Crystal Dawn’s Comments (group member since Feb 01, 2017)

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

Joshua wrote: "I picked up "How to Draw Fantasy Art & RPG Maps" by Jared Blando to help me along.

Currently, I am sketching a 'logical map' which connects the different events.
I am including the time of travel..."

That's actually very interesting that you mentioned that. Eons ago, we purchased a RPG map-making program called 'Campaign Cartographer' (for both personal and professional reasons), and gave that a go briefly. While we still use it for games, I've since noticed a lot of people actually use it in their books, in both professional and indie fields. I'd never heard of that specific book before, but I'll definitely have a look into it.

I do like your idea about including travel time in your maps. The one I sketched for my husband (at the tender age of sixteen/seventeen, notably) attempted to include a similar feature. Basically 1cm was the equivalent of his own miles/kms. He has maps covering many different areas across the world, and they vary from being zoomed in, to spread out. That particular one in comparison, even though it was one of his first maps, was very zoomed in, and when I added the scale I found it made the world feel rather small. The book noted a man travelling from (on the map) The ruins of Greenwich to New Atherton, and from memory, I think it took him three days, but I still remember feeling weird about it because the scale to time ratio just felt unbelievable. He was on horseback, but unless the horse was constantly stalling, and taking his good ol' time, it should not have taken him that long. We no longer use the exact scale idea. Are you noticing similar issues? I'd honestly be very interested to know your experiences.

Karen wrote: "Thank you for sharing this! It is encouraging to see the various drafts, as I am in the middle of a similar process myself. I have been writing in the setting for 18 years but avoided making the map until now, when one book is finally coming out. It was an ordeal just to make a passable sketch I could pass on to a more skilled artist. I'm hoping I'll get more than one book's use out of the map.

Nice looking website, too. I'd be interested to read and review the books. "

Hi Karen, you're very welcome, and thank you for the kind words! It's fantastic to hear (even if it's not the best of situations) that this was helpful, and that someone understands where our new grey hairs have come from. We completely emphathise with your 18 year investment into a single universe, as this is my husband's 12th year now, and your plan to try and reuse each map, under the circumstances, is a completely sane idea! Haha. We would have loved to have been able to do the same thing, if the stories weren't told so far away from one another.

We'd both love to have have a look at your story when it's ready. I'll add you as a friend and send you a message. :)

Is it too early to apply for the new list? I'm sorry, I don't want to jump ahead or anything.

I wanted to open a discussion on the process of making maps for our books.

Our own story started because my husband's first book convention was decided upon last year, and to proceed with such we had to invest in hard copies of his books for the first time. Being an anthology based in a high fantasy world, the obvious choice of creating maps for each book was inevitable (after all, every great fantasy book needs an equally great map). An artist wasn't at the top of our priorities financially, so we decided to create them ourselves. It was a long process, as my husband chose to proceed with traditional hand-drawn maps, similar to Tolkien, and having not focused on his art skills for many years, there was a stressful period of much trial and error.

He cataloged his entire process for his current three books. I think seeing the journey might prove helpful for other authors who may be considering similar avenues. The first link is to imgur, where he collected all of his images and explained the journey; the second link is to a YouTube video with an abridged account of a single map's process. The third is to his website, where under appendices you can find the finalized versions (the same models we'll be making his promotional posters from).

Images and Descriptions: https://imgur.com/a/7DP9c
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT8Pl...
Website: https://www.miragestories.com/

We really would love to hear any positive or constructive feedback, and of course questions, so hopefully we can all help each other achieve our desired outcomes! If you've made maps for your books, what did you do? :)

I'm happy to give free copies of any of the three books in the series to anyone who would like one in exchange for an honest review. They don't need to be read in order, or altogether as each is a standalone, with themes that cross between the books. Just let me know if you would like them. :) (Strife, The Voice of the Wild, The Sound of Thunder)

Happy Reading!
Crystal

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I've added all of the extra material. Thanks Alexis!

Could it be within your reach to write a separate crime fiction? It could even be a prequel (his first case — not sure if you've tackled this idea in your first book) to your Inspector Stone mysteries, or in the same world? You could do a spin off cold case drama, or have a completely new Detective solve the case, but have them from the same office. The options there are endless. I wouldn't rerelease your first book as a serial, especially if it's already been available in the public for an extended time. Making it free week by week could irritate people who did buy it. You could make it a whole perma-free later on? But I would definitely think heavily about it, and make it quite a while from its release date.

I know the fresh writing sounds like a big task, but it does have great opportunities. I know I keep referring back to Martian, but that was written and released chapter by chapter, and the story grows very organically. I've read another paranormal tale that's doing the same thing, and Kevin is trying it through Miragestories.com although he's having issues with wanting to release them chapter by chapter once he gets super into it >.< It's all things to think about though, and I'm invested regardless of your decision. I push you to keep it crime though, you may as well showcase your talents.

Alex wrote: "Justin, do you have a link to that List of Ways to Improve on Pinterest? I'd be interested in that.

I succeeded in all but one of last weeks goals, which I'm pleased about, the only one I failed a..."

Unless you're super, actively marketing and writing dozens of emails to reviewers each week and buying all those promos, then I wouldn't add your sales as a goal. It's not within your control, and there's no use in making yourself upset. I would hate to think that this one goal, hinders your others. :/

I do think your writing and blog posts are very achievable though! Good luck!

Thank you for the opportunity, Angela! I'm sending you our perma-free book Strife (and I'll discuss with my fiancé about some of his other works). Do you need book covers or other images as well?

This is a fantastic idea, Alex. It's exactly what Andy Weir did, and look where that went. Could I offer a little advice? Firstly, make it a book relevant to your main writing. Don't make it a children's/Young Adult book if your a crime writer. If you release a crime fiction, then it will point people back to what you already have released, and could do some great things for you.

Secondly, also release it on Wattpad as well. This is entirely your choice, but I'm thinking that this could get you more exposure and a larger audience quicker. The con here though is, people read it there and not at your website, so you do need to weigh up which you would prefer. Andy Weir did The Martian entirely through his website, so if you're a good writer, with a great story to tell then you have something that could definetly work! Goodluck with it, and please keep me updated with your decisions. If you go ahead with it, I would be very happy to do a chapter by chapter review on my book blog, and supply you with some social media support! I already owe you one for helping us out without any prompting. ;)

I have called them in the past regarding a few other issues on Amazon, and I can tell you for sure, that you need more emphasis on begrudgingly, haha. I will call them again though, and see where we can go from there.

I've heard it can take anywhere up to 72 hours (business hours) just to be reviewed in these cases, so I know it takes time. We're just eager to start our new campaign as soon as possible, and unfortunately, we do need an Amazon link for it. If it doesn't go through though, we will have to remove the book as it completely clashes with our model, and the last thing we want is for someone to purchase it, realise they could have gotten it for free, and be angry.

Thank you for your help everyone, I will continue to return the favour!

Please help? :/

Nicole wrote: "I have been using Pronoun for distributing my "wide" books, and I LOVE them. You can list your Amazon price (and other distributors) for free with no hassle. They distribute to Amazon, B&N, iBooks,..."

I discussed the 'Pronoun' option with Kevin, and he had heard of it before whereas I hadn't. He doesn't want to use that option, simply because he can't control the formatting of the final product and they use a simple program to automate it, rather than giving it the hour + dedication it deserves. I run an author assistance service, catering in formatting as well, and we have a unique and beautiful style that we'd want to maintain. It's unfortunate, as it does sound like a brilliant idea, allowing for more writing and less marketing maintenance but for now, we'll keep with what we're doing. :)

We would really, really appreciate if you, Dante and Erin could help us out with this issue though, I promise it won't take more than 30 seconds! :)

Alex wrote: "Hi Crystal, I have reported the price match thing using all 3 links, the only problem was the option wasn't available on the book link you provided - I don't know if that's because it was the AU li..."

Thank you Alex! I couldn't see it when I posted the thread, but I thought that was because it was our book. It's odd that you can't price match in other countries ... Thank you regardless, we really appreciate it! I'll change the link now so it's an easier process for others :)

Hi guys,

We could really, really use your help. My fiancé's blood, sweat and tears are all devoted to his magnum opus (title to be announced), and in a new marketing design to create an interest in the brand, he has developed www.miragestories.com where he releases short stories and novellas, 100% free, based in the same world as his fantasy series, with some of the same characters, and some themes that will be important later. I can link you to his blog explaining this, if you would like to know more. Here's the issue however. All of these stories will be released for free, no exception, but Amazon's ebook policy doesn't allow for free book listings. He's missing out on countless marketing avenues because he can not utilise this service. This is where I need your help.

If you could please price match his book, now listed on Amazon, then hopefully they will change its price to free and we can begin our new marketing scheme. We would be eternally grateful and will pay it forward in any way we can.
Go to this link:
https://www.amazon.com/d/B06XKY5KR3/r...

And scroll to the "tell us about a lower price" link. It looks like this.



Take one of these links: (Any will do, as I'm sure a variety will make them sway their decision quicker).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/stri...
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/stri...

And fill in the information requested.
Thank you so much in advanced, and I will keep you posted as to how it goes! Fingers crossed!!

Much love,
Crystal

Is the ad for the website, or is it spoken on air as well? :) And is it just for individual books, or can it be for a series? I would be advertising www.miragestories.com as one possible sponsor.

That is some excellent advice Carole! You covered everything. I love the part about getting the kids to interact with small toys.

No worries! Have Brit put up any relevant links as well, I'll happily tweet out your bookish dates.

Done :)

What time (GMT) does your show feature? Is it on "I<3Radio" to be found internationally? And finally, will you take international candidates? :)