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41
Publisher's Office [Public] / Alliance of Independent Authors & Ingram Benefit
« Last post by alhawke on April 10, 2025, 12:28:32 AM »
For those who are members of Alliance of Independent Authors, do you know if there is still a discount given for Ingram formatting? And how many books are allowed with that discount? Without it, Ingram charges $25 per book alteration.
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It amuses me that it requires a Stanford Psychologist to apparently discover this through an exhaustive study when all that was needed was to buy me (or any other author/musician) a pint of beer at the pub and ask.
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Fantasy Newsletter Builder @ StoryOrigin
April 15 - May 17

https://storyoriginapp.com/bundles/02d868fa-04da-11f0-9a6b-9b04c08bd65a/info

This is for all subgenres paranormal, and fantasy except erotica. No nekkid man chests for this one. All mailing list sizes welcome, but I do expect you to share with your list.
44
Editors & Proofreaders [Public] / Re: Get On The Write Track With Held Editing!
« Last post by Tony 63 on April 07, 2025, 02:16:11 PM »
Hello April! I currently have openings from now through June.
45
Bar & Grill [Public] / Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Last post by LilyBLily on April 07, 2025, 12:07:04 PM »
Lovely photos.

All the ornamental fruit trees opened up at once where I was visiting in northern Virginia this weekend and the cars in the parking lot were covered in visible yellow pollen. Meanwhile, I was sneezing my head off.
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Yep.

The same concepts apply to branding.

We can use the concept of breaking out (an unexpected novelty success) as the birth of the brand, that is, this is the point where the artist's earlier variety is replaced by focused novelty (one lane).

They then continue to offer the thing that they are known for (relatedness/deep mining) to build success.

And then, once they (the brand) has become successful enough, they can try new things - a return to novelty (known as extending the life cycle). However, often these new ideas are successful, not because of anything specific to this new novelty, but because the brand itself has achieved critical mass - most anything they do will be well received, generally speaking.

We can use Johnny Cash's version of Hurt as an example. I would argue this song's success is attributable to Cash's performance vis a vis his legacy - something quite unique, but deeply anchored in the artist's brand (authenticity and vulnerability), which makes the performance extremely familiar even though the song itself may not be (relatedness adjacent).


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A Stanford Psychologist Says He's Cracked the Code of One-Hit Wonders
By Derek Thompson  The Atlantic  April 17, 2022

"...For decades, psychologists have puzzled over the ingredients of creative popularity by studying music, because the medium offers literally millions of data points....Stanford psychologist Justin Berg...compiled a data set of more than 3 million songs released from 1959 to 2010 and pulled out the biggest hits. He used an algorithm...to measure the songs' sonic features...This allowed him to quantify how similar a given hit is to the contemporary popular-music landscape (which he calls "novelty"), and the musical diversity of an artist's body of work ("variety").

"Novelty is a double-edged sword....Being very different from the mainstream is really, really bad for your likelihood of initially making a hit when you?re not well known. But once you have a hit, novelty suddenly becomes a huge asset that is likely to sustain your success." Mass audiences are drawn to what's familiar, but they become loyal to what?s consistently distinct....

"Berg's research also found that musical variety (as opposed to novelty) was useful for artists [to find a niche] before they broke out. But down the line, variety wasn't very useful, possibly because audience expectations are set by initial hits...[But] the difference between one-hit wonders and hitmakers isn't just novelty; it's also focus, or what Berg called "relatedness." Hot streaks require creative people to mine deeply when they find something that works for them."

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/04/shania-twain-creativity-one-hit-wonder/629569/
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Editors & Proofreaders [Public] / Proofreading & copy editing - now booking for May
« Last post by Alexa on April 06, 2025, 03:43:08 AM »
Still booking for May!
49
Bar & Grill [Public] / Re: The Garden Thread that two people wanted
« Last post by Jeff Tanyard on April 05, 2025, 03:37:06 PM »
Here's some current flower pics for y'all.  All pics taken in the afternoon of April 4th.

Azalea:





Black Cherry:





Bearded Iris:





Dogwood:





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