On July 26 the Globe and Mail, Canada’s most respected newspaper, devoted two-thirds of the front page and half of the second page of their Globe Arts section to the article. ‘There will be no more professional writers in the future’ (their punctuation) Naturally, I was most interested. It came on the heels of a similar article in the Guardian. Other rags posted on the same topic. I got the impression they all timed their diatribes together for greatest impact. The purpose, as I see it – war on self-publishing and a (futile) reactionary attempt to save the old guard. Continue reading “No More Professional Writers?”
Author: Yvonne Hertzberger
Yvonne Hertzberger is a native of the Netherlands who immigrated to Canada in 1950. She is an alumna of The University of Waterloo, with degrees in psychology and Sociology. Her Fantasy trilogy, ‘Earth’s Pendulum’ has been well received. Learn more about Yvonne at her blog and her Amazon author page.
Kindle Singles: Love It or Leave It?
Amazon Kindle now has another option for writers, “Kindle Singles,” particularly aimed at short stories, novellas and other shorter works. I admit to being unaware of this program until I saw a post on Facebook last week. I couldn’t find a way to contact Kindle Singles, so I had to send my questions to Kindle customer service instead. But they were prompt with a reply. Continue reading “Kindle Singles: Love It or Leave It?”
Pet Peeves: What Are Yours?
Pet peeves. The topic came up recently in a discussion with some other writers on Facebook. This one was specifically about the spoken and written language – English to be precise.
Now you need to know that I am over sixty. That makes me an official grey-hair (although I keep it red to match my fiery personality). My years have earned me the right to be curmudgeonly, a right I intend to exercise with abandon.
Along with those grey/red hairs come some attitudes and opinions to complement them – that is to say set-in-my-ways and fiery. And I likely have a pet peeve for every hair that hasn’t fallen out yet. Fortunately for you, the only ones I will rant about today have to do with English. Even so, some are likely to cause some smoldering resentment and maybe even a few flames of disagreement. Good! Continue reading “Pet Peeves: What Are Yours?”
Self-publishers: Buyer Beware
It’s crunch time. My post is due and I woke at 3 am in a panic with no topic. (Sound familiar, Dan?) There is too much going on in my life. But then an idea I have been toying with for some time came back. I can share the story of my experience with iUniverse and use it as a cautionary tale for novice authors. And cautionary it is.
Let me preface this by saying that I do believe there are legitimate ‘self-publishing’ companies out there who deliver what they promise with integrity and quality. But let me also emphasize that such companies are few and far between and, to most of us, indistinguishable from the rest.