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| bio | website | |
|---|---|---|
| location | London, United Kingdom | |
| age | 42 | |
| visits | member for | 2 years, 7 months |
| seen | Apr 15 at 12:08 | |
| stats | profile views | 10 |
Quite boring, really. Have faffed about with computers since the mid-80s, have worked as a network engineer, unix sysadmin and (occasionally) developer.
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Sep 28 |
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Which well-established vanity publishers offer publishing for money and how much money is enough? @Derfder While not an exhaustive list, there may be some information to be gleaned from sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/vanity |
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Feb 3 |
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LaTex vs. Word vs. etc It is definitely possible to convert LaTeX to an assortment of other formats. |
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Jan 20 |
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What is the difference between writing in the first and the third person? Charles Stross has written two novels using second-person perspective ('Halting State' and 'Rule 34') and (at least IMHO) managed to make it work. |
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Oct 14 |
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Less universe-specific synonyms for “squib”? I could've sworn that in special effects, a squib is a small bag of fake blood, with a small charge underneath, set off by a supervisor during the filming, usually used to mimic gunshot hits. Looking at Wikipedia, it does indeed seem to be an actual, exploding, small charge. |
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Aug 22 |
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What's the distinction between “vanity publishing” and “self publishing”? @Jürgen A. Erhard - I can't speak for German, but the Swedish word "förlag" (cognate to "Verlag") does indeed have a connotation of advancing money (or, rather, pay for the initial publishing run). |
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Jul 28 |
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Best e-book formatting process? I use LaTeX for (almost) all of my writing. Since I am a fan of using \include statements to structure my longer works (essentially one file per chapter), I ended up rolling some code to emit 9among other formats) EPUB files. |
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Jul 14 |
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How do I better handle my nameless main character when trying to retain mystery? One way to (possibly) inject a sense of mystery and an air of "I am private in nature" in a first-person POV would be for each person to refer to the character by a different name. |
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Apr 11 |
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What's a clear way to simulate web text in a story? It depends on what effect you're going for, it'd certainly be a stylistic clue to "short communication, without due care and attention". |
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Jan 20 |
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Fan Fiction: a crutch or a good start? I'd probably say "original" instead of "real", but, yeah. |
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Dec 19 |
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Can I self-publish, and how much would it cost? @QuickerSnarkerBacker From what I understand, "not much". Their primary selling-market is the authors who they vanity-publish, to whom they will sell copies they can then give or sell on. There may be books printed and ware-housed, but in general vanity publishing is more full of "don't go there" than not. |
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Nov 25 |
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How to figure out if an agent is “on the straight” or “shady”? @neilfein Good idea, done. |
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Nov 25 |
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How to figure out if an agent is “on the straight” or “shady”? I wasn't entirely sure before posting the question, but I suspect there's enough differences in "signals shady" that I thought it better to post this question as well (I am aware of the other question, being the one who posted it). |
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Nov 23 |
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Do Writers Use LaTex/TeX for writing? TeX is not that nice, as a raw format, but for LaTeX, I'd say that most of my "source" is body text, rather than commands. I don't actually have a breakdown, but can certainly try to get something, if people are interested. |
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Nov 22 |
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Warning signs that a publisher may be shady? Both of these were good answers, but on the balance, I had to accept the more complete. I was thinking of "Writer Beware" when I asked the question (my example in the question is far-too-frequently mentioned there), but thought it to be a good question to have in the open. |
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Nov 22 |
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Is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages a work of fiction should have? As stated below, written works are more commonly measured in "words" than "pages". |
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Nov 19 |
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How do I find an agent? If they're accepting new clients and have guidelines for a query, follow those guidelines instead of treating all agents the same. Some may just want a query letter for the initial query, some may want sample chapters and some may well want a completed first work. |
