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

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

JAKe wrote: "Question about a person that seems to have made a claim to have posted on this thread - that would be Janice_The_Review_Girl. Is this person real? I did not see a post from her on this thread and I..."

I removed her post because it was self-promoting, it was off topic, and because it wasn't the first time I've seen a post by a "reviewer" that was worded exactly the way that post was. When I try to look at her profile, it's set to private. It all seems suspect. Approach with caution.

I've only contacted them a couple of times and both times they got back to me within 48 hours. That's been a while. Hopefully someone can give you a more definite answer.

Right. Yeah. I would steer clear of anyone who is asking for payment for a review. They know most Indies are desperate for reviews and will do almost anything to get one. Save your money.

First paragraph: Poetic, though heavy with cliches. It doesn't tell me a thing about the story within your pages, only some ideas about what love is. Without the context of the story, I'm not feeling drawn in.

Second paragraph: It sounds like it could be an interesting tale, but the paragraph is so rushed. There's a few sentences here and there that come across as meaningless, such as, "She is plagued by unanswered questions." About what? In one paragraph, Mary's life goes from a daily struggle (with what?), her life is turned on its head (not even sure what that means), and then becomes a living hell. It feels like you're cramming most of your book into one paragraph. Give us just enough to get us interested. Don't tell us the whole story in the blurb.

Since it is the character speaking, GPA is probably better as most people use the acronym instead of saying "grade point average". It really depends on your character. I suppose if you're really concerned about readers being confused, you could say "...on school, on my grades, and..."

Kitty, I removed your link. It's fine to seek help on your blurb here, but please don't include links or attempt to sell it here. This is a support group, not a marketplace. Thanks.

And I haven't officially welcomed you to the fun world of SIA moderation, yet. So, welcome. And if you need anything, let me know.

When I typed in my own name and New York Times Bestseller, it crashed my computer. So, yeah, it seems to work.

“Someone’s gotta bore today’s youth with John Milton. I didn’t want to be the one, but they said they’d pay me, so here we are.”

Ben Starn
Night Owls (Not yet published)

There are a few places around the 'Net where you can search the New York Times bestseller lists, past and present. Some of them are not complete or haven't been updated in a while. Doing a Google search on the author / book title / New York Times Bestseller seems to be a good way to verify, too.

C. wrote: "Hi, I am a member of..."

You'd have to go to that group to ask the question you're asking. Recommending your book is against the rules of this group. I have no idea what the rules are in the other group. You say you're a member, so why not look up their rules or ask one of their moderators?

M.L. wrote: "That's funny.

"My Life as a Goodreads Moderator" by . . . :) "

I've already touched on it in one of my books. The title is... oh, wait. I can't do that. Well, the link is... no, I can't do that. You can buy it at... oh, never mind.

Kevin wrote: "Even though a moderator just put a reminder about the rules above my post, I chose to ignore it and post whatever I wanted."

Sigh.

NOTE: Keep in mind, this isn't a thread to try to sell your books. No links, please. No sales pitches. Thanks.

Let's say you go to a brand new restaurant and you order a lasagna. The cook, on his first day of the job, is so proud of his food that he can't wait to get it to you. So, he boils up the noodles and sends them out one at a time. Then he sends you some sauce. Then some cheese. Also, he sends out raw meat with the promise he'll cook it eventually. That is what you're doing with your book. Finish your product before putting it out there. I write a lot of short stories and those are sometimes hard to give away for free. I can't imagine anyone being all that interested in reading a chapter of a book that isn't done yet, even for free, especially if you're putting them out there unedited.

Another thing to consider is, if anyone has taken the first chapter or two, they better be top notch writing and better be intriguing or you're not likely going to see anyone come back for the second.

One more thing. When people take free stories, they're a whole lot less likely to even read it than they are if they pay for it.

I tend to let my short stories go for free from time to time. With novels, I reduce the price now and then and push it fairly heavily on one social media or another for about a month. Whenever I do things like this, I'll see sales on other stories as well.

Slithering poopy pie. Yum.

From an up and coming little something-something I call Night Owls:

"Dragonflies flitting around, their wangs clacking as they went."

Well, let's look at a few facts. You have only one book out and it's only been out a few months. You have one review (that I could find) and by the numbers I found I'd say your book is not selling super well. (This is not a dig at you, many of us struggle with sales and have few reviews). So, who is creating this buzz they are allegedly hearing?

At the very best, it's a vanity press. More than likely it's a scam. I wouldn't respond to it. Legit publishers don't send out messages like that. They don't need to.

Stephanie wrote: "Check out these amazing titles:

No thanks. But, hey, I have some reading material for you! Check out our code of conduct and see how many rules you've broken. Go on...

Both surnames are fine, but your daughter has a point. Going with your maiden name seems the better plan.

Personally, I'd go with Dawn instead of D.J. Seems to be a huge trend for authors to go by their initials. I know it's been done for a long, long time, but it seems as soon as Rowling hit the scene, more and more authors are going by their initials. To me, author names are starting to look like alphabet soup. I might be in a minority on this. I've never been a fan of acronyms, either.