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Monday 25 June 2012

Authors...


….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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