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

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

Effie wrote: "Something about the rules for another group while ignoring the rules of this group."

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

#4 - Stay on topic. No thread hijacking.

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

This topic is about Bookbub, as stated in the title and in the original post, not a place to discuss other Goodreads groups.

Effie wrote: "I just got involved with a Goodreads group..."

Sounds dicey. You're reviewing others in exchange for a review. It's review swapping, no matter how many people are involved.

Also, off topic.

Hi Frederick,

I fixed the title of your post to fit the format we ask for.

As for your blurb... wow. To be frank, I got as far as, "It is as well similar to Rahmadinov’ comprehension of the universe and all natural laws" before I gave up on it. Is the entire rest of the post the blurb? If so, it is far, far too long. I gave up due to confusion. There is a lot of poor grammar and words that seem out of place, typos, etc. It's difficult to weed through. In the above quote, for instance, the phrase, "It is as well similar" is clumsy. There seems to be an "s" missing after the apostrophe. And, having no idea who Rahmadinov is or what his comprehension of the universe is, the sentence is meaningless to me.

You really need to clean it up. If a potential reader cannot follow your blurb, they won't give your book a glance, no matter how hard you worked on it.

Hi MS,

When you click on this link, you will see a list of all the folders and the most recent posts in each folder.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

The folder rules are pinned to the top of each folder. Here is a screen shot, showing two of the folder rules:

I'll be honest. I didn't like it when I finished it. But, since I know nothing about what makes a good cover, I thought I'd get some advice and the more I look at it, the more I think you guys were right. The blue and the photo seem to indicate a quiet, nostalgic feel, which is roughly half the book. The orange letters and the barbed wire are a little alarming and indicate the rougher, more violent bits of the book.

My only real issue is still that photo. I love it for so many reasons. It's taken in the midwest of kids doing field work. I think it was taken in the late seventies or early eighties so it comes close to the time frame of the novel. But, the kids do not resemble my main characters. I'm not sure if that's important or not. They do kind of resemble some of the prominent minor characters. Does anyone think this would be an issue? Would readers even care? I could tweak the major characters a bit to fit the cover, but I have a hard time seeing Debbie as a foot taller than Ben.

Alls I need to do now is make sure there's something about barbed wire in the book.

Thanks all. I might mess with it again in time, but I need to get back to the writing. If enough people think the orange and blue thingy works, I will likely go with it.

?

Jessica wrote: "Have you tried one where the title & author font don't alternate in front and behind the barbed wire? I don't mind the yellow color and I love the barbed wire, but found myself distracted by the ba..."

In the version I posted I still have the barbed wired weaving through the words, but it's all white instead of red and white. I think it looks a little cleaner this way.

Jane wrote: "I like everything except the colour... Try sepia"

I actually tried it at one point, but didn't care for it. Maybe it's 'cause I already have enough books that have sepia covers?

Pretty much going off Dan Burley's suggestions...

I'm about to head off to work. But, thanks to those of you who responded so far. I do like the original cover... but, I don't feel it fully captures the book, so I keep dicking around with other ideas. I'm glad you get nostalgia and mystery from it, though Micah.

I'll probably mess with it some more when I get home. I may just go with that cover on the right in the end. Everyone seems to like it.

Christina wrote: "Is cornpunk a thing yet?"

No no. Crop opera. That's what I'm inventing.

The branding will come when I finally find a cover I can settle on. At this rate, that might not ever happen.

Fooling around a bit and looking at covers of similar books for inspiration. I came up with this:



Mock it to your heart's desire.

Rico wrote: "It is important to have characters who are completely different in 3rd person. However it doesn't matter in 1st person. Thats how I make my stories
1ll."

Different from... what?

Yep. Deleted comments for saying that it's "silly and out of control" to use swearing. Also, calling it a "no-no"? No-no? We're not six, people.

I'm closing this thread. There's too much negativity and the topic has been beaten to death.

Not that I have a huge following, but what I did to build what I have is to publish a lot of short stories before publishing any full length novels. For some time I would make some of the stories free for a few days. I think this is a much better way to get readers interested in your work. I "follow" a lot of authors on social media, but seriously, it's becoming nothing but a vast sea of covers and blurbs and soon it all looks about the same, especially since some of them are putting out the same pictures of their books six or eight times a day. I believe that worked at one time, but now that social media is becoming glutted with authors trying to sell books, it doesn't seem to be the right approach anymore.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this topic. I cannot see how I would call myself a member of an "audience" for a writer who is unpublished. I need to read at least a couple of books from an author before I would consider myself a part of their audience.

Yes, I have facebook and all that, but most of the "followers" there have not bought even one book from me. So, they're followers of my social media, but not fans of my books.

As per the rules of the group:

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

That said, I am deleting your post. Please understand this is in your best interest. I have seen things spiral out of control when an author discusses reviews in a negative light and the author never comes out on top.

Do not respond to your reviewer. Period. If you believe there is an error in their review, take it up with Amazon. Be patient. It may take a while to get a response.

Kinda with C.B. on this. The first two sentences do nothing for me. After that, it does get interesting, but still is riddled with a few phrases and sentences that slow it down some.

Just playing with it a little:

When faced with disturbing, if not alarming, changes in political and societal mores, the Leah Abramovitz's family chart a course that forever alters their trajectory. Joining untold numbers of Russian Jews, they trek across land and sea to start a new life in the so-called New Jerusalem- Argentina. It is not until they begin their journey and are faced with one obstacle after another that Leah begins seeing things in a new light. Argentina will be the equalizer of her people - they will strive to shed the old, stifling ways that regulate and rule their every thought and every step. Will the shores of Buenos Aires allow her the freedom to design her own destiny?

It's far from perfect, but that's a step toward what I think would work better.

J. wrote: "I guess my point is, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. It's a writer/reader specific thing."

I believe there is a right answer and I believe you just provided it - It's a writer thing. We determine how much or how little swearing to put in our books. It's also a reader thing. Readers can decide for themselves if they wish to read books with a lot of swearing, no swearing, or maybe they don't care one way or another. As a reader, it's never been something I've focused on. I can enjoy books with or without it.