….who call their 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 word piece of writing
a book are essentially playing with themselves and the public. It’s a short
story, lovie. I wrote 10k essays when I was at Uni. I didn’t hand one in and
say here is my book on the Linguistic vagaries of urban, tattoo Pigmies living in
non-monogamous relationships who ride scooters in socio-economically challenged
areas of the Simpson Desert. By the way…pretty
much no one lives in the Simpson Desert. It’s
hot and dry and there’s nothing for miles…but I digress…it’s not a book. It’s a
short story. Writers don’t want to hear that. Why? Well a butt load of them are
churning out fast stories to make a quick buck. I get that. I really do. Money
makes the world go round and every writer, myself included, has done it. But don’t
call a hastily written 5 men and one woman fuck-fest a book. I’m not doubting
it sells but calling it a book gives readers expectations of more. It also –
and this really annoys me – allows publishers to put inflated, ridiculous
prices on short stories. $3.99 for a 15,000 word story that is written once, is
formatted into different versions in the blink of an eye – and don’t let anyone
try and tell you there’s a lot of work in formatting because that’s crap. There
are programs that do that with very little thought from a human. $3.99 for
10-15k of words. Seriously? I can go to Kmart and get books on sale that are
bigger and a better price. I can go to a junk shop and fill a bag with cheap
books.
Yes, yes, yes…you have an e-reader. It’s the way of the
future. I just wonder how many readers actually considered how expensive the
future of stories and proper books was going to be. The greed of authors,
publishers and giant corporations is bleeding readers dry. No, I haven’t been
sucked into an ereader yet. And no, I do not ever plan to charge $3.99 for a
short story. Why? Because readers deserve more.
Dicking Around…$1.16…
The Perils of Paula…$1.16
Strip for Me….$1.16
If Nor For You….$1.16
Hush…$1.16
Eat Me Up…$1.16
Bad Girl….$1.16
etc…etc…etc…
Don’t talk to me about expensive overheads. That’s bullshit.
Treat the reader fairly.
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