Authors Electric

There are many things in life which polarise people. Off the top of my head, I can think of politics, religion, climate change. Opinions on these things can make or break friendships and other relationships. How many times have I read online: If you vote X, then unfriend me immediately and similar statements. I have friends of all persuasions and their opinions on most things are all part of what makes friendships rich and interesting both online and in real life.  In the online literary world – well, social media anyway – the controversy of the month seems to be artificial intelligence. People come at this from all angles. Some hate any use of AI in any shape or form – it’s stealing, it uses too much water, it’s cheating, and they can go on and on about saving the planet and the livelihoods of every creative persn living on it. Others see it as the future and why shouldn’t they use all the help they can get, they don’t have any money and don’t see any problems.  The reality,...

There’s a Facebook group called Amazon KDP Books - Kindle Direct Publishing with a screenshot of the KDP logo as the group picture. It is in no way affiliated with Amazon and I can only assume that Amazon either no longer cares or has simply given up chasing people who appropriate their words and pictures. In the early days of this blog, we had the word kindle in the title and received a polite message from Amazon asking us to cease and desist as it was trademarked to them.  Anyway, this group has over 77 thousand members. I’m not entirely sure why I go there as it is of no benefit to me whatsoever. The majority of posts come from people who have apparently watched YouTube where there are entrepreneurs making a lot of money out of telling other people how to make a lot of money. Of course, it doesn’t work – it never works. There is no get-rich-quick scheme and if there was, few people would be altruistic enough to share it.  It’s all about low content . You can allegedly ma...

It’s been a long road, this process of converting a novel into an audiobook. So far, it’s taken me over two years to get to this point. Looking back on my AE posts, I started way back in June 2014 , when I met my first narrator. How does one meet a narrator? On ACX – one of the biggest sites/distributors (and yes – you’ve guessed it – part of Amazon. Isn’t everything these days?), it’s a bit like a dating agency. Authors upload samples of scripts and hope to get picked by narrators; narrators upload samples of their work and hope to get picked by authors. Each can search listings of the other, filtered by genre, book type, voice type, gender etc etc. People make approaches and get rejected. Eventually you meet somebody whose voice/story you like the sound/look of, they feel the same way about you and think you can work together. It really is like a dating agency … So way back in 2014, I met Cliff. He was a singer with a great voice and liked my novel, and we signed a contract...

             As I've mentioned before, this blog that you see is merely the facade, the face that Authors Electric present to the world. Behind it, on private posting boards and email, there is a continual chatter between members.           So what is that talk about? Serious, writerly stuff about Alienation and Narrative Arcs? Discussion of sales figures and marketing ploys? I stumbled into the A-E Salon the other day, into the middle of a conversation. It was about the various browsers you can use to get onto the net - how some won't load some sites, others are very slow. One, in particular, causes 'meltdown.'         Apt enough, for Electric Authors. I thought I'd let everyone in on this essential topic for our age.         So plant your virtual glass firmly against the wall and listen... Ruby Barnes Ruby Barne...