I was already going wide before the Draft2Digital fiasco. Moved what I could onto Apple Books and IngramSpark; lost a few regional language providers (French, German). Smashwords is my only hold-out. I will remove it close to my accountable payable date.
#Writer #author
Mewblade looking pretty in my bookshelf, along with Boulder, my meteorite and the books I wrote.
I am so proud of my art and writing.
Slowly building my book-related merch store...and finally got to include rare collectible item for the one Mewblade super fan.
This took me forever to patch, polish, and paint. Yeah, yeah, Pokemon / Fakemon fan art-inspired stuff. But hey, it's a thing.
ko-fi.com/vlk249/shop
Finally finished the audiobook for One Aon Fatality. It’s better than Beautiful Dreamer, neither are perfect, but at least they are not AI.
Still have to finish editing book 2 and 3, then expect book discounts!
The controversy of show vs tell..."readers are smart enough to understand what you're talking about."
Most American readers read no better than a 6th grader. When I have a lapse and write "she cried" vs "moonlight escaped down her cheeks," I am not going to feel guilty about it.
For those authors complaining about glitches on KDP because their page reads are "lower than normal"...
I have had zero reads for two months. Absolute nadda.
I'm like full mid-life crisis mode. Finally got a driver's license, bought a sports car with racing stripes, dyed my hair raven blue/black and my internal 16-year-old NB tomboy self is giggling like a maniac. Vroom vroom, I'm anime!
And before anyone thinks I'm making this up, this is an actual response from Draft2Digital.
After Draft2Digital showed its hand, and is actively trying to purge authors who "Don't try hard enough" to earn the $100 min to avoid the fee, I am convinced this platform isn't friendly. But I also have time before I am not in "good standing."
So I will be moving my books.
Here, have my long-form video rant about Draft2Digital and how NOT to implement anti-AI author and book policies.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0bP...
What's the chance this Draft2Digital thing is combined with an Amazon scheme?
Everyone protests and goes to KDP, deactivates their Draft2Digital, then Amazon pulls a stunt that forces everyone back to Draft2Digital to be penalized with a new account/renewal fee.
This writer is calling it.
No! NO! NO! NO!!!
Draft2Digital is charging $12 USD a year to authors who earn less than $100 net?! The ones who are poorest get charged most?! This isn't fair!!!
That's a funny one!
I love that my name technically means "From stars."
Van = From
Essa > Esther > Ishtar = Star
Or, you could go with the random butterfly genus that was named after that. But screw that. SPACE!!!
As an author, don't waste your time and money on Goodreads Giveaway. It's just another writer scam wrapped in a pretty bow.
It has been a year since my Beautiful Dreamer novel was released, and a full year since I did a Goodreads Giveaway and gave out 50 copies of my book.
And to the surprise of no established author ever...I STILL have zero reviews/ratings from those 50 people.
Trying to think up ways to market my books that aren't romantic, bit dystopic, that have no business associating with decent literature.
Tough one.
Libraries have budgets too, and they do so much community support and outreach that I still can't justify it right now.
I hate trying to hock my books right now: people are starving, gas prices are high, there's a war...
As an author, the guilt is totally there. Please don't buy my books, buy what you need to survive instead.
Been banned from running for years due to a prolonged injury, so have been cycling instead. Finally got approval to try running.
30 minutes. I feel like a superhero.
If only they were literate and actually read my profile. The ARTIST bit is right there. It isn't hard to miss. Only because I say I am an author doesn't mean I can't draw.
"Artists", don't hit me up. I draw better than you.
Dang. I just realized I missed out on a good April Fool's prank by announcing a 6 figure book deal.
There is Venn Diagram for people who think the Earth is flat and that the "perfect" "woman" is just as flat, with the middle of the diagram being Epstein Island.
Even Morgan Freeman can't get me to like all the movies he's in.
You can't physically do an audio book in one session. Pros recommend no greater than 5 hours, and recording time is 2-3x greater than the actual reading time. So 15 minutes of actual audio is 30-45 minutes of recording time.
Some rent studio spaces, some build their own sound forts.
Given Audible's push at AI, the standard seems to be "At least human."
Thanks for the kick in the teeth
Currently slugging through doing the sound engineering/editing for my audio book series, and dang, do I ever need validation that this is worth it. Was supposed to be done in March, now looking more like May.
One reason why I ended up recording my own audio books is the many people who told me, "I don't read. I only like to listen to audio books."
These are the same people now telling me, "I only listen to audio books done by actors."
Please tell me being an indie author gets better
Ordering car, and somehow the auto dealership and the detailer have managed to coordinate to deliver the finished, modded vehicle before pick up.
Sure, add a few days, but...this is so beautifully lazy for me that I am in awe.
