To the person who just sent me e-mail wondering how I might be affected by Pajamas Media closing their advertising network as of April 1: Wait, what? Not only am I not a member of the PM ad network, but a quick glance at the site reveals that there is in fact no paid advertising here at all. Save a dummy test ad I put up to see what it would look like, this site’s never had advertising on it, and at the moment I’m leaning again toward keeping it off.
I read several Pajamas Media blogs and am friendly with some of the bloggers there, but let’s just say their general editorial bent is not one that would induce me to throw my lot in with them, even if I were shopping around for an ad network, which I’m not. In short, the Pajamas Media ad network collapse affects me not at all, except to the extent some of the bloggers I read are now a little twitchy about losing that bit of income as of the first of April.
Somewhat vaguely related to this, I’ve had a couple people ask me in e-mail and in person whether my pulling The High Castle from Tor’s 2009 release schedule puts me in a wobbly financial position for the year. In a word, and without going into any significant detail: no. I do have other projects humming along and independent of that we here in the Scalzi household are big fans of the concept of tucking away for a rainy day, i.e., actually saving some of the money we earn, which until very recently was a fairly un-American attitude lo these last couple of decades. What can I say, we’re strangely old school in some ways.
In any event: We’re fine, thanks. I do appreciate people are concerned. It’s a nervous time for everyone, fiscally speaking.
You did a pretty thorough job explaining that royalties come in much later than the publication of the book. Given the recent publications, the royalties should start nicely overlapping soon. Plus the numerous foreign deals your agent has gotten you (eating Wheaties, shooting ‘roids, Jedi, wtf?? send your agent a box of chocolates on top of the commission – sounds like there are ninja skills involved) I can’t imagine why folks would think you’re struggling.
Got the years worth of canned good in the root cellar? Good man.
How about an Allegorical Lozenge to take our mind off it..
For most will smile when I am by.
Good to see that people still have old-school financial sense. Then again, doing the hard slog as you work up to Authordom over so many years probably helped instil some of the basic rules so many people have either forgotten or chosen to ignore.
Keep on truckin’, John. We’ll be waiting for the next book.
Reworking the manuscript to work in a few Hot Vampires And Girls Who Fall For Them, to tap into the “Twilight” demographic? A fiscally sound move, that.
We’re going to have you to move to Canada or some other un-American third world country!
But we all have to spend at least 125% of our income at Wal-Mart to save the economy! It says so right at Wal-Mart!
In all seriousness, I am glad to hear that Scalzi didn’t get Madoffed or have his net worth flushed by the recession, because when authors [or any artist not on a voluntary poverty plan] are hungry the quality of work goes down.
okathleen, please consider putting your URL in the “Web site” field on the comment form, rather than the body of the text itself. You’re looking vaguely like one of those people who just comments for the purpose of advertising their own site, and I’m sure that’s not your intent. Thanks.
In what way am I vaguely looking like one of THOSE people who just leave comments… (heaven forbid – the very thought of it..)?
Found you by searching on what one of my domain names could be used for, and then was going to offer it up on Twitter … but there were only two returns for the search word in Google.
Winning “What I would do with Squeegous.com” entry get’s the domain.
Don’t put your URL at the end of your comment. Move your URL into the URL field of the comment form the next time you comment, please. The next time you post with the URL at the bottom of the comment, I’ll assume you’re just commenting to advertise yourself, and so I’ll delete the comment.
I wonder where you might be without the so called collaborative democracy that is the www? Are you the net police?
And don’t worry I shall take my comments and URL elsewhere.
I was finding your site far too sycophantic/dull.
Apparently okathleen hasn’t heard the rules…. You only pimp yourself in a pimp thread!
Nope. I am the person who gets to tell you how to behave on my site, however. And of course, I don’t particularly care if you find it rude or not. You don’t get a vote.
Bye, okathleen. Have fun spamming someone else’s site.
Of course he’s sound. Why, just the other day, John pointed me to the son of this Nigerian colonel who was killed in their recent civil war. They plan to deposit forty million in my bank account any day now, and I get to keep 10%!
Bye-bye mortgage! My next comment will be sent from the Bahamas!
Of course, some think that the real problem is that those of use who have been tucking it away for a rainy day won’t really be that much better off if the bottom truly drops out.
i.e., that there are no such thing as safe investments.
True enough, clvrmnky, but that doesn’t preclude being fiscally until such a point. And if that bottom drops out, frankly, the entire world is going to Hell. I don’t suspect we’ll get to that point, however.
If the entire world goes to hell, I suspect rural Ohio will be a very good place to be. A) It’s cheap living. B) Our neighbors have guns and don’t like strangers.
Yes, if the whole world goes to Hell, we’re all in Hell, so having money or gold or whatever isn’t going to make it any better, now is it?
Somewhat vaguely related to this, I’ve had a couple people ask me in e-mail and in person whether my pulling The High Castle from Tor’s 2009 release schedule puts me in a wobbly financial position for the year.
Considering that I trust your critical crap filter, it probably could have done your financial position more harm of you’d released a piece of work you weren’t happy with.
Pretty much the same here across the border in Indiana.
A vegetable garden and a splitting Maul for firewood tends to get you right back to basics. It’s amazing how attached to our electronic toys, that did not even exist thirty years ago, we have become.
Vegetable soup and a game of catch anyone?
Self-promotion? Of course, that being much the point. And self-promotion is not to be confused with advertising.
Promoting of others? Both blatant and subtle, but it isn’t paid for – after all, touting your publisher/editor/contractual partners isn’t advertising, it is just good business.
Creating nice linking material for search engine indexing? Not a stated goal, but the regularity of the circularity can get a bit thick at times. But again, search index placement enhancement isn’t advertising.
For example, the linking of the AMC column combines all three, but that isn’t advertising, no way, no how. Though I do wonder if the fine people involved in paying for that column were completely and totally unaware of the benefits to be accrued by such non-advertising as practiced at Whatever.
Since it seems that advertising is defined as ‘being paid to rent out some amount of web presence/prestige in the interest of others,’ you can remain spotless in maintaining that perspective of no paid advertising.
But then, marketing is always about benefiting the customer, marketing never being used for anything as crass as profiting from the attention the marketer has generated. It is one of the most reliable ways to tell the difference between a foul advertiser and a blameless self-sacrificing servant of the greater good.