• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

What book is everyone writing right now?

Skeptic Ginger said:
Not hard to self publish but being unable to find an agent suggests a couple things. Either the book needs a good critique and some re-writing, or the query letter and who you are sending it too might need tweaking.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's why I've resisted self publishing up till now. The problem is, my novel is an awkward one to place in terms of genre, which doesn't help when sending to smaller presses.
 
I've been struggling with almost a year's worth of writer's block. I've been distracting myself by writing other things, but I really want to get back to my novel.
 
Garrison said:
You would not believe how many times that manuscript has bee gone over. Mind you I was reading one David Weber's safehold books and found the acronym SNARC misspelled as SANRC, there really is no such thing as too much proofreading.
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel better I just gave up on a novel in Amazon Unlimited. The first word of the first sentence was misspelled and it was the protagonist's name. I looked down to make sure it wasn't one of those SF&F tropes of normal names spelled weird but alas no.
The warning bells soon turned into a cacophony.
 
Wudang said:
If it makes you feel better I just gave up on a novel in Amazon Unlimited. The first word of the first sentence was misspelled and it was the protagonist's name. I looked down to make sure it wasn't one of those SF&F tropes of normal names spelled weird but alas no.
The warning bells soon turned into a cacophony.
Click to expand...

I've seen that sort of thing in professionally published novels; it's rather jarring to realize that typos slip through the cracks even when they're proofread and approved by people who do this for a living. If I do ever get my works published, I'm hoping that they'll agree to letting me see what the editor did to my manuscript before it gets published so I can be sure the things I intended to say are still being said. Track Changes in Microsoft Word will be my friend in that regard...
 
Sabrina said:
I've seen that sort of thing in professionally published novels; it's rather jarring to realize that typos slip through the cracks even when they're proofread and approved by people who do this for a living. If I do ever get my works published, I'm hoping that they'll agree to letting me see what the editor did to my manuscript before it gets published so I can be sure the things I intended to say are still being said. Track Changes in Microsoft Word will be my friend in that regard...
Click to expand...

Yeah it amazing how things can be missed. I went through my first book eleven times and had two editors and my wife go through it too.

My elder brother still found a mistake! The swine.

The hardest ones to find are where the word is spelled right but is the wrong word.
 
Last edited:
I've gone over many of my chapters dozens of times and I still find typos. Boggles my mind to keep finding them.
 
Sabrina said:
I've seen that sort of thing in professionally published novels; it's rather jarring to realize that typos slip through the cracks even when they're proofread and approved by people who do this for a living.
Click to expand...

Of course typos slip through but ... the opening sentence? The key bit where you try to grab the reader's attention? One would hope that got a little extra polish.

Burgess said:
“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.”
Click to expand...

Banks said:
It was the day my grandmother exploded.
Click to expand...

O'Brien said:
Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes' chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression.
Click to expand...
 
I'm also struggling with writer's block. Sales are down compared to the last few years and it's hard getting motivated to write new books when people are not buying what you have already published. I have been working on getting my titles on audio and I have gotten some modest audio sales. My first series is now complete on audio.

3Jsaudio.jpg
 
Last edited:
Skeptic Ginger said:
I've gone over many of my chapters dozens of times and I still find typos. Boggles my mind to keep finding them.
Click to expand...

Readers have pointed mine out to me and I will occasionally upload new versions with corrections. I haven't done that in a while but I do keep a list. Most of my books have at least a few remaining.
 
RoseMontague said:
I'm also struggling with writer's block. Sales are down compared to the last few years and it's hard getting motivated to write new books when people are not buying what you have already published. I have been working on getting my titles on audio and I have gotten some modest audio sales. My first series is now complete on audio.

[qimg]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mTOpOyrNd4E/Wtgyvh4moWI/AAAAAAAAEBA/fSWXxAN915IHr2rwMUQLpFJjYaD30nthACLcBGAs/s640/3Jsaudio.jpg[/qimg]
Click to expand...

I hate to say it, but continuous production may be the model for a big segment of the audience.

I'm 5 years away from my self-imposed deadline to becoming a professional writer, and one of the business models I treat as highly probable for myself is to just crank out a novel every 3 months reliably until I am unable to actually write anymore.

There's a lot of writers out there making good coin this way, and what they had to accept is that they have a small potential audience, but it's a returning audience. Once the conveyor belt stops spitting out more-of-same-by-author-A, they find somebody else.

Some genres are more vulnerable to this than others (I'm looking at you, Romance)
 
RoseMontague said:
I'm also struggling with writer's block. Sales are down compared to the last few years and it's hard getting motivated to write new books when people are not buying what you have already published. I have been working on getting my titles on audio and I have gotten some modest audio sales. My first series is now complete on audio.

[qimg]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mTOpOyrNd4E/Wtgyvh4moWI/AAAAAAAAEBA/fSWXxAN915IHr2rwMUQLpFJjYaD30nthACLcBGAs/s640/3Jsaudio.jpg[/qimg]
Click to expand...

Who does your artwork?
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Like when you don't know if it's an e or an a so you scribble the letter. :p

Sorry to hear about your sales and motivation, Rose. But you can be proud of what you've written so far.

Who recorded your audio books? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Caryn Kuhlman (a friend from when I worked at BAM). She is just starting out as a narrator and has a great voice. These were produced on a royalty share basis through ACX which means no cost to produce, the narrator and author split the royalties (after ACX takes their cut).
 
blutoski said:
I hate to say it, but continuous production may be the model for a big segment of the audience.

I'm 5 years away from my self-imposed deadline to becoming a professional writer, and one of the business models I treat as highly probable for myself is to just crank out a novel every 3 months reliably until I am unable to actually write anymore.

There's a lot of writers out there making good coin this way, and what they had to accept is that they have a small potential audience, but it's a returning audience. Once the conveyor belt stops spitting out more-of-same-by-author-A, they find somebody else.

Some genres are more vulnerable to this than others (I'm looking at you, Romance)
Click to expand...

I have several friends that are successful doing it this way, and yes, mostly in the romance genre. Others have had good success in the fantasy and paranormal genres just publishing one or two books a year. 2016 was my best year with over 5K in royalties. This year I'm looking at maybe 1K at the rate I'm going (throwing in paperbacks and audio). Ebook sales are way down.
 
May I ask what your books are about, Rose? I like the looks of them; they look supernatural-ish from the covers. I might be interested in checking them out.
 
Ian Osborne said:
Your not wrong their.
Click to expand...

Good example above.

I have the challenge of writing the books with British 1830's grammar and spelling but I do prefaces/proems, notes and appendixes in modern American English and sometimes I forget which version of English I'm using ......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom