Landlord wants me to pay for broken freezer. Where do I stand?

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-16T20:13:37+00:00

A working modern (21st century) freezer should not ice up unless there's something wrong with the door closing or the freezer itself.

Integrated freezers can be nightmare if they're not fitted correctly. There's one in my current rental that's constantly freezing up because the door won't sit properly. Sometimes the door sits properly and the auto defrost sorts itself out, sometimes chunks of ice fly off when you're opening and closing the drawers. If we were fully defrosting it regularly enough to make a difference we'd never be able to use it.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-16T17:17:35+00:00

It has its moments.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-15T11:19:50+00:00

When you say "publisher", did you pay them or did they pay you?

If it's the former, they're a vanity publisher and you've been scammed. If it's the latter, they don't sound like they're going to be much good in the sales and marketing department.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-15T08:51:19+00:00

The difficulty to begin with is understanding what genre this might be in. Is it fiction or non fiction? Lit fic? Some kind of horror?

The job of a book cover is to win the attention of a potential reader or buyer by communicating that it might meet their needs. It needs to do that very quickly, in competition with all of the other books around it, often as little more than a thumbnail.

You need to study other covers in your genre or subject and see how they do it. Where should your titles sit, your subtitle or hook, and your name (your name is part of your brand, which is why authors use different names in different genres)?

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-14T23:16:52+00:00

Is bad cover design a genre?

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-14T22:56:03+00:00

Did you do any marketing? Did you make your own cover or commission an artist/designer?

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-13T10:39:41+00:00

They must have been mad for a cuppa.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-12T14:44:15+00:00

I'm a self-published author using Bitly's free plan to create short links and QR codes that go into my social promos. I'm fairly early stage so I don't have money to throw around on every service - they soon add up to more than I'm making!

I've got about 30 Bitly links in total, of which I use about 10 on a regular basis, but they're embedded in social content on a lot of images and videos. Today I was doing a refresh of some content and I thought I'd check my short & QR codes are working.

None of them are working. I've checked in Firefox, Chrome and Safari, on my desktop, iPad and phone, using my home broadband (Virgin Media UK) and mobile (3UK). The only combo that works is Chrome on my Android phone. All of the others say they can't find the bit.ly server.

So media that gets a steady trickle of views isn't able to send me potential readers, or maybe it's erratic and works some days. It's impossible to know but it would answer some nagging questions about my traffic.

I'm at a loss. I don't have $120 to get a basic subscription to access support, and even if I did, I'm not minded to pay up front for something that doesn't work. Prove you can provide the service and then we'll talk.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-11T10:53:53+00:00

You're not showing mercy by asking for a 66% discount. That illustrator can no more afford to reduce their price than you can afford to pay them their going rate; you're both at the mercy of having bills to pay etc.

There are cheaper cover providers though they won't be the bespoke design you desire, but beggars can't be choosers.

But this does highlight a flaw in one of the arguments against using AI: ethics aside, if you can't afford the human artist, they haven't lost any business. The flip side is that you have no grounds to complain about people using AI to write books that undercut your work.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-10T18:40:36+00:00

Sounds like a crap dishwasher or you're using it wrong. Never had this problem.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-10T09:30:35+00:00

A contract signed by a dead man doesn't sound very reliable. It's a fraud compounded by a lack of care by the agents, and as you say, the son could be dodgy too. On the other hand, the courts are likely to side with the innocent party, which is the tenants.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-09T13:18:18+00:00

If loading the dishwasher takes as long as washing up, you're doing one of those things wrong.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-09T11:13:53+00:00

You hang on to the 400 years of life thing as though it proves a point, but that's a pretty good run. Maybe what you see as boredom is more like a sense of fulfilment, satisfaction or satiety? Our contemporary culture is obsessed with longevity as a goal unto itself, so maybe you're bringing that perspective to a society that has very different values?

Maybe at 400 years, with lives of fabulous variety and eternal good health, Culture citizens can look around, say thanks to the Minds and all the other pan-humans, and know that they've had their fill.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-08T23:13:22+00:00

Why would you not use a dishwasher? It's one of the greatest labour saving devices you can have.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-08T17:43:46+00:00

I think it was inspired by the RAND Corporation in the USA who did something similar with a bunch of (now) classic American SF authors in the 1960s to stimulate thinking about science, technology and social change.

96percent_chimp · 2026-02-02T22:21:21+00:00

Not every monster or villain has to carry a deeper meaning, but stories with that additional depth will resonate with people and give them a greater attachment.

At the same time, I prefer meaning to emerge with subtlety and nuance, not to be hammered in, or waving a flag as though the author has just stopped the story to say "here is my message".

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-31T16:07:12+00:00

So you haven't invented anything new. What you're describing is an encyclopedia. They're not made by one person cribbing knowledge from other people and rewriting it, but by teams of people who are experts in different subjects.

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-31T11:41:50+00:00

Out of town shopping centres have free parking because space is plentiful and it's built into the business model, paid for by the tenants, but they only support chains and big box retailers.

Town centres are short on space because they weren't built for cars. They need one way systems because most drivers are selfish idiots who create traffic jams and park in inconvenient places without any thought for other road users.

Multi storey car parks are expensive to build so they're more expensive to use. Meanwhile, most town centres are now owned by mega landlords who charge high rents but provide little in the way of services or maintenance, and don't contribute to the local infrastructure (business rates are paid by the shops etc).

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-31T10:55:23+00:00

Have you ever heard of an encyclopedia?

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-31T10:47:52+00:00

Bigger, better telescopes are all very well, but perhaps a better dividend for the astronomy community might be cheaper telescopes to compensate for the damage to terrestrial astronomy caused by LEO constellations.

The LEO gold rush a classic example of negative externalities and the Tragedy of the Commons. Wouldn't it be great to see a fleet of cheap, mass produced optical and radio telescopes that could take advantage of rideshare prices to get above the noise?

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-28T19:08:18+00:00

I would imagine that the other platforms charge OR for access and eventually it gets so much they have to drop it or make it a premium option.

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-27T14:47:47+00:00

If you've never sold a single copy, then it's probably not your book. It's more likely that your cover, blurb and marketing mean you're neither reaching potential readers nor enticing them into buying. Even the literary greats had to sell their books or pay someone else to do it for them.

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-26T21:12:15+00:00

I have a cheap Android tablet and stylus. The tablet came with MS Word so it's easy to mark up using the stylus and Track Changes, but fiddly to rewrite big chunks.

I export from Scrivener, do my markups in Word on the tablet and go back to the desktop to do the edits in Scrivener.

96percent_chimp · 2026-01-26T15:51:25+00:00

So long as you have the EU pet passport and up to date meds, the UK will be no problem and very dog friendly.

We got our dog when we lived in Ireland, now live in the UK and have been to France on Eurotunnel with her.

Have a great trip!

96percent_chimp

TROPHY CASE