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

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

The official word from Goodreads is this: "Deleting published books from our system is against policy. Goodreads is striving to be a complete database of all published works, including works that are out-of-print. We like our members to be able to add their exact edition to their virtual shelves. Just as a library would not remove a record from its catalog, so do we not remove books from our database.

"However, if your book was never published and never will be published, we might be able to remove it. Please contact us."

You could still give it a shot, but don't be surprised if you don't get anywhere.

As for your other concerns, Goodreads has been and always will be more reader friendly than author friendly. Yes, there are groups like ours set up for authors, but the site in general is meant for readers. Goodreads makes no promises that your presence here will show any increase in sales. At the same time, it can't hurt. Few people have had any real success in ad campaigns on Goodreads, as far as I've heard.

Savvy readers understand that the reviews on Goodreads hold little weight. Anyone can pretend they've read a book and offer their two-bit opinion on it. It's easy to create fake accounts and make fake reviews on your own book (It's stupid, but desperate authors do it). It's common to see people get their friends and family to review their books. Serious readers don't need that and tend to avoid reviews on Goodreads for that reason.

Customer support here has always been January molasses speed, at best. I doubt it will ever improve.

M.L. wrote: "As far as reviews in general, it was--although I don't see it recently--often said around here, SIA, that reviews do not sell books. However the perception still persists that they do. But how many people buy a book based on the review?"

Heh. Well, Christina was a firm believer in this and she's, sadly, no longer around. I believe it, too, and still say it now and then. It doesn't seem to do anything to cool Indies from still obsessing over getting reviews, lamenting when someone trashes their book in a review, etc. This does fit into my belief that Prairie Reviews (even if they are legit) aren't really worth the price. IF reviews really do help, I would suspect that only in-depth, well thought out reviews would be the most helpful. That doesn't seem to be what they offer.

James wrote: "Hi all..."

Please review our rules. No links, no self-promotion, no asking for reviews, etc. Thanks.

Avira,

Testimonials on their web site does not mean they are legit. It wouldn't be difficult to produce fake testimonials. I'm not saying they are doing this, I'm saying it's possible. Even if they are real, it could be for every positive testimonial they get, they get twenty negative ones. I did not say they scam anyone. I said their tactics are similar to people who scam Indie authors. It is a general rule of thumb for many Indies to be wary of anyone who approaches you, tells you they are interested in your book without giving specifics, then asks you for money. Forty dollars is their cheapest package and it only gets you 140 words or so. That's not much. And as stated, the sample review they sent me was basically a blurb for the book with a lot of flowery phrases, but nothing of any real substance. One can write a review like that about any book without having to read it first.

I have never read Moby Dick. Here is a review I just wrote, based on just reading the blurb: "Moby Dick is a famous and classic novel by Herman Melville. Ishmeal tells a breathtaking tale of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, who seeks revenge on his nemesis Moby Dick, a great white whale that took Ahab’s leg in a previous encounter. This epic adventure is set on the high seas and is filled with colorful characters and nail biting situations that will have any reader on the edge of their seat. Readers will delight at the detail of not only hunting whales, but will also learn about extracting oil and life aboard a sea-faring vessel with a diverse crew. You will be immersed into Ahab’s world and you will feel as if you are being tossed upon the high seas as you hunt down that terror of the ocean known as Moby Dick."

That's roughly one hundred thirty words and roughly as shallow as the sample they sent. Again, I am not saying they are a scam, but they are charging a lot for very little service because they know Indies are desperate for attention and they're ready to take advantage.

I have two short stories in the works that are somewhat connected, though they work as stand-alones as well.

The first is "Birch Cabin Strikes Back" in which Ben Starn (some of my readers will know the character - he is my alter ego) is attending a church camp in 1980. The second is "Night Owls" in which Ben is now a counselor at the same camp in 1998. The stories are clean (for me) and probably mildly PG rated. Despite the setting, they are not Christian fiction. Both contain plenty of rule breaking and some irreverent humor.

I'm especially needing help in one area of "Night Owls". The story is told in a non-linear fashion and I need to be sure it makes sense.

Send me a PM if you are interested. If you have any questions, you can ask them in this thread. Thanks!

Do so at your own risk, Avira. I have no way of knowing if they are legit or not, but they are definitely pricey. I do have hesitations dealing with anyone that approaches me with the generic "I recently looked at your book..." and they give no details as to which book they looked over. Many scam artists use that approach, so if they are legit, they probably should rethink how they solicit for business.

Robert wrote: "I am always hoping to get more reviews - legitimate ones - but it's not easy finding people who are willing to read my titles and review them."

I don't crave reviews. I like them when I get them. Like you, I prefer them to be legitimate and organic. I'll take a two or three star review from an actual reader any day over a phony sounding five star review. I want potential readers to have honest opinions to work with when they're considering buying my books.

T.L. wrote: "If I may leave this here..."

No links and no self promotion. Thank you.

Robert,

I was just contacted by the same group who contacted you. Probably the same message. Here was my response to them:

"I've heard of your organization. Several members of a goodreads group I moderate have asked if you're legit or not. I'm not sure of that, but I will say I do advise against paying such steep prices for a review. The sample review you sent is pretty fluffy, meandering, repetitive, and doesn't give me much to sink my teeth into. It's basically a blurb for the book with a lot of syrup added in. I'll continue to advise against your services and thank you not to contact me further."

In other words, I wouldn't pay a dollar for the sample review they sent. I've had better reviews from actual readers. The review of the book they sent me was basically a blurb for the book with a lot of window dressing around it and no substance.

I'll continue to caution members of this group against a service like this.

Thanks for all the responses. I've got my answer. It seems that people overwhelmingly like the tagline, so it will be part of the cover.

I appreciate all the suggestions and agree it looks better in black and will find a better font for it.

Not overly concerned about it being too small. I've never given into the notion that everything on the cover needs to be big enough to be seen clearly even in the smallest image of the cover. Even at a tiny, tiny size, I can still see the image is of people sitting on a dock and I can still read the title. I think that should be enough to pique some interest. Taglines are rare in the genre I write and when you do see them, they're usually very small. Same goes with centering a title and the author name. Yes, it is done in my genre, but it's not uncommon to see titles and author names off center.

Thanks again!

Get a free copy now."

No thanks. Please familiarize yourself with the rules of the group.

Phillip wrote: "Literary Fiction?"

That would be my guess, too. Stefanie, can you give a little more detail about the plot, the setting, etc.? As it is, it sounds like general or literary fiction.

Character names are not copyrighted. They can be trademarked if the work is named for the character (such as Edward Scissorhands and Mary Poppins). Also, secondary characters can be trademarked in cases of merchandising.

bill wrote: "Frankly I'm confused. It could be that I had joined the wrong group as I'm not sure what kind of questions would be needed to ask the moderator. Is that the only purpose of this group?"

The group exists for a number of reasons and we've been over this several times in the past, bill. The last time you even said you were quitting as you didn't understand what the group is for and didn't care for how we moderate it. This is a support group for Indie authors as the name indicates. Here you can discuss marketing strategy, get advice on your writing, get feedback on blurbs and covers, etc. It's not really a place to vent your frustrations with Amazon.

Well, since this thread is for asking questions of the moderator (hence the title of the thread), I'm not sure why you'd discuss all this here. When I get a notification saying someone has commented here, I expect to find questions about Support for Indie Authors. Support for Indie Authors doesn't run Amazon.

I'm sorry you guys are having trouble with Amazon, but the moderators of Support for Indie Authors have no say over the training of the customer service reps at Amazon.

Well, Leon, you suck. At least, there will likely be someone out there that thinks so. Maybe dozens. Hundreds! And there will likely be just as many (or more) who love your work.

There is one person you can strive to satisfy and that is yourself. It also helps to pass your book onto people who like more or less the same kind of books you like to write. They'll help you find problems you might miss on your own or encourage you in areas you might doubt.

If your passion for writing is strong enough and, especially, if you truly enjoy what you're writing, the self-doubt should melt away sooner or later.

Be warned of something that is likely going to happen in the future. You'll be writing along and maybe you get to your fourth or fifth book and for fun you go back and read over something you wrote three years ago and find it's not as good as you remembered. This doesn't mean you're a bad writer, it means you're growing.

Like this:

Boyd wrote: "I like it with the tag lines. It does add a good amount of intrigue. Worth the sacrifice."

Thanks Boyd!

Tomas wrote: "Seeing it on a monitor does not give me a good enough perspective, but...
is the tagline font large enough to be legible - or to not blend into the background on a small preview in internet stores?..."

You are right. It is hard to read in smaller scale. I have looked at this cover in all kinds of ways (it looks fabulous in gray scale!) and the tagline does kind of almost disappear and becomes difficult to read. But, I see that on a lot of books, so I'm not worried about it. I don't want to make it bigger. I found this image and it matches a key scene in my story almost exactly so I don't want to block it up with a lot of text.

M.L. wrote: "I like it both with or without the tagline. With tagline, gives the reader something to come back and look at, try to see what it says, even if it's small."

I'm hoping the black image against that bright orange will attract some attention and make people click to learn more.

Here's the cover of a short story I'm working on. I'm pretty sold on the whole thing except one minor detail. I don't usually put taglines on my covers, but thought maybe I'd try it with this one. I think it helps create some intrigue about the story. I also feel it clutters up the image a little too much. Any thoughts?