A little while ago, a friend of mine said, “You know what death is like?” “Not having died,” I said. “No.” “Nothing.” “Come again?’ “It’ll just be one big nothing,” he said. “Do you remember what you were like before you were born?” “Nope.” “Death will be just like that. Going back to that nothing.” […]
The post Ex Nihilo appeared first on Waiter Rant.
Aside from the Author Market [a designated area of the exhibit floor where self-published authors can buy display space], there are a handful of opportunities for authors to get visibility for their work at BEA. As far as I’m concerned—as someone who attended this show for 10 years, mainly as an editor with a traditional publishing house—it is not worth the investment. Here’s why.I'll add a fourth consideration: You will likely be hugely overcharged, especially by companies that sell book fair packages, or re-sell the exhibit services of others.
The emphasis of the show is on traditional publishing, rights sales and pre-publication marketing, and does not favor indie title promotion. It is a New York industry event where traditional publishing insiders talk to other traditional publishing insiders. Yes, there are librarians and booksellers, but they’re rarely paying attention to the places where an indie book may be showcased or promoted.
Nobody is going to notice your book there. Your book is likely to be promoted with many other books, with no way of attracting attention even if someone did pause for a second within 50 feet of your book. Imagine setting a copy of your book down in the world’s largest book fair, and expecting someone to not only notice it, but be entranced by it so much they can ignore 10,000 other things happening at the same time.
If you—the author—are not present to advocate for it, your book doesn’t stand a chance. Services that offer to promote your book at BEA are rarely, if ever, hand-selling or promoting your book in a meaningful way. But they will be happy to cash your check and say that your book had a “presence” at BEA. If you want to satisfy your ego, go ahead. But it’s not going to lead to meaningful sales. (I challenge anyone in the comments to provide evidence that a self-published book gained traction at BEA because the author paid a fee to secure placement—and the author was not present.)
Pokus “Pokus Two” The best way I can describe Pokus aesthetic is that it’s like if the rhythm section of Fugazi was playing with a keyboard player who sometimes sounded a bit like Sun Ra when he was messing around synthesizers and overdriven electric organs in the late ’70s and other times was more along […]
Bec Plexus “Busy Making Steps” “Busy Making Steps” seems to convulse in harsh, jagged zigzag motions, like the music is having an allergic response to the song’s candid and angst-ridden lyrics. Bec Plexus’ vocal performance is the most straight forward part of the song – theatrical and arch, but within the boundaries of mainstream pop. […]
In October, the Supreme Court heard a case that was painfully ironic, considering the Kavanaugh hearings the nation had just been subjected to: a challenge to the United States’ extremely restrictive sex offender registry laws. While opinions on the case Gundy v. United States, which challenges the Attorney General’s ability to retroactively impose registry requirements, have yet […]
TheOneRing.net is hosting a series of four VIRTUAL 5K RACES in May. Each race will reflect a leg of the Fellowship’s journey through Middle-earth (though not in actual miles, of course). A new race will be posted on the first four Fridays in May. The 5k races (3.1 miles) can be run or walked at […]
If you loved The Unexpected Party sequence from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey then our friends from Weta Workshop have something for you. You can now buy a board game version of this sequence in the film. The purpose of this game is to be the first person to complete all 15 lines of the […]
Ever generous with his time and talent, Andy Serkis is hosting a #hobbithon of sorts and reading the entirety of The Hobbit for 12 hours – right now! In a message to his fans, Andy writes: So many of us are struggling in isolation during the lockdown. While times are tough, I want to take […]
Gerson Monje holds up his cellphone to proudly show off his online sex shop. A red banner reading "sold out!" is plastered across half of the products.
Comics Curmudgeon readers! Do you love this blog and yearn for a novel written by its creator? Well, good news: Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast is that novel! It's even about newspaper comic strips, partly. Check it out! Dennis the Menace, 5/9/20 I guess the flavor of mence that’s supposed to be happening here is that […]
The wildly popular game gives players a place to socialize with others or simply escape while on lockdown for coronavirus
As shelter in place orders around the world have left many people trapped at home indefinitely, some have found a new place to meet up: inside the digital world of wildly popular Nintendo game Animal Crossing.
Released in late March, Animal Crossing: New Horizons quickly became the top game in the US. In it, users explore a carefree pastel environment, growing fruits and flowers, catching bugs or fish to sell, and making friends with other characters in an open-ended simulation.
Continue reading...NHS staff from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds may be given roles away from the frontline under plans to reduce their disproportionately high death rate from Covid-19.
The Guardian revealed last week that minority groups were over-represented by as much as 27% in the overall Covid-19 death toll. Additionally, 63% of the first 106 health and social care staff known to have died from the virus were black or Asian, according to the Health Service Journal.
Senior reporter Haroon Siddique looks at the figures and explains why BAME people may be more at risk.
Conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus have resulted in dozens of phone masts across the UK being vandalised in recent weeks. Theories about the dangers of 5G had already been circulating, despite regulators confirming that the radiation levels of the new technology are well within safe boundaries. So how did the conspiracy incorrectly linking it to 5G start? And is 5G really dangerous? We explain why 5G has nothing to do with Covid-19
Continue reading...The spread of Covid-19 in India has been catastrophic for millions of its poorest and marginalised residents who are bearing the brunt of the world's biggest shutdown. Hannah Ellis-Peterson tells us how coronavirus and the lockdown is further dividing the country along class and religious lines
It is among the most international of sports, but countries have had to look inwardly in order to restart the action
On Thursday afternoon in Minsk, elite international athletes returned to competition. Two Belarusians kicked tennis off as the world No 11, Aryna Sabalenka, and the No 50, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, took to the court. Even in Belarus, where the country has relentlessly carried on as much of the world around it has come to a halt, the scene underlined the new normal.
The pair humbled themselves to picking up their own balls and their stage was a small indoor hard court lined with one linesman per side and a handful of spectators. After Sabalenka sealed the victory, the two friends were not allowed to embrace. They tapped the other’s racquet and Sabalenka blew a kiss. They laughed.
Continue reading...Five-point plan to protect renters comes as poll shows 1.7 million people fear unemployment
Labour is calling on the government to draw up emergency measures to protect renters beyond June as polling shows up to 1.7 million people in the private sector fear that they will lose their jobs this summer.
Dire economic forecasts released this week, including a Bank of England warning that the country faces its worst recession in 300 years, has prompted Labour to rapidly escalate its call for current protections for the rented sector, like the three-month ban on evictions in England and Wales, to be extended.
Continue reading...Decca Classics’ youngest-ever signing, Christian Li, has been hailed a ‘superstar’ who is already up there with the greats
The classical music world is no stranger to young talent. The 19th century virtuoso Niccolò Paganini started playing aged seven, while Yehudi Menuhin caused a sensation with his performance, at the same age, of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
Now, however, there’s a new kid on the block, whose backers say transforms from “normal child” to “absolute superstar” the moment the lights dim. Christian Li, a 12-year-old schoolboy violinist from Melbourne, recently became the youngest-ever artist signed by the Decca Classics record label. He will release a new recording later this month, a contemporary adaptation of a traditional Chinese folk tune.
Continue reading...Britain is a latecomer to decarbonising transport but changes under lockdown and initiatives abroad could spark a revolution
It was a grim irony that the best transport news in ages was buried in the first few days of the coronavirus lockdown. On 26 March, the government published a document, Decarbonising Transport, which went further in facing up to the problem of emissions from air and vehicle traffic than most campaigners had dared to hope for.
The challenge is enormous. In 2016, transport overtook energy to become the single biggest source of domestic emissions. Motor vehicles on their own are responsible for around a fifth of the total. On aviation, the UK is the world’s third-worst polluter, behind China and the US.
Continue reading...Mike Pence’s press secretary tests positive to coronavirus; China reports one new case; Russia reports 10,000 new cases for sixth day in a row
Donald Trump has said coronavirus will “go away without a vaccine” and is expecting 95,000 or more deaths in the US, as Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive for coronavirus.
The president’s comments, at an event with Republican lawmakers, capped a horror week in the US, in which it was revealed unemployment had risen to 14.7%, up from 3.5% in February, with 20 million people losing their jobs in April.
Continue reading...I got my dates mixed up earlier in the week, but today (1/29/20) is the second anniversary of Multiplex 10, marking two years since both Multiplex 10: The Animated Short and our first web series episode debuted! We’ve been a little quiet lately (sorry about that) but we want to make at least one more episode of Multiplex … Continue reading Multiplex 10 is two years old! Help us make more!
We’ve passed our goal and greenlit one more episode of Multiplex 10: The Web Series, so we’ll get back into production as soon as the Indiegogo campaign ends. But we’re not done yet! We have exactly one stretch goal: for every $2,500 over the base goal, we will produce at least two more minutes of … Continue reading Multiplex 10: The Web Series is FUNDED on Indiegogo!
Блок был призван переделать Яндекс в "гибрид" из принадлежащих ему соцсетей, медиа-архивов, новостей — который не делится трафиком со сторонними качественными сайтами, а замыкает посетителей на платформе Яндекса, где к контенту есть вопросы..
This video is from 2017 but it just makes us feel so warm and happy that we had to let it surface once more!
The video is only a bit over a minute but filled with a lot of emotions, excitement, and love, that you can just feel.
Elephants are truly remarkable animals, so intelligent and gentle, you can just tell they have a big heart.
did yall ever watch hello kitty's furry tale theater??? just me???
also frog and toad... yes
the super mario bros super show was another good one.
what did yall watch?
Sex education can be a shock to some kids, and being a teacher trying to get 40 children to not laugh every time you say "testicles" has to be a nightmare. A sex-ed class can become an absolute minefield even when kids aren't asking questions. They don't know any better, and that's the time and place for it, but everyone remembers the awkward questions that got asked in Sex Ed. You can't exactly blame someone's ignorance, but manpeople say some absurdly dumb things in complete seriousness.
Taking deep breaths and forcing a cough can help clear mucus, but these techniques are unlikely to prevent or treat coronavirus infections – here’s why
In a small trial, implanting electrodes into the brain helped women with severe anorexia gain weight and feel less anxious and depressed
SpaceX’s first crewed launch is planned for 27 May and will be run from a mission control with desks set six feet apart to comply with social distancing protocols
Brain implants have revealed that we replay conscious experiences while we sleep, with the same patterns of neurons firing during sleep as in waking life
