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

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

Amelia wrote: "Recent feedback left me too scared to revise my novel. I haven't given up on it but I just don't have the heart to edit (after all, I wrote as a means of therapy, not to make money)."

Okay, you wrote it as therapy and not to make money, but you did publish it. At some point you decided it was not just therapy, but a product and you wanted to make some money off it. You got some negative feedback. Now you don't have the heart to edit. That's fine. Maybe writing for an audience is not your thing. There's nothing wrong with deciding to keep your writing to yourself, if that's what makes you more comfortable. I love to sing, but I do not sing in front of other people.

"I'm procrastinating but the truth is I'm too scared and scarred to even write a word. Reading my "improved" first chapter feels so boring compared to the first chapter I wrote out of enthusiasm."

Forgive me if I'm a little hazy on the details here. I believe you once stated you hadn't taken any classes on how to write, hadn't read any books on the art of writing, etc. Correct? Then you're still trying to put the cart before the horse. You wrote a book that wasn't ready for publication, published it, and let the negative reviews get to you. Now you're trying to make something of it without learning how first. If anyone has ever told you you can be successful as an author without doing any real work, they lied to you. So, you did a rewrite and you're not happy with it. Geez, I do as many as fifteen rewrites on stories before I am happy and I've been doing this for years.

What is it that is motivating you to write? Every time you come back and post it seems you're finding this experience more and more miserable. So, why do you keep doing it? Maybe once we have that answer, we can help you figure this thing out.

N.L. wrote: "I felt I could be a bit flexible with grammar."

Perfect grammar is for term papers and legal documents. I believe writers of fiction should be allowed some flexibility. Fiction written in perfect grammar comes across as lifeless to me.

Lawrence Cartwright wrote: "OK, I'm confused. I don't understand why you want to preserve the phrase "dead enough.” I hope you don't remain attached to that bit of bad grammar. There's no scale of degrees of deadness. Dead is dead.

It reminds me of something amateurish..."

It reminds me of a line in a song. "And she's not only merely dead: She's really, most sincerely dead!" The song is from an obscure little movie called The Wizard of Oz. From what I understand, that movie has done all right, despite remaining attached to that bit of amateurish writing.

No, actually, it's called whimsy, which is how I take the line from N.L.'s blurb. The blurb makes me feel as if the book has a bit of a western lean, and it's not uncommon in westerns to take a whimsical view of death.

Author's wrote: "I have read the rules and we are trying to abide by them. Please let me know if otherwise, and we'll kindly remove this."

I guess you missed the one about self-promotion.

Oops.

The title of your thread is "publishing". Ingram Spark gets talked a lot about here. I don't have any experience with it, but you can search for other topics about it.

It's hard to find any service if we're not given the name.

Comments deleted. We don't allow talk of review swaps here.

Robert wrote: "Thanks for the answers. I see the assumption in at least one of these answers that I "have not worked hard enough" on improving my writing. Just to clarify, I've been writing for 30 years and have ..."

I'm not sure anyone here is assuming you don't work hard enough. If I missed something and that was implied, take it like you would any advice - graciously. You don't have to follow any advice here, but keep in mind, we're trying to help.

And for what it's worth, I've been at it for forty-one years and I'm still learning. Writing is one profession in which none of us will ever be perfect.

Move on. If the writing groups feel you're not the right fit, keep looking. If the judges of writing contests don't want to give you a full critique as to why they gave you a low score, accept it. (Unless, I suppose, the rules of the contest stated you would receive a full critique).

Reminder: Putting your email address in a public forum is very risky. It would be better to contact one another via PM first.

John, you could PM Samantha your email address.

M.L. wrote: "Most authors would eat thumbtacks to be where you are!"

*Ties on a bib* I'm ready.

I don't have time to look over your book, but I will offer some unsolicited advice.

Looking over your books, you're getting good ratings and reviews and I'd guess your sales are decent if not good. I did find a small handful of reviews saying the book ended too abruptly, but not enough to make me think it's a critical issue with your book. If I were you, I wouldn't bother reworking the ending to appease a small portion of your audience. After all, no matter what we write or how we write it, there will always be someone out there to criticize - and that's okay.

Reviews are meant for readers to communicate to other readers what they thought of your book. They aren't there to teach you how to write. Contacting readers is rarely a good idea. If you feel your writing is not up to par and you need instruction, you can take classes, you can join a writer's group, you can read books that instruct how to write. Publishing a book and then expecting readers to tell you how to improve is putting the cart before the horse.

M.L. wrote: "All the time swearing? Do you want to really be around those in a book?"

The only book I've written where characters swear every time they open their mouths, those are the ones the main character isn't comfortable being around. Yes, it might drive off some readers, but everything we do can drive off readers. I was doing all I could to make poor Ben feel uncomfortable with these particular people.

M.L. wrote: "No all caps for me; sounds gimmicky."

It is. And you're not alone. I've seen people complain about Owen Meany for that reason, they couldn't get past the all caps. It bothered me a little at first, but after I got into the book I stopped noticing it. I believe John Irving did it as Owen thinks of himself as an instrument of God and there are a few things in his life that parallel Jesus, so the all caps was a bit of parody / mimicking Bibles that have Jesus' words all in red.

Frances wrote: "Make sure each piece of dialogue is true/unique to each character's personality. If you can pull that off, character tags become absolute."

I wonder if you mean obsolete.

It's not a must, but if you feel your readers might want to do some research of their own, it isn't a bad idea.

Hmm... are you going for romantic here? Erotic? Both? Neither? It reads as if the narrator is an announcer sitting on the bed watching and giving us a play by play. I'd like to know more about what the characters are feeling. Mechanical sex is boring in real life and not a lot of fun to read, either.

I do my own proofreading. It's easy and it's free.

Andy wrote: "Should I be getting some kind of notification when someone rates or reviews my book? So far I have 8 ratings and 4 reviews, but I haven't been informed of any of them."

No. Goodreads never contacts you about getting reviews or ratings. When you have over fifty works published and you see your average rating has changed, it's a real fun game trying to figure out which book got a rating / review.