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

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

It works just like any other mail attachment.
PDF and DOC/DOCX will usually work on anything but will be far from ideal. The best way is knowing what e-reader the person has and converting it to its native format (which should work better, especially if structure/headings are done properly). There might be more but I use Calibre for the conversion.

Micah, I am with you when it comes to social media - never signed up for FB or twitter and don't plan to. Blogging, however, feels different for me. Closer to writing and a way to express my thoughts. Of course, it does not mean it should be the same for everyone, what I want to say that it might or might not work even for people staying away from social media.

For me, it's more about the story. If it's good and done with this in mind, it can definitely work with just humans.

Sure, there might be ways that work better than others for most. The point is, if you do something you don't want to do, the result will suffer - not only you'll hate doing it but it won't be done genuinely. It's why I plan to focus on Goodreads and my blog when I actually finish my story and ignore social networks I have an aversion towards.

To Chio: if you go self-published, it's all down to your decisions. That's the beauty of it. There's no agent or some other PR person that'd be like, you must be on FB, twitter, GR, blog, Instagram, DeviantArt and whichever another platform comes to your mind. You choose which you focus on - and where you feel yourself the strongest.

To Anna: Any idea how much Grammarly follows OED? (I realize this would be in case I swapped it to EN-UK settings).

Word count directly factors into pricing for print books as length affects the amount of paper and ink used. As for e-books, I believe most readers expect some kind of ratio between price and length. After all, it (usually) takes longer to write an 800-page epic than a 100-page novella.

I'll peek in to add another voice for what was said already. If there's a feeling that something was too rushed, that something does not work well enough, or anything else, it'll most likely be justified.
I am currently in the sixth draft of my to-be debut. I've already cut maybe 20% and rewritten/reworked another 50-60% during those drafts. It's maybe a bit extreme but it shows that I've found the doubts legitimate in many cases - and working on these weak points gave me more ideas that led to more edits to (hopefully) make the story better.

Something a bit strange...
If I made enough money to waste it this way, I'd probably try to find and hire someone able to forge a life-sized* replica of the MC's sword. Despite the fact I'd probably struggle with lifting it.

* life-sized for me so not a 1:1. I guess hand-and-half sword for a 170cm human (me) is a different length than it would be for a 200cm elf.

I guess so. I'll probably need to take a few tries when I get to drafting #2 (currently focusing on getting #1 beta-ready) and see what works. I guess that for such a mention, both too simple and too 'flowery' words have their downsides.

As for the UK-US, again thank everyone for their input. It's good to know it might not be a big issue and that my fears are probably blowing it out of proportion - and that consistency is important.

As far as modernisms go, I'll use an example from the first draft of book two. Several characters are on a volcanic island, searching for something Darkwood Jr. (the MC - I won't mention his first name yet for reasons) needs to progress.

Situation:
Brodan (a dwarven guide of this "tour") and Calyssa (mage who knows the Darkwood well) are watching Darkwood Jr. and Shianna standing aside, staring at the sea with some awkward distance between them.
Brodan: They look like a strange couple. (again, not the exact wording)
The problem comes with Calyssa's response. If it was in present times, I'd have her say something like "they were dating for three years..." or "she was his girlfriend for three years..."
...before their duty pushed them apart.
In fantasy, both feel out of place. It's these short, retrospective mentions that might be more challenging to do than any direct mention.

As for 'tiered' quotation marks...
"I remember. 'It'll be difficult,' that's what you told me," she said.
Double outside, single inside, that's what I use as the other case feels weird to me.

Well, I guess the best demonstration is how they interact in the story. What I meant more are moments when someone just wants to recall something in a simple way. It's more thinking ahead on this specific matter than anything else.

To Lydia: yes, my plan is to go the self-published route.
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As for the "inexistent" case - I often go by feeling for the negative prefixes. Since spellcheck had no issue with it, I had no reason to look into it - and thus could not see it's an older form. I'll keep it in mind, should I need to use it in the actual story. Gray/grey has me confused too - I find myself using both so I'll need to look at that case and make sure only one variant is used.

Also, even though fantasy makes the use of modern terms unneeded, there are some. Since the main character has a romance subplot, I am struggling on that front because girlfriend/boyfriend feels like a modernism and I found myself not knowing what could be a good alternative - so if anyone can help me on that matter as well, it'd be welcome.

Carro, on that matter, it's fantasy so yes, modern terms are inexistent. Also, again, thank you all for your input.

"Professional reviewer" with a private profile, 4 ratings and 0 reviews on GR. I don't think so. What I would expect from a professional would be a public profile (so anyone can see the reviews, why do it otherwise?) with a link to his/her website where these reviews would appear along with info on how he works (some guidelines to how he rates books).

Also, I'd be wary of paid reviews anywhere. I doubt their honesty.

Yeah, "leaped" is one of the US spellings that feel weird to me, as does "ax" instead of "axe". Considering that one of my characters has it as his weapon of choice, Grammarly pesters the hell out of me for it because I just can't get myself to use "ax".

Thank you for your insight, I hope more people will share theirs to have more solid backing up for my final decision, whichever way I go.

Hello everyone!
I've probably mentioned it several times that I am writing in my second language. The thing is, I've gathered several influences from several sources and what I use is a mix of UK and US English. In some cases like color/colour, I lean towards US variant, in others (irregular verbs), I lean towards UK variant. In some cases - like doubling letters on suffixes (mostly past tense but not limited to it), I have a different habit for different words.

What I'd like to know is what would be your opinion on this matter. Should I suck up that each variant has 2 or 3 cases of spelling that just feels weird to me and go full US or full UK? Or should I pretend it's my 'style' and keep using the mix, as long as I make it consistent (in the meaning of not mixing US and UK approach to irregular verbs)?

Would a reader notice that I am mixing rules of two 'dialects'? Could it make me look like someone who did not pay enough attention to spelling?

I've studied Geoinformatics so if someone wanted to know something about satellite navigation, remote sensing or modern cartography, feel free to ask. What I say outright is that unless you have limitless resources, it's always a choice between free data with lower resolution (and not so up-to-date) or fresh, perfect data at a high cost and high demand on hardware to work with tens of GBs.

Also, I hike a lot so if you wanted to know how someone feels after walking 36km across the mountains in a day, I can talk about that too. (hint: it makes your legs hurt for days unless you're really trained)

Thanks, everyone, for all the advice. I'll definitely have a look in the next draft about the "knock out for half a day" thing.

Anyway, for my own experience: I'd say it's not hard to write fight scenes. It's hard to write them well.
When I began, it was "easy", considering I write fantasy. Having the power to kill enemies spectacularly in a barrage of spells was extremely fun - and turns out to be extremely boring to read if it's a show of domination every single time.

Since the first draft, I believe I rewrote pretty much every single combat sequence - whether done by the blade, fist, magic, or combination of thereof. I had to learn how to make it appealing, how to create twists, how to put my loved characters in danger. Serious injuries or death - another thing I had to learn using well. I eventually discovered that even an injury easily fixed later could have a big impact if it causes feelings of guilt due to a botched responsibility or forgetting to take something into account when planning the attack.

As said, the environment can be made an aspect of the fight. Avoiding an attack (whether gunfire or a spell) in a cave/tunnel could still lead to injuries due to shards caused by the impact. Someone outnumbered in the woods can use the trees to their advantage (typical would be elven rangers shooting from behind a tree while using their skills to deny the enemy). Even a barren place can work as a hindrance due to having no cover.

For me, the best reward would be if someone had fun reading my book - and genuinely like it. Bonus if they like some of the characters and find them relatable. That's what books are for, right?