Dwayne’s Comments (group member since Apr 01, 2017)

Dwayne’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

Jacqueline wrote: "Creepy, if that is what you are going for."

Yeah, it is. The novel could fit many genres. It started off intending to be a horror, but I'm not sure it's scary enough for that. It's definitely got some creepy moments in it, though. Thank you!

Thanks, Tony, B.A., E.A., and Sam. I had a feeling I might be onto something with this one. I like that it's a statue, because there's a lot about statues in the book. I like that it looks like a witch, because the more the story develops, the more prominent witches are becoming in the story. I'll see what other opinions come in but so far it looks like this is the best cover, out of the ones I've shared.

David wrote: ""Eyes flashed" or other variations that are physically impossible unless the book is science fiction or fantasy and the character actually has this type of power."

It depends on what the author means by flash. If they mean that the eyes are flashing with light, then no. That doesn't happen in real life. If they mean the eyes flash with an emotion, such as anger or jealousy, yes. That does happen in real life and isn't considered a "power".

I've been playing around with some new ideas for the past few weeks. I actually like this one, but I'm not completely sure. Any thoughts?

Ben writ:

"Hello, all! Longtime, first-time, etc.

I am working on a short story where the chapters alternate between the main narrative and excerpts from a different story. I have seen this done multiple times.

[Deleted stuff]


...each chapter begins with a very short excerpt from an imaginary book. Typically just a few sentences. In The Dark Half, by example, we see a passage from Machine's Way. In Amazing Maurice, we see a passage from Mr. Bunsy has an Adventure.

I reckon these never (or rarely) confuse the reader, because they're so short that anyone can see the right-aligned text at the end of the excerpt that says what book it's from.

My issue, though, is that I'm wanting to put much longer excerpts in my story. Some are multiple pages long. And so, I worry that it will confuse the reader -- they won't see the end of the except and so for a few moments, it'll probably be pretty jarring.

So I wonder if I should begin these excerpts with something like "the following is an excerpt from such-and-such." Does anyone know of a published book with an example of something like that?"

Normally I don my mean mod hat and delete such posts completely for ignoring the "no links" rule, but I like your question. It's a good one and has never been brought up before.

If you want to put long excerpts into a story or novel and you want to be sure people won't think it's part of the main narrative, you can narrow the margins a bit. You can also put it in italics. I did this off and on in my second novel, sometimes to indicate the main character was telling a story, sometimes to indicate that a passage was from a book that several of my characters talk about from time to time.

In John Irving's "The World According to Garp", long passages from Garp's various stories and novels are included in the novel. As I recall he used italics to highlight the passages so the reader would not be confused as to if they were reading Garp's life story or a part of his work.

Gail wrote: "Who is Betty Wetty?"

That's my point. Who is she? Who knows? So, don't worry about her rating with no review.

There are rumors that she lives in Oshkosh Wisconsin with her cat (Marbles) and likes to quilt and watch soap operas and goes to church socials. And she's starred in 645 adult films. But, that's just a rumor. The cat's name might be Howard.

You forgot to mention the Hulk, M.L. Dwayne smash.

Because ratings and reviews are nothing but opinions. Do you feel you should have to explain yourself every time you like or dislike something? If you go to a restaurant and you're not happy with your meal, are you required to explain to the cook why you didn't like it? If you go to a movie and you don't care for it, are you required to review it? Are you required to speak to the movie theater manager about why you didn't like it? Of course not. Why should books be any different? Readers have the option of saying, "I loved it" or "I hated it" and shouldn't have to go any further than that, unless they want to. They don't even have to convey that much. They have the right and freedom to read a book and toss it aside and never tell anyone what they thought of it.

Personally, sometimes I leave a star rating with no review on books I read years ago and can recall liking / disliking them, but cannot recall enough detail as to why. Sometimes I rate and don't review just because I don't want to take the time to explain it.

I don't have an exact reason Goodreads doesn't require a review with a rating, other than what I speculated earlier. I don't see an issue with it, however. If I am looking at reviews for a book and I see Betty Wetty gave it three stars and didn't explain why, I don't really care. I don't know her and her rating is meaningless to me. It's probably the same for most readers. They gloss past the ratings and move on to the real reviews.

And you have a one star rating with no reason for it. It happens to all of us. It's best to move on and not dwell on it. Did you decide to become a writer so you could please that one reader? Is their one star rating going to crush your spirit and keep you from writing? If so, you have a piss poor reason for writing. It's one person who wasn't happy with your work. It's not worth worrying about. Keep writing for the ones who gave you three, four, and five star ratings with reviews.

Twain, Shakespeare, and Dickens never wrote a book that pleased everyone. You won't, either.

I was actually kidding when I said "Ouch". Everyone is entitled to their opinions on such things. When confronted by pet peeves others have with writing, I just think, "Does anyone I respect do this thing that bothers some writers / readers" and if the answer is yes, I keep doing it.

Shakespeare. Most every play I can think of by The Bard used the name of a major character as the title.

Phillip wrote: "Also bad are the title simply being the name of a character or a location. So unoriginal."

Ouch.

All fifty-some of my titles are still there and always have been. Whenever I've had to deal with Amazon, I've used patience and kindness. It can go a long way if done right.

Faith wrote: "Volume to 11."

*thumbs up*

Monkey Man

Yes. Taco Bell is huge. Remember, one day, according to Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man, all restaurants will be Taco Bell.

M.L. wrote: "Thanks! I guess it's write what I know. :) Who is Taco John?"

I assumed it was a nation-wide Tex-Mex chain. Your comment made me go look it up. Turns out it's only a Midwest / Mountain state chain and Iowa (where I am) seems to have the most of them.

I'm intrigued. Very. I love this blurb! The best thing about it? The book sounds nothing like anything anyone else is doing right now. And it's something that is totally relatable. Bravo!

No. Taco Bravo!

No. That was a Taco John's thing, not Taco Bell.

Roy wrote: "a link"

Links aren't allowed.
Hijacking threads is not allowed (and really rude).
And your link didn't work, anyway.

Please read over the rules before posting again. Thanks.

Tristan wrote: "

I'm not sure why, but this is the second post like this I'm having to delete from a place where it never should have been posted in the first place.

Both of these were in a folder that is clearly marked as news about our website and a place were only moderators are allowed to post. Are you a moderator? Are you posting about SIA social media or the web site? No. You're promoting a book.

We don't allow book promotions here. I'm not sure why people are joining this group and thinking it's okay to just plop their self-promotions anywhere they'd like. Please! When you join a group, get to understand the function of the group and try to understand not every group is set up for you to promote your books.

It's also not the place to beg for reviews. Stop it.

Michael wrote: "Can anyone suggest ..."

I would suggest, Michael, that when you play around on social media, you get to understand the place where you're playing. When you join a group on Goodreads, get to know the group, read the rules, read the rules... read the rules! Instead of waltzing in and plopping your post willy-nilly, find out if what you're doing is appropriate for the group.

I'm deleting this for...
*Links. We don't allow links.
*Self-promotion of several kinds. We don't allow any kind.
*Begging for reviews. Don't do that here.

The only part I liked is how you started your post asking where an author is welcome to promote, then went ahead and promoted without even giving a fig if it was okay here.

It's not.

J. wrote: "I've been putting together a youtube channel for indie authors... is it self-promotion to link the videos? I mean, I know that is self-promotion, but the code of conduct specifically focuses on not..."

Self-promotion is self-promotion. The very first line in that rule is, "No self promotion of any kind." It's hard to get around that. Yes, some of the examples I added were about books, because that's the most common kind of self-promotion we deal with. But, notice the words "of any kind". That includes all kinds of self-promotion, even if you are self-promoting a YouTube channel and you claim it is for the benefit of other authors. It is still your channel and you are still promoting it. You may have missed the line that says, " Links to personal websites, blogs, signatures listing your books or services, social media, emails, other Goodreads groups, or anything else that could be considered self-promotion is forbidden." Your YouTube channel would be a part of "anything else that could be considered self-promotion".

And as Tomas pointed out, we don't allow links of any kind.