fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3548 ]

[ SECRET POST #3548 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3548 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[Dark Souls 2]

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03.

[Ouran High School Host Club]

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04.

[Darren Criss]

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05.

[Great British Bake Off, Sue Perkins, Mel Giedroyc]

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06.

[The 100]

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07.

[Death in Paradise]

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08.

[Xena Warrior Princess]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #507.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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I self-published my book. Doubts, plenty when you hear "no" from agents all the time and don't have anything to back up "people will like this, really!" Then I did get some proof that people wanted a story like mine so I went ahead anyways. I had a few cheerleaders, best friend, aunt, my dad that sort of thing. It really helped.

Next I'd like to finish some short stories in the same universe and publish those too.

Congrats!

thank you!

That's awesome! Good luck with the short stories and expanding the universe you created :)

thank you!

Good for you for bypassing the soul-sucking descent into the bowels of Hell that is agent-hunting. I hope it does well for you.

omg yes, that is what it felt like. I dreaded opening my official email. Now, I check that one before I check my fandom email.

So far, the only person to have bought the book is my second cousin. I'm still trying to figure out where to advertise a werewolf biker science fantasy. I live in a town with a biker convention coming up. Hopefully I'll have cards by then.

Trying to remain optimistic. Thanks for the hope.

Commission someone to do art for a small poster/flyer!

"Never judge a book by its cover" is simply not true. People love visually pleasing stuff.

And if you can, send a few free copies of your book to popular reviewers who you think might be into it. Ain't no shame in a little hustle.

thanks for the advice! I'm trying to find some reviewers. A lot won't do self-published stuff though. It's sad.

Yeah, definitely want to get some flyers/cards going. That is on my to do list.

... I need this in my life. NOW.

Seriously, if it's on Amazon, PM me with a link. Do want.

I don't have a DW account and believe me, I've made enough social media accounts for the moment.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JWP7KI8

(Sorry Case)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JWP7KI8

Good on you! A lot of people are going the self-publishing route because you get way more creative freedom and you get to keep more of the money from each sale.

Agree with the other anon, though. If you're not all that great with graphics, commission somebody who is. People WILL pass on a book because the cover looks like crap, unfortunately.

I understand. I don't mind outing myself but I'm more worried about Case's rules or else I WOULD post the cover. Since you are all talking about that just for an opinion.

Thanks though for the advice.

Well, most books with crappy covers, and I mean surely someone did this in 20 minutes with MS Paint kind of bad, have crappy content as well. Judging a book by its cover is entirely justified in 9.9 out of 10 cases.

I'll admit. I did make the cover myself. But I spent more than 20 minutes and err, it's hard to explain. I have seen some very ODD covers in the Amazon stuff, right under my own book no less. At the least mine has a point rather than some weird random picture. (Literally, one is a sign from a convention center. I'm so confused.)

LOL, maybe it's set in a convention center?

I totally get that. Getting a professional editor and a professional designer/artist for the cover costs money that most people simply don't have. It's the appearance of professionality that's important. You can sell a lot of crap with the appearance of professionality.

But hey, you wrote a story and actually finished it and got it out there. If you can get people to read, maybe even review it, there will be some among them who like it enough to buy another book you wrote.

Unless, of course, you're Chuck Tingle. If you're Chuck Tingle, your in mainstream terms outlandish content will generate quite a buzz on its own and your terrible covers are rather part of the charm.

LOL Chuck Tingle is his own kind of ... specialness.

I wanted to go through the agent process to get another editor because, yeah, I don't have the money to pay for a line editor. But agents want... whatever agents want and werewolves who ride hovering motorcycles and fight bad guys with family whacky hijinks is apparently... not it at the moment. I'll admit the book is long and I did try to edit it down to their word counts and immediately lost the soul of the book.

Here, I don't know if this cover is reassuring or not. But there it is: https://ginny0.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/lpcoverfront.jpg

I'm trying to get my courage up to send a review copy to the guy on tumblr who seems to be the werewolf guru on that site.

But thank you for the lovely encouragement. It means a lot!

Congratulations, anon! I know there's at least one self-publishing hater on FS, but honestly, it works out great for some people and it's worth a try. A few tips:

* Do have it edited by someone who knows what they're doing, and that includes both proof reading AND constructive criticism on the actual writing itself, i.e. plot, characterization, etc.

* Try to have the best cover you can and remember that it has to look good both in large and in thumbnail size.

* Network with other writers as much as you can.

thank you! I've been really excited about it. Having a self-publishing hater here on FS is rather silly. What do they think fanfic is? (Unless they hate fanfic too.)

*I did. My friend has a Masters in English and is MUCH better at Grammar than I am. (Thank God.) She is such a sweetie.

*I tried. I did. Unfortunately, my standard is old EU Star Wars covers and I can't do THAT. But I decided on tattoo art as a theme.

*Oh, understandable.

Great advice. Thanks for the help!

Congrats!

thank you!

Congrats! Go you! I still haven't taken the plunge and it's always inspiring to hear from people who have. I hope you get plenty of sales/downloads :)

thank you!

self-publishing is "easy" once you take that plunge. Marketing on the other hand has been more difficult. Since it's an ebook, it's harder to think of ways to do direct sales. Going to go with a flyer route for now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3548 ]

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