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Politics are usually not part of this forum by mutual choice, but I think an exception should be made to let you know what Congressman Keith Ellison is up to recently that affects authors.

Who is U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison? By my last recollection he is one of two Muslim Congressmen and is known to be quite the activist in defending his religion with his platform as a Congressman. For example, he once publicly proclaimed that the reason Thomas Jefferson got a hold of a translated Quran was because he admired Islam. If you know who created the U.S. Marines and what their first mission was, you will know how much of a falsehood his comment was. It is like saying that McDonald's was from the beginning intended to be a vegetarian restaurant under Ray Kroc.

Moving on, Ellison, a former follower (at least he claims he no longer follows Ferrakan) of Louis Ferrakan, has made a move to apply censorship to certain authors on Amazon. Bear in mind, Amazon in conjunction with Barnes & Nobles are a virtual monopoly on book circulation. If you were to be banned from those entities, virtually no one could see your books.

Here's his letter to Bezos where he is attempting to get the first domino to fall:

July 17, 2018

Jeffrey P. Bezos
CEO
Amazon, Inc.
410 Terry Avenue
North Seattle, Washington 98109

Dear Mr. Bezos:

I am writing to you with my concerns about the amount of money Amazon has made from the sale of literature and music published by entities identified as “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). I would like to know whether Amazon is committed to ceasing the sale of all products that promote hateful and racist ideologies. For a company with a policy prohibiting the sale of “products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views,” there appear to be a disturbing number of groups with hateful, racist, and violent agendas making money using Amazon’s platform.

Since the election of Donald Trump, hate groups have been on the rise, and racist violence has swelled in this country. The increase in political organizing around hateful ideologies like white nationalism has provided a growing base of support for racist policies like the Muslim ban, and the “zero tolerance” immigration policies that have driven family separation. Over the last decade, hate groups have used Amazon to fund their activities and spread their ideologies. Historically, Amazon has not responded effectively to this issue, and continues to allow hate groups and SPLC-identified neo-nazis and white nationalist writers to make money using its platform.

According to a recent report entitled Delivering Hate by the Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), available online at https://bit.ly/2tX37yK as of June 2018, Amazon has been selling baby onesies, toys, children’s Halloween costumes, flags, clothing, and jewelry emblazoned with nazi, neo-nazi, white nationalist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and violent, racist imagery. I am disturbed that Amazon would make racist and hateful products for children available on its platform.

Further, there appears to be a staggering amount of neo-nazi and white nationalist propaganda available for sale on Amazon, both in e-book and print format. For example, five volumes of the Occidental Quarterly, a racist journal edited by SPLC-identified neo-nazi Kevin MacDonald, remain for sale on Amazon. Your company states that it takes 30-65% of revenue from all Kindle e-book sales. Amazon also takes 40% of revenue from the sale of physical books published by its CreateSpace self-publishing platform. I am alarmed that hate groups can make money by selling propaganda on Amazon, and that Amazon is able to profit from these transactions.

As stated earlier, Amazon has a strict policy against hateful and racist products on its platform. The availability of all the material listed in the aforementioned report indicates to me that either Amazon is willfully refusing to enforce its own policies against the sale of racist products, or its sheer size makes it impossible for the company to police itself. In either event, Amazon must immediately cease doing business with groups that promote racist violence. To better understand how hateful propaganda makes its way to be sold on Amazon, and how your company plans to correct this problem, I seek the following information:

1. How much money has Kindle Direct Publishing made from the sale of materials published by SPLC-identified hate groups since 2015?
a. How much money has Amazon made from the sale of SPLC-identified hate groups via its CreateSpace self-publishing service since 2015?
2. How much money has Amazon made from the sale of SPLC-identified hate music, since 2015?
3. How does Amazon enforce its policies against the sale of racist and hateful items?
4. Will Amazon destroy any merchandise with hate symbols currently in Amazon-controlled warehouses within the next three months?
5. Will Amazon stop publishing physical and digital materials from SPLC-identified hate groups in the next three months?

I respectfully request answers to my questions by July 31, 2018.

Sincerely,
Keith Ellison
Member of Congress

You will see that he is targeting neo-nazis and how can that be a bad thing, right? Well, the SPLC is an organization that began with good intentions and did good work on behalf of civil rights, but that was a long time ago. In recent years, they have morphed into an organization that is mostly political in nature. They will mix conservative groups in with known hate groups on their list so as to splash dirty water from one to another. I would find it equally distasteful if they did that to liberal groups that aren't advocating for harmful changes like Antifa does.

Notice in Ellison's letter he mentions briefly the Muslim issue. This is his real goal as he is frequently crusading against any perceived bias of Islam. By the way, whenever a follower of Islam mentions racism, they are actually insulting your intelligence. How? Religions aren't races. Islam in particular has all kinds of different ethnicities belonging to it across the world. The co-founder of CAIR (Council of American-Islam Relations) is a blond-haired, blue-eyed white guy who converted to Islam and changed his name to Ibrahim Hooper.

Ultimately, Ellison wants to position himself as the decider for Amazon on which authors and what subjects are deemed hateful. You can bet that will most certainly be any author who writes a novel where Muslims appear and are the bad guys >> *looks at Randy*, *waves good-bye to Tom Clancy's novels*, *watches while Ellison burns Cobber's book to Ferenheit 451 degrees (pun intended)*.

Many of you already know this isn't an original tactic Ellison is using. First you tie a proclaimed witch to a stake, then you begin picking out the witch's *conspirators* to burn as well. Even if it turns out to be a black magic witch, who cares as long as you can burn the opposition along the way.

What will Bezos, Mr. Amazon, decide? That will be the question coming soon, and it will have a profound effect on authors across the board should he make a mistake here. For authors and books - let the public decide what will sell or not.

Congratulations! I thought DA was well done and the plot drew the different factions closer together in a compelling way as the novel progressed. Of course, the surprise twists were memorable like how the leader of the Al-Shabaab company not only turned out to be looking to do his fellows in for revenge, but he had a damn good reason to do so. The ending was done well too.

NJC has finally tripped himself up. He's inadvertently revealed on the general forum that he's been stockpiling publishing points by using a time lapse for reviewing. This means whatever precious time all of use to review for points, he can do the same or better in a leisurely manner since time moves slower for him than us. Stockpiling points in a carefree manner while we earn them with blood, sweat, and tears -- how shameful!

Remember, NJC has a well established background in various sciences, so constructing a time lapse device should be achievable. Funding? He probably laughs when he sees Alkemi's pen name since he's already perfected his own transformation process of turning lead to gold.

What can we do about this? I believe many philosophers in the past have struggled with the same dilemma. Fairness and righteousness and kindness are all out the window when faced with an overwhelming power like this.

Although this nefarious fellow has indicated his time lapse is a bit in excess of 30 days, I suspect he can extend the differential by several months or years for that matter. Thus, it would not be surprising to find that he's lived for decades and is only now approaching his late teens ... unless he's not really flesh and blood at all.

Perhaps he is an extraterrestrial bot with advanced AI capabilities. After all, you know I suspect most of you are bots simply claiming to be humans (it's a conspiracy I tell you). Yes, you want to ask how do you know I'm not a bot? Of course, you are programmed to ask that as a means of throwing us poor, dumb humans off your trail. Well, consider my rough drafts. With all the highlighting plastered all over them, it's clearly written by one of those poor, dumb humans and not an advanced bot.

How to make the drone work for you! --

Erik Lewis stormed out of his house, enough was enough. "Damn you and that buzzing drone! It's always circling my house and peeping inside my windows!" His face turned red with anger. "I can't even stop worrying over being peeped at during my cuddle time with the wife."

The woman holding the remote control smirked at him. "It's not 'you', my name is Carol Whittiker, try not to forget it."

Erik was a big man at 6'5", and right now he towered over the diminutive lady. "I'd like to forget you ever existed, but you aren't making that possible, Ms. Busybody."

This time around, her smirk was even more obvious. "Did you call the police?"

"That was the first thing I tried. They say you can't be touched because you're in the common area of our HOA community."

She shook her head. "That's too bad. Well, they are here to serve and protect, just not you this time around."

"Is there anything that can get you stop your drone invasion of my home?" he said in a despondent voice.

"I was just about to suggest a way out for you." She grinned at him like a Chesire cat, and he knew very well who the mouse was. "I've got a book on Amazon that's in need of a five star review."

His mouth fell open after hearing that. "You'll stoop to any low won't you?"

She pointed at the drone, still shrilling above them. "It's how high I'll stoop to you mean."

"Fine, I'll do it but the drone better go away. Why did you just have to pick on me?"

She wagged a finger at him. "Our HOA community has forty six homes so that's forty six reviews for me."

He stared at her in dismay. "It looks like Salem missed a few witches."

She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Don't forget to describe my book as amazing. You'll find it under the title of, The Friendly Neighbor."

I actually wish him well as he's trying to finish multiple books concurrently, I think.

The downside is he's subjecting the writers for review points to a loss from quality vs quantity. Because his high pace consumes a high amount of publishing points, he needs to go into a feeding frenzy for review points. This in turn forces him to not just cut corners if reviews were compared to a thorough in line review, but actually cut out whole sections of the hull before the boat is launched. I don't see him doing this as malicious or such, he's just boxed himself in by his pace so that these are speed skimming reviews out of necessity.

My first thought about what you mentioned regarding Don60 and his waiting for enough points to post his manuscript smacks me of the exact opposite. Someone who needs points but isn't ravaging through chapters for them. I would guess Don60 is likely doing more considerate reviews, else he would be raining down review points into his bucket as well.

Ultimately, it's true that the writer isn't suffering a loss because a skimmed review is still a commentary verses no review at all, in terms of existence rather than substance. However, I do recall one or more of you have posted on the premium forums complaints about speed by reviews in the past that said little to nothing and were just done for the points. If it looked like a duck, quacked like a duck, it was a dash and dine for review points.

I understand this but what Ariion has done (Oh, finally! All this for you to come to this point of yours here.) is expose a large flaw in TNBW site's points for review system. Let's say I decided to put on my *I'm going to Donkey Kong the rest of you for points hat* (couldn't resist as it's one of the only games I did well at in childhood). I could skip in line reviews and do regular reviews while accumulating tons of points by offering 10-15 line summaries of what the chapter was about and a single line of impression.

It also establishes your reputation in the writing community. For example, all of you are quite thorough and detailed in your analysis while wearing your reviewer hat. Because all of you have already established a reputation with many on this site as the kind that aren't going to try to speed through the golden arch drive through for your review lunch points, it can be said when you have little to highlight - it's simply because the writer made it that tough on you with a solidly written chapter. Contrary to this, a review from Ariion may see a day when writers won't even bother to reply back to him or read his review, knowing the kind of review that is waiting for them. Wow, I opened this box and found a smaller box inside ... when I opened the smaller box, uh, I found another box inside that one!

What SolN should do (should have done in the first place IMO) is add to the system the option for the writer to send points to the reviewer in addition to what they already earned from the review. Thus, if someone on a maddening pace, like Ariion, needs a frenzy of points, he can consider getting them through quality reviews where the writer is paying bonus points to him on top of what he got from the system. In addition, this can be used to promote the reputation of top reviewers on the site. Oh, look. I've got another dozen requests offering bonus points if I review these writers kind of thing.

This is actually not a new concept for a writing site. Originally, I was a member of 2 writing sites until I could decide which one I wanted to stick with (obviously TNBW got my vote). On the other site, they have a function where you can "send" a request and list the amount of points you are willing to pay to the reviewer. The reviewer then would look at your request, how much you are willing to pay in points, and send you back an acceptance or declination with a stated reason. This opened up quite an interesting world. You would need to offer more points for reviewers you knew others wanted and would have to *compete* with them. There was even a section listing reviewers by user ratings and turnaround time availability (the reviewer would keep this updated themselves and had the option of *shutting off* review requests as noted).

I once targeted a published author, who also moonlighted as a freelance editor, and found myself having to square off against dozens of others wanting her review services. I was subsequently out priced and had to request her at a later time.

SolN wouldn't have to run his system exactly the same way, but he could adapt some of those things to his current system and make it better. What happens if you don't have enough points to offer and are too low on points? Well, the other site also offered points for sale, so you would have to consider that if you needed points in a hurry and weren't good enough to attract a pool of review points from your reviewing ability.

Time put in is usually a good indicator of quality put in, don't you think? As I mentioned before, my current cover holder for WoP cost me $5.00 and took me 10 minutes to create on a DIY site. If CJ Driftwood made the cover and took one or more days, do you think there would be a qualitative difference? Haha, of course there would be

After 35 chapters my word count is just over 148k so that's very comparable to Game of Thrones book 1 and Eye of the World from the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series. If I can end at around 300k that would match those, and at 400k it matches Brandon Sanderson's first published novel, Elantris.

Dryster was the character always intended on bringing it all together for Talmas, though Silver could have done the same. The Ein and Mur concepts have been mentioned only in brief instances for Talmas and Olstas; the reader knows more about it than the characters given the prologue. So with Dryster at his side that will change once he is schooled by the venerable grandmaster. The problem will be I don't think there is anyway around being redundant with the prologue when Dryster teaches Talmas and Olstas about the Ein and Mur in the world. It's going to overlap.

Leira, the capital city of Euthenia where all this is currently taking place, is the next big event. The elven slaves have been sent there and the High King, along with a large number of Hidden Folk, are heading there for an accounting. By the time Talmas and company get there, the city will have already fallen or will be in the final stages of such. I want to avoid another 5 chapter of beginning to end city assault like Silverbranch, and it's not necessary to the plot for Leira to fall blow by blow.

The chapters have been divided in several places and the longest are now: 1 chapter at 9k, 2 chapters at 7k, and 2 chapters at 6k, with all the rest at between 3-5k. Although I'm not trying to copy Robert Jordan, these word counts are very similar to his Eye of the World novel. I didn't look at the word counts for Game of Thrones, but I think it's comparable there too.

I guess the main thing is to finish the novel, and then it will be easier to go back and see what changes need to be done, a lot like finishing a rough draft of a chapter.

Have I written it so far to where reading it causes one to be lost? So far, I haven't seen any comments saying that.

Anyways, I think the main motivational factors are pretty clear for the MC. So far, it's only been the *save the world* one aimed at him, but the other shoe will soon fall and that's vengeance. I like the advice K.M. Weiland offers in her how to books about giving your MC more than one main goal for the story.

The other thing I have to remember, which is true for all our novels either completed or in progress, is readers on this site aren't able or willing to read our novels all the way through like a normal reader would. A normal reader may take a week or so, but by reading from cover to cover without shifting around for long periods of time, they don't move off point for very long at all.

I'll definitely need to replace my cover with a professional one when that time comes. I don't want all my efforts to be mostly torpedoed because of a lackluster cover.

Alkemi, congratulations on your novel up on Amazon. I read the synopsis and it certainly comes across as intriguing. Mystery novels do well and have their own dedicated following of readers. It also helps you have several recommendations from other authors accompanying the publishing.

Although your actual name is available, I still prefer Alkemi on our forums as it gives that fantastical element like alchemist. There I go again with the fantasy slant haha. If only we could change lead into gold, cheaply mind you. I understand it can now be done with current technology, but the cost is exhorbitant.

Okay, no problem.

Randy recently asked what is going on with the new members. Well, I just got a review for my chapter 21 from said new member and I figured it was going to be a disaster before reading it--I was right. In fact, it was the worst review I've received since being on this site.

The new member at different points in different words commented on not understanding this or that. How could it be any other way? Let's all go to the movie but only watch from the middle to the end, okay?

I want reviews just as much as anyone else on this site, but I think I may need to enclose a disclaimer asking members not to review any chapters unless they've read the beginning ones. It just doesn't work out--ever.....

I'm in the process of scrubbing out of existence one of my characters--Paldara, so if you don't see her mentioned anymore that's why. I've always planned to introduce another love interest for my MC and there's just not enough room on stage for this many characters. Hence, the one with the least stage time must depart.

No need to ask if I noticed one of my characters ran away........

Reviewed NJC's Sorcerer's Progress, book 1, chapters 52-55......