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

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

I've never done Nano Nano and don't really want to. But, as it's about half over for this year, I do have a special message for those of you who are hard at it.

This just in, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. -- Chevy Chase

THIS JUST IN, GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO FRANCO IS STILL DEAD. GOOD NIGHT AND HAVE A PLEASANT TOMORROW. -- Garrett Morris

Another reminder... it isn't a good idea to share your email address publicly. You're inviting spam bots to your door. It would be better to send a PM to Wanjiru with your email address.

You make a good point, B.A. But, you've read enough of my work to know that I don't write for the easily distracted. I have always liked chapter titles and I enjoy using them.

John Irving just posted the following on Facebook:

Dear Readers,

I’ve just titled the 37th chapter of my novel-in-progress, Darkness as a Bride. I love titling my chapters — if you look at my past novels, you’ll see I’ve always done it. My predilection for chapter titles is yet another influence of those 19th century novels I love. Moby-Dick has 135 chapters, all of them titled. Chapter titles are not just a writerly quirk.

A novel develops in units; chapters, to me, are like mini-novels, with their own architecture. When you put a name to each unit of the story, the reader can recall the most salient aspects of each section. I hope something of each chapter’s architecture is suggested in its title, and the architecture of the novel as a whole becomes more tangible with the accumulation of chapter titles.

Among my favorites in the 37 chapters I now have:
"Smallness as a Burden"
"The Snowshoer Kiss"
"What the Stone Sparrows Saw"
"I Saw Me in Your Eyes"
"My Second Most Unmarriageable Girlfriend"
"Where Have the Bananas Gone?"
And, because I’m writing a ghost story, "Melancholic Enough."

These titles say something about my main character, Adam, and parts of the narrative can be gleaned from them. A reader might think of them as signposts along the journey.

Each time I write a novel, I try to have one chapter title that contains a semicolon. I like this title from Darkness because I managed to sneak in two semicolons: "A Little Behind Girls Her Age, Socially; Definitely Ahead of; Definitely Behind." Well, my thing for semicolons may be just another influence of those 19th century novels I love. It’s certainly more than a quirk!

— John

Suggestion for Matt and anyone else that replies: Contact Laura via PM instead of posting your email. This is a public forum and you're inviting spam bots to your door. Thanks.

James wrote: """

No links. Thanks.

J.S. wrote: "I think I saw something somewhere about old unused GR accounts being hijacked..."

And that's a direct quote.

Matthew wrote: "I have a number of people who have marked my book 'to read'...should I be engaging with those people?"

No. Some readers won't mind, but it will be a huge turn off to most.

Matthew wrote: "I'd like to give them a chance to interact if they wanted to, maybe ask me about the book to help decide if they want to read it."

I checked your profile and you are set up to receive questions. If a reader feels they need to ask you about your book, they will. No need to pressure them into it. Keep in mind, when someone marks our books as "to read", the reader is merely saying the book looks interesting at the moment. It's not a sign of strong interest and many won't ever get around to reading it. If they do, it could be weeks or even years before they do.

If I haven't convinced you yet, consider this: You're on Goodreads only because you like to read books. You're not a writer, you're here to chat with other readers and learn about books of which you weren't previously aware. So, someone tells you on some forum about a book you might like and you go and mark it "to read". Someone else tells you about another book and you do the same. After some time, you have a few dozen books marked as such.

Now, you start getting friend requests and messages from the authors of the books you've marked, all wanting to talk to you about their books and wanting you to ask questions. How likely are you to read all those books after this? Are you going to take those author friendship requests as actual requests for friendship, or are you going to know that they're really only interested in trying to get you to buy their book?

I had something similar happen. I was recently working on a short story in which the main character had recently separated from his wife. The reason for the separation was that she wanted children and he wasn't ready. The story takes place in 1998.

Thanks to one of my wonderful betas (who is also a wonderful mod named Dan) he caught the grave error in this. This wasn't the first time I'd written about this character and Dan remembered that in another story, he and his wife were eagerly trying to have children shortly after their marriage in 1995.

I like challenges like that, though.

Kathleen wrote: "A note to all:..."

Please don't hijack other's threads. And no links, please. Thanks.

Wanjiru wrote: "Did anybody receive one for $20-35 a review? If so, is that legit?"

Probably not.

Wanjiru wrote: "Oh, Darn it! No nonfiction? Why are nonfiction Indies kicked to the corner time?"

Which is one reason we don't allow people to self-promote stuff like this. Clearly she's not willing to help all Indies, but ones that write the things she likes.

Annalise wrote: "Hello! "

No self-promotion, no links. Please review the code of conduct.

Thomas wrote: "Just came across a new wrinkle on this sort of scam. The email I got was allegedly from goodreads via "A New Question for the Author" ... Pretty slick email too ...
But there was one problem. There was no such question in my dashboard.
So beware requests like this:
"You have 1 new question awaiting response

Jennifer asked
Hi, If you are looking for reviews for your newest book, I am willing to read and review it. Will you please send me a review copy to XXXX@gmail.com? I accept epub, mobi and pdf formats. I am also available as a beta reader. Please email me your queries at XXXX@gmail.com. I don't login to Goodreads often. Jennifer P.S. I don't have a Kindle Unlimited account."

A search for the email only turns up additional suspected scam comments."

I'm deleting your comment due to the email addresses, but quoted the whole thing as it is good to know. This is a message that many of us have received in recent months. Thanks for alerting us that they're now targeting our Questions Asked (or whatever it's called) portion of our home pages.

Catherine wrote: "...the hardest thing to self-publish must be literary fiction."

I would agree with that, since most of what I write is literary fiction and it's very difficult to find an audience. Readers of literary fiction, I believe, are the hardest skeptics against Indie published work and the hardest to convince to give a new guy a try. That and literary fiction just isn't much in demand these days. Readers are far more interested in genre fiction right now.

But, I enjoy writing it and continue to plug away at it in hopes that some day the tastes of the average reader will change.

Anna Faversham wrote: "It's as Dwayne says, 'it's down to self-published authors to create something fresh and to write out of boundaries'."

It was Tomas that said that. I agree with him, though.

Tomas wrote: "Thus, while it might be a bit exaggerated, it's down to self-published authors to create something fresh and to write out of boundaries - because we don't bear the investment of printing piles of copies which are a money-sink and a burden at once."

This. Very much this.

Don't write like the trad writers. Be free from those shackles.

And if fame and fortune are what you're after... keep in mind, no author is ever celebrated for following the pack. The most glorified authors are the ones who took a big chance and did something different.

Adding another comment. I read the blurb you're using now and it makes far more sense than this one. It could possibly use a little minor tweaking, but at least I was able to follow it and get a clearer idea of what the story is about.

Agreeing with Jeremy. I can't find a story in this. I'll go through it line by line and give you my feedback.

A 50,000 year old heir to the throne of Athos is fixated on selling his knowledge of a port to another universe. Already I'm lost. The heir is fifty thousand years old? How does one sell their knowledge? Why would he want to sell his knowledge? I'm hoping the rest of the blurb clears this up. It doesn't.

A couple on the verge of divorce are caught in the tornado of his obsession. Why? Who? How?

They desperately want to get back to Earth, but their new captain has other plans. Who wants to get back to earth? The heir? The couple? What captain? Captain of what?

The shared threat causes Cal and Judy Pierson to realize how much they still love each other. I'm assuming this is the couple that wants to divorce, but I don't know what they're being threatened with. The heir wanting to sell his knowledge? The captain making plans? What is the threat?

Whether it’s attempting to harvest Judy’s eggs to adjust a planets genetic diversity, or just outright trying to kill them both, they must keep focused. It's at this point I gave up the first time I tried reading it and started over. If I were thinking of buying your book, it's at this point I would pass. I am so confused. What are they focused on? Harvesting the eggs or killing themselves? Or is someone trying to kill them? Or is someone harvesting Judy's eggs?

Their forced tour brings them to many unique planets and ports, but attempts to stop their new crewmate are foiled at every turn. And now someone is being forced to tour planets and ports. Who's new crew mate are we talking about now? Who is trying to stop the crew mate? What are his plans? Everyone in this story seems to have some kind of vague plans, but none of them are being explained.

The captain thinks nothing of killing anyone that gets in his way, so they need to tread lightly. Getting in his way of what? Who needs to tread lightly? The crew mate? The couple? The heir? All of this feels so disconnected, like there's at least five plots going on and none of them seem to have anything to do with each other.

The only way they’re going to survive is by working together, with the hope their only friend in the universe, an inspector appointed by the President of the Federation, is still on their heels. What?

Like Jeremy said, focus on the main plot. Let us see who the main character is. What is at stake?

There are two major issues here: 1) You're writing it to yourself and since you already know who the heir is, who the captain is, etc. it's not bothering you that nothing is explained about the plot or the characters. You have to remember you're writing this to get someone interested who might never have heard of your book before, so things need to be explained clearly. 2) You're in love with your book so much you want to gush it all out into the blurb. It feels as if you're trying to condense your entire book into a few sentences. All we need is a strong telling of what the story will be, not a lot of brief hints.