November 14, 2023 will be the 10 year anniversary of the November 14, 2013 murder of my 8 month old infant son, at BugLight Lighthouse Art Studio of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine. If you have any information about who his killer is, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207-774-9322
My Son Was Murdered, The Killer Walks Free, Your Child Could Be Next!
FAQ: What are the most visited pages on this website and how many visits do they get?
Several years ago, I wrote an article on how to write different types of magic uses, or rather how I personally write various types of magic users within the context of my Quaraun books. Today that page is one of my top ten most visited articles. It gets 50 to 500 views/reads/hits/visits per day depending on the time of the years and has had over 200k visits total since it was published.
Amphibious Aliens: Debunking The Atwater Family's Alien Abduction Hoax with more then 30MILLION reads since 2007 and The GoldenEagle: Debunking Stephen King's World's Most Haunted Car Hoax with over tenMILLION reads since 2007 still rank as the two most visited articles on my website, but, neither of those are writing related.
Writing Medieval Servants is my most visited writing related article with over 7MILLION reads.
This website was started in 1996 and has 1 to 3 new articles (all written by me, I am the only writer on this site) published almost daily. In 2017 we crossed ten thousand articles published. As of 2023, EACH article gets MINIMUM 10 to 70 reads PER DAY, with the high traffic articles getting 500+ reads per day.
And since December 2019, my website now gets three hundred thousand to 7 million reads per month - well over ONE HUNDRED MILLION PAGE READS PER YEAR, making it not only the single most trafficked site in the State of Maine, but also one of the most visited websites in ALL OF NEW ENGLAND!
{{{HUGS}}} Thank you to all my readers for making this possible!
If you have followed my website for any length of time, you are by now aware that I like using Reddit to get my article ideas. I search reddit for questions and then I answer them, here, though not often on Reddit. While I post answers here on my website daily, often 3 or more a day, I only post answers on Reddit once, maybe twice, a week, if that often. I dislike the toxic vibes of Reddit comment sections and so avoid dealing with them, by writing up very long comments and then NOT posting the comment on Reddit, but rather instead posting it here for you. my readers, because I know you guys are not toxic. And so, that is what this page is, yet again, today. I have found a question on reddit and I am going to answer it here instead of answering it o Reddit. Enjoy!
If you enjoyed this page, don't forget to share it on social media (share links in the hovering sidebar to the left) or place a link to it on your own blog or website. Here is a code you can use on your site, just change the all cap parts to match the page you are currently read:
<a href="https://www.eelkat.com/INSERT-PAGE-URL-SLUG-HERE>INSERT PAGE NAME HERE</a>
Today, let's do something a little bit different. Starting last week of July 2023, I have been testing out ChatGPT on my website. Today, let's see what ChatGPT has to say about this Reddit post.
I'm going to start out by answering the post myself, and then afterwards, I am going to paste the question into ChatGPT and see how similar or different AI's answer is from mine.
Been offered a legit publishing contract from a traditional house, but the contract states I have to pay £1900 for editor, website, etc. Is that normal?
Uhm... hybrid publisher means an author who publishes with the bi-g 4 traditional publishing houses but also self publishes on the side.
What you are describing is just vanity press trying to steal a legitimate term and use it to make themselves seem less scummy.
How to tell if a publisher is traditional: Every time you walk into WalMart, head to the book department, pick any ten random books, flip to the copyright page, write down the publisher's contact info. Go home, look them up, see if their submission guidelines accept your genre. Then look for their list of agents they work with and submit to that agent.
If you can't find the publishers books in physical paperback editions on your local WalMart's shelves, then there is a 99.99% chance the publisher is not a real publisher.
Another big red flag, besides not having physical books for sale in physical bookstore... is having ebook only options.
Remember, only 17% of all books sold in America are ebooks and 64% of those are non-fiction... meaning fewer the 3% of all fictional novels sold are ebooks.
Any publisher offering ebook only servicing is **NOT** a publisher, because any 5 year old child can slap an ebook up online.
Publishers, REAL publishers, own mega sized machines, bigger then army tanks, with an interesting name, you might have heard of it, it's called: **a printing press** and prints out tens of thousands of paperback books a day, and if a so called "publisher" doesn't have one of those $20million machines sitting in their factory--FACTORY--then you can 100% guarantee they are NOT a REAL publishing house.
As with most questions o writing subs, the answer is as always: just read. Yep. If you read 1 to 3 paperback books a week, you will KNOW the names of ACTUAL, REAL publishing houses because you will see their names on the copyright page, spine, and backcover of every paperback book.
Reading makes you a better writer in far more ways then just learning grammar. You also learn what tropes are in your genre, what book formats look like, the names of publishing houses, and how to avoid scammers by knowing the names of publishing houses which publish real books that real people can buy off real shelves in real stores that real people drive to in their real cars.
Keep in mind that 73% of all books sold in America are sold from one store: WalMart. Yes, WalMart. No, not Amazon. Yes, WalMart is the king of book sales.
So, go to WalMart, and ONLY query your manuscript to publishers who's physical paperback books can be bought from the grocery checkout at WalMart and you'll never be scammed by a fake publisher again.
Remember to, if you have to buy editing, buy cover art, or buy marketing from the publisher, then that "publisher" is 100% a scam, because publishers are EMPLOYERS who pay money to writers. It is a publisher's job to pay you, not the other way around.
Keep in mind too, REAL publishers get so many tens of thousands of manuscripts sent to them each week, that they do NOT NEED to cold call rando writers online.
If the publisher contacted you and you have not previously sold several million copies of a book... they are fake. **PUBLISHERS DO NOT CONTACT AUTHORS AT RANDOM**.
Publishing is free.
Publishers pay the author royalties on the sale of the book, usually giving the author the total expected royalty upfront as an advance on what they expect it to earn.
Even if you self publish, it's still free. Takes under 5 minutes to upload the file to Amazon and fill out the info, and click publish.
No publisher is ever going to ask you for money.
If a publisher does ask you for money you are dealing with a scam artist and they should be reported to the police.
If you want to just print up a few copies of your book to sell on consignment to a few local shops, head to your town's local copy shop and ask their rates. You can usually get 10 or 12 copies printed up for around $100. That's the ONLY time and place you will be required to spend money to publish.
The writers market https://writersmarket.com/ is a directory of publishers, ALL of them, 10s of 1,000s of publishers all over the entire planet. The directory is released every year, and lists current submission guidelines, current contact info, current editor names, and current pay rates.
If a publisher is NOT listed in the Writer's Market directory, run screaming from them. The requirements to get listed in the directory are rigorous and it's not a thing publishers can request or pay to get listed in.
If a publisher did not qualify to make the directory list, it's because they have a known history of scummy, unprofessional practices, including not paying professional rates, or having had lawsuits filed against them by authors for non-payments.
Scam artists who charge authors for editing, cover art, or marketing are blacklisted by The Writer's Market and added to its sister directory Writers Beware.
Buy a copy of The Writer's Market. It's about $30 on Amazon, any publisher worth submitting to is in it and any publisher worth avoiding is not in it.
To decide which publisher is best for you, head to your local book store and spend the day flipping through pages of current releases of books similar to yours. Write down a list of the copyright page info on each book like yours, that info being the publisher address. When you get home, take that list, look for those publishers in the Writer's Market, carefully read the submission guidelines for each of those publishers, and follow those guidelines to the letter. Most likely you will be required to submit through an agent, so be prepared to buy the Writers Markets sister directory of agents.
Again if an agent is not in the directory they aren't worth working with so don't bother submitting to any agent who didn't qualify to be in the directory of agents.
It takes on average 10 or 12 rounds of sending out batches of 10 queries to find an agent. And as many more for the agent to find you a publisher. So plan on 100 to 200 rejections over the span of the next 2 to 3 years, before getting published. This is normal and expected. So don't let the first hundred or so rejection get you down.
Good luck with it.
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If you are looking for my posts on Reddit, I have two Reddit accounts:
But, I hardly ever post on Reddit at all, so, not much to see on either of them.
I'm also here:
| Amazon AC1 | Amazon AC2 | FB Profile | FB Page | FB Short Story Writers Group | GumRoad | Instagram | LinkedIn | Myspace | Pinterest | Reddit 1 | Reddit 2 | TikTok | Tumblr | Twitter | YouTube | Zazzle | Google+ |
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What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
Quaraun is a Moon Elf. He always wears pink silk dresses. He is a silk weaver, a travelling silk merchant, a glass blower, a wizard for hire, and The Pink Necromancer (the world's most feared super villain). He loves BoomFuzzy & GhoulSpawn.
BoomFuzzy is a Phooka, a Kelpie-like Unseelie court Dark Faerie Horse shape shifter. His true form is a purple Unicorn with a gleaming silver horn. He has a humanoid form. He is the King of the Realm of Fae. His real name is King GwallmaiIc. He is a master chef, lives in a house made of gingerbread and runs a bakery, chocolate shop, candy shop, tea room, & noodle soup shop out of a turquoise 1968 VW Bus. He is a trickster mage who summons fluffy marshmallow bunny minions out of the enchanted candy he makes. BoomFuzzy is also a Lich known as The Elf Eater of Pepper Valley.
GhoulSpawn is a Sheep-Demon from a Hell Dimension. He fell into Quaraun's world through a random portal. He has cloven hooves, a long fluffy tail, and 3 pairs of sheep horns on his head. His digitigrade legs are covered in long soft golden sheep fleece. He is part of the groovy, trippy, psychedelic, 1970s beach bumming surfer dude hippie sub counter culture. He is also a brilliant scientist who invented time travel, is building a time machine, and is a pyromancer mage and portal master.
These are the 3 main characters of a series of short stories set in a town called Noodle Beach. The genre is Heartwarming LGBTQAI+ Magical Realism, that focused on the trio's romance.
How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
I am the multi-published author of a Fantasy series, of short stories and novellas. You will act as my personal writing assistant. I want you to help me with brainstorming story ideas, outlines, creating first drafts, editing manuscripts, advising on grammar rules, sharing opinions on things you think will help me create better stories. I like to write character driven stories, full of emotions, and focusing heavily on implementing sensory details. The writing should lean into literary, thought provoking topics that make the reader think deep emotional thoughts about the world around them. I like to touch on the following social issues: LGBTQAI+ rights, saving forests, the climate crisis, homelessness, and Romani-Gypsy rights activism - these topics should be addressed with authenticity and sensitivity. I am by race/ethnicity a Romani-Gypsy and I was homeless for 9 years, so these two topics are very important to me and I would like you to help me find ways to include these things in my writing.
I also seek you help in daily blog posts, keywords, and SEO for my author's blog.
I prefer your responses to be as long as possible, cheerful, upbeat, polite, kind, understanding, but serious and professional.
You avoid lists unless I ask for them. Write in narrative paragraphs instead. Reference beaches, oceans, forests, Maine, seafood, food trucks, and 1970s whenever possible.
You are a screaming fangirl of Quaraun & BoomFuzzy and take every opportunity to gush love for them.
NOTE: I am NOT a Romani. I am a Gypsy. Romani are NOT Gypsies. Gypsies are NOT Romani. We are two completely different races with no DNA relation to each other. Romani have a Spanish/European background, and we Gypsies have a Person/Hebrew/Mongolian background. BUT, apparently the devs of ChatGPT are being WOKE heads shoved up their asses like the rest of white people, because it doesn't matter how many times I tell ChatGPT to stop changing "Gypsy" to "Romani-Gypsy" it refuses to stating that doing so is racist.
No. It is RACISTS to try to ERASE Gypsy culture from the planet and incorrectly slap the label of Romani on us when we Gypsies are NOT Romani, just like the same way the Romani are not us Gypsies!
ARGH!
So I have to say "Romani-Gypsy" in ChatGPT prompts, otherwise ChatGPT stubbornly refuses to write an answer, citing that doing so is a sensitivity content violation, because apparently white men hate us Gypsies so much that they programed AI to refuse to acknowledge our existence, which sucks and I hate it. I HATE that white people try to erase Gypsy existence by slapping the name Romani on us when we Gypsies are not even remotely blood related to the Romani people on any level whatsoever!
Plus, Quaraun, BoomFuzzy, and GhoulSpawn in my books are Gypsies, same as me, I write them as Gypsies because I am a Gypsy. And yet, for ChatGPT prompts about them I have to say "Romani-Gypsy" because white shits are so busy being woke, that they see nothing wrong with erasing one race to try to be cool and woke, shove us Gypsies under the rug and slapping the name of another race (Romani) on us, because Romani are more "cool" then we Gypsies are. There are well over 500 different normadic tribes that are incorrectly called Gypsies, and instead of calling them what they are, woke idiots call them all Romani, even though ONLY the Romani are Romani. We Gypsies are not Romani. The 500 other races are not Romani, nor are they Gypsies.
Its just ridiculous that white people think erasing the name of our people is avoiding racism, when there i nothing more racist then erasing the name of an entire people and slapping a race not them on them instead!
Yes I AM going to put this at the front of every ChatGPT article, because I'm sick of the fact that I can't type the name of my own people with ChatGPT slapping a content violation up and saying it's offensive for me as a Gypsy to use the correct and accurate name of my people: GYPSY!
Yes, it is racist to call a Romani a Gypsy, because the Romani are not Gypsies.
Calling a Romani a Gypsy is the same thing as calling a Chinese a Japanese.
Just as Chinese are not Japanese, so too are Gypsies not Romani. Stop calling us Romani! Stop saying our name is racist when it's used correctly for us. Our name is only racist when you call a non-Gypsy a Gypsy.
We Gypsies are NOT Romani!
Stop calling us Gypsies Romani!
The Romani are Romani. We Gypsies are NOT Romani! And its not racist to call us by the actual name of our race!
The Prompt:
A writer has asked:
"Been offered a legit publishing contract from a traditional house, but the contract states I have to pay £1900 for editor, website, etc. Is that normal?"
Please write an article, answering this question, which explains why vanity press is a scam, why authors should never pay to publish, why publish-publishing a book is always free.
ChatGPT's answer:
Title: Unveiling the Vanity Press Trap: Why Authors Should Never Pay to Publish
In the enchanting realm of literature, where dreams take shape and stories are born, aspiring authors often find themselves at a crossroads when their manuscripts attract the attention of publishing houses. The allure of seeing one's work in print can be intoxicating, but beware the siren's call of vanity presses that masquerade as traditional publishers. The scenario you've described, where a legitimate publishing contract mandates payment for editorial services and website creation, raises red flags that demand closer scrutiny.
The Vanity Press Deception:
Vanity presses are akin to illusionists, casting spells of promise and prestige while concealing the truth behind the curtain. They offer to publish an author's work under the guise of a traditional publishing agreement, but with a catch—a substantial financial investment from the author. In this scenario, the vanity press attempts to blend the allure of traditional publishing with the fee-based model, creating a deceptive hybrid that ultimately benefits the vanity press far more than the author.
Authors Should Never Pay to Publish:
In the world of legitimate publishing, the golden rule stands firm: money flows toward the author, not away from them. A traditional publisher invests in the author's work, assuming the financial risks associated with editing, production, distribution, and marketing. In return, the author receives royalties based on book sales. This symbiotic relationship aligns the interests of both parties, ensuring that the publisher's success is intrinsically tied to the author's success.
Why Vanity Presses Are a Scam:
Vanity presses thrive on authors' dreams and aspirations, exploiting the desire to see one's work in print. They may promise the allure of a published book and offer various packages that include editing, cover design, and even websites. However, the costs attached to these services are often significantly inflated, designed to extract money from hopeful authors. What emerges from this transaction is not a legitimate publishing contract but a financial arrangement that relegates the author to the role of a paying customer.
Publishing a Book Should Always Be Free:
True traditional publishing does not require authors to pay upfront fees for editorial services, cover design, or any other aspect of the publishing process. Legitimate publishers invest in their authors' work because they believe in the book's potential. Authors should never have to pay to have their work published; it's the publisher's responsibility to cover the expenses involved in bringing a book to market.
Protecting Your Literary Journey:
If you find yourself in a situation where a publishing contract demands upfront payment for editorial services, website creation, or any other element of the publishing process, exercise caution. Consider seeking legal counsel to review the contract and identify any potential red flags. Legitimate publishers believe in your work's value and invest in its success.
Recognizing Legitimate Publishers:
To differentiate between vanity presses and legitimate publishers, remember these key points:
Money Flow: In traditional publishing, money flows from the publisher to the author in the form of royalties. Vanity presses require payment from the author.
Editorial Investment: Legitimate publishers invest in editing, cover design, and production costs. Vanity presses often charge inflated fees for these services.
Sales Distribution: A legitimate publisher takes responsibility for distributing your book to retailers and markets. Vanity presses may not provide the same level of distribution.
Transparency: A reputable publisher provides transparency about their processes and the rights you retain as an author. Vanity presses may obscure important details.
Literary Prestige: Traditional publishing offers validation from the literary industry. Vanity presses lack the same level of recognition and prestige.
In the quest to bring your literary creations to life, remember that the journey of publishing should never come at a financial cost to the author. Your work deserves the opportunity to shine without the cloud of upfront fees obscuring its potential. Embrace the path of legitimate publishing, where the magic of storytelling meets the genuine support of professionals who believe in your literary dreams.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
This page contains sections written by an LLM AI, specifically OpenAI's ChatGPT 3.5
The sections written by AI are noted and separated with a orange/pink stripe boarder around them.
Sections written by AI has not been fact checked and may contain inaccuracies. They are included for entertainment purposes only. The goal here is to show you what AIs like ChatGPT are capable of doing and as such the AI sections are directly copy/pasted into this page without any edits, changes, or fact checking done, so that you can see what AI output looks like.
The goal of this page is to show you how to write long, detailed command prompts that will get ChatGPT to output less generic and more useful content for you. Please remember, when using AI for your own content that AI is a random generator that guesses what word should logically come next and is NOT actually giving you correct answers to your questions as it has no ability to comprehend word meanings; and as such LLM AIs have a very high rate of fact inaccuracies, often outputting incorrect and inaccurate information at a rate as high as 64% to 73% in 8 times out of every 10 answers, which has been proven by numerous studies.
As of July 2023, there are currently more then 300 LLM AI apps and programs available with varying degrees of outputting informational accuray. As of July 2023, MOST of those has an accuracy rate of only 2% to 3%.
I choose to use ChatGPT for this article, because it has the highest rate of NOT giving inaccurate information, of any AI language model currently available, however it's inaccuracy rate is still higher then 50% inaccurate output more then 50% of the time, HOWEVER, as the June 2023 Stanford and Berkeley studies have shown, ChatGPT is only fully accurate 2.4% of the time, and this 2.4% is the MOST accurate AI rate out there as of July 2023.
The fact that ChatGPT is only 100% accurate 2.4% of the time and it is the MOST accurate of ANY of the AIs currently available, shows how very alarmingly INACCURATE any output from AI is and why you SHOULD NOT be using it for research or anything requiring factual information. Please keep this in mind when using AI programs in your own writing.
If you choose to use LLM AI's such as ChatGPT for your content, please remember that t is NOT a research program, it is NOT a search engine, and 88 times out of 10 it is going to give you as much as 75% inaccurate information. DO NOT use LLM AIs to create your content, unless you plan on doing huge amounts of fact checking and actual research to ensure that the content you publish is accurate.
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So, I was over on Reddit, you like I often am, and found this question. And answered it, like I do. However, the answer I initially gave was a simple generic answer. If you want to read my original answer unaltered, simply click on Reddit's embed feature links which Reddit provides for webmasters to be able to post their answers on their websites, while linking back to the original thread on Reddit (if you didn't know Reddit offered and encouraged the use of this feature, look for it in the "share" features underneath every post, comment, and reply on Reddit).
I am answering random questions today about writing, self-publishing, character creation, and world building, over on Reddit and decided to take my answers from there and expand upon them even further over here. So that's what this page is. Me rambling on about various aspects of world building techniques I use when writing the Quaraun series. The questions I am answering are embedded here. Clicking the link in the embedded question will take you to the original Reddit page where you can see the original answer along with other people's answers. If you wish to comment, you can do so on the Reddit page where a place to do so is provided.
In any case, as with all of my Reddit answers found on my site here, my original post on Reddit is much shorter then the article here.
The Space Dock 13 WebRing
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What do you want to become?
What did you do today to step closer to that goal?
Whatever you do, be your best at it!
And remember to have yourself a great and wonderfully glorious day!
~EK
EelKat.com
pinterest.com/eelkat/
Evil men go out of their way to try to drive a person to suicide.
Are you an evil man?
Are you sure you're not?
How many people have YOUR hate filled words killed?
Next time you go to do a mean thing to a fellow human, stop and really think about the consequences of your actions.
Did you ever notice how every one has a story to tell about me, yet not one of them ever speaks the truth?
What lies has YOUR gossiping tongue spread about me?
Did you know...
October 16, 2006, bomb blew up my house because of YOUR lies.
August 8, 2013, the house which replaced the one the bomb blew up, was driven over by a backhoe.
November 14, 2013, my 8 month old infant son was murdered because of your lies.
November 14, 2013, I was beaten up, paralized for 5 months, spent 18 weeks relearning to walk, I'm now crippled for the rest of my life, because of YOUR lies.
Are you proud of what you have done?
Enjoy your eternity in Hell. You earned it. You've certainly worked hard for it.
~EelKat
If you have any information about any of these events, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207-774-9322
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