Blog
Ahoy, Critterfolk!
New entry May 28
Critter Notices
Books from Critters!
Check out Books by Critters for books by your fellow Critterfolk, as well as my list of recommended books for writers.
Space Travel for SF Writers
Hot off the presses from ReAnimus Press! Space Travel - A Science Fiction Writer's Guide— An indispensible tool for all SF writers that explains the science you need to help you make your fiction plausible. (Also via Amazon)
How to Write SF
The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells by Ben Bova, best-selling author and six-time Hugo Award winner for Best Editor. (This is one of the books your ol' Critter Captain learned from himself, and I highly recommend it.) (Also via Amazon)
Interviewed!
I was interviewed live on public radio for Critters' birthday, for those who want to listen.
Free Web Sites
Free web sites for authors (and others) are available at www.nyx.net.
ReAnimus Acquires Advent!
ReAnimus Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of the legendary Advent Publishers! Advent is now a subsidiary of ReAnimus Press, and we will continue to publish Advent's titles under the Advent name. Advent was founded in 1956 by Earl Kemp and others, and has published the likes of James Blish, Hal Clement, Robert Heinlein, Damon Knight, E.E. "Doc" Smith, and many others. Advent's high quality titles have won and been finalists for several Hugo Awards, such as The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Heinlein's Children. Watch this space for ebook and print editions of all of Advent's current titles!
Book Recommendation
THE SIGIL TRILOGY: The universe is dying from within... "Great stuff... Really enjoyed it." — SFWA Grandmaster Michael Moorcock
Announcing ReAnimus Press
If you're looking for great stuff to read from bestselling and award-winning authors—look no further! ReAnimus Press was founded by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]
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FEATURED BOOK
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Info about Ads and Privacy Policies
Kinds of Ads on Critters
People have asked me to explain the variety of kinds of ads on the site, so here you go. (The relevant privacy policy info is below.) There are four kinds of ads on the Critters site:
- There are the Google ads on the side & tops of most pages. These are
standard
Google Adsense
"pay per click"
ads where Google chooses ads to display, charges the advertiser
for clicks on the ads, and pays a percentage to Critters.
We have no control over the content of these ads. (So, we can't
prevent ads from showing up for e.g. fee-charging workshops. Alas.)
How to get yourself placed here: The only way for you to advertise here is to go through Google. I believe you can target a certain site, but if you wanted to do that and pay for it, it's better just to contact me and we can arrange something. :)
- On many pages are
free ads for Critter members which do not cost
the advertiser money if you click on them. They're free to any Critter
member in good standing. These are primarily located
in the middle body or footers of web pages.
Check them out and put up one for your own work.
How to get yourself placed here: Easy as pie: You just visit the advertising on Critters page and upload an ad. It's free. In fact, you could even point your link for your ad to your item on the Critters Members' Store itself.
- On the Critters store are a number of "affiliate ads" from the
Google Affiliate Network
and
Commission Junction affiliate program.
The advertiser is not charged when people click on
these but instead Critters earns a commission on any sales that result.
These are primarily the items in the
Critters store
and the
Nook ads
you see such as on the right hand side.
How to get yourself placed here: I choose these from a menu that the affiliate program has, so you'd have to sign up as an advertiser with one of those programs. Again, if you wanted to do something like this and pay for it, it's better just to contact me and we can arrange something. :)
- Lastly are the items in the
store for Critter Members' Books and Music,
where you may directly purchase ebooks and music from which the
sellers have agreed to give a percent of the sale to Critters.
This is meant to be a win-win for everyone. You get good stuff to
read and you help both the author and Critters.
How to get yourself placed here: Visit the Critter Members' Store upload page to submit your own ebooks to the store. Definitely do this if you have ebooks/etc. to sell. Be sure to do a free ad too. (Which you could point to your item in the store...)
Critters Privacy Policy and Terms
I'm a big fan of privacy, so our policies and terms are simple -- I don't give out email addresses or other information to anyone outside the workshop. I hate spam/etc. :)
That said, I apologize, Critters can no longer offer membership to people in the EU/UK, because the EU's "GDPR" requirements (that the UK is still following) are too complex and burdensome for a small outfit like Critters to be sure I've fully implemented everything and can comply (it's unclear that Critters could actually ever comply based on how the workshop works) -- and the potential penalties are way way way too high to risk. I completely applaud the general idea behind the GDPR, but the penalties are so stiff (the "greater of 20M euros or..."!?! seriously?!?) that I simply can't take the risk; nor would I have the time to handle the requirements of it. Love you guys, but that's just too massive a risk. (Editorial: The GDPR is pushing the web away from small sites toward mega sites, and I think that's a bad thing. The penalties are designed to be so severe that one complaint might not only be the end of Critters, it could be completely life destroying. If the penalties were more reasonable I might take the risk. So, sorry EU/UK writers, I deeply apologize that you can't belong.) If I learn that any member is covered by the GDPR, I will have to unsubscribe you from the workshop.
We use real names in the workshop, not pseudonyms. If you join, you'll get emails from the workshop a couple times a week or so. You can control how many manuscripts are emailed to you (default is 3), but you cannot disable the notices emails as they are critical to the successful working of the workshop. If you submit a manuscript, your name will show up on the public list of manuscripts and other members will be able to read your manuscript. If you submit a critique, your name and email address will be shared with the author and other members who read the critiques (but not made public -- though anyone could join and see them).
If you choose to post a bio to the bios page, that's up to you. If you include your email address, it gets hidden on a members-only-passworded page where you have to prove you're a human and not a bot.
Since anyone can join and see the private site, passwords are only meant to keep web crawlers and spambots out and act as a barrier to wandering eyes, not provide high grade security. (High grade security would be useless, since, again, anyone can join and see the "private" areas just by filling out the form.) Odds of a random person eavesdropping on your Critters password and caring about it are microscopic. We use https/ssl even though it's not necessary, though you may run across some ordinary http: links that I missed. It's harmless. (Again, anyone who wanted to see inside the private areas could simply join. There isn't anything really tied to your specific login.)
The site uses cookies to know which genre workshop you're signed into.
The following things don't happen very often, but here's the policy:
If someone reports getting spam that have reason to suspect is via Critters, I try to find out who sent it (looking at logs of which member accessed which email address on the bios page) and I boot them out of the group.
I sometimes get requests from "old friends" to connect with someone, in which case I forward the mail on.
Manuscripts are copyrighted by their authors and members are reminded not to share them outside the group. Anyone found doing so gets booted from the group.
We do have Google Adsense ads on the pages, and they mention the following privacy language:
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
We also have Google Affiliate Network and Commission Junction "affiliate" ads on the site. If you click on these they track your visits so we can get paid any commission from sales, and while I haven't seen any details on what else they do, one would presume the sites you visit (e.g. if you visit Barnes & Noble from a Nook link) also track your visits for their own advertising purposes per their own privacy policies.