David's comments
David's comments from the Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors group.
Note: David is no longer a member of this group.
(showing 1-20 of 33)
I turn off my laptop's mouse pad and plug in a USB mouse. Regular backups are good, but I backup everything I've done to a memory stick before turning off my computer every time without exception. My HP laptop has crashed and required a restore 3 times. I lost everything.
I thought Dragonheart was better than Eragon myself.
In my opinion, a book should only be judged by the amount of enjoyment experienced by its readers. This transcends genre, style and originality. If the audience likes it, then it’s good.
I can't say that I am very surprised. Since Fantasy provides an escape from reality, I would expect it to be more popular during trying times.
As it turns out, I was mistaken about the state. I contacted the editor and found out that they are actually on the east coast, in Maryland. I'm going to see if I can change the title of this thread as I would still like to know more about them.
www.Sonar4ezine.com looks to be for sci-fi and horror only, but if you are also reviewing Fantasy, I could send you a pdf for my Fantasy novel, FireDrakes.
I am also trying to get the word out about my 'Be a Character in my Next Novel' contest. The deadline is December 5th.
http://www.davidkorinetz.com/dkpubs.htm
They are listed in the Writer's Digest Novel Writer's Market. I called and spoke with the editor to confirm they exist but couldn't find anything on the web. I guess I will just have to wait until they publish my story and send me a copy.
I agree with posting example chapters. I posted the first chapter of FireDrakes on my website:
http://www.davidkorinetz.com/dkchp1.htm
I also posted another chapter on GoodReads. As for giveaways, be it for reviews or just to get the name out there, I support that as well. Over the past year I've given away about 25 books which yielded 5 reviews that I know of. The only negative review focused on the inadequate proofreading, for which I am guilty. Never, never, never, ever do your own proofreading!
The idea of a Good Reads authors only review group sounds okay to me. Perhaps there could be a willing to review section and a book offered for review section by genre. For myself, I would not want to restrict what I would be willing to read and review to only the genre in which I prefer to write. My only bias would be a PG-13 or less rating.
So how do we go about doing something like this?
My book is a Fantasy with knights, dragons, elves and wizards. Any writer who enjoys readig that sort of thing and wants to exchange books is welcome to send me an email. The first chapter is on my web site:
http://www.davidkorinetz.com/dkchp1.htm
If I can't submit a positive review, I would not submit one but contact the author instead to tell them why. I would expect the same consideration.
I think it is a must to send out review copies. I suggest, however, that you write in big letters on the title page, 'REVIEW COPY NOT FOR RESALE'.
I'm looking for information about Oracle Story and Letters. See Message #1.
Oracle Story and Letters has just offered to publish one of my Fantasy short stories. I agreed, but don’t have an issue or release date yet. They are in California and I am in British Columbia. Has anyone in this group ever seen or heard of this magazine? I believe it is a quarterly.
Try myshelf.com. They did a review for me, just query with book details first.
I spent two years trying to find a publisher for FireDrakes. In all that time I had two offers. I turned them both down because they were POD publishers.
After reading a few books on self-publishing I bit the bullet and printed 1500 books. Marketing proved to be far more difficult than I imagined, but in the first year I sold over 600 copies, recovered my investment, and made more money than I ever would have seen with those other publishers.
It's not for everyone, to be sure, but I plan to Self-publish my second book next year without even bothering to send it out first.
To M.C.
I admit that most self-published books tend to suffer from a lack of editing. My own self-published novel could certainly have used another proof reader; an oversight I will address in further publications, but by Editor's reject, you mean like J.K.Rowling's first Harry Potter book? I understand it was rejected by every US publisher she submitted it to.
What I have learned about self-publishing is that the most important thing is to send out review copies 4 months prior to the release date. Not doing that and not hiring an independent proof reader are my only regrets.
Why would a self-published book be seen as a mark against an author?
I can understand that it will not lift an author to 'Published' status, but I do not see how it would actually be a hindrance to future publication by a bona fide publisher. Please explain.
Write an article about it and get it published. That's what I did with my Raise A Reader experience. See link below for an example.
http://www.okanaganarts.com/summer08/kor...
A few years ago I fell asleep while reading a novel where the author devoted a whole chapter to the main character pounding a piece of steel into a sword. It was well written, but not interesting enough to keep me reading.
Since my goal is to entertain, the method I chose to write my first novel, FireDrakes, was to make each chapter a story, complete with a beginning a middle and an end. I set a target of ten pages per chapter but let the story set the actual length. The finished chapters in FireDrakes range from 4 to 13 pages. When editing, if I found prose that wasn't moving the story along I nuked it.
Writer's Digest provides online courses. Though I have not personally taken an online course, I did complete a Writer's Digest correspondence course about five years ago and it was fantastic. Three of my assignments became chapters in my first novel.
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