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

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

Related to the foregoing, I've also published a short article about what I'm doing: My Modest Medium Makeover.

I've taken a new leap on Medium and started my own publication. It's called Red Tales, which is also the name of the imprint I own and through which my novels are published. I've got some more work to do to get things properly organized, but I've added all of my fiction that was not already part of another Medium publication as well as a few articles on writing.

I'd greatly appreciate it if you would consider following Red Tales. especially if you're already following me. I would also appreciate any mentions you could give it, either on or off Medium.

I don't know exactly where I'm going with it yet. Eventually I would like to have at least a few other writers published in it, but I don't have a lot of time for reading submissions and editing stories, so it may just be me for the near term. I'll let you know if anything changes, though.

Thanks!

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Hi All! Hugs to everyone!!

https://medium.com/the-purple-pen/our..."

I think that might be the wrong link. It loads okay, but it won't let me applaud because (it says) it's a draft.

Dale wrote: "Angel wrote: "Hi, everyone. No time. No see. Found this new opportunity for fellow indies on this group. Here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...-..."

Ah . . . looks like the mod deleted the original comment. That must be it. It violated the group rules.

Angel wrote: "Hi, everyone. No time. No see. Found this new opportunity for fellow indies on this group. Here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"

Hi Angel. Something's wrong with the link. It just takes me to my GR home page. It looks like it might more or less work if you remove the "?comment=" part.

Carole wrote: "https://medium.com/me/stats/post/7804..."

Hey Carole. That link goes to a stats page, which is odd because it doesn't seem like anyone but the author should be able to see it. I was able to click on the story title to get to it the correct page, though.

I have a new writing article at Publishous: Get Specific with Little Details to Improve Your Writing.

Ugh . . . what a horrid title! I called it "Get Specific" but they wanted the longer version for SEO (I guess).

At least they're publishing it. Actually, I originally submitted this to Writing Cooperative, but they told me (without being specific) that it had too many errors and asked me to correct them. I found a couple of typos and made a few other edits, then they told me they wanted something "more original and actionable." As if what I wrote here wasn't "actionable." Publishous praised it for being so! Oh, and they also prefer articles with subtitles. As Charlie Brown says, "Good grief."

To be honest, I've about had enough of them. They are now rejecting more than they accept, which, okay, I get, but when they reject my articles they often seem to do it for the most inane and demonstrably false reasons. Maybe they're using templated rejections, but it's sure irritating.

Okay. Enough ranting. Sorry. I hope you like the article . . .

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "A Short Story... something different for me lately. Hugs to All!
https://medium.com/the-purple-pen/the..."

Nice change of pace!

I forgot to restore the normal price, so you can still get Space Operatic at [your currency here]0.99.

Last time, I said I'd check in in a month or so. It's been nearly 4 months. For most of that time, I've been working from home, although last week I was in the office. It seems that working from home has left me with less time for writing and related activities rather than more. Hmm.

Anyway, I've fallen flat on my face where Instagram is concerned. I am no longer religiously following anybody or posting anything, so I'm not getting much from that end. However, I have been using Story Origin a bit more consistently, and that seems to get me some good numbers. People are at least looking at my books via the promotions done there.

My newsletter numbers have also shifted in an interesting way. I still only have 160 subscribers, which is down by a smidgen from the peak, but I've been trading unengaged subscribers for engaged ones. MailChimp now reports that 43% of my list is highly engaged, 15% moderately engaged, and 40% not very engaged.

So far, I've only tried one promo through AuthorsXP (Amy Vansant's service) and had poor results. I did a giveaway for reviews on Space Operatic. A lot of people requested the book, but only a handful received it. (She only releases books to people who are actually reading and reviewing; those who have not received it have a backlog they are, apparently, not working through.) Of those, two gave me a review and one said he wasn't going to because the book "wasn't his style of SF." Amy herself is very friendly and helpful, though, so I'm not complaining, just reporting my results.

I feel a bit stuck right now, with so little time to pursue these matters, but I've kept up with weekly newsletters and will continue to participate in promos via Story Origin, so I hope to make a bit more progress as the year wears on.

I finally have a new one, this time from Lit Up: The Ghost in the Stacks.

Anna Faversham wrote: "Got it! You now have a sale in the UK.

Thank you."

Wonderful, thank you!

All right, so I made a mistake. It's fixed now . . .

Summer reading season is here, and the world continues to go bonkers, so I'm reducing the price on the ebook edition of "Space Operatic" to 0.99, whether US, Canadian, or Australian dollars, pounds sterling, or Euros. Yep, 0.99 across the board.
This price is ONLY good for one week, July 3rd through July 9th. And I ask just one thing. Wait, no, two things. Okay, three things:

1. Buy a copy.
2. Read it.
3. Leave an honest review.

And what is "Space Operatic"? It's high culture in low places. It's corporate greed, rebellious miners, bloodthirsty mercenaries, ridiculous robots, inane conversations, and more unintended consequences than you can shake a baton at. In short, it's good, clean (mostly) fun on the fringes of the solar system.

Escape the madness by loosing yourself in the madness. Pick up a copy at your favorite online bookseller via this universal book link: https://storyoriginapp.com/universalb...

Thank you!

"Writers in Lockdown" is a short story collection edited by Faith Jones. It brings together short stories by 26 authors, including yours truly, written during the COVID-19 lockdown period. These stories are not about the pandemic. Rather, they provide a snapshot of what writers were thinking about and working on during this time. My story, "Adoption," is the second one in the collection and the longest (I think--I had to negotiate an exception to the length limit!).

The paperback has just been released, and the ebook is coming. The cost is low, just $7.50, and the proceeds are being used to offset production costs. If any is left over, the authors will agree upon charities to receive the overage.

Have a look, and please leave reviews once you've read the stories. I'm ordering my copy today. Thanks!

Anna Faversham wrote: "Did you want to put this Goodreads link in now, Dale?Space Operatic

You've helped so many people, I hope you get lots of reviews."

Thanks for reminding me about this. I just checked and for some reason the price change didn't go through. I don't know if I missed pressing a button or if Ingram had a problem. (Apparently they had a recent software update that caused issues in other areas.)

Looks like I'll have to set this up for next week and try again. *sigh*

Alex wrote: "Today in a rarre occurrence I have posted something to my blog, a post from Anna Faversham who has a new book out..."

Shared on my FB author page.

Here's a new humor piece. I tried getting this into Slackjaw and Publishous, but they rejected it (for different reasons), so I just threw it out there on my own. Our Sanitized and Socially Distanced Wedding Anniversary.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there! Alex, you're a Doggy Daddy, so that counts! Hugs

https://medium.com/the-purple-pen/to-......"

Thank you!

I would greatly appreciate any help passing this around. I've already posted on the Indie Author Collective FB group and a few other places, but I could use wide coverage. I generally don't do $0.99 books but I need to get more reviews. So far, I only have one, and although it's 5-star, it's only one. Thanks!
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Summer reading season is here, and the world continues to go bonkers, so I'm reducing the price on the ebook edition of "Space Operatic" to 0.99, whether US, Canadian, or Australian dollars, pounds sterling, or Euros. Yep, 0.99 across the board.

This price is ONLY good for one week, June 26th through July 2nd. And I ask just one thing. Wait, no, two things. Okay, three things:

1. Buy a copy.
2. Read it.
3. Leave an honest review.

And what is "Space Operatic"? It's high culture in low places. It's corporate greed, rebellious miners, bloodthirsty mercenaries, ridiculous robots, inane conversations, and more unintended consequences than you can shake a baton at. In short, it's good, clean (mostly) fun on the fringes of the solar system.

Escape the madness by loosing yourself in the madness. Pick up a copy at your favorite online bookseller via this universal book link: https://storyoriginapp.com/universalb...

Thank you!
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(You can pull the cover image from my post on Indie Authors Collective, or you can message me with your email address and I'll send it to you. Thank you!)

My latest from Don't Wake the Mage: Falling Man.

This was written in response to a challenge being passed around Medium to write a flash fiction story about someone who has superpowers for a day.