Everly’s Comments (group member since Oct 14, 2011)

Everly’s comments from the Connecting Readers and Writers group.

Paula wrote: "Elle,
I checked out the site, and I found the "contributors" link. While Xerposa may not be exactly my style of writing at this point, I totally get what you're saying.
Thanks for the excellent ide..."

Yes, it is food for thought. i hope it helped spark something for you. Steampunk and Flash Fiction are not for everyone, but it does go to show you that there is something out there for everyone.

Patricia wrote: "Elle, great post. Check out this SNL clip: You Can Do Anything:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/319318/satu..."

That was hilarious and so true!

Paula wrote: "Thanks, Elle.
These are good ideas.

Do you ask the editor if you can post there?
How did you get on board posting at the publicity sites?

I mean, I have a Facebook page, I tweet, and I have a bl..."
There are buttons on both sites where you can submit your book. It is hard to bring people to your blog and translate those people into ones that will actually buy your book. You might find this article helpful.
http://ellelapraim.com/how-to-build-r...
It's never easy, but at least it's free.

Here is an article about how people expect instant success these days. It seems like no one wants to wait for true success. What is true success anyway?
Here is the article, what do you think?
http://ellelapraim.com/why-are-we-so-...

I just put this new post up by a guest blogger of mine. It is all about the weather coffee is good for writers or not.
http://ellelapraim.com/is-coffee-good...
What do you think? How much coffee do you drink?

One of the most successful ways to sell your book is through doing guest blog posts. Now, that does not mean you write articles for every tiny blog you can find. If they have 20 followers, you are not going to see the results you want. You need to be smart about it. I write for a few big boy sites. One of them is http://xerposa.com/. This is a very successful Steampunk site that gets a thousand clicks a day. They go to the site, read an article, they like the way I write and Bam, I just sold a book. If your interested in writing Steampunk articles or original content, I highly recommend you send your stuff to them. I just found out they accept articles from the general public.

I recommended this site to a friend of mine, and he said no because they don't pay. I just smiled. At this stage in the game, you can't afford to think you're worth more than you are. Publicity is worth it's weight in gold. Especially if the site will link your book or website like the flash fiction one, I pointed out and this one.

Doing publicity on Goodreads is great, but you have to branch out. Start finding websites that accept articles from writers, then go out

If someone reads this thread and finds it a little jumpy, that is because I removed several comments from a user I blocked. I have been on Goodreads for a long time and have seen this particular user make rude and belittling comments to people in the past, and I saw that he had joined this group and done that same to some of the wonderful people on this group, so I blocked him. He had made several self serving and unnecessary comments to me in that past and now that I run my own group. I realized I did not have to deal with that sort of thing here. If anyone was offended by his comments, I am sorry. I run a tight ship around here, as many of you may have noticed. I don't put up with a lot. None of us as writers have time for that.

So please continue to have all the wonderful and thought provoking discussions on here, that we have all grown to love.

Weenie wrote: "Life's Too Short and So Am I."

I love this. I hope to read it someday!

Jenn wrote: "Elle wrote: "Jenn wrote: "The same was said about blogging. Time has weeded out a lot of the "make money blogging" stuff that was going around.

Now we're left with many more folks who care about b..."

Yes, you do need to think about your time. I am a fulltime writer and I have a blog, this group and a Facebook page with over 3,000 followers that I post on everyday. Plus, I occasionally spend time with my husband and my dog. :) You definitely need to look at what your priorities are and see what works for you.

I was very impressed with your title and your cover art. Those are two things that can go very wrong.

Jenn wrote: "The same was said about blogging. Time has weeded out a lot of the "make money blogging" stuff that was going around.

Now we're left with many more folks who care about blogging and sharing with t..."
I love the idea of humorous Sci-fi. I am a sci-fi author and would never be able to make mine humorous, so I am glad to hear that someone else is. So fun. I marked your book as a to-read. I will give you a review after I read it. Since you do have quite a little niche going, why don't you make a group onGoodreads for your genre? There might be other authors like yourself out there, or people who like to read that kind of thing. Since I run this group, I know how much work it takes to run a group, and you may not have the time to devote, but if you do, you might want to think about it. If you decide to, feel free to email me, and I can give you some pointers on running a successful group.

I have to admit I did not know a lot about flash fiction until I came across a website that will send you one flash fiction to your email every day. I have really enjoyed it. Here is my post about it, and the link if you want to receive them or write some yourself.
http://ellelapraim.com/flash-fiction/

What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you write flash fiction? Have you ever thought about it?

Unfortunately, not that I know of. If someone else knows, I would love to find out.

Someone asked me this the other day. I have come up with so many ideas, most of them are pretty ridiculous. It's really interesting though, thinking about how you would sum up your life with one title. I think mine would be " The memoirs of a Dyslexic Fish Paddling Upstream in a Yellow Kazoo."

So, what would yours be?

If you know of any websites to get free ebooks, please leave the link in the comment and let us know what your experience was with using the website.

I have heard a lot of discussions about book trailers lately. Since I come to writing by way of the film industry, I thought I would give my two cents about how to do them correctly. I also put up, what I see as the top ten book trailers and why they are so great.
http://ellelapraim.com/top-10-video-b...

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you have a book trailer? What was the experience like? Is it helping? Do you want to make one but are nervous about it?

Patricia wrote: "Elle,

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think the publishing industry would like us to think self pub was a fad and that Amazon is not doing as well as we all thought.

The problem i..."
Good Point Patricia!

We, as authors, would like to know what you love about indi books. We would also like to hear your gripes with self-published works, no matter how hard it is for us to hear. Lay it all out there for us, we can take it, I think.

I have been hearing a lot of people talk about self-publishing being on the decline because sales for 2011 were down.
Here is the article I wrote: http://ellelapraim.com/is-self-publis...

What do you think?

Scott wrote: "I am a self-published author, and I indeed have an editor; two, actually.

I've working in publishing for a long, long time, but one of the first things I learned was that no author can effective..."

I feel the exact same way. I have an editor and several "Readers." I don't know how I would do it with ought them. It is true that the people who don't get their work polished, looks bad on the rest of us. I have had a lot of people say they can't afford it, and I do understand that, on the one hand, but on the other hand, I think, then your not ready to publish. That is like saying, " I am a painter, but for now I use crayons because I can't afford oil." It is expensive, but its a necessary evil.

If your one of those wonderful people who authors like me dream about because you like to give reviews, then, please leave your info here. Let authors know what you are willing to read and where they can send you their work.

From all the authors on this website, we would like to thank you in advance, for your time.

*This is not a place to tell people you want a review for your book. You may do that under your book description in the appropriate area. We are looking for people to give honest reviews, not give people a positive review for one in exchange.