Melissa’s Comments (group member since Jan 09, 2017)

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

I'm a little late in this, but thanks for your replies! :)

I really love the idea of turning my book into an audiobook. I found when editing, listening to my computer read it back to me was pretty enjoyable so my imagination goes wild with how it would sound with a human narrator vs robot voice.

BUT I heard it's hard to do the 50/50 split on AVX unless your book has sold a lot and has achieved a certain level of popularity. Even the website seems to imply this? Does anyone know if it's even possible to get someone to sign on even if your book is in its "infant" stage?

Or at least, does anyone know of anyone who has?

Following and shared! Thanks! :)

I have one:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Theodore wrote: "Melissa, it is possible to post pictures on this thread, but you need to bring them in using HTML code. This first would entail uploading them to Photobucket, grabbing the "Direct" link, and then a..."

Ah good point about the html. I was thinking about direct uploads.

Carrie wrote: "Thanks for all the great feedback! I've had wonderful experiences with CS customer service. I wish more companies were as helpful and responsive! They are sending me a replacement proof for free wi..."

The fingerprints thing is a pet peeve for me too! How dark is your cover? I heard glossy looks best on dark covers.

I've never had a problem with the quality of my book from CS, but I've never ordered more than a dozen at a time. I don't know if the chance of slip-ups increase with huge bulk-orders.

I only ever ordered one copy of the same book from Ingram so I can't speak on consistency, but the quality was much better imo. This thread doesn't allow pictures, but I took some and you can see the differences. Everything from the vividness of the ink, quality of the paper, the colour on the cover is truer to its look on screen. It makes sense that it costs more to print per book.

That being said it's not like Createspace isn't good or good enough.

As far as customer service goes CS wins, but I haven't had huge problems with Ingram. Yet. It's just a lot slower in response times.

Major downside with Ingram though is you have to pay for your cover or interior corrections once published.

Good luck all! I'm not a part of this but I shared on Twitter!

Nicole wrote: "@Melissa, on a side note from your comment, I've seen some authors not care in the least or be flattered by fan-fic. Then I've seen some who say they absolutely do not approve of anyone stealing th..."
Well when you think about it--it's the ultimate flattery. It's someone so engaged with your world that they want to keep it going, or even re-imagine it. I don't believe anyone is pretending to own the characters, and if anything it keeps the fandom alive. But I get why there would be differing opinions on it. :)


Oh yes I forgot about NaNoWriMo. I never did try it but it's basically this isn't it? People write bits of their story, share it for feedback and tracking progress? I'm sure people are able to build followings that way too.

Oh by the way Alex there's also Fictionpress. I've never created an account there but I might. You can check it out to see the atmosphere. If you ever do decide to start posting your story there you could backlink your blog. You can then post in both places and maybe that will help pull traffic.

Justin wrote: "So pretty much any sentence that comes out for a teenage girls mouth lol."

I almost feel like if you don't do it in teen fiction the writing will become too sterile. Can you imagine writing teenspeak without using "like" at all? Then it wouldn't be authentic for many teens...college students even.

I'm not sure about Wattpad. I've been hearing about it but like Amy said, I'm paranoid.

About whether readers care about unedited fiction, I think it depends. If your writing is decent, decent grammar and good spelling, generally easy to follow/read I don't think anyone cares. I say this as I've been in the fanfiction world for a long time and I've seen some things written terribly in terms of grammar and such but it gets a lot of view/reads/reviews/faves because it's such a good/fun story. That being said, the bar set for fanfiction is probably lower. But if you're reading it for free I think generally there's an understanding there that you can't expect perfection. I don't know how that translates for original fiction+author trying to sell a book though.

As an author I agree you have to be careful. If you want to put something out, maybe put out something you don't intend to publish into a novel? Like a short story for fun? Then compile it into anthology later if you'd like. I will say it's incredibly hard getting anyone to visit your blog and remain engaged with it regularly. I made websites 15+ years ago and it was so much easier getting traffic then. Now you'd be better off using social media/forums, maybe Wattpad (I haven't tried it), building a platform there and then hoping it spills over.

Personally, I'd rather write fanfiction to promote my writing only because it's not something I'd expect people to "steal" although people can and will steal anything. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to profit from it. I don't know how authors feel about it but I know as an author myself I'd be flattered with it as I would be with fanart. As long as you know...they're not claiming the characters are theirs, giving no credit and not profiting off of it.

Amy wrote: "You can indeed resize something in Paint. (Took them long enough!) Meanwhile I've used various things including Photoshop which I'm currently trying to become anything other than useless at."

I like Photoshop (I use a really old version of it though). It can be a very difficult program, but you can figure it out eventually I'm sure. There are a lot of online tutorials out there. :)

GIMP isn't too bad. I think even Paint lets you do resizing now? I haven't actually used it in years but I heard it's gotten much better. Mac users can do some resizing as well in the previewer. One thing, I know if it's a print magazine, it could look blurry if you have to resize it to make it larger.

Thanks for the replies and opportunity RL, Julie & Carole! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Oops, another question, what size cover photo do you prefer?

Okie dokie!

Sorry, thought I'd ask. What magazine is this?

I'm actually doing a promo tomorrow so I don't really want to use up too many at once. Maybe I can spare the 15th? Actually I have an idea. Why don't you highlight a book or so per day between 8-15? Like a freebee of the day or something...I guess so it is more flexible? Just a thought.

R.L I know what you mean though. I worry about pissing off people too! Hahah but oh well. If they want to support you, you shouldn't feel bad, right?

Aw, I wish I could do this but I'm in KDP Select so I can't even do a giveaway that long. Do you think you might be able to do a secondary category of books that aren't free or free for one of the days?

Thought I'd check in after being away for forever. Did anyone else do the Spirit Awards? :D

Crystal Dawn wrote: "Harry Potter Script as in [book:Fan..."

Ah I see your point. I'm a Potter fan but when I heard those books were scripts, and one of them is basically glorified fanfiction... I wasn't terribly interested in picking them up. Still haven't read them. The movie for Fantastic Beasts was alright though.

I didn't know about the quota but I guess that would apply to any famous author. They would get priority over new people, much like famous actors. Famous actors get roles for being famous even if their casting might not be the best for a role, and the movies get green lit even if it has a weak script/plot etc.

OH well. Life.

Good luck with your business too!