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

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

M.L. wrote: "Otherwise to me it becomes author indulgence and meaningless."

Everything I write is self-indulgent. Most of it is meaningless, too.

*chuckle*

I'm glad this topic came up, though. Scale of one to ten, my first novel was about a seven or eight when it came to plot importance. Second novel was about a two. Now, I'm working on something that is about a nine or ten, which is a strange animal for me to tame. Hoping to get some good hints and pointers here.

I've run across the notion that everything should be plot related, too. I think this is a fairly modern concept as I don't recall hearing this when I first started to study writing and a lot of classic literature is certainly full of what today's editors might call "fluff".

I like to fully immerse my readers into my "world", which means I will allow anything that moves plot, reveals character, gives a deeper look at the setting, reveals culture, entertains, reveals theme, etc.

I don't really have experiences with readers. I don't really know who reads my work, aside from a few friends. All I can really go on is looking over the orders and KENP. Often times if I see activity on KENP, it jumps around a lot for a few days, indicating someone is devouring my book(s). Or, I will see a few pages read, then nothing. Once in a while I'll get a sale, then see it returned. Or I'll get a sale, followed by several later that day or the next. It's my guess that some people love my style and some people can't stomach it.

Now, me, personally? I like it and I'm the one I write for. So, *thumbs up*

The cover workshop has quite a few threads in which people posted pictures of their covers, so it does work for more people than me.

Your test image worked.

The instructions have been posted more than once on this thread, and you had a link in the post.

Please post your cover directly to the thread. No links.

Usually my novels start with a little spark. "Rave On" started with the thought of two people meeting and flirting in a Laundromat. "Suckers & Rogues" started by reflecting on bullies from my childhood and how I handled them. My third, which I've just started to work on, started with my father-in-law erroneously laughing about my wife having a mid-life crisis.

None of those probably seems interesting. I have dozens of such sparks a day, hundreds a week. Most go away in a few minutes. Now and then one will linger and I'll think it over and over until I see a story forming.

Then, it could be months, even a year or more, before I start writing. That time between is spent contemplating the idea, characters, possible subplots, etc.

The rough draft is generally shit. I write it very fast without thinking much about it. I don't worry about characterization much. I don't care about spelling, grammar, punctuation, any of that. I don't even care if what I'm writing resembles a story. I write a number of jumbled and unorganized scenes. Generally they don't make a lot of sense together, often times have huge gaps, and kinda drop into the next scene suddenly. It's okay. I'm just getting my favorite ideas out at that moment.

Then it rests a few days, a week, a month. (This is where I am with my third novel).

When I come back, I start to piece together what I have, making connections between scenes, tossing out stuff that isn't working. I generally do this for two drafts.

The fourth draft is a rough polishing and a lot of research. This is where I know what I need to learn before I can start putting real details in the story. This third novel is going to take a lot more research than my first two combined. It's around here that I begin to learn what the book is really about.

Around the fifth draft until the seventh or eighth, I focus on characterization, plot and other major elements of the book, trying to fine tune them, trying to draw out. It's around this point I often find myself practically rewriting the story.

And then begins a number of drafts with the intention of editing, editing, fine tuning, editing... and so on.

I know I'm done when I'm sick of looking at it and want to delete it forever.

Wanjiru wrote: "I suppose that's why my post is nowhere to be found. But saying some books are not up to snuff is not negative. It's just saying what is."

The reason I was first drawn to Support for Indie Authors was because a few years ago, other groups were hell-bent on trashing Indies for being lousy writers. This was a safe haven. Now it's seeping into this place. We're starting to judge one another's books and stating some are "not up to snuff" as if it is a fact.

There are Indie authors who put out books that are not well written and not well edited. That is true. This group is not the place to bitch about it. We're here to be supportive, not to knock one another down.

It is better to keep our mind on our own work and worry about whether our own books are "up to snuff" than to come here and complain about it.

Currently I am reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman. I have found mistakes. Yes, this book has been around since the 80s. It was made into a feature film. It is traditionally published. It has endured, despite having a few errors in it. I'm still enjoying it, despite the occasional typo or mistake in punctuation.

Anyway. I'm tired of the negative comments and I'm tired of policing this topic.

If you're an Indie author and you expect people to buy your work and you don't buy the work of Indies, you have no reason to pout if you don't get sales. There doesn't seem to be anything else to say on the subject, so I'm closing it.

J. wrote: "The covers are now in the photos section of the Support for Indie Authors thread. You can upload photos directly from your computer to that area."

I'm taking a stab you mean that you uploaded some covers to your profile and would like them to appear here? If not... well, here they are, anyway.

G... wrote: "Maybe I have been unlucky but the indies' books I have bought over the last few weeks were badly in need of a professional editor. "

I've had to remove a few comments like this today. I was afraid this topic would go down a road like this. Let's try to keep it positive.

And those of you who leave comments like this... I hope your books are perfect.

Christina wrote: "Here's the thing, I have a lot of favorite authors whose books I love. Some of them are folks I've since become really good friends with, or they are folks I've met through social media first, began chatting with, and ended up reading and loving their books. In either event, it matters not that I adore their work and want to spread the word. My opinion is worthless thanks to my personal connection to them, despite the fact that I likely connected because I loved their book. "

Yes, there's that. There are a few authors I would consider friends and you're one of them. I haven't reviewed everything of yours I've read for the reason above. Same for Ann, V.M, Charles, Ray, etc.

Anna Faversham wrote: "However, paying it forward is good. Recommending is good. Is there a thread for making indie recommendations? Or does that belong in the sister group the SIA Showcase?"

We used to have threads for making recommendations. But, that is definitely more of a showcase thing, now. I know that's where I find a lot of Indie books.

Phillip wrote: "However, when I find a great author, his or her shelves are often bare. There are usually a few dozen ratings, but limited reviews, if any. My sample isn’t too large, but large enough for me to hypothesize that indie authors do a ton of writing and marketing, but little reading among indie books."

I fail to see any connection here. Not all authors are active on Goodreads. I know several who are not. This doesn't mean they don't read (Indie or otherwise) they just don't spend a lot of time on Goodreads. Simple as that.

Personally, I care less and less about reviews as time goes on. This is not why I'm an author. So, I review once in a while if I have something to say about a book that I think will be of interest to other readers. Sometimes I have little or nothing to say and I don't bother with a review. It's not out of any sort of fear of retaliation, it's simply that I don't want to. Now, I do buy a ton of Indie books. I don't read them all. I don't finish them all. I definitely do not review them all.

I find your post a bit tacky (and certainly not "fun"). We're not here to speculate on the habits of other authors and worry about why they aren't leaving reviews. I'll be watching it closely and it will be shut down if this strays into negative areas. It's already close. And that is not supportive of Indie authors.

Wanjiru wrote: "Never mind. Just snooped around and got my answer. "

Oh. Well - *ahem* I'll keep my post up in case any other newer members are curious.

They are events this group used to have about three times a year or so, often centering around a holiday. People would have their books at 99c or free and everyone involved would (in theory) market the hell out of the event, drawing in lots of traffic. Some people saw some really great numbers in their downloads.

Not sure if we're going to do those anymore. Two of the members who were extremely helpful aren't very active here now and we had one mod who pretty much kept the whole thing in focus. She's still fairly active as a member of the group, but doesn't seem to be around nearly as much as she used to be.

M.L. wrote: "It should work. Take out everything between the quotes and add your own url link info; don't leave double quotes.
img src="...…………….. "/>"

Make sure to put the less than sign in front of "img", otherwise, yes. M.L. has it right.

And the instructions on how to post a photo are found under the link that says, "(some html is okay)". I gave the instructions a few comments ago, too.

No one has said you can't post covers, J. No one. Links, no. Covers, yes.

Sorry about that. If you want to PM me the link, I can see if I can get it to work.

You added a title, A.J.

16. And Then She Died

No. It's so... juvenile feeling. I realize most literature, at the heart, is about death and generally in most books there is a death or a thousand. But, to tell us in the title, "Hey, someone's gonna die!" is a bit silly to me.

8 and 13 still feel the strongest to me.

Comment deleted for linking.