My Thoughts on the New Draft 2 Digital Fees

MY THOUGHTS ON THE NEW FEES DRAFT2DIGITAL ARE CHARGING AUTHORS

A few years back, Smashwords and Draft2Digital merged. The word was that the merge wouldn't affect the present authors that Smashwords had and that my books would eventually be transferred to Draft2Digital (D2D). About a year or so later, my books were transferred and things went back to normal.

About a year ago, I received an email from D2D saying that they will be charging $12 for accounts (authors) that earn less than $100 per year. I don't earn $100 a year, which meant that I would eventually be paying $12 every year if I don't get my sales up. I decided to wait and see. My sales might suddenly go up and I could pay the $12 easily. It didn't.

A week ago, I received an email from D2D saying that they had deducted $12 from my account because my sales was below the $100 threshold. Unfortunately, my account did not have $12 in it. It had been already sent to me some time ago. So now, my account has less than $0 in it. It's negative.

I sat around thinking about what to do. I also did some Google searching to find out what other people were saying or doing about the new fees. It seemed nobody liked it but some said it was okay or even necessary. Obviously, those peole were earning more than a $100 a year. Others, however, were so enraged that they simply closed their accounts. However, before I made a decision, I decided to find out why D2D was doing this.

There has been a proliferation of AI created ebooks and these were of very low quality. These "authors" were creating hundreds of books and flooding D2D's systems. So, D2D decided to make it unprofitable for these "authors" to continue submitting these "AI slop" by charging these fees (there's also a $20 fee for new authors).

Another reason is that maintaining ebooks in their servers costs money. So, if a lot of ebooks don't sell, D2D is losing money paying to keep the ebooks while not earning from them. Most of those AI generated ebooks are of very low quality—from what I heard—and D2D is being swamped with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of low quality, AI generated ebooks.

Now, I don't know how much it costs to keep my books in D2D's servers. Will it cost $12 per year? I don't know. However, if they are charging me $12 so they can keep AI generated ebooks out of their systems, it sounds unfair. Why punish me?

The problem is, these fees are hurting authors like me, authors who are honest, hard working writers, who refuse to let AI do their writing for them.

D2D said I could do one of two things. I could close my account or I could delist my books. Closing my account is what it sounds like. My account will disappear from D2D, and my books will disappear from all the ebook stores. I will be an author with no outlet to market my books.

Delisting removes my books from the bookshelves. My account will still be active and I would not longer be charged the $12 fee. However, since my books are no longer being sold, I won't be earning anything. And if I don't earn, I will definitely not be able to pay the $12 fee.

There's another thing about delisting that doesn't make sense. If one of the reasons for charging the $12 fee is the cost of keeping my books in D2D's servers, what's the difference between keeping my books active and delisting them? In both instances, the books are in their servers so, why charge the $12?

So, if I stay and don't delist, I pay $12 because my books don't earn $100 per year, If I delist, I won't have to pay $12 but I won't be earning. It's the classic "no win" situation.

I'm thinking, should I just go look for someone else to sell my books? It certainly looks like the only recourse open to me. That or selling my books myself, which isn't going to be easy and might take a long time before it becomes profitable.

But I'm not going to do anything that drastic yet. I'll wait and see if D2D will change its policy because of the outcry. I don't know how long I need to wait, I'll just have to wait and see.

 

Fig. 1 - Evolution of covers for Legend of the Moon

Legend of the Moon was my first novel and my favorite book. Unfortunately, it is not my bestselling book. I figured that part of the reason was the cover. Over the years, I've made changes to the cover (left to right, earliest to latest) in hopes of triggering more interest. I can't afford a cover artist, so I make my own. 

For the first cover, I took a photo of the moon, colorized it to make it bluish, and another photo of my kid's Anakin Skywalker action figure, which I then converted into a silhouette. Finally, I added features to Anakin to make him appear as if he's a knight wearing chainmail armor plus a sword strapped to his side.

As can be seen, the image of the knight is poorly drawn, and the blue moon is unnatural. I agonized over it for a few months before deciding to change it.

The next cover featured a vertical sword in front of a moon with a metallic ring around it. I felt I needed a moon, and I thought the sword looked decent enough. I also shrunk my name because I felt I didn't qualify to have my name in big, bold letters yet. This cover lasted several years because I couldn't think of anything better. 

Several months later, I was looking at images of medieval swords, and I discovered that the hilt needed to be longer. Bothered by the short hilt, the third cover now has a longer hilt and looks a bit better. I can't remember why, but I shrunk the moon and the ring. I also used a full moon instead of a somewhat half-moon. Asking around for comments from friends, some said it looks a bit mysterious. A few people thought the book was about people from the moon invading the Earth. I needed a new cover . . . again.

With the latest cover, I did something I told myself I would never do. I used AI. I described one of the scenes in the book, and I liked the image it generated. I wanted the image to fill the cover, however. I asked AI to create a cover, complete with the title and author's name, and I wanted the image to fill the whole cover. For some reason, the AI said it couldn't make a full cover, and it could only make images with square dimensions. So I made a cover with the right dimensions, pasted the image on it, added the title, and my name. I have to admit, I think it came out rather well.

I uploaded the new cover to Smashwords, and about a week later, I received a notification that the book was back on the Premium Catalog. Now I wait to see if sales will improve.

I'm willing to use AI for making my covers, but not for writing my books. I'm not going to give up my work to a piece of software. (",)

How to Avoid/Reduce Feedback in Sound Systems

The principal cause of acoustic feedback

Most, if not all, of us have experienced hearing that piercing whistle from sound systems. What causes it, and what can we do to minimize or eliminate it?

There are several types of feedback, but in this case, the proper name is acoustic feedback, the type of feedback that you can hear. In simple terms, feedback happens when the sound from the speakers enters the microphone/s, goes through the mixers and amplifiers, out through the speakers, and back into the microphone/s. In the case of guitars, the sound from the speakers makes the guitar strings vibrate, which goes through the sound system, out the speakers, and vibrates the strings again. So, essentially, the sound is going 'round and 'round the sound system.

Feedback may be caused by microphones, guitar pickups, and other sound system inputs, along with speakers. They can range in frequencies from a low rumble to an ear-splitting shriek.

So, how can you prevent your sound system from going into feedback?

Factors that can trigger feedback and solutions you can apply:

1 – System volume. The louder the sound, the more likely the sound will reach the microphone.

Solution: Reduce the volume and/or speak closer to the microphone so you can lower the volume. You can also use noise-cancelling microphones.

2 – Speaker to mic proximity. The closer the microphone is to the speaker, the more likely that feedback will occur.

Solution: Get the speakers as far away from the microphones as practically possible.

3 – The microphone is pointing at the speaker (the sound has a direct path toward the microphone).

Solution: Orient the speakers so they are pointing away from the microphones. It's easier to do by using unidirectional (a.k.a. cardioid) microphones.

speaker vs mic placement

4 – Room has a lot of reflective surfaces (even if the microphone is not pointing at the speaker, sound from the speaker can reach the microphone from reflections from the walls, floors, and ceilings).

Solution: Cover the walls, ceilings, and floors with sound-absorbing materials. You can also install slats on the walls to break up reflections. Upholstered chairs will also help. If the chair is unoccupied, the upholstery will absorb sound. If the chair is occupied, the person sitting on it will absorb sound.

sound absorbers or sound diffusers on walls

5 – Room has parallel walls and parallel floor, and ceiling. Sounds that bounce back and forth between parallel walls create "standing waves" that take longer to die down.

Solution: Same solution as #4. You can also build the room so that it doesn't have parallel walls, ceilings, and floors.

non-parallel walls (with sound proofing/diffusers)

Other solutions:

1 - Install "phase delay" equipment. These devices will shift the phase of the incoming sounds so that they will not generate "constructive interference" or sound that adds on to itself.

2 - Use a "cut-only" equalizer and a spectrum analyzer to reduce the frequencies where the feedback occurs. These are equalizers that don't have plus adjustments, only minus adjustments (the 0 dB is at the top of the sliders) and have bandwidths of 1/3-octave. When you increase the system volume and feedback starts to occur, you check the analyzer to find the frequency of the feedback and reduce the level of that frequency. Keep increasing the level and cutting the frequencies of the feedback until you attain your target system volume.

cut-only equalizer (A.K.A. room equalizer)

You can also use equalizers with cut and boost controls. The difference is, cut-only equalizers usually have a larger cut range than cut and boost types.

Urei brand room equalizer

Note: these days, you can download a spectrum analyzer app to your phone. It should be accurate enough for general sound system adjustment.

Another Fake Proposal

email supposedly from Kindle Direct Publishing

I received another email with a proposal to convert my book into a movie. This time, it's from Kindle Direct Publishing. It's obviously fake because the sending address is amazon_submissions_at_gmail_com. Amazon using a gmail address?

Furthermore, my book is hardly a bestseller. If it was a bestseller, I'd understand if someone would contact me with a proposal such as this but it's nowhere near being even a moderate seller.

Lastly, if some big movie production outfit really wanted to convert my book to a movie, I don't think they will ask me to submit a screenplay. Of course, they would offer to make the screenplay for me, which means I will have to pay for it. I would think a real proposal would be free.

If you're also a budding author and received something like this, don't believe it right away. Look at the sending address. If it's a gmail, yahoo, or other free, public email service, don't believe it.

Design Flub Fixed

 

Pinout diagram of Zilog Z80 microprocessor

Back around 1989, I received a request to fix an infusion pump, a device that allows medical staff to pump very small and precise amounts of fluids and medicines into patients.

I was told it would turn on, but wouldn't start pumping. The display showed rubbish, and pushing buttons didn't produce any response.

I opened the thing and quickly discovered a Z80 microprocessor, a computer chip that I had been studying for some time with the intent of building my own computer. I was very familiar with it.

From the description of the problem, it seemed as if the unit was not starting up properly. Opening the unit and checking pin 26 (the RESET pin), I found...nothing, the pin was floating (unconnected to anything).

The chip needs the RESET pin to be held at 0 volts for about a split-second after power-on to start the program at the beginning. If the chip is not reset, the program may start at a random line, and the unit will likely hang or run erroneously.

A resistor, diode, and capacitor usually sufficed to do the job of resetting the chip, but in this case, there was nothing. I told the owner that I needed to buy the parts and would return the next day.

At home, I checked the Z80 user manual. While it explained what the reset pin was for and how to use it, the manual didn't say it could be left unconnected. Unfortunately, it also didn't say that a reset circuit was required. Anyway, I already had a course of action, and I'd know after I put in the parts whether the unit would function or not.

The next day, I brought the parts, a soldering iron, and some soldering lead to the client's office and soldered the parts in. There was no provision on the board for them, but there was sufficient space for me to place them without difficulty. Once finished, I crossed my fingers and turned on the power.

Yes! The infusion pump's display gave an initial display and waited for input. Someone set it up, inputted some parameters, and pressed Start. It worked! A few more tests, and we declared the unit fit for use.

While basking in the thrill of a successful repair, I was concerned about the seeming design flaw in a commercial medical product. I told the client that they should inform the manufacturer about what we had found so they can recall the units already sold and have them updated. I went home fully expecting to soon receive a call from some engineer wanting more details. Unfortunately, there was none. They had either understood what the problem was and implemented the fix, or they had discovered the issue themselves and were already putting out a recall order.

Anyway, this was just one of those repair jobs that sticks in my memory due to its unusual nature.

Zero Sales Since June 2023

 

Updated cover for U-1215 Smashwords version

Sales for U-1215 has become zero since June of this year. It's strange because I had consistent sales almost every month prior to this.

Quarterly sales of U-1215 from 2016 to 2023

I don't know what happened so I sent off an inquiry to Smashwords. They said that it's probably due to a "long tail distribution." What's that?

A long tail distribution is a type of statistical distribution that seems to explain what probably happened to my book.

A book may do very well at the beginning but over time, will start to slump, meaning sales will start to slow down. There may be many reasons why this happens so I won't try to give examples. Eventually, sales drops to a much lower level than at the start and it may drop down to zero or stay at a low level indefinitely.

If a book is very well written, sales may increase sharply and then plateau after some time. In this case the vertical part of the long tail refers to increase in sales rather than the total sales.

I'm not sure if this is the case with U-1215. If you look at the quarterly sales chart, sales started to increase in 2018 and did very well during the pandemic years (2020-2022). In 2022 it seemed as if the sales volume was starting to go down but in the first half of 2023, sales spiked (much to my delight) and suddenly dropped to zero (much to my disappointment).

Yesterday, in a bid to try and solve the problem, I changed the cover of U-1215 (Smashwords edition) to see if that will restore sales. 

The last sale was in June 2023. It's almost December 2023 and the sales report is still zero. Is this a long tail distribution phenomena? I have no idea. (".)

Update 08 Feb 2024: 

In December, I received a notification that I had a sale, six months after the last, and received $2.05 in my Paypal account. There have been no other sales since then. I need to write another novel but I'm not getting any ideas at the moment. (".)

Scam Alert! Film Adaptation Proposal

 

This would have been a perfect start to a day...if this were true.

I received this email today and, I have to admit, it got me excited...for a while. What author wouldn't be, right? You get an email from someone claiming to be from a film/television production company and proposing to turn your book into a film or television series. Wow! Hollywood, here I come!

As I read through the email, red flags started to wave. The first paragraph says it's from Rhiley Roads and yet, the email address is from Adam Mckay, the CEO of Hyperobject Industry. Furthermore, the email address uses a gmail extension. Curious. Shouldn't an official email come from a corporate email address?

I checked out Hyperobject Industries. It's a legit company run by Adam McKay and they've produced several movies and television series on Netflix. This email, however, uses the words "Hyperobject Industry" instead of "Hyperobject Industries." When you're representing a company, you can't afford to make mistakes like that.

I don't know how these companies work. Do they really read someone's book and just contact them offering to convert the book into a movie?

They also want to pitch the book at a Producer's Pitch Event in January 2024. I checked for the event and found a Hollywood Pitch Festival scheduled for December 2023. I don't know if this is the same or is it a different event.

The final red flag is that they want ME to make the synopsis, loglines, film treatment, and screenplay. That's not something an ordinary author would know how to make. Therefore, they propose to hire professional screen writers to do it for me. Guess who pays for those? Yup, me!

If they really wanted to make a film adaptation of my book, they would contact me properly and they would propose to pay me, not me pay them.

Still, getting a legit offer would be nice. I just have to remember to be realistic and wary of scam artists like this one. (",)