Page 38 | MediocreMan

Podcast Dreams · 22 July 2023

I have thought about having a podcast. You know. Another something of mine out there that people will not tune into.

I wrote about having serial blog posts on a past blog post. Tune in next time… It was a silly thought really. I mean writing a blog that has a continuing story line? Or thought line? I am happy when I just get any coherent thought out there. Much less one story that moves into another.

However, I think it would be plausible to have a podcast that does that. Maybe. At least more plausible than having episodic blog posts.

But seriously, I have thought about having a podcast. Serious thoughts. I thought a podcast would be a good format for me to read my books. After all, the chapters in pretty much all of my books are about 1000 words or less. Sure, some chapters have more words, but by and large they are short. Short enough to read in twenty minutes or so. Which would be great for a podcast. At least in my mind. After all, that is about the length of my commute, so why not have a podcast that others could listen to on their commutes.

Of course, having a podcast seems to indicate that you have an audience. And I am not sure that I have that much of an audience. Or at least I do not know that I would have a podcast audience. I suppose I would have real and imaginary listeners, just like I have real and imaginary readers.

But I suppose that having podcast dreams is kinda like having pipe dreams. You know. The ones that just get flushed down the toilet. You think you want them to happen, but they never do. Pipe dreams.

I still might investigate it though. After all, if people actually read my books, some people might actually listen to them too. But who knows. Maybe reading and listening do not go hand in hand. And maybe I have less to say than I have to write. (Which, according to some people, is not much.)

We shall see. When it comes down to it, I need to figure out whether I really have the capacity to take on anything else. Probably not. I cannot just keep doing a shoddy job at all of the things I do now, and then take on something else to do a poor job at too.

Ah well.

In the end, I think podcasting is just a thought. A thought about something new to do that nobody will pay any attention to.

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Price Check · 15 July 2023

(#ad) click

I decided to change the prices on my books. All in one fell swoop.

I am all for doing research. The problem is that I often do the research after the fact. After I need to understand Christian apologetics. After I write a book about D.B. Cooper. After I price said book about D.B. Cooper. Actually, I did the research about D.B. Cooper long before I wrote it. I was almost obsessed with the Cooper hijacking. But then again, I was not even a teenager when it happened, and when I was obsessed.

At any rate, I actually do research when called for. At least a little bit.

So the story about research began when I made a bunch of my books into print books last December. I was trying to be clever when I said in the “also by” (or whatever I called it) page that the books I was creating on that day or the next were still digital only. I should have just said that all the ones I was turning into print books were print books. I just thought it would be fun to be like the big publishing houses and say that the books later in the series were still just digital only. Which is a fix that I was trying to make the other day when things went awry. (Which is a totally different story.) Okay. The start of the story is really not about research at all, but I like it so I am not going to cut it out.

Well the next part of the research story is that I priced my books according to a single article that I read. It said that paperbacks ought to be between $12.99 and $19.99. Or something like that. I remember the $12.99 because it was what I settled on. I would go for the low range from that one article.

I did make a couple sales. A couple as in two. It might have been three, but I think it was two. Woo hoo! I had some book sales. I figured a couple months with a book sale here and a book sale there and I could be like Old MacDonald. A book sale here and a book sale there. Here a sale. There a sale. Everywhere a sale sale. Old MacDonald had a bookstore. E I E I O.

Well, those couple sales were just a trickle that turned into a stoppage. Ah well. I figured I would just let things lie. Who knows. Maybe somebody will write a review and somebody else would buy a book.

To make a short story a little longer, I decided to think about book sales. Just a little. Which is when I did a little more research.

#ad

Turns out that middle grade fiction is not exactly like paperbacks. And it turns out that maybe price mattes when it comes to length of books. Well, I did not read tons of research on the subject, and I might need to do even more research, but I decided that I would lower the prices on my books. Just a couple bucks. I figured it could not hurt. After all, nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Just like the song says.

So all of my print books are currently $9.99. Except for one. That one is $5.99 (The Worst Ad Campaign). That book is basically as low of a price as I can make it. I just want church planters to have a good laugh and some foundational thoughts as well.

Anyway. You can check out all of my books (as in see what I did, not as in check out in a library, which is a different research project) on my Amazon page. You can get any or all of my print or digital (or both) books. Just click now.

Anyway. I just thought that people might be interested to know two things. One, I do a little research. And two, I have a bunch of books out there for sale. (Oh yeah. This is one of my marketing pieces for said books.)

If I was to do it all over again, I would not change a thing. Not because I think I am that great. Just because that is who I am. I do the research when I absolutely need to do it. And not a moment earlier. Whether that research is about Christian apologetics, story, or price. By the way… Did I mention that I lowered the price on my books?

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Word Choice or Choice Words · 8 July 2023

Choose your words wisely.

English is a funny language. English teachers talk about word choice. They say that word choice matters. If you choose one word, you sound funny. If you choose another word that means the same thing (a synonym), you sound serious. If you choose still another word (again a synonym), you sound like some computer who is trying to imitate you. (Oops. Sorry about that. I was just worrying that ChatGPT might replace me. Which is a completely different story. One I already wrote, by the way.)

I personally try to choose words that I can understand. Which makes sense. After all, I want to be able to understand what I wrote. Even if I do not remember what I wrote. (Which is a completely different story. Which I also may have written, but I forget.) But that is not quite the point I was going to make today.

My friend Mike (called R by many people who are not me (which is another story (yes, already written))) and I were talking the other day about words. In fact, he was the one who said that word choice would be a good topic to write about. We were talking about pain and shingles and aging and the like. The conversation went something like the following:

I said something.
Then Mike said, “That would not be my word choice.”
I replied, “You would normally have some choice words to add to that.”
Mike did this thing with his hands that he does when he has a great idea. Then, he said, “That’s it. Word choice and choice words. You should write about that.”
“Hmm,” I mused. “Maybe I will.”

Well, here I am. Writing about word choice. The thing is that choice words are the funnier topic.

Now, if you are an English language learner, you might not recognize the subtlety between word choice and choice words. The difference is that word choice is just that. Word choice. Choosing words. But choice words is another story. Choice words is an idiom.

Idioms are not always what they seem (even for native speakers). They are social constructs that may or may not mean just what the words say. They change over time too. Or at least they can. And idioms in any language are tough to understand for just those reasons. You need to speak the language long enough to start to understand the nuances of idioms. Confused enough yet? Sorry about that.

As I said, “choice words” is an idiom that often means swear words. (If I did not say it, I meant to say it, but I do not want to go back and say it.) Choice words of anger or frustration or just foul words that come out of your mouth for no reason at all. Choice words could also just be ranting about something. But the main thing is that choice words are usually not words that you would choose to use in polite company. In polite company, choice words are a poor word choice. (How is that for word choice?)

Well, I do not know that choice words and word choice are truly interesting topics, but Mike thought they could be. And since I agreed with him and wrote this, maybe you will agree too. If not, that is okay. Chalk it down to another foray into the minds of MediocreMan and his friends.

By the way, I hope that it is not a poor word choice to say that I only have two real readers and the rest are imaginary. It is just one of my literary devices. For those real readers out there who are not the two that I often refer to, I just hope that you do not have choice words for me when I use that particular word choice about my readership.