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

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

Morgan wrote: "However, you didn't wait hours for me to edit my post. "

As I said, that's what generally happens when we try the "nice" approach and ask people to fix their posts. If you need to continue talking about this, feel free to PM me or Ann.

John wrote: "Justin wrote: "..."

Comment deleted for self promotion and for a link.

Morgan wrote: "There was a nicer way to approach the situation, however, such as a private message, rather than being combative."

Combative? Okay, Morgan. I'm sorry I didn't take the "nice" approach of asking you not to break almost every rule we have and then wait for hours for you to edit your comment. That's what generally happens if we gently ask people to remove their comments... they don't and their posts remain. And, yes, you were self-promoting a group and there were links. Removing the posts ourselves is a much quicker and easier way of knowing the post is gone. If this hurts the feelings of those who don't want to bother understanding our group and rules, tough.

Morgan wrote: "Calling All Authors!!!!"

Your comment is wrong in so many ways.

You included links. (Ironically, linking to a set of rules without bothering to read ours first). You are spamming. You are self-promoting. You are hijacking.

Worst of all, you're promoting review swapping and encouraging people to skirt around the rules of Amazon. You're promising "honest" reviews, yet the way to get them is dishonest.

So much irony here.

Please stop what you're doing.

Greg wrote: "Sounds good. Is Root Amish or non-Amish living in Amish country? I didn't think the Amish had priestess."

I wondered that, too.

I like to give longer blurbs a cold read, giving you my reaction of each sentence / paragraph as I go through.

A rural-dystopian adventure that explores post-apocalyptic Amish country, a society shaped by fear, and individual choices that remake the world. Normally, I'm not keen on starting a blurb with a description of the kind of book it is, as often the kind of book isn't that unique. Yet... post-apocalyptic Amish country? That's a new one. (And intriguing). Definitely keep that at the top, somehow. The rest of it? Most dystopian books I've heard of or read are adventures. They often include societies shaped by fear and rebuilding a new world. Maybe this could be shortened to "A rural-dystopian novel of post-apocalyptic Amish life".

"My name is Root. I am Groot. (I love the name, by the way).

I was sixteen when I first heard the voice no one else could hear. Heh. Being an Iowan and a fan of W.P. Kinsella, I immediately thought, "If you build it, they will come". But, really, this is intriguing.

I feared I might have the Nothing within me. But by the time my village burned me alive in the Pit? By then we were all pretty sure.” Now I'm lost. I don't know what the Nothing is. Is Root dead? Is this a ghost story? Or was he just burned and healed? Who is "we"? The villagers?

On an ordinary-seeming Wednesday in 2161, the first chimera arose. Drop the "ordinary-seeming". It's not important.

A year later, twelve billion people were dead. The few who survived called it the Reckoning. Okay...

Generations later, their descendants still struggle under the legacy of the Reckoning. Behind the walls of small, rustic villages, they cower from chimeras, eking out lives of caution and conformity. They do as they’re told. They’re wary of anything different. This is becoming more of a history lesson than a blurb. Where is the story? Where did Root go (assuming he's still alive or a ghost)? Is this still about the Amish?

Root couldn’t be more different. Ah. Well, considering I don't know what is "normal", it's hard to know what is "different". There's not much context here. All I know is it's normal to burn people who have the Nothing and it's normal to cower from chimeras (and probably very wise).

Curious, stubborn, and blind since birth, she disquiets her village. Yeah, unless burning someone is normal behavior, I got that.

Born to the village priestess, she stands apart. Frustrated with a wall-bound life, she grudgingly accepts it—until she hears the voice that no one else can hear. Oh, yeah. The voice. Still unsure what to make of that.

The secret she discovers will upend her peoples’ understanding of what they should truly fear. And how she uses that knowledge will determine whether humankind’s last ember flickers out. The "last ember" nicely ties this to Root being burned and to the chimeras.

Over all, this sounds like an interesting story, but the blurb is messy. It's all over the place and it's hard to get a bead on what it's all about. Maybe a bit more focus on Root and less on the history?

The best advice I can still come up with is to keep writing and getting more books out there. Keep learning the craft and applying what you learn. The more material you have out, the more likely someone will discover you.

Also, while it's good that you market your work, I would recommend not spending any more money at it. I haven't heard a lot of good things from anyone who has spent money on marketing.

There are plenty of threads in our group where you might pick up some tactics that have worked for others. It's difficult to tell you what you should be doing specifically as there seems to be no one-size-fits-all advice. What works for some doesn't work for others. I have a lot of short stories and give them away free now and again. That works for me. Some people have no success with it, though.

One last thing, using a pseudonym is not dishonest in any way. Many authors have done this. I'm not saying you should, just that whoever told you it's lying is wrong.

I've seen the captured parents thing done a number of times, too. The thing about tropes and cliches, as I mentioned in another comment, is that they're almost unavoidable. I don't think we should fear them. At our best, we can take an old cliche and find some new way to twist it.

Bruno wrote: "The orphan kid that turns out to have superpowers / be a wizard / have a powerful alter ego?"

I'm guilty of doing something like this in the novel I'm working on. Kid's not an orphan, but nearly so. His dad hates him and his mom is schizophrenic and sometimes catatonic.

1. My biggest challenge is one I will never complete. I always want to trying new things with my writing and I always aim to keep outdoing myself. I am my only competition and I want to be a worthy adversary.

2. I want to keep learning the craft and I never want to think I've figured it all out.

I set all my serious writing in Iowa. Nothing beats actually being a native and living in a place for over fifty years to make you feel like enough of an expert to write about it.

When it comes to humorous writing, I don't worry so much if I have the cultures and language exactly right.

Yeah, I don't know of anyone that's going to go buy someone's book just because they reviewed someone else's. Unless you're expecting a review swap, which is forbidden.

It would be my guess (and that's all it is, so please... let's keep this civil) that women are, in general, not very keen on learning about sexual assault and harassment from a man. This doesn't mean you shouldn't speak about it or write about it. If it's something you feel strongly about, do it. You just may have a tough time reaching your audience. Maybe your next book should target men and encourage men to act like gentlemen and not savages. Just a thought.

Anyway. Yes. Market the book. Get it out there. Posting in Goodreads groups, posting articles, reviewing other people's books, and so on are not good ways to get noticed as a writer. This group, for instance, is meant as a support group, not a marketplace. So, it's great when people want to post here and ask for help or help others, but it's not a place to market your book.

It's cool, Tomas. We've all made mistakes. No, there weren't any links in the original post, but the poster is trying to draw attention to a blog, so it still is self-promotion.

The links I removed were in a couple of comments that were posted less than an hour ago. Hence, the warning.

I've allowed this thread to remain even though it feels like self-promotion of a blog, only because another moderator already commented on it and they seem fine with it. However, now I'm deleting comments with links.

Please follow the rules of the group or I'll remove the thread. Thanks.

Anne wrote: "Yes, the primary draw for me is title then sample - I download the sample and then really enjoy reading through a pile of them. Nothing makes up for bad writing, and if that's what turns up, out it goes. On marketing generally - I hate it and rarely do any. So far sales have happened organically and if they dry up, well, I enjoyed the ride. Reviews have been good to get but like every other member of the human race, I disregard the good and agonise over the bad. "

I'm pretty much the same. I used to try all kinds of things with marketing, but nothing really worked for me. Oddly enough, I started seeing more activity since I stopped marketing.

I don't really believe in "good or bad" reviews. They're just opinions and I appreciate all I get, though I never ask for them anymore. Even when I did, it was a short thingy at the back of the story like Tomas is talking about. Unless a review is pointing out specific areas of bad punctuation, spelling, etc. (which I will then go correct) I don't let them effect me.

Peter wrote: "Not a request for assistance..."

Deleted this once already. It seems to be nothing but complaining about a particular audio book and how they got some details about a culture wrong. This isn't the place to draw attention to mistakes in the works of others. Thanks.

Adam wrote: "Book linked above..."

No links. No self promotion.

Micah wrote: "I expect that from youtube presenters ("if you like my content, don't forget to press that like button and subscribe to my channel, blah, blah, blah" ... viewers are pretty sick of that by now), not authors."

Yes! I did some time on YouTube, making stupid little videos and it always put me off how other YouTubers, even those who were close friends, were always worrying over the number of subscribers they had, how to get more, begging for people to subscribe... guh.

Lydia wrote: "When you go onto a goodreads book and there's no reviews you will be less likely to read the book because you have no idea about the quality of it..."

I go to Amazon and read a few pages of the book. That tells me all I need to know about the quality. Some of the best books I've read have reviews saying they stink. Then there are some books I haven't cared for that have plenty of four and five star reviews.

As for the initial question in this thread, I used to have a little thing in my books politely asking for reviews, but dropped it. Most readers know they can review a book if they wish. I've stopped reminding them.

If you do include an invite to review, I would recommend keeping it short and sweet.

Edmund wrote: "Yep. Really can't control drive-by trolling, etc. Or even plain "waking up on the wrong side of the bed" syndrome."

A few more things to remember, then. Readers have every right to give us negative reviews. It doesn't make them trolls and doesn't mean they've woke up on the wrong side of the bed. We need to be humble enough to admit not everyone is going to be in love with our books.

And then move on.