February 2025 Links
The middle-class life, college and the ivy league, graphics in video games, and more. 8 links.
Self-publishing versus the traditional route. And the distinctions between fiction and non-fiction.
When you pitch a novel, the editors acquiring it care much less about your audience (newsletter, social media, etc.) than they do when you’re pitching a nonfiction book.
Obviously that’s idiotic. An author with even a 1,000 person email list could move significantly more books than an author with no email list. But novels are purchased by publishers more for the story, whereas nonfiction books are often purchased more for the author’s ability to sell them.
Is a middle-class lifestyle still possible for the upcoming generations? The article also goes into some of the shenanigans the government uses to cook inflation statistics.
And the numbers show that’s about 76% harder than it was a mere 23 years ago when I began my adult life.
What’s wrong with colleges and how to fix them. Make it sting.
The kids that make it to American campuses cannot read. Or won’t read. A long-time professor at Columbia says “students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester.” One student told him she was never required to read a book before getting to college. Not even one.
Hardly any of the kids who are at college belong there.