X.’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2017)

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

Carole wrote: "People never look at one review. I know for me, when I read a negative review, I like to read the book and see if the reviewer was correct. Sometimes books with a slew of bad reviews do very well. ..."

Thank you. I really am open to criticism--it was something I learned. And I could probably do better than anyone roasting my own books. But I just think it should be FAIR criticism.

Just had a review posted today on Goodreads AND Amazon criticizing my book for plot holes. There very well may be plot holes, but EVERY one of the things he complained about were actually addressed in the book. I hate thinking that I'll lose sales just because HE can't read well. Grr....

I've noticed this too! I looked at a dozen YA ebooks for a book club I'm a part of (all trad published) and ALL of them were 9.99 or above. The majority of them had a higher cost for the ebook than the paperback. I could probably pick up the paperback at Barnes & Noble for cheaper than either the ebook or the Amazon paperback. I was shocked, but hopefully this means good news for Indies. (I did notice that my paltry little YA book was ranked higher than a couple of them.)

My newest book is having a free promo for a couple of days. If you like The Hunger Games or The Fifth Wave, give it a look.

https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Vs-Xela-C...

Also, coincidentally, the same book is participating on Author Shout's Cover Wars. Head on over and vote for your favorite!

http://authorshout.com/cover-wars/

I actually follow authorshout's cover wars and voted for Heir of Power this morning, before this post. It really is the best one this week--I hope you win!

Still no word from them?

Ask them which comments were flagged.

My book is competing in AuthorShout's Cover Wars. Give the entries a look and cast a vote!

http://authorshout.com/cover-wars/

I would also be interested.

Roughseasinthemed wrote: "It hadn't been? But I think shouldn't have works. It's past tense anyway. ie It should not have been.

You could also use couldn't. What you are trying to do, I think, is convey a sense of how lon..."

Hm...

What about changing it to this?
"It couldn't take more than a few days before we would reach our destination."

Still past-tense, but still manages to convey looking toward the future?

My WIP is first person past-tense, and I was hoping to get advice on this passage, because I'm uncertain if it's worded correctly:

"I didn’t want to travel with him; if I’d had any food at all, I would have left, lickity-split. But I was a slave to my stomach, and my stomach was a slave to his food, for now. It shouldn’t have been more than a few days before we arrived at our destination. Surely I could handle anything for a few days."

I'm really not sure how the sentence "It shouldn't have been more than a few days before we arrived at our destination" should be written in past-tense. This was my best guess, but does anyone have another suggestion?

I just received a 2-star review this morning, but everything written in the comment was positive. Explain that one to me.
Also, her 'average rating' is on 153 book is 2.41--why would you keep picking up books if you don't like them??

Sounds great. Thank you!

I have sent you a message, Ruth. :)

Okay, here's my GRRRR:

I shelled out $108 for promos for my .99 Kindle Countdown that's currently running. Here's the breakdown:


April 4: eBookHounds - cost $20
April 5: Fussy Librarians - $18
April 6: eReaderIQ / Booksends combo - $30
April 7: Fiverr Bknights - $11
April 8: Manybooks - $29


To break even I'll need to sell 172 units (about 34 per day). I've only run one other Kindle Countdown and I didn't advertise at all, and I barely had any reviews, yet I still sold 6 units. I did some research and it seemed like most people were getting around 30 sales / day with these newsletters, so I was crossing my fingers things for about the same. I didn't care if I came up a little short when all was said and done, but it turns out I'm going to come up a LOT short--as in, I've sold a total of 7 units so far-- $4.34 in royalties. Manybooks is coming up tomorrow, but I doubt much will come of that. Not sure what I'm doing wrong--my guess is it's the blurb. I did ask other authors about the blurb, but they assured me it was fine. I'm going to chalk this up as a (somewhat expensive) learning experience and try not to beat myself up over it too much, but you can bet I won't be paying for any more advertising. It's been a pretty disheartening week, and I was so excited for it beforehand. :(

Congratulations!

Great article. Tweeted!

Congrats Marie! You deserve it!

Thanks everybody!

I entered the first chapter of my WIP into a writing contest and got "short-listed" (basically an honorable mention). Considering there were over 130 entries, I'm pretty happy!

https://www.booksie.com/contest/Books...