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

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

Thanks, Carmel!

My latest in Publishous (this one not at all about writing): Don't Fear the Future

I tried to get it into Dialogue and Discourse, but they have been very hard to break into, aside from some stargazing articles I was doing last year that interested them. Publishous has become my fallback for when they or Writing Cooperative don't pick up my submissions.

Carole wrote: "You just have to keep plugging."

Yeah, that's where I usually fall on my face. :-P But I'm doing my best not to this time.

Thanks, Magnus!

I've published two Medium stories today, not part of publications.

The first is On the Subjectivity of Value, my lastest Bernard and Melody flash fiction story.

The second is Not Quite Bonnie and Clyde, a page bringing together links for all of my Bernard and Melody stories and linking them to my forthcoming novel, "Weasel Words." (I didn't add this to the Partner Program, since I direct people to my website at the bottom, and I understand such calls to action get you in trouble with the curators.)

I've received 2 new subscriptions to my newsletter over the past month, which is 2 more than I got the whole prior year, so something must be working. In addition to my postings on Instagram, I did one on my author FB page and one on the indie writers FB group many of us here are part of. It's hard to tell exactly where the new subscribes came from.

I've also had several unsubscribes since I started sending regular emails. This probably is not surprising, since over half my list is not regularly engaged. Overall my list is now a tad smaller, but possibly a tad more engaged. We'll see.

Thanks, folks!

More Indies Unlimited Editor's Choice results have been announced, this time for April/May/June 2019. (They're on a roll now!) I received one award for 5/25/2019. That story is here on IU and here on Medium.

I'm also pleased to see that a member of my Creative Writing Workshop, Jeremy Cook, won the week before, (5/18/2019) and also got an honorable mention the same week I won.

My latest from Lit Up: Game of the Century.

I'd be interested in reactions/opinions. It was an interesting idea, but I'm not 100% sure it "works."

My latest from Don't Wake the Mage: Down By Two

Thanks, Carole, and congratulations to you and your son!

Indies Unlimited has released the winners of their Editor's Choice awards for (ahem) May and June of 2018. I received an honorable mention for my story "Barking Mad" which can be read on their site or on Medium.

I thought it was a pretty good story, but a bit obvious. I had stories in each of the other weeks, and some of them I liked better. I've never quite fathomed the ways of their staff. ;-)

P.S. I just noticed they previously released the winner list for January, February, and March 2019. I wasn't on that list. I only entered two stories during that period.

Two weeks into the experiment, and my impatient nature is already trying to get the better of me. :-P But I'm keeping at it.

I've nearly completed the redesign and content upgrade of my author website. I just need to add some short story links, which I hope to get to later today. Any feedback on it would be welcome. (You can either use my contact form or send me a message here.)

I've made 35 posts (actually a few more, because whenever I make a post to ask for a click on my free offer, I delete the previous one), have 58 followers, and am following 158 others. I updated my profile yesterday to note that Space Operatic will be released in March. I did that because I saw a few other authors putting release info in their profiles.

I have gained 0 new subscriptions, but it's probably too soon to expect too much. I've given encouragement to one other author who was pleading for people to read his works. He had published something like 20 - 30 titles and said he was about ready to give up. I know how he feels, but this is a long-haul project, so I know I can't expect amazing results overnight.

On the plus side, I'm building up some good habits, assuming I can keep them going. For one thing, I'm writing newsletters in advance. I use a MailChimp template for newsletters, so I can create campaigns well in advance and then just type up the content when I have some time. I've created campaigns through the end of February and have written this week's and next week's emails already (although I need to polish next week's). Once they're written, they can be scheduled for delivery, so nothing needs to be done the day of the mailing.

One improvement I have noticed is that my new emails are getting larger open and click rates than before. MailChimp gives high-level engagement statistics that break your audience into "Often," "Sometimes," and "Rarely" categories. My "Often" numbers are slightly up and "Sometimes" slightly down, which means those who have occasionally been inclined to open my emails are doing so more regularly. I'd like to see some improvement in the "Rarely" category, but so far I don't think that's really changed. However, I've only sent two of my new newsletters so far. (Think long term, think long term . . .)

I'm hoping to entice a few subscriptions with the announcement that this week's newsletter will feature the cover reveal for "Space Operatic." So far, nothing. But I'm hoping...

Kimberly wrote: "Hello.

My 5th poetry book was released this month.

It's called, "Is There Hope For A Broken Humanity?"

https://www.amazon.com/There-Hope-Bro..."

Congratulations!

My latest from Don't Wake the Mage: Oops!

This is an SF/humor tale originally written for a Reedsy prompt. It features a youthful Arne Slocum, a character from my forthcoming novel Space Operatic, although he's rather older and slightly wiser in the novel. ;-)

Carole wrote: "Scroll down- They included my joke book!!https://www.thechildrensbookreview.co......"

Congratulations! It looks like a good list to be part of.

My latest short story from Lit Up: Fireworks at Midnight. This was originally written for the Reedsy contest the week of New Year's but something went wrong and it never appeared there.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Question: do all of your Medium articles automatically post to FaceBook and Twitter (if you use them), or do you have to manually post them there by using the "Share Friend Link?" All sugggestions ..."

You can share to Twitter and used to be able to share to FB, but the FB connection no longer works, from what I understand.

First, cick on your profile image and then the last command in the menu, "Settings." In there you'll find a section called "Connections" where you can configure Twitter and FB connections.

Then, when editing a story, in the menu that opens from the "..." link in the upper right, there is an option to share to Twitter. Enable that, and you'll be all set for that part of it.

On FB, you'll have to share your link manually. The Friend link is probably best, but you can provide the regular link for anyone who has a Medium account, if you want.

Angel wrote: "Dale wrote: "My latest from Publishous: No Dumping. It's about hauling away information dumps."

Shared."

Thanks, Angel!

My next step has been to redesign my author website. I want to do some updating and reorganization of the content pages, but the design is basically complete and now emphasizes the freebies I give in exchange for a newsletter signup. You can view the results here.

The site is created in Wordpress using the free version of the Hestia theme. If one is actually making money, there may be some advantages to getting the pro version.