How Many Here Soon Plan to Write/Publish a Book on Amazon? What Topic Have You Chosen?

[save the frogs]

19 hours ago, jaywalker2 said:

If you want sales though, you need to market it -- blogs, youtube videos, Instagram, and learn how to game the google search results. Otherwise nobody will ever hear of it. There are over a million and a half self-published ebooks released on Amazon every year.

I was going to make the same point.

 

There was a retired guy in Thailand who is blogging about Thailand on Youtube and he promotes his books on his Youtube channel. 

 

[save the frogs]

22 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

A Word of Caution:  I would suggest that you never resort to enlisting the help of some AI in your writing. To do so would only alienate your readers and almost assuredly damage your reputation irreparably.  Don’t even consider the AI option, please. 

how will anyone know who enlisted the help AI and who didn't?

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

30 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

Yours is an amusing comment and indicative of the perceptions generations have of others.

 

Maybe some Boomers think they have gained wisdom worth sharing, but they absolutely are not of the opinion that anyone on Earth cares what they had for breakfast. THAT peccadillo is a trait of the Participation Trophy Generations, such as Millennials, GenZ and the more recent arrivals. Millennials can't even fart without posting it on some form of social media, the latest of which is TikTok, that app where those without talent post content for those without taste. They also are under the delusion that they are the first since humans left Oldavai Gorge to have certain thoughts. Ah, and my favorite: They all have 6,752 'friends' but they can't even get one to take their photo, instead they had to invent the "Selfie".

 

Personally, my own particular cut off for deciding whether one has something to say or not is if the person was born when music was still made by humans, who actually took the time to learn to play actual instruments, and who could sing without the need of Autotune. Anyone fond of such cacophony as Techno, Trance, EDM, House, or Justin Bieber, etc. does not qualify.

 

Of course inter-generational dismissal is hardly new. Perhaps Oscar Wilde put it best:

 

"I'm not young enough to know everything".

Speaking to your comment, I very much prefer the youth of China, and I appreciate any opportunity to teach Chinese youth, for free.

 

Interestingly, there is no need to teach Chinese kids that: Wisdom is Not for Sale.

They understand this important truth at a very early age.

 

Why?

 

My best guess is that the impact of the Cultural Revolution in China still remains an open wound in the common culture of China.

 

During the Cultural Revolution, important core beliefs, as well as musical instruments, fine art, and even Family, were smashed/blown to smithereens, while the Red Guard roamed the Middle Kingdom and rode roughshod over all values the Chinese People still hold holy.

 

These days, Chinese parents know the importance of wisdom.

Their children do, as well.

And, when a Chinese child reads the Russian folktale, The Good Peasant's Son, there is no need to explain this concept.

 

This is why I love to teach children from China.

 

Please Note:  Just for any parties here who wish further edification concerning the concept of WISDOM as analyzed through the lens of the use of folktales, interculturally, I highly recommend the attached article written by Abu Fanani, S.S., M. Pd., which also discusses the use of a revised version of The Good Peasant's Son.  I am sure you will find it not only edifying, but also most entertaining, as did I.

 

 

 

Abu Fanani_Wisdom as motif in folktales the Good Peasant’s Son.pdf

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

In my career, I did write many technical reports, and some papers for scientific journals. I enjoyed the bench work and field investigation, less so writing everything up.

After I had finished the report, I always felt let down. The Latin phrase "Post coitum omne animalium triste est" applied.

Perhaps that is true of any creative activity.

Unlike you, my main concern about engaging in any academic writing is that I worry readers will consider my efforts to be a parody of academic writing.

 

I do not feel let down due to the ending of a creative process, as you.

I feel let down upon completion of my work due to my expectation of the potential negative reaction of the reader.

 

Still, I LOVE Parody.

So, maybe I'm still good.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

On 7/15/2023 at 2:08 PM, Lacessit said:

Been there, done that. A travel book, based on my experiences in Thailand. Looking back, it was dreadfully naive.

I dealt through an on-line publisher, who charged me about $800 for a marketing campaign which was non-existent. Their proof-readers actually introduced quite a few spelling and punctuation errors.

IIRC I made about $500 in hard-copy and Amazon sales, then it disappeared. Total loss on the exercise about $1500.

If it's fame and fortune that is one's sole motivation for writing and publishing, then maybe best to write another "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", but tweaked for the present generation of non-reading, almost illiterate, simpletons.

 

Tom Wolfe (died 2018, RIP) was a heck of a writer, in that he was able to capture the feel of the culture of an entire generation.

 

But then, he was a Yaley who dressed up as a dandy in white suits all the time.

And so, what more could one expect?

 

[Lacessit]

4 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

If it's fame and fortune that is one's sole motivation for writing and publishing, then maybe best to write another "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", but tweaked for the present generation of non-reading, almost illiterate, simpletons.

 

Tom Wolfe (died 2018, RIP) was a heck of a writer, in that he was able to capture the feel of the culture of an entire generation.

 

But then, he was a Yaley who dressed up as a dandy in white suits all the time.

And so, what more could one expect?

 

For mine, John D MacDonald is one of the best novelists America has produced. "One More Sunday", " Condominium" and "Barrier Island" are a commentary on various aspects of American culture and mores.

 

The film "Cape Fear" is based on one of his novels. J D MacDonald died in 1986, contemporary authors such as Lee Child acknowledge their debt to him. RIP.