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

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

Finally got my second story on Curiosity Never Killed the Writer: Seven Apples.

This is my first short story based on characters from my Howard County Mystery novels. The photo was an Indies Unlimited flash fiction contest prompt. I didn't enter the contest that week, but this longer story fell out of it. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for the feedback, Lydia and Alex!

And here's the redesigned cover for True Death:

A new flash fiction story from the IU prompt. This one wasn't eligible for the reader's choice because I won that earlier in the month, but I have high hopes for an editor's choice on this one . . . if they ever get their act together and make some selections.

Here's the story: Misappropriation

Alex wrote: "Very reasonable, £0.01 per usage. I'm banking on the line becoming as popular as 'Eat My Shorts' was in the 80s or similar so I'll make my riches on volume of usage."

It's a good price. You might attract a lot of customers. ;-)

Alex wrote: "Writer brain now says I must find a good story to put the line in."

My work here is done.

Now, about that licensing thing. What are your fees? ;-)

D.J. wrote: "If I had the money, Dale, I'd chuck it at someone to fix all these problems. Alas, I'm far from wealthy."

Yeah, we're all in about the same boat, I guess.

Alex wrote: "If I had the money I'd throw some money at you, unfortunately, the amount I could afford to throw at you right now wouldn't be worth the time it would take you to catch it, lol."

Ha! You should use that line in a book somewhere . . .

Curious. I just set up The Fibonacci Murders on Ingram Spark, and it appeared on Amazon within a day (although with a strange problem with the print edition's cover image). They said nothing about needing any documentation, only the usual online certification that you own the rights.

So it could be that D2D is saying "it's not us, it's Amazon" when they are actually misunderstanding guidance from Amazon, or it could be that Ingram, as one of the primary jobbers/distributors, has a special status with Amazon. I suspect when a book comes from Ingram and is properly set up (namely, returns are allowed), it may be impossible to tell that it didn't come from a trad publisher.

Every time I hear things like this, though, I think I really have to get my idea launched, but I have no time to build out the website and no money to hire someone to do it. Anybody know a rich, risk-taking, indie-author-loving investor who'd like to throw money at me? ;-)

Simi wrote: "I can't believe they made a big deal from where I'm living, but there was not much snow. Anyone else had any big snow???"

A few flakes in Baltimore. A tiny bit of snow, too. ;-)

Alex wrote: "Hey everyone, just letting you know that I won't be as active here or on twitter for a while. I had a minor operation yesterday (nothing serious so no need to worry) and it's going to be a while be..."

Take it easy and recover . We'll still be here when you're up and about again.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Oh drat, I read it in an article on Medium, but don't remember the title. I apologize. I'll keep looking. Hugs"

No problem. I haven't been able to find anything on it, but if you locate it, please share it. Thanks!

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "I recently read another article stating beginning this year, contributors will only receive about half what they earned before, but the athor didn't stat..."

I haven't heard that. Where did you read it?

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Congratulations, Dale. Good luck. Thanks for sharing the code. Hugs."

Thank you, and you're welcome!

I've set up The Fibonacci Murders (with its new cover and some corrections to the text) on Ingram Spark. Overall, I found the process very easy, comparable to the KDP and Nook Press process. However, you can set up both the print book and the ebook at the same time if you have the files ready.

After submission, they run the files through some automated validations. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they also have an actual human being look it over before releasing it. I'm not sure if any of the other services do this. I'm waiting on that process to be completed now.

I got the setup for free using their current promo code ("NANO"), which is good through the end of March. I'm hoping to complete True Death and Ice on the Bay before the promo expires.

Got a triple play today. Writing Cooperative has published my next writing piece, Write How You Want.

Lit Up just published my next fiction piece: Little Gray Lies.

Something a bit different for me: Schizoid in the 21st Century, an astonishingly prescient rock song, fifty years later.

It's a start. ;-)

Alex wrote: "If I'm going to manage that, Dale, I'm going to have to pick up the pace. Darn it, I knew I wasn't working hard enough."

We're all just a bunch of sluggards, I guess. ;-)