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

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

Deleting another comment. This one for hijacking the thread, linking, and self-promotion.

Closing the thread. If anyone is still interested in interviewing with V.K., you can send her a message directly.

I do like it all in the Mom's Typewriter (name of that font) but the blue Ariel really pops. When I get time later tonight I'll try Carro's suggestion of "Indie Author" in Ariel.

I did do some checking around and many books similar to this one do have two fonts in the title and often two colors.

AND / OR I might do away with Mom's Typewriter on this book. I love it, but it might be better suited to another book I already have out that is in dire need of a better cover.

I think it looks better, too.

Carro and Emily,

How's this?

It... .com wrote: "Blah blah blah"

Off topic, includes a link, etc. Gone.

Emmanuelle wrote: "I didn't meant to sound as if it was something bad and I am really sorry if it came out like that."

Oh no. No. You're fine. Maybe it's because I rambled on a bit that it seemed that I was upset by your comment. Not at all. I was excited for a chance to ramble about Claude a bit. Thanks!

Emmanuelle wrote: "@Dwayne: be careful :), "Bonhomme" is a little more complex than just " a good man".

I checked in at least five different surname dictionaries before I started using the name. They all say it's an old French surname that means "good man". I know about Bonhomme Carnaval and Bonhomme Michelin. They don't have any impact on the meaning behind the surname.

In the stories, Claude doesn't talk about the origins of his name and the narrator mentions only once that Claude's father is of French descent. It's too late to change it, as he's appeared in one short story and a huge novel and I can't go back and rewrite them. Lastly, I wouldn't change it if I could, as I adore my little Claude just the way he is.

I'll be honest - it's pretty dull, no matter what the genre. Nothing about it is suspenseful or romantic.

I get character names from all over the place.

First novel, I named my central character Delbert (Del) Brewer as I wanted something that felt old-fashioned and redneck. His love interest has two names: Nadia (meaning "hope") Popescu (meaning "priest") is her real name and her stage name is Ruby Hart (meant to conjure an image of a playing card or Valentine). Del's friends are Lamar Kennedy (another redneck feeling name) and Apryl Kennedy (which is meant to say "redneck rock 'n roll"). His parents are Bill (short, simple name) and Sybil (slight hint that one needs to pay attention to everything she says).

Second novel, I named my main character Ben Chad Starn (an anagram for Bandersnatch - his first appearance was in a short story that is overflowing with references to Alice In Wonderland). Other major characters are Patrick Masters (he's a boss and a manipulator), Mim Johnson (first name after a John Updike character, last name 'cause it's common), Debbie Adobe (because I love the sound of it), and Claude Bonhomme (first name sounds like "clod" as in "dirt", last name basically means "good man").

I could go on forever. Out of all my stories, I have hundreds of characters and nearly every name has a reason behind it.

Just my two bits here.

A few years back I was making videos for YouTube. As much as I hear Indie authors complaining about how the market is saturated with books, the video game is much worse. Here, you're trying to get noticed in a sea of other writers and books. There you're swimming among music videos, clips from TV shows, clips from popular movies, commercials, etc. Also, I'm not sure it's all that popular to go in search of videos for books.

It's much harder to get noticed when you make videos than when you write books. While I get the appeal of making a trailer to market a book, it seems to me you're digging an even deeper hole than you had. Now you have to market that trailer in order to get people to watch it and most people watch videos for something that is visually stimulating in some way, not to find something to read.

I suppose, though, you could post your video anywhere it's appropriate to post any other ad for a book - facebook groups, Twitter, in your blog if you have one, etc.

Mehry wrote: "Strange, but my post disappeared..."

Not so strange, really. Almira is asking about editing platforms, not wanting to be solicited for editing services. Going off topic is against the group policy.

Micah wrote: "I'm right there with Thomas on this one: $3 - $6 is about right for eBooks from Indies. "

Generally, I agree with this. Although, I did just raise the price of my second novel to seven dollars. It was selling here and there at the old price and I want to see what it does at a higher price. The reason I went so high is the sucker is over eight hundred pages, compared to the usual two to five hundred pages I see on most Indie novels.

I've encountered a lot of opinions (mostly from members of this group) on the subject of pricing our books. Some believe we should keep them cheap. Some say we should never give away books for free as it cheapens our work. Some say we should price according to similar traditionally published books. And so on.

All I can say is mess with your pricing. Try different things. Give away free stuff for a few months. Price high for a few months. If you find something that works for you, stick with it. When it no longer works, try something else. A couple years ago, I stopped giving anything away and my sales went up. A few months later, the sales stopped. I lowered the prices. The sales went up for a while, then stopped. I dropped the prices. The sales went up...

And on and on and on.

Jessica wrote: "Hi guys! Hopefully this is the right place to put this."

No it isn't. There is not right place for a post like this in this group.

D. wrote: "I love the font! Many of the great writers used typewriters."

Yes. Most of my literary heroes used typewriters or ink and pen. At one time, I did too, swearing I'd never get a computer.

Amelia,

Writing isn't for everyone. Now, most everyone could learn to write, yes, but a huge part of writing that most people don't realize until they try it is patience. It takes a long, long time to put out a quality book. So, maybe writing isn't for you.

Or... and I want you absorb this... maybe writing isn't for you at this time. Maybe in a few years you'll feel like it's time to come back. Maybe you'll even want to finish your trilogy.

If the first two books of your trilogy cannot work as stand-alone books, I would strongly suggest you unpublish them. It's not fair to keep them out there when there's strong doubt in your mind that you'll ever finish the series.

Thanks Carro.

It's tough to put into a few words exactly what the book is. The blurb will be a monster to tackle, when I get that far. (Right now the book is set aside until our beloved Supreme Overlord has a chance to look it over for me).

There is a little bit of autobiography in it, but probably less than five percent.

It is meant primarily for anyone who is thinking of self-publishing or who has just started to do so. Part of it is about putting out quality, polished work, but at the same time I'm encouraging writers to have fun with it and not take the hundreds of "rules" we encounter too seriously.

Most of what I learned about writing was learned many years ago, before Amazon existed. Hell, before the Internet existed. The font is meant to reflect this - an "old school" mind tackling this newfangled writing thing we call Indie. I'll dink around and see if I can find a font that is more fitting, though I'll admit I love this one.

I get that.

But, this is not schoolwork. This is your characters, your worlds, your words. If you can't fall in love with your own work enough to mold it into something great, it will be difficult to get anyone else to love it. There are no "course requirements" here. Yes, you're expected to take a mediocre draft and make something incredible out of it, but there's a million ways to go about it.

Right now I have Bad As Me on constantly in my car. Hell Broke Luce is currently my favorite song.