Approximately every 365 days there falls a date celebrated for many things, but in my household principally as the anniversary of my birth. Yes, you have anticipated me: it was my birthday.
As is delightfully customary, I was showered with gifts, chief among them a tome that has, quite simply, changed my life.
How to Sharpen Pencils, by David Rees (henceforth referred to as “The Master”) sets out in clear and pellucid prose the principles and practices of that once-exalted, now sadly under-appreciated craft, the sharpening of pencils. He includes a complete theoretical underpinning, and much sage and practical advice to the novice, not omitting (which gladdened my swordsmanly heart) a thorough warm-up. Because, let us face this truth unstintingly, pencil sharpening is primarily a physical craft, to be mastered before approaching the metaphysical sharpening of graphite encased in fragrant cedar.
The Master is clearly a man of surpassing patience and precision, but he does not neglect the aesthetics of his art: interleaved throughout this meisterwerk are “Reveries”, miniature photographic essays of appreciation for early mechanical pencil sharpening devices. These are included, I think, to raise the reader to a state of consciousness better suited to a deeper appreciation of the perfection that is tantalisingly visible in the crafting of a pencil point, yet will ever elude us.
Just as perfection must ever elude the author of any book. I might point out that The Master, whose veneration of accuracy verges on (but never quite o’ersteps the bounds of) pedantry, would under no circumstances have written “site” for “sight”, as appears on page 96. I suspect some publisher’s minion, jealous of an attainment that will forever be beyond their grasp, of deliberately inserting this homophonous error. Perhaps the same saboteur that misleadingly and entirely erroneously placed this book in the “Humor” category. (I apologise most profusely to my readership for the appalling lack of a ‘u’ in Humor, here. I am quoting directly from the back cover of the book and cannot be held responsible.)
Yet there remains one baffling omission: nowhere does The Master address the pressing issue of pocket-sharpener maintenance, other than simple cleaning of the egress slot. It is surely necessary to, as occasion demands, remove the blade with a small screwdriver (of a type common to jewellers and electricians), and polish the flat of it on a suitable whetstone, re-shape the bevel on same, and return it to the sharpener body, being careful to replace the screw snugly to prevent it falling out, thus freeing the blade with potentially serious consequences, but not so snugly as to render future removal for re-sharpening unnecessarily laborious. This simple process can in many cases transform a lacklustre sharpener.
Here, I also must point out that in my time as a cabinet-maker, I was wont to sharpen pencils with a very sharp chisel, and for the finest point, a small hand plane. This is, I admit perhaps beyond the scope of the specialist pencil sharpening professional, but I would, if pressed, be willing to demonstrate these techniques for the edification and delight of fellow enthusiasts.
Neither of these lacunae are sufficiently serious to detract from the overwhelming excellence of this book; I mention them in the spirit of the ambitious pursuit of perfection that so imbues this work.
This book is not just for Christmas: it is, like puppies, for life.
Amazon gets the middle finger
If you use Amazon (and most people do), then you may have noticed that they have changed the “Also Boughts” section on the product pages. It used to be a pretty reliable way of seeing what other people, who like the same things you do, have found interesting enough to buy. It also worked as free advertising for the producers of those things. Recently, Amazon decided it wanted a bigger chunk of the online advertising business (currently dominated by Google and Facebook), and got rid of the “Also Boughts”, replacing that section with paid adverts. This is worse for you (the recommendations aren’t ‘natural’- they are chosen for you by whoever is willing to pay the most for your attention) and much worse for all writers: most authors are reporting earnings drops of between 30 and 40%. I’m not down that badly, but it’s still a very noticeable drop in revenue.
This is annoying. I thought it might help matters to get some more reviews, so I just sent this request to my email list.
In my opinion it is unethical to offer incentives for reviews. How can other readers be sure that the review is genuine, if you’ve been paid for it in some way by the author? So I have a simple favour to ask. If you have read any of my books and not yet left a review, I would be very grateful if you would do so. You can find all of my books on my Amazon Author Page. If you’d be so kind as to click on that link, find the books of mine that you’ve read, and spend a couple of minutes rating them and writing a review, it would help enormously. Reviews sell books, and the more books I sell, the more people get a good start in historical swordsmanship, and the more money I have for research trips, writing time, and so on. It’s a win-win.
But that got me thinking. Why, if Amazon clearly doesn’t give a toss about me or my work, should I be sending them all this traffic? So then I looked into possible alternatives. It turns out that the print on demand service, IngramSpark, that I use for almost all my books, has a direct webshop facility. At the moment it is only available to US residents (damn it), but I have thrown one together at great speed, which has all of my books that I have distribution rights to, as well as a bunch of others that I have read and enjoyed or found useful (or both).
I need to add a lot more books to it, of course- is there anything you think I’ve missed? I’ve got books on woodwork, and fiction, and HMA resources. Unfortunately a lot of great books are published using other POD and distribution systems (eg I can’t add books by Freelance, which would include my own Dagger book, as well as a bunch more really good titles), but the Ingram catalogue runs to the millions of titles.
And I need to add proper product descriptions and such like. This is very much an early-days work in progress, and I’ll put more effort into it if you all think it’s a good idea. And even more if Ingram get off their US-centric behinds and open it up to the rest of the world’s readers.
Let me know in the comments or by email…
Rapier Workbook #1 print-at-home files now free or pay what you want
Volume 2 of the new Rapier Workbook series is back from layout, and looking pretty spiffy. It will be going to the printers next week. Huzzah!
Volume 2 won’t be so useful if you don’t already have volume 1. You can get beautifully printed copies from the distributor here, or buy the print files to have printed locally or print them at home. I’ve set the pricing for the print files to “Pay what you want“. You can have them for free, or you can pay a million dollars for them (go on, I dare you), or anything in between. Just put the number in the price box, and that’s what you pay.
You might think I’m mad for doing that, but here’s my reasoning:
1) My readers are honest. If they say they can’t afford the book, then they can’t. But it costs me nothing to allow them to download it anyway, and that way they will get better at swordsmanship, which is the point of writing this book in the first place. Win-win.
2) My readers are generous when they can be. Some people will pay *more* than the suggested price, because they want to support my work.
3) Printing books at home is ok, but professional printing is usually much better. So some people will download the files for free, and then decide they can’t live another day without the printed version.
4) This is the first book in a series. If you like the workbook format, and like my writing and teaching style, you’re likely to go buy volume 2 when it comes out. Then volume 3, and 4.
So, not mad at all, I think!
Editing woes
Good writing advice often includes ‘get rid of all unnecessary words’. The awesome Zinsser says as much in his must-read On Writing Well, and he’s right. But one can go too far.
Why is it that editors these days, especially the ones that live in your own head, want to pare everything down to the barest possible minimum? Imagine this:
“A rippling shade of spotted fur prowled across the Throne Room floor, towards where the Maharajah was ensconced in royal splendour. A fat, slack-jawed man, with the petulance that comes from having every whim obeyed since birth, and the ruthlessness needed to get and keep a throne in these troubled times. The leopard padded silently to her accustomed place. No bare stone floor for this pampered favourite, no. A dozen artisans had slaved a year to make the carpet that she would lie on. A delicate pattern, pleasing to man and the Gods, woven in silken reds and blues. Arriving, the leopard, muscles undulating under the glossy pelt, turned around once, twice, and then settled her haunches down. Head high, she surveyed the room, the courtiers and servants, silks and cottons, all falling beneath her gaze. The light streaming in from the high filigreed windows caught at a jewel on her collar, any one of which could grace a crown.”
If we follow that advice to the letter, we would end up with this:
The cat sat on the mat.
Really. Pare everything away, and you end up with what, exactly? A shopping list? An email to someone you don’t like enough to describe stuff to?
Call me prolix if you will, overblown even, but really, people don’t go visit the Louvre for its pared-back modern architecture. They go for the bling.
Progress Report
I’m back from an excellent trip to the USA, to speak at the Hero Round Table conference in Michigan. I’ll write up that event properly when they have uploaded my talk to Youtube; the whole thing was live-streamed, so you may have seen it already.
I don’t dare watch it.
This weekend I’m dashing off again, to Ireland, to attend the ISHC event near Shannon. The event page is Facebook only, so apologies for my FB-free readers.
I’m cracking on with editing volume 2 of my new Rapier Workbook series. The videos are now all edited, done and dusted, and I’m about to send the text off to the editor.
I ran a poll, as you may recall, to find out what my readers actually want: the choice was: pay extra for good printing and more expensive shipping, pay less for cheaper printing and distribution, or buy the print files. Here’s how that worked out:
I’ll be very interested to see whether 55% of sales are actually for the print files. There’s usually quite a lot of discrepancy between what people *say* they want and what they’ll actually buy. (And that’s fine, normal, I do it too.)
Volume 1 is available to buy in best-print-damn-the-shipping from here
And if you prefer to print it yourself, you can buy the print files from here.
See you in Ireland?
Rapier Beginners Workbook is now in print!
I received the print proof of the new rapier workbook, and it looks great. The paper quality is much better than at Lulu (the other printing option), and the printing itself is excellent. I have put in the order for a limited print run, which will be distributed by Fallen Rook Press. That’s for the Right-Handed version only; there was a slight issue with the Left-Handed cover file, so that will come about a week later, all being well. You can still pre-order the left-handed version, of course.
For my long-distance readers, what makes most sense to you:
- Paying the horrid shipping costs to get the ‘proper’ version of the book
- Sacrificing some print quality for cheaper distribution (eg through Lulu)
- Buying the print files to print at home or locally (so you would be able to order whatever kind of paper, binding etc. that you want).
I’ve put together a Google form so you can tell me… I’m planning to do 3 anyway, but I need to know whether 2 is worth the extra costs to me (Lulu’s margins are terrible, and the lower-quality printing might be disappointing to some readers).
Please share the form with anyone you think might want the workbook!
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