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Amy
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Nov 07, 2017 09:03AM
Actually right now I could just give up completely. Or just give up trying to make it work and just write and publish and be invisible for the rest of my life. I'm so sick of the BS in life right now.
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The world will lose a chance to be greatly entertained. Don't you dare quit!
I haven't read the whole thread of comments here, but if I may weigh in, I think you should publish all your books under one name, whether it is your real name or a pen name. A writer has a style of writing, which readers either like or not. And if someone likes your style, they want to read your books regardless of genre. I have had several of my readers tell me specifically they like my style of writing. I believe your style is your identity as an author, not your genre.
I’m still here... I’m struggling with... non-writing stuff. Anyway, yes, you’re right Helen. I absolutely have a writing style. It’s what almost got me picked up by a trad. Only almost. But I still have a hunch distancing these books from the erotic ones won’t hinder me. I am so far from being known I might be better getting the next two onto virtual shelves with a gender neutral name.
If the first two had been any other genre than erotica I’d be tempted to keep the same name. There is such, how can I put this... I want to say snobbery, that may be too strong a word, towards erotica, to be associated with them for a new genre may not help me.
Ugh don’t know.
Helen wrote: "I haven't read the whole thread of comments here, but if I may weigh in, I think you should publish all your books under one name, whether it is your real name or a pen name. A writer has a style o..."I haven't read all the comments but I agree with you.
Thanks. Unfortunately it’d take a media blackout of all reporting of the Hollywood and UK political sexual abuse scandals for that to happen. A survivor of sexual assault relives the trauma every time one of these stories breaks. It’s a bastard situation but I’m mostly strong enough to deal with it. Anyway I’m still thinking DJ Cooper for the next two books and everything else that isn’t erotica. Besides my real name sounds cool like that.
It can’t make things worse so I may just have a reinvention.
That’ll be a virtual one while I hide in a corner.
I used to use alcohol to deal with parties. I don't get invited to any these days, so I'm blissfully unaware of how I'd cope. I have a feeling I'd still use alcohol lol
Well that's more sociable than my thoughts of issuing a gentle tap to the head with a ruddy great sledgehammer. (Not that I could wield one!)
A brief survey of my friends and colleagues on Facebook is that the next two books should be published under my real name DJ Cooper. I really don't feel I'm losing anything by doing this. It's not like I made a name for myself with the first two books.
I'm fairly convinced my arms would drop off if I tried to lift a sledgehammer!I haven't finished writing both of them yet, but when I do I'll sort something out about logins here. I think Ted has two.
This is the author formally known as Amy J Hamilton messing around with a new account...
Hi Alex, oh, wrong me again. Nah that's fine, Prince is awesome. So that worked. But I can't claim my two books as mine because I only have one login on Radish and that's where they're published at the moment, under my pen name. I bet I have to wait some ridiculous time to be able to publish them elsewhere too. I looked recently and thought it was as soon as the story was finished I could publish elsewhere. I hope that's right.
Me too. I know I can't remove the erotica from Radish for three months after finishing Nate and Day. (Or any other book.) I picked up another subscriber on Modified which is free. I keep asking myself, do I really want those two books available for free. It's not like anyone else has read them and immediately jumping at the other two and paying for chapters."(c) You may not publish the entirety of any Premium Serial on any other platform until the entirety of that Premium Serial has been published on the RadishFiction Platforms (i.e. not until the publication of the last Chapter of that Premium Serial). Following the publication of the last Chapter of that Premium Serial, you may publish and monetise the relevant Premium Serial on other platforms."
That to me says as soon as I've finished and the last chapter is published, I can publish it anywhere I like. There will be a delay, I can't order a paperback cover until I know how many pages it'll be- or can I? I want to use a different trim size too. They'll be shorter books, they can have smaller pages.
How much to other places in the world pay for 10 ISBNs I looked it up for the UK and got £149 for 10. Is it roughly the same?
https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/What I don't know is if this is the only place you can buy them from. I checked a few times and everywhere said you have to go to Nielson to do this before using our whatever it was service.
You're welcome. It was the one that kept coming up no matter how I googled.£89. It still makes me chuckle. That's got to be for someone who has spent 50 years writing something epic and has no intention of ever doing so again.
I thought the same. My husband wasn’t keen on 100. That’s 50 books. I’ll need more than 10. I’m not sure I’ll reach 50 books though.
One for ebook one for paperback. What I read said you needed 2.
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Didn’t know that. If you don’t use Smashwords what’s the best ebook distributor thingamy? I hate the Smashwords formatting procedure and wondered if anyone else was less laborious.
I’ll have to make a note of that one. So I know Amazon assigned an asin for my ebooks. I can’t remember if the smashwords one was different. I’ll figure it out. I was forgetting ebooks can just have the free isbns. Trouble with Smashwords is the system needs a huge amount of help to accept a book first time. I’ve been accepted first time twice but the formatting is about 2 hours if I followed their manual. Amazon does most of it for you. These days I would expect to more or less upload a copy of a word doc and be done with it.
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Huh. Thanks Erica. I think I prefer our prices. That’s unusual, a lot of things convert in favour of the $ rather than the £ at least that’s my experience from over here. I’ll let you know Alex thanks. Generally I’m fine on the formatting. My copy of word is setup accordingly. I’d just rather not have to do 2 hours for Smashwords which as you say could do with an update.
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Here is the issue I have with Kindle and that is quality control. There are some functions on a keyboard that don't convert in the conversion to MOBI which is the format that allows the book to be read on a Kindle. The result is the text will be misaligned, errors in the font and font size, spacing issues, illustrations can end up in the middle of a paragraph. Kindle doesn't screen for these errors. I have examined a lot of ebooks using the look inside feature and have seen many horrendous errors.That's the reason for Smashwords strict requirements. They are converting the manuscript into a number of different protocols such as EPUB which drives other electronic readers. If the manuscript is not correctly formatted, then the conversion will be screwed up. Smashwords is distributing the ebook to Barnes & Noble, iBooks and other retail outlets and the ebook has to meet the retailer's standards. If it doesn't it will get kicked back. That's why there is a column at the end of the book title in the dashboard that is titled Retailer Tickets. If the book doesn't pass the retailer's inspection, a ticket is sent to Smashwords and the retailer won't accept the book for publication until the author fixes the problem.
Yeah, it's a royal pain in the you know what, but there is a valid reason for the error control. Kindle doesn't distribute the book to any other retail outlet, so they don't have to worry about the error issue.
When I first submitted to Smashwords, I’d already been publishing through Amazon and had followed the Amazon formatting guides (which are free on the Kindle store) in preparing the document to upload.I found that actually there was very little work to do to convert to the Smashwords format; the only difference was in the TOC. Everything else that Smashwords requires is best practice for Amazon anyway.
These days, I make sure I just format the documents correctly as I type them, and submit the same document to Smashwords and Amazon, since the Smashwords TOC format works just as well for Amazon.
I agree. Once I got on to what was required, it was easy to set up the manuscript at the onset to avoid the errors. So, far the only rejection I've received is an illustrated children's book I did for another author. There were no chapters headings or text. The book was 100% images. It came back and bit me. I had to have a linked TOC to the start and end of the document for EPUB to navigate through the book. It was an interesting challenge, but I finally figured out a way to create one.
I’ve also got into the habit of setting my document up to meet the standards of Smashwords with all their instructions. The formatting ebook starts with an instruction to throw that document through notebook or something ripping the formatting out. I’ve never had a book kicked back, but I think I’ll try somewhere else for variety next time. When you check the document uploaded to KDP is what you see accurate? Mine has always looked ok. (No pictures in mine.) The paperbacks also look good (on the screen and the actual copy).
Briefly caught up. Next week’s episodes are scheduled and will release automatically. The episodes for the following week are partially written. I’d like to get them sorted before Thursday because I’m away for a work convention at the end of the week.
Having looked at the Radish front page over the weeks, it is true to say that the covers they feature are mainly romance. They currently have a Mystery Month section I’m not in and an Exclusives section I’ve been in with one of my two exclusives. The rest however are a lot of couples in embraces and the ubiquitous bare male torso. I’m not sure our demographics cross.
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Carole wrote: "Amy- what's the rule if you pull your work off Radish? Can it be republished elsewhere?"It's not bad. Once the premium stories are finished, (Haunts and Remnants) I'm free to publish them anywhere immediately. As I can't do that until they're finished anyway, I'm just ploughing on getting the chapters done every week.
To remove them I'd have to wait 90 days from the time the last chapter was published. The erotica (which I set as free) can therefore be removed at the end of January.
The only issue I have with keeping the premiums on there is that I'm publishing them under my real name when they're finished and they'll be on Radish under my pen name and I don't think you can have two names on Radish.
Alex wrote: "I've emailed Amazon again to get them to correct the title information for my books, create the series page, and make book 1 free.Wonder how long I'll have to wait for an answer, and if I can stop..."
They still haven't done this?
Erica and Carole, a reader in this group I'm a member of is avidly looking for authors who write children's books and she wants to read and review children's books. She just posted her request yesterday and the thread is still very much active. Here is the link to the thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...Hoping you get more reviews!
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Carole wrote: "Thanks, Angel! I had Brit vote from her phone early this morning."You welcome! Anytime. And thank you!
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I don't know why I'm being passed over for front page coverage on Radish. I've played with the cover and ditched the space station because they don't seem to have many science fiction covers like my original. I've thrown this together for Missing Remnants. This would be detective Track walking down one of the back corridors of the space station. The latest collection is Action Mysteries. If Missing Remnants isn't an action mystery, then nothing is, and I've told them that. I'm also tempted to tell them that I will not be putting a bare male torso on my cover just to appear on their front page. (Note the covers are not allowed to have text because it interferes with the overlaid text they use on the app-not that this stops the people who have won awards or those with a huge following from appearing on the front page.)
Thoughts on the cover anyone? I don't think it's bad for 10 minutes work for something that'll be on an app.
If Missing Remnants isn't a thrilling mystery, nothing is. Set on a space station, Detective Track has been suspended for defending himself against a criminal. He's soon pulled into an off-the-book missing persons investigation, during which he is attacked in his own home, kidnapped and met with strange messages at every outlet he ventures into. Whilst grieving the death of his husband, he enlists the help of a new, impossibly young-looking detective, Laiten. They infiltrate the depths of the station’s research division on a quest to find any clues leading to the whereabouts of the unfortunate section of society hatefully named Remnants. Missing Remnants is an action-packed, roller coaster ride interspersed with elements of humour and tenderness.
I can lighten it, no problem. It's difficult competing with covers which are only either faces or torsos. They really don't like covers that are covers. It's all photos of people. I hate that on books, but maybe I'm old fashioned.
It’ll be moot in a few weeks anyway because I’ll get a professional cover done and I’ll get her to do one without the words on the front. Thanks Denise.
It’s a temporary cover to try to get it into a collection and if you’ve seen the covers on Radish, it’ll do. At least it’s true to the story. Unlike having a random person’s face as the cover. (I’m getting very frustrated with Radish-can you tell?)
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