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RE: The day the steam blew off

Thanks, your reply shows you actually took a look to see what I am posting.

I have never had anything to do with any social media. To me they were just a distraction and I was spending at least eight hours a day writing. The internet, for me, was only for downloading SF&F stories (from Baen, as they offer beautiful ebooks for free - I am surviving on a South African pension, so that aspect is important), doing torrent for music and movies and for emails.

After I wrote my 13th book (it ended on Word page 9500, each page the equivalent of 2.5 printed pages) I ended up with Carpal tunnel syndrome and had to stop (2014). Since then I have only been re-reading for proof-reading the books. I was dismayed to realise that even after proof-reading for the 5th time, I was still finding mistakes.

As I now had more time, I started exploring the web. I do not recall how I found Steemit, but the first thing I did is go to the tag 'writing' and discover a number of very well written stories. For my stories to be in such company felt like a dream.

All I understood about blockchain, is that if I put my stories into the blockchain, they will outlast me. I did not know that I cannot make posts with, say a 100 pages at a time, for there is a limit of 65kb for text.

I would have given up, as to add all my books to steemit will take at least six years and I don't think I have that much time. Another thing to take into consideration is that people who come to steemit are like kids in a candy store (the old kind, where loose sweets were kept in bottles), and they want one sweet from here and one from there - and rarely take the time to read anything more than a page.

After four months, I only have one reader, so I have been coming close to giving up. Then, I wake up this morning and find two messages! Yours and another one from someone who is a dolphin and has done very well. He wants to know why I am not creating ebooks with my stories.

Wow!

The truth is, by posting here, my proof-reading is totally different. I have been even cutting out entire paragraphs, or even adding some, so as to improve the flow of the story. I already have all my books in .pdf, but if I were to do a web site and make the books available there, I would give up on the proof-reading - and I do not want to do so.

I've decided I do not have a choice. I'll just have to make certain I live for as long as possible to upload as many of the books as I can. I was thinking I can, as a temporary solution. create a site and place my books there in encrypted .rar files. The moment I die, the password to the files is freely made available, but, in the meantime, as I do my final editing each finalised book becomes available.

Something like that is my way of thinking. Now I will go to see what the dolphin has to suggest.
:)

((If you read this far, thanks.))

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Ok, several points.

  1. surviving on a South African pension - being a creative person myself I've always dreamt of being able to live out of the royalties paid for my creation, as you should be able to do. I've read a post or two from a guy nickname etcmike where he talks about getting an income stream from Steemit. I think that is more or less the very philosophy of this platform. His explanation is pretty complicated, I could not yet make sense of it all but I'll try harder.
  2. never heard of Baen. I've kinda stopped reading fiction about 10 years ago, I can't bring myself to it again as I feel guilt - I feel I am wasting time and that I should be reading something more important. When I need to relax I play strategy games (mostly boardgames nowadays).
  3. blockchain is fascinating and has the power to lastingly change society. The fact that it's persistent is just one aspect. Think that done right (steemit is trying) it could allow you to live from your writing without the need for a publisher acting as a gatekeeper and perceiving a hefty toll in the (happy) event that it allows you to offer your writing to people who enjoy it. Blockchain can allow people to "monetize" their work directly by supporting a world where each of us pays with his or her work directly (as circulating personal IOUs but we are maybe going too deep into economics)
  4. I guess the lesson of your story is: never give up!
  5. I hope a dolphin, orca, narwal, cachalot or blue whale reads my articles too, one day ! :)

Thanks.
For most people, it takes about six months to a year before we arrive at the point where we have enough people interested in our posts, for surviving from steemit income to be viable.

As I said, all I'm now interested in doing is posting my stories. I will also create a site where they can be found in pdf and rtf form. The truth is, I love the idea of knowing that the worlds I created exist also in other minds.

You have seen a couple of political posts I've made. I make them, but have no interest in discussing them, it takes too much of my time from my stories. So I cut you off when you decided to argue with me. Now you know why.