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

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

My internet at home has been wonky the last few days so I haven't been able to check in as much as I would like.

Kaylee, I'm sorry you're having issues. You can report the person leaving negative reviews to Goodreads, but don't expect anything to be done.

If they are, indeed, sending you hate mail, definitely report that. I could only find one negative review here on Goodreads and while it is harsh, I didn't feel the reviewer was attacking you, only your book and what they believe is your lack of skills. This happens to all of us. Don't take it personally.

Also, whether the book is still available or not is irrelevant to Goodreads. The one negative review I could find is on a book that still has the Kindle version for sale on Amazon.

At any rate, discussing negative reviews is against our code of conduct, so I'm closing this thread.

Kit wrote: "Hey all"

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the group and the rules. We're not here to solicit books to each other, nor are we here to ask for reviews.

And, frankly, there are many better ways to improve as an author than reading your reviews. Take some classes, read some books about writing, read a lot. If you're unsure if your writing is good, you shouldn't be publishing. At the very least, have some beta readers go over your book before you publish.

Thanks.

Micah wrote: "Although after reading through this thread I'm tempted to add the following to all my books:

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains stuff. If any of it offends you, that's your problem, not mine. Let's be adult about it and move on with our lives, yeah? Or, give me a 1-star review if that makes you feel better. That would be fine."

I very nearly put a satirical warning on my second novel. It's got about everything you'd expect to upset people: swearing, sexual abuse, child abuse, violence, etc. I don't seem to have a copy of that satirical warning anymore, but it ran something like, "This book contains many teenagers working in the hot sun, making them smell terrible. It contains scenes of people wasting food. Some of the characters utter impolite things like, 'shut up' and 'you're so dumb'..." and so on. If the book were meant more as a comedy, I might have gone with it, but it's meant to be more of a tragedy.

I hear ya on the "Look Inside" thing. You can get a pretty good idea of the tone of a book in the first few pages.

This has been an interesting conversation and I am wondering what divides us, making us feel the need to add a warning, or feel that it's absolutely not necessary. For me, it could be partly due to my age and the fact that I've been reading "adult" books since I was pretty young and I don't recall any of those books having warnings of any kind in them.

Which reminds me of a slightly amusing story. My parents were overly protective of me as a child and I was not allowed to watch certain shows or movies. I could read pretty much anything I wanted, however, except one book. My dad caught me with his copy of The Godfather and told me "not until you're older". I was probably thirteen or fourteen at the time. He didn't leave it at that, though. He said, "There's a scene in there where a man cuts the head off a horse and puts it in another man's bed. Do you think you should be reading something like that?" And then he proceeded to read me the passage he was referring to. A few weeks later, I snuck the book back off his shelf. As it was now forbidden territory, I couldn't wait to explore it.

I don't have a multi-step process for dialogue. I write it out as I hear it in my head, then during the editing process I think about every quote and whether it a) sounds like something someone would actually say and b) sounds like something this character in particular would say. If it comes across as stilted or unnatural in any way, I fix it.

In other words, if it sounds like writing, it's not good dialogue.

Late in the writing process, I'll even read most of the dialogue out loud and see if it flows right or not.

Leah wrote: "Do any of you include your book rating or warnings to readers as part of your book description?"

I have, but I don't any longer. I don't like doing it. For one, it's tough to do without giving spoilers. For another, I write for adults and I assume most adults can handle most anything and if they can't, they don't have to keep reading.

I love books that are boldly written and authors who don't apologize for writing that way.

Also, with some of my work if I started giving warnings of what might offend someone, I wouldn't know where to stop.

I think a lot of this extends from my teenage years when the PMRC was discussing putting warning labels on records, which always seemed so weak and stupid to me. The only good thing that came of it was Frank Zappa, Dee Snyder, and John Denver forming a weird alliance against the same cause.

Robert wrote: "If I remember right, just about all of Dracula is a series of journal entries. "

It's been years since I read it, but I think part of it was in journal entries and part in letters.

I'm working on a novel that is part epistolary and part oral history. It's told through the entries of two journals and an audio diary (the character records herself talking) and the rest is filled in with interviews.

I think diary-type novels make the "show don't tell" a lot more challenging because dairies are used to tell, not to show. Not necessarily. It all depends on the diarist. You can create a character who does more showing than telling in his /her diary. That said, while I see the point of "show don't tell", I don't treat it like a hard, fast rule.

One thing about writing a book as a diary - don't do it because you think it would be an interesting way to tell a story and try to force a story into it. Do it if it serves the story best. In my case, it's important that the reader see this tale from multiple points of view, and in this case third person feels too impersonal.

Avelyn wrote: "Self-prompty kinda things with links and stuff"

By the rules of this folder: This folder includes helpful topics on the subject of book promotions. Posts may only be started by an SIA Moderator. Member-initiated posts will be deleted. Make sure to read the rules for each thread prior to posting.

You're not a moderator. Also, your post was full of self-promotion and a link. These things are forbidden in this group.

The numbers are so close. Really, when a book is roughly 550 pages, no one's going to pay much attention if you're a few pages off. I'd probably go with 542 since that's how long the actual story is, but there's really nothing wrong with going with 552.

I reviewed descriptions of similar books including A Man Called Ove and The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out A Window...

That's not a bad idea. However, I am not seeing much connection between those books and yours, so I'm not sure why you chose them for the blurbs. I have not read those books, but from their blurbs I get the sense that they are charming, even whimsical tales of curmudgeons. Yours... I'm still, after reading all your attempts, struggling to get a sense of what this book is actually about.

I get a sense that it is somber, depressing, and hopeless. It makes promises to shatter conventions, but I don't know what those conventions are in your mind, so I don't know what to expect in the book. There's notions of a story floating in the blurbs, but I'm not sure what they mean in terms of your story. I don't really get why Harold has to put off having children. I don't get why the assistant joining an animal rights group has any effect on anything, nor do I get why a fisherman casing the joint would ruin Harold's marriage. Too many disconnected ideas here.

This paragraph kills the whole thing for me: "Suicide, he thinks, will end his pain, and, if done right, will bring justice and keep his promise. Halfway through the book, Harold kills himself." You've flat out said he's killing himself halfway through the book. I no longer have any desire to invest time in a story in which I'm told what's going to happen halfway through. A blurb should tease the reader into wanting to open to the first page. Chum the waters, hook us in, but don't start to fillet us before you've caught us. Beyond that, I have absolutely no idea how Harold killing himself is fulfilling a promise or bringing justice to anyone.

In the end, the only solid ideas I come away with are that Harold has a life some people would envy, then some things go wrong, and he kills himself.

Go back to the blurbs of those books you mentioned. See how in just a few words we're given an idea of who these characters are and what kind of adventures they're going to have? That's what you're missing here. We don't get a sense of what kind of man Harold really is, we're only given a shopping list of a few disconnected things that will happen to him.

I just now remembered something. One of the earlier versions of this book had a chapter called Beyond The Silver Ghost and I remember I really loved that chapter name.

In a way, it could work as the title of the book. The Silver Ghost is actually an old Rolls Royce hanging in a tree with a good deal of urban legends surrounding it. It doesn't play a huge role in the story. There is a place a short distance from the car where the truly paranormal stuff happens.

I see one point for it. If someone tries to claim you stole their property, it's good to have a few "watermarks" in there with strong stories behind why they're there.

A better point is - it's fun.

If the inside jokes can be read without confusing the readers who are not in on the joke, I see no harm in them.

Yeah, they started doing that maybe a year or two years ago.

It varies. I've seen them defined as short as a thousand words and as long as twenty thousand. If you're planning to publish in a magazine, etc. you will want to contact the magazine to find out what their limits are. Self-publishing, it's a lot looser.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do this all the time.

One that comes to mind is if anyone were to read my first and second novel, a savvy reader might notice even though both are fairly different stories, they both contain a paragraph that is almost exactly word for word the same.

I do inside jokes that only people close to me will get. In the first novel, the main character mentions "the guy who sells hammers and flagpoles". Only my wife will get that (and she did).

In my second novel, there are two kids trying to create their own language so they can swear at work in front and no adults will catch on, even though there were no adults around, ever. Their "swear words" were words like "duh-mitt" and "fokker". My brother, if he ever reads that novel, will remember we once worked with two kids that were that dumb and did this exact thing.

If you're interested, there was a thread similar to this one not long ago:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Jay, you are entitled to your opinions and if the blurb doesn't work for you, you have every right to say so and say why. It's when you say things like "Seriously? Have you read history?" that it's becoming less about the blurb and more about you chastising the author. Most of your critique is fine and Phillip has the choice to follow your advice or not. It's stuff like what I quoted above that comes across as snarky.

One of my idols John Irving is 77 today. He posted this on Facebook this morning: “If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital."

Felix wrote: "For most authors (IMHO) the plot is the most difficult part of writing thus producing an anthology is quite exhausting though, in my experience, very satisfying."

I guess we're all different. Plots are the easy bit for me.

Keep in mind that plots for short stories are going to be simpler than those for novels, with few twists and turns, few subplots, if any. In a novel we usually go for some great change in the character's life, world shaking events, and so on. For short stories, the plot can be pretty mild. I wrote one about a group of strangers in a diner and the reactions they got from the locals. Another is about a group of college students in a creative writing course critiquing one another's work. In another, a young girl spends the evening trying to get the attention of her brother's friend. Short stories can be about anything.

Hey Michele? I took a look. Your book has only been out a couple of weeks and you already have four glowing reviews on Amazon. This is better than most of us see in a much, much longer time period. Your numbers look good as if your book has been selling well. More reviews will come. Those people sending you lovely messages can always come back and review later after they've spent a little more money. For now, relax and enjoy the ride. You're doing better than most of us did our first couple of weeks.

Okay, I believe they are organic. I don't think anyone said they weren't.