Given that they don't seem to really care about publishing AI generated content (as long as it's looked over by a human), I don't really think this is about AI generated content. It's just a matter of finding more ways to milk authors.
As is happening everywhere, apparently Draft2Digital too has decided that authors are the cash cow and have started charging fees 😕
I've pulled all my books from there till I find a replacement.
draft2digital.com/blog/underst...
#writing #indieauthor #gouging
Somebody on here implied that WordPress updates (always?) break their site. Is this the general experience?
I've been using WordPress for over 20 years and rarely had it break. So my guess was that it was either their theme or a custom plugin. But have no info...
To me, personally, yours is a good problem to have — that you actually need to slash words 🙂 Me, I always end up needing to add more and that just feels off ...
Unfortunately, have no useful advice 😛
Congratulations and good luck 🙂
Love the little graphic — does look so cute 🙂
Want to write a #romcom in 2026? We can help.
Try the easy to follow guide to writing romcom from me and @janelovering.
-How to nail humour to the page
-The basics of writing romantic comedy
-A book that doesn't take itself too seriously
-Biscuits
books2read.com/u/4AQBgk
I've been using https://books2read.com since that will aggregate links from multiple sites automatically, allow you to add your own custom links if you want, and provides a portal page which lists all your links in one place with a nice (or nice enough) interface 🙂
This! This annoys me so much that I've DNFed books which just can't have a character be consistent. Why bother reading if the plot just goes hither and thither because the author "says so"? 😛
I used to get variations of these on a daily basis on TikTok. I just played with them (giving outlandish responses), and then put up the videos on my feed of the interactions. Haven't had somebody reach out in a while after that 🙂
Sometime back, I wrote a poem about this painting:
https://write.farook.org/10-fragility/
A long, vertical screenshot of a direct message conversation between a user and a potential scammer posing as a fellow author. The scammer uses vague, generic praise and eventually pressures the user to "implement a sales funnel" to gain visibility. The user responds with humorous, sci-fi-themed "baiting," claiming they use funnels to transport "green men from Mars." The conversation ends with the user jokingly asking for funding for their interplanetary project, to which the scammer declines with a laughing emoji and saying: "I’ll cheer from Earth for now my investment portfolio doesn’t currently cover interplanetary funnels 😄" The user responds with: "So you're only interested in funnels for sending money from other people's pockets to yours? 😛"
Scammer: "You need a sales funnel for your books."
Me: "I have funnels! I use them to transport green rice from Mars." 🪐
I love the smell of scam-bait in the morning!
Seeing an "author" scammer realize they won’t get my money (or my brain cells) is the best part of my day. #ScamBait #WritingLife
Yep! Regularly get people on TikTok who want to scam writers in one way or another. Even if I say I have no money, they say "You can pay me in installments" etc.
I guess any little bit they can squeeze out of you is enough when the volume is high enough?
I sympathize! Personally, when I feel like that, I feel doing something else is the best way to move forward. Sort of let the batteries re-charge?
If you still own the rights to the book, you can always self-publish, can't you? That might be the easiest way to bring it back?
Yeah, it's either persevere or give up. But these days, given that a lot of people say they do original art and then rely on a generative model, giving up doesn't seem to be an option 🙂
Thanks for the kind words about the wife. It's a longer-term thing. But we persevere there too 🙂
I can never find suitable stock photo images, and my wife who does the art normally, has health issues which prevent her from getting stuff done. So I've been trying to learn to draw too.
Not doing as well as you are though — big gap between imagination and result for me 🙂
This is why I've just started writing a new novel — I don't think AI could come up with the kind of plots that are rolling around in my head 😛
This is something which puzzles me a lot. I loved Asimov's work when I was younger but didn't know about his harassing behaviour till a few years ago. Now I find him distasteful.
But I see others still going on about how great he is. Don't they know? Or care?
I tried the app a few days ago, but they were getting a lot of users at that point and things were not quite working 🙂Might have been sorted out by now but didn't go back since the initial impression was very glitchy ... at least for me.
A painting of an alien landscape with orange sands and a purple sky where a green planet with a golden ring around it hangs on one side of the sky. The landscape is dotted with mounds or stones on which glowing red plants appear. There's a green semi-transparent creature looking down on a yellow-golden plant with glowing branches.
Instead of the usual "Animal Antics" paintings, I did something different this week — I call it "Alien Dreams" 🙂
#Art #Painting
They can still do round the world if the Earth was a disc, right? 😛
Still to find a place like that 🙂Everywhere we've tried, there's sometthin missing ... most notably Sri Lanka fruit 😛
A painting of a furry dog standing in front of a stone archway in a stone wall, possibly that of a castle, with mountains and a river behind him. The dog is standing on two feet and is holding a piece of paper in one hand and has the other hand raised, as if perhaps reading a poem?
Continuing on with my "Animal Antics" series, here's "Doggerel Writer" 🙂
I'm happier with this one than I was with the previous paintings since I see fewer issues, but I still feel there's room for improvement.
#Art #Painting #AnimalAntics
Congratulations 🙂
A screenshot of a web app showing a list of images in pinterest style with a top menu of options that say - Explore, Collections, Favourites, Shared, and Search
Created a quick PHP app with multi-user functionality for managing reference/inspirational art.
It has some features that I really love — the ability to create colour palettes from an image and allow downloading to Procreate as a colour swatch 🙂
#Coding #Art #WebApps
A painting of a tall building with a spire and a mountain covered with vegetation stands in the background while a cat with a red fascia around its midriff stands on two feet with raised hands.
To go along with the previous painting titled "Mouseketeer", I've created a new one called "Catechist" 🙂
In fact, I'm thinking of doing a whole series of these ... Will I get there? Or will my Apple Pencil break? Tune in next time to find out 😛
#Art #Painting #AnimalAntics
I've been slowly building an ecosystem of apps - an issue tracker for bugs, an app to send builds to my android/iOS devices like AirDrop (for Android) which auto installs apps, an ebook reader which actually works etc.
It works beautifylly together. Now I can work on my art 🙂
#Planning #Dev #Art
A painting of a mouse wearing a belt and a sash with a sheath and wearing a feathered hat holding a glowing sword up. Behind the mouse there's a big mountain range from which a waterfall comes down and turns into a steam.
This is an image which has been rattling around in my head for a few days now. I call it "Mouseketeer" 😛
#Art #Ideas #Painting
An image with a yellow background where a big blue letter "B" has an orangutan hanging from it with one hand. With its other hand the orangutan is holding on to the letters "ook"
An icon for an app that I'm trying out. Not quite sure if it works or not, but the first bit of drawing I've done in a fair bit ...
#Art #Icon #Ideas