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[aidan]

I am at 82 pages now, 1.5 spaced with 11 point font. I have never, ever taken a creative venture this far.

Would anyone be willing to proofread my draft? I'd love some constructive criticism. A lot of it is rough (as it is a rough draft) but my basic ideas are there.

I have such a solid view of where the story is heading, too. I've never felt so inspired before. Seeing fellow GAFfers published keeps me hopeful, too. Wish me luck, Writing-GAF!

Congrats! That's a great accomplishment.

Good luck. Do you have a contact within the publishing house, because they can take a damn long time to respond. Took Penguin like six months to get back to me. They said "no" and then went and published Armada because fuck everything.

Yeah. End of August is the blink of an eye away in the publishing world.

 

[Relix]

Anyone here uses Scrivener? How is it? Word isn't helping organizing my ideas

 

[Nappuccino]

Anyone here uses Scrivener? How is it? Word isn't helping organizing my ideas

You should be able to get a free 30 day trial (and, unless they changed it, that's 30 times you open the program, not 30 days since the first time it's opened).

No reason not to try it out yourself, though it does have a good number of tools to help you explore ideas and keep things you like straight.

edit: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/trial.php#

 

[Relix]

You should be able to get a free 30 day trial (and, unless they changed it, that's 30 times you open the program, not 30 days since the first time it's opened).

No reason not to try it out yourself, though it does have a good number of tools to help you explore ideas and keep things you like straight.

edit: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/trial.php#

Yes, downloaded it, thanks. Seems to have some interesting stuff. Will sit down and learn this,looks fun

 

[Nappuccino]

Yes, downloaded it, thanks. Seems to have some interesting stuff. Will sit down and learn this,looks fun

I hope it works well for you! I wish I could give more advice or feedback, but the little I've messed with it just affirmed that my brain doesn't quite work in a way that this program would help.

But I've also not attempted anything long enough that would require some of the extra features either.

 

[BorkBork]

Anyone here uses Scrivener? How is it? Word isn't helping organizing my ideas

Been using it for years. It's excellent. You can break down writing into chapters, store all your research in one file, chunks of story are easy to label and move around.

Plus I think there are options for exporting your manuscript directly into ebook formats, probably very handy but I haven't used it.

I have the Mac version, so I can only speak to that.

 

[Alucard]

Hey guys, is it possible just to post something as is in this thread, or is it more of a PM thing to avoid someone stealing someone else's stuff that's posted publicly online?

 

[Alucard]

I suppose it would help if I read the OP.

Fantastic to see so many published authors here. I'd love to read your stories of how you got it done, whether you decided to self publish, and how that all went.

 

[aidan]

I suppose it would help if I read the OP.

Fantastic to see so many published authors here. I'd love to read your stories of how you got it done, whether you decided to self publish, and how that all went.

Ask and ye shall receive, Alucard: https://medium.com/a-dribble-of-ink/why-i-self-published-my-book-294e063d6e61

 

[?oe?oe]

I haven't posted in a while so here's an update: I entered a short play in a theatre competition and it won the heat and went straight into the finals. My play didn't win, but I won the Playwright's Award for my originality.

It's encouraging!

 

[Alucard]

Ask and ye shall receive, Alucard: https://medium.com/a-dribble-of-ink/why-i-self-published-my-book-294e063d6e61

Thanks aidan. Appreciate it. I may ask you for more advice in a few months when I hopefully maybe finish up my novel. 3 typed pages so far, so I've got a long way to go. I typed all 3 throughout the course of today, so I figure 3 in one day is pretty good. Haha. Just have to keep it going and revising as I go.

 

[Nappuccino]

Thanks aidan. Appreciate it. I may ask you for more advice in a few months when I hopefully maybe finish up my novel. 3 typed pages so far, so I've got a long way to go. I typed all 3 throughout the course of today, so I figure 3 in one day is pretty good. Haha. Just have to keep it going and revising as I go.

Three pages in a day is great. Most authors set a goal for themselves. Three to five hundred words seems common, and you'll have great days where you get 1,500 words. The key is to keep writing and eventually you have a novel, even if you only put smaller chunks to paper at a time.

Good luck!

As for self-pub vs traditional pub, look into both of them and see what works for you. I'd argue that traditional publication has a bit more prestige to it--if you want to get into writing full time, listing publications from actual places on cover letters will look nice. If you want to just do this for fun and make some cash on the side (potentially a lot more cash than most publication deals--small presses don't net you much money in the short or long term, but paid readings are where it's at), self-publishing could be for you, if you play your cards right.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Thanks aidan. Appreciate it. I may ask you for more advice in a few months when I hopefully maybe finish up my novel. 3 typed pages so far, so I've got a long way to go. I typed all 3 throughout the course of today, so I figure 3 in one day is pretty good. Haha. Just have to keep it going and revising as I go.

If three wasn't so bad, my advice is make that your daily quota. Three pages and you're done. Three pages and you're done. That adds up quickly, and in a few months, you'll have a full novel.

 

[sirap]

If you're publishing in KU, avoid setting your line spacing to anything above 1.2 (default for Kindle)

Amazon is punishing those who do with reduced KENPC numbers.

 

[Crash Station]

If you're publishing in KU, avoid setting your line spacing to anything above 1.2 (default for Kindle)

Amazon is punishing those who do with reduced KENPC numbers.

sirap, what's your take on the new system? Are you still doing erotica/romance/etc? Was there a search algorithm change like I heard or is that a myth?

 

[Nappuccino]

I caught a pretty glaring plothole in one of my stories just before I sent it out.

Spent about 30 min adding about 150 words and I think it all works out well.

I hate knowing that I keep catching stuff just before I send it out. It happened with the last book I edited too. Makes me want to re-read the whole damn thing again, wondering what I could have missed.

 

[sirap]

sirap, what's your take on the new system? Are you still doing erotica/romance/etc? Was there a search algorithm change like I heard or is that a myth?

Still doing erotica romance, but the bulk of my writing is focused on 25k and above. I'm not sure if they've messed with the algorithms to push back erotica, but erotica romance is still thriving.

I'm getting varying reports from authors who do pure smut (5k shorts) Most are making the same as before (assuming payout is 0.0057 per page) while a few have taken a 30-50% hit in borrows. Sales are the same as always though.

Longer serials with cliffhangers have always had a higher profit ceiling than erotica shorts, so I think that's a good direction for newbies. Unless you're super prolific, writing novellas and publishing once every 1-2 weeks is probably the smarter (and less taxing) thing to do.

 

[Alucard]

Three pages in a day is great. Most authors set a goal for themselves. Three to five hundred words seems common, and you'll have great days where you get 1,500 words. The key is to keep writing and eventually you have a novel, even if you only put smaller chunks to paper at a time.

Good luck!

As for self-pub vs traditional pub, look into both of them and see what works for you. I'd argue that traditional publication has a bit more prestige to it--if you want to get into writing full time, listing publications from actual places on cover letters will look nice. If you want to just do this for fun and make some cash on the side (potentially a lot more cash than most publication deals--small presses don't net you much money in the short or long term, but paid readings are where it's at), self-publishing could be for you, if you play your cards right.

Thanks for this. I've heard going with a known publisher is not really financially rewarding with your first book. My goal is to do it for fun and just get something out there at some point that will also make some extra money for me on the side. Of course, it would be great if I write something that a lot of people like and then maybe get that picked up by a bigger company to get into book stores. Dream big and all that.

One of my life goals for ages has been to write and publish a book. Until now, I've never really felt inspired enough to do so. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to push myself.

If three wasn't so bad, my advice is make that your daily quota. Three pages and you're done. Three pages and you're done. That adds up quickly, and in a few months, you'll have a full novel.

3 pages was okay, but I'm not sure I can keep that up daily. A lot of it was written while on the job. Ha. I'm sure my boss wouldn't appreciate finding out I'm using paid company time to write.

Again, I don't even know if this is going to be something or nothing. I feel fairly inspired at the moment, so I'm going to keep pushing and trying not to let this one just fizzle out.

 

[Alucard]

Well, just wrote another 3 pages today and it's only 10am. Woop. Been a while since I've written more than 2 pages when starting a story, so I'm pleased so far. 6 pages done.

Would anyone like to proof what I have so far?

 

[Relix]

Wow, Scrivener is fantastic. Loving it. Helps me get organized and got me into writing a new novel. I have like 2 just gathering dust, maybe someday I'll go back to them and get them published since they are done

 

[Nappuccino]

3 pages was okay, but I'm not sure I can keep that up daily. A lot of it was written while on the job. Ha. I'm sure my boss wouldn't appreciate finding out I'm using paid company time to write.

Just be sure you aren't writing on a company computer/property. If you company owns your work for them (program code etc.) They could say that they actually own your copyright too--their hours, their devices, their product. My publishing class hammered this home to us.

But Chuck Palanuik wrote most of his first novels during board room meetings and he's doing just fine.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Just be sure you aren't writing on a company computer/property. If you company owns your work for them (program code etc.) They could say that they actually own your copyright too--their hours, their devices, their product. My publishing class hammered this home to us.

This seems like bullshit to me. Legal, but still bullshit.

 

[Alucard]

Well, just wrote another 3 pages today and it's only 10am. Woop. Been a while since I've written more than 2 pages when starting a story, so I'm pleased so far. 6 pages done.

Would anyone like to proof what I have so far?

Just be sure you aren't writing on a company computer/property. If you company owns your work for them (program code etc.) They could say that they actually own your copyright too--their hours, their devices, their product. My publishing class hammered this home to us.

But Chuck Palanuik wrote most of his first novels during board room meetings and he's doing just fine.

This is good advice. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I've actually done most of the writing on my phone while on the bus or wherever. This has also caused an old pain to return to my left hand, so trying to pace that. The main area for the finished product is on a Blogger post I keep saving but not publishing. I'll create a word file to save to a USB or Google drive or something too.

 

[Tomita]

I forgot Scrivener had that trial. I'll see if I can try it out! Been kind of busy lately.

I've been using yWriter myself, which is a free program that's similar. Scrivener is more sophisticated, obviously, but I found yWriter to be a nice substitute to making insane Word docs / notebooks on story notes. I already mentioned my plotting problems, and I feel my methods before using yWriter only exasperated my issues. yWriter splits things up by characters and locations, and you can add notes as well as write the story scene by scene, organized by chapters, into the program itself. A nice alternative if budget is an issue, though Scrivener goes on sale sometimes.

Speaking of my plotting problems...again, been way too busy lately. But when I have the time I've tried to poke at my antagonists, as I felt I needed to do a bit more of that and some world building before trying something like Snowflake method, and I'm pleased I went down this route. I mean, on one hand, July was so hectic that I rarely had time to work on stuff, but when I have had time, I've made progress. Even if I decide to scrap some of my newer ideas, I can just use them in some other story. I'm hoping this next month won't be so hectic so I can make further progress... Then I can start actually writing. That is my goal: to start writing, even if it's just nonsense, this month. Got to develop that habit and build up my confidence.

 

[Ashes]

Bit too busy to write. Reading books. Watching films. by the dozen. Gonna learn to program over the summer.

 

[pulsemyne]

Well I've finished editting book two and it's being proof read. Book three is going well and I'm already upto chapter twelve. Chucking out a thousand plus words in a sitting ( typically takes me an hour) is my usual pace.

 

[Crash Station]

Still doing erotica romance, but the bulk of my writing is focused on 25k and above. I'm not sure if they've messed with the algorithms to push back erotica, but erotica romance is still thriving.

I'm getting varying reports from authors who do pure smut (5k shorts) Most are making the same as before (assuming payout is 0.0057 per page) while a few have taken a 30-50% hit in borrows. Sales are the same as always though.

Longer serials with cliffhangers have always had a higher profit ceiling than erotica shorts, so I think that's a good direction for newbies. Unless you're super prolific, writing novellas and publishing once every 1-2 weeks is probably the smarter (and less taxing) thing to do.

Good to know.

So not much point in writing pure smut shorts anymore unless you're pumping them out faster?

 

[Nappuccino]

This seems like bullshit to me. Legal, but still bullshit.

It's pretty lame and I doubt most companies would go that route--it's a lot of effort for almost no reward unless you hit it big, and by then they probably wouldn't even think to look through their old records. But god, would it suck if you were the one it happened to.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

How much should you reveal about your plot in a query letter? Last time I had someone look at mine they told me I had to reveal more than just the premise, but that ended up making my short and concise letter almost three paragraphs longer, which I feel is too long.

Roughly how long do y'all feel it should be?

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

How much should you reveal about your plot in a query letter? Last time I had someone look at mine they told me I had to reveal more than just the premise, but that ended up making my short and concise letter almost three paragraphs longer, which I feel is too long.

Roughly how long do y'all feel it should be?

No longer than a page, that's for sure. Not sure about everything else. Like, i'ts hard to articulate what you need because each story is so damn different.

I'll post mine though, which got a few bites from agents so it must not be total shite

Dear (agent name)

Animals are migrating north, slaves are turning against their masters, the devout are desecrating temples, and the moon is missing from the sky. The world is changing, but for one cat cursed with nine lives, none of that matters.

It’s hard to care about the living world when the door to escape the afterlife is almost closed.

Kitgazka has lived and died eight times, and every death has ended the same: a dark forest, monsters made of fire, and a small door, shining far off in the distance. Hell is a real place, and once the door closes for good, it will last forever.

So for the last 500 years, Kitgazka has roamed the world, hoping to find the place where life and the afterlife meet, but still the door remains hidden. Now on his last life, desperation sees him once again turn south, to a desert wasteland filled with bad memories, cannibalistic lizards, and an army of walking corpses. What’s beyond the desert, no one knows, but it’s the only place Kitgazka has not been.

Accompanied by a naïve gerbil who wants to be a knight and his terrible squire, Kitgazka finally feels answers within reach. This time will be different. It has to be. Failure means an eternity of suffering.

Little does Kitgazka know that he’s walking into a warzone, and the answers he’s craved for the last 500 years are more terrible than he ever imagined.

THE NINTH LIFE is 132,100 word heroic fantasy novel with touches of high fantasy near the end. It’s an amalgamation of everything I love about the genre with direct inspiration from Brian Jacque’s Redwall series, which was my first foray into fantasy so many years ago. It’s my first novel.

A (whatever the agent wants attached to the email) are included with this query letter. A completed manuscript is available upon request.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

No longer than a page, that's for sure. Not sure about everything else. Like, i'ts hard to articulate what you need because each story is so damn different.

I'll post mine though, which got a few bites from agents so it must not be total shite

Dude, self publish that thing so we can read it. Sounds magnificent.

 

[Blargonaut]

I'll post mine though, which got a few bites from agents so it must not be total shite

Damn, I'd read that.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

No longer than a page, that's for sure. Not sure about everything else. Like, i'ts hard to articulate what you need because each story is so damn different.

I'll post mine though, which got a few bites from agents so it must not be total shite

That sounds really neat. i can understand why you got a few bits. From what I understand of query letters, you're supposed to spoil your whole book. Don't worry about spoiling twists, it's their job to know if those twists work. What they want is a quick general idea of the entire novel so they can decide whether they want to pursue or not.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

That sounds really neat. i can understand why you got a few bits. From what I understand of query letters, you're supposed to spoil your whole book. Don't worry about spoiling twists, it's their job to know if those twists work. What they want is a quick general idea of the entire novel so they can decide whether they want to pursue or not.

My understanding is that you don't spoil the end in query letters, you do that in the plot summary that some agents want. I've had agents request a 2-page summary and a 1-page summary (that one was a cunt to write), but everything I"ve read about the query letter itself was basically, "introduce your plot and give it a good hook so the agent will want to read more."

I will say, took me like three or four hours to write that damn letter. Glad ya'll like it Makes me feel really fucking good right now. Though so does the six shots of whiskey I've had.

Also, I hit page 200 on my current novel <3

 

[Shokifer]

Listening to Selected Ambient Works volume 2 as i write. I wonder what this'll sound like tomorrow.

 

[Nappuccino]

My understanding is that you don't spoil the end in query letters, you do that in the plot summary that some agents want. I've had agents request a 2-page summary and a 1-page summary (that one was a cunt to write), but everything I"ve read about the query letter itself was basically, "introduce your plot and give it a good hook so the agent will want to read more."

I will say, took me like three or four hours to write that damn letter. Glad ya'll like it Makes me feel really fucking good right now. Though so does the six shots of whiskey I've had.

Also, I hit page 200 on my current novel <3

Definitely don't tell them the end. Make them want to know how it ends so they ask for the manuscript.

 

[sirap]

Good to know.

So not much point in writing pure smut shorts anymore unless you're pumping them out faster?

Yeah, but we'll have to wait till the 15th before we get the final number for KU.

You'll have to publish 4-5x the amount of shorts to achieve KU 1.0 levels of profit, because a 5k short will have a KENPC of 30-40 pages. That's about $0.30 (provided the reader goes through the whole thing) per borrow. With the older model, you would get $1.35 for every borrow.

However, erotica is an evergreen genre and will always sell. Build a big enough catalog and you'll make decent money. I know authors who have upped the price of their smut to $2.99 (which was the standard price for erotica before KU) and still make as much as before.

The only difference is that it'll take longer for newbies to start making money. Stick to 25-30k serials and you'll do fine after 5-6 books.

 

[Plasticine]

I'm about a month away from finally publishing my latest book. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on my synopsis.

There is a house...

Ten years ago a sole survivor ran screaming into the night. The costume party had turned into a slaughter. Thirteen victims butchered by a psychotic guest. It was only the latest chapter in a nightmarish history steeped in blood. The Devil's House laid dormant until now.

This is the night...

Hollywood special effects wizard Lee Masters made the Devil's House the location for the fifth annual installment in his annual Halloween attraction. Extreme Haunt is the most extreme haunted house event in America. Sick gore, crazy scares, great live actors and insane makeup effects; the attraction has everything this year, including real monsters.

The evil has awakened...

Possessed by an evil entity, the haunted house performers are transformed into vicious blood thirsty beasts. The cannibal butcher in the kitchen, the zombies in the basement and the ravenous goblins roaming the halls are now hellbent on killing Extreme Haunt's final guests. The doors are locked, and the gateway to hell has opened. This is a Halloween no one will ever forget.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

No longer than a page, that's for sure. Not sure about everything else. Like, i'ts hard to articulate what you need because each story is so damn different.

I'll post mine though, which got a few bites from agents so it must not be total shite

My understanding is that you don't spoil the end in query letters, you do that in the plot summary that some agents want. I've had agents request a 2-page summary and a 1-page summary (that one was a cunt to write), but everything I"ve read about the query letter itself was basically, "introduce your plot and give it a good hook so the agent will want to read more."

I will say, took me like three or four hours to write that damn letter. Glad ya'll like it Makes me feel really fucking good right now. Though so does the six shots of whiskey I've had.

Also, I hit page 200 on my current novel <3

Thanks for the help and congratulations on hitting that 200 page mark.

 

[Crash Station]

Yeah, but we'll have to wait till the 15th before we get the final number for KU.

You'll have to publish 4-5x the amount of shorts to achieve KU 1.0 levels of profit, because a 5k short will have a KENPC of 30-40 pages. That's about $0.30 (provided the reader goes through the whole thing) per borrow. With the older model, you would get $1.35 for every borrow.

However, erotica is an evergreen genre and will always sell. Build a big enough catalog and you'll make decent money. I know authors who have upped the price of their smut to $2.99 (which was the standard price for erotica before KU) and still make as much as before.

The only difference is that it'll take longer for newbies to start making money. Stick to 25-30k serials and you'll do fine after 5-6 books.

What's your opinion on taking them out of KU and going wide? Is that a way to even out the lost revenue or is it not worth it?

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

I'm about a month away from finally publishing my latest book. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on my synopsis.



Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The first line is really choppy. I'm guessing that was intentional, the snapshots each being a sentence, but I'm not a fan of how it reads personally.

Otherwise, it seems pretty spiffy. Depending on how long it needs to be, I'd say you could maybe add a bit more information.

 

[mu cephei]

I'm about a month away from finally publishing my latest book. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on my synopsis.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I think the story sounds fabulous. I agree with Conkersbadfurday about that line; I would put a comma between slaughter and thirteen, and the last sentence is a bit awkward. Some other very minor points: I think it's blood-thirsty or bloodthirsty, not blood thirsty, and you have extreme twice in one sentence (possibly deliberately).

 

[Dresden]

 

[Alucard]

Hey guys, if anyone's got the time, I'd love your thoughts on the opening few paragraphs of the story I'm writing. First time in years I've written more than two pages for a story, so curious to hear others' thoughts.

It has been said that the world is full of assholes and idiots. What is not known is whether an asshole or an idiot made this assertion. No one has bothered to do the background research on this important human discovery, but it is safe to assume that the person who divided the world thus was probably some type of philosopher; it then follows that the person was likely an asshole, but no idiot can truly say because that would just be assuming too much, and everyone knows what happens when you do that.
 
Tom Jameson was an asshole. Not your garden variety asshole, mind you. While he wasn't above having loud phone conversations on the bus, or chewing out his relatives for perceived slights over holiday dinners, his assholeness was at a level that would make even Jander Hanson blush. (*footnote: Jander Hanson was a famous baseball player who once had his teammates down a bottle of water each before a game in a show of camaraderie and H20 appreciation. This in itself was not so bad; the kicker was that Hanson had sprinkled laxative into the water bottles, and then guffawed while his teammates tried not to defecate in their pants while standing on first base. Jander Hanson would go on to become the governor of Texas)
 
In sixth grade, Tom ruined his math teacher's marriage by using a Hardingware Transportfibulator to materialize in Mr. Barrington's bedroom, where he left a pair of Tom's mom's underwear with a note that said, "Me + U = ooh, ooh, ooh." It was crass and aptly juvenile, and it was Tom's way of saying that one did not need to know how to solve for X because someone else had already done so long ago. Tom argued it wasn't worth the aggravation when the fruits of humanity's labor had already rewarded Tom and any kid who was smart enough to have been born with wealthy parents with a Hardingware Transportfibulator. With something as chic, marvelous, and slarmy (*footnote: slarmy: adjective meaning hip, cool, "with it." Came into use once people got tired of saying "socky") as that around, why learn anything at all? You'd have to be an idiot to want to.
 
Max Durham was an idiot. Unlike Tom Jameson, whom you'll recall was an auteur of his personality type and social class, Max was no more or less an idiot than the other 3 billion idiots running amok around the world. (assholes had tipped the demographic scales in their favor in the early part of the 21st century. It is argued that internet comments sections had something to do with this)

Like most idiots of his day, Max didn't know he was one. From the outside, everything looked to be in order. Wife? Check. Kids? Check. House? Job? Membership in a local community sports club? Check. Check. Check. Thus, Max was no more or less an idiot than anyone else in the world, for a person no longer needed to think too hard in order to attain the status symbols of suburban life. All a person needed to do was to have the debatably good fortune of being born and going through the motions of life as dictated by the previous 2000-plus years of subtle social engineering. The poor classes would tell you differently of course, but no one much cared for the opinions of that anomalous group of savant pariahs and math teachers.

In Max's case, he was good-natured enough, but he was terribly caught up in maintaining his own personal life bubble and simply did not think beyond the needs of himself and his family.
 
At this point, it is prudent to note that many idiots, just like Max, were not so by choice. They were people who had gotten so caught up in living the busy, bustling, bitchin' lifestyle that was so prevalent at the time, that pursuits such as knowledge were simply not able to fit onto their personal calendars. Plato, Shakespeare, and Asimov had to make room for dinner @ Fred and Amy's, daycare meeting, and TV show season finale. With so much stuff to do on a daily basis, there was much less time to concern oneself with how much stuff there was to know.
 
On this particular morning, Max Durham started things off as he normally did: awake but not awake. Lumbering into the bathroom like an 18-wheeler in rush-hour traffic, Max washed his hands and face, brushed his teeth, and combed his hair.

After slipping on a button-up shirt and formal pants at a pace that would piss off a glacier, he went down for breakfast while his wife and 2 daughters soundly slept in their beds. 

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Hey guys, if anyone's got the time, I'd love your thoughts on the opening few paragraphs of the story I'm writing. First time in years I've written more than two pages for a story, so curious to hear others' thoughts.

I like it thus far. The voice of it is really good. Amusing but not annoying. Some of the footnote stuff I'm not a fan of, but I've never been a fan of footnotes in fiction, even when they're used as a comedy delivery tool. That's just a personal preference though.

 

[Alucard]

I like it thus far. The voice of it is really good. Amusing but not annoying. Some of the footnote stuff I'm not a fan of, but I've never been a fan of footnotes in fiction, even when they're used as a comedy delivery tool. That's just a personal preference though.

Cool, thanks. I've received feedback from three separate sources so far who have said they like the voice and rhythm of the story...at least what I've written up to this point. It gives me confidence that I can write something that others will enjoy reading.

As for the footnotes, I'm using them for world building as well as comedy. My inspirations for this style are Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, and Piers Anthony to a lesser extent. After reading The Sirens of Titan, I had the epiphany that fiction can be constantly engaging and thought-provoking while also being entertaining and fun(ny) to read. (not a new epiphany, but I paid more attention to it this time) So I'm aiming for that, and the footnotes are part of that. Not sure how many of them I'll be using.

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.

 

[Nappuccino]

Cool, thanks. I've received feedback from three separate sources so far who have said they like the voice and rhythm of the story...at least what I've written up to this point. It gives me confidence that I can write something that others will enjoy reading.

As for the footnotes, I'm using them for world building as well as comedy. My inspirations for this style are Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, and Piers Anthony to a lesser extent. After reading The Sirens of Titan, I had the epiphany that fiction can be constantly engaging and thought-provoking while also being entertaining and fun(ny) to read. (not a new epiphany, but I paid more attention to it this time) So I'm aiming for that, and the footnotes are part of that. Not sure how many of them I'll be using.

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.

Having not read your work or the footnotes, one question that I think is good to ask when using them is "Why is this information not in the work proper? Can it be effectively integrated? If not, why not? Does it still need to be told to the reader if it doesn't fit?"

Footnotes can work (David Foster Wallace, Junot Diaz, and Jeff VanderMeer use them), but often they can bog things down if they're used incorrectly.

 

[Plasticine]

The first line is really choppy. I'm guessing that was intentional, the snapshots each being a sentence, but I'm not a fan of how it reads personally.

Otherwise, it seems pretty spiffy. Depending on how long it needs to be, I'd say you could maybe add a bit more information.

I'm still playing around with the layout, but right now I think that's about all the information I can comfortably fit and still have the back look relatively clean and stylish.

I think the story sounds fabulous. I agree with Conkersbadfurday about that line; I would put a comma between slaughter and thirteen, and the last sentence is a bit awkward. Some other very minor points: I think it's blood-thirsty or bloodthirsty, not blood thirsty, and you have extreme twice in one sentence (possibly deliberately).

Thanks.

I'll definitely revise it a bit based on your input. It's really appreciated.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Hey guys, if anyone's got the time, I'd love your thoughts on the opening few paragraphs of the story I'm writing. First time in years I've written more than two pages for a story, so curious to hear others' thoughts.

I feel like you should move the first paragraph lower, past the last bit of Max's intro. The line "Tom jameson was an asshole" is so much better as a first line. I've always held to the idea stories should be character driven, and that especially should ring true in the beginning. Your little bit about the world being divided between assholes and idiots is obviously important to the grand scheme of the story, but is that more important than know Tom Jameson is and asshole and Max Durham is an idiot? Just my two cents.

I'm about a month away from finally publishing my latest book. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on my synopsis.



Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This is just personal tastes, but I hate short leading lines that end with... I think the entire blurb works way better without each of them. As for the story, i think it sounds pretty interesting. I would definitely give it a read

 

[sirap]

What's your opinion on taking them out of KU and going wide? Is that a way to even out the lost revenue or is it not worth it?

Certainly a viable option, I've seen a lot of authors pull out of KU and go with D2D. Personally, I'm sticking with Amazon because most of my books hit the sweet spot of having just enough length to be more profitable under KU 2.0 rules. There is also the benefit of getting higher rankings if your book is in KU (I don't really agree with this, but that's how the game is right now)

Of course, I've always gone wide with my longer books, and the first book of a serial. You can't get your book in NYT's Best Sellers list if it's exclusive to Amazon, and being able to make the first book permafree is a key component in my sales strategy.