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Well, here is my first attempt at creating a TikTok promotional video. Let's see how viral it goes! E: Nah, I'll let you know when I figure out something that works. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Sep 25, 2023 |
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Sep 24, 2023 17:59
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SimonChris posted:Well, here is my first attempt at creating a TikTok promotional video. Let's see how viral it goes! don't expect the first thing you make to blow up! treat it like a learning process, and keep in mind you're only going to get better as you do more of them!
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Sep 25, 2023 14:09
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:don't expect the first thing you make to blow up! treat it like a learning process, and keep in mind you're only going to get better as you do more of them! Thanks, that's my plan  . The first thing I've learned is that video text must be on the top half of the video with large side margins or TikTok will cover it up with buttons and scrolling text. I don't know why anyone watches videos on an app that covers up 1/4 of the image with user interface stuff. Kids sure are dumb!
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Sep 25, 2023 14:17
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Well. This promises to be interesting. FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/26/23809817/amazon-ftc-antitrust-lawsuit-monopoly Guess we’ll see if the FTC has any teeth at all much less if it’s still capable of a Ma Bell style break up. Figured it was relevant here because, well, KDP etc.
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Sep 26, 2023 19:06
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Howdy, everyone. I'm back, with my fourth novel done and revised after a friendly reader went through it. This is the one I plan to publish first, then some of the previous ones I've written would be next.  Note - This is not planned to be one gigantic rear end novel. I'm breaking it up into two, if not three. I know that word count is ludicrous for someone not named Stephen King. Good loving God, I cannot tell y'all just how overwhelming the publishing process if for a first timer. This thread? It's gold. But even with the incredibly helpful stuff going on in here, it's still beyond daunting for a person who isn't very online, if that makes any sense. I don't use social media very much, let alone all these different forums and platforms. I like to write. Everything else makes my head hurt. Here's where I'm getting stuck - - What do I need to have ready to go, regardless of the path I take? I'm talking about a blurb/synopsis/whatever-the-hell gets sent out to prospective editors, contests, publishers, agents, etc. I've read everything from saying one needs a two page synopsis, a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, a single paragraph blurb, etc. - I know paying for an editor is looked at as wasted money in this thread. That said, I'm a disabled person, which means profit is something that literally has to be discussed with a lawyer so I don't lose my health benefits. I'm in the unique position of not looking to do anything but financially break even on my first venture. I'm trying to get a book out with my name attached to it to grow a readership. If that means handing a couple grand to a legit editor to do it right, I can handle that. - Genre : I consider what I wrote to be defined and "Lower Case H Horror." The villains are horrific, and nasty things happen. But it's not a scare a minute, or meant to be incredibly fast paced. It is about two civil war veterans who live together. Their living situation, being two bachelors without wives, becomes a flashpoint for the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. They get accused of being gay, and attacked. But due to actions taken by the Klan, old woods demons are awoken who infest the bodies of the dead. Bizarre monsters are created, and A Bunch of poo poo ensues. That is not a blurb at all. Just a keep couple of sentences to sorta give y'all an idea. With that said, I don't know where I'd land when it comes to genre. As always, I appreciate the time anyone takes to point my old rear end in the right direction. You are all kind with your time and words.
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Sep 28, 2023 13:21
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Congrats!Captain Log posted:
If you're self pubbing word count is more flexible. 176k is well within the ballpark for fantasy, though since you're writing horror, genre expectations might be different. That said, breaking it up into two or three smaller books can work in your favor because the algorithm favors consistency and frequency of release. If you have good break points, I'd break it and pub as a duology or a trilogy. Note that this will cost more upfront because of cover art. Captain Log posted:Here's where I'm getting stuck - Are you aiming to pursue trad pub or are you self pubbing? If you're going for trad pub, I'd suggest going to the fiction writing advice thread and reading through that for query advice. If you're going self pub, you need: 1. Blurb 2. Pro cover (do not do your own cover unless you have skills), if you have limited budget this is the one thing you absolutely should pay a pro for. Miblart's budget arm, GetCovers, is very affordable. Double check for AI assets, because it's a minefield right now. 3. Mailing list 4. Reader magnet (a freebie for subscribing to your mailing list, e.g. short story or novella) For the step by step, read David Gaughran's Let's Get Digital. Captain Log posted:- I know paying for an editor is looked at as wasted money in this thread. That said, I'm a disabled person, which means profit is something that literally has to be discussed with a lawyer so I don't lose my health benefits. I'm in the unique position of not looking to do anything but financially break even on my first venture. I'm trying to get a book out with my name attached to it to grow a readership. If that means handing a couple grand to a legit editor to do it right, I can handle that. Trust me, breaking even is hard enough even when you're only launching with a pro cover being your total capital invested. You're gonna make margin of maybe $0.30 to $3 per unit moved, depending on where you set your price and how long your book is and whether it's on Kindle Unlimited. Let's assume you can get a pro ebook cover done for $100 (Get Covers has cheaper options but $100 is a reasonable start) and you have a trilogy. Let's also assume you're gonna wholly focus on ebooks only until you have an audience so you don't have to pay additional to convert the ebook cover to a paperback or a hard cover. Let's assume you're not gonna spend anything on ISBNs or editing or physical proof copies or advertising or promos or ARC services. At a margin of $0.30 ($0.99 pricing at 70% royalty minus KDP's download fees), you need to move 1000 copies to break even. KU page read rates are dropping too, by the way. In July, it dropped below $0.004 per page. But at $0.004/page, you need 75,000 page reads to break even on $300. This analysis is gonna vary a lot based on your individual book and genre etc but breaking even is harder than you think it is. If you do not have a mechanism to drive high quality traffic to places where people can buy your book you will not have sales. I repeat, if you do not drive traffic you do not get sales. And one more time so it sinks in: no traffic = no sales. If you're not on social media much, then chances are you're gonna have to go for paid traffic. With only 1 book out, you're gonna lose money on ads. With 3 books out and assuming your ads are good on conversion and you have good sell through, you can get positive ROI. But ads cost money to learn, test, and run I have broken even on my kids books. I get a constant drip of traffic from search and from IG even though I haven't done any marketing on it for over a year. I should market a lot harder and I would get way more sales. I have not broken even on my fantasy novel. Granted I'm not marketing very hard and didn't do ARCs or book tours or any ads whatsoever. But writing the sequel has near done me in and also I only have one book out which means low ROI on most promo/ads efforts because I don't get subsequent sell through to later books in the series yet. Getting sales and traction is very very very hard when you are starting with zero audience. Please for the love of your own bank account, do not sink several thousand dollars into editing for your debut. What matters is your cover, your blurb, and whether you can keep a reader reading. You can get feedback on all that in this thread and the fiction writing thread and the fiction farm thread. Post your cover, your blurb, and your opening chapter for crits. Get more than one beta reader. Make sure they're people who are your target readers, make sure they're readers who can articulate their reactions and who will not sugar coat those reactions so you can get an accurate sense of whether or not you're hitting the mark. Sure there are editors worth their weight in gold out there. There's one that if I could afford I would absolutely hire them. But I will die on the hill of "pro editing has a poor ROI for 90% of new authors" once you consider existing skill level, pay back period, level of investment and opportunity cost. I'd take whatever extra you can spare on top of your cover costs and spend it on ARCs/promo/ads. Book tour = $100-300 depending on package BBNYA contest = 20 EUR ARC platforms = like $30-50 per? Except for NetGalley which is very very pricey like $300-600 depending on how long you want it listed and if you can get discount pricing Promo sites = $50-500 Leng fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Sep 29, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2023 14:26
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Leng posted:At a margin of $0.30 ($0.99 pricing at 70% royalty minus KDP's download fees), you need to move 1000 copies to break even. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634560 according to this if you want the 70% royalty your minimum price is $2.99.
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Sep 28, 2023 15:35
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Fate Accomplice posted:https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634560 Ugh, yes, sorry, brain fart, this is what I get for phone posting late at night when my brain is fried. $0.30 is not that far off from your net royalty on a $0.99 book though at the lower rate. I know authors who make basically $0.00 on their $0.99 because of the download fees or close to it.
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Sep 28, 2023 20:35
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Captain Log posted:- I know paying for an editor is looked at as wasted money in this thread. That said, I'm a disabled person, which means profit is something that literally has to be discussed with a lawyer so I don't lose my health benefits. I don't know how either your health benefits or US taxation works, but definitely do be careful about this - I don't declare any of my writing income to the ATO until the end of the financial year, which is also when I claim my business write-offs for cover design and advertising etc, and the trade-off for that is that I do actually have a lot of net profit flowing into my bank account for 12+ months before I've declared to any authorities that it is indeed net rather than gross profit. So e.g. if you pour thousands of dollars into editing and then your royalties recoup that profit and make it a wash, it may not necessarily look like a wash for a while to come. (Like I said though, I'm in Australia and I have no idea how income tax works for authors based in the same country that Amazon is.)
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Sep 29, 2023 08:32
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freebooter posted:I don't know how either your health benefits or US taxation works, but definitely do be careful about this - I don't declare any of my writing income to the ATO until the end of the financial year, which is also when I claim my business write-offs for cover design and advertising etc, and the trade-off for that is that I do actually have a lot of net profit flowing into my bank account for 12+ months before I've declared to any authorities that it is indeed net rather than gross profit. So e.g. if you pour thousands of dollars into editing and then your royalties recoup that profit and make it a wash, it may not necessarily look like a wash for a while to come. (Like I said though, I'm in Australia and I have no idea how income tax works for authors based in the same country that Amazon is.) Without going into minute details, I'm in the US. I receive monthly healthcare procedures that cost an ungodly six-figure amount per year for a "terminal" condition, which is covered by the state after a twenty-eight month court battle including lawyers. If I earn over a certain amount, my life saving healthcare coverage goes away. I hope to eventually be able to become un-disabled, but it's loving tap-dancing on the trap-door to a gallows to do it correctly. The US is hell for people with health conditions. I'd bet I'm far from the only person in this thread in similar circumstances. Leng posted:Very helpful words. Leng, as always, you're a light in the forest. Even if that light is somewhat terrifying.  Let me try to break it into smaller steps, otherwise I'll get completely locked up by the enormity of it all. I've not completely settled on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. I'm leaning self-publishing, which is why I'm posting here first. That said, here is my most pressing issue - THE BLURB. Some places want a quick couple of sentences, while others want a page or two. Do y'all write one of each? Would this be an appropriate place to put one, to see if it hits? What word counts would I be looking at? Title Art - $100 is completely reasonable, and frankly cheaper than I expected. I believe Leng posted a video about covers I need to re-watch. I've already got a good idea of what I'd like the first cover to be, so I'm hoping that's helpful. I'd love it to have the style of 1980's horror novels, like Stephen King, and just be a simple image. An old oak tree in a dark copse of trees with a bloody Klan hood staked to it. Simple enough? (Side Note that might be relevant - My book doesn't have chapters, just breaks. It distinctly moves from scene to scene, always from the perspective only two characters. I see a lot of places that assume chapters are a given.)
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Sep 29, 2023 11:56
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Captain Log posted:
From what I've read, they say you should have chapters for the readers that set goals to read X chapters a day. Apparently that's a lot of people, or publishers think so, or something. Guess it would depend on what the breaks are?
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Sep 29, 2023 14:35
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Captain Log posted:That said, here is my most pressing issue - THE BLURB. Self-pub blurbs are easy because the only "must" is the one that goes on the back of the paperback/in the description box on Amazon. My go-to for blurb advice is Robert J. Ryan's Book Blurbs Unleashed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZB5NJLL/ A 1-liner pitch is always a good idea too. Querying is a bit different though. I'd check the fiction writing thread for advice on that front. Re: chapters - I wouldn't stress about this. Nobody's going to decide whether or not to read your book or not based on if it has chapters or not. I'm currently reading The Spear Cuts Through Water which doesn't have chapters. It's great.
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Sep 30, 2023 03:41
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Would it be appropriate to post a rough, rough, rough stab at a blurb here? Or the fiction writing thread? I don't want to poo poo up this good thread with my amateurish attempts if it's inappropriate. The hard part I'm encountering is that I more or less made up my monsters. I don't have an easy, preconceived fallback word like vampires or werewolves. They're basically reanimated corpses, which are infested with plant-like growths which rip apart their bodies while transforming them into unique beasts. There is an old spirit/creature, which is like a giant birch tree covered in the flayed pelts of long dead people who committed awful sins against the woods. But the latter is a major plot point I wouldn't want to reveal in a blurb. The Klan are the actual straight-up evil bad guys in my novel, while the monsters are more of a response to the evil of men.
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Sep 30, 2023 13:39
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Leng posted:Self-pub blurbs are easy because the only "must" is the one that goes on the back of the paperback/in the description box on Amazon. My go-to for blurb advice is Robert J. Ryan's Book Blurbs Unleashed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZB5NJLL/ My wife buys books that have short chapters because they make her feel like she reads faster.
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Sep 30, 2023 14:19
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Captain Log posted:Would it be appropriate to post a rough, rough, rough stab at a blurb here? Or the fiction writing thread? I don't want to poo poo up this good thread with my amateurish attempts if it's inappropriate. Post away! I've posted several blurbs here and received great feedback.
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Sep 30, 2023 14:22
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Agreed! Blurbs are really marketing and should be different than your usual writing so posting here or in the fiction thread are both good ideas.
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Sep 30, 2023 14:33
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I hate most of this, especially the first line. But I believe it's supposed to go hook, characters, setting, and conflict in 250 words. Don't think I nailed it at all, but need to know what direction to steer. I appreciate the criticisms in advance. ------ After the severed heads of six goats are staked against an old tree, an ancient force is awoken. Deep in the rolling hills of Tennessee, two Union veterans of the American Civil War build a quiet life in the town of Lawrenceboro. Childhood friends Francis Meet and Freddy Monk grew up playing amongst the thick woods outside the small town, and now own the very land holding the Meet family homestead. Without wives or children, the pair tend to a small number of livestock while bandaging both the physical and mental wounds left by war. But most local families sent soldiers to fight for the Confederacy, which returned bitter and beaten men. The rumblings of simmering hatred from the defeated coalesce into the burgeoning Ku Klux Klan, an organization intent on maintaining the established southern order of white supremacy through hooded nighttime raids punctuated by brutal lynchings. The very existence of two Union veterans prospering outside of town is an affront to the worst elements of Lawrenceboro. As rumors spread about the lifestyle of the men, the Klan takes action against their homestead. The first casualties are goats, torn apart by dull Bowie knives before being staked to an old oak tree. While the pair at the homestead prepare to match lead with lead, the evisceration of animals awakens an ancient entity from deep within the soil. An infestation begins to take hold, plunging the countryside into an otherworldly violence older than the words printed upon the pages of the thick family Bibles sat within each home.
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Sep 30, 2023 19:14
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It could be a tad more concise but generally I think that's pretty good. I definitely feel like I know what I'm getting if I buy the book. With the caveat I'm just another dude who also posts my blurbs in here asking for feedback, the bolded parts are what I'd cut or modify: ------- After the severed heads of six goats are staked against an old tree, an ancient force is awoken. Deep in the rolling hills of Tennessee, two Union veterans of the American Civil War build a quiet life in the town of Lawrenceboro. Childhood friends Francis Meet and Freddy Monk grew up playing amongst the thick woods outside the small town (something less wordy), and now own the very land holding the Meet family homestead. Without wives or children, the pair tend to a small number of (their) livestock while bandaging both the physical and mental wounds left by war. But most local families sent soldiers to fight for the Confederacy, which (who) returned bitter and beaten men. The rumblings of simmering hatred from the defeated coalesce[s] into the burgeoning Ku Klux Klan, an organization intent on maintaining the established southern (Southern) order of white supremacy through hooded nighttime raids punctuated by (and) brutal lynchings. The very existence of two Union veterans prospering outside of town is an affront to the worst elements of Lawrenceboro. As rumors spread about the lifestyle of the men, the Klan takes action against their homestead. The first casualties are goats, torn apart by dull Bowie knives before being (and) staked to an old oak tree. While the pair at the homestead prepare to match lead with lead, the evisceration of animals awakens an ancient entity from deep within the soil. An infestation begins to take hold, plunging the countryside into an otherworldly violence older than the words printed upon the pages of the thick family Bibles sat within each home (I like the description here but not sure it's the best way to end the blurb).
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Oct 1, 2023 02:22
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Dumb royalties question: I know Amazon only pays out when a market accumulates more than $100 in royalties, which is why every now and then I get an extra 100 at the end of a month because a year's worth of sales in India or whatever has hit that threshhold. But I got a payment along with my usual three US/Europe/Australia payments yesterday which was only $15... what's with that? It's called "AMAZON EUROPE COR." (My typical Europe payment is called "AMAZON MEDIA EU S", and is also there as per usual.)
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Oct 1, 2023 02:26
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What's the best way to build a mailing list? Are there specific tools that people use, or do I just get people to send me their email addresses? Edit: I am seeing recommendations for MailerLite and Mailchimp, but many of the posts are quite old. What are people using nowadays? SimonChris fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 10:52
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freebooter posted:It could be a tad more concise but generally I think that's pretty good. I definitely feel like I know what I'm getting if I buy the book.  Thank you so very, very much. The concise bit does hit, as I'm very on the fence about length. Some articles say no more than 150 words, with others leaning towards longer than my 261 words. The last sentence bugs the hell out of me! Not specifically what I wrote, but trying to come up with a final tag. Should I end with a bullshit, "WHAT WILL BECOME OF THIS GRAND HORROR CONFLAGRATION?!?! It's also funny, because a couple of your edits are things I was flip-flopping about on my own. It's very reassuring to see another voice give me a nudge in the right direction. I'll probably see if anyone else weighs in, and put up a revised version. My main question for any thread readers would be this - What should the final sentence of a blurb contain?
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Oct 1, 2023 13:23
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You're welcome. I also struggle to end my blurbs, which is why I think most of mine give a hint of what's about to happen and literally end with an ellipsis. My very rough rule of thumb (especially in the horror genre) is that a blurb should loosely outline the first act and suggest what's going to happen in the second. I think your length is OK but I try to make individual sentences in my blurb really tight, more so than in my actual book, because you're facing a much harder battle for people's attention span when they're scrolling through Amazon than when they're reading a book. This also means you end up going over and over the same bits and pieces of text, though, which does your head in. One thing I find helpful is to start drafting your blurb well in advance of finishing your book, then go back to working on the book for a few weeks, then come back to it with fresh eyes. (Or even write a new one from scratch or from memory, and compare them, because the stronger aspects will have stuck in your head while the weaker ones won't have.) All of which seems like a lot of effort for 300ish words, but as this thread was very useful in drilling into me, your blurb and your cover are as important as your book.
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Oct 1, 2023 21:04
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freebooter posted:You're welcome. I also struggle to end my blurbs, which is why I think most of mine give a hint of what's about to happen and literally end with an ellipsis. My very rough rule of thumb (especially in the horror genre) is that a blurb should loosely outline the first act and suggest what's going to happen in the second. No bullshit, I worked on that loving thing for three days before posting it. I typically write fresh prose of about a thousand words per day. I loving hate editing. Once I've stared at it a while longer, I'll repost it. So far, I've shaved thirty words! 
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Oct 1, 2023 21:10
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SimonChris posted:What's the best way to build a mailing list? Are there specific tools that people use, or do I just get people to send me their email addresses? Substack is an easy and free way to handle a mailing list. When I started my newsletter (which is more like a review blog than an author updates newsletter) I tried Buttondown and then moved to Ghost. The former is very barebones and minimalist. If you just want to push out updates on book launches, sales, etc then it's a good choice. Ghost is better if you want your posts to be evergreen. Both these cost a monthly subscription fee. I chose them over Substack for moral reasons--at the time it seemed like Substack was leaning hard into the transphobia market. I don't really have strong feelings about that aspect any more, though. I still think Substack is kind of evil but probably not more so than any other huge internet platform.
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Oct 2, 2023 03:11
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Leng posted:Re: chapters - I wouldn't stress about this. Nobody's going to decide whether or not to read your book or not based on if it has chapters or not. I'm currently reading The Spear Cuts Through Water which doesn't have chapters. It's great. Well, you and I wouldn't mind either way, but I guess it's time for me to share a review of one of my stories (about 7,000 words, with "a short story" right there on the cover and in the text and whatnot) quote:Now I thought that through this book would be OK and it was free so I got it and I'm reading the fist few chapters or whatever caused this book doesn't even have CHAPTERS!!!!!!!!!! But so far it don't like it that much but I'm giving it 3 stars because I haven't read whole book yet so want to give far judge . This book is about Whittaker and Albin and Whittaker stars falling for Albin the first day they meant so that's a little sudden. But I thought that it was pretty boring so far and its hard for me to keep reading but I've read good books before and didn't like first chapter but were good after. So it might be good after all. This is the kind of high-minded literary audience we're trying to attract, folks.  Here's my take on the Captain Log blurb. I get the sense that you thinking of the international audience and maybe that's why you're explaining what the Civil War / KKK is when an American reader of historical fiction wouldn't need it; would a European reader of historical fiction set in America? I mean, if I'm interested in books taking place in Victorian times, I don't need Queen Victoria or Parliament (for example) explained in the blurb. An ancient force is awoken when the severed heads of six goats are staked against an old oak tree. Deep in the rolling hills of Tennessee lies the small town of Lawrenceboro, where childhood friends Francis Meet and Freddy Monk grew up playing in the thick woods, and now own Francis's family homestead. Now grown, they lead a quiet life together, without wives or children, tending to their livestock and bandaging the physical and mental wounds of war. For they are Civil War veterans — from the Union side. But Lawrenceboro families sent their sons to fight for the Confederacy — boys who returned bitter and beaten men. The simmering hatred from the defeated has paved the way for the burgeoning Ku Klux Klan. The very existence of two Union veterans prospering is an affront to the worst elements of Lawrenceboro. As rumors spread about Francis and Freddy's lifestyle, the Klan hits their homestead. The first casualties are goats, torn apart by dull Bowie knives… While Francis and Freddy prepare to match lead with lead, the evisceration of their animals awakens an ancient entity from deep within the soil. An infestation takes hold, plunging the countryside into an otherworldly violence — a violence from someplace older than the words of the family Bibles that sit within Tennessee homes. Icon-Cat fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 2, 2023 |
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Oct 2, 2023 16:22
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SimonChris posted:What's the best way to build a mailing list? Are there specific tools that people use, or do I just get people to send me their email addresses? I would recommend checking out Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque. it's a great resource on all things newsletter, and Tammi has a newsletter of her own where she goes through different examples, techniques and best practices, in addition to an active facebook group full of cool, helpful people if you want something like that. That said, I use Maillerlite, but I'm in a holding pattern where I'm waiting for something more affordable and easy to come along, much like Mailerlite did to Mailchimp a couple years back.
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Oct 2, 2023 20:50
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You might be getting tired of me but it's not in vain. The book is done, minus some minor tweaks to be made after reviewers get back to me on points of fact not style. So, two questions: 1) When IngramSpark says they distribute print books to Chapters and Barnes & Noble and Waterstones UK, does that mean they will actually offer your book for sale on these retailers' online stores and pod when someone makes a purchase? Or only that these retailers can buy the books to sell online, if they decided to do so? 2) Which, if any, conversion services are A. free or close to it, B. don't place their own logo on your front matter, and C. let you use the files outside of their own stores if they're also self-publishing platforms like D2D? I've tried a few I found Googling and so far did not have luck (e.g. Readsy places a highly inconvenient 'Made with Readsy. Convert your own eBook for free today on readsy.com' in a font size larger than anything else on the page. Which is a shame because the Readsy proprietary font is stellar.) I don't have the desire to make and then delete accounts on others fruitllessly before I've asked here. Free offline convertors either messed it up i.e. I didn't do it right and don't suppose I'll figure out how to do it right (Calibre) or did not work on my computer. Many thanks! Bright Bart fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 3, 2023 |
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Oct 3, 2023 09:10
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 Amazon | Universal Book Link At 15.000 words, this is my longest finished story yet, and the first one to be professionally edited. Next step is to write a novel! As always, PM me if you would like a free review copy. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Oct 8, 2023 |
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Oct 3, 2023 11:58
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Icon-Cat posted:
Bingo. I've got a degree in philosophy and history, with the history part having an emphasis in the American Civil War. First off, you'd be amazed how many drat Americans have zero clue about the Civil War. I also don't assume my audience to be American, as half my family are immigrants. But I also had a job managing a restaurant in Kansas many years ago. Most of my servers were in the eighteen to twenty-three year old range. They always wanted me to do "Shift Quizzes," where I'd entertain them throughout a shift by having Jeopardy style quiz questions for them to answer for end-of-shift prizes. This always stuck with me - Out of nine servers, all with a minimum of a high school education and almost everyone of them in college or heading that way, not a single one could name who was on American currency. They didn't even get Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. After that, I never assume my audience knows history.
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Oct 3, 2023 13:18
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Bright Bart posted:1) When IngramSpark says they distribute print books to Chapters and Barnes & Noble and Waterstones UK, does that mean they will actually offer your book for sale on these retailers' online stores and pod when someone makes a purchase? Or only that these retailers can buy the books to sell online, if they decided to do so? I got a response and it's the latter case. Self-publishing with IS doesn't mean your book will be available on e.g. Chapters' website. Just that these retailers can buy copies through IngramSpark distribution. Your IS book is not automatically reviewed by any of the retailers to see if it meets their standards. You must contact the stores directly and individually. So I guess now I'm just asking for that elusive free-ish ebook convertor without watermarks/tags or the inability to use the files created somewhere else.
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Oct 3, 2023 18:39
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Icon-Cat posted:Here's my take on the Captain Log blurb. I get the sense that you thinking of the international audience and maybe that's why you're explaining what the Civil War / KKK is when an American reader of historical fiction wouldn't need it; would a European reader of historical fiction set in America? I mean, if I'm interested in books taking place in Victorian times, I don't need Queen Victoria or Parliament (for example) explained in the blurb. My perception as a non-American (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that it's not so much about whether people are aware of the history, but that for a sizeable number of Americans in the South and Appalachia, things like the KKK/Confederacy being unequivocally the bad guys is a controversial topic in the American culture wars. (Which is not the case in the rest of the Western world.) As such I think it's prudent for Captain Log to make their views* extremely clear in the blurb. *or to put it another way, their factual assertion of history
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Oct 4, 2023 09:03
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freebooter posted:My perception as a non-American (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that it's not so much about whether people are aware of the history, but that for a sizeable number of Americans in the South and Appalachia, things like the KKK/Confederacy being unequivocally the bad guys is a controversial topic in the American culture wars. (Which is not the case in the rest of the Western world.) As such I think it's prudent for Captain Log to make their views* extremely clear in the blurb. The people going on in tyotl 2023 about the war for southern rights know full drat well that they're the bad guy. The KKK is a hate group, and not inactive. I'd tread very carefully with the topic. Honestly your framing in this comment I find offensive.
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Oct 4, 2023 15:22
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leper khan posted:The people going on in tyotl 2023 about the war for southern rights know full drat well that they're the bad guy. Perhaps I have an overly left-wing Twitter feed, but the impression I have always received is that e.g. the notion of tearing down statues to Confederate generals is controversial, Southern school history textbooks emphasise the Lost Cause narrative and downplay the horrors of slavery, Confederate flag bumper stickers are perfectly common etc. As such, from the perspective of a potential foreign reader* of a self-published novel, I don't think the sentence in that blurb "explaining" the Confederacy/KKK is excessive. Like, it's probably not necessary, but neither did it strike me as redundant. *(not that this really matters since 90% of your English-speaking readership are always going to be in the US)
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Oct 4, 2023 20:52
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In lieu of lack of leads I ended up brute forcing my way through ebook creators to find one that met that criteria of free, without tag text, and giving you the file to do what you like with it. Took a while because I didn't have my hope in Amazon being that last one, but Kindle Create does all of this and didn't even require an Amazon account to boot.
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Oct 5, 2023 21:44
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leper khan posted:The people going on in tyotl 2023 about the war for southern rights know full drat well that they're the bad guy. freebooter posted:Perhaps I have an overly left-wing Twitter feed, but the impression I have always received is that e.g. the notion of tearing down statues to Confederate generals is controversial, Southern school history textbooks emphasise the Lost Cause narrative and downplay the horrors of slavery, Confederate flag bumper stickers are perfectly common etc. As such, from the perspective of a potential foreign reader* of a self-published novel, I don't think the sentence in that blurb "explaining" the Confederacy/KKK is excessive. Like, it's probably not necessary, but neither did it strike me as redundant. After studying this poo poo at an academic level and living the majority of my life in the US south, with half of my family being ultra-conservative, here is my overly simplified take - The KKK is always seen as "bad guys" for lack of a better term. Yes, some racists will think otherwise. But they're straight up unapologetic racists, full stop. But the Lost Cause about the confederacy is above alive and well. In 2005, Kentucky had 247 or 243 Civil War monuments. Excuse my forgetting which number it was. Of those monuments, two were Union and one was for both sides. But Kentucky sent two-thirds of its troops to fight for the Union. I went to towns with confederate monuments in graveyards who didn't send a soul to fight for the south. The "States Rights" bullshit perpetrated upon the American consciousness by the Daughters of the Confederacy seeped into everything. Oddly enough, the other half of my family is all British immigrants. This makes me very conscious of not being America-centric in my thought process. Which means adding a couple of words to make sure I'm being clear about painting the Confederacy for what they were, a racist secession to further white supremacy, is something I'll probably keep.
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Oct 6, 2023 12:17
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https://twitter.com/kristadb1/status/1656768957423169538 https://twitter.com/kristadb1/status/1657812254006599681 https://twitter.com/kristadb1/status/1710480351875969136   
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Oct 7, 2023 17:36
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That's horrifying. I'll say this for IngramSpark: if you order in full cartons, they don't do a perfect job packing but at least they DO include packing materials. And their refund/replacement process is nowhere this awful.
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Oct 7, 2023 23:09
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If anyone is comfortable sharing their books2read universal link I'd appreciate being able to see it. Doesn't have to be your own, actually. Any universal link for any book. I'm having a hard time locating an example of how it looks as Google just shows me pages talking about b2r universal links and why you should have one. Can't find anybody just like 'Check out my universal link on books2read here:'. Bright Bart fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Oct 8, 2023 |
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Oct 8, 2023 16:53
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Bright Bart posted:If anyone is comfortable sharing their books2read universal link I'd appreciate being able to see it. On my phone rn, but check out the Goon written books thread in Book Barn for examples on the last page.
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Oct 8, 2023 17:05
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Thank you. I don't think I would have found these otherwise. I like them. They're clean.
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Oct 8, 2023 17:17
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