Goodbye, Sweet Onion

I've been enjoying articles from The Onion since about 1996, and using it regularly since about 2000 or so, but now the ride is over. I hit the Paywall.

I'm not sure if people in the US are receiving this yet, since they started out "experimenting" with walling off "foreign" users, first in fall 2011- excluding areas where there are large concentrations of American soldiers in combat, so as to not penalize members of the Armed Forces for their service. It seems they started in the UK, because, according to their mysterious sources (ones I am clearly unfamiliar with), UK readers are accustomed to paying for online content, and really don't mind it.

(Granted, I am not from the UK, but this sounds like BS to me - anyone in the UK want to comment and let me know how much you love paying for online reads?)

Now, being a "foreigner", I have also hit the paywall, so that is that. I'm really not interested in keeping a running count in my head to tell if I've read my "five free" articles in the past 30 days, and of when my new 30 day period has started, etc, etc. Screw that! It brings to mind the annoyance of the old dialup internet where you actually had to keep track of how long you'd been online to make sure you didn't go over the monthly allowance. (Anyone else remember those hideous days?)

Thus, I have decided that it's simply not worth clicking on any links to The Onion shared on Facebook, etc, because clicking and then hitting the wall sets my teeth on edge. Not worth it when the title is likely the funniest part.

And, to be honest, I just don't think of checking The Onion as much as I used to, so maybe it has waned for me, anyway. Luckily, the AV Club has, so far, not been touched by the Paywall, so we can still have our Red Meat binges. Otherwise, you might really see me get pouty. But, realistically, how long with that last while tied to the New Coke?

(By the way, I've been told that there are numerous ways to work around the paywall, but (1) I don't find it worth figuring out, (2) I'm not willing to adjust my computer system to read The Onion, and (3) I prefer not to work around such things, as it feels uncomfortably close to theft to me at that point. Instead, I will respect their paywall - but I also won't be paying.)

This has made me think about copyright, and monetizing, and how people deserve to get paid for their work, and so forth. In the end, I must agree that it's their site, and they have every right to set up a paywall, even if being a long-time reader has left me feeling some irrational sense of abandonment. I guess the ad/merchandise/Kindle revenues weren't paying the bills, especially since their TV dept went live and the writers joined the guild, so I can understand their need to make some money. (Though, I must say it's rather silly to start a TV wing if you don't have the plans in place to support it from the get-go.)

Bottom Line: Their work, their site, their rules, and good luck to them.

But, considering the vast wealth of LOLs on the internet, I remain pretty unmoved to pay for The Onion, especially while it is currently in place to only penalize non-Americans. Sorry, but that offends me a bit. If we filthy foreigners aren't welcome, we can go elsewhere, Xenophobes. (Wow, that was a bit more vitriolic than I meant it to be - sorry!)

Well, fare thee well, Onion. I hope it works for you, and I hope this doesn't just kill what ad revenue you are getting when people just stop visiting. I hope this isn't a good five or ten years too late to catch your relevancy. I hope you can earn what you need.

As for me, I will enjoy the memories I have. I recall one religious studies class when a classmate brought in a print-off of the article about Harry Potter books starting a Satanic cult in a second grade class. The guy actually thought it was a real article! Oh, how we laughed. Ah, good times. If you don't recall the article, that's too bad. I would link it, but you know... Paywalled.

Well, nothing to see here, folks. I guess we'll all have to go and do some work instead of reading The Onion and pretending we're working.

The Problem with Free

This is not a post ranting about all the free Kindle books, I promise. There are more than enough of those out there. Besides, I have no idea what I feel about them.

Instead, this is a random note about writing free projects, just for fun.

I've been working on a free short that I had planned on offering here, and on my website, as a little gift to my readers and a promotional item. Give readers a chance to read a nice, complete, short story (say, about 3-5,000 words), to see if maybe they'd like my other stuff. It seemed like a fine idea to me, and I'd still like to offer such a thing. I think.

I've also been toying with the idea of writing a free novel, bit by bit, and posting maybe a chapter a week here on my blog, or on my Tumblr blog. That also seemed like a fun thing, since I have a story idea in mind that I'm eager to play with. It's not something I'd be interested in writing for publication at the moment, but I'd like to do it, just for kicks.

My first concern is that I'd be talking to myself, I admit. I'm worried I'd lose interest if no one was reading, and I don't care to start projects I won't finish. However, I'm extremely tempted, and if I knew enough people would read it to make it worth my time, I might give in to that temptation.

But, here's the main concern - nothing escapes theft on the internet!

I'm not all that fussed about pirates, as I've said here before. Sure, I'd rather people buy or borrow my work legally, but I don't expend energy on the whole piracy thing. What I'm talking about here isn't about piracy. Since these stories would be free, I'd have no cause to complain if they got "pirated" by file sharing sites.

What ultimately makes posting freebies a tough decision is plagiarism. The constant threat of plagiarism feels like a gag. I don't want someone ripping off my fun, free, weekly serial from my blog, sticking their name on it, and trying to con people out of 99 cents on Amazon with it.

I've tried to tell myself, "Don't be so full of yourself. Who'd steal your rough little blog book?" Myself has not believed me. You and I both know, if we've paid attention to the web at all, there are content grinders out there who'd steal ninth grade history papers and pass them off as their own if they think they'd make some money off it.

Nothing is safe.

Recent stories about fanfic writers getting screwed over should be enough to give any of us pause. Not only do you lose your work, without credit, but someone else profits from it - this is particularly galling if you were offering it free of charge to begin with. It especially annoys me when people rip off fanfic writers, since they are writing out of sheer love of the work and for the enjoyment of their community. (I'm sure there are other, more concrete, benefits, as well, but I admire fanfic writers for toiling away without great hope of immediate compensation.)

Frankly, piracy is one thing, but plagiarism is where even someone as sedate as I am must draw the line. Especially if that plagiarism turned into passing off a free lark for money to unsuspecting customers on Amazon, who don't deserve to be robbed any more than I do.

Besides, I come from academics, where plagiarism is a cardinal sin, the taint of which is enough to sink a whole career. I can't shake that training, and I bring that along with me into my "night job" of writing fiction.

So, I'm torn about posting free content. And, thus, I remain undecided. So far, I have been very careful not to post too much of my work online, especially before it's been published, for the very reasons I've stated here. I don't even use online crit groups, just in case!

You can see why I'm reluctant to jump full on into the fire, right?

What are your thoughts? Does this ever stop you from posting free work? Are you seeing more or less free content online? Are there any safe ways to do it, or should I just go limp and let cheaters steal as they may? Do you have any war stories to share?

Do blogged novels even get enough attention to make the risk worth it? Or, maybe I am worrying needlessly. Is this a case where the greatest potential threat is not theft but obscurity?

I'll have to continue thinking about it, I guess. Right now, all I can say is that I'd love to, but I'm still sorting out the pros and cons. Any comments are more than welcome as I try to puzzle out my thoughts on this.

So Long, Klout, Triberr and Google+

Well, not entirely, I guess. I have decided I won't delete the accounts altogether. Why bother? Besides, who knows when they will seem useful again or come back on my radar? In any case, I've reduced my involvement, stopped visiting them, let them go, whatever you want to call it.

It seems until recently Klout was broken, or that their algorithms over the summer were too generous. Now they've changed them and, while they say most people have gone up, most of the people I know went down - way down. I suspect the people who went up were largely Facebookers who never signed themselves up for Klout, anyway. (It seems you have a Klout profile whether you want it or not - nothing is private online, anyway, so I'm not shocked by this.)

I'm not complaining. I'd rather have a "real" crummy score than a fake high one, I guess, though I don't believe either of them are real (in fact, by pointing this out, Klout kind of proved it was all bull-hooey, anyway, didn't it?). In a way, I'm relieved, as it was too much pressure having a Klout score in the 60s. Now that I have a crappy 50-something score, I can feel free to ignore it. When I was at 63, I actually felt guilty on the days I couldn't Tweet, since I knew I'd lose a point. Yes, I agree - that's just sad.

In any case, now that Klout is fixed, and I'm a nobody again, I can relax and stop caring about it. It was always a fake gizmo, but now that the game is less serious, I can stop playing. Whew!

As to Triberr, I joined because it seemed like a great way to increase blog hits - and I think it was. I don't watch my hit counter very closely, but it seemed to be working. I was in a nice tribe filled with writers I knew from around the community, so I was happy. Then, Triberr changed, so it doesn't RT the Tweets of your tribemates automatically. You have to go to Triberr and do it manually. In short, I don't have time for this, and it wasn't fair to stay in the tribe, having my stuff Tweeted, and not returning the favour. So, that's gone.

I was surprised, actually, that leaving the tribe made me a little sad. The consequence, I guess, of naming it a tribe.

Now, Google+ I never really decided to go - I just stopped visiting it a couple weeks after joining. Why? Not really sure. I guess I just didn't need yet another social media thingy. Also, gmail tells you your notifications so why ever visit it? Eventually, I even forgot how to visit it. Then one day Twitter failed and I wandered over. It seemed like a ghost town - no one I knew was there. I said as much in my status, hoping to find a little chit chat. What I found was a very grumpy jerk, who I didn't know, who yelled at me for saying no one was using Google+ any more (which I didn't say), and some chick (who I also didn't know) who scolded me for wondering why no one was up for a chat in light of Steve Jobs' death. Well, that was the end of Google+ for me.

If I wanted to be yelled at by self-righteous, rude strangers, I would just spend more time on public transit.

So, there's that. I guess I'm back to Twitter and Facebook, and this old blog - which perhaps no one even visits any more now that I'm not full of Klout and all Tribed-up.

To be honest, now that I'm back to teaching, I really don't have time for social media like I did over the summer. Over the summer, I had time to do promo, social media, mommy stuff and write. Now, teaching has taken over the social media time, and I am taking time out of my writing to increase my promo. Such is the way of balancing jobs, I guess.

These were the three bigger failed experiments. There have been a number of other, smaller social media things I never got into - seriously, what is the point of About.me, except as a place holder for your link? - so they fell by the wayside. I've walked away from forums, for the most part, since I don't have the time to spend being annoyed. Blog hops have been fun, so I will do a few more. GoodReads is fine, since I like books. Six Sentence Sunday got fairly old, and Sample Sunday is worth doing once in a while, but isn't something for every single week if you are unwilling to rehash the same sample over and over. Other little gimmicks, such as lil.paper, I find useless, but they aren't irritating enough for me to quit so I let them run. A few major efforts, such as the monthly newsletter, I am still trying out - I'm giving it a few more months to build an audience, and will re-evaluate it as I go as to whether it's worth continuing. Over the holidays, I am concentrating on direct promo (ads) and guest blogging, so that's where all my networking time will go for the next while.

Well, I'm learning and trying. Promo has never been my strong suit, but I like social media. I don't really consider social media as promo, to be honest. It's more about networking, learning, chatting, and gathering information/connections. This is why I'm not giving up on it all. Social media has not netted me any sales, but I see its value in other ways.

That's the state of things for now. Happy writing, folks, if you ever have the time.

We Interrupt Your Scheduled Blog Post...

I was going to write about submissions today, but something else caught my attention several times this week, so I wanted to post a little on the subject of writer scams.

Writer scams are everywhere online - they predate the Internet, but have really exploded in recent years. Why do they work? Simple - when you are a new writer with plenty of dreams, it can feel really overwhelming to get your book out in front of people. Agents take forever, if you even get replies from them, and Big Publishers even longer, and most of us have little or no training/experience with publishing before we finish that first book/collection. And scammers know this, and they know how to talk to us in the right way to prey on those hopes and dreams.

Probably the premier, most famous form of writer scams would be vanity presses - those who promise "Become a Real Author!" (but only if you send them a cheque for $1200). Here's the skinny, folks - if it's a real publisher THEY PAY YOU, not the other way around. This is vastly different from Self Publishing, in which an author pays for services (cover art, editing, etc), but ultimately owns their own work. A vanity press really does nothing for your book but stroke your ego and take your money - lots of it. And they don't give it back. Now, with Amazon/KDP/CreateSpace, I hope we are hearing the dying howl of the vanity presses, but it's not likely. Many more aspiring authors will fall to them before they go away, sadly.

And now with the rise of agents who "facilitate" self-publishing, there might be a whole new racket for vanity press scammers. This is not to say that all agents who handle self-pubbing are crooks, but any day now we'll start seeing the crooks move that way, if they haven't already.

The Rule is: Except for putting together a self-publishing project, the author's only dealings with cheques should be signing the back of their royalties.

The second big one is Contests! Yes, there are many, many legitimate writing contests out there, with real prizes and good exposure. Some, like the RWA, do charge writers to enter. (I personally don't pay to enter contests, but paid contests might not be scams, so just do your research.) However, not all contests are legitimate. If it's a free contest, you don't stand to lose much but time, but please save yourself the hassle of entering fake/worthless contests with hefty entrance fees. Also, in many regions, it is illegal to force entrants to "buy the finalists' collection" at the end of a poetry or short story contest. Such things are scams, where they basically let everyone become a finalist so more people will be forced to buy the resulting collection. Do the leg work! Research the contest before you get excited.

Third, there are the newer vultures circling the small press/indie world: Book reviewers who are also editors. Now, naturally, many reviewers also offer editing services, and not all are scams. What I mean are book reviewers who offer to review your book (especially a self-pubbed one) merely so they can tell you it stinks - but, don't worry! "I can edit it for you for $1000!" That's the scam part. I believe many reputable editors who also do reviews make it policy not to take editing jobs from the authors they have reviewed, and vice versa. The reviewer may very well suggest you need an editor, but they are often careful to suggest OTHER editors, instead of themselves. Otherwise, it's a bit of a conflict of interest, don't you think?

Most legitimate editors allow a sampling process - you send them a sample, and they will edit it and return it, before you engage them. If you go this route, it might be a good idea to send the same sample to several editors, and compare the returned work before making a selection. And, in my opinion, accept a reviewers' suggestion that you need editing, but don't hire that reviewer to do it. Sample a few others, and then decide which way to go. As always: Author word-of-mouth is a great way to find what you need, and it's the safest way.

Then, on top of these sly jobs, we also have the occasional rumour/allegation of truly shocking instances of out-n-out extortion. There are also people burned outright by paying upfront for covers that never come, or editors that never deliver.

The above categories cover the majority of the pitfalls out there; some are ubiquitous, while others a bit less common. There are many other ways a newbie writer can lose buckets of money/time/hope/energy/reputation - ghost town sites/blogs charging for ad space, reviewers demanding payment for their condescension, display sites that charge you for profiles that no one ever visits, small pubs who are basically beards for one author's self-publishing activities, etc, etc, but those aren't truly "scams" in that they are offering some type of service, at least, and you get exactly what they promise (even if it is lackluster). And you should know what you're getting into before you hand over the money or your manuscript (always).

The Internet is a wonderful thing for the global writers' community - it brings us closer than ever before, allows for multiple genre circles to form and disseminate information very quickly, and evens the communication exchange between experienced writers and aspiring authors. But it also contains snakes of all varieties. Use it wisely - arm yourself with information, do your research, and treat your name, money and manuscript like the precious resources that they are.

So, that's my little PSA for today.

It's a jungle out there! Good luck.