Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

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

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "I read Weasel Words by Dale Lehman and left reviews here and on Amazon. Hugs to All!"

Thank you, Sam!

I'm so behind on my reading that I'm embarrassed to say I'm being very little help (at least in that regard) to anyone right now.

And a short story in Lit Up: Worstseller.

I wrote this for the NYC Midnight short story contest, round 1. It got some good comments from the judges but didn't place high enough to get me into round 2.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "P.S. I have books from many authors in this group. Please understand I am a slow reader dealing with painful health issues. Also please know, your book will be read and reviewed. I care about all o..."

Oh, no rush, and I won't be checking up on you. ;-)

Anna wrote: "Not only reading - some cutting and pasting went on. The Deus ex Machina trap catches the occ..."

So you've got a file on me now? ;-)

And a humorous SF short story, my first for publication Sci-Fi Shorts: Jumped.

Two fun notes about this. First, Sci-Fi Shorts and Fantasy Shorts (both run by the same person) added me as a writer a long time ago. I'm not even sure when. I just noticed it one day when I was looking at my publications list to place a story. I kind of forgot about them after that. This story was written specifically with them in mind.

Second, "Jumped" is my second story about Arne Slocum and Jacey Komarov. Arne is actually a character from my novel Space Operatic, but there he's a much older guy, still a techno-wizard but less reckless and accident prone. The first story featuring the pair was Oops!, originally published in Don't Wake the Mage but since moved to my own publication, Red Tales after the mage "retired."

Andrew wrote: "I see you're a "veteran software developer" and I'm still grinding at it, so it would be interesting to compare notes"

Yeah, I've been in the field for over 40 years by now. I like to tell people I can code in my sleep, which is a good thing because that's usually how I'm doing it. ;-)

Anna wrote: "Thanks, Dale. Interesting and useful."

My pleasure. Thank you for reading!

My latest from Writing Cooperative is now online: How to Create Eucatastrophe and Not Deus ex Machina.

This is a technique Tolkein named. I've probably never used it myself, but I found it interesting enough to write an article about it.

Andrew wrote: "Hi folks,

I do a monthly podcast called MtA (meet the authors) that I post on my website and on youtube. You can check it out here (https://www.andrewsweetbooks.com/meet...). We do one a ..."

Hi Andrew. FYI, I filled out your form. Thanks!

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Congrats, Dale! I snagged a copy, which makes me a statistic. Yippee! Good luck! Huge Hugs!!"

Thank you, both for the congratulations and for picking up a copy. I hope you enjoy it. Comments appreciated (either here or in private), and of course a review would be great.

Anna wrote: "Congratulations, Dale. 42 with a chance of stretching to beyond the stars sounds brilliant ;-)"

Thanks!

So . . . the stats are in from Ingram for March, and Weasel Words, which as you may recall reached pretty high rankings on its first day, sold . . .

. . . are you ready for this?

42 copies.

Hmm. That's not bad, but given the rankings, I thought it might be higher than that. Then again, it is the answer to life, the universe, and everything, sooooooo . . .

;-)

Vince wrote: "My goals is $1 profit but to do that I'll need to sell about 350 copies. Trying to promote through FB and Twitter ads. Anybody have luck with that? Distributing through Ingram Spark to all online m..."

Congratulations! I've had very little success with social media sales, but then I haven't been too consistent. I've had better luck with paid ads in BargainBooksy emails, although I don't generally make back the investment. People are often willing to pick up freebies, but getting them to spend even $1 is a lot harder.

In most cases it's probably unrealistic for a first-time self-published fiction author to expect to make a profit, but as Carole says, if you can build up a list of well-written books and keep at it, eventually you can probably make money. It just takes time. I've heard the "magic number" is somewhere around 25 books. It probably varies depending on your writing and marketing skills. I only have 5 books out right now, and I'm running in the red every year.

I don't mean this to be discouraging. It's just a reality check. We have to think in terms of the long haul.

I haven't watched more TV. I hardly watch any TV, in fact. But my writing suffered over the past year, a lot because I was at home all the time and ironically had less time to myself for writing. I generally wrote on my lunch breaks at work, but with telecommuting I got to have lunch with my wife every day. That was great but translated into not much writing.

Now I'm back at the office and am starting to pick up my old habits, so this year may be more productive, writing-wise.

We got our first dose of the vaccine yesterday.

Valerie wrote: "I must've seen the words 'Story Origin' around here the magic 7 times, because I finally got around to signing up about 2 weeks ago - excellent timing it seems, since I will qualify for the discoun..."

You're quite welcome!

Anna wrote: "I must take a look at that, Dale. I wonder if I've said that before?"

Oh, probably. ;-)

Anna wrote: "Hello? Anybody else out there? Or is it just us two having a natter?"

I'm here somewhere, but I have to find me first. It's been a strange year, and it's only not-quite April...

I'm not terribly good at the whole social media thing, but I'll mention (as I have before) Story Origin as a great way to build a mailing list through swaps and group promos. It's going to become a paid service soon, but it's still free right now, and if you sign up while it's free, you'll get a discount on the paid version.

In my corner of the world, most people seem to have adapted one way or another. Of course it's been difficult, especially for those who have lost jobs or who have had children being "schooled" remotely. But on the whole, people have figured out how to cope and keep going, although some do it by flaunting their contempt for reasonable precautions.

I worked remotely from April through December, then my job went bye-bye (not because of the pandemic, though; it was just a funding cut courtesy of the government). I quickly found a new position, but I couldn't start until March, and since then I've been required to work on-site, so no more telecommuting. Otherwise, things go on for us pretty much as normal, just muffled by masks.

Thank you!

My current author bio is as follows:
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Dale E. Lehman is a writer, veteran software developer, amateur astronomer, and bonsai artist in training. He principally writes mysteries, science fiction, and humor. In addition to his novels, his writing has appeared in Sky & Telescope and on Medium.com. With his wife Kathleen he owns and operates the imprint Red Tales. They have five children, six grandchildren, and two feisty cats. At any given time, Dale is at work on several novels and short stories.
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At one point, I had a mention of what specifically I was working on, but I had to change it every time I published a new book. Eventually I got tired of that and made it generic enough that I wouldn't have to change it, at least not for that reason. So instead of using it as a marketing tool for a specific book, I use it to let people know a few interesting (I hope!) things about me.