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On Halloween night, 1980, three young friends must face a Halloween curse. Their familiar neighborhood becomes a ghostly landscape filled with witches, vampires, and supernatural creatures!

You can read 12 Hours of Halloween here on Edward Trimnell Books for a limited time.

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Is the Internet going to video?

Some people certainly think so.

I was listening to an Internet “guru” the other day, who basically sees the future of the Internet as one video clip after another. Fahrenheit 451, here we come!

But here’s a counterargument from just last year:

People are constantly putting videos up with little to no content that can REALLY benefit their intended audience. They just don’t understand that nobody’s going to sit there for 20 or 30 minutes listening to them go on and on and on without having real content. These video sales pitches are just becoming overwhelming on social media. It’s happening on Facebook too; I haven’t quite seen it on Twitter yet, but it’s coming. And with Instagram Story, you’re going to see more and more and more of that. Here’s what it boils down to: How do we make what we do relevant — especially to the audience that we’re trying to reach?

Business2Community.com

There is a lot of video on YouTube, but most of it is pointless. Tell me: Does anyone who isn’t a bored 13 year-old really want to watch Pewdiepie? 

Video has its place. As I’ve admitted many times, YouTube is absolutely great if you want to learn how to fix your leaky commode. I also prefer video for things like Photoshop instruction, which are inherently visual.

But for most objectives, in the fields of both instruction and entertainment, YouTube-style video provides little or no improvement over text (unless your audience is completely illiterate).

And in many cases, text is demonstrably superior. You can skim through a page of text. Skimming through a 20-minute YouTube video, on the other hand, is almost impossible. 

The Eavesdropper: Chapter 12

It occurred to me that I had overlooked the obvious: In large companies like Thomas-Smithfield Electronics, difficult personnel issues were handled by human resources departments. And if a conspiracy between my boss and two of my coworkers to kill our group admin didn’t count as a difficult personnel issue, what did?

So the very next morning I sent an intentionally vague email message to Anne Hull. Anne was a mid-level manager within the human resources department. She was high enough on the ladder to make things happen, but she wasn’t so high up the corporate food chain that she would pass me off to an underling.

Within less than an hour, there was an email from Anne in my Lotus Notes inbox:

“Why don’t you stop by at 10:00 a.m. My office is on the first floor, in the HR area.” Continue reading “The Eavesdropper: Chapter 12”

Luk Thep: Chapter 8

“Would you like me to give you a ride to your hotel?” Khajee asked. 

When Jane hesitated in her response, the Thai woman laughed and said, “Oh you probably thought that I was going to take you on the back of a moped!”

“Not necessarily,” Jane said. That would have been her first thought, though. Mopeds were ubiquitous in the cities of Southeast Asia—Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, and, of course, Bangkok. The truth was that as tired as Jane was, she simply hadn’t had time to fully contemplate Khajee’s offer.

Continue reading “Luk Thep: Chapter 8”

Should you sign up for Kindle Unlimited?

Amazon Kindle Unlimited

As both a writer and a reader, I know Kindle Unlimited from the inside out.

Kindle Unlimited (at the time of this writing) costs $9.99 per month. 

(Keep reading for information about the FREE TRIAL, though.)

Kindle Unlimited is an Amazon program that gives members more or less unlimited access (hence the name of the program) to a vast body of enrolled books.

How many books, exactly? 

I don’t know how many titles are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited at the moment. Probably no one does. But more are added every day. 

It’s a big, big bunch. (That’s a technical term, by the way.)

There are more books in Kindle Unlimited than you are going to read in your lifetime (even if you’re still in your twenties, and you don’t drink, smoke, or eat trans fats). 

Or to put it another way: You will never exhaust the books available to you in Kindle Unlimited. 

I can promise you that. 

So….what kinds of books are included with a Kindle Unlimited membership?

Well, first of all: These are Kindle, electronic books. (You probably already know that, but I should mention this just in case.) 

Not paperbacks or hardcovers, etc. 

Some Kindle Unlimited titles do include FREE audiobooks, too…but not all of them. Kindle Unlimited is primarily about ebooks. 

“Yeah, I get that. But what kinds of books?”

A lot of fiction. 

(Some nonfiction, too…But a lot of fiction.)

Genre fiction abounds in Kindle Unlimited. Romance, science fiction, fantasy, cozy mystery, etc. 

Oh, yes, and erotica, too. (Since you’ll be reading on your Kindle device, no one will know what you’re reading: the modern equivalent of the plain brown wrapper.)

Series

Many Kindle Unlimited authors publish series. So if you find a character whom you like, you may be able to follow that character on numerous adventures, over the course of a long series of books. 

Constant authorial output

Kindle Unlimited authors are largely compensated by page reads. (Like I said, as an author, I know the program from both sides.) Therefore, many of them are writing machines, in the grand tradition of the old pulp writers. 

Are there any downsides to Kindle Unlimited?

Kindle Unlimited is a great deal for voracious readers who like certain kinds of books. But there are a few other things (not necessarily sales points) that you should know about the program. With Kindle Unlimited, as with almost everything else, your mileage may vary 

In Kindle Unlimited, you won’t find the books that you see on the shelves at Walmart. 

Books by John Grisham, Stephen King, Lisa Scottoline, and James Patterson, etc. generally aren’t enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. 

(You can still order these books for your Kindle, of course—but you’ll have to pay for them.)

Authoritative nonfiction titles are scarce in Kindle Unlimited.

I like to read big, thick nonfiction books, especially about history and economics. For example: Leonardo Da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson

Those aren’t the kinds of books that typically show up in Kindle Unlimited. 

Once again: Kindle Unlimited is mostly about genre fiction.

Maybe you won’t read as much as you think you will.

Life happens, right? Maybe you’ll plan on reading…But you’ll be busy at work…Or you’ll go on vacation, or….

You know what I mean. 

And if that happens, you might not get your monthly fee’s worth.

Moreover, not every reader is a truly voracious reader.  

Are you the sort of reader who reads four or five books per year? Kindle Unlimited (probably) isn’t your thing.

Do you read multiple books per week? Then Kindle Unlimited might be for you.

The bottom line

Kindle Unlimited is a great program. Moreover, it’s an Amazon program, and you probably already have a relationship with Amazon. (If you don’t have a relationship with Amazon and you live in the U.S., you are an extreme rarity, indeed.)

But as I said: Your mileage may vary. 

So…what’s the best thing to do?

In my opinion, your best option is to sign up for a Kindle Unlimited 30-day FREE trial.

That way, if you like Kindle Unlimited, you can continue with it.

On the other hand, if you determine that Kindle Unlimited isn’t your thing, you can cancel, nothing lost.

Why not give Kindle Unlimited a try?

You have nothing to lose, after all.

I strongly recommend that you give Kindle Unlimited a FREE try. And while you’re thinking about Kindle Unlimited, you might also want to check out the newest Kindle devices from Amazon.

Should the writer plot?

That perennial question…

From my YouTube channel: Should the writer plot?

As I explain in the video, either process can result in a successful story.

But there are two things that you must do…and you can do these either as a plotter or a discovery writer.

I also mention my short story, “The Dreams of Lord Satu” (FREE to read here on Edward Trimnell Books), and I recommend John Sandford’s crime novel, Mortal Prey.

Revolutionary Ghosts: Chapter 39

At least the repair of the Bonneville went smoothly. But something happened immediately afterward.

We drove home and Dad went to work installing the new gasket. 

I briefly offered to do the job. But we both knew how that would have gone.

“Better let me do it, son,” he said.

I didn’t argue. “Yes, Dad, maybe you’d better.”

My dad, his tee shirt stained with grease and oil, slid out from under the car. 

I had helped him, for what it was worth, as best I could. I handed him tools when he asked for them. 

Only once did I inadvertently hand him the wrong tool.

“You shouldn’t have any more oil leaks,” Dad said, now that the job was finished. 

“Thanks,” I said. I had already thanked him multiple times, but I was sincerely grateful.

“Next time, don’t let a problem go on like that. Ask for my help when you need it.”

“Sure thing, Dad. Thanks again.”

We were just about to take the car down from the jacks. My dad was putting his tools away, hanging them on the pegboard above the workbench.

I had the sense of someone watching me. In recent days this feeling had come to me when I was near the woods at night. 

I had also felt it while alone in my room. 

But now I was standing in our open garage, in the company of my father, in broad daylight, in the middle of a bright summer afternoon.

The most un-spooky setting you could possibly imagine. 

Above the sound of my dad clanging tools against the pegboard, I heard the sound of someone whistling.

I looked in the direction of the sound. Standing at the end of our driveway was Banny. Now he was wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt; but he also wore his now usual smirk. 

He looked at me and waved his hand in a beckoning gesture. 

“Come on, you bugger, if you’re up to it!”

“Steve?” my dad asked. “Could you help me pull the big toolbox out from underneath the workbench?” 

I turned toward my dad. “Sure, Dad. I’ll be right there.”

He saw me hesitating.

“Anything wrong, son?”

“No, Dad. Nothing’s wrong,” I lied.

I looked back at Banny. 

But Banny was gone. 

Just as I had half-expected would be the case.

Chapter 40

Table of contents

View REVOLUTIONARY GHOSTS on Amazon!

Which films were better than the book?

From today’s trending Twitter hashtag, #TheFilmwasBetter.

I have to admit that in most cases, I like books better than movies. But there are at least a few films in which the Hollywood creation was more entertaining than the source material:

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

This teen classic of 1982 was based on a nonfiction undercover exposé of teen life at a San Diego area high school.

I’m not sure if that original book is even in print anymore. But the Hollywood version (which was considerably embellished, of course), is still popular….for a nearly 40-year-old movie about teenagers, that is.

View Fast Times at Ridgemont High on Amazon!

True Grit

I wouldn’t exactly call Charles Portis’s 1968 novel, True Grit bad, but I prefer the film adaptations. True Grit has been made into a movie twice. The most recent film version, starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, is the better of the two.

Here are a few more examples in which the Hollywood version of the book was better (or just as good):

Little House on the Prairie

Game of Thrones

Deliverance

Cloud Atlas

Hey, while you’re here.…Check out my free online serial, The Consultant. This is the web serial that everyone’s talking about….the story of an ordinary American trapped in North Korea. (And best of all, you can read it for FREE…no sign-up required, no strings attached!)

The Consultant

YouTube and digital sharecropping

The Verge reports that with YouTube’s newest algorithms, independent creators are greatly disadvantaged over large corporate brands:

YouTube creators need to get millions more views than late-night TV shows in order to appear in YouTube’s Trending section, according to a study conducted by a YouTube channel popular among creators. The Trending section appears on YouTube’s homepage and can potentially direct thousands of views to a video, but YouTube seems to make it far harder for individuals to be featured than for large brands.
Using data scrapped from 40,000 videos, the study found that creators, like Logan Paul, need to reach about 11 million views on a video before it hits the Trending section. Comparatively, segments from TV shows like The Tonight Show only need a couple hundred thousand views.

Small YouTube creators and their fans built YouTube from nothing. But free video hosting is one of the most low-margin activities there is–without advertising bucks.

For a while, YouTube/Google execs seemed to honestly believe that they could build a viable, long-term business model based on “long-tail” ad revenues from thousands of small creators.

That dream ended for good in 2017 and 2018, when a variety of political controversies and publicity stunts (the jackass who filmed dead bodies in Japan’s “suicide woods” comes to mind) made small channels anathema for paying advertisers. From the advertisers’ perspective, there was simply too much risk involved.

So YouTube pivoted. They demonetized small- and medium-sized channels, and tightened the criteria for acquiring monetization in the future. Although YouTube would never admit it, part of the motive was to disincentivize small creators, whose behavior is difficult to monitor.

And now, YouTube has overtly changed its algorithms to favor big corporate brands.

This is the danger of digital sharecropping–building your creative enterprise on someone else’s platform. I understand that video makers face special challenges in this regard; but it is never a good idea to spend much time making content for social media sites that you don’t own and control.

This is why I more or less shuttered my YouTube and Twitter accounts. My Facebook account is a shell, too. I only use these sites for posting links. And I have no intention of wasting any time on Reddit.

There is nothing wrong with using Facebook to keep in touch with your high school classmates. If you’re a creator, though, never build your platform on real estate that you don’t own.

Luk Thep: Chapter 6

“Sure,” Jane said. There was no point in denying this, no point in feigning ignorance. For generations, Thailand had had a reputation as the chief fleshpot of Asia. Prostitution of the most blatant, open kind was widely tolerated here; and the economics of the situation had long made Thailand’s red-light districts a bargain for the pleasure-seeking Western male.

Even in the corporate realm, where talk of such subject matter would ordinarily be the ultimate taboo, there were whispers and innuendos about Thailand. Jane had noticed that some of the male engineers at TRX had shown a suspicious level of interest in visiting the Thai branch. This might have been nothing more than a coincidence. But well, as they said: circumstantial evidence…

“Things are so free and easy here,” Khajee went on. “So many women available. So many options for men. It’s hard to find a good man in Thailand.”

“Hard to find a good man in America,” Jane replied, by way of commiseration. 

Of course, she had found a good man, hadn’t she? Jane thought of David Haley, the man she had been seeing. Her boyfriend, she supposed.

Until five months ago, when she met David, Jane would have largely agreed with the sentiment that she had just uttered. Jane was tall, fit, attractive, and well-educated. But she had seemed incapable of finding her Mr. Right.

She had gone from one semi-serious relationship to another, dealing with Mr. Not Ready, Mr. Keeping His Options Open, and their various friends. Already well into her thirties, Jane had begun to resign herself to an inevitable spinsterhood. At least she still had her work! And her cat! 

She had enumerated such considerations with a sort of gallows humor. She also reminded herself that she worked a lot of hours. Maybe that was part of the problem. Perhaps she needed to change her entire life, she thought, before it was too late.

Then a friend had dragged her out one night to a party that she really hadn’t wanted to attend. At that party she’d met David Haley. Her life had been different since then.

And then David had left—but not for long. David was presently working on a corporate assignment in Germany. The distance had not seemed to dim his ardor—or hers. Jane was eagerly looking forward to David’s return, now just a few weeks away.

Khajee seemed very interested in David, Jane had noticed, although the two had never met. On several occasions, Khajee had asked to see David’s picture, pointedly noting how handsome he was.

“Yes,” Khajee said now, “but you’ve found one—a good man, I mean.”

“For a long time, I didn’t. Couldn’t.”

“But the point is, you did. Things are very different in Thailand. Also, the country is changing because of globalization and economic development. Fewer people getting married and having children all over the country. Very different now, even compared to my parents’ time. Did you know that Thailand has the lowest birthrate in Southeast Asia?”

“No, I didn’t,” Jane replied. 

“Well, it’s true. Lower than Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or Malaysia. The birth rate here is about the same as in Japan.”

“I see.” Jane had read and heard about low birth rates in Japan. A dwindling, aging population now threatened the long-term vibrancy of the Japanese economy.

“Anyway, with so many childless women, there’s now a market for dolls that contain the souls of dead children.” Khajee shrugged, as if not sure what to make of that herself, as if realizing just how bizarre that sounded.

Jane felt an involuntary shudder ripple through her body, despite the heat. She looked again at the doll—the luk thep. The “angel doll” or “spirit doll”. What had Khajee named her? Lawan. 

“And think about the other side of the equation,” Khajee continued. “There are so many little ones who have died young, especially in this part of the world. I like to think that my little Lawan contains the soul of a sweet little girl who never knew a proper mother.”

Jane found herself seized by a sudden desire to change the subject. She didn’t want to speculate about the nature of the spirit that might inhabit the doll. She glanced again at the doll’s macabrely realistic face, its artificially cherubic smile. 

Jane shuddered, and hoped that Khajee wouldn’t notice her reaction. 

Although Jane wasn’t superstitious, she also hoped that the central sales point of the luk thep doll—the supposed spiritual infestation—was the myth that she (for the most part) believed it to be. For if a spirit were inside that doll, Jane suspected that it would not be angelic in temperament.   

“You can never be sure about such things, can you?” Jane replied. (What else could you say to a notion like that, uttered by a colleague whom you didn’t know all that well, late at night in an office thousands of miles from home?) “Well, it gave me a little bit of a start, that’s all. Come on, we’ve almost finished going through the data. Then we can both call it a day—and hopefully get some sleep.”

Khajee took the hint; and for that matter, the Thai woman was probably tired, too. It had been an awfully long day. Khajee leaned forward in her chair, clutched the mouse once more, and the two women resumed their confirmation of the data.

Khajee said no more about the doll—Lawan—but Jane remained aware of it. At one point Jane considered asking Khajee to cover it, for the simple reason that it was distracting her. But there was no way to make such a request politely—certainly not in another person’s office.

Chapter 7

Table of contents

Wattpad and digital sharecropping

Last September, the folks over at Forbes wrote a story about Wattpad and its highly exploitive (though completely voluntary) business model:

Wattpad has more than 4 million writers, who post an average of 300,000 pieces a day. The company brings in an estimated $19 million in revenue, mostly from ads on its site and from stories sponsored by companies like Unilever who want to advertise alongside a specific writer or genre. Nearly all its writers are unpaid; several hundred make money from ad-sharing revenue and 200 of those also earn from writing sponsored content and inking publishing deals with Wattpad. That lean business model means Wattpad is profitable. It has few costs beyond bandwidth, its 130 employees and the Toronto offices. The model “is a great way to seek talent without having to pay huge amounts for it,” says Lorraine Shanley, a publishing industry consultant.

Forbes, September 2018

4 million writers, and only a minuscule number (about .005%) make any money for their efforts. 

Wattpad is a textbook example of digital sharecropping.

I have nothing against the concept of web fiction, web serials, or posting fiction for free on the Internet. Much of the content of this site, after all, is web fiction. (I have my own little Wattpad going on here.)

But the defining characteristic of digital sharecropping is the socialization of effort, and the privatization of rewards. Wattpad earns $19 million in revenue, because writers choose to post their fiction there, rather than writing on their own sites

I can already anticipate your “but….” rebuttals.

Yes, I realize that only a handful of these writers, if they created their own web presences, would garner any appreciable audience, or earn any real revenue. But let me ask you: How much chance do most writers have on Wattpad, amid 4 million other writers, posting 300,000 pieces per day?

The odds of genuine success are about the same either way. The writers who are standing out on Wattpad could, with a bit of effort, stand out on their own online platforms. And then they would make a whole lot more money than Wattpad is paying them, you can be sure. Even more importantly, they would control their own platforms. 

Digital sharecropping works because too many creative types are desperately slavering for any form of immediate recognition, like a thirteen year-old boy hopelessly infatuated with an eighteen year-old girl.  

Look at me! Look at me now!A like on a Facebook post! A retweet! A like on a YouTube video! Oh, any form of recognition will do! Pleeeeaaase!

The owners of the social media giants understand this weakness of all creative people, and they eagerly exploit it. 

Resist. If you can’t afford your own independently hosted WordPress site, then start a free blog on Google’s blogger platform. 

Yes, Google ultimately controls Blogger. But there you at least have some independence. (You can also run your own affiliate links, and eventually qualify for Adsense revenue).

Whatever you do—if you’re a writer—don’t post your fiction on Wattpad. Don’t be a sucker. 

Just as Facebook and Twitter have become the cancer that destroyed blogging, so Wattpad has become the cancer that threatens to destroy independently published web fiction. 

Don’t fall for the scam.