Adventures in Self-Publishing

[Eddie Teach]

I'm trying to think which one's lazier, "Westland" or that Kushiel's Dildo woman who just uses France but calls it Terre d'Ange.

Using Earth may be lazy but at least it gives the reader a fleshed out setting. Kushiel was readable and Kay's works set in the Byzantine/Moorish empires were actually rather good.

And my apologies to Jacob, I probably shouldn't bring up Goodkind in a thread where he's trying to sell fantasy stories. 

[Ideologue]

I'm trying to think which one's lazier, "Westland" or that Kushiel's Dildo woman who just uses France but calls it Terre d'Ange.

Using Earth may be lazy but at least it gives the reader a fleshed out setting. Kushiel was readable and Kay's works set in the Byzantine/Moorish empires were actually rather good.

And my apologies to Jacob, I probably shouldn't bring up Goodkind in a thread where he's trying to sell fantasy stories. 

I guess I'm probably being too hard on Kay.  I mean, at least it explains how there are people.  But then again I'm probably the only person who looks at a fantasy planet and wonders about how its plate movements might have radically have affected the evolution of its life.  Hell, I'm probably one of the few who conceives of them as planets at all, instead of a flatland where three kingdoms have somehow coexisted in the same million square kilometers for millennia.

Korea always got pissed off when I started complaining about how unhumanlike the humans in LotR are.  10,000 years of the middle ages?  What are they, retards?  And do they not fuck?  There should be billions of them.

[merithyn]

Also, I just finished this and was quite pleased at how Edvard Grieg's - In the Hall of the Mountain King came on at the exact right time in Winamp.

It's a fun little story. Arkenbright is a good character, a prince who wants to do what princes do but can't quite do it right. I think I'd pay another dollar to read about that dragon.

(And I only noticed a couple of typos )

Your first customer, now your first fan. 

Second customer

[Eddie Teach]

Korea always got pissed off when I started complaining about how unhumanlike the humans in LotR are.  10,000 years of the middle ages?  What are they, retards?  And do they not fuck?  There should be billions of them.

I would imagine the presence of orcs, goblins, trolls and even elves and dwarves might cripple the pace of technological progress. Endemic warfare on a grander scale than we had historically, the existence of magic as a separate avenue to channel people's curiosity, the lack of urbanization and trade. How many great inventions of the middle ages were developed in villages of a hundred people?

As for the population, low tech, mediocre lands and constant fighting would tend to keep it down.

[Ideologue]

And we're supposed to be against Sauron for bringing order to this benighted land?

[Jacob]

Your first customer, now your first fan. 

It's because my name isn't unpronouncable to him - he's Danish too.

[Jacob]

Wouldn't the best thing to do with writing short stories be to publish them free online somewhere? You're not going to get rich by getting friends and family to buy the odd copy. You could however attract fans online and then somewhere down the line release compilations, a novel, etc... and start earning worthwhile money.

I already have a plan for my approach, but thanks for your suggestions

[Jacob]

Kay's works set in the Byzantine/Moorish empires were actually rather good.

I'm quite fond of Kay, actually. I just finished the Chinese one, and I read the Scando-Brit one not too long ago. So far he hasn't disappointed.

And my apologies to Jacob, I probably shouldn't bring up Goodkind in a thread where he's trying to sell fantasy stories. 

No worries at all.

[Jacob]

It's a fun little story. Arkenbright is a good character, a prince who wants to do what princes do but can't quite do it right. I think I'd pay another dollar to read about that dragon.

As it happens, that is in fact the next story I'm planning for the good Prince.

[Admiral Yi]

Second customer

Note the "now" in front of first fan, meant to indicate that the first fan and the first customer are distinct events. 

[The Brain]

Korea always got pissed off when I started complaining about how unhumanlike the humans in LotR are.  10,000 years of the middle ages?  What are they, retards?  And do they not fuck?  There should be billions of them.

They are middle aged bachelors among whom actually desiring and marrying women is considered something of an oddity. What do you expect from a South African victorian?

[The Brain]

In Middle Earth whenever a guy thinks about having sex with a woman the Creator of the world frowns and yells "Ew! Gross! It's a sin!". No wonder people don't fuck.

Waaait a minute....

[Ideologue]

In Middle Earth whenever a guy thinks about having sex with a woman the Creator of the world frowns and yells "Ew! Gross! It's a sin!". No wonder people don't fuck.

Waaait a minute....

[Jacob]

In Middle Earth whenever a guy thinks about having sex with a woman the Creator of the world frowns and yells "Ew! Gross! It's a sin!". No wonder people don't fuck.

Waaait a minute....

Which book was that in?

[Liep]

Your first customer, now your first fan. 

I might become a fan after the first full length story. This one was really rather short, but still entertaining.