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

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

Eileen wrote: "I also recommend making your book free on Kindle from time to time, assuming you're in KDP Select. I view it as a way to get more reviews, which adds to your visibility on Amazon and eventually to more sales."

For many people, this doesn't work at all. There are a lot of readers who download free books on sight because they're free but never read them, because they have a pile of those.

Eileen wrote: "working (however slowly) to build up your reviews on Amazon and here."

Any tips on that matter? I think that's the hardest part, knowing how to start with building an audience.

I admit that only a few characters in my project were given last names - they just aren't that important. Most of the time, they're used when the situation is very formal.

Well, you can put me on the "afraid to be famous" pile.

Yeah, apple stuff tends to be overpriced + there will be things that don't run on it.

Laptops in general will have more updates because there's usually a ton of bloatware - an issue you won't have on a desktop you build and install yourself.

Yes, that is definitely possible.

16GB may be good for the future but now, I would think it an overkill. I have W10 with 8GB RAM and it runs quite well even for games, unless it's something very new. Writing demands much less.

Make sure you have a SSD drive, it'll boot faster.

Also, any reason to get a laptop over a desktop PC? If you insist on laptop, I'd suggest a real keyboard. I can't imagine writing on laptop keyboard for hours. But maybe that's just me.

Gail wrote: "Also, several years ago, I was advised by a known trad publisher, "You need to write a unique story, like Cinderella with a twist." Uh...that's considered unique?? I didn't/couldn't/maybe should've."

If you look at present-day cinema and trad-pub books, it, unfortunately, is unique enough - and risk-free enough - to work.

What if I fear when people necro threads from 2015?

(just joking, but seriously, it was like 5 just this week)

Gail wrote: "Okay, good point, Tomas. Since Eldon was initially asking about flashbacks, even in 3rd person past tense stories, wouldn't a flashback need to reflect a time prior to that? So, instead of 'He walked into a room' (3rd person past tense), a flashback would state, 'He had walked into a room'?"

Depends. It might, but I believe many people use normal past tense, and that's okay if the flashback is clear (often just full cursive with normal font where a cursive would be otherwise).

Gail wrote: "Why would you write an entire book in past tense?"

Aren't most (apart from dialogue)? 3rd person past tense feels the most natural to read to me.

Dwayne wrote: "You have to say, "Okay, here's a flashback" without saying, "Okay, here's a flashback" and sometimes the transitions feel a bit sudden..."

Well, as a reader, I don't mind being explicitly told that a scene is a flashback...

It's possible to go with *** (or any fancy scene-break you use) followed by a "[X days/months/years ago]", then make sure to end the scene with a scene-break again. If you want to be totally sure, then ad "present time" at the first scene after the flashback.

Geoffrey wrote: "The only upside of self publishing is that you get to write whatever and however the hell you want. Even if it's in a made up genre."

Only? What about -your- choice of cover, in times when many publishers put out books looking quite generic, to save money?

What about not having to go through the hamster wheel of querying agents, which is just as "fun" as looking for a job but three times as frustrating?

Nah, not the "only" advantage at all.

(edited for typos)

I'm not an expert but can you share what method you used for the formatting? Have you done it yourself? If yes, what software have you used? Or have you hired someone to do it for you? If anyone is to help you, we'll need more information.

As a reader, I don't tend to look at editorial reviews. I go by the book description and a couple of reader reviews. But that's my approach.

One of the characters in my story is loosely inspired by my first love.

I intentionally avoid negative inspiration, because I don't want to be reminded of negative things when editing.

Yeah, Phillip, I also struggle understanding people with that mindset. What good is a promise if you don't intend to fulfill it? There are situations where it may be a valid reason - such a major change in one's life - but that's not a majority of those cases. I can understand abandoning an idea - but why not honestly tell the person? That's what I don't understand.

Well, but if they weren't an average person with an ordinary life, how would everything change?

Jokes aside, yeah, they're overused formulations. As you said, no story without a change. And while many characters don't start out exactly ordinary or average, I think for those there are other ways to point out the difference.

EDIT: I've also seen the word "unputdownable". And now I'm shocked that spellcheck isn't even highlighting it.

Definitely keep a different edition for e-book, because you can include formatted links to your website or other books in those. You can have links in print, of course, but the typical underlined link in a print book looks amateurish.
Plus you need headers and footers in print (for page numbers and such) while those won't do e-book any good.

On topic of Bookbub, yeah, the big genres can go to quite a high price. Then, those very genres can give you quite a good conversion. There's a reason why the featured deal is considered one of the best marketing tools available to writers - because the success rate is quite high.