Amy’s Comments (group member since Jan 15, 2017)

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

Did you find your EPK CeDany?

I hope they turn up on time on Thursday Alex. That’ll be your quickest option rather than trying to find another company.

I’m a bit meh with Radish. Despite them insisting that covers need to be word free to appear on their front page they are still promoting different stories that have words on the covers on their front page. It’s like they have their favourite authors who get away with anything and I’m clearly not one of them. Also the categories I have submitted my stories to are not showing up on the front page either. I am beginning to question the point of it all. But I can’t withdraw yet because I’ve got paid promos coming up.

I’ve read books that left me feeling the same. I’ve been told off for voicing that opinion too. It had great reviews-all those people must be right. It had bad ones too btw.

Well done to Michael and everyone involved in getting Monsterland out there.

It’s a mystery. I’m sure they serve some useful purpose.

Oh good grief Kardashian’s yes I’ve vaguely heard of them. (Raises eyebrows and retreats to... I mean what exactly are the Kardashian’s for?)

There's a book of reviews? lol Now I haven't read Dan Brown, but I know it's either well received or not well written depending on who you ask, but review a collection of reviews? lol.

Shame about Wool, but it got published and if it's been picked up by Ridley Scott to make into a movie, I can only conclude that traditional publishers want long rambling messes now.

Radish have put out another email for collections for the end of the month. They haven't put up the ones for 9th October yet. Again they have stated to not have words on the covers. (I'm not fiddling around to remove the words from my erotic ones because they won't feature erotica anyway.) They've also said to not include mature themes as Apple doesn't allow them. I wish bare male torsos counted as mature themes, I'd stand more of a chance of being noticed.

BTW, Wattpad is the thing teenagers write on. Not just teenagers, anyone can, but I know teenagers do because my 17 year daughter does. They write for free with precious little rules like book length I believe. They just write (shrugs)

What was wrong with it?

To be honest, having not dealt with the likes of Radish before I haven't looked closely at chapter counts other than to note that there are some in the hundreds. I agree with you, Radish was supposed to be for quick reads not stonking great epic things that would take me a year to read.

Wool- I've just searched, is that the one about living underground? Needless to say as usual I haven't a clue.

I can see why they don't want words on the covers, they can add their own in their own format for the front page and it won't clash. But if they've stipulated no words why then promote a book on the front page that has words on the cover? It annoys me that they're blatantly promoting the already successful ones with thousands of views and it doesn't matter that their cover breaks the rules.

Carole, I'm sure these people are the ones who wrote for free on Wattpad then went over to Radish. I haven't read any of their stuff. I'm still on yours and RLs (when I get a few minutes.) Really writing a number of chapters that means reading it will cost more than a standard paperback of that length is a scam in my mind. I am not a fan of that.

And AND... despite them saying that the covers on Radish shouldn't have any words on them to feature on the front page because the cover words will conflict with the text added to the front page, there's one at the moment with words all over it, looking a mess on the front page with the bare male torso and it's got 11,887 views. So it's another sodding case of one rule for them and one rule for us. I. Hate. Double. Standards.

You'll be fine. I'm still angry at the ridiculous decision I made back in 2004 when we moved in. Dad also had his roof done at the same time. Bigger roof. His was done in a week. Dad, his gardener and my husband had to shovel the remains of our old roof into the gardener's truck and Dad paid to dispose of it because our roofer didn't even hire a skip. Bad, bad choice of workman.

It's so obvious to me, I almost _know_ I'm right.

That's not so bad. Of course I have a horror story of how our roof which should have taken a week to finish took 6 weeks because they were only working on our job on Mondays. It was the last big thing we had done on the house. I couldn't face anything else. I'm assuming you have a company and not a personal recommendation of an estate agent's boyfriend like I did! (Never again, how naive was I?)

Like anything, it was worth a try. But I suspect the ones who are successful are the ones who brought a following with them from wattpad. I like numbers and the ones I'd like to see are how many with no following managed to build one up using Radish alone.

Carole wrote: "Number 2- I say this will all honesty- your books, Amy are light years ahead of theirs. The stories are engaging, your characters NOT cookie cutters and you know how I feel about your humor."

I can't tell you how much I needed to hear that today. Thank you Carole.

I agree, people don't read past the free chapters. Only you have. Missing Remnants and Iridessian Haunts only have 38 and 10 views respectively. The free ones, Modified and Nate and Day have 333 and 135. Only 9 people viewed the final chapter 20 of Modified, but that doesn't mean they finished it because there are only 5 views for chapter 18. Should I have put a naked male torso on the cover? Loads of those appear in collections. Remnants spent a week in a collection. But according to the email they sent recently with calls for entries to the collections-they've missed out a collection. There should have been one on 9th. It didn't happen.

And no I will not read a book that has 48 episodes that is premium- you've seriously started some and they are premium at that length? That is ridiculous. If a book is twenty episodes long (roughly what I'm planning) and you've bought enough coins to make each episode as cheap as possible, someone reading that book would pay £5.61 ish. That's OK. But I have seen books with 147 episodes, I assumed they were free. If not that book could cost £47.52 to read at the cheapest level.

And no, I don't believe they advertise enough, but they might think they don't have to because they will thrive on the followings brought to them by all the successful wattpad writers. I've known other companies who rely on their independent contractors to bring in the business. Well I don't have a following. I was hoping to build one up by appearing in a collection. All I got were the free reads and I'm not the pick of any of their editors.

And yes I will have to go very wide with Missing Remnants and Iridessian Haunts when I've finished them on Radish. I may look into wider paperback distribution than I did with the erotica. I will at least be able to utilise all of the promotional sites with the two new ones because there will be no erotica in the books.

I'd like to not have to give the other two away for free on Radish either but it was what was recommended.

Ugh. At least you're next on their list. How long do they think it'll take?

Hmmm scratches chin contemplating the odds of experiencing a period of time where nothing bad happens... nope can’t do it, I’m off for a coffee. Hang in there Alex. Have they started work?

Alex, Colin Dexter admitted he didn’t follow police procedure when he was writing his books. And boy is that true. Two people alone solving murder cases? Eh? Not that the Inspector Morse books were successful or anything. Er...

Worry not about people whose sole purpose in life is to pick holes in other people’s work.

Nah I need a holiday CeDany! Almost everyone has had it here too Carole. It’s rubbish! I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Utterly unimpressed with the virus I've had for days. I haven't written anything since Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were spent sitting on the sofa generally failing at everything. I just about managed to to open boxes of convenience food to throw onto baking trays to cook for the family.

I've coughed so much I think I've dislocated a lung. I've downed so much cold medication I should be issued with company shares. I haven't had a cold annihilate my energy reserves like this in a decade.

Off you sod now, I've had enough.

Carole wrote: "BTW- I booked Michael on about six blog tours- If you Google his name (Michael Okon) you can look at the different tours. I found them affordable with interesting questions and a diverse reach. The..."

I think I've bookmarked most of them for future reference. Thanks Carole, I hope Michael has great success.

(I am in limbo. Two books on the go on Radish, but incomplete therefore not able to receive reviews offered on some blog tours. I had hoped for more visibility on Radish. Despite putting my stories forward for their front page categories, they don't seem to be putting the collections up when they say they will or I'm misunderstanding something. Anyway, I'm still blundering around with my invisibility cloak on. Keep reading Carole, you seem to be all I've got lol.)