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

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

Comment deleted.

NO LINKS!!

And why would you want to share a link to a potential spammer / scam artist, anyway? No one wants to contact them.

No links, please. Not even sausage or golf.

And to Peter, 99.9% likely to be a scam of some kind. Don't respond.

"World's Deadliest Shark Attack" and follow it with "Doo doo doo doo doo doo..."

The second subtitle works better.

I don't recall ever getting anything from an author other than books. That's really all I expect.

Although, I admit, I might check out an author if I found their name in a fortune cookie.

Benard wrote: "My Name is Kelly Williams from Canada, i turn to a vampire any time i want to..."

Then you suck. Stop spamming our group. Thanks.

Benard wrote: "Spam spam spam lovely spam..."

I hate spam.

Benard wrote: "i get what ever a want. "

No you don't. Comment deleted.

Mallory,

No matter what you do, someone isn't going to like it. If the first book really does work as a stand alone, I would keep doing what you're doing. We all get negative reviews. Don't let them throw you.

Slaughterhouse Five uses spaces and asterisks, like Tracey suggested. No italics.

EVERYTHING IN THE PRESENT MUST BE IN CAPITAL LETTERS AND BOLDED

Eeitvynrhg in the psat can be izaictelid, and you msut caghne the oderr of the lteerts in ecah wrod. And it all sohlud be ulerindned. Good lcuk.

What you're doing should be good enough. If you're indicating the year at the beginning of each section, the italics might be overkill.

Jane wrote: "Ben Starn. Jedi Knight in the works. Or not.... "

I know you love blurbs with as few words as possible, but I'm afraid this one would lead to a lot of one stars from people expecting a Star Wars story instead of one about a bunch of kids in a summer camp.

First thought, we're not here to promote our work. I'm removing your link.

Second thought, we're not here to discuss negative reviews. But, I'll address it and then lock the thread.

Some "skim read" your book? So what? At least they gave it a try. Often times, a glance is all that is needed to determine if one wants to read a book or not. It's not always necessary to read a full book to decide if you like it or not.

Negative reviews are nothing but an opinion. It does not mean your book is terrible. It does not mean you suck as a writer.

Best to move on, keep writing, and let this person have their opinion. It's not worth fretting over.

John wrote: "Sounds great.

I have never heard of that game, but it wouldn't bother me, except for the word "undetected" which broke the flow and made me think what this game could be like..."

I may have to figure out how to reword that part. Ben thinks he won the game undetected and thinks it was due to his use of The Force. It doesn't have anything to do with the game itself.

M.L. wrote: "Read all the threads in this folder and SIA Investigate as well so you'll be aware of not only marketing but all the scams around."

Right. There's already a ton of threads with specifics about marketing. I'm freezing this one. Malcolm, please read the existing folders and threads and realize that a) No advice about marketing is going to work for all authors and b) Without knowing you or anything specific about your writing, no one is going to be able to give you the exact advice you need.

No self-promotion and you posted in an area that is for moderators only.

Punctuation needs work.

The word "basically" is unnecessary and makes the sentence clumsy.

Aside from that, it seems appropriate for the genre.

He's twelve in this one.

Capture the Flag is a simple game that used to be played a lot back when I was a kid. You divide into two teams of six or more players. Each team plants a flag at each end of the course and then tries to capture the other team's flag. If you get tagged, you go into "jail" until a team mate "rescues" you. Maybe it's not that popular anymore. I'll have to see what I can do with that line.

It's the summer of 1980. After seeing The Empire Strikes Back a whopping three times, young Ben Starn is convinced The Force is real and he's destined to become a Jedi Knight. How else can you explain how this boy, who is not an athlete, won a game of Capture the Flag undetected?

There is a bigger problem looming, however. The boys' shower house at Camp Pike Lake has been raided and vandalized. Ben is determined to use The Force to exact revenge on the girls. Can he do so without letting himself go to the Dark Side?

Or is he, as his friends say, a dork for thinking Star Wars is real?

Noor wrote: "Just popping in to say, against the common opinion it seems, that I do believe there's such a thing as too much editing, or editing that can suck the life out of a story."

I wouldn't say that's against the common opinion. At some point the editing does need to stop, yes.

Then if you truly have the heart and passion for writing, you shouldn't mind doing rewrite after rewrite until you come up with a book that not only you love, but will please a majority of your readers.

I will tell you, though, that middle line "That people should like my stories no matter what" is a lot of crap. There are people who can't stand the greatest writers that ever lived. No book will be loved by everyone.