Forum: Author Hangout

Everyone talks about bookstores. Trick is not the bookstores but finding the local "Distributors/Wholesalers". Those are the key to getting books placed on display not only at the bookstores but also in other stores as well.

Sadly, few 'Distributors' will carry self-published books, though you'll need to select the distributor networks (which drives up costs) when you self-publish the books (otherwise bookstores and libraries won't be able to purchase the books, since they don't like purchasing from individuals).

The biggest hurdle will be selling print books to individual book stores (one at a time in your region), and hopefully arranging book signings (where you'll sell anywhere from 3 to 8 books a shot!)

Mostly, what you save in dollars in self-publishing you'll instead invest in time learning new skills: formatting, design, marketing, blogging, social media, etc.

simply eating any tax money taken out of my meager earnings.

Amazon doesn't withhold taxes.

I do declare my Amazon income, though. If I get a 1099-MISC so does the IRS.

I'll have to look at my tax reporting requirements in that case (SW always withdrew taxes), but I'd have to earn over $25,000 USD from my ebooks per calendar year before I'd have to pay any taxes, so I'm not worried.

It's easy to self-publish an ebook. It's hard to sell it.

It's easy to self-publish an ebook. It's hard to sell it.

I heartily agree with that, Switch.

It's easy to self-publish an ebook. It's hard to sell it.

Second that.

Plus, if you're into formatting and other compulsive behaviors, you can make the ebook come out any way you like. For the record, the SOL epub is clean and easy-to-read, but you have no control over layout (beyond what you produced for the original posting, and there is no cover (at least for now; I suspect that might be offered at some time in the future, but who knows?).

EDIT TO ADD: As for selling your work, a quick Internet search will turn up something over a zillion sites with advice for self-published authors. Here's the short version: impeccable presentation first, marketing marketing marketing through blog, discussion group, social media, etc., etc. for about 25 hours a day second. No sweat, of course.

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Ah, there's nothing like election season to get everyone riled!

except the post election results period.

except the post election results period.

Then you begin the Serious drinking while you Google new homes in Canada.

So where do the Canadian's look for new homes?

according to this they take an RV to Florida:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n9SuvPYy74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsOMeru8pxQ

So in that context, to which country would Canadians upset about national election outcomes want to move?

Not that they're upset about anything other than the weather, but they're flocking to Arizona, usually as snowbirds.

Honestly, I doubt many Canadians would talk about moving away from a bad political situation. It didn't happen under Stephen Harper, and he was so disliked the past several years that the party lost 40% of their seats (from 166 to 99, out of 338 total). Honestly, a lot of Canadians worry about who the US president is more than our own politics.

I agree with you on that. I responded to the comment simply because I find the entire premise so hilarious. I can't picture any "America, do or die" and "No one is going to take our guns" conservatives moving anywhere else, nor can I picture liberals moving elsewhere just because they're nervous about Trump doing something in the heat of the moment. THat's not how American politics work.

Instead, I expect all those threatening to leave simply choosing to say nothing once the election is over, claiming they never said any such thing, just as Trump has when caught out in an unpopular move.

I am aware of no similar statements from the other end of the political spectrum.

It started as a joke, when someone in a small town in Canada that was slowly dying as their young flew the coup with no one to replace them. The Mayor run an ad in a nearby American city, and it took off. Thousands of Americans contacted the town making inquiries. Although the original add stated "If Trump wins", he also got several calls from Republicans, saying they'd be interested if Hillary won, so he changed the ad, and they got over double the number of responses and it became a media sensation (at least in the U.S. where all the major news channels highlighted it).

The interest seemed to run both ways, though I'd love to see these people all moving to the same town, and then having to deal with the liberal/conservative neighbors if it ever comes to pass. Seems like a scene right out of Purgatory! However, it was enough that the poor town got several serious individuals making offers to move to the town, regardless of who won.

No, it started way back in 2000 when Alec Baldwin said he would move to France if Bush won. At least one liberal celebrity has made a similar clam in regards to the Republican candidate in every presidential election since. I'm reasonably sure that that is where the Canadian town got the idea in the first place.

Instead of building a wall, we could offer free flights to Russia so they can join Snowden.

In the interests of marital harmony, I suggest I should delete this post before you ask your wife to come here. If you post a comment you have read this, I will then delete it.

General rule of thumb: if you want the wife to read something on a male-centered 'sex story site', you'll do better printing the individual items rather than risk her stumbling across scat stories or rants about unrelated topics. He'd want her to focus on the items supporting his claim, not the many missives which suggest we're all a bunch of wankers! 'D

But no one is getting rich self-publishing on SOL (though one guy was earning a decent income by taking advantage of Amazon's beneficial 'short story' premiere on Amazon Prime). In general, you don't get into writing to make money. It's generally a money losing proposition, just as editing is. You do it because you love writing, or you lose words. If anyone devoted the hours we spend writing on any other occupation, they'd be way ahead of the game. Instead, you write because you have to, but once you do, you want to get it out to as many people as possible. Part of that is reaching new audiences, so you start posting to new sites. Nowadays, 'new sites' include publishing to Amazon as much as it does visiting Wattpad. It's a way to reach a few more readers with the added emotional benefit of giving you a little extra spending money. That's it!

But the big trap in writing, is someone writes a story, then tries to promote it by opening a website. Then they start posting weekly or daily blogs to attract readers to their website, and the next thing you know, they haven't written another book in years. All they've done is to write their blogs about writing, which is also non-paying!!!

The other, equally bad trap, is what most of us fall into, where we're so busy cranking out stories that we don't bother marketing ourselves. Selling books is more about marketing yourself than it is quality of writing. You've got to develop a cult of personality. Convince readers that you personify everything they want. In the old days, someone wrote a book then spent the next five years trying to sell it to a publisher, gathering rejection slips like falling leaves in the fall. Now we can post online or publish independently, but that doesn't help if we can't market ourselves.

It's nice, when you spend all your time locked in your office writing, to be able to take the spouse out to dinner and announce: "This is from my book proceeds."

It won't significantly improve your life, but you can return his/her kind understanding with some attention of your own and a 'it's not ALL a complete waste of time' moment. 'D

You're unlikely to get rich, but it's got a certain added emotional significance to it that makes it worth the added effort, for some of us, at least.

The saddest thing I see is someone with the potential to be a superb writer being content with mere popularity.

Although unsuccessful authors complain about the lack of integrity, I don't know of a single author who doesn't dream of a big paycheck, even if they have to change their entire stories to reach it.

As Steven King shows, it's easy being principled after you've made several million.

They would not be impressed by a modest level of popularity on SoL with an average rating for 10 works of 6.9.

Scores aren't the be all and end all criteria. There have been some decent authors who write gay or scat stories who'll never score higher than a 5, but that's more a reflection of the readers, than of the author's work. But then again, that's why those authors don't last long on SOL, going somewhere else where their works are more appreciated.

To EB: I think all of us here would like to see that list.

The change has slowly developed as a result from a number of friends and editors. One is retired, they did professional writing of text books, technical books, and academic papers. The advice they gave me was along the lines of this is what always annoyed me about having to do it that way when writing things. Much of the rest came from my main editors: Jim7, Dan, and The Rev. It was an accumulation of the things they often spotted as causing confusion in the meaning of what I was saying. The last came from a friend who read a few of my books, and pointed out how often I was using certain words, way too often, so I have to replace a lot of them with alternative options: the top ones being and, as, because.

For clarity, the two biggest are to ensure all uses of a proper noun with an apostrophe 's' are possessive and not a contraction, plus the uniform use of a comma before every use of the following words that appear in a sentence, and not as the first word: and, but, because.

The next big one is to replace as many of the uses of the word as with alternatives like since, because, while, when - whichever makes the most sense for the sentence. This doesn't mean remove them all, just 85+% of them. Similarly, look closely at how frequently I use any word within the same sentence or paragraph, and look for variants to minimise usage close together. Some common words are exempt from this rule, like 'the.'

If a sentence you normally see the word 'that' in still makes clear sense with 'that' removed, take it out. This is a good thing you can do in vernacular English, but causes issues with formal English. Check the uniformity of the contractions used.

Minimise the use of commas to where they have to be. Too often you see commas that actually fragment a sentence because the writer has taken the advice to separate thoughts with a comma. However, a thought will often flow into the next and they make more sense when left as one flow. The most common use is when s paragraph or sentence opens up with a few words to identify the place or time before going on with what's happening. Example: On Saturday, Fred went out, to the ball game. - On Saturday Fred went out to the ball game. In the first the thoughts of the time, the action, and the place are split by commas, it almost comes at as a first reader text, while the second flows on with it all as one item.

Another is to review and the use of words like 'he,' 'him,' 'his,' 'she,' etc to ensure the can be no confusion over who it relates to. If there may be confusion, replace with the person's name. A common situation is where two people are spoken of in the same narrative section. To deal with this I now assume the use of a pronoun refers to the very last name used, if it doesn't I replace it with the person's name. Often it's not needed, but it does ensure a higher level of clarity.

In some areas I've been a bit sparse with descriptions and adjectives, a few are expanded, and some where they were a bit long are being shortened. Ensure the correct tense is used throughout the whole story.

Very long complex sentence are being reviewed and rewritten to be shorter, often cut into two. Better use of semi-colons and colons, especially when using them to provide extra information about what was just mentioned, and complex lists.

Some of the early stuff is a mix of formal English and vernacular English, thus they need to be cleaned up. Also, some early stuff has mixed tenses that need fixing.

The aim is to be more free flowing in the reading, and to ensure the total clarity of the meaning of what's written.

edit to add: This is what I found I needed to fix, and I hope it helps others, but please do not take it as instruction for on high. No one can give you perfect advice on how best to write for you, like me, they just say This is what works for me.

extra edit: I have noticed a few stories that have been cleaned up have actually had their scores go up a little.

One other point. When we started writing Cazna and I wrote in the exact same style because we often collaborated and discussed how to write. I've started on revising his work as well, the short stories are with an editor right now. So if you look at some of his stories and some of mine, you should see a difference in the style, right now. Hopefully that will change as I revise them properly. I did revise them a little a few years back, but more so in the current round.

basic level of competence in my use of language. Perhaps then I could make informed choices for when not adhering to general guidelines is appropriate in particular stories.

The advice I've given a few others is to concentrate on learning the basic rules of grammar as applied to vernacular English. They're a lot looser, less of them, and make for (in my personal view) for a more entertaining read. The best way to learn how to write is to write. Like all things, you improve with practice. The other thing I advise is to wait several weeks between when you finish a story and when you re-read it and review it before posting it.

I find when I finish writing or revising a story it's best to send it to someone to edit, then review each of their edits, and adjusting the story accordingly. Although I accept more edits than I reject, I do regard every edit as a need to review that part of the story, never blindly accepting or rejecting. Then put the story aside for a few weeks, if possible work on another. Then come back to the story re-read it, and revise and repeat or post if no important revisions are made.

I can't over emphasis how much easier it is to write within the rules of vernacular English than it is to stay within the rules of formal English.

Can you recommend any guidelines for the rules of vernacular English, or differences between the rules of vernacular and formal English?

That's one of the oddities of life. I've not found a single definitive source for the use of vernacular English. Part of the problem is it isn't exactly the same everywhere, the way formal English is. The literal meaning of 'vernacular' is 'as spoken,' thus it's English as spoken, but people speak differently in different places. In some places 'g'day mates' is said while others have' hi y'all.'

This site is one of the best sites I've found on most English rules, most of them are for formal English, but she is open to questions and giving wider answers and advice.

http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp

However, what you need to think about is the way things are said, without dialectic and slang terms, as against the way they're written down in formal English. The biggest single difference is the use of contractions like isn't, haven't we'll, etc.

The best way to write in vernacular is to put down what you'd say if telling it to someone else. If it vocalizes well and doesn't sound stilted, and also flows freely, then you're either there or dang close to it. Always think three times before you include the word 'that' as 90% it isn't needed to carry the meaning in the sentence, but sometimes it is needed.

The only issue I've had with using vernacular English was when I wrote a story with a US narrator, and had to work hard at using the US vernacular as against the Aussie vernacular - very similar, but some fine differences. That's why most of my main characters and narrators are now Aussies, it makes it easier for me. Some examples of the differences are: An Aussie ute is the same as a US pickup, while an Aussie narrator will call it a pick-up in the US. An Aussie car sales yard is a lot in the US, and similar word choices vary between the two forms of the vernacular.

In my free guide on what to think about before writing (URL below), I have this to say:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ernest-bywater/writer-guide/ebook/product-22733371.html

quote:
This is about the style, syntax, and grammar you use in your work

Technically Correct English is a must for technical books and text books, but is very boring in novels. This should be perfect grammar and very few adverbs or adjectives, because it is meant to be exact and dry

Vernacular English is more colourful and much more active than the technically correct English. And also much more fun. I write fiction this way, because this is how people talk and how I would tell you the story if I was speaking to you. Thus giving the impression of someone telling a story over a camp-fire, or the like.

In this it's also common to use contractions - isn't, can't, won't, I'd, he's, etc. - since they make the story more like how people really speak. It's also common to use slang terms and other colloquialisms, but with these you should take great care to not use ones the readers may not understand, unless you explain them at their first usage, or include a glossary of terms.

An example of the different usage: The scene is a lounge room, a sixteen year old is awaiting the arrival of her favourite cousins who will be staying for a week.

Technically Correct: I sit in a lounge room chair while I await the arrival of my cousins with great anticipation. The doorbell chimes, I stand up and proceed to the door. Opening it, I see it is they. I open the door wider, and speak loudly to mother, saying "Mother, it is them, they have arrived."

Vernacular: Laying on the lounge I'm eagerly awaiting my favourite cousins' arrival. The doorbell rings, jumping up, I race to the door, and open it. It's them, throwing the door wide, I yell "Mum, they're here."

There's plenty of scope in the level and amount of vernacular you use, but it is a much more active and colourful way of writing than the way wanted for text books and technical documents. This is because in the technical documents and text books you are striving for the highest level of accuracy and exact understanding, while in a novel you use the vernacular to make it much more appealing and enjoyable.

The level to which you use the vernacular should also match the characters and how you expect them to behave. A proper English butler in a story wouldn't use the same language as a boy off the streets.

end quote

I can only add you try reading stories and see what you like and dislike about them, and work out why. One of my favourite authors at SoL writes damn good stories, but always uses formal English, thus they often seem stilted, especially the dialogue. And that's one point I almost forgot, in most story there's a marked difference between the way they write dialogue and the way they write the narrative. many have formal English narrative and vernacular dialogue, so just using vernacular in both makes it easier. Sadly, some use formal English for narrative and dialogue - it looks odd when the street urchins speak like English butlers.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Maybe I'll get around to doing a guide on the use of vernacular when I'm felling up to it.

To EB: I agree. I am about to suggest Lazeez deletes BOTH our comments.

each poster has the ability to delete their own post, just so you know. Jost go to the post and click on the little glass or rubbish bin like icon in the bottom right corner, second from the right.

Surely authors are entitled to ask for their nomination to be withdrawn if they consider a work is not the best they could do.

I don't want to get in the middle of what this argument is about. However, I will make a comment on this one sentence:

Yes, authors can request a nomination be removed, be it your best or worst work. But why would you want to? What I regards as my best work is not the one with the most downloads or the highest score. People have differing ideas of what a good story is, and how you rate them, just look at the range of scores on stories here, author can do that for their stories - we get a stats page. Also, look at some of the crap that gets on the Best Seller lists. Thus I understand why you say he could have withdrawn it, but I disagree as to if he should have withdrawn it.

Mind you, I've not read it, so I'm not prepared to say anything about the story itself.

Personally, I would not want an award if I thought I was capable of making the work significantly better.

There's nothing that says you can't accept an award for an existing story and still improve on it. They aren't mutually exclusive.

However, I've discovered that revising a story isn't always justified, as you'll never get the same response you get to the original story. Thus it's usually in an author's best interest to focus on the next story, rather than trying to 'clean up' their earlier works. It's usually best for every person to focus on the future and strive to become better, rather than fretting over past failures which they're unlikely to change substantially.