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[Mike M]

This level of dedication for these shorts is really impressive. I like twitter, and I know it's useful, and necessary these days, but gosh.

Twitter is a god awful "service" that contributes active harm to society's communication skills and is directly responsible for the rise of people fucking saying "hashtag" aloud when speaking like fucking idiot fucks. Therefore, they are indirectly responsible for the contents of what may or may not be unmarked shallow graves in the woods behind my house.

Twitter was the first time I realized I'm old and curmudgeonly. I simply don't see a use for it (outside of being obligated to do so to maintain some semblance of relevancy), and I'm both baffled and infuriated by the world's enthusiastic and unequivocal support of such a shitty, awful platform.

At least it's okay as an occasional spectator sport to watch people who somehow still don't understand how the internet works destroy their careers...

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Twitter is a god awful "service" that contributes active harm to society's communication skills and is directly responsible for the rise of people fucking saying "hashtag" aloud when speaking like fucking idiot fucks. Therefore, they are indirectly responsible for the contents of what may or may not be unmarked shallow graves in the woods behind my house.

Twitter was the first time I realized I'm old and curmudgeonly. I simply don't see a use for it (outside of being obligated to do so to maintain some semblance of relevancy), and I'm both baffled and infuriated by the world's enthusiastic and unequivocal support of such a shitty, awful platform.

At least it's okay as an occasional spectator sport to watch people who somehow still don't understand how the internet works destroy their careers...

I feel the exact same way, but since I'm trying to start up an indie game studio, I need to learn how it works

But god damn do I hate it.

 

[Mike M]

I feel the exact same way, but since I'm trying to start up an indie game studio, I need to learn how it works

But god damn do I hate it.

#TwitterHateBros
#IHashtagIronically

 

[timetokill]

I actually kind of like Twitter. Facebook is too ... Facebook-y. It's gross.

I totally agree that people saying "hashtag" aloud is grating as fuck though.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

Hubba Hubba update!

Short #1 has pushed 45 free units, no sales, no borrows
Short #2 has 1 borrow! Success!

 

[Crash Station]

Twitter is pretty important for advertising these days, especially if you know how SEO works. Don't have to like it as a platform, but it can do wonders if you figure out how to use it.

My pen-name Twitter has 300 followers, so that's fun at least. If only those all translated into sales/borrows.

 

[mu cephei]

Twitter is a god awful "service" that contributes active harm to society's communication skills and is directly responsible for the rise of people fucking saying "hashtag" aloud when speaking like fucking idiot fucks. Therefore, they are indirectly responsible for the contents of what may or may not be unmarked shallow graves in the woods behind my house.

Twitter was the first time I realized I'm old and curmudgeonly. I simply don't see a use for it (outside of being obligated to do so to maintain some semblance of relevancy), and I'm both baffled and infuriated by the world's enthusiastic and unequivocal support of such a shitty, awful platform.

At least it's okay as an occasional spectator sport to watch people who somehow still don't understand how the internet works destroy their careers...

Haha Well, I don't personally know anyone who uses twitter, in fact most people I talk to on a daily basis don't even use the internet frequently! So no hashtag irritations. And at first I used to think it was stupid beyond belief (the crap about eurovision I had to skim past....) I use it to follow publishers, scientific journals, a few websites and writers and agents, for the links to articles and stuff. I think people who've mastered the arcane skills of rss feeds or whatever they are might not need to do this...

As a tool for promotion or even conversation it seems bizarre. But I guess it works.

Twitter is pretty important for advertising these days, especially if you know how SEO works. Don't have to like it as a platform, but it can do wonders if you figure out how to use it.

My pen-name Twitter has 300 followers, so that's fun at least. If only those all translated into sales/borrows.

Wow.

Spoiler

I'm off to look up SEO!

 

[toddhunter]

Got a couple of borrows which I suppose is a good thing. On the negative side my sales graph no longer looks like boobs.

 

[DD]

I actually kind of like Twitter. Facebook is too ... Facebook-y. It's gross.

I totally agree that people saying "hashtag" aloud is grating as fuck though.

Same.

 

[Nappuccino]

I'll be working on these next week. Had two deaths in the family and a thesis to take care of. Glad to see some of you are picking up momentum!

 

[Fidelis Hodie]

Almost 40k words into Derek Agons 2. No clue how long it will be, probably just a little longer than the first. Feels weird since most series seem to grow in length, though I guess the first 3 harry potter books didn't jump in size too much.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Hubba-Hubba Challenge Update:

How's everyone's progress? Book 2 published? Book 1 trucking along? Hit me with your totals!

HP: 7 Borrows, 1 Sale (1 book - I'm being compressed to death by work. -_-


Also! Check Goodreads. Your book/books are probably there, so that's another avenue for you to start drumming up interest if you're inclined. At the least you can make an account for your persona and get the author section filled out. There's a big and active audience there, so take advantage of it.

My erotica pen name twitter has more followers than real life me

I'm not sure how to feel about that

Amused?

While I tweet something every day from my erotica pen name, I only have 3 followers. I must not be good at trying to be a mid 20s female.

Just what kind of things are you tweeting...? *_*

I have 84 followers on my erotic twitter. Not sure how it happened. Just followed a few erotic accounts and they just came to me.

They sort of just keep piling up, huh? Checked this morning and I'm at 91 now. I do try and make sure to Favorite things here and there or chat with the real people who follow me.

Twitter is a god awful "service" that contributes active harm to society's communication skills and is directly responsible for the rise of people fucking saying "hashtag" aloud when speaking like fucking idiot fucks. Therefore, they are indirectly responsible for the contents of what may or may not be unmarked shallow graves in the woods behind my house.

Twitter was the first time I realized I'm old and curmudgeonly. I simply don't see a use for it (outside of being obligated to do so to maintain some semblance of relevancy), and I'm both baffled and infuriated by the world's enthusiastic and unequivocal support of such a shitty, awful platform.

At least it's okay as an occasional spectator sport to watch people who somehow still don't understand how the internet works destroy their careers...

Haha. So old and cranky.

I still find my personal one pretty fun for work. It's the easiest way to update people about the project and a lot of industry news moves really fast through there. Dumb fun, but useful.

Hubba Hubba update!

Short #1 has pushed 45 free units, no sales, no borrows
Short #2 has 1 borrow! Success!

Yay! We just need to beef up your twitter now.

Twitter is pretty important for advertising these days, especially if you know how SEO works. Don't have to like it as a platform, but it can do wonders if you figure out how to use it.

My pen-name Twitter has 300 followers, so that's fun at least. If only those all translated into sales/borrows.

I'm with ya. It's encouraging to see retweets and Favorites, but it would be nice to see the sales bumped a bit more there. Still, invaluable. Also, how the heck did you get 300 followers?! Haha.

Your sale chart looked pretty good, btw. Congrats on the moola!

I'll be working on these next week. Had two deaths in the family and a thesis to take care of. Glad to see some of you are picking up momentum!

Sorry to hear that, Nappuccino. I hope working on these will help distract/lighten things up a little for you. Let me know if you have any questions about it all.

 

[ronito]

I had forgotten about this thread.
So my book on how to retail good was finally released.
A couple of hundred people have downloaded it.
Nothing great. But I'll take it.

 

[Nappuccino]

Very sorry for your loss

Sorry to hear that, Nappuccino. I hope working on these will help distract/lighten things up a little for you. Let me know if you have any questions about it all.

Thanks for the sympathies! Both were a long time coming, which makes it a bit easier to deal with . . . but it's never fun.

I've been working on one of the stories tonight and I've been having fun fleshing out the character's past and doing the witty banter thing, which has been nice way to take the mind off things

 

[Delio]

Challenge numbers:

2nd Short : 2 sales and 2 borrows

 

[AngmarsKing701]

What's the deal with bundles? Is there actually a way to handle them in Amazon or do I need to cut and paste them all into another Word file and release them as another book?

 

[Crash Station]

Yo sirap, you know what the "in" kink is these days? Probably just going to write a few under a different pen name since I'm not writing anything at the moment. Also not seeing much activity over what I have out, but that may change when all 6 shorts have been released (doubt it though).

I'm with ya. It's encouraging to see retweets and Favorites, but it would be nice to see the sales bumped a bit more there. Still, invaluable. Also, how the heck did you get 300 followers?! Haha.

Your sale chart looked pretty good, btw. Congrats on the moola!

Hah, the sales are going right back into paying living expenses instead of anything I actually want, so doesn't feel like a victory just yet. Thanks though

As for Twitter, I just followed a few erotica authors here and there, tweeted at them and fans of them and before long, I got up to 300. You could of course get to A LOT more if you follow a ton of people that follow other erotica authors, but those are pretty much just empty followers that probably won't even read your tweets, so no point (at least regarding book promotion).

What's the deal with bundles? Is there actually a way to handle them in Amazon or do I need to cut and paste them all into another Word file and release them as another book?

Just cut and paste them into a new file. Then find a 3D bundle template for the cover and use one of the book covers as the top one. There's a bunch of tutorials out there for it.

 

[Ashes]

I'll be working on these next week. Had two deaths in the family and a thesis to take care of. Glad to see some of you are picking up momentum!

Condolences

I had forgotten about this thread.
So my book on how to retail good was finally released.
A couple of hundred people have downloaded it.
Nothing great. But I'll take it.

Look what the cat brought in!

 

[timetokill]

Short 1: 2 sales, 7 borrows
Short 2: 1 sale, 3 borrows

I don't think my book titles are "spicy" enough. It's really hard to skirt around Amazon's filters and still be enticing with the kink I chose.

Yo sirap, you know what the "in" kink is these days? Probably just going to write a few under a different pen name since I'm not writing anything at the moment. Also not seeing much activity over what I have out, but that may change when all 6 shorts have been released (doubt it though).

Near as I can tell, it's girl meets billionaire shape-shifting (step)brothers.

 

[timetokill]

I really need to write shorter stuff. My 2nd short clocked in at 10k words, after something like 7.5k for the first :\

 

[Crash Station]

Near as I can tell, it's girl meets billionaire shape-shifting (step)brothers.

I can probably do shape-shifting. Just looking at the top 100 authors and a good chunk of what they do is just boring vanilla stuff that I don't think I could write, but every so often you'll see some that write pretty imaginative stuff like Natalie Deschain at 55 (alongside normal stuff).

I feel like gender-bender could also be fun to write. Hell, I could probably just change the names in that Ranma 1/2 fanfiction I wrote half my life ago, lol.

 

[Ashes]

#TwitterHateBros
#IHashtagIronically

@MikeM@AshesdeVilliers: & how the hell are you supposed to understand the direction of twitter conversations anyhow?

 

[Haly]

Ctrl + F "science": 0 results

RIP nerds.

 

[Woorloog]

Ctrl + F "science": 0 results

RIP nerds.

Science what?

 

[timetokill]

I'm having this problem too. I can't just hop two characters into bed, there has to be development and plot and...we'll see if it's detrimental or not after this edit cause I added more plot :/

Yeah, exactly. I think I am worrying too much about plot for what is essentially porn.

I can probably do shape-shifting. Just looking at the top 100 authors and a good chunk of what they do is just boring vanilla stuff that I don't think I could write, but every so often you'll see some that write pretty imaginative stuff like Natalie Deschain at 55 (alongside normal stuff).

I feel like gender-bender could also be fun to write. Hell, I could probably just change the names in that Ranma 1/2 fanfiction I wrote half my life ago, lol.

Haha, it's worth a shot! Your sales are looking pretty good already too.

 

[Haly]

If you're talking about the kink list, 'intelligence' is on there. That counts right?

Intelligence (quick wit; street smarts; Machiavellian cleverness; Sherlock Holmesian deductive powers; geniuses; experts; criminal masterminds; see also Special powers and skills; Geeks and nebbishes)

Mindfuck, mindgames

I guess. But it certainly paints a very different picture than general academia. Certainly, there is fetishization of the mind, but only in the context of dominance and submission rather than self-improvement and discovery.

(Not that I'm surprised, it was just a joke.)

 

[aidan]

Tide of Shadows and Other Stories Update time!

Things have slowed down considerably for me over the past week (just a handful of sales and borrows, none in the last three days), which, not coincidentally, occurred around the same time my 'blog' tour concluded. Reviews on Amazon/Goodreads have also dried up. So, time to start watering the garden again! At this point, I need to sell about 30 more copies of the book at $2.99 to break even on my costs for the project. I've got a r/fantasy giveaway coming up next week, and might down a Kindle Countdown deal the week following to try to drive exposure.

I wrote a post this week for Tor.com, which got a lot of traffic and comments, but resulted in exactly 0 sales and 0 borrows. So, even exposure on a huge genre site isn't enough to push books single-handedly.

Additionally, I'm appearing on Rocket Talk, the official Tor.com podcast, today to talk about the book, self-publishing, and SF/F stuff, so we'll see if that has greater effect on sales. Friday's not a great day, but I'll take what I can get.

On another note, I finished and submitted my first short story since becoming a parent last year, which felt tremendously good. "Fite and the Sea Glass Knife" is a Sword & Sorcery style story based in the same world as the novel I'm slowly chipping away at. It sort of works on its own, but it might not be conclusive enough to actually land in a magazine. I have two more stories in mind that will bookend it, featuring different characters to provide perspective on the events that lead up to and precede "Fite and the Sea Glass Blade." It's been a lot of fun.

I've also been revising another short story that I wrote over a year ago. It sat in a trunk, niggling at me because I knew what was wrong, but not how to fix it. Suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, a solution crystallized and I've been ripping through a revision and cut almost 2,000 words. Feels good.

 

[DopeToast]

I just made my first attempt at publishing yesterday. I sent out a short story of mine, "Love in the Stitches," to ten different literary journals, most of which I discovered through NewPages. I also submitted this one short work that is under 500 words to Hermeneutic Chaos because they were asking for that kind of work.

I'm prepared to hear "No" from everyone, but it was nice to use Submittable and get a feel for how to write the cover letter and whatnot. I made an excel sheet to track what I've submitted and where, and whether they've responded. I'm putting my newly received creative writing degree to good use. Got to do something with it.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Tide of Shadows and Other Stories Update time!

Things have slowed down considerably for me over the past week (just a handful of sales and borrows, none in the last three days), which, not coincidentally, occurred around the same time my 'blog' tour concluded. Reviews on Amazon/Goodreads have also dried up. So, time to start watering the garden again! At this point, I need to sell about 30 more copies of the book at $2.99 to break even on my costs for the project. I've got a r/fantasy giveaway coming up next week, and might down a Kindle Countdown deal the week following to try to drive exposure.

I wrote a post this week for Tor.com, which got a lot of traffic and comments, but resulted in exactly 0 sales and 0 borrows. So, even exposure on a huge genre site isn't enough to push books single-handedly.

Additionally, I'm appearing on Rocket Talk, the official Tor.com podcast, today to talk about the book, self-publishing, and SF/F stuff, so we'll see if that has greater effect on sales. Friday's not a great day, but I'll take what I can get.

God I am so boned if I have to self publish. The best I can do is appeal to furries who will buy pretty much anything, but even that's a stretch.

Also, on that TOR podcast, can you bring up how Terry Goodkind sucks? This would amuse the world greatly.

I just made my first attempt at publishing yesterday. I sent out a short story of mine, "Love in the Stitches," to ten different literary journals, most of which I discovered through NewPages. I also submitted this one short work that is under 500 words to Hermeneutic Chaos because they were asking for that kind of work.

I'm prepared to hear "No" from everyone, but it was nice to use Submittable and get a feel for how to write the cover letter and whatnot. I made an excel sheet to track what I've submitted and where, and whether they've responded. I'm putting my newly received creative writing degree to good use. Got to do something with it.

Best of luck to you! The first "no" kinda hurts, but after that, you get pretty hardened to them real quickly. I hope it doens't come to that for ya though

 

[aidan]

God I am so boned if I have to self publish. The best I can do is appeal to furries who will buy pretty much anything, but even that's a stretch.

Also, on that TOR podcast, can you bring up how Terry Goodkind sucks? This would amuse the world greatly.

There's history involving me, Tor.com, and Terry Goodkind. For realsies. I'll tell you the story one day if you buy me a beer.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

There's history involving me, Tor.com, and Terry Goodkind. For realsies. I'll tell you the story one day if you buy me a beer.

I'll buy you six. That man is a pox on the fantasy genre.

 

[aidan]

I'll buy you six. That man is a pox on the fantasy genre.

But, he doesn't write fantasy!

 

[Mike M]

I always thought he was kinda good.

 

[timetokill]

I always thought he was kinda good.

I can see why you would think that.

 

[Mike M]

I can see why you would think that.

I feel as though this is some sort of disparaging remark!

Spoiler

I've never read Terry Goodkind

 

[timetokill]

I feel as though this is some sort of disparaging remark!

Spoiler

I've never read Terry Goodkind

Spoiler

Me neither

 

[Haly]

“There is a magic,” he began, “an ancient and dangerous magic of immense power. It’s a magic spawned from the earth, from life itself. It is held in three vessels called the three boxes of Orden. The magic is dormant until the boxes are put into play, as it is called.

Goodkind, ladies and gentleman.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

But, he doesn't write fantasy!

Neither do I :V Not once, no not ever.

 

[Crash Station]

Started on a 7th short (1st for a new pen name). Once I go on vacation in a month, I'll try to knock out a bunch of them on the plane ride and maybe during down time. If I don't get any results after that, I'm done with erotica.

 

[toddhunter]

I always thought he was kinda good.

He is.

Granted this is in an alternate universe where all the better authors he is completely ripping off stop existing, which hasn't happened yet.

But who knows what might happen tomorrow.

 

[aidan]

I always thought he was kinda good.

I'm just going to address the pun that everyone else seems to be politely ignoring.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

Oh my. I will have to make this happen. Terry Goodkind is the worst, seriously.

Foul temptress! Ye shall not tempt me to read this person's works!

Spoiler

I'm totally going to look it up. Also, I want to hear that story, badly.

 

[Mike M]

I'm just going to address the pun that everyone else seems to be politely ignoring.

I had faith someone would get it at some point.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

So short #3 is going hot n heavy with a threesome. I'm just about to proceed to where participant #3 gets completely naked and I've paused, because it struck me that rather than MFF this could go MFT.

Nothing like a little surprise.

But I need to think about that.

 

[Delio]

Short three is a foursome between the couples from the other two stories. I need to get it going.

 

[timetokill]

I'm just going to address the pun that everyone else seems to be politely ignoring.

... but... but I got it. that's why I posted what I posted.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Foul temptress! Ye shall not tempt me to read this person's works!

Spoiler

I'm totally going to look it up. Also, I want to hear that story, badly.

If Aiden ever tells the story, I demand it get added to the OP for all to see.

Spoiler

I also don't know who this guy is, but I like you all better, so he's a jerk or whatever

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

If Aiden ever tells the story, I demand it get added to the OP for all to see.

Spoiler

I also don't know who this guy is, but I like you all better, so he's a jerk or whatever

He wrote a super shitty series of fantasy stories that he says aren't fantasy because his dumb politics are inserted in a super black/white way because DEMOCRATS ARE EVIL or some shit.

I only read the first book and it was offensively bad. Mostly because it was poorly written. LIke, really badly written. LIke, every cliche you could ever think of EVER was used without irony.

 

[Haly]

Some of you may remember this treasure trove, where Salazar give a play-by-play of Goodkind's The Omen Machine.

 

[toddhunter]

Some of you may remember this treasure trove, where Salazar give a play-by-play of Goodkind's The Omen Machine.

My favourite

http://sot.wikia.com/wiki/Samuel

I know it is very hard to have a truly original idea these days... but come on son.