Steven’s Comments (group member since Apr 18, 2017)

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

R. wrote: "I read She and really enjoyed it. The review is posted on my blog. Send me your indie horrors. I'll read and review 'em. exlibrisregina@gmail.com"

What ereader format do you want?

Steven wrote: "David wrote: "That makes sense enough. I always appreciate honest reviews. They're the best ways to help me improve, and that's what's most important right now. I agree with what you said in regard..."
I left you a review after powering through your book in a day's time. I think what I found most interesting is you can see how you grow as a writer as the story progressed. I pointed this out in my review and I hope it's not too harsh.

Anna Faversham wrote: "Hi Steven, how can I resist!

Would you count time travel as fantasy? The theme of the book is 'they say that on your death bed it's the things you haven't done that you regret most'. Main charact..."

Absolutely! In fact I love time travel stories!
I'm reading the new Eric Flint, Griffin Barber 1636: Mission to Mughals book today as well.

The second edition of my first book will be available for $0.99 on April 28th and after. I sure would appreciate you promoting it on your page.
https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Never-...

Let me if I can return the favor in any way!

Hi Deanie!

I'm impressed. With as much as I read, I couldn't have written a book this size when I was in high school.

David wrote: "That makes sense enough. I always appreciate honest reviews. They're the best ways to help me improve, and that's what's most important right now. I agree with what you said in regards to reviews."

Hey quick question because I checked your author bio and I'm reading through chapter 1. I'm impressed that you wrote a book while in high school and I'm curious about your process. Did you hire a copy editor or developmental editor or did you do all the edits between you and your friends/family?

R.L. wrote: "Yup you're welcome. It looks good"
If you like it, book two should be out early summer. The manuscript is done and beta readers are picking through it right now so, fingers crossed that there isn't some glaring plot hole!

How do most of you handle Beta Reading? Do you just send the manuscript out to folks or do you set up a website for it?

Kay wrote: "Steven wrote: "If you write scifi or fantasy can you link me your book? I would love to read it. Please nothing with eroticism or too much romance though... I'm kind of shy about that stuff. I won'..."

Got it! I'll check it out and write a review for you!

David wrote: "Yes I actually do get some cash, but that's awesome to hear either way :) Thanks so much Steven. I hope you enjoy. I'm still new to the genre and trying to improve."
I just want to warn you though I give honest critiques. I don't write enough reviews on Goodreads (I need to though,) but I don't like BS reviews. I received a lot of them myself from friends and family with my first book and I value them a lot less than my friend Carrie who was direct and to the point about my book.

That doesn't mean I'm out to hurt you though. I would never give anyone less than three stars and if I didn't like something I simply wouldn't write a review on it. If you worked hard on your book then it's a labor of love and you probably don't need someone to be an asshole to you.

But most authors, I can find plenty of reasons why I think their book is good or why I think they should keep writing so I doubt you'll hear me say something otherwise.

David wrote: "Steven wrote: "If you write scifi or fantasy can you link me your book? I would love to read it. Please nothing with eroticism or too much romance though... I'm kind of shy about that stuff. I won'..."

Grabbed it! I used Kindle Unlimited for that (no idea how KU works) hopefully you get some cash for it. I'll drop you a review when I'm done with it.

Amy wrote: "That counts mine out. It's full of sex!"

sorry! heheh

R.L. wrote: "Pre ordered!"

What? Really? Thank you so much! :)

Dennis wrote: "We have used http://octagonlab.com/ for covers, they are reasonably priced and did a great job.
I agree with R.L. your second cover is great!"

Ya I used Bookfly Design https://www.bookflydesign.com for my covers. I like them because one of the first things they asked me was, "What other books would you like to see sold next to or associated with your books? What kind of feeling do you want folks to feel when they see your cover?" These are questions I think are super important questions that I should have asked myself at some point.

Thank you. That lesson was learned rather hard because I invested a lot of time and effort into a good story but, I tried to save money on a book cover. I was new to all of this and my sales were about as awful as they could be. I earned a readership but it was quite small and I think if I had known how crucial a nice book cover was, I'd have done a lot better.

Coffee is both my elixir and my goddess. Without it, I can't work. Also without it, I might kill a person. I live in America.

If you write scifi or fantasy can you link me your book? I would love to read it. Please nothing with eroticism or too much romance though... I'm kind of shy about that stuff. I won't even write it into my books.

But you know, take my lessons with a grain of salt, because I'm still a nobody. hehe

That's some good advice. Can I show you guys the difference between my covers? For my first book I had a friend make me a cover. It's not bad art, I don't mind it, but it doesn't really strike the chord I wanted for the book. My book is a little dark but also there's a lot of comedy and fun action.
Here is the first book cover:
http://i.imgur.com/DwG4KqD.jpg

Now I recently finished my second book in the series so I'm releasing a second edition of the first book. This time I went ahead and paid top dollar for some professionally designed covers.
Here is the new book cover for book one:
http://i.imgur.com/By2vCKF.jpg

Now I have no idea if this will increase my book sales, but I feel like the second book cover expresses the excitement, action and a bit of humor better than the first one. At least I will feel a bit more confident selling that book versus trying to explain, "Well I know the cover is a little dark but there's some fun stuff in it."

For me, I don't think I'll ever opt to save money on covers or editing. I think both of those things are where I should spend a little more to get them as high quality as possible.