Duane Thomas

Gunwriter, 1989-Present.
Cogito, ergo armatus sum.
HOO-WAH!!

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@ZachWLambert Every billionaire on the planet could give every penny they have to the United States government to feed the hungry. And when they were done, we'd have a lot of rich politicians, a lot of hungry people, and a lot of broke former billionaires.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@Devon_Eriksen_ AI isn't going to replace human writers. Writers willing to use AI for what it's good at are going to replace writers not willing to use AI for what it's good at.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

How do you find out what exactly at the gutter/margin/bleed errors though, before you actually know how many pages the book is going to be?

Since I've decided to do hardbacks as well as paperbacks/Kindle downloads, my workflow has modified into:

Still do POD paperback file first.

At that point, doing the POD hardback file is simply a matter of changing the ISBN and tweaking the cover to hardback dimensions.

Conversion to Kindle still comes last.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

Self-publishing on KDP really is a process of "learn by doing." We could say that's a process with a lot of wasted time built into it. But the upshot of that is, once you have an efficient workflow hammered out, you can really appreciate how much time that saves.

My workflow has become:

1. Finish the manuscript (at least to the point it's what most people would call the first draft, which for me is probably the 24th draft).

2. Turn that into a print-ready PDF which tells me how many pages it will be.

3. Download a KDP cover template based on that number of pages.

4. Create the cover using Chat, GIMP, and Paint, and turn that into a PDF.

5. Upload the cover and interior text PDFs to KDP and let KDP identify any dimensional issues (cover width/height, insufficient margins, etc.).

6. Make any tiny GIMP/Paint adjustments necessary to scale the cover into something KDP will accept.

7. Upload that into KDP.

8. Order a production proof.

9. Use the time I'm waiting for the production proof to show up to do another pass through the interior text.

10. When the production proof arrives, fix any physical layout issues (cover text placement, don't like the gutters, etc.).

11. Upload corrected cover and interior text into KDP.

12. Order a reader copy.

13. When that arrives, read the physical book for final edits.

14. Lock the paperback.

15. Only then generate the Kindle version, so I don't have to make every change to two different documents.

That might sound like a lot - it IS a lot - but once you know how to do it, you can really appreciate how much time having an efficient workflow saves.

Some people might look at a 15-step production process and think, "That seems complicated." But the truth is, it's *not knowing what the next step is*, or not knowing how to complete the next step, that really wastes time. Once you know how to do it, the next step is just something to check off a list.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@tjbierschbach @TLiterarian What I loved about selling digital downloads myself: Even after paying the hosting service, I got to keep 92% of the money. Now, on KDP - as you well know - I'll only get to keep 70% of the money on paperbacks and hardbacks, 60% on Kindle books. Oh, the horror...

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

My experience of actually signing a trad pub boilerplate contract - once - and having another in my hands that I eventually refused to sign, was this:

For sales 1 - 5,000, the writer gets 5% of the money.

For sales 5,001 - 10,000, the writer gets 10% of the money.

Anything over 10,000 sales, the writer gets 15% of the money.

Now, math was never my best subject in school - I'm joking, it actually was - but what that says to me is that the publisher starts out taking 95% of my money, and the best it's ever going to get is they take 85% of my money.

Fuck that.

Oh, and by the way, assuming you get an advance, you don't actually start getting any of that munificent sum of money until you've earned back the advance. At which point, they'll pay you once every six months. While holding your money and earning interest on it. Which they keep and you don't get.

Such a deal. Amazing that more people these days aren't jumping on that with both feet.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

My first book was published through a "real" publisher.

The second one, I had a contract in my hands from a publishing house, when I decided to self-publish, and made more money from it than I ever did from the so-called real publisher.

My third book, I didn't even entertain the idea of a conventional publisher, I just sold digital downloads, and made more money than the previous two books combined.

The first three books were nonfiction. Now I'm in the process of finishing up my first novels, i.e. I'm two and a half books into completing a trilogy. Those books will be sold through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. While using every marketing trick I learned on the other books.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

A friend of mine had her two daughters when she was 38 and 40. She also has two houses, three dogs, eight cats, lives in a five-car family - every one of which she bought herself, and for which she paid cash. She also has a spouse who doesn't work, and hasn't for decades. She has commented, "We never sat down and negotiated, 'Hey, I'll home school the kids, while you work your ass off and make enough money to support all four of us,' but that's just how it turned out." Now that the 'kids' are adults and out of the house, strangely, he hasn't gotten a job now either.

There were decades where 16-hour days were the norm for her. She has commented, of the idea, "You can have it ALL, baby!" - career, marriage, kids - "Yeah, you can have it all. If you're willing to work yourself to death."

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@nickshirleyy "Supporters insist it only targets posts intended to incite harm, not journalism..." And, as we have seen every other time laws to "combat hate speech" have been enacted, "hate speech" swiftly becomes a synonym for "anything that disagrees with my politics."

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@OrgRealAR @SirBylHolte Your ability to focus on the most important part of what I wrote is nothing less than stunning. Keep up the good work.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@OliLondonTV There is nothing about being a great actor that means you have to be sane.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@TheCriticalDri2 I cringed because it was so unbelievable that all the female heroes just happened to show up together.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@HariSel57511397 Or maybe you've already made your living as a writer for 36 years, you've sold well over a thousand magazine articles, you've already written three books, and you figure, "Why stop now?"

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@Devon_Eriksen_ “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
- George Bernard Shaw

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@GenXPhilosopher @JakeMunro Yes. Because placing your own self-interest over saving other people from being murdered is what being a hero is all about.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@TheJustLawyer @jk_rowling Well, she's definitely punching down when it comes to wit, writing talent, and baseline I.Q., that's for sure.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@LeePheonix360 @jk_rowling I think there is nothing about being famous that means you lose the right to have opinions, and voice them.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@StacieGerbyo Since I actually have an ID, and that would mean that anyone who doesn't wouldn't get to vote, I would feel out-fucking-standing.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

@TheCriticalDri2 Because (1) they're intellectual and emotional children who (2) have never been in the military. I wasn't able to make it past the first episode of this crapfest.

[Duane Thomas @RealDuaneThomas]

As long as you have forward momentum, it doesn't really matter. I write in mosaic fashion, and I periodically go back and reread earlier-written chapters before the book is finished. The nice thing about that is, by the time I'm done, the chapters I wrote earliest have been polished till they gleam, which seriously lessens the amount of polishing I have to do when the book is done.

As I sit here having written 2-1/2 books in a trilogy over the past nine months - the reader copy of the first book showed up the mail today - I can't say refusing a slavish adherence to the traditional "drafts" concept has been holding me back.