{"id":34791,"date":"2025-10-03T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=34791"},"modified":"2025-10-02T20:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:40:17","slug":"you-pays-your-money-and-you-takes-your-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/you-pays-your-money-and-you-takes-your-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So, I learned some stuff today about publishing a book.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There\u2019s no such thing as an objective authoritative critic who can tell you whether your book is good, bad or indifferent. In other words, \u201cYou pays your money and you takes your choice.\u201d\u00a0 If you believe your book is good then you take your chances.\u00a0 So that puts the onus back on me.\u00a0 Do I believe in my book or not?<\/li>\n<li>After you write it and put a cover on it and edit it, then you have to get influencers to tout it and reviewers to praise it. But after all that you have to advertise it on Amazon to the tune of thousands of dollars.\u00a0 Otherwise, no one will know it\u2019s there.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Well, now I\u2019ll have to search my soul and decide just how much I want to get my book out in the world.\u00a0 Do I put my money where my mouth is?\u00a0 I guess I\u2019ll find out.\u00a0 Now, all this is still preliminary.\u00a0 I have to get a cover and get an editor to tell me about all my typos and inelegant grammatical constructions.\u00a0 And get a marketer to \u201calert the media.\u201d\u00a0 And for the next month I\u2019m going to be buried under a project that will prevent me from concentrating on anything important.\u00a0 But by the third week in November, I\u2019ll be available (other than a Thursday where I\u2019ll be buried under cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie).<\/p>\n<p>Well, it was definitely a clarifying experience.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way to pass the buck on a thing like this.\u00a0 The author has to search his soul and use the wisdom of Solomon to make the correct decision.\u00a0 Well, so what?\u00a0 What\u2019s Solomon got that I ain\u2019t got, in spades?\u00a0 Darned right!<\/p>\n<p>So, if you drive through Dunwich and you see a disheveled geezer picking up bottles and cans on the side of the road, it may be me trying to raise enough capital for the project.\u00a0 With any luck I\u2019ll strike oil in the north forty and I can start on the gold leaf hardcover edition that all of us \u201creal authors\u201d like so much.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so enough moaning and groaning.\u00a0 The journey is the reward they say.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ll just follow my nose and see where all this ends up.\u00a0 Of course, if I get too enthusiastic Camera Girl will wonder why the checking account has gotten so anemic.\u00a0 And that could trigger all kinds of hazardous situations.\u00a0 After all she has complete control over my food supply and knows my sleeping habits.\u00a0 But I won\u2019t allow artistic decisions to be influenced by cowardly and pedestrian concerns. \u201cArs gratia artis,\u201d you know.<\/p>\n<p>Well, back to something comical; the government shutdown!\u00a0 I hear Trump is going to permanently terminate \u201chundreds of thousands\u201d of federal employees to get back at the Democrats for shutting down the government.\u00a0 That\u2019s a pretty bold move.\u00a0 I\u2019m starting to believe there are no limits to what he plans to do to the federal government.\u00a0 He seems to be borrowing Obama\u2019s statement that he would \u201cfundamentally transform the United States.\u201d\u00a0 And at this rate maybe Trump will actually do it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, I learned some stuff today about publishing a book. There\u2019s no such thing as an objective authoritative critic who can tell you whether your<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,5,3366,1289,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[76,1290],"class_list":["post-34791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-fiction-writing","tag-my-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Choice - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/you-pays-your-money-and-you-takes-your-choice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Choice - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So, I learned some stuff today about publishing a book. 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