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

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

Every word of Owen Meany's dialogue in A Prayer for Owen Meany is in caps. I love it.

Just browsed your reviews here on Goodreads. They are much more compelling than your blurb. You might mine them for some solid ideas on how to describe your book. Going by them, it sounds like your book is pretty good and enjoyable. Let that out in your blurb.

Also, with it being a romantic comedy, you definitely need to either hint at romance or humor. It's a guess that the "frustrated working mother" and the "handsome stranger" are going to hook up, but it needs to be clearer.

It's very short and I'm not getting any real sense of character or story here. Give the reader a taste of who the main character is and what she's dealing with. What is she keeping quiet? Why is she struggling with her sanity?

Closing this thread as it's getting off topic and discussions about reviews like this are against the group policy, anyway.

Write a good book. Write another. And another. Eventually, you'll get reviews.

I agree with Michael and B.A. What you quoted were not his thoughts, but the narrator telling us what he's thinking. If you were to show his actual thoughts, italics would be enough. The asterisks are overkill.

J.M.K. wrote: "Author's review should be allowed and authors and others should be able to comment if a review is abusive or totally out of context."

If authors were given the power to determine what reviews are abusive, I'm guessing it would lead to some authors shouting "abuse" every time they had a negative review. And if a reviewer misses the context of the book, is that their fault or the fault of the author? Best that authors stick to writing and let Amazon police their own web site.

Terry wrote: "Newbie here. Is there a way to list upcoming book releases?"

Not in this group. This is a support group where we discuss marketing strategies, writing techniques, etc. We don't sell our books to one another.

Sama wrote: "..."

Uh uh. Nope. Not here. Go. Go on. Get.

NOTE: This thread was started some time ago, back when we allowed links. We no longer allow links. Feel free to comment, but please do not include links. Thanks.

It's dry. It reads like a book report. I'd like to see you breathe some life into it. Give us a real taste of who the characters are. At first it felt as if the story was about Thomas and Edward II, but the real story seems to be Roana venturing from the monastery. Maybe don't spend so much time setting us up for a war story if the main focus is on the rebellious nun.

B.A. wrote: "As to the swearing, if it fits the character, fine, but don't have every character swear every time the open their mouths. "

Agreed. When I'm writing something that will have profanity, I not only have some characters swear and some who don't, but I also pay attention to how often they swear, how strong their language, the reason they swear, etc. It helps reveal character. This one swears a lot because he thinks it makes him seem tough. This one swears once in a while, only if it serves to make him seem funnier. This one doesn't swear because his parents have him believing profanity leads you straight to hell.

"For those who cite the classic literature, they haven't read much if they haven't read authors who use vernacular used or swearing in their writing. It is there."

Shakespeare loved to slip dirty jokes in. "By my life, this is my lady’s hand. These be her very c’s, her u’s, and her t’s, and thus makes she her great P’s. It is in contempt of question her hand." ~ Malvolio Twelfth Night

Jay wrote: "I’m back again to annoy you. Sorry."

I removed your post because it was off topic. Instead of offering to help motivate the poster with emails, as she is asking, you went on your usual "you can't write and you need to read these books" rant.

I've told you many times you can PM me or Ann if you want to discuss your issues with me or all the ways I hurt your feelings. You have stated numerous times you can't PM anyone. I have a hard time believing that. I honestly believe you hang out here to be annoying.

And, yes, the "good golly" thing was an exaggeration. Realistically, I can't imagine a small-town mid-west "tough" kid in the eighties refraining from using some dirty talk. "Oh, darn it! You jerk, you hit my head with a rock! Dang it, I'll beat you up for that!" sounds too timid.

There are readers who abhor swearing in a novel. There are readers who want it. There are readers who don't really care. There have been some best selling authors who wrote clean. There are some best selling authors who write dirty. Best that we can do is stay true to our own vision. Some people love how I handle dialogue. Some can't stand it. I'm okay with that.

I'm the same way, Bill. I grew up around people who never swore, sure, but most everyone I knew swore at least once in a while. When I worked as a roguer as a teenager, all you heard from some kids was profanity. So, when I wrote my second novel about a team of teenagers roguing corn, I could not imagine them all saying things like, "Well, good golly. You silly ninny, you hit my head with a rock. I'll be jingle wingled if I don't pound your fanny for that."

I read a comment here earlier about older literature having no swearing. I'm guessing that was the publishers' doing in many cases.

From the film Misery, based on the novel by Stephen King:

Annie Wilkes:
It's the swearing, Paul. It has no nobility.

Paul Sheldon:
These are slum kids, I was a slum kid. Everybody talks like that.

Annie Wilkes:
THEY DO NOT! At the feed store do I say, "Oh, now Wally, give me a bag of that F-in' pig feed, and a pound of that bitchly cow corn"? At the bank do I say, "Oh, Mrs. Malenger, here is one big bastard of a check, now give me some of your Christ-ing money!" THERE, LOOK THERE, NOW SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!

“Oh… well, about Life being a game and all. And how you should play it according to the rules. He was pretty nice about it. I mean he didn’t hit the ceiling or anything. He just kept talking about Life being a game and all. You know.”

-- Holden Caulfield, The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger

So you are in contact with all their other authors and they're all telling you they're happy. Now I'm not sure why you're asking if all this is normal. You seem to be okay with it.

If I put all the work into something and someone else was refusing to tell me how they were selling it and I wasn't allowed to see the sales figures, I'd feel pretty taken.