Wannabe Authors, Beware!

     So you've written your first book! Isn't it hard to find a publisher! Some of the biggest companies refuse to accept unsolicited manuscripts. In other words, they outsource to literary agents the task of culling out the badly written chaff from the wheat. Finding a good agent is almost as difficult as finding a publisher. You virtually have to have a reputation before you start. After all, a first time author gets little money, and the agent gets only a fraction of that, so they operate on a shoestring. Besides that, your book may well be poorly written - especially if it is a novel, which requires a whole more skill than non-fiction. Yes, we've all seen published rubbish which makes you wonder how anything ever gets rejected. Just the same, most people have an exaggerated idea of their own writing skill. But even if your book is good, it faces competition from a lot of other excellent works, and the publisher just might not have enough scope to fit it in. But beware! There are predators out there waiting to exploit first time authors.

INDEX

I might give this blog a rest for a while, but since it covers a wide range of subjects, let me help you find what might interest you by presenting an index. Some articles, of course, have multiple tags, but the major ones are: Books, Theology, Sex, Science, History, Islam, Politics, Social Issues, and Odds and Ends.
To read the appropriate article, click on the asterisk in front of it.

Books
* What you don't know about making books  * Wannabe Authors, Beware!
* Kindle Direct Publishing
* Walking through walls and rationing days
* Rider Haggard      * Lionel Fanthorpe       * Robinson Crusoe's anonymous friends
* A forgotten childhood classic                   * Forgotten Australian comics
* Little Red Riding Hood and the werewolf

Theology
* Why I am a Christian     * Tradition and Doctrine     * Women's Ordination
* People's Damascus Road Experiences       * Dreams, Visions, and Muslims
* The Christian Explosion in China              * On the battlefield or scaffold
* Your Christmas Crib is Wrong                  * The Problems of Pontius Pilate
* The Hallowe'en that changed the world (1517)  * A Licence to Steal

Sex   I got my degrees in animal and human behaviour. Therefore ...
* The science of sexual morality
* Homosexuality in the lower animals?
* Rates of cures for homosexuality [one of my most popular articles]
* Same sex "marriage"?        * Same sex "marriage" and the Australian Constitution
* Transsexuals [I have personal experiences with them.]
* The National Geographic gender issue 
 * Lies, damned lies, and suicide statistics [Am I the only person to have read the paper?]          * The high cost of preventing AIDS
* Breasts were meant to be sexy.     * Toplessness
* Debt-free Virgins without Tattoos  * Lessons in consent     * Effects of the pill
 

Science
My M.Sc. was on the Behaviour of the Koala, and since this is an animal dear to the hearts of Australians, I have summarised it in layman's terms in seven parts.
* 1. Background     * 2. Basics        * 3. Bringing up baby     * 4. Communication
* 5. Sex                 * 6.  Fighting    * 7. Comments and references [important]
In addition, I have written:
* Understanding those strange scientific names
* Antechinus or Why it doesn't always pay to be too macho.
* Vegetarianism          * Evolution as a theory    
* Of course, there's such a thing as race.     * Race and IQ

History
* Wini, the Wild White Man of Badu [one of my most popular articles, possibly because I seem to be the only person to write about this unusual facet of Australian history.]
* Why the Norse didn't settle America     * Why Columbus didn't write in Italian
* When a superpower was written off.     * When history is just a matter of chance
* Ned Kelly     * The Germans did not know about the gas chambers.
* On the scaffold or battlefield.     * The case for colonialism
* The miracles (?) of Apollonius of Tyana     * The riddle of the Amazonian amazons

* Irish famine

Islam
Myths About Muhammad *1. Moon god     *2. Demon possessed      *3. Pedophile   
*4. Violence     * Muslims in Australia    * Polygamists in Australia      * The tragedy of an English jihadist     * Geert Wilders     * Dreams, visions, and Muslims

Politics
* Why I am not a liberal - or a conservative.    * The case for capitalism
* Flogging the dead horse of the republic
* Why I would have voted for Trump if I had been an American.
* Why I voted for One Nation in the Queensland election.
* Guns in Australia and America     * The Australian voting system   
* Health Insurance in Australia        * An unlosable election? (2019)

* America should run elections like Australia

Social Issues
Life Was Better in the 1950s and '60s. Parts 1, 2, and 3
* Domestic violence (facts)     * The "Respect" campaign     * Women's careers
* Working women and housing     * What we can learn from hobos.

Odds and Ends
* Hinduism and Buddhism      * The crazy ideas children have.     * Shaving
* Murder is not as easy as fiction makes out.  * Getting away with robbery is even harder.     * Do we all have a double somewhere?       * The philosophy of an Aboriginal tribe     * How salt can lose its savour    * Wedding presents     * None of my best friends belongs to a minority.