey released on May 14 showed, and that pain was highly concentrated among low earners. Fully 39 percent of former workers living in a household earning $40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13 percent in those making more than $100,000, a Fed official said. Is ‘Covid toe’ a symptom of the disease? There is an uptick in people reporting symptoms of chilblains, which are painful red or purple lesions that typically appear in the winter on fingers or toes. The lesions are emerging as yet another symptom of infection with the new coronavirus. Chilblains are caused by inflammation in small blood vessels in reaction to cold or damp conditions, but they are usually common in the coldest winter months. Federal health officials do not include toe lesions in the list of coronavirus symptoms, but some dermatologists are pushing for a change, saying so-called Covid toe should be sufficient grounds for testing. Can I go to the park? Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’t live in your home. Even if you just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea. How do I take my temperature? Taking one’s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “normal” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’t have a thermometer (they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications. Should I wear a mask? The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing. What should I do if I feel sick? If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others. How do I get tested? If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested. How can I help? Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities. That dynamic was on display in a confrontation between Barstool Sports and the hosts of its hit podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” as my colleague Taylor Lorenz reported last week. Media company stars, with big social media followings and more and more ways to make money, are less and less willing to act like employees. (“The ‘Call Her Daddy’ girls would be making over half a million dollars a year with me,” Mr. Galanis of Cameo said. “High Pitch Erik from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ is making low six figures.”)Substack represents a radically different alternative, in which the “media company” is a service and the journalists are in charge. It’s what one of the pioneers of the modern newsletter business, the tech analyst Ben Thompson, describes as a “faceless” publisher. And you can imagine it or its competitors offering more services, from insurance to marketing to editing, reversing the dynamic of the old top-down media company and producing something more like a talent agency, where the individual journalist is the star and the boss, and the editor is merely on call.ImageThe popularity of “Tiger King,” starring Lauren and Jeff Lowe, left, led Cameo to sign up Kelci Saffery, right, who had a lesser role in the documentary.Credit...CameoThe new passion-economy media companies are converging in some ways. The ones like Patreon and Substack, which operate primarily in the background, are now looking at careful ways to bundle their offerings, their executives said. Medium, which allows you to subscribe to its full bundle of writers, is looking for ways to foster more intimate connections between individuals and their followers, its founder, Ev Williams, said. Cameo, which has a front page in its app and website but is mostly selling one-off shout-outs, is shifting toward a model that is more like subscribing to a celebrity: For a price, you’ll be able to send direct messages that appear in a priority inbox.“We think messages back and forth is where the puck is going with Cameo,” Mr. Galanis said.Is this good news? The rise of these new companies could further shake our faltering institutions, splinter our fragmented media and cement celebrity culture. Or they could pay for a new wave of powerful independent voices and offer steady work for people doing valuable work — like journalists covering narrow, important bits of the world — who don’t have another source of income. Like the whole collision of the internet and media, it will doubtless be some of both.In Silicon Valley, where the East Coast institutions of journalism are often seen as another set of hostile gatekeepers to be disrupted, leading figures are cheering a possible challenger. Mr. Best, the Substack chief, told me that the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, whose firm has invested in the company, said he hoped it would “do to big media companies what venture capital did to big tech companies” — that is, peel off their biggest stars with the promise of money and freedom and create new kinds of news companies.One of the things I find most heartening in these unequal times, though, is the creation of some new space for a middle class of journalists and entertainers — the idea that you can make a living, if not a killing, by working hard for a limited audience. Even people who play a modest role in a cultural phenomenon can get some of the take, which was what happened with the Netflix documentary “Tiger King.”When the documentary hit big in March, Cameo signed up 10 of its ragtag cast of, mostly, amateur zookeepers. That came just in time for Kelci Saffery, best known on the show for returning to work soon after losing a hand to a tiger. Mr. Saffery now lives in California, and lost his job at a furniture warehouse when the pandemic hit. To his shock, he has earned about $17,000, as well as a measure of recognition, even as the requests are slowing down.“Every day I’m at least getting one, and for me that still means that one person every day is thinking, ‘Hey, this would be cool,’ and to me that’s significant,” he said. As for the money, “that could send one of my children to college.” Read More Read the full article