D.J.’s Comments (group member since Nov 08, 2017)

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

That's great, but all that is written in the past. Not the present, which grates on my nerves. That was the point I was making.

I don’t like, ‘I walk into the room and hear the bird sing. The sun is shining and I pick up my saxophone’. It feel’s awkward. I prefer, ‘I walked into the room and heard the bird sing. The sun was shining and I picked up my saxophone.’ It just has a more natural feel as if someone is telling a story that happened rather than narrating their life as it happens.

(I don’t know what the sun shining has to do with picking up a saxophone, by the way! Probably nothing unless they’re now solar powered.)

I like 1st. But I don’t like 1st person written in the present tense. I just can’t get on with it. As long as it’s written in the past tense I don’t care whose point of view it’s written from. I wrote Track in the 1st to get his attitude across.

Useful thank you. I find the whole thing daunting. I’m pleased to read that it is indeed a time consuming process I thought it was just me.

CL was kind enough to help with Amazon Ads. (I'm a lost cause-I do them, I don't understand them!)

Facebook annoys me because of their near constant 'your advert has been refused' policy colleagues are plagued with. It puts me off trying.

Cor, thank you Carole and Brit.

I bring you this post from ConfusedLand somewhere south of London.

I have 7 ads running on one book which I've done nothing with for weeks. Software created most of the keywords, I won't be able to do any better. I check occasionally but not often due to reasons of not always being able to log in from my phone. (Too many Amazon accounts for no good reason.)

When did it all change? I've got graphics now. It says I've spent £8.81 and sold £6.81. I had my daily amount set to £1 on all of them and £1.50 on one of them. I've just put all the prices £1.50 for no other reason than boredom. I wish I knew what it all meant...

We used to have a local paper. Just the one. It used to be delivered free each week. Haven't seen it in years, but you're right, I think there is one still in a supermarket somewhere.

Excellent. Well done, Ted.

Well I’m never going exclusive again. One book, no bonus material at the end and sales (hopefully) only. No page reads here.

I never did well on page reads. I think I missed the good days before the people who were abusing the system hijacked it.

I need to figure out FB ads for books. I’ve never got anything from it before. I’m never sure how long the posts should be. I don’t know if it’s enough to boost a particular post or if there’s something different I should do. Ugh. So much I don’t know.

Thanks. In all honesty, I’m not expecting it to. But the sum of money is the same as I spent in 2016 on advertising for my other business and that didn’t pull any business in either. Apparently we have to keep trying. I’ve set a target of a year and if nothing happens with it, I’ll stop.

I’ve just starting paying £50 a month for someone to do my Facebook for my other business. It’s a popular choice with my colleagues. It’ll only create decent posts. I’m unconvinced it’ll pull in business. However I would consider something similar for writing. What on Earth do people post on their author pages?

No don’t pull your books from Kobo etc. And you don’t need to be in the exclusive Amazon thing, I’m not.

Meh...

I’d never written in the first person until my third novel. In all honesty, I don’t have a preference when I’m reading except that I hate first person present tense with a vengeance. It jars and takes ages to ‘feel’ right when I’m reading it. They read like a 1980s text computer game that isn’t quite right but that’s just me.

Some of the most memorable trad books I’ve read were written in first person. They are in the minority. However, I’m not university educated and don’t read anything high-brow. I probably therefore don’t know any better. At least that’s how I feel when I read things about ‘proper’ authors and people talking about ‘the rules’. I’m the person who ignores what the film critics say because I don’t watch their kinds of films. I’m the same with books. I don’t think I’m in the same league as people who worry what publishers think about their work. If the story is told well, it’s told well. If someone is blinkered because something is unusual, so be it. It comes down to whether you’re prepared to play the game or you decide to write how you feel you should. The chances of being picked up by an agent or publisher are so damn small anyway... meh.

Just stop my brain:

https://medium.com/@debzcooper/how-do...

I’ve got to look in to that when I’m home. Thanks for the info.

He’s fantastic. Hope you get him!

I think if I got someone interested in reading the thing I’d be thrilled. As long as they didn’t have a bloody annoying voice. Then again I wrote it, I don’t have to listen to it.