Well, I've arrived.
Authortown, Writer's Junction, Wordsmith Boulevard. No Green Day, my boulevard is one of intact dreams.
Alright I've not yet but I will be very very soon. I spoke a bit last time about my dislike of the Amazon conglomerate. I am a huge hypocrite because I use Amazon, a great deal in fact. So much that I'm even a member of Amazon Prime. So if you need anything delivered tomorrow for free I'm your man.
However, while I do use the shopping cart of evil, I purchase some things elsewhere. Books for instance I buy in bookshops because, as a writer I feel a personal affiliation to the writers of the books and the booksellers themselves. I would much rather give Waterstones and John Green my money than Amazon and Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon (and John Green still) my money.
That's the sickening thing though. If I go on the Amazon marketplace to buy The Fault in Our Stars, for a cut price, which I can easily do, John Green; writer one of the best books I have ever read, gets none of my money. Only the seller does. It's like someone buying a concert ticket and selling it on. It just doesn't sit right with me. Alright, there's only one book, so there's only one percentage of money up for grabs, so in a round about way John Green has been paid for his excellent work, and I get my book. But so does the money spinning giant with the monopoly on everything.
That's why I don't like Amazon, it doesn't care about what's on it. It's only out for money. I would like to think, the owner of a chain of bookshops, by definition cares a little bit about books, therefore I would rather purchase my words scribbled on delightful scented paper from them.
On another note when are Yankee Candles going to do a 'new book' scent? Get your finger out Yankee Candles.
The reason why I'm talking about this again is that this morning, on watching an Alex Day (Nerimon) video, I was inspired to go it alone in the publishing world. Gradually over the past few months, I've grown to appreciate Youtube for what it actually is. The perfect site for creation. It is built on user created content. Yes there are clips of films and music and other things, but the basis of it is a place where a person, say you or me, can get hold of a camera, be it a cheap webcam or a camera worth many monies, can click record and create whatever we like. Alex Day makes music, and got to number 4 in the UK charts at Christmas last year. No record label, nothing like that.
I am convinced independent is the future. I do agree with John Green on the book side of things, self-published books can go wrong. If a book has been looked over by a large number of people, and the authors themselves though, I think self-publishing a book is just the same as Alex Day self-producing excellent music for people's ears. I want to create stories for people's eyes.
I have become disheartened and annoyed with the publishing industry. I have been told by two separate publishing institutions (an agency and a publisher) more or less that my book is fantastic. However, for the most ridiculous reasons my book is not sat on a shelf in Waterstones. The publisher said I was two young and the agency basically (I think) couldn't be bothered. They said that my book is a thriller/sci-fi/ humour. First of all I disagree with the humour. My book has humour in it, it's not of the humour genre. This was her reasoning for not wanting to take it on.
Therefore I thought, why should I listen to these people when there exists on the internet, this wonderful land of sharing and creation, the tools to self publish my work. So I give you ibooks and the Kindle Store.
Ah the Amazon link, see I was going somewhere.
I had a dialemma. If I put my book on the Kindle Store for money, Mr Bezos gets a slice of my pie. My pie is tasty and I don't share it with people I don't like. Mr Bezos is on my list. However he has the sharing platform for books, and to ignore it would be foolish of me. Therefore I came up with a plan. I have a vlog on Youtube, I hope to get a following on the site. And I believe in the community. I believe that as a group of creative people, the Youtubers can accomplish anything they set their minds to. It's beating the system in a wonderfully poetic and fist-pumpingly awesome way. That's why my book will be available for nothing on the Kindle Store. You can get my 300 pages of story, for free. And I really hope you'll like it.
I hate to be big-headed, to assume that my work should be one of those things. I'm not saying it will be, all I want to do is try. And try again with something better if something fails. But then what is failure? If one person buys my book, and it helps them in whatever small way, I would call my words on their computer screen a 100% roaring success. Who says that number of sales = success? Alright loads of people. But not me, that's not important to me. Ok it's my dream of making a living out of this, which is why I'll be putting my book on sale for money on ibooks.
But David! I hear you cry. Apple are as big a company as Amazon, if not bigger! Why are you giving them money. And the answer, first and foremost is my self-professed Apple-whore status. I own every Apple product save for the ipad and imac. Although I do have plans to own them in the future. I love Apple products. I love itunes, I love everything about them. That's my preference, and it might seem narrow-minded of me to chose them over personal preference but is it? Apple, in my opinion monopolise electronic items and sale. But that's their right as an electronics company. Amazon on the other hands, like Tescos are trying to monopolise everything. From books, to music, to paddling pools, to sweets, to clothes to everything else ever created by man. I do not want to walk down a street singularly composed of these two signs. However having one Apple store every now and again just shows a bloomin' successful company who are good at what they do. Which is why my book will be for sale for actual money on the ibooks store. Not for a full book price because I'm nice, but for sale nevertheless.
But David!
You again? What now?
Why would people buy your book when they can get it for free?
Well, I would like to think, that people like to contribute to the creator's work. Thousands of people download for music for free and buy the albums they actually like or believe in. I therefore am offering my work for free, so people can then, if they so desire, and only if they desire, go and buy my book and give me a little bit of money for my trouble. Maybe it's a hippy way to do this but I believe in people, and I would! I download nothing for free, I don't believe in it at all, and I love the idea of giving something away in one place and asking people to contribute if they like.
I very much hope it works. Maybe it's pie in the sky and I don't know if it'll work for me. I just want to find out if people like my work. If they do there will be a sequel, and another after that, and then several standalone novels I have plans for. I want people to read the words I've written so why not give it to them? If they go and buy it too, then wehey! Top notch, my thanks can never be expressed in words thankful enough. So I'll express my thanks with another book you can get for free if you so choose. Hopefully you'll like that one too and come back for more.
I would like to also make the point that because profit margins are better for authors when you self-publish. Whatever 'extra' money I'd receive by self-publishing would go to the 'This Star Won't Go Out' foundation. I think definitely the most worthy cause I can think of. http://tswgo.org/
This is my plan, to be an indie author. My skinny leg attire is at the ready.
Showing posts with label Alex Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex Day. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 July 2012
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
I Have a Dream or 'David Tries Being an Important Black Rights Spokesman'
I shall call this the sentence of disappointment. Or the sentence of broken promises. It goes thus:
I am not Martin Luther King, nor am I in the position to campaign for black rights. Mainly because a lot of people already did that a long time ago to great effect. I sometimes wonder who will be the Martin Luther King of the gay rights movement. I hope it's Neil Patrick Harris personally; my current favourite homosexual.
Anyway, while I will not be talking today at any length about rights, I do have a dream.
Smooth David, onto the point.
My dream is quite simple, and it's an idea I've had for a few months now and not really shared. Mainly because it only formed properly in my head about 45 seconds ago.
My idea for my blog in the first place, as I'm sure you know - if you don't, then have a click on those links over there --> where've you been? But anyway my idea for this blog came from a sudden fear I had that I wasn't trying everything I should be trying, in all areas of my life. I'm a 21 year old man living in London, a city which screams 'come here! Experience me!' That sounds sordid and I don't even care, I experience the hell out of this place.
I love trying things because I love discovering new places and new things to interest me and benefit my life. It's an incredibly positive way to live to be willing to give anything a try and I can only recommend it, it's up to you whether you want to follow it too.
The tricky thing is though, how to find things? Most of the time I go on a random adventure somewhere, say London, and while there something will catch my eye and I'll give it a go. The other day it was seeing One Man, Two Guv'nors. I had no plans to see it but I was walking past it, there was a friendly sign saying 'tickets for tonight!' and I walked in. I flashed my National Theatre pass and saw one of the best, funniest plays I'd ever seen for £5. On another note I want to get an FBI style flippy wallet for my NT pass. Or maybe I'll wear it as a badge on the inside of my outerwear.
My point is, on my spontaneous adventure I experienced many things, this play for instance. In the play there was a band playing between scenes. They're called 'The Craze' and they're my new favourite band and my soundtrack to writing this blog. I think it would be silly to merely go to the NT website, click on the shop and purchase their album there. I suggest instead scooting over a couple of tabs, getting yourself an entry pass. Skipping over to the tab next to it and using that badboy to see One Man, Two Guv'nors and then buy their album at home. They're amazing, they're a skiffle band with a punky, indie twang to their voices. They're like the Beatles meets Alex Day, the Youtuber formerly known as Nerimon, who I also suggest you check out.
This is my point though, not everyone has the time or the patience to go on spontaneous trips to London. As much as I think everybody should because I have a lot of fun doing that, but it would be good if there was another place I could visit, here on the internet which pointed me in the direction of The Craze, or Alex Day, or One Man, Two Guv'nors, or indeed the quirky shop I discovered the day after on a second trip to London called 'The Vintage Magazine Shop.' A place which doesn't actually provide magazines disappointingly, but instead a whole host of retro merchandise that I really wanted to spend money I don't have on. It's awesome and on Brewer Street near Leicester Square...What are you still doing here, go now! I'll wait for you to get back...
...Hiya! It's amazing isn't it? What? You went and saw a bit of spontaneous theatre too? A reader after my own heart. As I was saying though, I'd like to see a website which promoted the indie. I think indie is a vastly misunderstood term. I think a lot of people hear the word 'indie' and go 'ugh idiots in skinny jeans.' And yes, we may like our jeans slender, but they make our legs look sexy! Indie means independent, and so much is made of the fear that nowadays independent things are dying out. I have a contrary opinion. What people like Alex Day show us, is that independent people are thriving, there is just not the general worldwide advertising they require. This is a crying shame. Not that these independent people should advertise themselves, by paying people to do so, that kind of defeats the point of being independent. However, there needs to be a platform for these people, led by the people who love listening to them, reading their work, visiting their shops.
It's always a huge shame when an independent shop goes under. I direct you to the film 'You've Got Mail.' It's very sad when Meg Ryan's children's bookshop gets closed in lieu of the arrival of Tom Hank's book megastore down the street. And it's a situation only two relatable to the situation we find ourselves in. Especially for artists of all disciplines. Amazon is not only putting independent shops out of business with their cheap books/cheap dvds/cheap everything. They are putting entire chains of shops out of business. I direct you to Borders, murdered by the Amazon giant. Waterstones and Barnes and Noble are also on shakey ground because of the online superstore giant.
I'm not going to say I don't use Amazon, of course I use Amazon, it's unavoidable, especially as a student with limited funds. But do you really want a high street that only has the word Amazon above every shop? It would be so boring, and more importantly it makes only the one person any richer, the person sitting at the top of the Amazon pyramid. And it's not fair. Why should the Rupert Murdoch type people of this world own the monopoly on everything? Money should be spread evenly amongst all the people who create the work that they produce. This opens up the avenue of self publishing. You can now upload any old writing you do on the side to the Amazon Kindle Store, and give Amazon a share of the profits. What about the publishers who make writing publishable? I can sit here and complain about my book being published all I like but the fact of the matter is I haven't produced something good enough to be published which is why I always strive to make what I write better. Editors and publishers deserve their place in the business, and Amazon is trying to put them out of the business in supposed 'fairness' to get everyone's work out into the public. But it's not about that. The people who become big through self publishing. The EL James type people in this world (the author who penned Fifty Shades of Grey) are only out for the money, not for the work. As are Amazon who helped her self publish the work in the first place.
I know it sounds like I'm contradicting myself. EL James was of course an independent person at first. However she is now published by a bona fide publishing house, and the fact of the matter is, her work is not up to the standard of other books published generally. The point of being independent, like Alex Day is that the work he produces would get signed, I have no doubt, there will be record labels snapping at his converse. And I'm sure they are. I don't fully understand Alex's position, all I know is that he's not signed, and from what I am aware happy to stay that way, under the independent producer DFTBA records, a vlogbrothers production. The point is that being independent can work. I'm not lauding book publishers, they are a business, and if you believe your work is good enough, then self publish, but you could start by doing so for free. There's a difference in wanting to get the work out there and selling out *cough* EL James *cough*
I've gone off on one, but the point remains, companies like Amazon are out to kill the independent people, not support them. They're trying to monopolise independence! And sneakily. And I think it's wrong. It's dog eat dog you might say, and I agree, which is where my dream comes in, and I really hope I can achieve it.
I want to set up a website, or a web magazine that promotes the new things you can all go out and experience in the world. It would have new music, new books, new theatre shows, new clothes, new art exhibitions, new vlog channels, new absolutely everything so people can click on them, and then go and experience what they want to experience. The problem with good art, I often find is that there is no platform for everyone to see it, or not as big a platform as there should be. I only found out about Alex Day by word of mouth. To be honest he doesn't need my help, that guy's going places, but I doubt anyone would disagree with a little bit more publicity from a fan who would just like to help. The same goes for The Craze who I really hope get places. And I'm not completely against self-publishing per-say, there are good self-published novels out there, and I would promote them too, along with all the new theatre shows you should go to as a theatre goer, along with everything else which people need to experience.
I'd also have on it a book club and a platform for people to talk, get to know each other, exchange ideas. If you have a band, and you need a bassist, then you could go to the website and there would be a section for people who wanted to promote their musical talents and new and exciting bands would be formed to be out there and in the public's ears. I'm excited, I hope you can tell, I have a lot of ideas, some of them rubbish, but I think this one has legs. The best thing about this website, if you want your stuff on there, it's free. A social networking site for stuff as well as people if you like, like MySpace but not rubbish.
I'd hope a website such as this would encourage people to go out and give their money to the independent people. The ones who create amazing stuff which gets overshadowed by the giants. The Twilights and the Fifty Shades of Grey of this world. The monopolised money spinning doommongers who suck the life out of anything vaguely creative. Don't go to Amazon go to a bookshop you found in a backstreet in Soho. It's the same book, and you keep them afloat and the person who wrote it gets more of your money. Don't give your money to the people who have too much of it already.
NewThings.co.uk. Watch this space.
Alex Day: http://www.youtube.com/user/nerimon
I am not Martin Luther King, nor am I in the position to campaign for black rights. Mainly because a lot of people already did that a long time ago to great effect. I sometimes wonder who will be the Martin Luther King of the gay rights movement. I hope it's Neil Patrick Harris personally; my current favourite homosexual.
Anyway, while I will not be talking today at any length about rights, I do have a dream.
Smooth David, onto the point.
My dream is quite simple, and it's an idea I've had for a few months now and not really shared. Mainly because it only formed properly in my head about 45 seconds ago.
My idea for my blog in the first place, as I'm sure you know - if you don't, then have a click on those links over there --> where've you been? But anyway my idea for this blog came from a sudden fear I had that I wasn't trying everything I should be trying, in all areas of my life. I'm a 21 year old man living in London, a city which screams 'come here! Experience me!' That sounds sordid and I don't even care, I experience the hell out of this place.
I love trying things because I love discovering new places and new things to interest me and benefit my life. It's an incredibly positive way to live to be willing to give anything a try and I can only recommend it, it's up to you whether you want to follow it too.
The tricky thing is though, how to find things? Most of the time I go on a random adventure somewhere, say London, and while there something will catch my eye and I'll give it a go. The other day it was seeing One Man, Two Guv'nors. I had no plans to see it but I was walking past it, there was a friendly sign saying 'tickets for tonight!' and I walked in. I flashed my National Theatre pass and saw one of the best, funniest plays I'd ever seen for £5. On another note I want to get an FBI style flippy wallet for my NT pass. Or maybe I'll wear it as a badge on the inside of my outerwear.
My point is, on my spontaneous adventure I experienced many things, this play for instance. In the play there was a band playing between scenes. They're called 'The Craze' and they're my new favourite band and my soundtrack to writing this blog. I think it would be silly to merely go to the NT website, click on the shop and purchase their album there. I suggest instead scooting over a couple of tabs, getting yourself an entry pass. Skipping over to the tab next to it and using that badboy to see One Man, Two Guv'nors and then buy their album at home. They're amazing, they're a skiffle band with a punky, indie twang to their voices. They're like the Beatles meets Alex Day, the Youtuber formerly known as Nerimon, who I also suggest you check out.
This is my point though, not everyone has the time or the patience to go on spontaneous trips to London. As much as I think everybody should because I have a lot of fun doing that, but it would be good if there was another place I could visit, here on the internet which pointed me in the direction of The Craze, or Alex Day, or One Man, Two Guv'nors, or indeed the quirky shop I discovered the day after on a second trip to London called 'The Vintage Magazine Shop.' A place which doesn't actually provide magazines disappointingly, but instead a whole host of retro merchandise that I really wanted to spend money I don't have on. It's awesome and on Brewer Street near Leicester Square...What are you still doing here, go now! I'll wait for you to get back...
...Hiya! It's amazing isn't it? What? You went and saw a bit of spontaneous theatre too? A reader after my own heart. As I was saying though, I'd like to see a website which promoted the indie. I think indie is a vastly misunderstood term. I think a lot of people hear the word 'indie' and go 'ugh idiots in skinny jeans.' And yes, we may like our jeans slender, but they make our legs look sexy! Indie means independent, and so much is made of the fear that nowadays independent things are dying out. I have a contrary opinion. What people like Alex Day show us, is that independent people are thriving, there is just not the general worldwide advertising they require. This is a crying shame. Not that these independent people should advertise themselves, by paying people to do so, that kind of defeats the point of being independent. However, there needs to be a platform for these people, led by the people who love listening to them, reading their work, visiting their shops.
It's always a huge shame when an independent shop goes under. I direct you to the film 'You've Got Mail.' It's very sad when Meg Ryan's children's bookshop gets closed in lieu of the arrival of Tom Hank's book megastore down the street. And it's a situation only two relatable to the situation we find ourselves in. Especially for artists of all disciplines. Amazon is not only putting independent shops out of business with their cheap books/cheap dvds/cheap everything. They are putting entire chains of shops out of business. I direct you to Borders, murdered by the Amazon giant. Waterstones and Barnes and Noble are also on shakey ground because of the online superstore giant.
I'm not going to say I don't use Amazon, of course I use Amazon, it's unavoidable, especially as a student with limited funds. But do you really want a high street that only has the word Amazon above every shop? It would be so boring, and more importantly it makes only the one person any richer, the person sitting at the top of the Amazon pyramid. And it's not fair. Why should the Rupert Murdoch type people of this world own the monopoly on everything? Money should be spread evenly amongst all the people who create the work that they produce. This opens up the avenue of self publishing. You can now upload any old writing you do on the side to the Amazon Kindle Store, and give Amazon a share of the profits. What about the publishers who make writing publishable? I can sit here and complain about my book being published all I like but the fact of the matter is I haven't produced something good enough to be published which is why I always strive to make what I write better. Editors and publishers deserve their place in the business, and Amazon is trying to put them out of the business in supposed 'fairness' to get everyone's work out into the public. But it's not about that. The people who become big through self publishing. The EL James type people in this world (the author who penned Fifty Shades of Grey) are only out for the money, not for the work. As are Amazon who helped her self publish the work in the first place.
I know it sounds like I'm contradicting myself. EL James was of course an independent person at first. However she is now published by a bona fide publishing house, and the fact of the matter is, her work is not up to the standard of other books published generally. The point of being independent, like Alex Day is that the work he produces would get signed, I have no doubt, there will be record labels snapping at his converse. And I'm sure they are. I don't fully understand Alex's position, all I know is that he's not signed, and from what I am aware happy to stay that way, under the independent producer DFTBA records, a vlogbrothers production. The point is that being independent can work. I'm not lauding book publishers, they are a business, and if you believe your work is good enough, then self publish, but you could start by doing so for free. There's a difference in wanting to get the work out there and selling out *cough* EL James *cough*
I've gone off on one, but the point remains, companies like Amazon are out to kill the independent people, not support them. They're trying to monopolise independence! And sneakily. And I think it's wrong. It's dog eat dog you might say, and I agree, which is where my dream comes in, and I really hope I can achieve it.
I want to set up a website, or a web magazine that promotes the new things you can all go out and experience in the world. It would have new music, new books, new theatre shows, new clothes, new art exhibitions, new vlog channels, new absolutely everything so people can click on them, and then go and experience what they want to experience. The problem with good art, I often find is that there is no platform for everyone to see it, or not as big a platform as there should be. I only found out about Alex Day by word of mouth. To be honest he doesn't need my help, that guy's going places, but I doubt anyone would disagree with a little bit more publicity from a fan who would just like to help. The same goes for The Craze who I really hope get places. And I'm not completely against self-publishing per-say, there are good self-published novels out there, and I would promote them too, along with all the new theatre shows you should go to as a theatre goer, along with everything else which people need to experience.
I'd also have on it a book club and a platform for people to talk, get to know each other, exchange ideas. If you have a band, and you need a bassist, then you could go to the website and there would be a section for people who wanted to promote their musical talents and new and exciting bands would be formed to be out there and in the public's ears. I'm excited, I hope you can tell, I have a lot of ideas, some of them rubbish, but I think this one has legs. The best thing about this website, if you want your stuff on there, it's free. A social networking site for stuff as well as people if you like, like MySpace but not rubbish.
I'd hope a website such as this would encourage people to go out and give their money to the independent people. The ones who create amazing stuff which gets overshadowed by the giants. The Twilights and the Fifty Shades of Grey of this world. The monopolised money spinning doommongers who suck the life out of anything vaguely creative. Don't go to Amazon go to a bookshop you found in a backstreet in Soho. It's the same book, and you keep them afloat and the person who wrote it gets more of your money. Don't give your money to the people who have too much of it already.
NewThings.co.uk. Watch this space.
Alex Day: http://www.youtube.com/user/nerimon
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