I don’t want to give too much away just yet, but the cover for Destiny is looking good. Leo really has done an amazing job getting the gist of what I wanted designed and is now putting his own twist on the vision. I’ll be doing a write-up on the progression of this cover once it’s finished. Hopefully it will help those of you new to the process in getting your own designs from conception to print. Now I just need to get the last part of the story finished.
I did go ahead and write out the specifics of the last part of the story. Also, I got some help from a few friends on giving me some feedback on the romance part I just finished writing. So far it sounds like I hit it right. I really thought long and hard on everything Elliott Kay had to say on the subject. I don’t know if the man ever shared out the information he put in the email he sent me on his blog or not, but it was some of the best information ever for writing romance/erotica. Not to mention we had some time to commensurate on the authors that give indie writers a hard time.
I’ve been getting pretty good at taking criticism on my writing. No writer likes to get their work banged up, but good authors listen because they know hearing the good and the bad is the only way they are going to learn how to write better. To be honest, I have learned a lot from both type of reviews. But every once in a while you’ll get an author who sees an indie writer doing well for themselves and then for whatever reason decides to just to a nasty review.
Typically I would say it usually comes down to having their book doing badly, but I’m sure that’s not always the case. I would say I expect that’s what twisted author Stephen Blackmoore’s panties, my most recent critic. You’ve got to love someone who in the header of their post says “To counter all the fake reviews” then starts out with “This story isn’t terrible, but” had to give it a one star. He ends the post review by putting in a spoiler on top of that. Unfortunately, no matter how many paid reviews you have, there is nothing you can do about someone just being nasty. I will say it’s one of the few nasty reviews I’ve replied to. I try to stay above such things. It’s what every experienced writer suggests, but this was the first time I’ve replied to one of these post. So Mr. Blackmoore has that distinction, at least with me. I tried to keep it light and asked readers to make their own opinion on my writing and to leave their own review after reading the story, while pointing out the lack of self interest by pointing people reading reviews to Mr. Blackmoore’s author web page on Amazon. Still, it’s a nasty cheap trick to do to a fellow writer.
Maybe that means people are starting to take notice of me, since Flight is still selling and doing well. The last time I had several bad reviews come in at once was when Flight hit number 23 on the top 100 list for Amazon’s fantasy superheroes category. Again it was from a batch of four fellow indie writers whose books had fallen in the rankings of their prospective categories. I can only assume they were upset that Flight was doing well, while their books were not. Still, I find attitudes like that hard to fathom. To me it just doesn’t make any since to bash another writer just because your own book isn’t doing well.
Anyway, for those of you starting out, such actions will be a fact of life if you have any success in writing. Maybe in some ways that means you’re on the right track, but it helps to be emotionally prepared in advance. It’s the dark side of writing a good story. As always, thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
I did go ahead and write out the specifics of the last part of the story. Also, I got some help from a few friends on giving me some feedback on the romance part I just finished writing. So far it sounds like I hit it right. I really thought long and hard on everything Elliott Kay had to say on the subject. I don’t know if the man ever shared out the information he put in the email he sent me on his blog or not, but it was some of the best information ever for writing romance/erotica. Not to mention we had some time to commensurate on the authors that give indie writers a hard time.
I’ve been getting pretty good at taking criticism on my writing. No writer likes to get their work banged up, but good authors listen because they know hearing the good and the bad is the only way they are going to learn how to write better. To be honest, I have learned a lot from both type of reviews. But every once in a while you’ll get an author who sees an indie writer doing well for themselves and then for whatever reason decides to just to a nasty review.
Typically I would say it usually comes down to having their book doing badly, but I’m sure that’s not always the case. I would say I expect that’s what twisted author Stephen Blackmoore’s panties, my most recent critic. You’ve got to love someone who in the header of their post says “To counter all the fake reviews” then starts out with “This story isn’t terrible, but” had to give it a one star. He ends the post review by putting in a spoiler on top of that. Unfortunately, no matter how many paid reviews you have, there is nothing you can do about someone just being nasty. I will say it’s one of the few nasty reviews I’ve replied to. I try to stay above such things. It’s what every experienced writer suggests, but this was the first time I’ve replied to one of these post. So Mr. Blackmoore has that distinction, at least with me. I tried to keep it light and asked readers to make their own opinion on my writing and to leave their own review after reading the story, while pointing out the lack of self interest by pointing people reading reviews to Mr. Blackmoore’s author web page on Amazon. Still, it’s a nasty cheap trick to do to a fellow writer.
Maybe that means people are starting to take notice of me, since Flight is still selling and doing well. The last time I had several bad reviews come in at once was when Flight hit number 23 on the top 100 list for Amazon’s fantasy superheroes category. Again it was from a batch of four fellow indie writers whose books had fallen in the rankings of their prospective categories. I can only assume they were upset that Flight was doing well, while their books were not. Still, I find attitudes like that hard to fathom. To me it just doesn’t make any since to bash another writer just because your own book isn’t doing well.
Anyway, for those of you starting out, such actions will be a fact of life if you have any success in writing. Maybe in some ways that means you’re on the right track, but it helps to be emotionally prepared in advance. It’s the dark side of writing a good story. As always, thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
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