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

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

Finally online from The Creative Cafe: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Drive-Thru Cheeseburger.

I originally wrote this for the Slackjaw humor contest (still in progress), but one of my beta readers pointed out that they don't generally go for fiction, so I wrote another piece for the contest and sent this one to The Creative Cafe. I'm rather fond of it. ;-)

I got some great reviews from "Miranda Reads," plus a mention on a recent YouTube video she did:

The Fibonacci Murders

True Death

Ice On the Bay

An article from Indies Unlimited on how scammers are messing up Audible, resulting in new policies that make it harder for indies. I haven't jumped on the audiobook bandwagon yet, and this makes it sound less promising. Thoughts?

Joshua is a good guy. He'll promote your books on his site, too.

Thanks Angel and Anna!

Took awhile to get this one published, but it's finally up now: The Winter Thief, from Lit Up.

I've entered the cover for Space Operatic in the AuthorsDB 2020 Cover Contest. You can see it and vote for it here.

I don't know if you have to have an AuthorsDB account to do this. You might. I don't much like their website, but it's one more place to get some exposure.

Thanks!

I haven't posted an update on this for a while, so here's one now.

I've continued with daily postings to Instagram and weekly newsletters. My subscriber list has grown a little, but not by great leaps and bounds. A number of people have also unsubscribed, but not as many as have subscribed.

My engagement numbers have changed. The latest report shows 33% "often" engaged, 14% "sometimes" engaged, and 49% "rarely" engaged. This is a noticeable increase in the "often" category with a significant drop in the "sometimes" category. "Seldom" is down slightly.

What this tells me is that although my list is not much bigger than it was, my subscribers are somewhat more engaged. Some of those not interested have left. They've been replaced by people who are interested, and some of those on the fence may have become more engaged.

I need to be able to make more valuable offers to my subscribers, I think. I have been giving away free electronic copies of The Fibonacci Murders in exchange for sign-ups. I also extended the offer of a free ebook to everyone who was on my list before I implemented that offer. A few have taken me up on it, but not a lot. I think there are a fair number of people out there who simply aren't interested in ebooks. One subscriber even emailed to say he only read print books.

So I have been wanting to be able to offer discounts on print books to my subscribers. The problem is, I didn't have a viable method of doing. I can't send coupons without purchasing them, which would run into a lot of money, and I distribute through IngramSpark, so any price changes I make are across the board, not just for my subscribers.

To address this, I've implemented a shop on my website. Click on the "Shop" link at the top to see it. (I've changed my "Books and Stories" section to link to my shop pages for individual books.) This was created using the Wordpress plugin WooCommerce. I should be able to set up ebooks for sale through here too, and probably will, but I haven't gotten that far yet. WooCommerce supports coupon codes, so I can generate those and send them to my subscribers, enabling them to get discounts on books.

Logistically, I will have to manually transfer any orders I get here to my IngramSpark dashboard. Ingram will print the books and mail them to my customers. This way I don't have to maintain any inventory or handle order fulfillment. It's not all roses and petunias, but it should work. I don't intend this to be my primary sales channel anyway. It's mostly so I can offer special discounts to my subscribers.

I still feel like I'm not getting a great deal of traction, but I'm doing better than I did last year, I guess, so I just have to keep at it (which is admittedly not my strong suit). I'll try to check in again in another month or so. Meanwhile, feel free to ask questions or make suggestions. Thanks!

Here's a new flash fiction piece. I posted this one myself, without going through a publication, just to get something out there. How Not To Camp

D.J. wrote: "You’re doing much better than me. I ought to look into submitting to publications but I find the whole thing intimidating. I’m also not sure I can write what they’d take."

Well . . . I understand, but then you won't know if you don't try. And look at it this way. If they don't take it, you can still publish it yourself, so you're not really loosing anything.

D.J. wrote: "It’s not just me then. Maybe there’s more income from fiction on there. Anything I post is being listed as warning about 3c where it would normally be $2."

Actually just the opposite. Most of what I make there is from nonfiction. My fiction only makes relatively little.

Part of the secret is to post regularly, but it's also about reaching a big enough audience of the right sort for your work, which generally means making it into a publication of reasonable size.

I've been making less, too, but I've also been posting less frequently, and the publications I've been using have been getting slower about posting stories (probably because they are growing and have a lot more submissions). Some of them have also gotten pickier. Used to be, nearly everything I wrote for Writing Cooperative was accepted. Now I'm down to a 50% - 75% success rate. Some of their rejections have been for really picky stuff, too, like not properly formatting a headline.

I did strike it "big" with my recent Slackjaw stories (to the tune of around $50 for last month), but for the past 6 months or more, I've been struggling to hit $15.

Got another one placed with Slackjaw: How To Outwit Your Climate Change Opponents, Be They Deniers or Hysterics. As you can tell, it's on a hot topic . . .

My first short story via The Creative Cafe on Medium: A Fishy Sight, another Bernard and Melody story. Enjoy!

At long last, Space Operatic will be released this Friday, 3/27/2020! In my newsletter on that day, I'll be running a giveaway for 5 signed print copies and 5 Amazon or B&N gift certificates that will cover the ebook edition. To have a chance to win, visit DaleELehman.com and sign up for my newsletter. You'll also get a free digital copy of The Fibonacci Murders just for signing up. Not bad, eh?

Congratulations, Carole!

The facility where I work sent a lot of people home to keep the onsite staff below a certain level. Some of us were told to telework, including me. 24 hours later, we were told we would not be allowed to telework, so they set up an alternate site for us. Turned out somebody said the wrong thing to some higher-up, who got ticked and decided to punish everyone for it. On the plus side, I'm still working, which is good because my creditors don't like it when I'm not . . .

I've revised my blurb. Here's the latest version. Please let me know what you think. All suggestions appreciated!:
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Eternal fame or eternal shame?

Hopeless optimist Roberto Maccarone has staked his fortunes on a bold move: he's brought grand opera to the Oort Territories, where there isn't enough culture to fill a petri dish. But it's a tough sell here in the cold dark of the next to last circle of hell, and soon Maccarone is up to his mephistophelean eyebrows in corporate greed, rebellious miners, bloodthirsty mercenaries, outrageous lies, intense loathing, inane conversations, and more unintended consequences than you can shake a baton at. Really, how hard can it be to stage a performance?

One thing alone can save Maccarone and his company: the most fabulous theater in the solar system slumbers nearby, mysteriously shuttered without having once been used. But the keys are held in the icy grip of the local Culture Minister, and nothing–not Maccarone, not obscene amounts of money, not even that guy who juggles flaming kabobs while singing an ancient song about how great America was–can pry them loose. Will it be fame for Maccarone and his troupe? Or unemployment in Beelzebub’s outhouse?

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "I'll bet! Good luck, Dale! Hugs"

Thanks!

I'm not an expert in disease control, but based on what I'm hearing it seems to me the best things to do are avoid large gatherings as much as possible and practice good hygiene.

This virus is already pretty much everywhere and won't be contained in any reasonable sense of the word. It's very important to protect those who are most vulnerable, so trying to keep it out of nursing homes, medical facilities, and the like ought to be a top priority.

From what I'm hearing, disease control experts are thinking the time for tracking and travel bans is basically past. (Those measures, they apparently think, won't actually help that much anymore.) They're also saying that very few national governments are doing good jobs at this point. It's probably up to local governments, businesses, organizations, and ordinary people now.

My employer is closely monitoring the situation and has plans in place to protect the office and keep tabs on employees that contract the illness. It hasn't been reported in my immediate community so far, although the first case in Baltimore County was reported on the news this morning.

Brilliant Flash Fiction has a contest in the works. For details and the photo prompt, go here.

The contest is free to enter and has a deadline of May 30th. I've entered two of their previous contests and have written the first draft of a story I hope to submit to this one. (It came in over twice the maximum length, though, so I have a lot of work to do!) They draw international participation, which makes it an interesting experience, although it's tough to get into the winner's circle.