Tomas’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

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

B.A. wrote: "Think about a character work sheet where to give their past up until the story starts."

I actually have this on the static part of my weblog for the main characters - though some aspects could be delved deeper into.

Thanks for the support either way.

B.A. wrote: "you are a writer, just take a topic and write."

But... I'm an overthinker. I was at 'maybe one day' stage for 10+ years before I started writing. I can't just write out of the blue.

Anyway, what you say is right. I think if I split my posts into trios - rotating something personal (such as my travels) as one topic, behind-the-scenes and status updates as the second topic, and book recommendations as the third topic - each on quarter-year rotation... that might work.

Another question would be the sign-up bait enticement. At this point, the only thing I have semi-ready is a short story around 3k words 'long' which could work - but I'm not sure that's good enough. At least I'm not drawing completely blank.

B.A., what you say is much true, and is why I'm skeptical about having my own newsletter. I'm trying to think through the positives and negatives both before I make the decision, and one of the hardest question is: what could I write monthly (or so) to be interesting?

After all, there's not that much interesting about me - and while I could use some behind-the-scenes, that won't last forever...

Ian wrote: "Tomas, 30 is good. I just feel irritated at so many who want to take but never give."

It is irritating, and I understand that, but I also understand that readers aren't obligated to do anything. We can ask them as best as we can* but it's their decision whether they'll do something extra apart from reading the book. And we can only accept the result, good or bad.
This is the same, no matter if it's a review for a book, a vacuum cleaner, or a hotel.

* on this matter, maybe I've mentioned it somewhere, I wonder if moving from the often-used 'reviews help authors being discovered' to 'reviews help readers discover books they might like' would help.
There are ~8 million books on Amazon. Readers don't have issues discovering new books - or new authors. Thus, the visibility struggle may not seem real if they never saw the other side of the fence.
I believe many people just can't grasp the real situation. I've shared my first (maybe second) draft with a fellow gamer, back when my writing was at F- level, and she was like 'you'll be the next JK Rowling'. I rolled my eyes (which she couldn't see over the in-game chat, but w/ever). I tried to explain the reality to her, and she accepted some parts, though she still remains overly optimistic about my 'talent'. I haven't even told most of my family that I'm writing (despite working on it for 5 years already) because I still don't know how to make sure they won't have any unrealistic expectations - and I know it'll be a tough uphill battle.

Ian wrote: "The question then is, if you are an author, how many books do you read and review in a year? If you check my Goodreads posts, I do over 50. What about you? If you don't do any, quit moaning."

I'm nowhere near moaning, I'm just trying to provide a different perspective. I'm a slower reader (my last year was 30 books) but I do my best to review all of the fiction books (I find it hard to review non-fiction).

I've checked several books from my shelves, and looked at the # of ratings and reviews. Usually, less than 10% of people who rated a book leave a review. And not everyone even rates (which takes just one click) so the # of people who dedicate their time to write a review will be in single-digit percentage at best. We can do our best to encourage people to leave a review, we can try to explain why it helps in a myriad of ways, but not everyone wants to hear it and not everyone wants to dedicate more of their time to do something extra.

Leslie wrote: "My work is exclusive to Amazon though I have wondered if I might do better if this were not so."

There's no universal answer to that.
It depends on genre, or even sub-genre. You can have a look at the top 100-200 books in your subgenre. If the majority of self-published books are Amazon-exclusive, then it's likely most readers in the genre are on Kindle - which would mean staying exclusive is a safer bet.

LaLa wrote: "It seems really hard to get organic, unpaid reviews. Everyone wants you to pay for them! 😔"

Because reading and reviewing the book costs the most valuable resource you'll never have enough in your life: time.

Jessica wrote: "Hi all,..."

No links and no self-promotion are allowed in this group. Your profile gives a clear hint you have some personal... attachments... to this business. I'm deleting the original post and locking this thread down.

Links are not allowed for any purpose, whether they're promotional or not.

Andrea wrote: "Mods : If this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it to a more appropriate place"

There's no place at all in this group to post links, and no place for self-promotion. So into the void your post goes.

The 'promotional RESOURCES' folder is for talking about RESOURCES - guides, etc.

Free version of Grammarly works decently for some basic edits, but it's also way too strict on some things (such as if you set it to US English, it'll bugger the hell out of you if you use 'axe' instead of 'ax' despite US English actually using both, by my knowledge).
The second issue is that it generates a ton of false alarms on custom names with apostrophes and struggles to handle them well. Possessive forms of custom words are also a source of false alarms (even if the base form is added to your personal dictionary, X's form will always fire).

And it also sometimes wrongly classifies issues like "its" and "it's" - especially in longer sentences (for someone who knows basic English grammar, those false alerts are obvious - they're usually a masked issue with the structure of a way-too-long sentence).

Luke wrote: "I have attached a link to the blog post if you are interested."

Links aren't allowed in this group. Remove it, or your post will be removed completely.
EDIT: link was still present after a day, post removed.

Jay wrote: "Sad but true, is that the best sales tool is our writing, followed by recommendations from those who’ve read it (it’s called, hand-selling)."

Good point there. I've heard it called 'word of mouth' more, no matter that the 'mouth' is digital these days.

Jay wrote: "And a newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with fans. But…ask yourself how many author’s mailing lists you’re on, and why you signed up."

That is why I am a newsletter skeptic. The only list I'm on is from a person that gives author advice. If I want to know about a sequel coming out, I'll just follow the author on Amazon. They let me know ASAP because it's (almost) guaranteed money for them.

It then turns into a chicken-egg situation: a large list of dedicated super-fans can cause this word-of-mouth to spread a lot, but it takes a lot of time, and a lot of quality writing aimed at the right target audience, to reach that point.

Grasshopper wrote: "All new authors are invited to join ."

Self-promotion of any kind and posting links is not invited here. Post removed.

Dwayne wrote: "I have always believed we need to serve ourselves and our stories first, and the public second. You will never please everyone, no matter what."

And I agree with that. That's the main reason I eventually went closer to 18+ scene than a 15+ version, because the earlier fade-out of a tame scene did not allow me to show as much as I wanted. My problem isn't with how 'safe' (or not) should the scene but about finding the right words to match the characters and the atmosphere, for which I know there are gaps in my knowledge.
As someone writing in my second language, there were cases when I mistook a word's meaning (the words had similar meaning but a different tone to them) - and only found out when a beta told me. I may be way too careful sometimes but I want to avoid going against myself with a poor choice of words.
This is why I wanted to know how people approach this - and I appreciate every comment given so far (and every comment that may be posted in the future).

M.L. wrote: "Write it as you feel it and don't let anyone censor it."

True, but there's nothing wrong with seeking advice, especially when writing in one's second language.

B.A. wrote: "Use sensations...what does it feel like. Does he run a hand down her side, making the skin shiver under his fingers...that type of thing."

Good point - I've given the scene a major focus on the emotional part but I might try to up the sensational part the way you say.

Dwayne wrote: "So, I guess, in the end it's up to you, the author, to decide how steamy you want it. How erotic do you want it? Or do you want it to be light and void of anything too steamy? Another alternative is to take the scene far enough (the characters kissing and disrobing and falling into a bed) that the reader knows what's about to happen, then cut to the next scene."

You make many valid points as a whole. The scene, in the current take, goes so there are some doubts early and it's only after he gets to touch her down there they both realize they want it - after that, it fades away in a way that doesn't show much as for the actual penetration. But when I put the fade-out much earlier (and I did in some drafts), I failed to show the inner conflict well enough - hence why I decided to go with more detail (and thus 18+ scene instead of 15+).

The MC himself is someone who (due to his legacy) pretty much forces himself to be almost knight-like when it comes to manners which, I believe, should affect the word choice not just in direct speech but also in the narrative.

G.R. wrote: "Whose point of view is narrating the scene? And is it their own body they are referencing or their partner's?"

The story is in third-person PoV, that specific part is from the male towards the female (he's the MC).

L.K. wrote: "you don't need to actually include a specific name for a body part or just say something more vague like "between her legs"."

I might go that way, true. It's possible I wanted to go with one-word to lower the word count, to avoid using the same term twice, or both at once. As for the level of detail, I focus on the foreplay, then fade-out. The truth is, I tend to swing between too much detail and not enough detail draft-to-draft, struggling to find the middle ground. And I partially went into a lot of detail to push myself out of my comfort zone and practice different approaches - it's always possible to tone it down.

Leah wrote: "I always struggle with which word to use for the buttocks for some reason. I’ve used the actual word ‘buttocks’ which sounded ridiculous but whatever. I used ‘ass’ in a steamy scene, which didn’t feel entirely right either for some reason. Not sure why I struggle with butt words..."

I've used 'bottom' for that part. What I struggle with is, in my case, the 'front' side. In my particular case, I'm on about, the labia (which sounds far too science-ish)... I'm not sure if using 'lips' (would be okay in present-time if it was obvious they're the OTHER lips) is appropriate for a fantasy setting.