u/hetobe

I'm trying to figure out how to style my ebooks within the rules ereaders use for displaying text. I don't want to force specific fonts, but I would like to style certain things sans-serif, to contrast the main text which is serif.

In the compiler, Styles, changing the font size, spacing, etc all works as expected in the compiled ebook, but specific fonts are ignored. I tried adding font-family sans serif to the .epigraph css, but that gets ignored too. I'm baffled.

For the record, I'm not anti-AI. But I am vehemently against people trying to pass off AI writing as if they'd written it.

I often make the point that there is a reason why certain people who get accused of using AI can't prove they wrote their work. They can't prove it because they didn't write it. AI wrote it.

Anyone who actually wrote a novel, meaning they did the writing, would have multiple drafts. Probably lots of 'em.

But it recently occurred to me... those of us who write a novel in Scrivener have tons of backups too. Not just backups of drafts, but also backups of the in-between phases. And if you're on a Mac and you use Time Machine, you have tons of date-specific backups of even more backups.

If somebody accuses me of using AI to write my novel, it's so easy to copy/paste a list of backups and say "Here's a list of versions of the novel, starting with the ugliest writing from day one, going all the way through to the polished final draft."

Scrivener's automatic backups are such an under-appreciated feature. Especially now.

Here are two versions of a blurb for a novel titled Five Dollar Wrench. Which is more compelling?

The novel is literary fiction, not a thriller. It's a crime story that is actually the story of the criminal. P.S. Most of the "public service announcement" line is taken straight from the novel, as are all of the quotes.

VERSION A:

She says she's a ghost:

"You'll never see me coming."

She thinks she's a genius:

"Which, by the way, is the goddamn truth."

Here's what she wants you to know:

"A thief only knows what victims show can be taken from them."

Framed as a pissily-pious public service announcement, Five Dollar Wrench is a cautionary tale, told by a woman determined to justify her actions.

"Don't judge unless you've walked a mile in these shoes, and I know for a fact you haven't. Because I stole them. But not from you."

Who is she?

She goes by many names, and she's got a story to tell, but this is not her story.

"It is my confession."

It comes with a Five Dollar Wrench.

VERSION B:

His T-shirt said, "Have Fun Staying Poor."

She decided to make him poor, but her plan fell apart when she found a handwritten note where she expected to find cash.

That's where it started.

She's robbed hundreds of men and is responsible for the deaths of at least seventeen. Surely more.

Love is the key to your heart, but she has the key to your front door, and you've never met her.

"That's how it's done."

Who is she?

She goes by many names, and she's got a story to tell, but this is not her story.

"It is my confession."

It comes with a Five Dollar Wrench.

My Concern:

My concern with version B is that it makes the novel seem like a thriller, which it isn't. It's a darkly comic character study of a thief, and it has an unreliable narrator whose reason for being unreliable makes a more traditional blurb a challenge to write.

EDIT: Here's a different take on the blurb.

VERSION C:

A woman whose real name is surely not Shayna Dempsey follows another woman into a bar. She buys her a drink and says, "I've got a job that's worth a lot of money." It requires a prostitute and a thief.

"One year, or one million dollars, whichever comes first." That's her pitch. "I know what you are. I'm a thief." But there's a difference between what you do and what you are.

Five Dollar Wrench is a cautionary tale about the dangers of social engineering. It's the story of how a girl from nowhere grows up to be a thief who uses partners to steal millions as she robs hundreds of men who don't even know she exists. It's also the story of how it all goes wrong, for everyone but Shayna Dempsey.

"This is not my story. It is my confession."

It comes with a Five Dollar Wrench.

Has the term Subslop already been coined?

Subslop is when people post meaningless notes like this in an attempt to get likes and subs:

"Describe your Substack in 5 words!"

Spam.

"Dear Substack 🤍 Send me the writers who choose depth over noise."

Spam. That person is trolling for likes and subscribers.

"There’s no shortcut. No hack. You get better by doing more of it. Write today. Write tomorrow. Keep writing."

Spam. Canned spam.

When I go to the Substack home page, I should be seeing people’s articles and long form content. Things from their publications. Instead, Substack rewards the subsloppers by promoting their slop.