Captain's Blog
Ahoy, Critterfolk!
New entry May 19
Critter Notices
Critters Server is Dying has been Replaced
See important details here in my blog. Let me know if you find anything that isn't working right. (Manuscripts are now available for this week, FYI.)
New Book from a Critter Member
**NOW IN
PRINT EDITION
TOO!** Awesome new book,
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS,
from a Critter member whose unearthed a shard of The Secret
to becoming a pro writer. Really good piece of work.
"...if you're at all concerned about story openings, you'd be nuts not to read what Qualkinbush has to say." —Wil McCarthy, author of BLOOM and THE COLLAPSIUMSpace 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)
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 need help making ebooks from manuscripts or print copies—or finding great stuff to read—look no further! An ebook publisher started by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]
~~~
FEATURED BOOK
~~~
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
Simple -- I don't give out email addresses or other information to people. I hate spam. :)
If you want 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.
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.
