Has it Gotten Desperate

Has it Gotten Desperate It is funny how emails from readers serve as prompts for each weeks editorial thoughts, and this week is no exception. Received a question from an indie author who asked me where he could obtain statistics on how much money indie writers make. BookScan and other entities attempt to monitor traditional sales (not that they get it correct, but they try), but he felt there had to be something somewhere monitoring the same for indie. Then he gave me his statistics, and how low they were. A friend of mine told me one of his bestsellers sold 300 copies. That was eye-opener for me, because I honestly thought someone in his position would do better than that. I started self-publishing in late 2009 and have put out 23 books. Ive sold 2917 copies for a total of $5793.73. This averages $1.98 a copy. Im personally committed to print books, but probably 75 percent of all my sales are ebooks. This also averages to about 126 copies of each of my 23 titles. However, I can say I have one book which clearly outsells the others and accounts for about 85 percent of all my sales. I love writing short stories (I cant seem to write novels) but readers arent captivated Whats happening these days is that writers dont sell as many books because there are so many books out there. There are also so many tools popping up to advertise books for FREE, 99 cents and $1.99. Daily and weekly publications tell you were all the secret best deals are. So: 1) Readers expect to pay less for books than they used to. 2) Writers receive less money and feel they have to write more to take up the slack. 3) That puts even more books out there, so readers dont know what to buy and they stick to lists. 4) The lists start charging for appearances in their lists. The spiral continues. It used to be that writers had to have three to four books to be a success. Now its closer to ten. And after attending a recent mystery conference, Im learning that the serious writer has two dozen or more. My suggested solution? 1) Dont forget traditional publishing. They still get your name out to more regions. 2) When indie publishing, pump serious attention into quality, to include financial investment. 3) Dont forget to write well. Dont shortchange your craft for quantity. 4) Be patient, keep writing, and know that this phase will change for another. Dont let it freak you out. New indie authors do not make money. Those that do have been busting their asses for a long time. Nobody is an overnight success. So keep on keeping on. Only the diligent survive this business.

Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 9

Reflection paper - Essay Example Both artists are generally considered to play music under the Pop rock genre. Aside from this shared quality, the two musicians differ greatly in almost everything else from their style of music, their portrayals in music videos, their album covers and even their live performances (â€Å"Jason Mraz† n. pag.; â€Å"Katy Perry† n. pag.). Jason Mraz was born on March 23, 1977 and started his career singing at various coffee shops in San Diego where he released his first acoustic album, â€Å"Live at Java Joe’s,† last 2001. Since then, he has made 9 award-winning albums up to his current album, â€Å"Love is a Four Letter Word.† Over a little more than a decade, he has accumulated two Grammy Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, and was the â€Å"Artist of the Year† in the San Diego Music Awards for three consecutive years, while garnering many nominations in between (â€Å"Jason Mraz† n. pag.). As a performer, Jason Mraz tends to present himself simply, relying on his music and wit to liven up a performance. During his live performances, he likes to joke and share his ideas with his audience in between songs. In his album covers, he is usually portrayed simply on the street, in a hallway or a simple caricature of himself. His minimalist presentation seems to invite the listener to skip the album cover and go ahead to the music. In his music videos, he is usually portrayed playing a guitar and singing in various locations in casual clothes. This seems to give him the image of an artist that is ‘all about the music’ by not adding so much glamour to his performances. His stereotype is that of a laid back coffee shop musician that makes his music quite easy to listen to. Katy Perry was born as Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984, and started out as a gospel singer when she released her first self-titled album of Christian songs in 2001 at the age of 15. Her second album, â€Å"One of the Boys† last 2008, had a more â€Å"Pop† feel to her

Implications of the 2012 US elections for the policy making bodies in Essay

Implications of the 2012 US elections for the policy making bodies in the US federal government - Essay Example Furthermore, the analysis will seek to at least minimally explain to what extent the election results have impressed upon the shareholders (inclusive of the President and legislators) of the need to either seek compromise or push single-mindedly towards a highly partisan solution to each and every issue that may face them in the coming years leading up to the next election. As a means to understand this, the key changes that have been effected before and after the November 2012 election will be analyzed. Due to the intrinsically liked nature of the way that the Electoral College and the popular vote within a given state or region is linked, the two have a way of tracking with one another; albeit representing two somewhat different variants (Brown 419). For instance, the 2012 presidential election saw Mr. Romney accrue around 47% of the popular vote and carry 23 states whereas President Obama obtained 51% of the vote and carried 27 states. This of course translated to a victory for Pr esident Obama and the subsequent plurality of Electoral College votes that propelled him to re-election. Naturally, as compared to the two other forms of election results which will herein be discussed, the election for president does not have the same level of nuance. For instance, the overall total number of states won is not important; overall victory of course is. Unlike the Senate or the House of Representatives where an increasing number of seats gives another party a proportionate increase in the power it yields within such a chamber, the victory of the president is less nuanced. In this way, the overall nature of whether the president won in a landslide or won election by a very small margin matters little for the direction that the given president might chose to pursue policy goals and implementation within his term. Of course this is not to say that a first term president will not be mindful of the extent to which he experiences broad based support; quite the contrary. Rat her, it is merely meant to serve as an indication that the presidential election is a much different type of election than those which take place to make up the two houses of legislature. With respect to the Senate, a great deal of change was not incorporated as a result of the election results of 2012. For instance, the 2012 elections incrementally bettered the Democratic position in the Senate by increasing their majority by two seats (53 as compared to 51 previously), it did not provide a fundamental shift in power such as would allow either party to approach issues from a primarily different method of action. Conversely, the result of the US House of Representatives was somewhat different than the result that has thus far been discussed in the Senate. Compared to the last election, the Republicans lost 8 seats to settle at 234 whereas the Democrats of course picked up these 8 seats to settle their total at 201. This of course combined to ensure that the Republican party still ma intained a majority within the House; however, it is of course not a super majority or one that can be used in concert with the Democratically controlled Senate to affect any real level of partisan goals. With respect to the overall policy implications that the aforementioned situation is likely to entail, it will necessarily be a divergence from

Draper Engineering case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Draper Engineering case study - Essay Example Usually, the conditions in the organizational environment – internal and external – influence the potentials of the organization for growth. At this point, the ability of organizational leaders to introduce strategies that will help the firm to increase its competitiveness is critical. Current paper focuses on the examination of the performance of Draper Engineering, a firm operating in the automotive and transport industry. The SWOT analysis is used as a strategic tool in order to identify the firm’s advantages and weaknesses and to check whether its potentials within the particular industry are significant or not. Moreover, the relationship between the firm and its contractors is reviewed and evaluated; measures are also suggested so that the above relationship to be improved, as possible, taking into consideration the current market conditions and the resources available. It is concluded that, currently, the performance of the organization is characterized by a series of failures; the introduction of certain policies, as suggested below, can help the organizational performance to be improved, even in the long term. 2. Draper Engineering – SWOT analysis – improvement of weaknesses 2.1 SWOT analysis In order to understand the current status of the firm in terms of its performance, it would be necessary to develop a SWOT analysis. The specific technique helps to identify a firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The advantage of the specific technique is that its elements are not standardized – only their classification in the four above categories needs to have the particular format (Analoui et al. 2003). Otherwise, a variety of organizational characteristics and elements can be included in the specific analysis – depending on the information provided by the organization and the market conditions, which can lead to different assumptions on a firm’s potentials for growth (Burtonshaw -Gunn 2009). For instance, for a specific organization, outsourcing can be a competitive advantage (when the technology used by the firm’s partner is significant and the increase of the firm’s productivity is important); however, for another firm outsourcing may be a weakness, when the contribution of the contractor in the increase of the firm’s performance is quite low while the costs of outsourcing are high. From this point of view, the SWOT analysis of Draper Engineering will be based on the information available but also on the expected performance of the firm in accordance with the current market performance – in other words, the potentials of a firm of this size within the specific industry would be considered as a standard – minimum – of performance which the firm should reach. If it is proved that such performance is not achieved, then the causes for this outcome will be identified and evaluated. The SWOT analysis of the particular o rganization could be developed as follows: a) Strengths The firm operates in the automotive and transport industry, a sector with many perspectives, if taking into consideration the level of the use of its products in markets worldwide. Moreover, the products of the firm are not quite common in the market; in accordance with the case study the firm focuses on the production of ‘drive shafts and track rods’ (case study, p.1) for the particular industry. This means that the firm has two significant advantages: it is part of an industry which has an important presence in the global market and

Compare and contrast Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Compare and contrast - Assignment Example powerful customer base, great expertise in recommendation software, and opportunities to market through cross-selling† (Furtado, Grosman, & de Souza, n.d., p. 2). Despite its failure to dominate the net, Microsoft still has much strength to sustain competition. Aside from being the most globally recognizable brand, it has a diverse and talented workforce, a good reputation as an employer, and its own online network division (Hafner & Hibert, 2001). Although they have different strengths and products, Amazon and Microsoft share the same market which makes competition inevitable. However, both companies can fare better if they cooperate. First, it would increase the exposure and scope of Amazon products. Secondly, it would provide Microsoft with more assets (e.g. in music retail) and prevent companies like Apple from dominating their respective markets. More importantly, Amazon and Microsoft are more like complimentary companies than competitors. For example, Microsoft could provide the software to Amazon’s Kindle (Perlow, 2010).On the part of the consumers, however, such partnership may not be beneficial. As in traditional trade, online commerce can be monopolized. Monopolies can dictate the online market to their advantage, just as in the case of Google whose â€Å"new formats†¦increase expenses for advertisers† (Edwards, 2010). Scenarios like that would trigger a domino effect that would eventually burden

Summary of strategic strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Summary of strategic strategy - Essay Example For instance, Apple has gone through three different versions of the iPhone, each time introducing new capabilities into the product. Therefore, new technology can continuously be integrated into the product. In the past five years, they have tripled their sales. Although this has occurred with the return of Jobs at the helm of Apple Jobs, like Apple, believes that innovation is very important when it comes to new products. The idea of the iphone came when Apple realized how much most and individuals did not like their cell phones. Apple saw an opportunity to make a great phone that everybody would want to use again and again. This is often how Apple comes up with ideas for products. They see an opening in the market and decide to make the best product possible to fit in with that need. Apple believes in making sure all of its products are excellent. Furthermore, Apple wishes to inspire its employees by letting them know that they can do things the Apple they would not be able to do anywhere else. Apple also believes in hiring the best people in order to give them a piece of the business and the thin do as they please with it. They want their employees to make excellent decisions and contribute to the company overall. Furthermore, Apple police and always working hard are in hard are to make the best products possible. ... Book Analysis: Our textbook describes a company's importance as far as setting goals is concerned. It can be argued that Apple definitely sets goals, but unlike the structures presented in the book, they tend to use their own approach. As mentioned in the article analysis, Apple likes to find an area and the market that one could consider a whole. When the fullest discovered, Apple then dressed of formal product that will fill that need. The Iphone has been the perfect example of this. As Apple realize people were generally unhappy with their cell phones, they set the goal of coming up with a better cell phone.When Apple sets a goal, they tend to stick with the school. They do not tend to diversify, which is against many of the ideas presented in the textbook. Apple has found that by concentrating on a few products they are better able to meet their consumers happy. Apple believes that diversification will make them spread themselves too thin, and therefore, their products will not be as good or a successful.The book also mentions that the company should agree on performance measures. Apple however says that likes to hire people who are never satisfied. Apple's sphere of satisfaction comes with the fact that they believe satisfaction may reduce one's ability to perform or set better goals. Therefore, they strive to do better and better no matter how good their performance measures currently are. This information conflicts with the information that is presented in the book.One item of the book that Apple does agree with is the concept of making business strategies flexible. This can be seen with the various concepts that had been

Health history and discharge. (Alterations in Pulmonary and Kidney Essay

Health history and discharge. (Alterations in Pulmonary and Kidney Function) - Essay Example This has caused her health to decline significantly as evidence by her steep loss of weight within a short time. Though Sallie has most of the medicine she is required to take. The visit revealed that she was missing crucial medicine which she only got some time back. As this medicine was also crucial for her recovery, the absence of it could show why her state of health was deteriorating over time. Sallie lacks somebody to take care of her at home. To ensure she eats well and takes her medication as and when it is to be taken. Her daughter works long hours so is unable to do this. This problem is evidenced by her missing some important medication that she ought to have had from the beginning. Sallie is lonely in her house where she lives alone, her daughter, Thelma Jean is a full-time employee in town and rarely visits. She also misses her late husband who she describes as a jolly man who used to love and make her