the-pen-pot - Tumblr blog

[the-pen-pot]

So, there's a dirty little secret in indie publishing a lot of people won't tell you, and if you aren't aware of it, self-publishing feels even scarier than it actually is.

There's a subset of self-published indie authors who write a ludicrous number of books a year, we're talking double digit releases of full novels, and these folks make a lot of money telling you how you can do the same thing. A lot of them feature in breathless puff pieces about how "competitive" self-publishing is as an industry now.

A lot of these authors aren't being completely honest with you, though. They'll give you secrets for time management and plotting and outlining and marketing and what have you. But the way they're able to write, edit, and publish 10+ books a year, by and large, is that they're hiring ghostwriters.

They're using upwork or fiverr to find people to outline, draft, edit, and market their books. Most of them, presumably, do write some of their own stuff! But many "prolific" indie writers are absolutely using ghostwriters to speed up their process, get higher Amazon best-seller ratings, and, bluntly, make more money faster.

When you see some godawful puff piece floating around about how some indie writer is thinking about having to start using AI to "stay competitive in self-publishing", the part the journalist isn't telling you is that the 'indie writer' in question is planning to use AI instead of paying some guy on Upwork to do the drafting.

If you are writing your books the old fashioned way and are trying to build a readerbase who cares about your work, you don't need to use AI to 'stay competitive', because you're not competing with these people. You're playing an entirely different game.

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found my new passion: putting merthur into random meme pics also, this is totally how s5 ended, why are you guys even sad about the ending??? they totally ran off into the sunset and finally got that farm!!

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— MERLIN 5.05 (The Disir)

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Fanfic writers are like crows. If you give them treats (comments) they will bring you shiny things (fanfic)

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And this is why AI is shit in general, and doubly so in fandom.

I saw a comment by someone on reddit who said they no longer comment on any fanfiction because of the risk of it being AI and ... that just seems like such a cop out to me, not to mention incredibly cruel to authors.

Please please please do not stop commenting on all fics or interacting with authors because you are worried about things being AI. The risk is slim, and the damage you do to authors by doing this is awful.

Writers put so much effort into their fics. For people to openly admit they still read and consume these fics, but choose not to comment on anything because of the possibility of someone using AI for their writing is incredibly selfish. You're punishing authors by doing this. You're not being moral or helpful or crusading for any useful cause - you're just hurting authors.

Ironically, by doing this, you're actually more likely to cause authors to stop writing (silence does this), and people who can't write will fill the gaps left by creating AI writing - so you're making the problem worse, not helping anyone.

If you want to support authors and writers, then SUPPORT them! Reblog work and send authors asks, leave comments and kudos, and above all don't punish people with silence.

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there’s absolutely nothing better than reading a 100k word fanfic, that is until you remember you have a body that is starving, thirsty and incredibly sleep deprived and hasn’t used the bathroom since the sun set 8 hours ago

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this is assuming its on art you normally wouldn't jump to reblog. i myself only rb stuff i really really like so .

The 'rude/demanding' tone would be stuff along the lines of "if you like but don't reblog I'll [threat]" which i see surprisingly often, both serious and more silly

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online communities are so strange because people slip away so easily. you can be on here for years, folding people you've never met into the fabric of your daily life, and then they disappear, leaving only ghost posts scattered across tumblr behind. or their blog stays dormant, for weeks, months, years, until you're only still following them because you remember that they love sunflowers or they were kind to you when they didn't have to be or the last thing they posted was sad and raw and you still worry about them sometimes.

and sometimes they come back when you least expect it, years later, even, and there's this sudden rush of relief like there you are, there you are, even though you barely knew each other.

there's a strange kind of love to it. i don't know you and i want to hold your hand across miles and time zones and oceans. i can still see the imprint of you in this community you left. you don't anyone will notice or care when you're gone, but we notice and we care and we wish you well.

i hope you're all okay out there. i hope the sun is shining on your face and you are breathing deeply. i miss you.

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This started out as a screenshot redraw 

but I’m like 33% sure that this isn’t how that scene went.

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Just so you all realize and see it in action:

This fic was finished in 2015 and the author hadn't had a comment since 2016. They appreciated the comment even though it was just emoji hearts, they were happy and surprised to receive love on their older fic.

Don't stop commenting just because it's an old piece or because you think you can't come up with something smart, witty or thoughtful to say.

Just say anything. Just put an emoji. Just let them know you appreciate their work.

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I don't know what tenth circle of hell my YouTube algorithm fell into, but I really wish it would stop showing me videos of 5 a.m. morning writing routines.

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you know i have never heard a convincing arguement as to why AO3 should not moderate the content that is posted to their website and i think a lot of the arguement against moderation on AO3 boils down to, terminally online people thinks community moderation is the same as government censorship and personally sending the cops to someone’s house to arrest them irl/

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Trying to talk myself put of buying Horizon Forbidden West at full price on the PC...

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guys i need you to be less comfortable making super negative comments abt a character in the tags of a random post abt that character. like i support haterism but make your own post. please stop and think about whether op, a person who is interested in this character enough to make posts abt them, wants to hear all that. i see this too much from people reblogging from me and it makes me embarrassed that you’re reblogging from me. you are being rude

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Me: I'm going to stuff some drugs up my nose.

The drugs: