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

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

The thing is, I don't really read young adult much, so I don't know what is typically acceptable or not.

Thanks for your responses, everyone. That really helped.

I will be putting Boy of Shadows out as Literary Fiction*, mainly because it will have elements of many genres, but not enough of any of them for it to be out under those genres. It will be a tale of five teenagers, the main character gaining some supernatural powers, so it will have elements of paranormal, horror, thriller, romance, mystery, and adventure. In some ways it will have the feel of a superhero story (think The Crow).

@Anna - I admit, I'm struggling a little with the word "boy" as the main character, Davis, turns eighteen fairly early in the book.

@LK - It might read a little like a memoir. It will be told with journal entries, letters, school reports, interviews, and the like.

@Dallas - Yes, there will be a mystery involved and some scenes will likely feel like horror.

@Phillip - Not sure if Davis will kill anyone or not. He has in some of the early versions I worked on in the eighties and nineties, other versions he did not. He is a bit of a thief and will be a bit ninja-like.

@T.E. - Yep. Little bit of mystery, little bit of thriller.

@Lydia - I might lose the word "boy". Davis is seventeen and turns eighteen fairly early in the novel.

@Donald - I might find a better word than "boy". I am stuck on "of Shadows", however, instead of "in" as Davis will become one with the shadows as part of his powers.

@B.A. - Yes. That's what I was going for. Thanks!

@Ian - Even though it takes place in the "real world" (Iowa, 1996) it will have some elements of fantasy in it.

@Leah - Your comment gave me chills. You describe Davis pretty well.

@Tomas - Now that you have a better idea what the story is about, what do you think of the name?

@Magnus - Not sure I could put this thing out as YA. Maybe. I'll have to look into it. It's going to be brutal in places, Davis and his friend Wendy have "potty mouths", they both smoke a lot, there'll likely be at least a couple of sex scenes, etc.

@Margaret - The boy is the protagonist. Kind of the reluctant, anti-hero type.

@V.M. - Yep. That's pretty close.

*This is, of course, assuming I finish it. I have about six pages in rough draft form, so there's a long way to go, yet.

Hey, all.

Back in the late eighties I wrote a novel. Actually, I wrote several versions of it. I never published it and I no longer have any copies. Long story...

Today I started dabbling with it again.

Titles are incredibly important to me and I think I have a great title.

"Boy of Shadows"

Yay or nay?

And what genre would you expect this to be?

Bill,

The reason behind the rule is actually a friendly one. We've seen discussions on negative reviews spiral out of control, which is always detrimental to the author. This is a public forum and anyone can see what you're writing here. If you truly are getting negative reviews because someone has a "grudge" against you, how much worse might it get if they read that this upset you?

It's also not good for the mental state of the author to dwell on "bad" reviews. They happen to all of us. Let it go and move on.

Best of luck to you.

Psst...

From the Code of Conduct:

#5 - Reviews happen. We aren't here to discuss them or swap them.

Discussions about drive-by ratings and negative reviews are discouraged. Do not discuss what you feel are your reader’s “responsibilities” to you. We understand that negative reviews can be hurtful and upsetting, but this is not the place to vent about them.

Nancy wrote: " I'm wondering if this nets many downloads?"

Sorry, Nancy, this is another of those "it depends on..." and "there are many variables..." questions. Some people see loads of downloads through KENP, some see very few. I think it's safe to say most of us make about as much or a little more from KENP than we do from sales. Again, this is fickle. This month I'm making more from sales, but it's usually the other way around.

All the things I mentioned in the previous message and probably more can have an effect on how many or little downloads you'll see in KENP.

Nancy wrote: "Funny, I was just considering the KDP program when I ran into these posts. I see that you can run 5 free days every 30 days. Can you give me any idea how many free downloads this might generate?"

I can tell you it's actually five free days every ninety, not thirty.

As for how many free downloads? There's far too many variables for that. The genre of your book, the cover, the blurb, how well you publicize the free days, how well written the first few pages are, even the dates you pick to have it free can all have an impact. I'm sure there are other factors that aren't coming to mind at the moment.

Also, there's a lot of numbers being tossed around, but again, it will vary from person to person. A few messages above P.D. said you'll get about one review per one thousand downloads. Eileen says she read it's every two hundred. In my experience it seems to be more like one review out of every twenty or forty free downloads. Far more importantly, I see a sale about every twenty freebies. (I should mention that when I have free stuff offered, I often don't see more than five or ten units go out a day, as opposed to some who give away hundreds a day).

Lynn wrote: ""

I tend to agree with Micah. When I force myself to write while my mind is on other things, my writing feels forced. Also, if we sacrifice too much of our time for writing and ignore too much of life, we won't have anything to write about.

Team wrote: "Hi Everyone,"

I'm guessing you either can't read the rules or you don't care. Either way, another comment deleted. Please stop spamming, stop adding links, stop offering your services. All of this is against our rules.

Team wrote: "Hi Everyone,"

Comment deleted.

Congratulations!

If you have enough passion for writing and if your book wants to be written badly enough, you'll get it done. It may take longer than you anticipated, but eventually you'll get back to it.

I've always been fortunate enough in that nothing really pulls me from my writing for too long. Sometimes, though, you may have to alter your schedule some and make time for it. Get up a little earlier in the morning or go to bed later. Cut some time from entertainment. If you're able, work on your writing while at your "day job". As said, I never really feel pulled away from my writing, but these are things I've done to give myself more time when the desire to write has been burning and I feel I need more time with it. One thing I do that helps me on days when I feel a little unfocused is to pack up my lap top and go to a coffee shop or library and write. I'm too easily distracted at home.

In the end, you need to ask yourself, does it matter if your book gets written? If yes, then you'll find the time.

Somehow I have not seen this thread before.

C.B., you may want to add Banned Books Week in there. It's the last week of September.

Ian wrote: "I'm sure this has already been said at some point in this thread, but when it comes to fight scenes, they tend to be more exciting on film than in books. "

I don't even know how to compare the two, they are such different mediums. A fight scene in a novel can be very exciting if handled correctly. The length doesn't matter so much as what is at stake or the difficulty in overcoming a foe. I would fear that writing the scene short would decrease the tension and drama.

Tomas wrote: "I won't lie, I had several sessions when the clock was ticking and I was doing something else - like the time I checked Wikipedia for almost all large felines and their habitats to choose the proper base for the "custom feline" for my story."

That's research. That counts as part of the writing process. So, you weren't doing something else. You were writing.

Peter wrote: "If I buy a book I never bother to write a review. It's not that I'm against reviews, it's just that I've never even thought about doing it."

I don't always review, either. Seldom these days, in fact. I used to review more often, but they usually felt like I was forcing myself to say something about a book, so I don't usually review anymore unless I really have something to say.

As for getting reviews... it's nice and I appreciate all my reviews, but this is not why I'm a writer and if I don't get reviews for a while, I'm fine with it.

At least a third of what I write is meant to be humorous, which means I have scads of documents going at the same time. I pull them up and tinker around with them all from time to time, trying to bring more funny out of it each time. If I can't get it funny enough, I won't publish it.

At the same time, I do a lot of dramatic writing, too. Sort of the same... I work it over and over until it feels "real" to me. if it continues to feel forced or melodramatic, it will never get published.

I don't know what the ratio of finished vs. unfinished is. I'm gonna take a stab that I finish roughly half the things I start.

MS Word keeps track of it for you. However, if you're like me, the number is misleading. I tend to keep my manuscripts open a lot, even when I'm not working on them, which means Word is counting work minutes when I'm probably goofing off on Facebook, playing Minecraft, twinking around on Goodreads...

Lynn wrote: "LOL - and I'm trying to be patient. It's hard to do"

Ooo... then you're in for a painful journey.

Lynn wrote: "But I didn't get any reviews from the free download promotion. "

You haven't had any reviews... yet. Again, people are not going to read your book immediately. It may be months before they read it. Even then, they might not review it. But, the important thing is, your work is getting out there.