Maxwell Alexander Drake's Blog

My eldest son can now boast that he knocked his ole man out, giving me a nasty concussion in the process. Now, it’s not as malicious as it sounds. We were playing flag football. We were both on defense, and went after the same ball. The people on the sidelines said the collision was thunderous.
I remember the splash of lights from the hit, but I know I was out for at least a second after, for I don’t remember hitting the ground. Just staring up at the night’s sky as it spun out of control, then a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds surrounded my son and I.
He, somehow, left the field pretty much O.K. I, however, have had an interesting two days.
First, I know that concussions are nothing to trifle with. People die from them. I get it. But I also know there is very little to do about them – well, save splitting your skull open to relieve the pressure if things take a turn for the worse.
While I had a massive headache and some dizziness, I was not feeling nauseous, nor was I slurring my words or any of the other bad symptoms from a concussion. So, for better or worse, I opted out of a 3 hour wait at an emergency room and just went home. I will admit that first night was rough emotionally. Not because most people who die form a concussion die in their sleep. I mean, I can’t think of a better way to expire than to drift off slowly into a permanent state of unconsciousness. No, my biggest anxiety was that if I died, my poor 11-year-old son would have to live the rest of his life with the guilt that he, while totally by accident, killed his father. And Freudianism aside, that would such. But the dizziness woke me often through the night. So while I got little sleep, I was reassured each time that I still drew breathe.
The most interesting thing to me was the experience itself. This was not my first concussion – I was a very rumbly-tumbly young man. But it was my first in decades. And the most interesting thing to me about this experience was that next day. I was acutely and consciously aware that my brain was slower than normal. Meaning, the voice in my head, the voice that is me, the voice that is my inner thoughts and understanding and processing abilities – that voice was working fine. But when I was talking to someone else, I could not get my brain to keep up with that inner voice. I could “see” (if that is the right term to use here) how slow I was conversing. All the additional pauses my body took trying to get my mouth to complete a sentence that my inner voice had already articulated.
It was very disconcerting, and gave me a strange insight into a world I had never before been. I found myself wondering if this is how people like Stephen Hawking feels – that his inner voice is running at an amazing clip, and the frustration he must feel that the shell that surrounds him will not keep up.
Last night I slept much better, and outside of being lightheaded and having a minor headache, I feel pretty good today. I’m still going to take the day off. Just writing this was more taxing than it should have been.

I meet a lot of writers during my travels around the country
teaching at fan events and writers’ conferences. And one thing always sticks
out to me. How do so many people believe that they will write one book, sell
it, and make a million bucks?

I just do not understand this mentality. It is a very rare
thing for someone to sell their first book. Or their second. Or even their
fifth. Writing is a skill, and as with all skills, it takes time to learn the
craft and hone your abilities. Stephen King started writing in 1959 but did not
even get his first short story published until 1965. He didn’t sell a novel
until 1973.

As a football guy, I think of it this way. Say you are an
eight year old, 3rd grade football player. And say you are the BEST
eight year old, 3rd grade football player in all the world. No other
eight year olds can compete with you. Do you think you can make it in the NFL?
No, you would be crushed… mostly because you’re eight. But also because while
you may have skills, they pale in comparison to those men who have spent their
lives honing their craft.

Writing is the same. When you write your first book, you are
in 3rd grade. Perhaps you take some giant leaps forward with your
second, and you are now in the 6th grade. That still doesn’t make you
a professional. You have tons to learn. Your third may get you all the way to
high school, and your fourth into college. Even still, you are probably not
ready for the pros.

So, writing your first book is awesome. It is a great
learning experience, and will serve you well. But, once it is done, move on.
Start something new. Grow, learn, experience. This is a journey, and that first
novel of yours, it’s just an overnight stay on that journey.

O.K., probably not the best
translation of Shakespeare. Still, it’s accurate. I write all day (if I’m lucky
and something else does not pull me away from the written word), and then I'm
expected to write more to tell the world that I’m alive, that I’m doing fine,
that I achieved something today? How is that fair? How is that just? This is
the reason most plumber's homes have leaky pipes… they fix pipes all day! When
they are off work, they want to relax with something that is not work.

At least, that's been my
justification for the past few years. But now I have a wonderful PR person,
Robin, who is buzzing in my ear, “Blog post. Blog post! BLOG POST!!!”

And if she wasn’t right, I'd
just ignore her.

But she is right, so I need to blog.
To tell the world that I'm alive. That I'm doing fine. That I achieved
something today.

So, while it may be sporadic in the
beginning, check back here from time to time. I'm going to make the commitment
to jot a few things down when I can.

To stop the buzzing in my ear, if nothing else.

Drake

While my previous post helps me sleep at night with the knowledge that my products are being stolen, do not take my acceptance on this topic as my approval of it.
I feel the big issue is that people are simply justifying the topic of piracy. Some like to say, "Piracy has always been around, that people used to record music off the radio with cassette tapes." Sure, you are right. But show me one person back in the 80s who could get 50 GB of music (12,500 songs or over 600 hours of music) nearly instantly off the radio? There were none. Back then, it was less work to purchase it legally. Now, that is swapped. It is MUCH easier to pirate something that to purchase it.
Some say, "Well, I will pirate it first, and if I like it purchase it." I call BS! The fact is you and I both know that once they get it in their grubby little hands they will never actually pay for it. Why should they? They already own it!
But the biggest problem is, our society doesn't see this issue as a moral dilemma any longer.
Would you break into an old woman's house and steal her Social Security money that she lives on? Would you stab a single father who is working to put food on the table for his children in the gut with a knife just to take the little bit of money he has in his pocket? Would you shoot a gas station clerk in the face for the $183.72 cents in his register? A normal person would say, "No, of course not."
BUT PIRATING DIGITAL PROPERTY IS THE SAME THING!
You are STEALING something that belongs to someone else. You are taking something that someone has put effort into, in the hopes of making a living, and giving them nothing in return. You are using others for your own personal gain, without giving anything of value in return. There is no difference.
Creators work hard for what we produce. For me, months and months, thousands of hours of labor, go into a product. And to have someone steal it is to have them say, "I plan on enjoying this product, use it to enrich my life, but I feel your time spent working on this is worth zero, nothing, zip." It is basically them telling me that, while they will get pleasure out of my labor, I can go blow. They have no issues with stabbing me in the gut and leaving me to die in the dirty streets provided it means they can have whatever I happen to be carrying at the time.
It also leads to further issues. The fact is, that if I (or any artist) can't make a living at entertaining people, we will stop. I, like most of the world, MUST pay my bills. I MUST purchase food and clothes for my children. I MUST make a living. If I can't do that with the written word, I MUST do that another way.
So, the slippery slope we find ourselves in is this: piracy, since those who do it justify what they do, is growing. More and more people who do not see themselves as THIEVES are becoming thieves without the moral hit. As this continues to grow, the pool of people who are willing to purchase products legally will shrink.
This means there will be less legitimate sales for all. This means that many good artists (art, music, books, whatever - I am lumping them all in here) will be forced to leave their industry to pursue a living elsewhere. This means that eventually the only fiction books you will have will be fan fic. Enjoy that!
The other thing that REALLY PISSES me off about this is that there are people making MILLIONS from pirating. Not the people who pirate themselves, but the sites that host the torrent links sell hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising - and their product is FREE to them. Others post the torrent links and "seed" the files. They have no costs, and make millions off my hard work.
So, sorry if this sounds like I am coming down hard. I just feel that if our society does not start lifting each other up, and start telling our friends how morally wrong it is to pirate digital material, that in the years to come our entertainment will be crap.
Drake

The topic of pirated, or stolen, digital books and audio books comes up often when I am chatting with other authors. Everyone has an opinion about this topic, though all agree it sucks.
Here's my 2-cents. It may make you feel better, it may make you hate me. We shall see.
In the beginning, I struggled with piracy, as I should think every author in today's world does. Any way you slice it, it sucks, and for a multitude of reasons. It sucks to pour your soul into a product for months, only to have someone steal it. It sucks to feel like they are taking food right out of your family's mouths.
However....
There are several facts I have come to understand about Internet thieves. First and foremost, (and the topic of this post) the vast majority of the people who steal ebooks (or music, games, movies, tv) will not be purchasing your product anyway. I think it boils down to just a few reasons: they have no disposable income, they justify it saying it is a victimless crime, they see no value in what I do for a living, or they feel I must be so rich that I will never miss this one sale. These reasons will never go away. But the fact remains that I believe these people would have never been my customers anyway. So, while it sucks, I don't feel it is money out of my pocket. Not all of them, mind you. Some most definitely are lost sales. But, in my humble opinion, only a very small margin. If I was to guess, less than 5%. The rest were never going to buy.
My hope is that those who steal my products like it enough to become a fan, and then either support me by purchasing a legal copy (unlikely) or by telling their friends about me (plausible).
So, while you could call it the price of doing business in today's digital age, I call it the price of doing marketing in today's digital age.
There are a huge amount (millions upon millions) of readers who would never dream of stealing books. They can simply read only so many books a year, however. Our goal (and the reason authors are so competitive with each other) is to collect as many of them as we can into our fan base.
Hope this helps.
Drake

Facebook, Twitter, My Space, Alive not Dead, Linkedin, BLOGS!... and the list goes on. Social marketing is a two-edged sword. Sure, it is wonderful for interacting with fans, both current and potential. But it all sucks time away from what I do for a living - write.
So, where is the happy medium? I have no friggin' clue.
Up to this point, I have simply ignored the blog. It is just easier to spend my time working, as opposed to putting my opinions down is some digital diary. But I know that is not the way of the world.
So, while I will probably fail miserably, I will attempt to be more diligent in remembering to post something here. Only time will tell if I succeed or fail.
Drake

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.

So, meat and potatoes – meat and potatoes. The wait is over. Let's get down to brass tacks. (I am sure if I work at it I could come up with a few more cliché's.)

 

If you have been keeping score you will remember that the biggest reason why manuscripts are rejected by the industry is that they just are not publishable by the standards of today. But what are those standards?

 

If you have done even a small amount of homework, you have no doubt been given a laundry list of writing rules. Those...

So, great, write every day, be confident that I can become published and be confident that my story is one that will entertain others. So…?

 

Still don't know where to start, huh?

 

Well, I am assuming that that is why you are here. Reading anything and everything you can get your hands on that may help you cut through all the malarkey that you have heard about what the correct way to write is and how if you do it that other way you will never get published.

 

So, before I get to all that...

So, great, write every day, be confident that I can become published and be confident that my story is one that will entertain others. So…?

 

Still don't know where to start, huh?

 

Well, I am assuming that that is why you are here. Reading anything and everything you can get your hands on that may help you cut through all the malarkey that you have heard about what the correct way to write is and how if you do it that other way you will never get published.

 

So, before I get to all that...