Forum: Author Hangout

We had a fight on ASSTR way back about the 2nd Iraq War. I'll never visit her site.

I used to post to her site (after I posted to SOL), and it generated additional sales of my books, just as posting to SOL does, but I haven't bothered for a long time (say about five of six books ago).

A site that is wholly under the purviewof a single individual's pet-peeves is NOT a welcoming place to associate at.

We had a fight on ASSTR way back about the 2nd Iraq War. I'll never visit her site.

Many many moons ago, well before she had the issue with the site URL ownership I was asked by someone connected with the site to consider posting my stories there that fit the site. So I signed up and posted two, but they never appeared, I got an email asking for a rewrite because I had characters that were under 18. There were no sex scenes involving the characters under 18, and some were no sex stories. I can understand having no under 18 characters having sex, but not having no under 18 characters at all. I wouldn't rewrite to suit her, so she didn't put them up on the site, and I've not been back since. Heck, I no longer know what my ID and password are for there.

For myself, since I no longer do any form of commercial work SOL is the only place I publish. The only exception has been an article for a print magazine several months ago. I just had to see if I still had the chops.

I understand the reasons authors have for working with various sites. I just prefer lurking in the dusty old hallways of the forums even when nobody's around. Picking up a story to read or contributing one myself so others can have something new to read. I guess I'm turning into an old fuddy-duddy. ;)

I understand the reasons authors have for working with various sites.

I don't mind sharing the stories on various sites, however I do mind being told how I write a story. I accept site owners can say "not on this site with that story" but not "this is how I want it changed."

The closest I get to commercial writing now is I write the stories and post them on for sale on Lulu at the same time as I upload them to SoL, FS, & SciFi then I upload them to the National Library of Australia for a legal deposit and to Draft2Digital to see if that gets any more sales. That's it.

With any of my short stories if any magazine or newspaper wanted to print them I'd happily give them permission to do so free of charge and provide whatever format they want to do so. Novels would require more consideration depending on which one it is.

I spend most of my time writing or reading, mostly at SoL.

and to Draft2Digital to see if that gets any more sales.

I like D2D, because they can process virtually any book (unlike lulu and SW), but they have no direct sales site and so far, out of 5 books I've posted, I have a grand total of one sale.

The distribution sites like B&N and others seem to have seen better days, and they're just not keeping up. My distributed sales via lulu and SW dried up some time ago. :(

I like D2D, because they can process virtually any book (unlike lulu and SW),

CW, I'm not sure what you mean by this statement.

All of my books are up on D2D except for Ed's New Life, Power Tool, and Shiloh and I've had 20 books sold in the 3 or 4 months since I started posting. However, D2D have either delisted or blocked Hal - the Beginning, New Slaves, and Damsels in Distress Universe Rules so they aren't available through them. The first two I was told were blocked due to the sex content, but I'm damned if I know why they delisted the 3 rd. When I finish revising the remaining stories I'll post them with D2D but I already expect they will be blocked for listing due to the sex content.

While D2D are not handling some books based on sexual content Lulu accepts them as long as I note them as such. All of the books are legal for publication in Australia and the USA, so I don't know why D2D have an issue with them.

BTW: I gave up on trying to get payment via Payoneer to work due to the screw ups with the Payoneer system. I get paid via PayPal, and the amount paid per book is about 12% lower than via Lulu, but I figure they're sales I wouldn't get via Lulu anyway, so I accept that.

typo edits

CW, I'm not sure what you mean by this statement.

I've never had any issues with D2D in regards to content, my observations are merely that they can process my books nearly as well as Amazon can, while SW continually introduces errors completely unrelated to the original source material, and lulu continually trips you up with minor 'restrictions' Apple supposedly insists upon with them, which they don't for D2D.

However, the point of my post was that, while it's easier to get a story posted and accepted by the distributors, their primary weakness are their sales, so it may not even be worth considering as an option.

lulu continually trips you up with minor 'restrictions' Apple supposedly insists upon with them,

Ayep, it is Apple, because I had one book lodged with D2D where Igot an email back saying it was being delisted from Apple because they spat the dummy about the book size. The emails from D2D about the other 3 books included rejections by Apple.

However, I submitted the epubs I make for Lulu to D2D and had no issues with either accepting them, until the distributors kicked about something post submission. The single Clan Amir collection is too large for Apple while the rest took it. They all kicked about the sex content of New Slaves and Hal, but I can't find why they bitched about the DiD Rules.

However, I submitted the epubs I make for Lulu to D2D and had no issues with either accepting them, until the distributors kicked about something post submission. The single Clan Amir collection is too large for Apple while the rest took it. They all kicked about the sex content of New Slaves and Hal, but I can't find why they bitched about the DiD Rules.

That's odd, because while my stories don't have a lot of sexual content, I frequently return to the incest-as-outsider theme, which is clearly an official no-no according to most outlets and distributors, yet I've never been called on it (perhaps because I go to lengths to introduce the elements slowly, so those who aren't comfortable with the concepts quit reading before anything objectionable actually takes place in the story).

However, submitting to SW is a nightmare on a technical level, because they can't process the files correct most of the time. My books rarely reach the level of a distributor weighing in until I've already been fighting with them for weeks over minor non-existent nits.

That was my main impetus to moving to D2D, they're easier to work with, and I can get my stories posted more easily and reach the the exact same distributors.

So far, my only troubles with Apple (aside from their routinely rejecting anything posted via lulu), is when I accidentally copy over my latest book overs from another source and list another distributor. But those are easily rectified (once you identify what lines they're objecting to).

So far, my only troubles with Apple

The impression I get from Apple is the restrictions they place on material submitted through another agency is different to material submitted direct to them. I know this is true of Amazon and a couple of other sites. They do it to encourage you to submit direct with them.

However, as I've always said, if you're happy with them, go for it. I'm just a bit picky about how I deal with some outlets and I want that extra layer of protection given via Lulu and D2D.

The impression I get from Apple is the restrictions they place on material submitted through another agency is different to material submitted direct to them. I know this is true of Amazon and a couple of other sites. They do it to encourage you to submit direct with them.

We keep going over the same issue, but Apple does not impose the same restrictions that it imposes on anything coming form lulu.com. I don't know the source of the friction between the two companies (probably based on lulu being the first to offer such services at a time when they couldn't offer many readers to demand any respect), but I've never had the grief for anything submitted via other sources that I do trying to get distributor status via lulu!

My main issue with SW is that their technology is so limited, they simply aren't capable of completing the conversion process on their own.

We keep going over the same issue, but Apple does not impose the same restrictions that it imposes on anything coming form lulu.com.

CW, I know we've discussed this before, and I only say it's Apple because I've seen emails from the iBookstore to Lulu about the problems. I'm fairly certain they don't have an issue with the same file being lodged direct with them. Like you, I strongly suspect it's a Lulu / Apple error, but the angst is coming from the Apple end as Lulu puts the files up, and Apple rejects them. When I cut Apple out of the list there's no longer a problem.

CW, I know we've discussed this before, and I only say it's Apple because I've seen emails from the iBookstore to Lulu about the problems.

And I've never doubted that, as I've seen the same claims. My point, which you keep skipping over, is that there seems to be outright hostility against both lulu and it's users, which Apple doesn't apply to other distributors.

Essentially, Apple changes their restrictions based on how much business a site brings them. If you bring in a few hundred, the rules are incredibly strict, if you bring in thousands, the rules are loser. If you bring in hundreds of thousands, the rules are hardly enforced at all.

However, despite that interpretation, their crazy-assed capitalization guidelines are ONLY enforced on lulu.com, no one else, while D2D, a completely new site with absolutely NO purchases to offer, skates by with fewer restrictions than each of the older sites.

Cst appeared in my stories before she was 18 WEEKS old.

You just have to see what Gina says. I had the distinct impression her rules were extremely flexible for those she favoured, and other aspects of the story.

typo edit.