Worst work out session in the 4+ weeks I have been following SL. I got to the gym late, didn't make some guy was doing curls in the squat rack, so I took that time to try and stretch my shoulders. Been reading up on exercises to do, including the shoulder dislocators that Mehdi talks about. Spent about 10 minutes warming up and I was able to accomplish the dislocators without much trouble, just a slight bend in the right elbow. Unfortunately they were very painful to do. Make me wonder if I have another shoulder problem that prior to starting SL5x5.
With stretching out of the way, I did some back extensions before I headed to the squat rack. I did 8 warm up sets before getting to my work out weight of 120 lb on the squat. Even with an empty bar I was in excruciating pain. Not sure if this can be attributed to the stretching or not. I still had issues trying to get the proper grip and keep my hands, wrists and forearms in line.
I might have found a workable solution, maybe it's the right one, I am not sure. I was able to grip the with little use of the thumb and keep the forearms in line with the wrist. This was the first time in 4 weeks I have been able to do this. Unfortunately the shoulder pain made squats very difficult tonight. Couple that with some right knee (ACL reconstruction in 2009) pain coming from my patella tendon and I did not feel good lifting at all. Even tried to get into a 3rd world squat and could not get out of it with the aid of the floor or pulling myself up.
Thankfully there were no issues with the bench press as I looked forward to that while doing squats. After a quick warm up I was able to do my work out weight of 90 lbs. I decided to try 115, which also was accomplished. I bumped it up again to 135 lbs., which could equal my PR to date. Like last time I was able to get 3 reps at 135 lbs. before I racked the weight. One more rep might have been too much, but I do see progress on the bench being made.
The rows also came easy tonight. I know I struggled with these just last week, but it's my belief I was doing them incorrectly and rowing too high on my chest, instead of concentrating on hitting my xiphoid process, like on the bench press. If it were not for the continuing pain in my shoulders I would have bumped the weight up a few times and tried for a PR. I did not want to stay any longer than I had tonight, because the pain was really a downer during the entire time I was there.
I did spend 10 minutes doing dips, again unassisted this time and went with a 5×5. Only the last set got a big difficult, but I was able to get good extension in the dip and return to the starting position. It might be time to start looking at chins and pull ups being added.
Last great piece of news. Another SL Inner Circle user sent me a message. It seems we live about 10 minutes apart and he has offered to spend some time with me working on my form. That was the best news I came away with. I look forward to spending some time with him and getting some tips. Hopefully the pain I am having in my wrists and shoulders will be resolved with the help. Looking forward to meeting him.
Following one of the worst days I had in the gym, I returned loaded with advice and tips on how to improve the problems I have encountered. What were the odds of another forum member on the SL Inner Circle living near me? Small, but as luck would have it I met Martin and he invited to give me some advice on my squats. I drove to his place and after the formalities, he provided some good advice and watched me perform a few squats.
I took that information, as well as about 30-45 minutes of video I watch of Mark Rippetoe. Lots of information in my head, but I was able to sort it out and I believe I made real progress today as I set 9 PRs (personal records), 5 of them on the deadlift!
After my warm up sets for the squat I was ready to do my 5×5 at 125 lbs. I have continued to have wrist and shoulder pain when doing squats. With the information I gained, I widened my stance and angled my feet out more. I also used a thumbless grip, which allowed me to keep my wrists in line with my forearms and relieve some of the wrist pain I had encountered. The shoulders still hurt, but I believe that is purely a flexibility issue and the more I work my shoulder the less they will bother me. I felt good doing 125 lbs., so I bumped the weight up by 10 lbs to 135 lbs. I was able to do 3 squats at that weight and still felt like I could increase the weight a bit more. I added another 15 lbs. for 150 lbs. and accomplished 2 squats. It all felt good and I moved on feeling good about how I squatted.
I didn't warm up for the OHP (overhead press), but I had listened to a few words of wisdom from Rippetoe on the OHP. I was not doing it correctly and the bar was not moving straight up and back down. I did open my stance a bit and widen the grip a touch and kept the elbows vertical. Early last week I had struggled with 70 lbs. but today 75 lbs. was no problem. Again, hopefully it is the form that added to the success today. Then again, I think the day I did this last week was just an off day. Still much to learn about the OHP.
Much like the OHP, I spent even more time learning the deadlift from Rippetoe. He has an amazing amount of information that I was never aware of. So as I watched I tried to play back in my mind how I would perform the deadlift today at 130 lbs. Loaded the weight and the most notable change was the stance. I moved the stance so the bar was more over the middle of my foot, which required only a slight bend in the knees to have my shins touch the barbell. Even have the battle scars on my shins from barbell traveling up and down my shins and thighs.
I easily mastered 130 lbs. and decided to keep increasing the weight. I did 3 at 160 lbs, followed by 1 at 175 lbs., increased the weight again to 185 lbs and did one deadlift. My last lift would be 200 lbs. I loaded up the weight, took my stance and gripped the bar and made the pull. I was quite excited at what I had just accomplished!
Chances are I could have gone higher, but I still had further work to do, so I stopped. After I rested for a few minutes I did unassisted dips, 5×5 followed by 15 minutes of walking at 2.5 mph at a 15% incline. I left the gym pleased with this work out after a very disappoint work out on Monday. Still have more video to watch and I am looking to pick up Rippetoe's book, Starting Strength.
Another strong day in the gym. I believe the squats are getting easier as the weight continues to increase, thanks in part to the adjustments I made in my last trip to the gym. The stance is a bit wider and more open, allowing the knees to push out easier, feeling more natural. The grip is now thumbless, allowing my to keep my wrists and forearms straight and I have a slight lean forward. These factors helped me achieve a two new PRs on the squat today, as I was able to do my 5×5 at 130 lbs. followed by a 1RM of 150 lbs.
I thought about continuing to add 10 lbs. to the bar, but the pain in my shoulder is really taking a toll. It doesn't feel light tight muscles, but it might be tendonitis in the shoulder. It only hurt when I was squeeze my back together as I got under the bar. The actual exercise didn't cause problems, but was still sore doing squats.
I made further progress on my bench today. I added 5 PRs to the mix with a 1RM at 155 lbs! The work weight of 95 was easy to get through with no problems. After that weight I did 5 reps at 115 lbs., 3 reps at 135 lbs before 1RM at 145 lbs. 155 lbs. It felt good to see I could bench that much so soon. I don't ever recall a time I benched 155 lbs. Very good progress, but I can see I will start to have some struggles when I get to 135 lbs.
The rows were challenging. I was able to make it though all 5 sets with no problems. I believe my form to be adequate. I was going to watch some Rippetoe videos on the row before I left for the gym, but ran out of time. I feel as if my stance might be too far under the bar, but I did make it a point pull the shoulders and open the chest, while squeezing the shoulders together. That is where I hit a very sore spot. I believe it's the pull exercises that are causing the problems in the shoulder, most notable in the rows and the dips I did.
All in all a great way to end week 5 and look forward to the weekend off before coming back strong on Monday. If I cannot stretch this pain out of my shoulder the next few days using Pete Egoscue's book, Pain Free I might require a trip to the doctor. I don't want to jump the gun here, if it is just stiffness or soreness associated with lifting weights. I was fairly active before I started this program 5 weeks ago and there was still an underlying pain in my shoulder. So that leads me to believe there is something else wrong.


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Category Archives: Crowdfunding
The Peacekeepers is a Twisted Comic Book Love Letter to Crime Dramas
Posted on November 6, 2020 by Graphic Policy Team
Out now on Kickstarter, The Peacekeepers is a brooding and decidedly wicked crime drama that pulls no punches, that suffers no fools, that repeatedly gets knocked down, but always gets back up again with a smile. It's an utterly treacherous comic dance.
All hell breaks loose in quaint a northern Michigan community when a team of in-over-their- heads bank robbers kills a beloved Sheriff's Deputy. In a small town with BIG secrets, local detective Richard Holton races to peel back the layers of a depraved down-home conspiracy before the bungling Federal Agents assigned to the case send everyone involved to ground.
The Peacekeeper is by writer Rylend Grant, artist Davi Leon Dias, colorist Iwan Joko Triyono, and letterer HdE… the same twisted team that brought you 10 rip-roaring issues of Action Lab: Danger Zone's critically-lauded political action thriller Aberrant. That comic is being developed for television by 24 & Felicity Executive Producer Tony Krantz.
This isn't Grant's first Kickstarter campaign. He raised over $15,000 back in July with a high concept sci-fi thriller titled The Jump. This Kickstarter campaign has already passed its goal guaranteeing it will be funded. You can chip in $5 for PDFs of Grant's past work and $10 gets you the first two issues of The Peacekeepers. $20 will get you the print edition. Other pledges include variants, signed comics, original art, and more. The campaign ends on November 19.
Keep Track of 2021 with Sam Kieth's The Maxx
Clover Press has revealed an upcoming Kickstarter project featuring Sam Kieth's The Maxx, a 2021 calendar!
Each month has different Maxx cover with art by Sam Kieth. Calendars are 11 x 17 0-wire bound and can be ordered on Kickstarter Nov 9th.
Need a gift for that Maxx fan in your life? Well the calendars will be delivered in December!
You can sign up now and be alerted when the Kickstarter campaign goes live.
Enter the Fantasy World of Winds of Numa Sera
Posted on October 27, 2020 by Graphic Policy Team
In 2015, graphic novelist Morgan Rosenblum burst onto the sci-fi scene with a runaway success. His comic book debut, Treadwater Volume 1, delivered complex characters fighting an unwinnable battle in a pre-apocalyptic scenario. Then, in 2017, the long-anticipated Treadwater sequel was released to even greater acclaim, topping Diamond's 'Indie Bestseller' list and bringing sales to over 10,000 copies.
Now, Rosenblum is back, along with co-creator Jonny Handler, with Winds of Numa Sera, a medieval fantasy graphic novel series. The first volume in the series is currently on Kickstarter looking to raise $15,100. The campaign ends on November 23. The series features art by Eduardo Mello, color by Valentina Taddeo, lettering by Voodoo Bownz, character concept design by Andrea De Dominicis, environments/sigil/lore/logo design by Bark Bark Studio, and map design by Luigi Aime.
Winds of Numa Sera is set in an elaborate fantasy world, which features an expansive cast of multi-layered and, above-all, believable characters. As their disparate backgrounds and motivations put them on a collision course with one another, the protagonists of one story become the antagonists in another. This lends the readers deeper insight into each character as they watch their seemingly separate storylines slowly weave together into a large cohesive narrative.
It is said that truth is the first casualty of war and this holds true for the Empire of Numa Sera, whose glorious founding mythology is slowly peeled apart as the protagonists discover the truth behind the legends. The grand narrative plays out over multiple generations, in which villains become heroes, history is rewritten, the mundane becomes mythical and the truly legendary becomes mere superstition.
The tone of the novel strikes a unique balance between that of a lighthearted adventure story and a ruthlessly realistic political drama, which takes place in a world rich with fascinating lore. Confronted with violence, treachery and political intrigue, the charismatic heroes of Numa Sera do what they can to survive and succeed. As they continue on their journeys, long forgotten truths are rediscovered and ancient forces are reawakened.
Owing to the breadth of its story, the depth of its characters and the splendor of its lore, a graphic novel of this scope is necessarily an ambitious undertaking. Fortunately, the novel's illustrators, both of whom had worked for Marvel, do it complete justice. Finally, after several years of meticulous work, Rosenblum and Handler are ready to share their newest story.
You can get a PDF copy for $20 and a hard copy for $30. Other rewards include signed editions, collectors edition, and even being able to be drawn into the comic!
Where's the Beef? Aubrey Sitterson, Tyrell Cannon, Fico Ossio, and Taylor Esposito Bring the Leftist Superheroes Beef Bros to Kickstarter
Posted on October 27, 2020 by Brett
Writer Aubrey Sitterson, artist Tyrell Cannon, colorist Fico Ossio, and letterer Taylor Esposito are bringing the leftist superheroes, the Beef Bros to Kickstarter. The comic series has superheroes returning to their original origins as working-class champions moving away from the "supercops" they've become in recent decades.
Beef Bros is based on the idea that humanity works best when we work together, cooperation over competition. The self-contained 32-page, the full-color comic is about Huey and Ajax Beef, a pair of neighborhood heroes willing to brawl with sadistic police, cruel landlords, and predatory corporations not because of any complicated college-boy theorizing, but because helping people out is simply the right thing to do.
The gonzo, eye-popping story is a revolutionary leftist take on superheroes! It's everything we love about superheroes, wrestling, action movies, and beat 'em up video games, but with all of the mean-spirited, hateful politics and ideology stripped away and replaced with something kind, aspirational, and revolutionary.
The campaign runs until November 26 with a goal of $15,000. You can get a digital copy for $5, physical copy for $8. Further rewards include commissions, retailer levels, original art, and more.
Check out a preview of the issue below!
BEEFBROS_sample_lores
Just in Time for Halloween, Ghost Are People Too by Cartoonist Peter Ricq
Just in time for Halloween, cartoonist Peter Ricq is bringing Ghost Are People Too to Kickstarter. The 42 page illustrated book, about a simple ordinary ghost named Ethan Alby, is written and drawn for spooky living people of all ages and perfect for Halloween.
Ethan has a family—just like you. He likes playing with toys and his dog, Mini Ricky. Sometimes, though, Ethan gets scared. In Ghost Are People Too, Ethan shares what scares him, how difficult it is to share a home with a living girl he's fallen for (when she doesn't even know he exists), and why we shouldn't be afraid of one another.
Ghost Are People Too is a charming spooky book for readers of all ages, especially young readers, adolescents and adults who love Tim Burton's books and films, as well as the novels and picture books written by Neil Gaiman, and most especially fans of Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies.
The Kickstarter campaign runs until November 20 and has a goal of $15,000 goal (Canadian dollars). You can get a PDF copy for $10 Canadian (about $8 in US dollars). The hardcover copy is $20 Canadian (about $16 US dollars). Other rewards include autographed copies, doodles, more art, and more.
A Luchador is on a Quest for Revenge in La Mano del Destino
La Mano del Destino is a 6-issue mini-series about a Luchador's betrayal and superheroic quest for revenge and Faustian bargain; set in a swanky 1960s Mexico told in a Silver Age style. It's currently being funded through Kickstarter.
Created by Jason Gonzalez the project ends on November 3 and is still short of its $39,242 goal. The series is complete and this is to fund the 400+ page, Bilingual collected edition's printing. The collected edition is a Bilingual flipbook! You get both versions in one book.
La Mano del Destino tells the tale of a once-champion Luchador – who, after being betrayed by his friends and unmasked in the ring, agrees to a Faustian bargain with a mysterious promoter. He gains a new power and the identity of La Mano del Destino in order to exact revenge upon his betrayers. Set in a swanky, 1960s Mexico where Lucha Libre is intrinsically woven into all aspects of society and are the most important events that happen within this world, this tale winds its way through the machinations and motivations of all types who inhabit this unique setting.
Can La Mano del Destino get his revenge while remaining the champion he knows himself to be? – Get the complete arc here to find out!
You can get a PDF of the trade for $15 or the printed collected version (plus PDF) for $35. Other levels include a screen print set, doodles, single issues, and even your own Luchador mask!
Arcade1Up Launches the Infinity Game Table… with Digital Comics!?
Arcade1Up has launched a Kickstarter for the Infinity Game Table, the latest digital board game table.
Partnering with Hasbro, the digital board game table features over 50 games with more to come to start. You'll also be able to download more. There's no monthly subscription or hourly fee.
Games mentioned include Monopoly, Pandemic, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit, Ticket to Ride, Scrabble, and so much more. Having partnered with Hasbro, it's many of their classics.
Beyond digital tabletop board games, Arcade1Up has also said the game table features thousands of comics, puzzles, and coloring books. It's also mentioned a focus on partnering with indie creators as well.
Of course the mention of comics has interested us. In the promotional video, you can see a Comics Plus icon front and center indicating this is the initial platform you'll be able to read digital comics on. It's unknown if more digital services will come and we have reached out for more details.
The table can be used by 1 to 6 players and features wifi for ease of connection.
The Infinity Game Table has two main models, a 24″ and a 32″ screen. The 24″ version costs $499 at its basic level with the 32″ being $699. The project has crossed its goal of $50,000 and well on its way to $500,000. It ends on November 30 with a projected delivery of April 2021.
Simon Stålenhag Delivers a Unique Vision of a Dystopic Future with The Labyrinth
Simon Stålenhag is running a Kickstarter for The Labyrinth, a brand-new narrative art book. Past works of Stålenhag's has been adapted into roleplaying games and for television.
The Labyrinth introduces us to a world covered by ruins and ash, the few survivors that remain take shelter deep underground. But the time has come to venture out into the wastelands of the surface world. Are you prepared to confront dark secrets from the time before civilization's fall?
The Labyrinth will be a thick, oversized artbook of over 150 pages. There are two versions, a standard, and a limited edition. The limited edition features an exclusive and beautifully embossed cloth cover, is unique to this Kickstarter, and will never be printed again.
The standard edition starts at about $40 US plus shipping with the limited edition at $80 plus shipping.
The project runs until October 30 and has already passed its goal.
They Were Cast Aside, But They May Be the Ones to Save the World in Foundlings
John Stanisci and Emma Kubert have teamed together to create Foundlings, a brand new dystopian young adult comic book series in the vein of Stranger Things and The Goonies, tackling issues of diversability and empowerment. The series follows a group of children cast aside by their families and society…until they were possibly the only ones capable of saving it. Funding exclusively on Kickstarter, and if successful, planned for a full graphic novel, Foundlings is a timely story tackling themes of global politics and ableism in a story that will keep readers on immersed for 28 pages.
The comic is currently being offered through Kickstarter. The campaign ends on November 13 and has an $8,000 goal.
Years in the future, a virus has been weaponized by a Russian government hell-bent on destroying America from within. This deadly new strain has been perfected to kill within 24 hours of contact, and only small groups of children carry immunity to the effects. They are the Foundlings; a diverse group of children under the age of 16, who alone carry the hope for a possible cure, and a solution to extinction.
Foundlings centers around one very special group of kids, all who still dream of the families that long ago abandoned them, and instead find family in each other in order to survive and find a way to save the Earth from destruction. The story is inspired by The Foundlings Hospital in New York City, which is a real-life home to children, many of whom are challenged with physical and emotional issues. The story is rich with themes of empowerment and inspiration for teenagers and adults alike, in a fun adventure story that recalls some of the most beloved films and television series.
Funding exclusively through this Kickstarter campaign is a self-contained comic book story, published in a 28 page, full-color comic format, written by John Stanisci, and drawn by Emma Kubert, with two covers available.
Currently on Kickstarter, $5 gets you a digital copy of the comic with $10 getting a "Kickstarter Edition" physical copy. Other tiers feature pins, variants, signed copies, and even the ability to be drawn into the comic.
Black Eye Books Kickstarts Jay Stephens' First Comic Series in Over 20 Years
Black Eye Books has launched Harvey and Eisner-Award nominated cartoonist Jay Stephens first ongoing comic book series in over twenty years. The first issue is currently available on Kickstarter. The project has already passed its goal and ends on October 31.
Blending retro cuteness with classic small-town horror, Dwellings will feature one complete and self-contained story each issue. The first issue features a tale of murder and crows entitled They Know.
Set in southern Ontario, Dwellings is a series of horror tales, lovingly drawn in a vintage comics style to most perfectly invoke those half-remembered terrors of youth. The true meaning of the word nostalgia is, 'to return home in pain'. So lets get nostalgic, shall we?
Dwellings will be printed for a December release as a 36 page, full-color, stapled comic book, and is being offered to readers as a pre-order via crowdfunding. The digital edition starts at $5 Canadian (about $4 in US dollars) with a print copy being $10 Canadian (about $8 in US dollars) plus shipping. Also available are signed copies, previous releases from Stephens, inked blue-line production art, and more.
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The planning application for the redevelopment of Groves Chapel was approved at this afternoon's Area Planning Sub-Committee.
I've written about the building and the planning application several times before on these pages, and watched the webcast of the discussion in the meeting this afternoon with great interest.
There have been angry comments online in response to the decision today, reflecting the anger felt by residents of Union Terrace, alongside the chapel. Many of them spoke at the meeting, eloquently, in the public participation section near the start of the meeting. You can watch it all online on YouTube, on this link, or below (starting at 4:18).
This application was given around an hour and a half, firstly commented upon by the residents who had attended and registered to speak, who had 3 minutes each, then discussed by councillors, with information given by council officers.
Reading about decisions on planning applications can give the impression that these things are somehow rushed through, rubber-stamped. Not so. Watching the webcasts is an interesting and enlightening experience, as I've said before. As a neutral observer on this one — I can see the arguments for and against, but don't feel strongly either way — I thought it showed a group of people trying to do their best to reach the right decision, based on what was in front of them.
The vote at the end was 5 for and 5 against, but Chair John Galvin used his casting vote, as is the Chair's right, which meant the application was approved.
Those of us watching the webcast could hear the reaction of the local residents off-camera, then see them as they left the room, with one man clearly upset and angry, another having a word with the Chair, or rather several, not clear on the recording but I think I picked up the word 'conscience'. And thought about what a difficult job it is being a councillor and having to make these decisions in front of people who are thinking about their own street, when you're having to think about the bigger picture.
It's upsetting and worrying when the landscape around us changes, but it's something many of us are familiar with, having to adapt to. And it has to be said that many people in the local area didn't object to the planning application, saw nothing much to object to, all things considered.
Beyond the immediate neighbourhood the plans for this building did provoke a lot of comment and concern. It clearly captured the public interest. Was this because it was a former place of worship? Or because its proposed redevelopment involves the introduction of one of those controversial (though clearly successful and well-used) local supermarket chains?
Many other people have adapted to having a local supermarket on the corner of their street, and the residents of Union Terrace face that prospect too. I hope it's not as bad as they fear, and that this building in its new guise settles in on its corner when its doors are open and its accommodation occupied.


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Axar Patel pins England on the 'mat'
Ahmedabad , 26 Feb 2021
Handling the glossy new pink ball at the spin-friendly and dusty Motera pitch was akin to a spinner handling the new ball on a matting wicket, something that old Gujarat and Saurashtra spin bowlers have experienced over the years and decades.A day after Axar Patel darted ball after ball, straight and quick into England batsmen and put them on the mat, former Gujarat left-arm spinner, 77-year-old Ashok Joshi told IANS: "He did well. Hit the ball hard on that pitch. That is what you need to do, bowl quick spinners on that surface. That England spinner, Jack Leach, did not hit the pitch hard enough."Joshi, who played 81 first-class games through 1960s and 1970s during a period when competition for left-arm spinners for India team was intense, has played a lot on coir matting surfaces. He says on coir matting the ball turns prodigiously after it gets a bit scuffed up but the new one rushes in straight and often comes quickly into the batsmen."The new ball, because of its gloss, goes in straight and often turns in to the right-hander on matting. The turf wicket will usually start assisting turn from Day Three, but on matting it remains the same," he says. He pointed out that the two surfaces can't be compared even though Patel's success with new ball is quite similar to what you would get on the coir matting.On a wicket that aided big turn, and with the pink ball, which retains its gloss for a much longer period than a red ball, Patel kept darting in ball after ball at some pace and like one would do on a matting surface. He was even called 'Wasim bhai' by wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant from behind the stumps, referring to former Pakistan left-arm fast bowler Wasim Akram, who had a sharp incoming delivery in his armoury.
Patel, who was a fast bowler during his under-15 cricket days, bowls more like a pacer. He has the height that helps. He attributed his ability to bowl quick to his pace bowling during under-15 and under-14 cricket."When Jaddu [Jadeja] got injured, a lot of people might have been relieved, but this guy [Axar] comes in and bowls faster than Jadeja from that height," said skipper Virat Kohli after the match.Patel's coach in Nadiad from younger days Sanjaybhai Patel says he is quite used to bowling this way and has a fair experience of bowling on matting surface. After Patel had returned from a National Cricket Academy camp when he was around 18 with an advisory to follow on how to give flight, it was on coach Patel's insistence that he was told to concentrate on bowling the way he was bowling -- quick, his natural style, and forget flight."We [at Kheda District Cricket Tournament] used to have a two-day tournament on a matting surface till about three years ago. Axar played quite a few times there," he says. "The new ball goes straight and often comes in fast on matting for a spinner."The Gujarat-Saurashtra region has been known for producing spinners, especially left-arm spinners as India skipper Virat Kohli said on Thursday that everyone here attributes to pure coincidence.Vinoo Mankad, Salim Durrani, Dilip Doshi and Dhiraj Parsana, who played just two Tests, were all left-arm spinners like Jadeja and Patel. There has also been off-spinner Jasu Patel."There could have been more. But there was massive competition for India places back then and we were also known as matting spinners, i.e. those who know how to bowl only on mat [on which the old ball turns prodigiously]," says Joshi.But with pitches such as the one in Chennai and Motera, and more pink ball Tests expected to be played in future, more of such 'matting spinners' may be preferred.
Tags: Sports News , Cricket , Cricketer , Player , Bowler , Batsman , World Test Championship , Axar Patel , R. Ashwin , Rohit Sharma , Ahmedabad


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A glossy, glazed office development has just sprung up outside Camden Arts Centre, looking spanking new beside the soot-covered shops alongside. And, visible through the windows, it makes an instructive comparison with Pedro Cabrita Reis' Back Door - as indeed it does with all his work in this, his first solo exhibition in London. For there is an enticing tangle of old and new, outside and inside, in his sculptures; an ambiguity as to whether they are shards of the real world or metaphors for melancholy states of mind.
Back Door may suggest an entrance or an exit, but the door in question is a small shutter, distressed with age (though also shiny with a creamy coat of paint), and it sits hinged on to a thick pane of new glass. This structure, in turn, is hoisted just off the floor by a T-shaped tripod of rusted girders. The length of girder is angled to create a vertiginous feeling of perspective as you enter the gallery, while the glazing frames your view of the door; and both things conspire to make the door seem less a found object than a fantastical one.
The same ambiguities surround Meeting Point, the large work in the first-floor central gallery. Here a long steel beam skewers a heavy, tattered old table, heaving it off the ground, and also supports another window-like construction, this one framed in aluminium and painted in a coat of bright yellow. (This same type of painted 'window' - framed in wood or aluminium, and obscured with colour - forms the basis of the three 'paintings' that Reis exhibits alongside these installations. ) Reis has a genius for placement, and while the impact of Meeting Point is dampened by being shown in what amounts to a corridor, that isn't a problem with Stillness in the largest gallery - a simple, four-legged erection of rusted girders, lit by dirty striplights affixed to the central beam. Once again the construction seems to be telescoped, and its linearity is lent a clever foil by the black flex that powers the lights, and winds in a curve from the wall.
Reis, who represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale in 2003 with a magnificent silver shed full of strip lights, has been making works since the 1980s that resemble tableaux for theatre - domestic scenes in particular. These new pieces certainly have drama, but Reis' interests have moved outside to the city, and in the process his formal language has become more linear - where once he did boxes, now he does lines.
The smell of age, rust, and ramshackle fabrication all suggest that he is still preoccupied at some level with Portugal's slum housing, but this new linearity makes his strange constructions seem more imagined than real. If Duchamp, Dada and collage are in Reis' lexicon of influences, so too are the metaphysical concerns of artists such as Malevich. 'I am a gatherer of memories, mostly, ' Reis has said.
And very pungent ones too.


Beyond the Score: Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4: Why Italy?
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV)-- Amy Carlson is joined in the studio by Madison Symphony Orchestra Maestro John Demain to discuss the presentation of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 with Beyond the Score: Why Italy? Taking place today at the Overture Center here in Madison.
This performance is designed for classical music lovers and newcomers looking for a deeper look into the world of classic music and the motivations of significant compositions, Beyond the Score®: Why Italy? joins Mendelssohn on his travels in Italy and discovers his inspiration for this symphonic work. Incorporating the composer's own letters and writings, the program presents the historical context behind the classical piece turned masterpiece.


One Hour vinyasa yoga Class in the tranquil Italian water Gardens in hyde park.
All levels are welcome and different variations will be available and explained thoroughly throughout class.
The class will have you feeling refreshed and energized!
This is a donation charity class and completely free to attend.
I am newly qualified and therefore will be hosting regular free events to gain experience and client base.
100% of the donations after class will go to the british heart foundation.
Please bring your own water/ yoga mat.
This is weather permitting, and will give 48 hours cancellation notice.


Michelle Malkin | » Newt Gingrich to Chris Matthews: What kind of racist thinking do you have?
Race card accusations from the guy who gets a leg thrill from the president with a veep who just made a "back in chains" comment?
President Obama knew he could go media soft and turn down interviews with Matthews and others like him and they'd still be all aboard the Forward™ train, and he was absolutely correct.


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Mitchell "Mitch" Epstein (born 1952) is a fine-art photographer, and among the first to make significant use of color.
His work has been exhibited and published extensively in the United States and Europe, and collected by numerous major museums, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate Modern in London. His ten books include American Power, for which he won the Prix Pictet (2011) and Family Business, for which he won a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award (2004).
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chapter to write, re-write and edit. There are a lot of threads running through it from the earlier chapters as you would expect. But the difficult thing has been how to frame the epiphany. It's really the critical chapter linking together what has happened earlier in the book with what will happen in the final two chapters.


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Marquette King visiting Broncos
Posted by Josh Alper on April 5, 2018, 2:14 PM EDT
The agent for free agent punter Marquette King said this week that his client wanted a chance to visit with the Broncos because playing in Denver's thin air "is a punter's dream."
King is getting that chance to make his case to the Broncos that signing King would work for them as well. According to multiple reports, King is in Denver for a visit with the team on Thursday.
King is fourth among both active and all-time punters with an average of 46.8 yards per kick and had a net average of 41.1 yards over his five years with the Raiders. Those numbers made it a surprise that the Raiders parted ways with King after signing him to a five-year extension in 2016, although reports have indicated that King's often demonstrative on-field personality rather than his punting rubbed Raiders coach Jon Gruden the wrong way.
Riley Dixon is the incumbent punter in Denver and parting ways with him would have no negative cap implications for the Broncos. The Vikings have also reportedly shown interest in King since he was dropped by the Raiders.
10 responses to "Marquette King visiting Broncos"
td30 says:
I dont really want him. The dancing makes me want to punch him in the face. Plus he'll be more expensive than a normal punter, and Elway is pretty notorious for going cheap on the punter
silvernblacksabbath says:
Be careful! His ego may not fit in the building!
floridaslonechargersfan says:
Denvers offense is so bad he'll be on the field multiple times per game. He's signing here.
thrifty says:
It apparently didn't fit in with the raiders either. Lol.
"A punter's dream", lol
jjfootball says:
Going to Denver would only prove what a chump he is.
broncosroe says:
This would be a great signing! Especially with Mile High altitude. He can become a really threat and help change field position with one kick. This is an absolute still thank you Raiders!!
raiderspy1 says:
Again, Marquette King is thinking of 1 thing, himself. His agent said, is client wanted a chance to visit with the Broncos because playing in Denver's thin air "is a punter's dream." Where is, I think I can help them win or they are a great organization. No such words. He doesn't get it. Yes, I am a Raider fan, but when the game is on the line, like most the time in the AFC WEST, he wants everyone to look at him. Dont get me wrong, he can kick the hell out of the ball, but he can cost you a game with his antics. Wait till decides to call his own fake punt, and doesn't get the first. Lets see what Elway thinks of him then. He is not win, place, just a show. Good luck Bronco fans. I know you love your team just we love ours.
araidersfan says:
Great, exactly what I was afraid of but was predictable – one of the league's best punters strengthening an AFCW rival. All based on a mediocre-at-best HC's sense of ego.
On the other hand, I guarantee that if Marshawn Lynch was cut, no other team would even bother to look at him (as was the case when the Raiders signed him last year).
whatjusthapped says:
The Vikings had the advantage of offering indoors punting for half the season but would have worn off his leg so he had that to consider.


In celebrity news, Taylor Swift was seen venturing on a beautiful hike in Malibu with her boo Joe Alwyn. This is exciting because this celebrity couple has not been publicly seen together since December! According to EOnline.com, a source revealed, "Taylor looked quite exhausted from the hike but she looked very close to Joe, holding on to his arm and holding hands. They seemed very at ease with each other and relaxed." Swift and Alwyn have been stirring romance rumors about their celebrity relationship for about a year now. The duo has kept their relationship pretty private, and a source says that they are clearly very serious.
In celebrity news, Taylor Swift stepped out with her boyfriend Joe. What are some fun ways to spend a Saturday outdoors with your partner?
After taking time out of the spotlight, Taylor Swift has had quite a public 2017! In the latest celebrity news, Swift and her current boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn were spotted getting cozy at this year's Jingle Bell Ball in London. According to UsMagazine.com, fans spotted the pair dancing, swaying, and sharing kisses during Ed Sheeran's set at the concert. Swift was a performer at the show, too, and sang some of her latest hits from her recent album Reputation. Sources have also reported Alwyn was seen dancing and singing while watching his girlfriend on stage! The celebrity couple has kept a lower profile than some of Swift's past romances, but it's likely they began dating earlier this year.
In celebrity news, this sweet duo is keeping things romantic. What are some ways to keep the spark alive in your relationship?
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Looks like there may be more bad blood in this celebrity break-up! As reported by UsMagazine.com, Taylor Swift's ex Calvin Harris collaborated with her nemesis Katy Perry for his upcoming album, and the "Bad Blood" singer's fans are already calling out the Scottish DJ for being petty and trying to get back at Swift. The drama between the two female superstars first began when Swift called out an unnamed mean girl during a Rolling Stone interview in 2014. Perry later confirmed their issues when she told a fan that she was still waiting for Swift to apologize. Asked if she would ever agree to a duet with Swift, Perry responded, "If she says sorry, sure!" With Harris's recent announcement, it looks like there's no chance of reconciliation for this celebrity relationship — or friendship.
Sometimes, celebrity break-ups don't exactly lead to smooth interactions down the line. What are some ways to deal with an ex who is purposely trying to hurt you post-break-up?
Harry Styles thinks his romance with celebrity ex Taylor Swift was a learning experience. What are some ways past relationships can help you with future relationships?
…Don't miss the rest! Keep reading for great dating advice.
This celebrity break-up is pretty much old news at this point, but Taylor is still coping. What are some ways to deal with the immediate impacts of a break-up?
It looks like there may be some bad blood between former celebrity couple Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston. The couple decided to split after three months of dating and are now celebrity exes. A source told UsMagazine.com, "She was the one to put the brakes on the relationship. Tom wanted the relationship to be more public than she was comfortable with. Taylor knew the backlash that comes with public displays of affection, but Tom didn't listen to her concerns when she brought them up." Although this relationship had a hot and steamy start, they just couldn't make the spark last and it ended up fizzling out.
This celebrity relationship is no more! What are some reasons to say goodbye to your relationship early on?


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Ive read and heard people over the years claiming that they were once an atheist, but no longer. This is a curious statement to make. Of course, I've never met anyone who's said that to me, these are all articles I've read or people on some television show making that claim. No one ever seems to want to challenge what is said.
Why did you become an atheist in the first place?
I think the answer to this question is crucial. People are atheists for varying reasons. There is no one answer. It's possible the person came from a repressive religious household and when they were old enough, were able to break away. The experience could easily explain a rejection of god.
Why did you return to belief in god?
Based on the answer to the first question, it becomes more than possible that there never was an actual disbelief, just anger or possibly disappointment in religion. This is why so many non-atheists consider us to just be angry at god. It was easier to blame a god for their circumstance than the actual villan.
Why did you leave atheism for religion?
The person never actually lost their belief. They never actually considered what being an atheist is and referring to themselves as atheist actually meant nothing.
There may be many more reasons other than the example I outlined but I find it reasonable to accept that these people having made this claim were either hurt, or maybe just disappointed with their religious belief. I think these people looked at atheism as being just another religion, just one that is non-theistic. They became disillusioned that atheism is just what it purports to be: a non-belief in any god. There are no rules to live by, there is no book of philosophophy that atheists quote. We have no mythology.
People are looking for something to believe in. Religion for most, fills whatever void is in their lives. I understand that, having been there myself. I realized, as probably others have, that religion didn't actually provide any answers I was actually looking for and that it was up to me to provide those answers in my life. No one, no religion, no god, can do that.
Atheism isn't about unconditional love and forgiveness as religion preaches; it's simply a person not accepting that there is something greater out there than themselves. We appreciate this life for what it is and live our lives accordingly. Right and wrong are not written in a book, and ethics isnt just a word.
Atheism isn't a light switch and those that cavalierly think it is, don't really underatand atheists.
I've been an atheist for 38 years and have no inclination to go back to any organized religion. I know it's all based on bovine effluent designed to keep people down.
If find that people who may not have had much of a religious upbringing are those who when they find a religion, will claim they were atheists. Lack of religion does not mean one is Atheist.
Similarly, people who grew up with a religious background but may have rejected it for one reason or the other, became "atheist"… and then later on in life went back to religion… it's really not for me to say if they were truly "atheist" at some point. Although I do have to question the switch from "there is a god" to "there's no god" to "there is a god" again 🙂 Maybe they just questioned their faith at some period of time.
Good thoughts in your blog, Thanks for writing!
Another example I was considering, but didn't want to pursue in this post are those on social media that claim they were atheists and then converted to Christianity. The reason is that those claims don't actually have any credibility in my mind is usually they are people just looking to poke at atheists, looking for some sort of discussion/debate and an affirmation of their ego.
Some people simply must keep looking for something that fills their empty spot and that they think will make them whole. Trying on religions and other such "soothers" takes them from one addiction to another. It may well be thought of as an atheism phase when they are there and rabidly defending their choice.
Still…if I were to have an "experience" of God, I would assume that I was not on stable mental health grounds and act accordingly; at least call my sister. I would not begin to believe again.


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Business Musings: The Small Traditional Publishers (2017 in Review) 2
Posted: January 10, 2018/Under: Business Musings, Current News, On Writing/By: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
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I've been catching up on 2017 as if it was a homework assignment for a major college course. Because of my own circumstances, I ignored a lot in 2017, and now, as I plan my 2018, I want to know where I—and the publishing industry—stand.
I have written two previous posts on this topic. One is an overview. The other is a long post on the Big Five traditional publishers here in the States. Even if you're not living in the U.S., you'll want to read that one, because so much of what the U.S. publishers do gets replicated worldwide, particularly since the Big Five are part of international conglomerates, and those conglomerates have other book publishing arms around the world.
As I mentioned in that post, my traditional publishing posts are focused on the U.S. because I'm not as well informed about traditional publishing companies in other countries. Still, if you live outside of the U.S., you might find some similarities to what is happening in your country. If so, please feel free to comment below.
Initially, I planned to handle traditional publishing as one big lump in the industry. That's how I've been doing it since I started blogging on the industry in 2009. But that way of dealing with non-indie publishing no longer works, and it took me until December of 2017 to make that realization.
I have known that a change was coming in traditional publishing for years now. The way that the Big Five (who were bigger and more than five nine years ago) were running their businesses inevitably meant that they would be too slow and too large to make changes in their publishing model quickly enough to capitalize on the new world of publishing.
I did not expect them to screw up as royally as they did—hating their biggest customer (Amazon) and essentially getting into a war with it. Nor did I expect the Big Five to so completely misunderstand the market that they ended up cutting their real cash cows. I also didn't expect the Big Five to price their ebooks so high that the books sell to regular readers despite the price. That does not invite new readers to sample authors, so it's hurting the future of the Big Five book lines.
In fact, most everything the Big Five have done in the past two years have hurt their book lines, rather than help them. Other factors will keep those publishers in business, factors that I explored in the previous post, but those factors make the Big Five a place for any savvy writer to avoid.
Once I separated out the Big Five from all of the other traditional publishers in the U.S., I came to a happy realization. There are a lot of good publishers doing the kind of work we readers want publishers to do—curating books with a voice and an attitude, so that we know what to expect from the company, marketing those books to the best of their ability, and making the books available in all formats. In many cases, the ebooks are priced at under ten dollars.
Realize when I'm talking about small traditional publishers, I am not talking about corporations inside the umbrella of the Big Five. So even if your favorite "publisher" has a clear voice and an attitude, but is part of a Big Five corporate entity, that publisher is not the small traditional publisher I'm talking about. For example, Harlequin moved from a small traditional publisher to a corporation wrapped into HarperCollins, a Big Five company, in 2014. So Harlequin is not part of what I'm discussing here.
Neither is Tor, which is part of Holtzbrinck, (MacMillan here in the U.S.), which is also one of the Big Five. At any point, these smaller corporations can be shut down, reassigned, changed, or focused in a brand-new direction, based on what the conglomerate wants.
Rather than ask me if your favorite company is a small traditional publisher, Google them or look them up on Wikipedia. Follow the corporate trail, and you'll learn quite a bit.
When I talk about small traditional publishers, I'm talking about family companies or companies that are not part of a bigger conglomerate. These small companies are run by a single owner or by a small board of directors, but the company is not publically traded. Many of these small traditional publishers have distribution deals with the Big Five. Distribution deals mean that these small publishers use a Big Five's sales operation to help sell their books (at some kind of percentage or fee; I've never seen one of those deals, so don't know the financial details).
But, even with those distribution deals, these small traditional publishers are not part of the corporate entities that compose the Big Five.
And when I talk about small, I'm talking about their size in the industry, not what most people think of as small (like a little local company).
Small traditional publishers generally bring in at least $10 million in revenues annually and often have between fifty and 100 employees. Compared to the Big Five, these companies are tiny.
Most of these companies are not publically traded, so finding their actual revenues or their profits are hard. Here's what I could find on a quick Google search for a few small traditional publishers.
For example, Kensington is listed on Buzzfile.com as making $11 million in annual sales. Where Buzzfile gets this information, I'm not sure.
Sometimes the information on finances for these small companies is deliberately opaque. For example, Buzzfile lists Soho Press as making $510,000 in annual sales with five employees at the location cited in the Buzzfile report. (It's very specific about the location, which means there are probably other locations, and a breakdown of financial information inside the company itself.) If Soho Press only generated half a million in sales every year, they couldn't afford their Manhattan offices, which are near Union Square Park.
Soho Press is an imprint of Soho. Soho has two other imprints, Soho Crime and Soho Teen. I have no idea what the annual revenue of the other imprints is because I can't find them. I'm sure there's more money here, but they're making it hard to find…which is fine with me. Many, many, many private small businesses do the same thing, and hold their financials very close to the vest.
D&B Hoovers, which uses commercial databases to determine corporate worth, lists Sourcebooks at $66 million in revenue, Workman at $103 million, and Chronicle Books at $20 million. All of this looks like a lot of money, until you place it in the context of the international conglomerates that hold the Big Five. Those conglomerates have annual revenue in the billions of dollars, of which the Big Five are only a small percentage.
The small traditional publishers have many advantages that the Big Five do not have. These small traditional publishers have a corporate vision that is usually enforced by the owner or the board of directors. Most of these small companies name the CEO or the owner of the business, and much of the direction of the business comes from the top down to the employees.
There's an actual vision in these places, and one essential part of that vision is a love of books.
Publishing for these smaller companies is not about IP valuation (see last week) [link] or about a global market strategy—even if the company has an international vision. It's about publishing good books that fit with the company's business.
Sure, those books need to be commercial. And they need to earn a profit (large or small) for the company or the company will eventually drop the author.
But for the most part, these small traditional publishers are still what we romantically think about when we think about book publishers—people who love books and do their best to get them to the marketplace.
The vision for the company informs the direction the company takes and the books it acquires. There is, in all of these companies, a unified company vision, and an editorial one—often with only a handful of editors who shepherd projects into being.
These companies do not have the deep pockets that the Big Five have. If a writer gets a million dollar advance from one of these companies, it will be newsworthy. That advance will also spread over many years, rather than one lump payment.
These companies work on margins, just like indie writers do. And those margins are pretty well set. These companies also have a vision for the author and the series, so that the books build. These companies don't abandon a writer after one or two books.
I've seen the contracts for many of these small traditional publishers. Like every other business, some of these small traditional publishers are great. Others are awful.
Of the three I've done business with in the last decade or so, two of them have been forthright and easy to work with. They don't have the gotcha clauses in their contracts that the Big Five have, and they're really not out to own the entire IP.
In fact, two of these companies have clear royalty statements, and have been up front about what they planned to do with my projects, and how those projects fit into their entire vision for the company.
The third company that I've worked with started with the best contracts in the business—the most writer-friendly—and in the five years I worked with them changed their contracts to the worst contracts in the business.
That company is a complete mess. It has at least one editor who is well known in the business for verbally abusing her authors (and who has told more than one author to ditch characters of color because characters of color will "interfere with sales"). This company is doing its best to hang onto every single dime that the writers generate.
I suspect the company lost a lot of money in the digital revolution, didn't move quickly enough, and didn't have enough ready cash to handle the change, so it squeezed revenue from everywhere it possibly could. That became a habit, and the company will not change. The contracts confirm this.
I don't know if the company will survive the next five years, despite its high reported annual revenue. If it does, it will do so on the backs of its authors rather than working with its authors.
So, as you can tell, just because a company is a small traditional publisher, privately owned, doesn't mean it's a good place for writers. Doesn't mean it's a bad place for writers either.
These companies, though, are options for writers, if they want to sell their books traditionally. The writers would have to have a good literary lawyer to negotiate a good contract, and the writers themselves would have to know what that good contract is.
They would also have to do a lot of research before ever submitting to one of these companies, to see if the company is well run and is a good place for writers in general.
But I promised a review and a look forward about the smaller traditional publishers, and here's what I found.
These smaller traditional publishers are very different from their Big Five counterparts. These publishers are much more nimble than the Big Five and, indeed, are working hard to learn from indies.
In fact, many of you saw some of that learning a few years ago, when Steven Zacharius, the CEO of Kensington Books, asked a lot of questions and did a lot of reading on sites that cater mostly to indie writers, like The Passive Voice. Zacharius and the other publishers/CEOs who frequented indie sites weren't doing it to bolster their reputations, nor were they there to defend their business practices.
These folks were aware of the changing marketplace and were looking at all parts of the market to see what techniques they could use to further their own businesses. That's one reason I go to various sites, and experiment all the time with different methods of doing things.
The savvy smaller traditional publishers have a bigger online presence than the Big Five. They also have reader communities on their publishing websites. Some of them have company-wide newsletters, and many have become reader friendly.
They're experimenting with everything from Book Bub to free first in series (often on their own sites). Baen Books has had an online bookstore since the late 1990s. They have a long-standing free library, and they have two different programs (eArcs and monthly bundles) for selling books before the official release date.
There's a lot of innovation at these companies, and lots of ways to help writers with discoverability.
The people who run these companies have a huge desire to make every book they publish successful, because the entire basis of that small traditional publishing company is…successful books. Not IP valuation, not using a story as the basis for a wide variety of non-book products.
Publishing good books and getting them to readers. That's how the companies started, and that's what they continue to do in 2018.
But…and you knew there would be a but, right?
The writer has to be willing to part with control over that book for at least ten years (in the case of one of these publishers) or for the life of the copyright (in the case of the icky bad publisher).
Sometimes that risk is worthwhile—with the right project.
For example, in 2016, I published Women of Futures Past with Baen Books. I own my own publishing company. Why would I publish an anthology with Baen?
Baen is a small traditional publisher of fantasy and science fiction. It has a strong base of sf&f readers at its core. It promotes its work directly to fantasy and science fiction readers, bookstores, libraries, and online.
I wanted Women of Futures Past to go directly into the heart of science fiction readerdom, and Baen has had an established presence there since the 1980s.
If I went with Tor, considered the literary darling of sf, I would have to have made a contract with the international conglomerate Holtzbrinck, and the book, which I want to remain in print for years, would have gone out of print within two years. Because of the contract I would sign, my own publishing company wouldn't have been able to reprint the book for many more years, if ever, so the book would have been lost to me.
Right now, Women of Futures Past is selling exactly as we expected it to, into the markets that I wanted it to reach—and more. Baen Books could publish that book much better than my own company could, given the goals I had for the book itself.
I did the research. I did a lot of business analysis of what I wanted with that project. I knew I would get paid less than I would have if I had published the book myself, but I also knew the book would have a lot more support among the readers I wanted it to reach through Baen—which is exactly what happened.
I traded revenue for visibility in the sf field, because that was what was best for the project.
And it has worked out well. My experience with Baen has been better than I expected. They were easy to work with, kept their promises, and have worked hard to support the book. It's ended up being one of the best publishing experiences of my entire career.
That's the kind of analysis that writers have to do if they're going to go with a small traditional publisher. There are other factors that a writer should consider if they go with a small traditional publisher instead of indie publishing the book.
It takes traditional publishers time to publish a book, months, maybe even years. Then there's the loss of income. Yes, the writer gets paid up front with an advance, but the amount per copy sold that the writer earns from a traditional publisher is one-fifth to one-seventh of what she would earn if she published it herself.
Writers who have day jobs or feel they can't do the work of indie publishing—finding a cover, writing blurbs, designing the interior—might also consider small traditional publishers.
And a writer who is in a subgenre that still has a wide mass market appeal, like cozy mystery, might want to consider a print-only deal with a small traditional publisher. But be careful! Some print-only deals are written in such a way as to enable the publisher to end up owning the ebook rights after all.
I've seen many print-only deals with that sneaky little clause in them, although to be fair, those deals were all from the Big Five (mostly Simon & Schuster). That doesn't mean a terrible awful small traditional publisher won't steal those same contract terms from a Big Five contract. A handful of small traditional publishers have done just that—stolen the worst clauses from a Big Five contract, combined them, and called them a book contract. (Some of those so-called contracts make no sense at all.)
So, in all things traditional publishing, the writer must be careful of what she signs. She must also know what she's going to get in return for the loss of income and tying up the copyright for a certain period of time.
These days, though, I actually see a successful career path for a writer who wants to be traditionally published, if that writer goes with a small traditional publisher (not the Big Five). That writer will probably not earn enough to ever quit her day job, but she can have a career with many of these houses.
If that's what the writer wants without earning a living, then I say go for it.
What caused me to change my tune about small traditional publishers?
The change that I found buried in all the data I've been looking at over the last few weeks.
Small traditional publishers are positioning themselves to become the dominant traditional publishers of the next decade or so. These publishers can never match the advances or the reach of the Big Five, but they're not going to have to.
As I wrote this blog post, the Big Five lost one of their main earners. Mystery writer Sue Grafton, a bestselling novelist since the 1980s, passed away. (She was a major, major influence on mystery; it's sad to lose her.)
She was 77.
James Patterson is 70. Stephen King is 70. Nora Roberts is 67. John Grisham is 62.
The big reliable bestsellers, the ones that the Big Five rest half of their catalogues on, are aging out. Some new(ish) bestsellers have developed in YA—Jeff Kinney (46), John Green (40), J.K. Rowling (52)—but only Kinney is putting out a book a year, which is the minimum these big publishers need to support their lists.
The Big Five are not developing new mega-bestsellers to replace the old guard. They're trying, sorta, by having Patterson "co-author" books with other writers (some of whom are in their 60s and 70s as well), but that's not building the huge bestseller the natural way.
What is the natural way? By word of mouth and years of growth.
The small traditional presses, for the most part, are building writers the natural way. So when readers can no longer buy a brand-new James Patterson book—written by James Patterson (and not some other name from an outline)—those readers will look for a new writer to fill that hole.
That new writer might be indie (and we'll discuss that in a future blog), but if that new writer is traditionally published, I'd bet good money that the new writer will be published by the small traditional presses—and will have a backlist that's several titles deep.
Long about 2025 or so, the traditionally published writers whose books sell the most (I'm not calling them bestsellers because who knows what will happen to those lists by then) will come out of presses we now call small traditional publishers.
That's why some of these small traditional publishers have been snapping up the bestselling authors that the Big Five let go, because the writers' careers weren't growing fast enough. The small traditional publishers know how to get the books to the writers' existing fan bases, and how to keep the writers' careers growing. It's a win-win for the writer and the publisher.
I am not predicting that traditional publishing will go away. Far from it. But I am saying that the players will change. Some of the imprints in the Big Five will vanish. The Big Five might not be anything at all. They might even be sold off by their corporate overlords by then. Or one or two of the Big Five might be the King of the Hill, having swallowed up the other members of their billion-dollar category.
I do think that the smaller traditional publishers—if they don't get bought out by the international conglomerates that own the Big Five—will publish the bulk of the traditionally published writers within ten years. (Of course, that will make them a tasty snack for the international conglomerates, looking for IP.)
From a business standpoint, then, if you the writer have to publish traditionally for whatever reason you feel necessary to your life and your writing, heavily research the small traditional publishers and maybe go with one of them.
The good ones will publish you well. They'll negotiate the contract so that it's mutually beneficial to both of you. They'll pay you fairly. They'll actually read your book, and publish it using the most modern techniques they can—not just in the right formats, but promoting it in a traditional way that also ropes in the best of indie.
It was fun to discover something positive on the traditional publishing landscape. The Big Five is a nightmare for writers, and will remain so.
But a handful of small traditional publishers will gain traction, power, and income as the shifts in publishing continue. Some of those traditional publishers will work as a partner with their writers.
That's good news.
I still believe that, when it comes to a full-time fiction career, the best thing a writer can do is go indie. But not every writer is suited for the indie world. Those writers will, most likely, never be full-time writers, but not every writer wants the uncertainty of a freelance career.
If that writer who does not want to freelance does her research, she can have a long career publishing a book or two a year for a small traditional publisher.
That's an option that I thought was disappearing. It's nice to see that it hasn't.
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"Business Musings: Smaller Traditional Publishers," copyright © 2018 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Image at the top of the blog copyright © Can Stock Photo / alphaspirit.
19 responses to "Business Musings: The Small Traditional Publishers (2017 in Review) 2"
3 Things Readers Want to See from Authors (Occasional FAQ with Gail Carriger) - Gail Carriger says:
[…] Business Musings: The Small Traditional Publishers (2017 in Review) […]
Small/ePubs usually state royalties are 45% of net, at least for ebooks. Every so often, I look into a place, but I come across the royalty line and cringe and never submit. Am I too used to self-pub royalties? I don't think pubs are willing to change it to a percentage of the retail price, last I knew.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch says:
I agree. I cringe as well. Some writers don't want to do the hard work of publishing/business/indie, and for them some of the smaller presses might work (for a while, anyway).
Sean C says:
Really interesting article, thanks so much for writing it. A quick question, as an aspiring hybrid author: since you seem to suggest that many of these smaller publishing companies might potentially make good business partners for hybrid authors (with the appropriate due diligence), I'm assuming that most of the good ones you've looked at do accept unagented manuscripts? Your views on agents are well-known, so I'm assuming you wouldn't recommend working with a publisher (even a good one) if it required going through an agent…
I have no idea. That's up to you to research. But most places look at unagented manuscripts if you simply know who to address the manuscript to. I mean, they might miss the next bestseller, so they do look. Usually. If you get rejected, they won't respond. They'll just remain silent.
Good to know, thanks for your thoughts.
I'm curious: what are the tactics that small traditional publishers are using to increase discoverability and get more books into more readers' hands that the big traditional publishers are not using?
I hate to be vague, Bill, but mostly they're using the techniques pioneered in the 1950s & 60s, keeping books in print, letting word of mouth build, taking the long view, occasionally finding a new way to promote, going for book clubs–everything that takes years to do rather than weeks, like the Big 5. See my Discoverability series and some of the other posts I do on marketing. The smaller publishers tend to do things like that (remembering their inventory) rather than publish and toss away if something doesn't hit in a month.
Alan Spade says:
There is a huge thing you missed in your great article, Kris: Amazon Publishing. The Amazon publishing houses have a huge advantage other both indies, Big 5 and small publishing houses: they can sell much better on Amazon through a very efficient marketing tool that is (rightly) named Amazon First.
I smiled when I read the part about small publishers using the awful contracts of the Big 5, because for my one and only experience with a small french publisher, this publisher used the boilerplate Gallimard contract. Which is awful, as you can guess.
I also used to go to the Baen forums at the beginning of what I call my "American adventure", and found them both fair and innovative. It was very easy, for example, to have my book reviewed by another author in exchange for me reviewing his book. An excellent website for learning.
At the end, though, it was just me dipping my toe in their waters, because I found indie publishing much more profitable. But I understand your decision with them, it makes perfect sense!
The Small Traditional Publishers (2017 in Review) | The Passive Voice | A Lawyer's Thoughts on Authors, Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing says:
[…] Link to the rest at Kristine Kathryn Rusch […]
Lyn Perry says:
Did a quick search for small publishing houses and came up with this:
https://thejohnfox.com/2017/09/30-best-small-indie-literary-publishers/
Can't vouch for any of them as this is not my area of expertise at all.
But hey, if we're going to research, these companies are a place to start.
gordonrhorne says:
From comments I've seen Steven Zacharius and other senior people at small publishing houses make on indie-centric blogs, I get the impression many small publishers believe–or at least are willing to gamble–that a hybrid approach benefits publishers as well as writers.
That said, I have had experience with arrogant, exploitative, and flat out dishonest small presses. (Not to mention incompetent.) So yes to your advice to research deeply.
Michael W Lucas says:
Great overview.
For what it's worth, the trad nonfiction market is much the same. I'm choosing to release a book through a smaller privately-held trad nonfiction publisher for reasons much like yours. I'm also leveraging them to grow my mailing list, and the text includes "for more info, see this indie book by the same author" where appropriate.
Publishers a tool. Don't let your tools use you. 😉
Anthea Lawson says:
Really good food for thought, Kris! I do have take exception with this quote, however: "These companies don't abandon a writer after one or two books." That is actually exactly what happened to me and a bunch of other romance authors (mostly historical romance writers) acquired by Kensington's Zebra Debut line in the mid-to-late 2000s. Even before the second book of my 2-book contract came out, I was informed that my contract wasn't going to be renewed because the "numbers weren't good" – despite the fact that my debut book was up for a RITA award. Unfortunately, Kensington gave my book a cover that was all wrong for my subgenre, and the book released in early October 2008 – a terrible month for authors, especially new authors. As the book blog Editorial Ass said: "In October, bookstores returned so many books that most publishing companies had more coming into them than going out of them. For some companies, the incoming number was more than several months' outgoing.
Although bookstores are suffering (and how), it was the publishing houses that had to absorb the cost of this cash flow creator. This is why Impetus, a relatively new indie company without the history to survive this shock, folded. Some houses lost so much money in returns in October that profits from the entire rest of 2008 have been negated." https://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/11/editor-discusses-what-went-wrong-with.html?m=0
The other important thing that I did not realize at the time, being a starry-eyed new writer, was that the Zebra Debut line was failing. Where Kensington once had been able to give their debut authors print runs of well over 60k, with placement in Walmart and other big box stores, those slots were gone by the time I sold to the publisher. The print run on my first book was… well, let's say it was less than a third of that figure, and my sell through was abysmal (see the quote above about bookstores returning scads of books).
Not long after I turned in my second book, my editor left (sending an email out on Friday afternoon along the lines of – "It's my last day, so, bye! Your new editor is XX.") Which, considering the fact that said editor had done NO content edits on either title, was not entirely surprising. My books got decent (though light) copyedits, but that's all.
Kensington acquired all rights to my books, but never put them in audio, and made a total of 3 foreign-rights sales. And there were usually snafus with one of the royalty reports (not getting sent out, getting sent but without a check, etc.) so twice a year I had to bug them (via my agent) to get it sorted out.
So while your book might be in the hands of a company who loves books, there is still plenty of room in traditional publishing (big and small) for your titles to be mismanaged, mis-covered, orphaned, unedited, abandoned in the marketplace, incorrectly accounted, etc.
THAT SAID – Kensington, and the CEO, Steve Zacharius, were very good about returning my rights, even giving me reversion a year early on book 2. They took down the ebooks from the retailers right away and weren't grabby or mendacious at all during the process. So for that, I am very glad I ended up selling to Kensington, and that they got me a start in the market before the advent of indie publishing (I went to contract with them in 2007).
I also think that they have their lines sorted out now, and probably treat established authors much better than the several dozen newbies who were published into their Debut line. And in the long run, not being under contract with a traditional publisher allowed me to start publishing indie in 2011, and go to a full-time writing income in 2013.
As you've said here many times, Kris, if you want to be a career writer, it's a long game. There are ups. There are downs. There are ups that look like downs, and vice versa. Perseverance is key. As are good books (for whatever definition of "good" you want to use). The rest, we all just have to learn to weather the inevitable storms, bail when necessary, and hoist the sails high when we catch a following wind.
Thanks, as ever, for your thoughts here. They are appreciated.
I found Kensington great on rights reversions as well, Anthea. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with them. All of mine were positive, but eventually, we did part ways because of sales. That happens no matter what.
I looked at your dates, though, and I have to say something. October of 2008 is a bad month to make any kind of generalization on. The numbers were HORRIBLE that fall not just because we had a presidential election, but because that's the month the economy broke. Everything crashed and cratered. Bad doesn't describe sales of anything. Everything had abysmal sales. The only comparable month was September 2001. Yes, writers get (and got) blamed for the bad sales, but that's how the business works. Everyone cut books, losses, authors, and every business cut as well. You got hit by a world event.
These small traditional publishers like Kensington experiment all the time. You take a risk as an author when you join up with a traditional publisher. They take a risk with you as well. The great thing about many of the smaller ones is this: they often negotiate. (Not always.) It is, as always, writer beware. But sometimes the risk pays off.
Thanks for sharing here.
paladin3001 says:
So, some good news about traditional publishing. Glad to hear that there's some good ones out there.
Did you care that Baen has a much smaller presence overseas (even with the internet), or does the size of the US market in English-speaking fandom overwhelm that consideration? And will Baen give the rights back to you sooner than a Big 5 will?
Dammit, I was going to wait till we got to Z, since the 80's aren't getting farther away much faster. But now I'll catch up. I think T was the last I read right away.
AFTER I finish with Hugo nominations.
Baen has a term-limited contract. 10 years, if I remember right off the top of my head, with caveats, of course. And the overseas part, well, anyone who is smart about contracts can reserve a lot of foreign rights and exploit them without a publisher.
Good — wouldn't want the rest of the world to miss out on the book.


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