Gotcha, gotcha. there is a ton to read here and I'm battling with this because I've never done it before. The image site was a stock free face photo download I guarantee is was not. I mean I understand you thought it was, but it wasn't First, she's a working fashion model with an International agency. Someone uses her pic, they pay. Second, the place you linked is a blog, not a stock site.
and that's where I got it--same with the elephant--others require author or title credit and are deemed fair use. By the copyright owners? Fair use is determined by a court. But they did warn about possible copyright. These two sentences together don't make sense to me. I traced her back to two modeling sites, and a legal site and asked about permissions. Using it as wallpaper or a place holder with no context leans heavily to fair use (said one of them), but I'm deeper than that because I give her MY bio. So she might have to go and my niece might step in for face shots. If I don't get an answer soon, I'll pull it quick. I beyond guarantee you will not get permission to use a known model's photo attached to a bio that doesn't belong to her, on a site saying she's writing things she is not.
I can't lie and don't even do well with chicanery. I do real well with dumb-dumb and ignorance in tech situations. With 4,500 friends and followers in the media who know exactly who I am, and have for 14 years, I can't pu;; wool over anybody's eyes when I belong to over 20 major orgs, groups and display sites. Truthfully my genre shotgun approach has ruined me. I'm so diffuse, spread out, I don't specialize in any category or genre. Why would this 'ruin' you? I've never been trusted to stay in one place and deliver the same type of story. Only the pen name appears on the cover. The readers I'm targeting are the spontaneous or impulse buyers that say "ah, neat premise, I'd like to see what she does with it." 65% of all books bought and read are by women--that's a business fact. I'd say 75% of all interns, readers, asst editors and senior editors are gals--that's business--dollars--The CEOs might be men, but they are sooo in the background of the front lines that they spend their time lunching with the marketing people.It's kind of a shame that both the owners and senior execs have to bow to the marketing Gods. I'm confused about what the breakdown of the sexes here means.
Why am I hiding behind a skirt and denying my age? That is what you are asking isn't it? In case you missed it, or didn't know, right down to the marrow, I'm dying. One foot in the terminal grave, the other in the critical hole. I'm on 15 meds a day, four liters of constant oxygen, antidepressants, injections and a habit of crawling on the floor wherever I have to go. A Massive pulmonary embolism killed me twice--destroying both lungs. What's left over sits hunched back in this chair typing these words, with precious little oxygen getting to his brain and trying to figure out if these words are spelled right.
This is all very sad.
I can only learn these days by making mistakes, over and over again. It is almost too much to bear. I have to tear things down and start over. If that's what it take I do it. Chris is not here anymore. I'm hanging on until the end. I and agent have sold five books in one year. The editing caseload is deathly. But I won't stop until they're finished, or I am.
The gender change--#2. That was real easy. It wasn't too long ago that I visited a romance thread here. I got a lot of advice and then I started getting too much. I was the only guy in there, How do you know that, exactly? I was in there. Did we discuss my sex at some point? I know we did not. I think, and it was my first steamy romance. Things got real detailed and technical, everything of mine, my motivation, my talent, my hopes, dreams, theories, technical know-how, deft insensitivity was rolled over in a rut. There is nothing that I did right. I was not of worth to anyone. No one said any such thing. We were talking about the writing sample you shared. My welcome introduction became a scathing critique, and the words misogynist were tossed my way by two, if not three posters. No, it was not. I was one of them, and said there were things that sounded misogynistic, or that the writing made it seem like... I was told that the words feisty, exotic pole dancer, female and other descriptors were blatantly offensive and sexist. They'd actually jumped at the chance to read three of my chapters, and heaven help me they poured it on me, and me alone. Odd man out (a human being) given the ax because of the very ideals of sexism itself. Or people were trying to help you with your writing, which is kind of much of the point of the site. If you'd like people to just tell you stuff is great and not point out problems they think will hamper your chances of landing an agent, a deal, or selling books, AW isn't it. If you'd rather not have critiques of your work, don't ask, and participate in other ways. That's fine too.
I took screen shots of that thread before I had a severe attack. You know, when you're suicidal, any type of panic or anxiety will set set off congestive heart failure. So I was down for a week wondering if I should get up. My editor got me up with a call and I had to explain what happened. So the Owner, two editors and the publicity agent got me on a conference call, and low behold my agent was in on it. Everybody got angry at the circumstance. All of us are over 60 years old and when those ladies read those comments, some cussed, some laughed and other rolled their eyes. My agent was spit-fire mad and wanted a scalp. I wouldn't have any of that. They all said the same thing--Chris, you're man and they foremost resent the fact that you're crossing into their turf.You will never be left alone." Yeah, no. Let me repeat: NO. What turf? That's not what happened. No one, but no one, cares if you're a man writing romance or anything else. People were trying to help you with your writing, as you posted asking for help with things relating to the book.
I'm sure they're great, supportive people, but the publisher and editor and whatever who let your book go out in need of as much editing as it is? Those people are NOT helping you in any endeavour related to writing, and if they tell you 'everyone is just jealous,' they're not helping you twice. They should be ashamed of calling themselves editorial staff.
I nodded. "That sounds like the way we kicked the girl fantasy writers out of the Science Fiction Writers of America back in the 90s." What?
I remember Hugh Howey and I exchanging emails in the Kindle Cafe. We talked about how many women were in are agent stables compared to the men. It was hard for us to male bond. Our listeners came up in a huge swaggering swell and just powered over us. It about 200 of them. Hugh split the scene fast. I was stupid and tried to explained what we met. Didn't work. We blown out of that forum together. In fact, I remember when Hugh Howey was blow out of this forum in his early days. Then he got rich
Ok, if you have some problem with working with women, or with the fact that women write and agent and edit, and that some of them may not like your work, that's your problem. That's not hordes running off men.
Didn't know Disney had that moniker. Just when I thought I had something original. Now Disney? They are Monsters in copyright and patent litigation. They scare me more than anything. That's a strike. Thanks for that tip--they would have got to me sooner. I said Disney does not have that trademark. Two other concerns do (one has the singular, one the plural. I assumed Disney did, as that's what they call a subset of their creative staff.)
I have no concept of what are apps, widgets, blocks tags, gravatars, icons and all those terms that I never had to learn because I didn't get past Word 7 premium. Those are the things I can hammer out piece by piece by trial and error. Grammar, caps, fonts, colors, pallets, footers, sidebars etc. But even these tutorials sometimes needs tutorials. I'll check some of your guy's sites and compare things. I want to look for patterns and even space. I'll chop if I have too.
But I will never go back as a man and face condemnation like that again. Not for the next five books. From anybody. Again with the man thing. You seem to have an issue. Also, no one is ferreting out your books or website to critique for fun. You ASKED.
Oh, Lisa, are your referring to Native American Culture segments in there? Can you pinpoint cringe worthy aspects that bothered you. You know something that a sensitivity reader would flag me for. They pounced hard on JK. Rowling for similar issues. It's a tough, tough topic. I have a half ojibwa FMC and had to tread very lightly with here. and guess what? There's no such things as Indian jokes about each other You don't seem interested in how it the other is offensive to women, so....
I rewrote the Cloud Catcher and the Moon Girl. It was a horrendous wreck. It still needs some tweaks. You can't just take someone's work, change some of the words, and call it yours. This is plagiarism 101. The dreamcatcher legend is public domain.
I know there's more and I'll pick up again. It's been a very long day and I need to pack it in.