The Writer's Life 1/8 - Wins & Losses

There were eye-opening stats about the music industry in an article in today’s NY Post. Downloads of individual songs fell 12.5% in 2014. This isn’t surprising, as most people have probably caught up to digitalizing their most beloved older tracks. Album sales fell 11.2%. This isn’t surprising, either. No doubt most people simply pick and choose the tracks they prefer, in most cases two or three. The most surprising aspect of the business is the growth in vinyl sales, up for the ninth straight year, 51.8% in 2014. Why anyone would return to that delivery method is beyond me. Even if one has the acute hearing to detect superior sound, it’s only a matter of time before dust gets into the grooves and the snaps, crackles and pops appear. America’s sweetheart, Taylor Swift, had the most album sales, a staggering 3.7 million. The top single was Pharrell Williams’ Happy, which sold 6.45 million copies!

I had a chuckle while going through my email this morning. I have a new follower on Twitter - a PhD! I wondered why the heck she would latch onto the likes of me. Turns out she’s running a business, which offers advice and promotion to writers.

While reviewing my monthly statement from Schwab, I was seized by an impulse. Time Warner has peeled off at least three times in the past few years. I acquired it - or it acquired me - when the company purchased AOL, which I owned. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me in investing. TWX has since boomed. It set up a separate division of AOL, throwing me six shares, and recently branched off another way in TIME, in which I received nine shares. I sold those 15 shares, which brought in about $500. I'm so tempted to sell every stock I own, as I expect the bubble to soon burst. A friend already has. He's expecting total disaster, believing the collapse in the price of crude oil, a precise indicator of past crashes, justifies bailing out.

Since AuthorHouse has not met my request to offer Close to the Edge on Kindle, I decided to do it myself, so I went to Staples with the floppy disc on which my only file copy sits. I don't even know if it's a final draft. Unfortunately, it wasn't recognized by either of the machines the lady at the information desk tried. I wonder what will happen if I ask the publisher to send me a copy of the file they use to print books. My guess is there would be no response. I want to have something to do once I finish getting Rising Star ready for publication, as the punishing cold may sideline the floating book shop for a long time. The only other alternative would be re-typing the entire manuscript.

Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/rP7o9

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/