Adam Webster's Blog

After having been thrust into the roles as Alphas in their 30’s and be the leaders of the pack of Werewolves, Adam and Brook are having to learn the skills needed the hard way and very young. For most Alphas who were in their second or third century, someone in their early 30s being the Alpha is like having a 10-year-old run a company! Are they able to deal with the trials ahead as they set up a brand-new pack, deal with the Alphas who think they are too young to lead a Pack, and to implement Adam’s project of a global network for Weres to communicate securely, where they don’t need to worry about being found by humans?

Links to the retail pages can be accessed on the Good Reads Page

There are several issues with AI generated content.

Copyright laws are complex:It was done, so that the creator could have time to monetize the content they had made through being the exclusive means to get the content, for a period. After which, society at large could use the content without issue.In an attempt to keep more out of the public domain, over the last few decades, it had gone from 25 years from creation, to now being until 75 years after the death of the creator.There are several exceptions for “Fair Use” of copyrighted content which do not require a license from the copyright holder. (Not going to list them here)Only content made by a human is able to be copyrighted. If an animal makes it, or there is no real interaction which makes it (i.e. surveillance camera feed), there is no copyright.The content which was used to fill the dataset used by the generator usually is not shared by the large corporation which makes it. As such, most people believe it contains copyrighted material, which they didn’t have a license to use it.The generator is then used to make content in the same media as the source content (i.e. pictures used to make pictures, stories used to make stories, etc.), and at times it looks similar to the original content.The generated content, as it looks similar, could be competing directly with the original content, which goes against the original spirit of the laws.

So when using it, the issue can be:

Am I taking money away from someone who now won’t be paid at all for their content, which I am using?Am I fine with the content not having a copyright available, meaning others could use it too, without me being compensated?Does it have an ethical issue I am willing to deal with?

With this, many readers are not willing to support someone who is making the issue, as they don’t think it’s ethical to use AI generated covers, and definitely not using AI to make content.

For me & my published books:

The photos I have used for my published books are all photos I have taken myself. This is for the fact I control the copyright and can reproduce them however I want.I have used internet photos for the covers when on Wattpad, but have worked to try to track down the copyright firstI did use a photo from another photographer for Wolf Tech 5, but had an agreement with them to use it, and if I used it on the published version, there would be compensation and a separate agreement.I have used Adobe’s AI generator for editing the background in my cover photos a couple of times. Instead of needing to spend 6-10+ hours using the cloning or other editor tools to slowly adjust the image to remove an unwanted element, I used the generator and it takes me under a minute. As the basic image is one I did take, which has a copyright, so far, doing a minor change is still copyright-able.I have posted the original and the finished cover to my Flickr account.I do not use any AI generator for content creation of the content.I have not used any external editor for doing corrections. I use Microsoft Word 365 for writing. I find the predictive typing is more of a distraction than anything, so have disabled it, and just use the spelling/grammar check.

For me & fun:

Images:I have used online AI art generators (Note: I do not call them photographs)I have used offline AI art generators on my own PCIf I ever share what was generated, I mention it is AI generated.If I could afford to hire an artist to make me art (especially of my Fursona), I would, and would be much more proud of it. I have had some art made, but not anything recently.Stories:Would I use it to generate a story or creative content like that? Unlikely.Other Uses:I am not a programmer, and all that I know of programming is self-taught. I did have a class on C, and on Perl. From both, I don’t have much of an understanding on how to have things happen.I know some SQL, but not enough to do complex joins or work.I have used ChatGPT to help me create a program. I can do the front-end design to be functional for a windows VB.net program, but not for the back-end linking to SQL.When working on it, I tell it specifically what I am wanting to do for a specific task (i.e. from a MDI parent, to have it go through the children and update the displayed data from the database. It generated a template for me to put in each form to trigger the update, and how the parent finds and calls the child form(s).)I still have to think of, work it out, test, and often debug what it gives me. I have enough knowledge, that at times, I have changed the code, or given it further directions of what I want to do.

I will be doing other posts about AI use later. Feel free to use the RSS for the AI Usage if you want to monitor.

I have received the proof copies of the latest in my series.

Wolf Tech 2: Finding Their Place in paperback and Wolf Tech 3: The Alphas have arrived to me. Finding no issues, I have ordered a case of each for Author Copies for sale.

They are also releasing globally for sale on December 10th (along with the eBook of Wolf Tech 3).

I wanted to let everyone know that my book was selected for the Furry Book Month bundle!

If anyone was looking for more reading material and hadn’t bought the book, or know anyone who wants some.

It is a Pay What You Can, and starts at $6. The money is split between the guild and the authors, so I do receive some money, and you receive 5 novels!

https://furrywritersguild.gumroad.com/l/FurryBookMonthBundle

I am actually selling books at a reasonable rate, for a Self-Published Author, and one for one which has not been in print for even a year.

I have 12 countries on 4 continents: South Africa, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada, United States.

The only annoying thing… is Amazon sales do not list a country, so all of them show as US, so I have no idea if any of the sales are actually elsewhere. So far, I have not seen any way to get this information.

I am still showing sluggish sales numbers for book 2, but it may be because the book released only on May 28th, so early sales may be in June, and have not shown up yet. Book one to two is at 3:1 sales.

I am having more buy eBooks to Physical, at about 4:3, with most of the physical books being hard cover, too.

Today is the release day for the second book in my series in Hardcover and eBook. I hope everyone enjoys the hard work I have done to the book to get it ready for everyone.

Please also consider giving a review, even if it’s just “Good Story” or something like that.

You can also chat with me on facebook!

The second book of the the Wolf Tech series is finally being published! Yes, it’s a bit late, as I had extra editing done to get it ready.

Hard Cover and eBook version for Wolf Tech 2: Finding Their Place are being published May 28, 2024!

A new edition of my first story is being released as a paperback version in 2 weeks (March 12, 2024), globally! You should be able to find it at your local book seller or ask for it to be ordered.

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I have been contacted by several different people about “publishing” using their services. So far only one has turned out to not be a scam.

None have included any sort of marketing, and instead mostly are expecting me to do so on my own.

The latest one from “A&D Entertainment” talked about being “simultaneously published to our partners” which had a list of 4 sites, but also ‘to name a few’. It then talked about paywalls, but doesn’t give any specific values. Then have the ‘offers’ of ‘Feature Priority’ from their partnership, ‘Comics Adaptation’, that I would retain copyright, Amazon KDP “When your book reaches a certain level of readers, we can talk about publishing your book in Amazon”, and 50% profit share.

Looking at the ‘partner’ sites, one I could see was from China, and the others all had privacy locks on the Whois domain data (which tells you who owns the domain, what the IP of the host, email server, etc), so could not see any details on them.

Copyright of items is not protected in China, as they have very lax enforcement of other country’s copywrites. That is why there is a great many counterfeit products found. I have heard of major manufacturing companies having them produce machinery, and then suddenly there is a cheaper Chinese version of it.

The fact they are not providing a full list of their ‘partners’ where it will be released makes it much more suspect, and not a company I really want to deal with.

I found this: https://writerbeware.blog/2023/01/20/... and that just makes it even more so not someone I want to deal with. They saw most of the issues. The one they don’t touch on… is while all the profits are shared 50/50, the liability is all to the ‘Party A’ (i.e. the author).

The biggest red flag, to me, is that their email was from a gmail not their own domain name. Since they have a website, there is almost always included email hosting with the web hosting, and if not, even gmail has fairly cheap email hosting, if you have a domain name! Most scammers do not use their domain, as they don’t want it to get hit with a mail blacklist or be flagged as spam. They hide behind something like gmail, and if it gets blocked or flagged, they just change to another address.

I am seeing several ratings on various sites. So far all are ★★★★★ (5 star) ratings! Thanks for that!

Amazon: Seeing stock at amazon warehouses, so may be able to have it shipped right away (Thanks for everyone who has purchased, it seems it was enough they are stocking it for more orders!)7 ★★★★★ (5 star) ratings!2 Reviews for my book!I am seeing other “sellers” saying they are carrying the book, but as they are having negative reviews, they may just be scammers. Make sure the book is coming from and sold by Amazon, not another name (Under the book price, can select other edition, which is Amazon)Chapters/Indigo:They are showing the book, and finally the cover for order.They do not appear to have stock, but do ship directly to your address for free.Not showing any ratings or reviewsBarns & Noble:They appear to now have stock of the book, as delivery dates are only 2 days.Not showing any ratings or reviewsRakuten Kobo:1 ★★★★★ (5 star) rating with a review!Good Reads:3 ★★★★★ (5 star) ratings!1 review for my book!I have seen orders for my book from the US, Australia, and Germany, with 20 copies from my printer of the physical book.I do not yet have any numbers for the eBook sales (seems is only given once a month).Other places I have found to have my book:Saxo (Danish website)Wook (Portugal)Booktopia (Australia) — seems to give a Kobo versionScribdApple iBook

If you know of any other places which are retailing my book, please let me know (Comment here, or other places)