J.’s Comments (group member since Sep 03, 2020)

J.’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Anna wrote: "Hello everyone, how are you? I hear dribbles of news sometimes but it would be good to know how the wonderfully helpful people in this group are getting along now. Still writing? Still reading?"

Good morning! Doing well, I hope you are. I had to go back to old school writing in a journal over the past year due to my busy schedule. Things slow down by Thanksgiving so that is when I plan to focus all nights on writing, I cannot wait! Sending all of you my best for a wonderful day!

Dale wrote: "This place used to be active, now it's slumbering. I know some of you have had a rough time of it over the past year, but I hope you're at least surviving and some are doing well. Have you made any..."

I finally had to drop writing over the last 2 months to focus on weeding out all of the horrid clutter in my life - it was really messing with my head. My writing spaces are now inviting (no risk of being crushed by avalanches of meaningless paperwork) and I can sit and write for about an hour each week without anything else jumping into my brain, I hope to get back up to writing each night for an hour outside on the porch once the hot weather goes away. I am working on the ending of my spooky stage play this week, once that is complete I will go back to a novel I have been working on for a few years that is very messy right now - don't know how to fix it yet but I am just going to jump in and see what happens. I am also making a point to visit this site at least once a day - reading all of the tips and what is going on in other writers lives helps me so much - hope all of you are having a wonderful day!

Justin wrote: "Never heard of it. How's it worked out for you?"

Good morning! The interface is problematic (log in and load time are frequently problematic) however the posts are interesting, I have had zero luck with associating my posts on this site with actual interest but I am not ruling it out yet since I am enjoying the content I see on there now:)

Moptu.com is interesting, it may prove to be a good site to add a link to your book press releases or book reviews. I have been testing it for a few days, this article goes into detail about it: https://www.foxbusiness.com/technolog...

Dale wrote: "I've made a change on my author website. Since I'm terrible at writing blog posts, I decided it would be better to create an intro page that didn't have stale posts on it. Instead, it invites visit..."

Very nice site: clean, easy to navigate, verbiage is clear - impression I was left with was: professional, talented and friendly

Now that Oracle is in the mix, I tried out TikTok advertising today. I was able to create the ad and set limits but the site fails when we try to add funds to the advertising account:(

Carole wrote: "Come up with a plan. As I said start looking at the thread and the many things authors do to promote their book. You have to be diligent about it. Create a Facebook Author page and like other FB pa..."
Thank you so much! I am experimenting all day today with what I have learned here, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. The weather is beautiful here today so I am out on the porch with my laptop and a good book:)

Theodore wrote: "You would do everyone here a favor, Jennifer, by letting us know which organization/magazine failed to fulfill its contract with you.

Buyer beware!!!

And if and when they make amends, let us kno..."

Good morning! I was hoping no one would ask me this, yikes! I try not to mention any company name on the rare occasion I have an issue with something but this is the first time the behavior was so unlike my expectations. I do not want other writers experiencing this, I will post how and if this issue gets resolved, by then I should have the courage to post the company details:)

Carole wrote: "Ted is right. The most important advice is 'honing your skills and finding your audience." Scroll through the discussion threads here. It's a forum where indies come to share what works and what is..."
Thanks so much Carole, I didn't realize how much I needed goodreads until this happened. This has been a good reminder of what I need to do and, as a default introvert, a reminder of how important it is to do it else it will clutter my head for a long time:)

J. wrote: "Good evening! I was very disappointed in my first experiment with advertising my book in a magazine. I did my research and I chose a magazine I was familiar with. I was surprised how the arrangemen..."

Thank you so much Ted! I have printed out your words for my wall, they did me a world of good today. I feel better about how I need to handle this situation and I am so sorry you have experienced the same. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon and happy writing!

Good evening! I was very disappointed in my first experiment with advertising my book in a magazine. I did my research and I chose a magazine I was familiar with. I was surprised how the arrangement unfolded. I paid a large sum of money, filled out a contract for one month, submitted my artwork for their artists to create the ad and verbiage and answered all questions within the magazine deadlines. When it came time to proof the advertisement they never sent it to me. Late, the night before release of the magazine they emailed saying they had forgotten to send it to me and they attached it for my review and hoped it was ok because it was too late to change anything. I looked at the attachment and the advertisement contained grammatical errors. They were so nice through the whole process up to that point that I did not have the heart to tell them about the problem, the publication is going to look just as bad having the error on their page. I am seriously discouraged about the whole matter. I am hoping all of you wonderful writers have some advice for me regarding advertising in print magazines, This has been such a sour experience, I am ready to just start saving to hand over a crazy fortune to an advertising company to do this for me but I am concerned I will run into the same problem with them. With the amount of money and time I invest in editing my own work, I went into this with the assumption that established magazines do the same thing. Thanks so much for your time and for this forum! ~ Jennifer