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Pictures from the Launch

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The launch started at around noon. It was nice to see that so many people came to support the book. Of course it was a shame that the person selling the books was facing the wrong way. But, you can still buy it as an e-book  here . Stuff happened: hedgehogs and the sea and dragons The book is also available as a paperback. Most people like it as a paperback, even though it's not water- or dragon-proof. Then I felt that I needed talk about my childhood. I am not sure why, but here I am as a small child, in Zglevia. By the way if you want to find out where Zglevia used to be and what happened to it, I wrote about it in this story: On the Proper Use of Mosquitoes , Twist in Time Magazine  Issue 1. (It is a bit sad). Drinks were being passed around, and people kept saying very nice things to me. (Like this review, for instance, by Alan Vincent Michaels  ) The party went on for a while. I was so happy to see André Lepine  from th...

My Favourite Things: a Song

Here is a link to the most magnificent song composed by Marsha Adamas (@Marshawritesit) in honour of the launch of Creatures Give Advice https://soundcloud.com/user-149370279/voice-026 The singer is a creature of legend who is mysterious and amazing.

A Poem in Honour of the Creatures by Monique

‏  The ongoing launch has been attracting all sorts of merriment. I am so happy to have  Monique's permission to publish this poem. Monique asked three questions in Creatures Give Advice. She regularly tweets poetry, and is a great person to follow  @starfish_72 By Monique ‏ Gather land walkers starfish 'n flounders we're estranged from that which consorts with youth feeling blue from all angles let's group on this rock share a champagne sponge & toast to @roppotucha launching her book happiness plunges "Creatures Give Advice!" into a sea of readers.

Marking Exams and Essays

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I am not the only person who has to mark exams and essays. Sometimes it's hard. I remember that time I saw my friend. Most of him was buried in scripts, only the nose poked out and twitched in regret. "Please don't tell them," he cried. "I want them to think I enjoy reading them." I felt I had to stay in that room, with those scripts, with the smell of fear on every page, but my friend shouted: "Run!" And I ran down the stairs, as the scripts landed beside me. Anyway, I try to make it easier. I try to understand the enormity of the time and pressure that went into composing the text that I have to read and assess in 15 minutes. So I draw them, those students, sometimes nameless, sometimes not. The doodles help me connect with them, and then the correcting is a bit easier. Here they are, my lovely students:

Books and E-Books: Upside Down Ideas about Marketing and Pricing

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Publishing I brought out a book, Creatures Give Advice . My book is all about meeting wonderful people on twitter and us having a bit of a giggle on the sly while doing our real work. If you buy it, I will feel awfully excited. I'd love to hear from you when you read it, and I'd love to feature your question in the next book. (To be fair, the book is more about questions than advice). Pricing: the Lumpfish Strategy In The Fish Can Sing , Halldor Laxness has a character who sells lumpfish. Winter or summer, regardless of the supply, the price stays the same.  This is the kind of loyalty to one's own labour and to one's customers that I'd like to emulate. I priced the ebook and the paperbook taking into account how much my readers would be able to pay, how much effort I put into the book, and the sufficient amount to give me a jolt of dopamine with every purchase. After that, the price will remain the same. I can't do special prices as this would di...

How to Make an Author Happy

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Ingredients: 1 author 100 grams of creatures 1 appreciation for whimsy 1 generosity 1-3 photos 1 twitter post

What I learned from Publishing a Paperback with Amazon

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Lesson 1: Always order a proof copy. This is Amazon KDP’s new feature. It does mean that you have to wait, but it is worth it. Now, I am a person pursued by typos. I thought that with a tiny picture book, they won’t find me, but they did. When the proof finally arrived, the typos were all there, giggling.                                             Spelling Lessons in the Forest of Typos  By the way, my initial impatience resulted in a single copy with pretty unique typos.   One of my twitter friends has it, and I feel guilty about it. Lesson 2: Prepare to wait and suffer. After I’ve gone over the proof I made changes to the paperback and the ebook, but there was a catch. While the book went live, the changes took a while to update. As I didn’t realise that was the case, I might have slowed down the process by uploading the corrected file ...