“If Michael Crichton wrote the Hunger Games. Engrossing story in a futuristic (pre-post-apocalyptic?) world where genetic engineering has reignited a full-blown caste system with have’s, have-not’s, and a thirst for social media-driven voyeurism.” –Jonathan Isaacs, author of Stopwatchers
“Vivid and fast-paced, Run Lab Rat Run explores the coming era of human augmentation at every level, from scientific to ethical, asking ‘What if every possibility comes true? Might we split into dozens of species?’ This is the real deal in speculative fiction.” – David Brin, author of The Postman and Existence.
“Gattaca meets the Hunger Games in this dystopian science fiction adventure” – K.A. Fox, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Murphy’s Law
“Shawn C. Butler pulls the reader into a world of genetic enhancements and mutations, artificial intelligence, robots and implants…a cautionary tale; a complex, thought-provoking and twisted story of specieism and discrimination, competition, power and control.” – ReadingCafe
“5 stars! Recommended to lovers of gripping futuristic tales with themes of society, inequality, and genetic modification. Run Lab Rat Run proved to be an insightful and gripping read, surrounding core themes of society, discrimination, and genetic modification. It was a highly thought-provoking read.” – Bookish Beyond
“I was instantly immersed in the book. Such fantastic, descriptive language without being verbose. Written so that it was a scarily believable future. A strong female lead who is also beautifully flawed such that we can empathise with her.” – Isobel Ross, Ultra Runner & Coach
“A fun and entertaining read that presents science fiction in a very believable way. Brilliant metaphors and imagery that could only be written by someone with personal experience in pushing a body to its limits.” – Tim Y
“Shawn Butler presents us with a glimpse into this possible future in an entertaining tale of an athletic competition gone mad.” – Lazarus Lake (aka Gary Cantrell), Founder of the Barkley Marathons
And Run Lab Rat Run has been an Amazon bestseller in several categories, including #6 in Genetic Engineering science fiction, #4 in Humorous SF; and #1 in Running and in Extreme Sports. Which is pretty cool.
Inspiration
Run Lab Rat Run was originally called Modified, as its core message is about what it means to be genetically engineered. What does “human” mean, and how will we share the planet with bioengineering humans who are, possibly, far superior physically and mentally to our “natural” selves. Will we have a caste system, a hierarchy analogous to white supremacy, with the most modified on top?
Those questions and many more occurred to me when CRISPR was introduced to the world. CRISPR offered new way of genetically modifying pretty much anything, cheaply and easily. It’s obvious that within a few years, and far less than a generation, human beings will be editing themselves–first for disease resistance, then for genetic anomalies, and then for, well, whatever we want.
If that doesn’t scare you, you’re not paying attention. Run Lab Rat Run is about one very possible world where value is determined by degrees of modification; a world I sincerely hope we do not choose.
About the Cover
This is the updated (second) cover, designed by myself and then finalized by Jayelle Morgan at DreamSaver Covers. Hopefully, this one is more true to market and compelling for the science fiction audience.
This was the original cover. I had no experience with book covers at the time, so I fiddled around in Canva, gave up, and paid for one on Fiverr. It’s not bad… though I decided to update now that I know more about how important covers are for conversion. You can see some really bad initial ideas on Pinterest.
Blog posts like this (Run Lab Rat Run Milestones) are just for my own tracking and, hopefully, to provide some insight to other authors starting the publishing journey. Given that Run Lab Rat Run is my first published book, there’s bound to be a lot of silly nonsense here.
Milestones Reached
This also includes marketing activities and other events.
This also went up quickly, probably around 24 hours.
8/12 – Goodreads Book / Author Profile
Run Lab Rat Run didn’t appear at first. I think what happens is that you need to enter your author information first, then GR scrapes Amazon for books by that author. No point in entering the book before your author info is posted on GR. I had the order wrong here, but it fixed itself quickly enough.
8/10 – 1st Sale on Amazon
According to the KDP reports dashboard, this happened almost immediately after I posted the launch on FB. One of my friends, no doubt.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I found myself really feeling for the main character, and cheering her on as she progressed throughout the story line. I could feel her aches and pains as she ran the race. The character building really helped keep you close to the heart of the story, a dystopian future where modified vs natural humans co-exist (not for long) and compete. I cannot wait for the next in the series so I can continue with Media on her journey. Shawn Butler has told an excellent story and I’m eager to see what is next.
Genetic manipulation and all it’s [sic] controversies is always interesting. I was not expecting to be pulled in to the world of marathon races as well. I was surprised at how compelling and exciting every minute was. At times I actually felt as if I were in the race with Media, willing her to keep pushing, not to give up, feeling exhausted and exhilarated right with her. The obstacles were thrilling, the race was grueling, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to keep up with every turn. I really enjoyed this book and am already looking forward to the next one. I want to know so much more!
8/12 – Fiverr Marketing on Instagram
This was Instagram posting done by SADesign4 on Fiverr, largely an experiment on my part. The post garnered several hundred likes, but hard to tell if there was any interaction beyond that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CScm2WFr44L/
8/13 – 1st Rating on Goodreads (2*)
My first rating on Goodreads was apparently some troll who just leaves 2-Star reviews on everything, often dozens a day. No idea what the point of that is. I assume this is just grist for the publishing mill.
8/13 – 2nd Fiverr Marketing Experiment
After seeing what happened with Instagram, I thought I’d check out the equivalent experiment on Twitter, Facebook, a blog and Pinterest (all one effort) by Melrock. Thus far, this has yielded little interaction and I’m not sure how much value there is to these cookie-cutter efforts (they’re cheap for a reason). But Melrock has plenty of followers and traffic, so it’s interesting to see how things work.
I was off hiking when this posted, so didn’t catch a typo or two. If I were to do this again, I’d submit a custom text block, tweet, etc., rather than letting the marketer do them.
8/14 – 1st Bad Rating on Amazon (2*)
Another troll? Two-stars, no review, doubt they even read the book. Interesting. I wonder why people do this?
Fantastic Read! Another beta reader review. Very appreciated. Most ARC readers haven’t posted yet. Still working on how to do reminders there.
I’m not one for either genetic experimentation or extreme sports stories, but WOW. The race itself is interesting, Media is both hilarious and relatable, and my only complaint is that the second book isn’t already out. I loved every aspect of the world and the underlying forbidden romance. The character development is on-point, too, which is hard to find. I’m wildly excited to see what happens next!
8/20 – Researching Amazon Kindle Unlimited Royalty Model
The deals of the program are here. Less a milestone than needed step. I’ll wait for 30-60-90 days to try to calculate royalties in KU as compared to actual sales at $4.99 Kindle list price.
8/23 – Book Raid Email Marketing
This is my first CPC marketing effort, and just curious how it works. Cost is $0.60 per click, max of $60, with no guarantee of any conversion; however, it does appear to be pushing some Kindle sales.
We’re pleased to report that ‘Run Lab Rat Run (Modified Book 1)’ was successfully promoted today (August 23, 2021) for free in the BookRaid Newsletter! The effects of a promotion will usually last a couple days, but when the dust settles we’d love to hear how things went on your end. Did the promotion move the needle for your book in a big way? – Sincerely, the BookRaid Team
I think in retrospect I did this promo wrong. I should have used a KDP promo day to make the book truly free instead of only free using Kindle Unlimited. Would probably have gotten far more (non-KU) downloads and eventual reviews and stats, rather than 10 attributable Kindle sales from 500 clicks (which is FAR more than I expected). Glad about the purchases, but would have preferred more distribution and sales stats / ranking on Amazon. Still, a great deal either way from a marketing perspective. No way to see permalink for posting on their blog, but it’s under Aug 23 post for SF.
8/23 – Setup & Launch 2x Amazon Ads
Experiment with one ad focused on ultra running generally, and science fiction generally (many keywords), and another focused on the Barkley Marathons with different ad copy. This is purely for learning, and I doubt it will have much impact on sales. Campaigns run until 9/30.
Lisa left a great four-star review from the ARC read:
A thriller that brings to the light the potential nuances of human genetic modification. While the naive among us may think of eliminating horrible genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis with genetic modification, let’s face it, in a world where we cannot agree providing adequate health care for poor people, the scenario presented here is completely believable. The rich elite get genetic modifications. Everyone else just suffers in a dystopian world.
Feisty Media is an employee/test subject for TTI Labs. She lives a limited, highly constrained life in the lab, in a time when wealthy people purchase genetic enhancements such as super-human strength, endurance, fighting ability and all-around insane mental abilities that are tested on our heroine. Despite being dealt this poor hand of cards in life, Media is a lively optimist determined to make the best of things. She is actually quite enjoyable to spend time with, even if she is fictional.
Through a series of events, Media is given a chance to run in a bonkers ultra-marathon-ish race. This is where the book gets fun, even for us non-modified, borderline couch potatoes. Lots of entertainment here: weirdly modified super animals, increasingly difficult obstacles to overcome, violent competitors, morally ambiguous villains/heroes, family loyalties, a forbidden romance and some possible internecine corporate strife.
I recommend this book to most. Haters of science fiction wouldn’t enjoy this, nor would those who profoundly dislike competitive sports. I’m not a big science fiction fan, but will read the odd dystopian novel, so this book worked quite well as viable entertainment for me.
I’m knocking off one star, for a 4/5 star review, as I would have liked greater background on how this dystopian society came to develop. I realize that many people enjoy a more streamlined thriller, but heck, I read Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies for fun, so it could just be my preference. At any rate, I recommend this book as quality escapist literature with the added brain candy of how genetic modification could play out in a dystopian, barely regulated society.
8/23 – Goal: 50 Copies Sold
Sixty-six (66) ebook and paperback units sold by 8/23, mostly paperbacks by my friends (thank you!), including 10 ebooks from the BookRaid promo. I have no idea how many KU units have been downloaded, and there doesn’t appear to be any reporting on this (?); you just see pages read, which is how you’re paid.
No clicks or displays. I suspect bids are too low to match generic bids in same categories. Will let it run for a few more days before adjusting. So far, $0 spent, which is not good.
First newsletter type promotion to SF group for $40. We’ll see how it goes. Platform appears to be on brand of Written Word Media. Not sure I set this up right, so we’ll see how it goes. Oh, it worked. This is from the email that went out:
Since they offer no reporting on the promo, unlike BookRaid, there’s no way to know how many people clicked on the link. Which is weird. I think I can attribute two (2) Kindle ebook sales and some KU downloads to them, but that’s it and that’s being generous. Also noted that my book was last on the list in the email, which means more scrolling. I wonder how you get placed higher?
Added Free Book Profile on Awesome Gang. Not sure of value.
8/27 – Updated and Added Amazon Ad Campaigns
I had impressions but no clicks, so tried adding (A) SF campaign (B) auto campaign and (C) campaign focused on products (similar books) rather than keywords.
8/29 – Various Minor
Added Universal Book Link. This is a service of Books2Read, affiliated with Drafts2Digital. Updated landing page link to include UBL.
Submitted for New Releases promo (probably little value) on SFF Book Bonanza for $5. Will appear here. They have a number of other promos possibly worth looking at.
8/30 – Goal: 1st Review by Stranger on GR or Amazon
This is a review by someone I don’t know, not from ARC or beta program, and not a friend. Really looking forward to a truly unbiased review…or several. And…here’s the first one, on GR, technically from the ARC program on StoryOrigin (4-star):
Run Lab Rat was a great book, I would totally recommend.
Feisty Media is lively and interesting to read about, and the plot is great, I really enjoyed it. This dystopian society is interesting, and I found it very engrossing.
Which…sounds like they copied part of Lisa’s review. So, whatever. Not exactly great insight, but milestone reached. This may not appear for a day or two, as GR has some weird caching problems on different platforms.
8/30 – Removed “Series” from RLRR on Amazon
I hadn’t realized some people don’t like to buy books in a series until they’re all published. Not sure this matters, but no point in series until Book 2 is out anyway. This takes up to 72 hours to propagate.
Scheduled Kindle to be free for ONE DAY to test service. Should get samples of posts by email: Facebook Page; Facebook Group; Twitter; Tumblr; pending on Pinterest and others. Don’t see it shown here, where it’s supposed to be (maybe 1/2 day?).
By 9:30 am PT, 21 free ebook downloads were reported on the KDP dashboard (not fantastic, but not bad) which really makes me wonder how many I would’ve gotten with a BookRaid promo and a free book. Lessons learned.
By the end of this 24-hr promotion, 112 free books were downloaded and RLRR was momentarily a “best seller” in the “free” category for Extreme Sports (#1), Running (#1), Humorous SF (#4) and Genetic Engineering SF (#8). Not sure it means much, but I suppose I can now call it a bestseller :). Will update details page for book (slightly) based on this, but not sure how many of the 112 will read or review the book. Still not bad for $15 bucks.
August Sales
So, not sure there’s much point in obsessively tracking this, but here goes. And yes, most of these sales are friends and family. So, thanks! 🙂 All figures shown are net sales after returns.
Paper-Back
Kindle Paid
Total Paid
Free Kindle
Total Units
KENP Pages
54
17
73
110
183
3,566
The KENP figure equates to roughly 10 full reads. To put this all in perspective:
The average U.S. book is now selling less than 200 copies per year and less than 1,000 copies over its lifetime. – Publisher’s Weekly via 10 Truths
I’m assuming this is sales vs. giveaways (freebies), so my numbers seem okay so far…if I can maintain sales after friends and family are done. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but okay for a start. Interested to see how the Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENP) works out, but glad people are actually reading the book.
Good little write-up. Wish it was five, but still good details and almost all of her reviews are four-stars, with some 3.5-3.75 and the occasional 4.5. Also appeared on Goodreads. I assume this is in anticipation of 9/4 interview (below). This brings me to nine (9) ratings on Amazon and four (4) on GR. From the review:
RUN LAB RAT RUN is a cautionary tale; a complex, thought-provoking and twisted story of specieism and discrimination, competition, power and control. My only complaint would be the lack of background information regarding the Chrome Wars, the environmental disasters, and the history as to how and why the world of enhanced human modifications came to be.
Which is great feedback. Due to this book coming out before events it depends on are published in other novels, I can totally see the point. This will be addressed in subsequent releases, which should organically fix the issue for those reading the series in chronological order (by date, not publication date).
9/1 – Sent Books to Laz
After surprise delivery of author copies yesterday, sent 2x copies to Laz. He confirmed receipt and will be using RLRR in the future… 🙂
9/1 – Review Amazon Ads Spend & Results
Was starting to get impressions after 8/29 changes, but no purchases. Now I have far more impressions, some clicks, and one sale. Let it run until Friday or so…then probably kill some campaigns and change bids. This is clearly not ROI positive.
9/1 – Goal: 7-10 Amazon Reviews 4+ Average
Done. Made this goal with 8+ reviews, 4.4 average, but didn’t hit the 10-review mark. Several outstanding reviews in the works…
For a minimum, you should try to get 20 reviews within the first two months after your book release date. That shows your book has traction with real readers. At around 50 reviews, you are probably good to go. Around that point, you have solidified the book as reputable and should continue to generate reviews. – Scribe
Probably need to ping some friends about reviews?
9/1 – Goal: 75 Copies Sold
With at least two paperback and two paid ebook sales today, total paid sales are at 77 and goal is met.
Apparently, they review products to see if their reviews are authentic are not. Mine are graded A, as in very authentic. Not sure if that translates to less risk of Amazon take-downs, but it’s a positive sign. Discovered via Reddit post.
Fakespot analyzes the reviews authenticity and not the product quality using AI. We look for real reviews that mention product issues such as counterfeits, defects, and bad return policies that fake reviews try to hide from consumers. We give an A-F letter for trustworthiness of reviews. A = very trustworthy reviews, F = highly untrustworthy reviews. We also provide seller ratings to warn you if the seller can be trusted or not.
9/2 – Free Promo on Indie Unlimited
Trying free Thrifty Thursday newsletter / blog promo. Unlikely to do much, but completely free, and appreciated support for community. Should I reach out to other bloggers?
I’m not sure if this is going to bear any fruit (probably not), but…what the heck. Some of my favorite authors might be interested in RLRR. Sending today to some of the following. It would be an honor if any of them even read it…
(Maybe) David Brin, author of The Postman and Uplift series. Also looks eerily like my friend Allen. Responded quickly and offered to possibly look at my book if sent to him, which is the most I could expect. Sent 9/13 with fingers crossed.
(Pending) Andrew Niccol, Writer/Director of Gattaca, but can’t find info. Silly famous people.
(Pending) Stephen King, but no easy way to contact w/o being in spam folder. Probably need to focus on much less famous people :).
(Pending) Vernor Vinge (see singularity essay), can’t find contact info. Same for Larry Niven, etc. No doubt enjoying their retirement.
(Yes) Fellow IR/PS alum Eliot Peper. He responded with a “maybe” and offered to put me in his next newsletter. Seems like really nice guy. Appreciated.
(Rejected) Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Hail Mary. Rejected almost immediately with personal email.
(Rejected) John Scalzi, author of Red Shirts and Old Man’s War. Rejected almost immediately with personal email.
(Rejected, but Book Sent) Peter Watts author of Blindsight.
Not sure worth the effort, but like supporting the cause. Should have the same thing done on Wikipedia.
9/8 – FREE Promo #2 (BookDoggy)
Scheduled and verified ($18). TBD on stats and downstream value. Starting to wonder if these promos (free) should only be run once you have more than one book so that potential buyers have something paid to choose from. Nearly 150 downloads by 8 am PT, and 409 total free downloads for the promotion, so good response. Have to see if it helps with purchase / review “drought” over the last few days.
This article on BookBub claims free giveaways are great, but they’re hardly unbiased. And even here, the emphasis is on how freebies increase sales in a series, which I don’t have yet.
9/8 – Some Marketing Reading
Spending some time figuring out how to do this better. Derek Murphy’s PDF on book marketing included this model for launch week (costing around $2,000):
9/9 – Launched the RLRR Easter Egg Hunt
Not sure this is a good idea? Might be great. Might suck. Spaghetti thrown at wall. Shotgun fired. Next!
Also noticed a slight uptick in “to-read” additions on Goodreads, probably from the BookDoggy promo, but if I look at those users’ lists, there are thousands of books on them. So…yeah.
Need to look at more authors under genetics, designer babies and CRISPR.
9/10 – Disabled Amazon Ads
I was getting impressions (almost 100k total), very few clicks (around 60) and zero (0) orders / sales except when it was free, which shouldn’t really count. This includes KENP pages counts (also zero). Need to rework blurb / details page?
Think I need to schedule multiple overlapping promotions based on dropping price to $0.99 rather than free. Given limitations under KU, I have to do this well in advance but schedule now so it’s clearly a drop from the promo provider’s perspective. I’ll need to update blurb at the same time, and ideally A+ content would be live (still pending). Still undecided on waiting for there to be 10+ reviews on profile. Promos to run on (not all the same day):
Phase I:
Drop price 9/10 so ready for 9/13 promo (after 9/11!), run on selected sites, then restore price to $4.99 on 9/17 to reset discount-from level by 9/20.
Phase II:
Once there are 10+ reviews on Amazon, schedule big promo, drop price, and let her rip…
BookBub (price varies); registered, profile stuck, must drop to $0.99. I am concerned about rejection by them if not enough reviews.
We’ll see how this works in practice.
9/10 – Reloaded Books on Amazon to Correct 2-3 Typos
Shouldn’t impact anything. Also, updated blurb to be more catchy, hopefully, and improved overall formatting. And added review request and Easter egg link at end of Kindle version.
9/11 – Updated eBook Blurb & Dropped Price
This should be in effect by tomorrow, with different blurb for ebook than paperback, and new $0.99 price point for M/T promotion. The new price and edited blurb were live within a few hours. All set for Monday.
Crazy to think 9/11 was twenty years today. A lifetime ago. Good to remember my boss Danny Lewin who died that day…
9/11-14 – $0.99 Promotion
Running on these sites as part of new Phase I marketing test / plan. Meant for this to be 9/13-14, but there’s no way to predict timing on KDP updates.
Trying not to be too OCD about this, but eager to see some sales again. Sigh. The grind is grindy. Screenshot from BookSliced, partner site of JustKindleBooks:
Pretty sure these site display portions of promos are borderline worthless, but hopefully the newsletter reach is better. And dig all the romance and erotica. It’s a plague. Conclusion: A total of two (2) attributable ebook sales and maybe one KU download. So, complete waste of time and money. I would not use GenrePulse or JustKindleBooks again unless I knew what happened and how to fix it.
9/14 – Various
After abysmal results on yesterday’s promo, trying one more on Book Cave before pausing and then hoping for BookBub. Hopeful that results might be better given more vetting of books and online comments. Promo would run on 9/17 ($26).
Raised price back to $4.99. When this displays, apply for Promo at $0.99 on BookSends and ManyBooks (Must be free for “best price”, hmm) (per Scribe article). The purpose of these would be to drive enough added sales to get reviews to make BookBub submission more likely to be accepted.
Based on feedback on FB (by request), I’ve updated details on books (again) to (a) reduce running-related references and (b) remove categories related to running. Park of the concern is that it might look like a non-fiction books and thus NOT CONVERT if you’re looking for non-fiction. Updates done on site (inc. this one).
9/15 – Moved Laz’ Foreword to End (Postface)
As per suggestion on FB. Bummer, but if you looked at front matter on Amazon preview, the first thing you saw was the foreword and no way to fix that w/o moving. I’ll move back to foreword once sales are higher and more established.
Also, restarted Amazon ad campaign w/limited campaigns and targeting to see if that makes any difference. And started first Facebook ads, which…I have no way of attributing other than guesswork.
And…submitted to BookBub. Nervous about that. It’s the promo tool I want…
This was a first on Amazon, not long but unexpected and awesome, from Silvia:
The development of the characters and plots kept me up longer than I should’ve been. Enjoyed reading it very much. Can’t wait for the next part.
Also go rejection on blurb from A.G. Riddle. Might change to only requesting if I see the author doing blurbs elsewhere.
9/16 – Audited & Updated Book Categories on Amazon
I wanted to make sure all changes had taken effect, so asked for audit summary of categories and got the following, which was surprising. I guess they’d put RLRR into three kindle fantasy categories and missed several paperback categories (subjects). Though they did pull it out of all running categories.
Below are the categories for the kindle version of book ""Run Lab Rat Run":
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Fantasy/General
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/General
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Fantasy/Action & Adventure
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/Dystopian
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/Humorous
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/Adventure
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Fantasy/Humorous
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/Genetic Engineering
/Kindle Store/Categories/Kindle eBooks/Literature & Fiction/Absurdist
Below are the categories for the paperback version of book ""Run Lab Rat Run":
/Books/Subjects/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Absurdist
/Books/Subjects/Literature & Fiction/Action & Adventure
/Books/Subjects/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/General
/Books/Subjects/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/Genetic Engineering
Updates were requested in both cases. Pending update.
Not sure why this didn’t occur to me sooner. He wrote the book on my grandfather’s idiotic sperm bank and should be sympathetic to issues of eugenics. The first email bounced (from link above), so resent via Twitter.
Also sent notes to Edwin Black, Adam Cohen and Dr. Minna Stern (positive response/w purchase & read) (writers of books on eugenics). I’d keep trying this, as there is an obvious value to helping each other. Also try the page on Wikipedia. So odd I didn’t do this earlier.
9/16 – Started Using Asana for Project Tracking
Will restrict items here to things of more substance.
9/17 – Rejected by BookBub
Sad. No information on why, but lots of possibilities. Think I can reapply on 10/13 or so.
9/22 – More Book Review Requests
Sent to a few on this list, and a few from Reedsy as well. Got one response from Bookish Beyond, who said they’d be interested in reviewing. Book sent. We’ll see in four weeks or so…
9/26 – Eliot Peper Newsletter
Eliot was kind enough to mention RLRR in his monthly newsletter:
Not one, but two subscribers to this humble newsletter released their debut science-fiction novels this month. J.W. Galliger’s The Terminal Code is a murder mystery set in a future where the world has largely migrated to virtual reality, and Shawn C. Butler’s Run Lab Rat Run is a techno-thriller exploring the implications of genetic engineering. I’m so excited for and inspired by J.W. and Shawn.
The link here appears to have led to a few immediate ebook sales, which is great if hard to confirm. Thanks, Eliot! Someday, hope to make this list.
Also, changed price of ebook back to $0.99 in prep for Book Sends promo (tomorrow).
9/26 – Goal: Reached 10 Ratings on Goodreads
Also K.A. Fox was kind enough to read and review RLRR on GR, Bookbub and Amazon (TBD), which was great. And had first completely unsolicited, stranger five–star review on Amazon. So, cool.
Went out for $0.99 deal. Cost was $40 leading to 23 sales, so definitely okay (even if losing money) and hopefully driving future reviews.
9/29 – More Blogger EMs
And my first foreign review, from Germany: “Alles gut.” You’re damn right, alles gut! So there was that. Need to work on both traffic and conversion on Amazon.
September Sales
All figures shown are net sales after returns.
Mo
Paper-back
Kindle Paid
Total Paid
Free Kindle
Total Units
KENP Pages
Aug
54
17
71
110
181
3,566
Sep
12
45
57
411
468
3,829
YTD
66
62
128
521
649
7,395
Q4 2021
Sales have definitely slowed to a trickle. Facebook ads the only ongoing promotional effort, and those have not converted well. TBD on what’s next…
Nice interview with Isobel came out. I’m not sure it will generated much buzz for a number of reasons, but very pleased to have it out there. And it was fun to catch up with her.
10/9 – Goal: 20 Amazon Reviews 4+ Average
I doubt I’ll make this goal, as I’m at 19 on 10/8, but I’ve also stopped pushing this so hard. I realize that (a) I don’t want to be the guy pushing friends and colleagues for reviews (b) people have lives and (c) hopefully I can drive organic reviews by increasing readership (somehow). But still, 19 is pretty close to 20 reviews in two months (since release), so not too shabby.
10 / 20 – $0.99 Promo with
Promo with Book Cave (first). Sold 18 copies. Maybe some bump on KU. Not sure…
10 / 21 – 2nd BookRaid Promo @ $0.99
Didn’t really work. Three sales. Hmm. Maybe b/c repeat with same list?
This is a free promotion w/limited probable value, but still appreciated and shared.
October Sales
Things definitely slowing down, except for paid promos and KU sales. Not sure what’s driving KU at all (all ads have stopped), but at least half of paid ebook sales are from promos.
Mo
Paper-back
Kindle Paid
Total Paid
Free Kindle
Total Units
KENP Pages
Aug
54
17
71
110
181
3,566
Sep
12
45
57
411
468
3,829
Oct
3
29
32
0
32
6,640
YTD
69
91
160
521
681
14,035
11/4 – Promotion (0.99) on Fussy Librarian
We’ll see. Most of their promos are free. Interested to see how to build newsletter with them, too.
Worked well with 40 kindle editions sold at $0.99 and 600+ KENP pages attributed. Should do for Beasts ASAP.
Dec 9 – Updated Keywords on Amazon
Using Publisher Rocket. Despite the fact that RLRR was the highest ranking organic search result for CRISPR (which is kinda cool, but probably not helpful).
12/28+ – Do 2nd Book Sends Promo
Might try every 90 days…if they accept it.
12/31 – Goal: 50 Amazon Reviews 4+ Average
LOL, not even close. I think I was at 33 or so on NYE. Whatever.
December Sales
Some pickup due to Beasts promotions and launch. Probably not going to track after this (individually). Good things: more than 200 books sold in far less than a year, which beats (alleged) industry average; signs of pickup on launch of new book; new promo sites are better; no reason to do free promo anymore unless I can figure out how to make it drive sales; etc. Bad things: definitely a long road to sustainability; need constant new releases more on-market; at some point will need to go wide (off Amazon) and sacrifice KENP revenues.
Mo
Paper-back
Kindle Paid
Total Paid
Free Kindle
Total Units
KENP Pages
Aug
54
17
71
110
181
3,566
Sep
12
45
57
411
468
3,829
Oct
3
29
32
0
32
6,640
Nov
5
9
14
0
14
5,068
Dec
1
51
52
0
52
8,368
2021
75
151
226
521
747
23,905
2022+ Tracking
Probably not. Will consolidate at some point, or put only major events here. See promo tracking.
Milestones Pending
Coming soon, I hope.
Book Sold Every Day for 30 Days
Top #10 Ranking in any Amazon Category
Reached in Free categories on 8/31/2021, but waiting for non-free ranking.
Top #1 Ranking in any Amazon Category
Reached in Free categories on 8/31/2021, but waiting for non-free ranking.
Run Promos on these Sites
These are for free only:
FreeBooksy ($50 – $100); NA until value of free seen
Ten more ideas to make America better? Nobody asked, so of course I answered. Here are ten more ideas focused mostly on politics, but also adult drinking and daylight savings time (which are surely related). Some seem like they’d be a slam dunk to implement, some much harder, but all are worth a try.
What do you think we should tackle first?
10 Ideas to Make America Better
1. Make Daylight Savings Permanent or Nuke It
Spring forward! Fall back! It’s like national calisthenics determined to make you less healthy. You know why we have this brilliant institution of annual confusion and electronics abuse? Freakin’ German imperialists:
“The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation starting on April 30, 1916. Many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the 1970s energy crisis.” – Wikipedia
That alone should be grounds for repeal. But it turns out changing the clock also screws with sleep patterns, causes depression, increases accidents and…sucks.
The solution is permanent DST, which of course in the USA is banned by the federal government because…freedom? More on this history of all this here:
As this video suggests, just sent the clocks forward during the spring and leave them there. For freaking ever. It’s not legal for states to do this now, but that should be relatively simple change. It has bipartisan support:
Marco Rubio first introduced the Sunshine Protection Act in 2018, which would move the entire country to permanent, year-round daylight saving time. Rubio has renewed his call multiple times since then, most recently on Tuesday: “The call to end the antiquated practice of clock changing is gaining momentum throughout the nation,” he said. – NPR
How? Pass the Sunshine Protection Act, set your clocks, and leave ’em. Forever. That’s it. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Write your legislators. Call them. They’re lonely and want to hear from you. Sign the petition. Do something!
2. Get Rid of Term Limits Except for Executives
Okay, this will be controversial and probably sound counter-intuitive, but term limits are just a terrible idea (for anything except executives, and maybe even there). Does anyone really think term limits taking effect in California starting in 1990 made California better? It did not improve politics, partisanship, policy or much of anything positive.
What term limits did in California is what they always do; ensure that ignorant, inexperienced politicians have to rely on special interests to tell them what to do on complex topics they barely understand and don’t have time to learn while figuring out what office they can run for after being termed out. Term limits empower money and lobbyists over people, period. And that’s why conservative think-tanks like ALEC love them. They want more power in the hands of corporations, and less in yours.
But what’s worse is that they are objectively unconstitutional and a gross violation of our democracy. Why? Well, think about it. People, soldiers, advocates and others have literally fought and died to give you a right to vote. And because we’re too lazy to do our job voting, we want to surrender that right back to the government so it can then tell us we can’t vote for the candidate we want.
This is the very definition of fascism, limiting votes to only those the government approves of. Term limits are a betrayal of democracy, period. If you really want to limit the power of incumbents, I’ve suggested adifferent approach called incumbent handicapping that increases the votes required to hold office with each subsequent term, but even without that, term limits need to go.
But term limits could also tend to promote longer tenure than necessary, as well as perverse incentives for self-dealing in a lame-duck term. Proponents of term limits probably need to identify better arguments to overcome 230 years of constitutional practice, at least if presidential term limits are any guide. – Federalist Society
The only purpose they really serve is making angry voters think they’re teaching career politicians a lesson. It’s about anger, retribution and petty hatred of the “political class.” And that’s just a holdover from our founding when the country was small and you didn’t need to understand, well, much of anything to be a politician. You could learn it all on the job.
Today, there is simply no way anyone can understand what they’re voting on without years of experience. So term limits are really a vote for the “deep state,” the legacy bureaucracy, who are the only ones then left who know how things actually work.
How? Just. Stop. And get rid of the term limits in place.
3. Implement Ranked-Choice Voting
Without getting into a lot of technical and wonky jargon about voting, most of us can agree that the first-past-the-post 51% voting model that dominates in the USA isn’t ideal. We can’t risk “wasting” a vote on candidates we like, so instead we vote for the candidate most likely to win from the pool of candidates we hate the least. This lesser of two evils model frustrates voters and voter intent, makes it harder for third-parties to win office, and doesn’t even reflect what most voters want. Ranked-choice voting is one of several models that tackle these issues head on:
It’s a little complicated to explain, so here’s an infographic from the Maine Secretary of State, where RCV is already in place. You rank your top candidates and then:
Ranked Choice Voting – Courtesy of Maine SOS
Several states have already put RCV in place, including Maine in 2020:
To be clear, I’m not saying RC voting is the only option that’s better than the simple majority, just that it’s better. If there’s a preferred or superior option, let’s to that. I don’t care as long as voters can get closer to voting for the politicians they want rather than the ones they hate least. How can that not make America better?
How? Learn where it’s already implemented and how it improves things. Support or start RCV initiatives in your state. Then, get ready for a better voting experience.
4. Government Use IFRS Accounting Standards (Hard)
I know, accounting. Exciting, right? International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) would require the US government to follow the same rules as pretty much everyone else (or at least, where the world is heading), thus increasing transparency, decreasing software and accounting costs, and paying less to consultants who actually understand our arcane national GAAP and other accounting rules.
This is like the metric system: most of the world uses it, but we don’t. It causes translation cost and confusion. The US uses its own system (US GAAP) instead of IFRS, just like China and a bit of Japan, who also have their own systems. Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually pretended like we were part of the world for a change? That would make America better for, well, everyone.
How? Lots of legal, regulatory and accounting changes. Will it happen any time soon? No. Should we start moving in this direction? Yes. Is this exciting? Sorry, I dozed off. I mean, sure! If you care about government efficiency.
5. Universal Automatic Voter Registration (Hard)
Other than the fact that some parties benefit from low voter registration and turn out, it’s hard to see why we make registering to vote so hard in this country. We’re a representative democracy. Democracy requires voting. Shouldn’t we make that as seamless and efficient as possible?
I’m not going to spend a lot of time explaining this because it’s a contentious partisan issue. The GOP would probably prefer we all give blood and five forms of ID to prove we’re worthy of the vote, and for them, this makes political sense. The more Democrats show up, the worse Republicans perform. That doesn’t make it a sound bases for public policy or elections.
How? Support initiates in your state for motor-voter (DMV-based-registration) and other programs that automate and simplify voter registration.
6. Require Single-Subject Legislation (Medium)
The idea is simple; legislation (bill) should be about one thing, and one thing only, so they are (a) less complex (b) more easily understood (c) don’t carry endless riders and amendments for special interests and (d) aren’t 5,000 pages long. This should be a policy supported by either end of the political spectrum, if not necessarily by political parties that benefit from massive and confusing omnibus legislation.
A federal amendment was proposed as early as 1999 in a law journal article by Brannon Denning and Brooks R. Smith. The Florida Legislature in 2014 passed a memorial applying to Congress to call a convention for this purpose. A bill was introduced in the 113th Congress, and again in the 114th Congress, to propose the amendment by Congressman Tom Marino…” – Wikipedia
If you want to watch the world’s most boring and probably auto-generated summary of this, here’s a video guaranteed to kill some brain cells. Seriously, don’t watch it.
No, wait, this interview with (late) Single Subject Amendment CEO Spider Webb is even more excruciatingly uninteresting.
Despite how painfully uninteresting this topic is, it’s actually pretty important; giant bills full of mysterious amendments are how special interest slip ridiculous things into bills that almost no one even knows are there. And that’s why the single-subject rule is already law in state legislatures, including California:
In California, there is a single‑subject rule for legislation. Found in the state constitution, Article IV, Section 9, it provides, “A statute shall embrace but one subject which shall be expressed in its title. If a statute embraces a subject not expressed in its title, only the part not expressed is void. A statute may not be amended by reference to its title. A section of a statute may not be amended unless the section is re‑enacted as amended.” – CAP Impact
How? Every state could pass single-subject rules as a constitutional amendment, and the same thing would likely be required at the federal level. This will be a challenge given partisan opposition (parties do love their special interest amendments), but if it can get out of Congress and into the ratification process, it’s hard to see how 2/3 of states couldn’t be pressured into passing it.
7. Require an I’ve Read the Legislation Pledge
This is the simple but apparently inconceivable idea that a politician should know what they’re voting on when they…vote on it. There is simply no way that any current politician reads massive 1,000+ page bills pushed at them hours before a floor vote, where they’re just asked to trust party leadership.
The $900 billion pandemic relief package that was rushed through Congress Monday created a familiar year-end conundrum for lawmakers: It was a bill too big to fail, and also too big to read. – USN
What I propose is that a politician’s Yes vote be legally treated like a sworn affidavit stating that they or their staff have read the bill in full, that they understand what they’re voting on, and that pledging ignorance later is a legal admission of fraud. It may sound harsh, but voting for bills you don’t understand because someone told you it was all good is a terrible abnegation of responsibility and common sense.
And one great side effect of this requirement is that the longer the bill is, the longer it has to be publicly available before the vote, which increases transparency and review time. There is already something like this in discussion, though I’d argue this doesn’t go far enough:
The Review Every Act Diligently In Total (READ IT) Act aims to allow members to fully review all legislation before votes. It would institute a new rule in the official House rules, that anything receiving a vote must have been publicly available in electronic form for a number of minutes that’s double the number of pages. – Medium
The Read the Bills Act (RTBA) is proposed legislation intended to require the United States Congress to read the legislation that it passes. It was originally written in 2006 by Downsize DC, a non-profit organization focused on decreasing the size of the federal government…
Similarly, a separate bill nicknamed the “Read the Bill Act” would require bills to be posted publicly 72 hours prior to consideration in Congress. Unlike the Downsize DC proposal, this bill is supported by ReadTheBill.org (part of the Sunlight Foundation) with the primary aim to increase transparency in government. – Wikipedia
But whatever the name or form of the bill, it’s time politicians were required to read the bills they vote on, and given the time to do so.
How? Pass one of the bills mentioned above, preferably the one advocated by ReadTheBill.org, and then take it a step further to require reading before voting.
8. Stop Infantilizing Adults (Drinking Age 21)
You’re an adult when you’re eighteen. You can be drafted, sent to jail, ruin yourself financially, and so on. You should be able to buy a damn beer. They idea that in the allegedly “freest country on Earth” you can be forced to fight a war oversees and kill people for America but then can’t have a beer when you get back is beyond hypocrisy.
Central Maine Newspapers graphic
All laws restricting the rights of anyone over the age of eighteen should be repealed and are, frankly unconstitutional. The only reason we have this effective national drinking age is because President Reagan imposed it on states by threatening interstate highway funding in 1984.
This video might or might not help inform you about the topic, but either way it’s a good laugh.
So if you want to decrease binge drinking, decrease date rape and sexual assault by drunken idiots, and generally act more like a free country populated by adults, it’s time for the age 21 law to go.
How? Just freaking repeal the 1984 act and replace it with a law that you can’t strip adults of freedom in the name of interstate commerce or funding. Or any other reason short of felony convictions, and then only to the extent necessary.
9. Restore Native American Land where Possible (Hard)
There is no way to undo what has been done to Native Americans in this country, but one problem we can fix is to (at the very least) enforce and comply with land-related agreements that are currently in dispute. See the #LandBack hashtag on Twitter for an active discussion.
Does this mean giving all US land back to all tribes? Of course not. Do I agree with everything being proposed? No. But should we do something to restore lands and dignity where we can, and often where the law requires? Hell, yes.
How? At least start the process of seeing what Native American land can be restored in your region, what remains in dispute, etc. There’s a large learning process here for all of us, and no perfect solution, but it’s time to get started in earnest.
10. Formalize a Default Neutral Pronoun
And I don’t mean “it”. It’s a scary clown or an offensive objectification, not a neuter pronoun. Just pick a set of words we can all use to solve absurd damn problems like calling companies they or who and unknown people he / she or he or she or frack! Why hasn’t anyone just fixed this? And yeah, I know “they” is the current contender, and I’m glad it works for trans people (genuinely), but it’s a grammatical disaster and always has been. We can do better.
How? I guess I’d start with business communications, publishing companies and schools. But honestly, I’m open to ideas.
Other Ways to Make America Better?
I’m sure I’ll have more ideas in the future, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. What works or doesn’t? What’s practical or not? And what do you think we can do to improve America? I mean, the United States.
The full question is, “Why aren’t most environmentalists vegetarian, vegan or eating as little eat as possible?” but that wouldn’t fit in the box.
And I’m not asking just to be provocative. I’ve gone through nearly two decades of being a vegetarian, sometimes strict, sometimes not, and in between eaten a glorious volume and variety of delicious meats from around the world. I never once stopped loving the smell of sausage, that first bite of bacon, or the bloody surrender of prime rib. I often crave yellowtail sashimi and greasy cheeseburgers at the same time, and have an inordinate fondness for salty brisket. But.
And this is a big but (I cannot lie).
I have never once since college eaten meat without a bit of shame. With every eye-rolling bite, I wonder, why am I doing this?
“…when 15,364 scientists advocated for plant-based diets by signing the 2017 “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice,” vegetarianism in the U.S. didn’t budge. Despite movies like Food, Inc. and Cowspiracy, and despite countless academic papers on the harmful impact of animal agriculture, and despite ever more meat substitutes, veganism has risen only a few percent since 2012.” – SA
There are many personal reasons why I feel off the vegetarian wagon, none of which matter (even if they were momentarily funny), but I’m falling inexorably back on that same wagon. Falling up, if you will, toward a low-to-no-meat diet. For me this is inevitable. I can’t live with the background shame of meat consumption any longer. But that’s me, and I alone don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. What matters is what we all do collectively, how much and how soon.
Why Aren’t You Eating Less Meat?
That is, assuming you’re an environmentalist (because otherwise, this post is pretty pointless), how can you call yourself an environmentalist while still eating meat?
No, that sounds judgmental and I really don’t mean it that way. My question comes from curiosity, not condemnation. What allows any of us to do intellectually inconsistent or even arguably unethical things while telling ourselves we’ll do better tomorrow? Are we too busy, too poor or too distracted to do better? Are we the boiling frog that hasn’t noticed how the world has changed?
In terms of emissions, if Americans ate even a mere hundred pounds of meat per year, it would be the equivalent of 26 million people switching exclusively to bicycle transportation. – SA
What allows us to actively willing support a meat industry that is grossly and obviously bad for the environment while caring for that same environment?
What am I missing?
Because if it’s really that simple, shouldn’t most environmentalists be at least shuffling slowly away from the grill (or putting more veggies on it)? The Scientific American article I quoted aboved asks the same question but offers no answer. I want an answer. More specifically, I want your answer.
But before you answer, some food for thought:
Reasons to go Vegetarian or Eat Less Meat
This is all the stuff you’ve probably heard before, so I’ve just put in a few quick bullet points as reminders. If you don’t know it by now you probably don’t want to, but if you do, here’s a cool video summary:
In other words, meat is “bad” because:
Unethical treatment of animals. No they’re not people, but most of them feel pain, affection, fear and probably don’t like being slaughtered.
Environment and climate change. Which covers everything from land use to water consumption, pollution to packaging, shipping to disease spread and antibiotic use, and…well, you get the point
Perfectly healthy low or no meat diets. In other words, there are options. Meat is not required for life or even pleasure.
Great meat alternatives. Beyond Meat and Impossible, among many others, are crazy good. You don’t have to give up the grilling.
Supplements if you need them. To cover what you’re not getting from kale. Kidding. Who really eats kale?
And if that’s not enough, you can watch this horrifying video, but please don’t unless you have a strong stomach. It’s kinda hard on the soul.
Reasons to Keep Eating Meat
Maybe these are just rationalizations? I don’t know, but here’s a cheesy video that covers most of them (Guess it got deleted). What it said:
Animals are delicious. Bacon is an animal right? Delicious!
It’s easy. Meat’s cheaper than ever, so why not?
Everyone does it. Social eating is joyous. And who wants to look crazy?
Fuck animals. Not literally, I just mean, maybe you don’t care about animals so much. You don’t have to to be an environmentalist.
Need the protein. You can find it other places, sure, but it’s a good source.
Other dietary needs. Maybe your body just needs ham. It’s possible.
And of course there are those who think that going vegan won’t really help that much, assuming the only thing you care about is climate change:
Going vegetarian can help a little bit, but it’s both an unrealistic and inefficient policy to push on people across the world. We should focus on research to develop cleaner, maybe artificial, meat and cheaper clean energy. And while we do so, we can have our summer barbecues without being told they destroy the planet. – Bjorn Lomborg
Are those truly compelling reasons not to defund the meatriarchy (yes, I just made that up)? I want to know. Is it something else, a combination of things, or just habit?
I love Homer and I know he’d never give up bacon, but then again he abandoned an alternative universe where it rained donuts and he’s not an environmentalist. You are. So, what’s the deal?
A Terrible and Offensive Analogy
Let’s say you were a feminist and you found that we could cut the rate of rape by 10% by not drinking fancy boat drinks. Our decision to eat meat despite how it damages the environment, kills animals and so on, when we have plenty of great alternatives, is like saying screw it, I hate rape, but I really love Pina Coladas. It’s not even like saying you have to give up alcohol, because of course we can’t give up all food, just some of it. You can still get wasted.
If you find this analogy offensive, great, you’re paying attention. It’s offensive because we sincerely care about rape, but we don’t seem to care as much about animals or the environment. And maybe we shouldn’t; society hasn’t yet decided that animals matter as much as people, and maybe it never will. That’s fine. But if we did truly care about animals at all, then this analogy wouldn’t be offensive; it would blindingly, obviously true.
Got a Little Judgy There
Sorry about that. I don’t want to sound like this guy…
You might be able to call yourself an environmentalist as your job title and you might actually care about the environment. But if you are consuming animal products, especially products that come from factory farms, then you are a hypocrite. – Sentient Media
…because that’s just not productive. No one’s ever grateful for being attacked. You are not being attacked. I have tried and failed many times to be a perfect vegetarian, environmentalist, and even a decent human being, and will fail many more times. And many great environmentalists have defended eating some amount of meat:
“I’ve known a number of people who were great environmentalists, and who ate meat, so I guess the answer for me would be yes, empirically, you can,” Bill McKibben, the author and environmentalist, tells us in an email. “Most of them, I think, ate carefully. Maybe my favorite environmentalist of all — though he might eschew the label — is Wendell Berry, who wrote wisely about this as about so much else.” _ NPR
But, and this is another big but, Wendell Berry comments extensively on what it means to eat meat and everything else carefully, locally and judiciously:
Eaters, that is, must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used. This is a simple way of describing a relationship that is inexpressibly complex. To eat responsibly is to understand and enact, so far as we can, this complex relationship. – Eco Literacy
So, if you’re willing to follow Wendell’s seven steps to more conscious eating, like eating locally, maybe there is some way for some individuals in some cases to eat meat and be environmentally consistent–but since most will never do this at it doesn’t matter at the scale of global meat consumption, it’s kind of a strange argument.
That said, most meat eaters, environmentalist or not, seem to agree that veganism and vegetarianism are good or ethical in some ways but also not so convenient (as always, take a single survey result with a grain of organic free-range sea salt):
Analysis published in the journal Sustainability from University of Bath Psychology PhD student Chris Bryant suggests that 73% of meat eaters surveyed considered veganism to be ‘ethical’, 70% said it was good for the environment and half (50%) considered it healthy. 60% thought veganism was ‘acceptable’. By contrast, over 80% of respondents thought veganism was not easy, 77% thought it ‘inconvenient’ and over 60% thought it was not enjoyable. Attitudes from respondents towards vegetarianism were significantly more positive on almost all counts. – UB
So, back to the only question that matters:
Why Aren’t You Vegetarian or Eating Less Meat?
Honestly, I just want to know. Maybe it will help me understand my own waffling back and forth. What’s the deal? Is it just convenience? And will that ever change?
Let me know in the comments or however you like. I’d love to hear from you.
Life can be a very serious experience, lacking joy and the positive things that make life, well, worth living. And yet I’m often struck by how many people and groups try pull us forward into a more sublime and beautiful future despite the terrible things around us–artists, creators, pundits and others give us their humor, insight or distracting surrealism.
And since many of us are prone to moments of melancholy, I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve watched or otherwise partaken of to make things just a little bit better. There’s no way to make a definitive list of such things, of course, so here are some of the people and things that have helped make my life and world better just by doing what they love.
There’s nothing intellectual here. Don’t overthink it. Enjoy.
10 Strangely Beautiful Positive Things
These are in no particular order, and are numbered just to make them easier to reference.
I can still remember the first time I heard about Ze Frank’s True Facts while in the backseat of my cousin’s car as his daughter tried to explain the ridiculous sex lives of ducks. It sounded wonderfully ridiculous, a parody nature documentary that was as educational as it was odd and frequently disturbing. Here is the True Facts about the Duck that started the binge:
If you just watched that, you understand the meaning of “nine-inch exploding corkscrew penis.” You’re welcome. And that’s not even the best video on True Facts playlist, which includes this gem about mantis shrimp and their freakish eyes and destructive powers:
Then there’s this beauty about marsupials and in particular koala, which includes the quote, “koalas in the rain, no fucks given” in addition to some truly odd reproductive facts:
Not to mention, Ze Frank has other channels and content, perhaps most famously his Sad Cat Dairies and pet commentaries:
SEO-expert and web designer turned cartoonist turned game creator, The Oatmeal produces social commentary, humor and all the exploding cats we never knew we needed. I first stumbled across a graphic novel he’d done on ultra running, The Terrible and Wonderful Reason I Run Long Distances (with bonus segue on murder hornets):
The Oatmeal Running Intro
So of course I read all of his cartoons and graphic novels. Years later, he produced some videos including this collaboration with Sarah Donner on Nikola Tesla:
My personal favorite thing on the internet on some days, is this profane, absurd and whimsical madness: The Motherfucking Pterodactyl:
The Oatmeal produces games like Exploding Kittens and more. He doesn’t need my marketing, of course, but I truly appreciate the new weirdness he’s brought to animation, games and even running.
Pitch Meetings are a surprising guilty pleasure, quick videos about how movies might have come to being that you watch thinking, I’ll just watch one, and then, well, you’re eyes a burning and it’s two in the morning:
At some point, you start to wonder if this is how movies actually get made. It makes more sense than the reality of it. Pitch Meetings are far from high art, but they are strangely addictive good fun. This one about Coraline cracks me up:
Other mother and her scary button eyes. For the children!
4. The Barkley Marathons & Backyard Ultras
It may seem strange to include ultra marathons on this list, but art comes in mysterious forms and the act of creation is not limited to the canvas or screen. Gary Cantrell (aka Lazarus Lake or laz) is most famous for creating the Barkley Marathons, a cultish race limited to 40 runners a year that almost nobody finishes. The race first became (unfortunately to some) popular after release of a 2012 documentary called The Race That Eats it’s Young that you can watch on Amazon Video.
Both the movie and the race it tries to explain are terrible, beautiful things, darkly mysterious, full of impossibilities, and for many aspiring runners such as myself, deeply addictive. Laz has turned running, endurance and suffering into living, breathing sculpture covered in briar-gashes and sweat. It’s unclear if the weird and quirky race can survive him, but there’s no doubt he birthed something new into the world one gladly brutalized runner at a time.
And then, of course, Gary created the Big Dog Backyard Ultra, which is less mysterious but still unique in its own way. Feeder backyard ultras have spread around the world over the past few years, and will probably continue to grow for decades. It’s art that grows itself.
That’s two entirely new race formats, followed by millions, neither of which are about money or glory but instead just teaching runners more about their own untapped potential.
Ozzy Man is just an Australian dude with a great voice who makes profanity-laden narratives of random nonsense. He’s funny, good-natured and finds fun in the absurdities of life. Destination Fucked is just one series, focused on, well, bad experiences in weird places,
Ozzy Man has several other series. One of my favorite videos is his narration of some bizarre Slippery Stairs competition that seems to mock itself:
And his commentary on a honey badger fight is hysterical. This one’s for you, JM:
One of the greatest challenges in the age of short attention spans and screaming pundits is to convey useful information in a calm and engaging way. Kurzgesagt has this nailed, if not for the pronunciation of their name. Whether you want to learn about nuclear war or the dangers of future of designer babies, you’ve found the place:
This video on loneliness, while not the happiest of topics, is well worth a watch:
7. Random Music Videos
Yeah, totally random. Just a few videos that were beautiful, thought-provoking or funny. Maybe even a little sad in a provocative way, like This is America:
…but I’m including it here just so I can show the parody from The Key of Awesome:
Heh heh. The plinky noise.
8. Random Animated Shorts
Even more random than the music videos, these are some recent shorts that were inspiring or just gorgeous in their own way–most famously Oscar-Winner Hair Love:
Memorable by Bruno Collet lost to Hair Love, but offers a truly beautiful if devastating perspective on dementia. You can watch the trailer here, but the full video has to be purchased on Vimeo.
The next video Happinessby Steve Cutts and is about the opposite of happiness found in the pursuit of it, the rat race we all seem trapped in at times. It’s a beautiful piece of work:
John Oliver’s Last Week Tonightis a lot like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show in that he finds a humorous way to cover serious things. Yes, he’s got a liberal bent and yes he can go off on weird tangents, but if you want to keep up on recent events and laugh a bit while doing it, John’s here for you:
And of course his Eat Shit Bob video is a classic takedown of Bob Murray, litigious coal CEO and, well, asshole:
Should there be a trigger warning on that? Well, too late now.
10. Randy Rainbow
What happens when musical theater meets political commentary? Randy Rainbow apparently. Come for the harmonization, stay for the puns:
And if you like Fiddler on the Roof, enjoy this take on Sedition:
Seditioooooon. Sedition!
More Beautiful or Positive Things?
What strangely beautiful or positive things have you found? Feel free to share. I’d love to see what makes your day better.
Oh, I just thought of another one, so I’ll leave you with this:
Like many children of my generation, I love Dr. Seuss and always have, but this post isn’t about what you think it is. You’ve probably heard that Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DSE) has pulled six Dr. Seuss books from publication, and it’s likely you already have an opinion about it. Nothing you read here is likely to change your mind, and that’s fine. This post isn’t about that; it’s about what happens next, the inevitable slide down the slippery slope, and where that leads us.
What Dr. Seuss Enterprises Actually Said
Some background will help avoid confusion. Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DSE) issued the following statement on March 2, 2021 (links and emphasis added), and thus ignited the firestorm of indignation we’re now seeing online:
Today, on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.
Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families. –
So, all of these books are now cancelled, if you will, including their adorable covers:
Offensive Dr. Seuss Books – Courtesy of CBC News
And this is of course the right of any rights owner (like DSE) or publisher. I imagine the question in conservative minds is whether left-wing activists are cancelling Dr. Seuss by applying pressure to the publisher in censorial ways?
Is Dr. Seuss Being Censored?
There’s a lot of argument online about whether DSE pulling the books is censorship or not, but all this misses the point. There is government censorship, which we generally oppose as a nominally free society (but which happens all the time), and private sector censorship that we generally support (and which happens all the time). If you take away people’s ability to get information, that’s censorship.
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or “inconvenient.” Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions, and other controlling bodies. – Wikipedia
All of which is academic. It’s only a legal issue if the government does it by force in contravention of free speech, etc., whereas private companies have every right to publish or not publish just about anything they want. That’s how capitalism works. So, yes, pulling the books is legal, standard, everyday private sector censorship. Forcing DSE to keep allowing the publication of books it doesn’t want to would be compelled speech, which conservatives allegedly object to.
What’s funny to me is that this type of censorship, pulling books from libraries or publication due to public outrage, is Politics 101 for American conservatives. How many books containing sexuality have they successfully pulled from local bookshelves? How many books have they banned for other reasons? I have no idea, but it’s a lot, and you can read more about that here. My point is that conservatives whining about censorship they themselves engage in with enthusiasm is hypocritical, disingenuous, and more than a little humorous. They practically invented this stuff. Welcome to the world you helped create.
What’s Wrong with these Dr. Seuss Books?
Dr. Seuss’ work dates from during and after World War II, and is inevitably going to reflect a different culture and norms than what we see today. That said, there are still parts of these books that are clearly racist and troubling. So, let’s take a look at the specific issues with each book. (Many of the images here are courtesy of the National Post and other sources.)
UPDATE: You can see all of the books in their entirety on the Internet Archive, at least for now, including all offensive pages.
And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937)
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street has a young protagonist fantasizing about a parade including “a Chinaman who eats with sticks,” a “Rajah, with rubies” and two fur-wearing people being pulled by a reindeer. So, yeah, that’s a little racist.
If I Ran the Zoo (1950)
If I Ran the Zoo‘s young male protagonist takes an imaginary hunting trip to Zomba-ma-tant where the Asiatic natives “wear their eyes at a slant.”
And the book also shows Black characters from the African island of Yerka, portrayed as pot-bellied, big-lipped monkey folk:
And something Middle-Easterny going on here:
So, again, not much to debate. These are clearly racist pictures of oppressed cultures.
McElligot’s Pool (1947)
McElligot’s Pool has another young boy, this time dreaming of what he’ll catch while fishing, including “Eskimo Fish from beyond Hudson Bay” with little fur collars. You could argue it’s not the image itself that’s intrinsically offensive–How many little dogs do you see dressed up in little coats on social media?–but it’s coupling with the “Eskimo” caption. Either way, yeah…
On Beyond Zebra! (1955)
This one I’m guessing at based on conjecture online (DSE didn’t specify what was offensive in each book). On Beyond Zebra! adds imaginary new letters to the alphabet, and includes an image of Nazzim of Bazzim riding a camel-like creature called a Spazzim. So…yep. I get it.
Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953)
Scrambled Eggs Super! has a kid bragging about crazy rare eggs, because why not, including one from Mt. Strookoo Cuckoo that he obtains with the assistance of turban-wearing Ali. He gets another egg from the Arctic nation of Fa-Zoal, whose people wear fur and paddle skin-covered boats. Another clear reference to native peoples:
The Cat’s Quizzer (1976)
The Cat’s Quizzer seems to be problematic due to an image of a yellow character in a coolie hat captioned with the question: “How old do you have to be to be a Japanese?” There is also some mockery of pygmies, but I can’t find any examples of the offending imagery online.
UPDATE: I found the following image on the Internet archive, but I see no indication of a cartoon with the text quoted above:
The text here might be at issue (“Do the Japanese eat with pogo sticks or joss sticks?”) but I’m not sure.
But Cat in the Hat was NOT Pulled
Best-selling but still problematic books like The Cat in the Hat, which is allegedly inspired by Black minstrel characters, were not pulled, which tells us something. Namely, that DSE is focused on the bottom line, and that they pulled books for strategic economic reasons.
Publishing is Struggling & Change is Inevitable
Publishing industry revenues have been flat or falling in real numbers for more than a decade. This is due to many factors, including the influence of Amazon.com and self-publishing, but if you can be sure of one thing it’s that these companies are all about finding ways to make more money while holding onto their legacy assets.
Statistica: Publishing Industry Revenues
So you can be sure any given book publisher that pulls a book is doing so, possibly for idealistic reasons, but certainly for financial ones. And this includes rights owners as successful as DSE:
The estate of Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) nearly doubled its income in 2020, earning an estimated $33 million in a very Grinch-like year. The bigger payday is thanks to a smart new strategy from the team at Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which transformed the beloved children’s author’s 60-plus books into a multimedia universe. – Forbes
All of which means that publishers and rights owners including DSE will do whatever they can to grow new audiences while holding onto the old. Hence, why they pulled six relatively unpopular Dr. Seuss books while holding onto equally problematic assets like Cat in the Hat. My guess is they might even update and re-release these books in the future, thus gaining the PR value and sales for the retraction followed by secondary sales of the new versions. That’s just good business, if a little cynical.
Publishers Know Controversy Equals Sales
Just look what happened to American Dirt, a novel by a white female author about a Latina woman running to the USA to escape a Mexican drug lord. It has all the immigration porn stereotypes, and BIPOC authors and readers objected to its promotion when it wasn’t written by a LatinX author (See #OwnVoices). Did the publisher pull the book? No, possibly for principled or legal reasons, but also because it knew sales would boom, and they did. American Dirt sold far more books due to the controversy than it would have otherwise.
Publishers Change Book Titles & Content All the Time
One of my favorite examples is the popular and archetypal murder mystery And Then There Were Noneby Agatha Christie. This book was originally published under the title Ten Little Niggers (sorry), and Ten Little Indians in the US, until they finally stopped finding new ways to be offensive and came up with a completely new title. Was this censorship? Well, I guess if you really wanted a book with an offensive title, but no. It’s just good business and a good if slow awakening to moral reality.
We Should Support Publisher & Owner Changes
Lots of authors write at a time when something arguably bad is acceptable, or when they have too little editorial oversight, or they just get away with stupid stuff. One great example is Stephen King’s It, a fantastic horror novel featuring one of the stupidest and most exploitative scenes you can imagine — children having sex (a gang bang, really) in a sewer to keep the group together. I would love for SK to authorize an update to It without this idiocy.
And the same is true of The Stand‘s portrayals of African Americans (e.g., the infamous ‘black junta’ scene) and its caricature of mental disability. If these changes are not made, the assets that is SK’s legacy will fade faster than it has to, publishers will lose money, and we’re all worse off for it. In other words, if you really want older and “classic” works to survive into the future, you have to admit that (a) some of them are problematic in non-trivial ways and (b) allowing them to change is the only way to save them.
My guess is many books and book series will be pulled or updated in the coming years, not to censor them but to allow the greater body of the authors’ works to survive into the next century. This is a good thing, inevitable, and hardly new. Numerous other books have been pulled or updated based on newer standards of representation, including:
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder for its depictions of Native Americans, including the line, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
Should we Burn Babar? by Herbert R. Kohl, which appears to celebrate colonialism when the MC returns to the jungle to “civilize” other animals.
And so on. All of these changes seem both reasonable and necessary, not censorial.
There’s a Much Bigger Problem for Dr. Seuss
And that is the true goal and motivation of many Seuss-haters, the thing that DSE is fighting against, not the removal or changes to a subset of Dr. Seuss books — it’s the wholesale removal of all Dr. Seuss books from school curricula, etc., due to the problematic nature of some and the history of Theodor Geisel himself. Because for every antifascist cartoon we like to remember him for…
As a result, there are many who argue with passion that all of Dr. Seuss’ works are tainted and should be removed or at least de-prioritized on school reading lists. And this is the real problem. DSE is trying to appease a group of people with a far larger axe to grind, and this token removal of a few books isn’t going to appease them. The question is whether it should. In other words, do we want a country or world in which entire bodies of work are removed or disparaged due to a (truly) problematic history of the artist and/or a few examples of (legitimate) bigotry? Because that’s the larger question being asked as we squabble over these six books.
Rap Music & Misogyny or Homophobia
Don’t get anxious. I’m not saying anything is or isn’t equivalent to anything else. I’m just asking a question. Let’s look at some troubling rap lyrics just by way of example. This is Dr. Dre rapping in N.W.A.’s “One Less Bitch:”
Yo, I tied her to the bed
I was thinking the worst
But yo, I had to let my n*ggas fuck her first, yeah
Loaded up the forty-fo’, yo
Then I straight smoked the ho
Which you can see and hear here if you like:
My question isn’t about this song or any number of other songs by Black or white artists, whether misogynistic, homophobic, or just violent and ugly. My question is about principles. If our principle as a diverse society is that an artist and his or her entire body of work should be ignored / not purchased / de-listed / censored or whatever the contextual syntax is, based on a subset of that work, then we should apply that consistently.
In other words, if it’s morally right to denigrate all of Theodor Geisel’s work, then we should do this universally and consistently. All of N.W.A.’s music and all of Dr. Dre’s work should be unpublished and removed from distribution by the owner. Any artist who has ever made a substantial negative comment or contribution toward any group, or displayed bigotry of any kind, should have all work taken down and pushed into obscurity, forever. Because that’s the slope we’re sliding down.
So What are our Principles?
I couldn’t care less that DSE had some some problematic Dr. Seuss books unpublished. No, that’s not right; I’m glad they did. I have no problem if they do the same to Cat in the Hat because of it’s problematic history. No one, and especially not children, should be forced or encouraged to read or listen to anything that fills their minds with racism, sexism, misogyny or bigotry generally.
HOWEVER, and that’s in all caps for a reason, I strongly object to the idea that an artist’s entire life work and body of creation should be purged from common distribution because of this. This would be true cancel culture that would make reactionary book-banning conservatives…right. And that’s freakin’ intolerable. Sadly, it also seems like that’s where we’re heading, and this process began long before DSE’s recent announcement.
See, I told you this wasn’t about what you thought it was.
It’s not hard to find dystopian predictions about the future. We’ve all been doom scrolling on social media for so long that anxiety, fear and mistrust feel like part of our DNA. We no longer wake up to see what’s on the news; we check the news to see what’s coming for us. Is it a new pandemic? Economic collapse? Hordes of armed lunatics in the other party? Maybe all of it, all at once, immediately followed by the collapse of society and global cannibalism.
It sounds like a joke, but it doesn’t feel like it. And this is something I’ve been struggling with during the COVID pandemic like everyone else. Is the world more broken than ever, or does it just feel like it? And if it is all falling apart, what the heck can any of us do to about it?
Well, I’m not here to tell you it’s all in your head. Some of the threats we’re facing are not only real and very bad, but are also like to get much worse in the near future. Sorry. That doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom, but it does mean that if we don’t want to end up in a dystopian world filled with some pretty terrible things, we have to be more focused on the real threats and do something about them as soon as possible, meaning…now.
So these are some of the legitimate threats we should be focused on if we weren’t too busy being a violent, childlike specifies with the collective attention span of a gnat:
Ten Dystopian Predictions
These are nominally arranged form least-worst to worst, but this is entirely subjective and humanist. If you’re an endangered lemur, prediction 10 is probably far worse than 1, but then lemurs probably can’t read this even if their tree has internet access. Learn to read, lemur! Just kidding; that would be weird. Now here’s the list:
10. Climate Change & Global Overpopulation
Given how climate change is talked about as an existential threat, you’d think this would be higher on the list; however, as real and terrible as it is, climate change will primarily impact poorer nations and people and richer nations and people will do little about it. We’re going to see sea-level rise, species extinction, vast ecological changes and collapse, and we’re probably not going to do much about it other than talk and point fingers. The things we could do (consuming less, moving to renewable energy, changing to less-meat-intensive diets, having fewer babies, etc.) we’ll do if and when they makes economic sense (profit for someone), but international treaties will do little to move this along. It’s a serious threat, but we’re not going to do anything to stop it until it’s too late.
If you’d like to know more about climate change, here’s one of many great videos from Kurzgesagt. If you want to be more informed about nature and scientific issues, I’d seriously recommend watching all of them:
BTW, if this seems fatalistic, it is, but I’m not suggesting we stop trying to reduce the impact or speed of climate change. I’m just saying we missed our window to prevent it, and our species really only reacts to things once they’re so bad we have no choice.
Note on Mass Extinctions & Overpopulation
There can be little doubt that we as a species are killing off or degrading most other species on Earth, or at least those that don’t serve us (we’ve done a remarkable job increasing the population of cows and chickens). Whether you care about this or not is of course entirely based on your moral compass, and while I think these losses degrade our experience of the natural world and make ecosystems more fragile, I don’t think they pose that great a threat to humanity or human society. If we want to live in a monocultural world, we probably can. But, to me, this is genocide–the narcissistic slaughter of anything and everything humans can’t be bothered to value monetarily. Sir David Attenborough seems to feel the same way, and with far greater experience to back him up:
Will we do anything about even this one issue? I doubt it. We’ll save some pretty things, the charismatic mega-fauna, the usual fungi, and some things we like to hunt and eat. But there are simply too many human beings generating too much need, waste and toxins to stop the slaughter. As long as our population grows, and our per capita consumption rises or remains flat, the natural world is just going to shrink and die. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
For example, we could all decide to have fewer babies or become vegan or vegetarian, and choose locally-grown foods, but we haven’t and we won’t. We’ll instead opt-in to synthetic meats, and hopefully that will help over time, but this just shows the nature of our society: we will not sacrifice our lifestyles to help others, but we will gladly wait around for a technology to do it for us. (For a different perspective on overpopulation, Kurzgesagt has a great video).
9. Privacy Reduction by Automated Surveillance
Every time you agree to, say, use a Progressive Snapshot in your car to get lower rates, use your Fitbit or iPhone to get lower health insurance rates, etc. you’re also helping accelerate us toward the time when all of our behavior is monitored and results in monetary reward or compensation. And this includes everything from wearable tech to the electronics in your home.
We will all be watched, always, and soon thereafter forced to comply with both economic and government standards of behavior (see Liberty Reduction). Our TVs, PCs and phones watch us, determining what content we deserve and what ads we should see. Our credit card and e-commerce companies monitor our behavior to assess risk and predict buying patterns.
It’s not hard to see the appeal; this technology can save lives. It can call for an ambulance when you fall or have a heart attack. And of course, it can be used to aggregate user data to improve insurance plans…which this is the problem with tech like this. We want the benefits, so we ignore the downside, and then all of us lose privacy and liberty. Is it worth it? Time will tell.
8. Liberty Reduction by Mechanized Surveillance
We’ve long been fighting a war for privacy and regulation via everything from GPS monitoring systems to traffic cameras, but usually observation and control are separate. A traffic camera sees, but a government issues a ticket. This is not always true, of course (e.g., trucks can be automatically speed-throttled to optimize fuel efficiency), but new automation entirely eliminates this barrier.
In Singapore, for instance, Boston Dynamic a robot dog (Spot) was used to enforce social distancing regulations during the COVID pandemic. It patrolled the park and notified people about issues and, while it didn’t attack or subdue violators, it’s easy to see how it could. Note: Spot is still remotely controlled, not autonomous.
And just this month, we learned that the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced plans to use Digidog in city policing:
So, the future is here. Congresswoman AOC may object to what the NYPD is doing, but until we have strong national regulation on the use and deployment of robot police and surveillance systems, they’re just going to keep coming.
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said empowering a robot to do police work could have implications for bias, mobile surveillance, hacking and privacy. There is also concern that the robot could be paired with other technology and be weaponized. – NYT
The problem with these systems is not that they have no positive value; it’s that they are far, far too appealing. They cost less than human cops (or will), can cover more range, work 24/7, take risks humans won’t, and won’t every unionize. They can also be armed, carry recording devices that violate pretty much everyone’s privacy, and create a surveillance police state where we’re all watched, all the time…and then told to move along by the thing surveilling us. And Digidog is just one example among many. Here for instance is a nifty little drone police are looking to deploy to the airspace right over your head–which is funny, because it’s a late-to-the-market made-in-the-USA competitor to Chinese DJI drones already in use today.
Smile. You’re on police TV.
See my novel Ascendance for how some of this technology will soon be used by police and schools.
7. Job Displacement by Robots & Automation
This covers everything from automated mail sorting to complete construction automation (and probably far more). The threat here is real, current and almost unavoidable. It might be that some societies or unions push back against mechanization via neo-Luddite regulation and legislation, but there is so much money to be made by eliminating humans from the cost of goods that it’s almost unstoppable in a capitalist society. We’ve all seen the dancing Boston Dynamic robot by now, showing its moves to Do You Love Me and generally making humans look obsolete (but in a really adorable way). But the greatest threat to human jobs and labor is not multipurpose humanoid robots like this one:
The next video shows just few examples equally advanced but more task-oriented robots, including one that can pack pallets in a warehouse…and do a pretty damn good job of it. Given that they can work all day and never need a bathroom break, it’s hard to see companies resisting these temptations. Blue-collar jobs are going to vanish remarkably fast.
And this the first case on the list where (a) something bad is coming for human jobs (and there’s not much you can do about it) but (b) it doesn’t actually have to be a bad thing. In the long term, no human job is safe from machines and artificial intelligence (more on this below), so we must come up with a society where humans can prosper despite having no way to earn a living in the conventional market. I’m not sure what this is yet–what do they use in Star Trek?–but whatever it is, the time to figure it out is now. Until we do, things are going to get ugly.
6. Job Displacement by Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This covers all the ways machine learning, artificial intelligence and related digital technologies can (a) break human labor into automatable parts and (b) use that information to automate portions or all of a human’s job. There are many benefits to this, such as faster and more accurate cancer screening, removal of humans from dangerous work, and of course increased productivity–but all of these mean less work for human beings.
As shown in this video, this process is ongoing, accelerating, and inevitable. We just need to figure out how to deal with it.
Look at a complex job long and hard enough, and you’ll find that it’s really just many narrowly defined and predictable tasks one after another. Machines are on the brink of becoming so good at breaking down complex jobs into many predictable ones, that for many people, there will be no further room to specialize. We are on the verge of being out competed.” – Kurzgesagt
This Kurzgesagt video mentions but does not name a consulting company in San Francisco that uses machine learning systems to get middle management to train AI to replace them, but the same model is referenced here in the Harvard Business Review:
“…executives tend to assume that their underlings will bear the main brunt of changes to the future of work, while their own positions are immune. They are incorrect. We have chosen to publicize our work with iCEO to highlight the hard reality: It will not be possible to hide in the C-Suite for much longer.” — HBR
And this fact, that AI will impact middle and upper management sooner rather than later, is actually good news; it will mean people who have money and power will feel the threat that only blue-collar and factory workers have felt before. And maybe they can come up with a new economic model that keeps these changes from driving us all into poverty and unemployment.
If you want to see the real impact automation and other factors are having on real human wages, there is a great article on “Wage Stagnation…” from the Economic Policy Institute:
Wage Stagnation EPI
This article makes no mention of AI, machine learning, computers or any other reason why productivity would increase without wages growing in tandem. This article and many others, however, lay the blame directly at the feet of our future machine overlords:
The steady decline in the relative prices of robots and automation equipment over the past few decades have made it increasingly profitable to automate. In this environment, workers may be reluctant to ask for significant pay raises out of fear that an employer will replace their jobs with robots.
And this is the same argument being used against the $15 minimum wage; that raising wages will just accelerate automation and job destruction. Just as outsourcing overseas used to be the stick used to intimidate labor, now its machines…or both, working together.
5. Loss of Objective Truth to Deepfake Content
This is a huge topic, but hopefully requires little explanation. New and increasingly powerful “deepfake” technology is able to render audio and video of apparently real people doing and saying apparently real things…that they never did. The most recent example is this Tom Cruise TikTok video:
This video demonstrates two things. First, how it may be impossible to know what a person really said or did not say in the future (in everything from revenge porn to murders). Second, how an entire industry of actors and extras may soon be licensed and reproduced without ever needing human beings at all. The first is a threat to objective truth, the second a threat to artistic labor. Both are real and coming soon, but many of you will also remember this earlier Obama deep fake:
And this demonstrates a third threat posed by deepfake technology; the ability of anyone in any political party or group to put words in the mouths of their opponents, thus feeding into fake news, misinformation and the growth of conspiracy theories. Making it worse is how difficult it is to fight and regulate this technology without stepping on constitutionally protected freedom of speech:
Early October (2019), California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into legislation AB730, which makes it illegal to create or distribute fake videos, images or audio of politicians within 60 days of an election. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier’s Foundation (EFF) have already disagreed with the law, arguing that it could negatively impact free speech. — Forbes
So, my prediction? Deep fake political videos will have some impact in the US 2022 midterm elections, and a substantial impact in 2024 presidential elections. And it will just get worse after that. In a few years, it will be almost impossible to know what you, me, or any politician ever said, and even harder to find the truth amidst an endless barrage of deepfakery.
See my novel Ascendance for how some of this deepfakery could be used in horrific crimes.
Note on the Related Death of Art
One of the hardest things in today’s world is to produce art that stands out, and to make a living as an artist or a creative. But when AI can churn out books, articles, photographs, videos and animations in seconds rather than hours or years, the value of this human-created art will plummet (lower than it already has). And the only thing that will save it is knowing if the artist is human or not…if consumers really care. In the future, it won’t be “Made in the USA” that matters, but “Created by a Human Being” and it will be just as hard to regulate.
If this is something you care about, check out my petition on change.org to protect human art from AI.
4. Designer Babies and the (True) Rise of Genetic Class
Eugenics is the study of how to improve human beings by, well, breeding better human beings. Nazis loved this stuff, as did many Americans long before the Third Reich was even a thing. Up until this point in history, however, eugenics was just a terrible idea heralded by terrible people. Race and gender were not deterministic. Intelligence was not the soul purview of any one group. But this is about to change.
This change is being driven by CRISPR and other advances in bioengineering that will, soon, allow for wonderful things–cures for genetic diseases like ALS–and terrible things–picking your child’s social, intellectual and physical traits so he or she can be the perfect little child you always wanted. And it will be almost impossible to regulate, as shown in this quote from Designer Babies…
“Zaret suggests three additional regulatory steps that could help close the gap: the revocation of the federal ban on funding, the creation of a committee to report legislative recommendations, and the creation of a federal entity that would have authority over both public and private sectors.[16] The collective goal of these three steps is centralized regulation. A federal body would be able to research the social and ethical issues created by embryonic research and not only impose regulations but educate the public. It could be broadly expanded to promote public access to reproductive health and encourage dialogue about neoeugenic uses of gene editing.”
All of which means, government regulation of designer babies will be slow, lag technology development and be easily circumvented by those with the resources to travel internationally. Within a generation, the rich will be having stronger, faster, smarter and otherwise modified children, and there’s really nothing you can do about it. Movies like Gattaca are not science fiction, they are now naive and almost utopian predictions about what’s going to happen in your lifetime.
What’s important to understand is that it doesn’t matter if designer babies are a good or bad thing in the abstract; what matters is how this technology will be distributed economically. And that’s obvious: the rich will have almost unlimited access, and the poor almost none. The result will be, for the first time in history, the alignment of genetics and economic class. If we don’t do something, within a few decades at most, the rich really will be better (stronger, smarter) and the rest of us will be relegated to a permanent underclass defined by our DNA. I, for one, do not want to be a hideous Morlock bowing before the perfect an beautiful Eloi. I just have no idea how to prevent it from happening.
See my novel Ascendance for how we may react to the advent of designer babies, or Run Lab Rat Run for where this might take our society in the future.
3. Tribalization and the Death of Empathy
Tribalization just means we’re all splitting into smaller and more hermetically isolated social and political groups, each of which is defined by “what is good” (us) and “what is bad” (them). It doesn’t matter if the tribe is right or wrong in this context, what matters is that it exists an increasingly vital source personal identity, thus placing all of us in opposition to anyone not in our tribe (the Other).
This tribalization process has endless causes. You could learn more by reading Bowling Alone, researching the Fairness Doctrine or you could just turn on the news and say, hey, this sucks. Because it sucks. Progressives hate MAGAs, MAGAs hate GOP moderates, GOP moderates hate liberals, liberals hate progressives, and if we’re honest, everyone hates Dave. Screw that guy.
And even groups that seem to be fighting systematic division end up supporting it. Progressives, for instance, oppose systematic racism, but they very much favor systematic tribalization, segregation and safe spaces. All of which is understandable in the context of tribal needs, separating them from the actual or perceived threat of the other, and yet the resulting tribalization remains utterly destructive of social unity.
Above you’ll hear about political tribalization. Below, you’ll hear about social media cognitive bubbles. What these and other videos all have in common? We’re all living in our own realities, defined by our own facts, and increasingly hateful of anyone not in the same cognitive space.
The news media is even worse. The following chart shows the polarization of news media organizations, leading to both misinformation and accelerating social tribalization:
Media Bias Chart
All of which you already know unless you’re living in a very small bubble in the woods without windows, which sounds nice. The problem with this process of social segregation is that it makes collective action impossible. It makes the idea of cooperating with the other impossible. It makes the Other, the group most opposed to your group, not merely different but evil. And this is where we get to the death of empathy.
Liberalism long held empathy as a core value. You must try to understand others. You must try to help others. Because we’re not that different, and any of us could need help at any time. Progressives and MAGAs have no such values. Empathy is replaced by political alliances, by collaborating with those who hate the Other as much as you do. The idea of caring about of helping Others is not merely counterproductive, it’s morally repugnant and sufficient to get you evicted from the group. Empathy is treachery.
The result? Collaboration and cooperation are signs of weakness. Unity is capitulation. And this means democracy itself, an institution based on the ideal that most people will do the right thing most of the time, is kind of a joke. What good is democracy if it doesn’t serve your group and smite the Other? And so on…
If you’re wondering why I ranked tribalization so highly, it’s because it’s not merely a threat unto itself. Tribalization prevents effective collective action, and that makes it impossible to solve any other problem on this list. If we allow technology, media, corporations, political parties, religious beliefs and so on to divide us into squabbling, hateful tribes, then we’re screwed now and forever. We might as well just hand things over to the machines and get back to killing each other.
2. Capitalist Authoritarianism (The Chinese Model)
The model demonstrated by China, and to a lesser extent Russia and Brazil, is that of a nominally capitalist economy coupled with a highly intrusive and authoritarian government. China has proven that democracy and capitalism are not necessary partners, and that democracy may be less effective at driving capitalist economic growth than political authoritarianism, a lesson the German Reich (aka Nazi fascists) knew but no one cared about because they lost the war.
China is thus a threat not only because it is a competitor to the USA in the global market, but because it offers an alternative geopolitical structure to the ruling and wealthy classes. Instead of controlling people and labor through the illusion of self-control, you simply control them the old fashioned way. And as long as they make enough money to feel safe and comfortable, people are more than willing to ignore the loss of personal freedom. This is not completely true, of course, but it’s true enough to work and that’s all that matters in the real world.
So if some of the most economically successful countries are not even vaguely democratic, what keeps more democracies from failing? There are a lot of answers to this, of course, but this is the first time in history when the Chinese alternative has existed, and thus poses a very real threat to democracy itself. How many nations would gladly choose less freedom for more wealth (and less poverty)? My guess: most of them. Especially if China acts as a generous sponsor as America withdraws from the international stage.
And what’s happening the USA today is leading in this direction, helped greatly by anti-democratic conservative efforts, thereby turning one-person-one-vote into one-dollar-one-vote. The more power is concentrated in fewer hands, the more wealth held by fewer people, the smaller the gap is between democracy and authoritarianism. What, after all, is the purpose of supporting democracy if you can be just as rich and more powerful without it? People are just so whiny.
1. Economic Genocide & the Fall of Liberal Democracy
Wow, well, economic genocide sounds scary. Run away! But in all seriousness, if you look at the prior nine items on this list, they all lead to one collective outcome: a world with fewer jobs for human beings, more power in the hands of centralized authorities, complete powerlessness and subjugation of the non-rich, the inability to do anything without those authorities watching you.
This could easily lead to a world of authoritarian China clones, with high-tech capitalist markets serving only the wealthiest and largest corporations and impoverishing everyone else. Or it could lead to something else.
I’m just genuinely concerned that I’ve heard no one, and I mean no one, talk about a credible alternative to this collective dystopia. I’ve heard people claiming it won’t happen, and I’ve heard others hoping it will (burn it all down!), but literally the only policy solution that seems viable is a guaranteed minimum income for everyone based on taxing the small percent who still have jobs. Which is, of course, only one measure and only a stopgap.
Even videos like the following about a so-called (alternative) Ownership Economy, and the underlying theories the drive them, are more about changing people than systems, and thus offer no way forward other than wishful thinking. I’m not trying to denigrate their thought process or very chill presentations; they just don’t seem to offer realistic options in the world as we know it.
Which leaves us in a scary place. Democracy cannot stand if most people are living in poverty or unable to support themselves. Society cannot hold if it does not offer some degree of hope and dignity to most of its citizens. So what is the real, practical alternative to increasing income disparity, economic stratification, unemployment and authoritarianism?
I have no idea.
Things Not to Worry About
Several of the usual scary things aren’t on this particular list of things to worry about because they’re either so far in the future (relatively to other threats) that it’s not worth worrying about, or we have little influence over them anyway. These include:
AI Super-Intelligence & the Rise of the Machines
Robots with giant brains and bigger guns? Run away! I mean, if Elon Musk says we should be scared, we should be scared, right?
And he’s not wrong. We should be scared. It’s just way down on the list of things we should be focused on today. And a robot uprising is entirely avoidable if we’re not complete idiots, but I do love Terminator, so…enjoy:
“I’ll be back!” No, seriously, he will be…eventually. This is like the Zamboni of threats.
Volcanoes, Meteors and Aliens, Oh My!
There are plenty of valid and massive threats out there, including eruption of giant super volcanoes or massive meteor strikes like the one the killed off our beloved dinosaurs. But let’s be honest; we’re not going to do anything about any of these, so keep praying and don’t look up too often.
The End of Everything
And of course you can always just skip ahead the heat death of the universe, evaporating black holes, and true blackness at the end of time to remind yourself that if you take a really long view (you know, trillions or even quadrillions of years), none of this really matters. We’re all gonna die. Everything’s gonna die. YOLO!
But that’s a recipe for anarchy, immorality and existential dread, and who needs that?
Choosing a Better Future
Whatever you think of this giant sad list of terrible things with a few tiny good things to prevent collective suicidal ideation, you have to admit we’re heading in a pretty bad direction with no particular focus on how to prevent it. We’re blithely walking to the edge of every cliff we can think of, and just assuming we won’t fall or we’ll be dead before we get there (like the national debt, it’s someone else’s problem). This is not a plan. This is the definition of denial.
Sadly, the only thing that can prevent these outcomes now is that we each and collectively decide to accept them, face them, and deal with them. They will not solve themselves or go away. So my question is, what would it take for us as a society and, more generally, a species, to become something capable of addressing these issues? And I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s theoretically possible. I know societies have solved problems in the past. But I also know we don’t seem interested in these things anymore. We would rather throw rocks and scream while the world burns. It’s easier. I get that.
But what a you going to tell your children? See that stone in the ashes over there, honey. That one, no, the black one with glass on it. That’s the one. I threw that. If you look real closely, you can see a little blood on it. I took that bastard / bitch / thing down. Why didn’t I fight the fire? It was too late. It was too big. There was no water left. I didn’t start the fire. I’m not a fire fighter. Just don’t inhale, and you’ll be fine. Now, let’s go take a closer look at mommy’s / daddy’s rock.
Of course, there is another choice–the conservative / right wing pretend it’s all a left-wing dystopian fantasy option, and you’ll find plenty of videos and information online for every point above showing why they’re fake news or actually a positive thing. Prager University will be glad to tell you why income inequality is good. I’m not convinced their perspective is always wrong or just lies made to protect those who benefit from the current system. I am convinced they would say the same thing either way. You should do your own research and self-education and hopefully realize that none of what’s happening is solving real human problems in the long term.
And then, hopefully, you / we / all of us can choose to do something about something before the choice is taken away from us. And if you happen to find a realistic alternative to the false binary options of capitalism and socialism (or the tyranny of authoritarian capitalism), that’d be great too.
That’s right; there is only one true morality. And like all important discussions, this one starts with a reference to Highlander. There can be only one! Which begs the question of what morality is, and that’s fine because it’s the simplest thing in the world: Morality is that which supports and defends life. Immorality is anything that harms or destroys life. That’s it. There are no exceptions and there is no need for religious support for philosophical argument. It’s self-evident, like the gravity of life.
You probably have questions.
Most of them likely start with, “What about…?”
And you might have assumptions.
Most of them probably start with, “You’re saying all life is equal” or “I’m not immoral just because I…” or “There is no morality without god.”
But let’s take a step back before we get into all that. The world is a messy place and resists simple solutions. We like our complexity because it creates gaps and exceptions where our ego and vanity can squeeze in, the same way corporations like tax loopholes. We’re drawn to moral relativity because it allows us to treat them differently than us. And we adore religious morality because it allows us to hate the damned for not being so gloriously like ourselves. What I’m proposing is that all of this is the worst kind of nonsense: systems of conceit built on foundations of self-interest that are not so much moral frameworks as conditional ethics based on power dynamics.
I reject them all, and so should you.
So let’s start with a few simple thought exercises and see where it gets us.
The Easy Stuff: Morality for the Masses
1 / It’s wrong to murder another person. This is true in most religions and cultures. Killing people is bad. We don’t really think about why; we accept the taking of human life as self-evidently wrong. Because it is. We don’t need god to tell us it’s the wrong thing to do; we know it is.
But what if they have it coming? We’ll get to this. There might be something such as justifiable homicide, but that doesn’t make it moral; it just makes it conditionally justified. And that’s where things will get complicated.
2 / It’s not wrong to break a rock. It might be aesthetically displeasing or irritating if we’re fond of rocks, but it’s not a moral issue. In the absence of life, there is no morality. A black hole can eat a sun, a sun can go supernova and take out an entire solar system and the entire universe could slowly fade and die. And not one moment of all those billions of years of destruction has the slightest moral meaning unless it harms or benefits life.
But what if it’s a unique and beautiful formation? That’s still not a moral issue. Aesthetic, yes. But unless life is harmed in some way, it’s of no moral consequence that a sand dune was violated. That that doesn’t make it right or good (which are positive affirmations weak people often seek for destructive acts); it’s just not immoral.
3 / It’s more wrong to kill multiple people than one. We all know this. Moral harm is not a single value, one or zero, but exists on an infinite spectrum from the slightest malfeasance to global genocide and beyond. Every sane person understands that Hitler was worse than Jack the Ripper. Thus there’s no point in making arguments like “X is right because Y is worse.” They are both wrong if they are both wrong, even if one is more wrong. Anything else is rationalization that likely benefits the person screaming loudest.
But what if they’re really terrible people? Says who? Moving on.
Slightly Harder Stuff: The Morality of Lesser Acts
4 / It’s wrong to physically or mentally assault anyone. This is obvious to most people. Raping a woman is wrong, punching a man is wrong, torturing a child is wrong and, yes, poisoning your boss is wrong (even if they had it coming). Morality isn’t just about death; it’s about every degree of physical or mental harm from wholesale genocide to verbal bullying.
5 / It’s wrong to impose our sloth and destructiveness on others. This might seem a bit random, but this is (again) not some final ordered list. It’s just an introduction to the idea of ‘one true morality’ to encourage feedback and thought. What I mean here is that it is not only overt acts of violence or hate that harm others and are thus immoral; it’s also all the little petty things we do every day. It’s tossing a cigarette out the window, which incurs cost on society (financial harm), damages the environment and threatens to burn forests down (harm to others). It’s peeing all over the bathroom and making someone else clean up after you. It’s taking up all the space in the overhead compartment so someone else has to check their bags. It’s making your partner clean up after you, being snide to the barista, stealing from a small business, and all the other things we take for granted as part of society.
I could give many more examples here, but this is just an introduction to the thought process underling one true morality. More details will come.
Even Harder Stuff: The Morality of Harming Lesser Things
6 / It’s wrong to harm all life, not just human beings. Most of us know it’s wrong to put a gun to a pet’s head and blow its brains out for fun. We generally cringe when someone tortures horses. But we tend to apply this allegedly moral framework conditionally, protecting big adorable animals (charismatic mega-fauna, as it were) while thinking nothing of killing rodents or snakes and smaller things for fun or convenience. One of the hardest things to accept about morality is that it is always wrong to harm any life for any reason, and yes that includes mosquitoes and grass. This doesn’t mean it’s not justifiable, rational or even unavoidable. The very act of existing means we harm tiny lesser things every day. Sometimes we need to eat animals to survive or flourish. That doesn’t mean killing a murder hornet is the same moral act as burning people in concentration camps. That would be absurd. These are not equivalent moral acts, but they are all still wrong.
Truly Hard Stuff: Absolute Morality
7 / Morality is not a vector. This is a mathematical term referring to something that has both value and direction, like an arrow or velocity. This is opposed to scalars, such as temperature, which have a value but no direction. Physics aside, the meaning here is very simple: a thing is wrong if it is wrong, not conditionally based on who did it and when or why. If sexism is wrong, it is always wrong, regardless of who’s doing it. If violence is wrong, it is always wrong, regardless of who justifies it. If lying is wrong because it deceives others, it is wrong, no matter how vital and necessary it seems at the time. And being less wrong doesn’t make you right.
But what if you’re correcting for past wrongs? It’s still wrong. That doesn’t mean it’s never justified; it means you don’t have a moral get-out-of-jail-free card. It was wrong to kill thousands of Japanese with atomic bombs. Morally, absolutely, wrong. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t justifiable by saving American lives or staving off nuclear war (where you’re balancing conflicting moral impacts–and I’m not saying it was or was not justified). Moral clarity doesn’t make all decisions binary and simple. It means you need to own the wrong that you do. People were burned alive and slaughtered. That’s always wrong.
The Hardest Stuff: The Impossibility of Purity
8 / It’s impossible to lead an entirely moral life. Life is constantly in conflict with other life. Some need to kill to survive. Some need to eat animals to live. We might need to slaughter entire species of mosquitoes to save millions of human lives. How these decisions are made and balanced is left until later, but understanding morality is not about seeking a perfect life or sainthood. It’s about understanding the truth and doing your best to live by it, even if you can never do it perfectly. Morality is simple but sloppy, easy to explain but hard to perfect.
What makes this even harder is that people don’t want to live with the weight of their failures. We want absolution for our sins. We want to think killing that home invader was not merely justified but good, but it wasn’t good. It was possibly legal and maybe necessary, but you still murdered someone. On balance, perhaps you saved your family’s lives or shelter, and thus made a valid decision when balancing two conflicting moral conditions. But that is about justice, the balancing of moral complexity, not morality itself. You killed someone. You need to own that. And that’s true at every level. You fire people to save other jobs, you’re still doing harm to the ones you fired. You force a person into quarantine to save others, you’re still doing harm to the one who’s temporarily imprisoned.
And this is perhaps the most important part of morality, because it defines how society structures itself and how we all live with each other. What immorality we justify in the name of some greater good. Which means the most moral society, and even a society striving to be moral, must constantly address the harm it does in the name of good, every day, with every policy, law, decision and act–forever, without pause or rest. We have to consider the jobs of coal miner when advocating clean energy. We must think about immigrant lives when we implement labor policies. We have no moral choice but to consider the harm to wildlife when building homeless shelters. And that’s staggeringly hard. To pretend otherwise is naive.
Justice: The Balance of Conflicting Moral Factors
9 / Justice is seeking the most moral outcome possible. In general, this means seeking not perfection, but balance. Justice is blind because she’s nominally objective, with no finger on the scale, but it’s still incredibly hard to balance that scale. Was a woman justified in shooting a man to save her child? Is a policy more beneficial than harmful, and how do you compensate those on the losing side of that policy?
None of this is new, but it does illustrate how complex the idea of a simple, clear morality can become in the face of social reality. Which is also what makes it essential. If you complicate morality with exceptions for your group or tribe, tweak it to benefit your religion, create loopholes for those in power, and so on, you complicate the search for justice to the point it becomes unattainable. Only by starting with simple, clear moral guidelines can justice ever be attained. In some ways, unnecessary complexity is itself an evil, like a contrived theoretical bureaucracy meant to paralyze people in their daily lives.
There Is No Justice without Truth
10 / Truth itself is required to make just and moral decisions. This means both objective truth (the actual facts, unbiased on opinion or power) and experiential truth (how people and other forms of life experience the world). You can’t tell which policies or acts are moral unless you understand first what is true, and true for all involved. Which is why society should have no tolerance of deceit, or at least very little. Businesses and governments should never be allowed to lie, except I suppose as needed for national security. If you have to lie or omit facts to defend your position or desires, you’re probably seeking an unjust or immoral outcome.
One True Morality: Well, So What?
This is just a first effort to document some thoughts I’ve had for years between other projects. They are not fully formed. I’ve always tried to live my life according to these guidelines (and usually failed), but what I find most distressing is how we as a society and culture have rejected these most basic values in search of power for ourselves. Republicans lie. Democrats, Libertarians and Greens do harm. Businesses and Nonprofits act in grossly immoral ways. We all do harm to each other every day, in countless major and infinite sad little forms. And until we decide we want a different society based on something moral or at least compassionate, it’s not going to get any better.
So I’d suggest re-calibrating to a few basic principles might be a good place to restart. And these are so simple, you don’t have to wait for the rest of society to get started:
1: Morality Means It’s Wrong to Harm Life and Good to Help Life
2: Justice is Found in Balancing Conflicting Moral Goods and Harms
3: Truth is Required to Obtain Moral or At Least Just Outcomes
That’s pretty much it. There is endless complexity underlying these statements, and I won’t pretend otherwise, but if we genuinely tried to live by these guidelines, society could hardly be any worse.
Those are my thoughts for now. What questions / challenges / triggers do these ideas bring up for you? What would you add or subtract? I’d love to hear from you as I develop next steps for this moral framework. If nothing else, it’ll give me things to think about over the holidays…when I really should be writing my next novel. Thank you.
Hashtags! For Writers! Okay, that’s enough exclamation marks. This collection of Twitter hashtags for writers is not a definitive list of anything. There are an infinite number of potential hashtags on Twitter, even within the much smaller community of writers or the writing industry collectively. These are just some that I’ve found useful as a novice but impatient user of social media. My hope is that it will save other writers’ time learning how to leverage Twitter for their writing process and careers. As such, I hope you’ll comment on how the list can be improved so we all have a better resource going forward.
Twitter Hashtags for Writers
There is nothing magical about this list, but I hope you find some of them useful. If you think of important ones that are missing and would help others, let me know.
Note that I’ve capitalized words in hashtags to make them more readable. This has no impact on how the work on Twitter. In other words, #amquerying is functionally the same as #AmQuerying, and the results are identical. So, off we go…
Whatcha Doing?
#AmEditing(I’m editing!). Not sure if it’s better to use this or #Editing.
#AmPublishing(Here comes my debut!) is generally used while or for self-publishing.
#AmQuerying (I’m querying & need beer!) is used for authors with a finished manuscript who are searching for an agent.
#AmReading(And now I’m reading) is a way of sharing books what you’re reading generally, which can help better understand what others (and other writers) are reading or to find good book recommendations.
#AmWriting(I’m back to writing!) (>300/hr) is used mostly as a way to community who are currently in the process of writing (presumably, their #WIP). It’s inevitable that sub-tags such as #AmWritingFantasy will be used to add detail, but I’m not sure if this is a better or worse case than using #AmWriting with #Fantasy in the same tweet. My OCD mind prefers the latter (as it prevents hashtag proliferation and is more flexible), but results of course depend on who ends up using what (and logically whether you care a lot about “and” vs. “or”).
Got a Question?
#AskAgent is for asking agents questions when they have time, which they’ll generally let you know individually or during scheduled events. Here’s a greatly respected agent making himself available to answer writer questions:
#AskAuthor is used to ask authors and writers questions, but is perhaps used more by non-authors (e.g., agents) to query this part of the #WritingCommunity.
#AskEditor is used to ask editors questions when they’re available. Some #AskEditor sessions are obviously held by professional editors looking for clients (nothing wrong with that).
#AskMentor is nominally useful in many contexts, but here I think it’s mostly used during #PitchWars to interact with potential mentors.
#AskWriter is like #AskAuthor, but I’m not sure which is more common.
Looking for an Agent
See also Events & Competitions, below
#500Queries is used by agents to share the reasons they passed or declined a query, but I’m not that familiar with how it works or when it’s used. I’ll do some research and update this shortly.
#MSWL (Manuscript Wishlist) is both tag and website. Both are exceptionally useful for finding agents and what they’re looking for. This is especially true now that some agents are specific about not just age and genre (e.g., Adult Science Fiction) but also authors (e.g., preferring LGBTQ+ or BIPOC writers).
#QueryRejections is one that’s not used that much but which I’m advocating as a way to share our experiences with query rejections. This is a hard business, and you’re not alone in feeling the pain of rejection while #AmQuerying. Sharing is caring.
Just got rejected so fast the web form got backlash or a concussion. Imagining agent playing query wack-a-mole. It's impressive. #amquerying#queryrejections#TGIF
I’ve not gone through this process (yet), so if you have better or additional good hashtags, I’d love to know what they are.
#BookCoversfor information on book covers and design if you’re #SelfPublishing.
#IndieAuthorsis the subset of authors focused on #SelfPublishing or publishing with small independent presses.
#SelfPublishing or #SelfPub if you’re looking for (or to share) information on self vs. traditional publishing.
Marketing Your Book
This is also something I’m not familiar with just yet, so more hashtag suggestions welcome.
#BookGiveaway is used to announce promotional book giveaways, or to thank authors for the books, and so on. This is a great way to generate reviews for your book (and hopefully, more sales). I’m not sure if used more by #SelfPublishing authors, but I assume so.
I’m sure there are many more, but here are the ones I’ve come across or participated in at some point:
#10Queriesis used by editors (exclusively?) during #RevPit to provide feedback on all or many of the queries they’ve received for evaluation, and by writers to ask questions about the process.
#DVPit (Diverse Pitch) is a pitch event for diverse and marginalized writers.
#IWSGPIT (Insecure Writers Support Group Pitch) is not an event I’ve done, but it sounds like I should.
#NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is an annual no-prize contest where writers all try to write a novel from scratch in a month. Some award-winning novels have come out of this competition, so it’s definitely worth looking at. Note that this is not actually a Twitter event, but it’s a great place to learn about it.
#PBPitch (Picture Books Pitch) is an event for authors with #PictureBooks.
#PitDark (Dark Pitch) is an event for darker themed novels, not just #Horror.
#PitMad is a Twitter event put on by the people who run #PitchWars (see below) as a quick way to find interested agents, but here are also many other “pits” including #SFFPit (Science Fiction Pitch) sponsored or organized by others. I participated recently and noted some of the more retweeted tweets here. More retweets are meant to make you more evident to agents, but it’s not clear there is a direct correspondence. Example pitch:
BREAKING BAD + GOLDEN GIRLS
After binge watching shows like The Wire & Breaking Bad, a 70 year old grandmother decides to try to enter into the world of illegal drug sales with the help of some friends at her senior citizens home and her tech-savvy granddaughter.#PitMad#BVM
#PitchWars (Pitch Wars) is a recurring event where authors compete (in a friendly way) for mentorship by successful writers, editors and others. I’m trying this for my first time this year. The same team puts on #PitMad. Here was something I put together while getting ready for Pitch Wars this year using this tag.
I put this together for my use in #PitchWars 2020, for adult mentors only (Mentors x Genres), so if you find it useful, great. If not, great. Good luck to everyone!https://t.co/c2enfKlK8J
#RevPit (Revise & Resubmit) was apparently created by a group of editors to facilitate editing-focused assistance to writers. The site Revise & Resub also sponsors related events where you can win feedback on full manuscripts, which sounds amazing. And there’s an Annual Contest. I’ve not used this tag or done the contest(s), so I can’t speak to efficacy, but it sounds cool. Also not sure how this works with or overlaps #AskEditor–but I assume the latter is less formally “managed” by the RevPit editing team.
#SFFPit(Science Fiction & Fantasy Pitch) is an event much like #PitMad, but focused exclusively on #SFF pitches. Participation in 2020 was far lower than in #PitMad, but it’s probably worth doing both if applicable. Here’s a pitch that was well received:
TheHazelWoodxNinthHouse When Morghan finds a magic cult whose rebel leader claims to have info about her missing dad, she must decide whether leaving behind her family and betraying the girl she likes to become a rebel is worth learning the truth. #YA#BVM#SFFpit#CF#LGBT
— shelly page ✨ Preorder CHARMED (@shelly_p_writes) July 29, 2020
#WMPitch is an agent pitching event for children’s fiction writers put on by WriteMentor. The 2020 event took place on Sep. 24th.
General Writing & Community Resources
#Authors is an alternative to #Writers (and presumably other related creatives) that seems to be used less frequently.
#MustRead. Hey, sometimes you get tired of writing.
#ScreenWriting is for screenwriters, who go through entirely different writing and marketing workflows.
#WiP (Work in Progress) is for discussion of what you’re working on, including challenges and triumphs.
#WordCount is pretty specific and low-traffic, but if you really want to find information about ideal word counts for your book, you’ll find plenty to talk about. To save you time, if you have to use this hashtag, you probably need to trim your manuscript.
#WritersLift (<100/hr) is essentially a request for more followers and is generally sent to the Writing Community to help build your base on Twitter. This is an interesting social feature for new users, but I’m not certain how or if it translates to more active engagement of success in competitions, marketing etc. Regardless, there are hundreds of such tweets daily and it’s something worth trying when you first join Twitter or want to build your writing-related audience.
#WritersTips nominally offers tips to writers, but in my recent experience has seemed a bit spammy. If I’m looking for tips or to post them, I’ll usually go to #WritingTips instead, but I have no idea if this is a best practice or how others use both hashtags.
#Writing (>525/hr) is about…writing. Be funny it wasn’t at all. I’m assuming there is massive overlap with #WritingCommunity.
#WritingCommunity (>500/hr) is a great way to share and gather information from other writers. Here, for instance, is one of my tweets to the community. While I don’t have many followers, it still got some traffic and response. Now that I know this hashtag is used far more than #WritersCommunity, I’ll stop using the latter tag.
What do you wish you had more of as a writer, or what should be more available to all writers? PLEASE comment with details. Thank you. #WritingCommunity#Authors#WritersCommunity
#WritingPrompt for those looking for a little help with inspiration.
#WritingTipshas some great advice for writers. Tip to myself: Work on your #WIP!
Twitter Hashtags for Writers by Genre
Yeah, there are a lot of these. This is not all of them. If I missed yours, it’s not personal, but feel free to let me know in the comments below. I’ve covered the top ten genres in fiction (Sorry, non-fiction writers!), and other random stuff.
#A (Adult) is one many hashtags that are obviously ambiguous. While #A used in a #WritersCommunity post along with #SF might clearly indicate tweet about adult science fiction, it can also mean blood-type, etc., in other contexts. So, be sure to add other hashtags when using tiny little tags like this one.
Action-Adventure is often grouped for agent and sales purposes.
#Adventure, because life is too short for the alternative.
#ChickLit is (often?) a more light-hearted sub-genre of #Women’sFiction.
#ChildrensFiction is for those younger than #MG. The readers, not the authors.
#ChristianSuspenseis presumably not what Christ’s followers felt while waiting outside the cave. Just kidding. I assume there are sub-genres like this for many belief systems and theologies.
#CommercialFiction is nominally plot vs. character driven, in contract to #LiteraryFiction. See also #UpmarketFiction.
#DarkFantasy is one I’m afraid to click on. I assume this is a great sub-genre tag, but it also feels like typing “Dark Fantasy” on Google while hoping to avoid BDSM or goth porn. #NSFW?
#FairyTale can only be used if you pay the troll a tole.
#Fantasyseems pretty obvious, but context is key that that key is probably guarded by a dragon.
#Fiction covers everything except #NonFiction…or does it?
#KidLit (Literature for Kids) is (I believe) the same as #ChildrensFiction.
#LitFict (Literary Fiction) or #LiteraryFiction is the character-driven partner of plot-driven #CommercialFiction and co-parent to their #UpmarketFiction lovechild.
#MagicalRealism, where the mystery is if it’s realistic for me to write in this genre.
#MG (Middle Grade) comes between #ChidrensFiction (#KidLit) and #YA.
#Mysteryis probably not too hard to figure out, but I’m not sure if #Mysteries will yield better results. It’s a mystery.
#NA (New Adult) does not usually mean “Not Applicable,” but I suppose it could in other contexts. So, be careful or maybe use #NewAdult? Best choice will depend on when and how it’s used. Pitch Wars, for instance, uses #NA for brevity.
#PB (Picture Books) barbecue if a picture is worth a thousand words, a book of pictures is worth a gazillion. See also #PictureBooks.
#Romanceis a huge genre. Huge! But also tender and kind. See also #RomCom.
#SF (Science Fiction) refers to #ScienceFiction but also means San Francisco, among other things, and is generally used during #PitchWars and similar events were brevity is key and characters are precious. Otherwise, it’s probably better to use #SciFi.
#SFF (Science Fiction and Fantasy) is for when you want to reach a larger audience than just #Fantasy or #ScienceFiction, but smaller than #Speculative. I think.
#Speculativein this context means (I think) #SF + #Fantasy + #Horror, but probably means both more and less than that depending how it’s used. Also refers to the current stock market and political future of the USA.
#UpmarketFiction is anything with the plot-drive of #CommercialFiction and the style or character development of #LiteraryFiction.
#WomensFictionis generally the category encompassing #ChickLit and several other sub-genres, and is massive in scope and reach.
#YA (Young Adult) or #YoungAdult, one of the top age-based genres in #Fiction.
Hashtags by Service or Platform
I’m not going to list anything here, as they’re generally obvious, but if you want to publish or learn about (say) the SmashWords e-book platform, there’s a tag for that: #SmashWords. This can be very helpful when finding out how other writers like things like Query Tracker, etc., without using the @ format that directly links to the company or site’s profile.
#WritersCafe is one you’ll see quite frequently, referring to WritersCafe.org, an online writing community portal and resource.
More Information?
If you’d like to add or correct something here, please just let me know in the comments. Thank you!
This is just a quick reference for Pitch Wars 2020 writers looking for adult (category) mentors. There are so many great mentors that it can take a lot of time to find those interested in your genre. I put this together for the adult mentors only, while looking for science fiction as a genre; however, I’ve included all genres mentioned by the mentor on their linked mentor pages. If it’s in all-caps or oddly formatted, that’s how it was on the source page (and has no other meaning).
If this is helpful, great, but PLEASE VERIFY EVERYTHING HERE before submitting anything. And if you find this sort of list objectionable for some reason, feel free to pretend it doesn’t exist. Nothing to see here.
UPDDATE (9/15): The people at Pitch Wars kindly put mentors by genre into a searchable spreadsheet here.
Pitch Wars 2020 Mentors (Adults & NA)
All information here comes from the Pitch Wars 2020 wishlist page and linked mentor pages. Any errors of translation or transmission are mine. Note that I have NOT included any Mentor information on genre specifics, including sub-genres, etc., so you’ll have to read it all anyway (some of it is included if it was hard to break out). If I was confused or unsure on correct genres, this is indicated with an “(*)” and is just due to my poor reading comprehension.
Sci-fi, romance, horror, thrillers, paranormal, adventure stories like something similar to Tomb Raider or Black Sails, and anything to do with Search and Rescue
Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, Alternative History, Fantasy, Paranormal; Contemporary (aka Urban) or Lighthearted Fantasy, Space Opera, “Soft” Science Fiction, Science Fiction with a touch of romance, Retellings, General Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Contemporary Romance
I love all flavours of sci-fi, from sprawling space opera and galactic intrigue to small, intimate narratives that take place on a single ship. I like alternate universes and parallel worlds, and science-fantasy crossovers that explore the coexistence of technology and magic.
So possible fit, but the two fight scenes might be a bit violent? Not sure yet. Need to do more research.
I want the science to be vaguely plausible. I’m not one of those people who forgets the “fi” in sci-fi and will present you with equations explaining why your premise is impossible (for a start, I can barely add up using a calculator) but I want some kind of basis behind it. For example, even though Michael Crichton’s JURASSIC PARK couldn’t actually be done with current tech, he gave a good enough explanation for how it happened in the book. That’s all I need.
Seems like a good possible fit, esp. since Jurassic Park involved genetic engineering. But no love for dystopian things. Not sure if my novel is that, but it’s not utopian. Asked this question on Twitter, and Anna seemed fine with Gatacca, so close enough. Also asked about the light animal-related violence in the book, but as Anna like’s Jurassic Park, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Seems like cool possible mentor. Gwynne’s comments on Sci-Fi:
“I’m only interested in soft science fiction. I want to be more (or at least equally) swept away by the story than by the science in it. I don’t necessarily need to know the whys and hows, only that the technology works and makes sense within the scope of the story. I’m a big Star Trek fan and have been all my life, so things on that level, where the focus is less on the precise temperature required to sustain the warp core and more on “seek out new life, new civilizations, boldly go” will appeal to me. Don’t get me wrong–I love it when people geek out about science! I do it myself all the time. But when it gets too technical, I lose interest. I’m also a big fan of fun and light-hearted science fiction where the reader can go along for a fast-paced ride. So…less doom-and-gloom apocalypse, more “Yeah, Mr. White! Yeah, science!”
But in her No categories, G. includes, “No 9/11 stories, tragic pandemic stories, or stories that are politically-based.” My book has strong political elements, so I’m not sure about G. as a mentor.
We’re especially excited for Military SF, Space Opera, space travel, and distant future stories. We’re also receptive to Science Fantasy with original concepts. We’re okay with some near future SF, especially if it has exceptionally unique elements or an interesting/original take on artificial intelligence; and some cyber punk. We’re not particularly excited about dystopian, climate SF, Superheroes, or near future SF beyond that mentioned above
Well, hmm. Among the books one or both of them like are: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Martha Wells’s Murderbot, This is How you Lose the Time War, Exhalation by Ted Chiang, Recursion by Blake Crouch–which includes genetic, near-future, and sarcasm…so maybe a good fit? After talking on Twitter (is that really talking), Michael mentioned that, “I think near future with genetics is in our maybe range. Not something I’d jump at, but not something I’d immediately toss either.” Which sounds like I’d be unlikely to be selected. Darn.
I’m looking for all your sci-fi. I love it. I read it. I devour it. That being said what I would really love to see in my inbox is a story similar to Fringe. To give you a sense of my tastes, here are some sci-fi novels I adore: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (omg, I was lucky to have read this), Expeditionary Force series, Ghost in the Shell, The Martian (read it 5 times), Annihilation, Planetside, Seveneves and Gideon the 9th.
I like Paris’ taste in books, but wish I had more information. To the Twitter!
Sci-fi: Both hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi; Space Operas; Stories featuring robots/AI either as the main character or a very strong secondary/supporting character; Near-future settings; Time travel; Quiet stories with small casts or non-world changing stakes; Environmental/Climate change/Clifi/Biopunk–however you want to call it, I want to see it; Cyberpunk or it’s opposite, hopepunk. I will also include vaporwave inspired stories within these; Sci-fi with romantic subplots, but if it requires a good understanding of Romance genre beats it’s not for me.
All of this seems aligned with my novel, though she does say she’s not into sports (my book involves a running competition). On Twitter, says this not an issue. Great that she’s also a sci-fi writer. Maybe next time.
Not sure of the fit here. I think she’s primarily looking for not me (white cis male) as an author, so I just may not be someone she wants to mentor. Which is fine. My novel also doesn’t necessarily fit in her sweet spot:
Science Fiction (with or without a romance subplot) in a dystopia or space setting. See TV shows Sense8, The 100, 3%, Travelers, Dark Matter, The OA, Altered Carbon. See Marie Lu’s Warcross, Cindy Pon’s Want.
She’s a great contemporary romance author, but that doesn’t match my genre. So, probably not the best fit.
Overall sounds like a good possible fit. Her book on Amazon. More research needed, but personality-wise, I’m leaning toward yes.
Novels aimed at adults that fall into the science fiction and fantasy category. Though I’m a big fan of YA, your novel should be geared towards adults and deal with adult-age topics.
That’s me so far. Her references were also interesting. I liked This is How You Lose the Time War, for instance, and there is similar snark in my book. So…
My all time favorite Adult SFF books are NEVERNIGHT (Jay Kristoff), THE POPPY WAR (R.F. Kuang), CITY OF BRASS (S.A. Chakraborty), THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS (N.K. Jemisin), A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN (Sarah J. Maas), and HOUSE OF BLOOD AND EARTH (Sarah J. Mass’ new Crescent City series book).
Which I’ll have to research more as I haven’t read most of them. In addition, she says she’s a fan of:
I’m a sucker for good warring/ fighting/ stabby scenes, and all of the books above have this too.
Which I’ve got, but:
With that being said, if the romance doesn’t end in a Happily Ever After or Happy For Now, then it isn’t for me.
What if the romance ends in a, “We’ll have to see in the next book?” state? Hmm. Seems like a really good match other than that.
In science fiction, we are looking for the softer side of things. We want space opera, near future, cyberpunk. We love tech, but we care less about the nitty gritty of how it works, and more about what the tech says about us as people and as a society. We are not the best fit for hard or military scifi. Recent favorites include: GIDEON THE NINTH, DOCILE, VICIOUS/VENGEFUL.
In sci-fi, seems open to any sub-genre, with some preferences. These closely match much of what’s in the book I plant to submit:
Feminist/female-led (especially in male-dominated subgenres like cyberpunk and military). Nuanced antiheroes and antagonists on the moral fence—crush the good vs bad dichotomy in SFF. Oh yeah. An internal struggle as big as external ones. Give me a deep dive into the psychology of “normal people”. Avant garde voice/POV/concept. Exploration of the post-human: give me the cyborgs, augments, mutants, AI, aliens, robots, human Transformers??? But not in a war against the humans that ends up making the humans look great because they have a heart etc. Characters with quirky hobbies.
Engineers, so I can live out the life I never did. Rich world building that I can see on the page but doesn’t overload the page. Bonus points for everything that’s shiny in your manuscript. Double if colourful.
But not looking for, “Setups of oppression.” I’m not sure what this means, but my book specifically deals with caste and oppression. I asked question on Twitter by referencing Gatacca, which was received positively, so now a definite maybe.
In sci-fi, he seems more space oriented than my near future plot, but we read all the same books:
I’m accepting all subgenres of science fiction; near-future and space opera especially. I’m a sucker for “grounded” science fiction, which I define as consisting of technology that “could” exist in the next 100 years. After finishing high school, I desperately wanted to become an astrophysicist like Brian Greene, Brian Cox, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I was obsessed with space and the regular existential crises that followed. I love thinking about humanity’s place among the stars (i.e. THE EXPANSE series by James S.A. Corey or THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir scratches this itch very well), and that’s because it makes me optimistic about where we as a species might go. If you have a story like this, I’m all for it. I’ll absolutely still accept other subgenres of science fiction, though. RED RISING by Pierce Brown and THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by Ursula Le Guin are two of my favorite books and they’re far from grounded.
Doesn’t hurt that he’s a “fitness nut,” but he’ll probably go for space stories first.
(They/Them): Sci-fi interests include a lot of space elements (not my sweet spot), but also others:
In the SCIENCE FICTION corner, I’m especially up for THINGS IN SPACE. That could cover space opera, military SF, soft science fiction, hard science fiction… As long as that delicious dose of character is there, I’m all for it. I just really dig stories that take place in space and on spaceships. I’m a sucker for space fighter pilots à la Battlestar Galactica or Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward (not technically in space, but close enough). I also like to sink my teeth into more expansive military sci-fi along the lines of Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. That’s not to say that I’m not also up for planetside sci-fi. Whether it’s near-future, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk or any other type of -punk, I’m here for it. Again, character is top of the list for me, so I’m not too concerned by the subgenre label. Earth-based SF I’ve enjoyed recently includes: Rosewater by Tade Thompson, Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller and Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. I’m overly enthusiastic for stories featuring ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, robots and especially sentient spaceships. Things like Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell, and the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks are all right up my alley, as is the aforementioned Battlestar Galactica and the general concept of Westworld.
The ethical and thematic concepts of Westworld are a possible match. Helps that they like, “humour, wit, snark and sarcasm”and “dubious protagonists and relatable villains.” Seems to like similar tropes. I may be more plot and less character than they like, but not 100% sure on that.
Sci-fi seems lower on the list for Maria, but interests include:
I’m mostly interested in softer SF that uses tech/science to look at human and social issues rather than hard SF or space opera. The more techie/space-oriented it is, the less likely I’ll be able to help. If your story could be a Black Mirror episode or flips the world order on its head like The Power, please send it my way. This includes dystopias and alternate histories.
All of which is a good fit, but more research needed. Seems like a great potential mentor given additional comments on Twitter, but seems to skew toward fantasy. I’m guessing Maria will end up with three fantasy / non-SF selections and maybe one SF. Just not sure I’d make the SF cut, so still not sure.
Space Opera, “Soft” Science Fiction, and Science Fiction with a touch of romance. I want to explore the universe with a motley crew, see alien planets, and maybe not necessarily get involved in a galactic war. I don’t mind romance thrown into the mix, but it shouldn’t be overwhelming.
Probably more interested in things in space, so, maybe not the best fit? So hard to tell. Seems more interested in fantasy.
They have many great ones. Not my category of writing, though. Go here for information on the Pitch Wars site.
Is this information endorsed by Pitch Wars?
Nope. In fact, when I asked about this on Twitter they cautioned me as follows. So caveat emptor.
Hi Shawn! We see these every year… and every single year they have incorrect information in them. We strongly recommend doing your own research with the wish lists!
