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

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

Erica wrote: "I really enjoyed that one, Dale!"

Thank you! The curators distributed it, too. It's been a while since they picked one of my stories for distribution.

I would like to make my crime/humor novel Weasel Words (starring Bernard and Melody Earls, who debuted in some of my flash fiction stories) available for beta reading and feedback. I will be doing some more editing, but before I get too far I could use an outside opinion or two on how well the whole thing holds up and whether I've gone too far overboard on any of the more . . . well . . . ridiculous content. ;-)

A short top-of-the-head blurb might read:

Bernard and Melody Earls have everything: looks, charm, brains, and . . . well, okay, everything but money. But Bernard has a plan to fix that. A seriously rich grouch named Alexander Hamilton Plaskett wants to pilfer a family heirloom from his older brother Paul Revere Plaskett, and Bernard is just the man for the job.

The object in question? A sterling silver statuette of a pine marten, a European species of weasel. All the Earls duo need do is infiltrate a Plaskett social occasion, knock out the highly advanced security systems provided by Fitzroy Fortresses (motto: "Don't even think it!"), nab the metallic monstrosity while all eyes are elsewhere, and saunter out, all the while hoping Melody's (ahem) improvisations don't get them caught.

How hard could it possibly be?

My latest from Lit Up: Hurricane..

This story was short-listed in the Lit Up "Crossroads" anthology contest in December. It didn't win, but I think it's one of my better efforts.

My next Writing Cooperative article: The Long and Short of It

Alex wrote: "Hi, has anyone else received emails recently offering to review their books? It seems like over the past month or so I've had at least a dozen emails, from a variety of sources (none of which look ..."

I've received a handful lately. Not a lot, but previously I hadn't received any.

Carole wrote: "Sorry, I've been busy working on promoting the whole Bulwark Anthology. Just wanted to share Bulwark was featured on the Midwest Book Review!! http://www.midwestbookreview.com/wbw/...

as..."

Congratulations! I got my first mystery reviewed and recommended by them. I'm not sure how much it helped my sales, but it's a worthwhile place for indies and small publishers to submit to.

Another flash fiction piece, this one published by Lit Up: The (Almost) Greatest Adventure Ever

My latest short story for Curiosity Never Killed the Writer: Woodsmoke.. I've been waiting a couple of weeks for this to get published.

A bit of literary popcorn for you, a flash fiction story composed last month at my writing workshop. Traverse

Alicya wrote: "Your link doesn't work for me Dale!"

Sorry, I had the wrong link. I corrected it above, and here it is for convenience: https://medium.com/publishous/sawback...

My latest short story via Publishous: Sawback.

This was based on an Indies Unlimited flash fiction story I wrote for last week's prompt. It tied for first in the reader poll but I didn't win because the other writer got their story in first.

I felt the flash version was rushed, so I expanded it for Publishous, but their editor said she thought it was a confusing story and suggested I revise it. Before I had time to do so, she published it anyway. So I'm curious . . . do any of you find it confusing? Thanks!

Alex wrote: "I think if D2D is going to have to deal with the same issue I might just abandon Google Play as a sales site. I don't want the hassle. I know it has good potential but I just can't deal with this kind of thing. "

Yeah, if it becomes too much trouble for the likely sales volume, then it's probably not worth it. I found this question and response at IngramSpark from about a year ago:

https://help.ingramspark.com/hc/en-us...-

Hmm . . . I've been wondering why my books distributed through Ingram don't show up on Google Play. I wonder if that's the reason?

Personally, I think that's a ridiculous requirement. I'll bet books published through a mainstream publisher won't require "direct relationships" with the authors. What's the purpose of it? Since they allow other distributors to continue to handle distribution and payments, it's not like they are gaining exclusive rights to distribute a work (as Amazon does with its KDP Select program). Aside from maybe tricking indie authors into distributing directly through them, it doesn't seem to have any purpose.

My latest from The Writing Cooperative: Creativity By Collision

I got my account, books, and email list set up last night, and sent out a couple of swap requests, one of which has been approved. Once I get more comfortable with this, I might incorporate it more fully into my platform. I've been very on-again, off-again with blog posts and emails, but if I have some shareable content and a schedule, it might force me to be better at it . . .

. . . . or to mess it up completely and get people mad at me. ;-)

Grea wrote: "Dale wrote: "Grea wrote: "Story Origin lets you organize group sale promotions as well."

This is the second time I've seen a mention of Story Origin this morning. I'm going to look into it. (Early..."

That's a lot to digest! Thank you. I've created my SO account but haven't had time to link it to my newsletter and books yet. I tried at my office, but there seems to be a firewall issue, so I'll have to do it from home.

Grea wrote: "Story Origin lets you organize group sale promotions as well."

This is the second time I've seen a mention of Story Origin this morning. I'm going to look into it. (Early report: it's in beta and all features are currently free.)

Boris wrote: "Yeah, you've always needed to have copyright registered with the Copyright Office to enforce claims in court. This case is just a matter of legal hair splitting.

The Supreme Court in Fourth Estat..."

But somebody made a lot of money splitting that hair. ;-)

Boris wrote: "Greetings, all. I've been on Goodreads off-and-on for a few years, mostly doing the occasional Beta-read, but recently I've found the grit to start publishing my own writing. (I've been a shameless..."

Welcome! I'm following you now.

Carmel wrote: "Hi all....I wanted to share some exciting news. Months ago I sent letters to a couple of universities about my book. I had one professor interested in reading it, so I sent her a copy. She liked it..."

Congratulations!