Being an Indie Author Is Like Painting a Target on Your Back that Says "Welcome Scammers"

 Goodreads recently stopped allowing private messages. I am still not happy about this, but it was a conduit for numerous scammers. It seems that a lot of people become Indie authors for vanity reasons, and this makes them ripe for scammers. Most of the messages I get are people telling me how amazing my book is, and if only I could get it to a bigger audience, I would be famous. On average, even without Goodreads messaging, I get a couple hundred scam requests through e-mail and phone every month. Publicity is necessary because that is the only way to get your book in the hands of your audience, but it is also extremely important to be aware that the more publicity you get the more you will be targeted. I've decided to share a few of the ways I've been targeted to help you recognize when something is a scam:

(1) A famous author wants to be your friend/correspond with you/ give you advice/promote your book/etc. 

As an author, you are probably busy out of your mind if you are doing it right. This is not just Indie authors, this is ALL authors. Danielle Steel, Stephen King, and even lesser knowns like Hannah Bonam Young or Rebecca Serle are not going to be scanning the Internet looking for Indie authors to connect with. I don't scan the Internet looking for other authors to connect with, and you shouldn't either. I do have a Goodreads account, and I participate in author groups on that platform with other authors. That isn't the same as trying to reach out to other authors in some misguided spam effort to promote your work or give them advice. 

(2) I would like to use your book for my book club/blog post/TikTok video/etc.

No scammer deserves anything more than getting quickly added to your junk/trash/block list or being deleted from the answering machine you are using to screen your calls. However, this is the most ridiculous scam I have seen, and I have been tempted to just reply with a simple, "Go for it." No one needs to get an author's permission to use the author's book for their book club or to review it on their blog or to make a TikTok video about it. Anyone wishing to use any of my books is more than welcome to do so. If someone would like me to speak at their book club meeting or interview me for their blog, they do need to contact me, but they had better be contacting me with important details--primarily do I need to travel and if they are planning to reimburse my travel costs. If it's a blog interview, they can just send the questions up front and save time in correspondence. I don't mind speaking at a book club meeting (either online or in real life), but most of these requests are teasers, and if you follow them through, they are going to ask you for money or books or for you to sign over all your earthly goods to them.

(3) I have 50 reviewers willing to give your book a review.

These are always followed by how much they are going to charge you to get these reviews. Amazon (and most places where authors can get reviews) have strict rules about paying people to leave a review. Now, Amazon does require a $50 investment to create any account that can leave reviews, but let's say this person charges you $250 to leave reviews. S/he would only need 10 people to buy into this scam and the cost of 50 fake reviewer accounts would be covered with only pure profit beyond that. They could also take your money and run without leaving any reviews. Even if they do leave the reviews, though, this is a scam. You are paying someone for reviews and s/he may only be navigating the Amazon rules by a technicality if at all. The reviews you get are most likely going to be AI generated drivel or "This was an amazing book!! I highly recommend it!!!" style garbage. There is also the danger that the person is not exploiting a loophole but rather violating Amazon's terms. This can get both you and the offending (fake) accounts banned. You have more to lose here than the scammer. It may seem like a quick (and certainly easier) way to get reviews, but you put your future writing career at risk. 

(4) I am a famous marketer/book promoter/publisher, and I love your book.

These usually come with a "but." There is always something wrong and this person is going to fix it. Again, whenever someone has contacted you, there is a greater chance you are dealing with a person who will take your money and run without providing any service at all. Book marketing is time consuming and costly when done correctly. It involves press releases, paid advertising, and a lot of research to make sure you are targeting the right market. I have not found one of these fly-by-night wanna-be marketers who do much more than spam people's e-mails with ads for your book or spam websites and blogs with jank ads in the comments sections. Certainly this can get you books sales, but you are going to irritate people more than you are going to convert them into customers. The likelihood of spam actually reaching the person it is sent to and not being removed from a website or auto sent into a spam folder is extremely low (and when I say low, I mean for every 50,000 people you send this kind of junk to you will get 5 of them max to buy your book). At some point, I may discuss targeted marketing on here (although marketing is my least favorite end of the writing business). The people trying to sell you their marketing skills through spam are not prominent marketers (look them up and make sure you compare email addresses if it seems they actually have an online presence). If you really want to promote your book through e-mail, you can always set up a mailing list through your website/blog and a free e-mail service like MailChimp. Then you will be getting people who are actually interested in your work and you will see better results than the random e-mail lists people are selling.

(5) I represent BookBub/Medium/BookBrowse/FilmFreeway/etc. and your book was chosen.

The first clue these are fake is that they don't come with an "unsubscribe" link (be careful when you click these, though). The second clue is that if you dig for the real e-mail address, it is usually from a free provider. These are big companies. They don't use free Gmail or Yahoo accounts. For example, I received an e-mail purportedly from Madeline Milburn who is a legitimate literary agent. The "From:" said it was from Madeleine Milburn <themadeleinemilburnagency@gmail.com> Even though this e-mail address uses what looks to be a formal name, it is the information after the "@" that is most important. If this was coming from the real literary agent it would be @madeleinemilburn.com (Note: To the best of my knowledge, this agency has no need to cold-e-mail people. Submit following the guidelines on the website if you feel your book is in their niches.)

Some may combine a real business with some extra words to avoid legal issues with the real business. Some of these (like Medium) are basically blogging websites and may be a big name but are not focused on books. Others, like BookBrowse, are real businesses that only review Indie authors for fees of $400 or so. Sorry, on one hand, publishing companies pretty much figuratively own the best review services for marketing and can get their reviews free from real editors at these places. In part, this is because they only send polished books to be reviewed. I review and have reviewed probably more than five hundred indie books (professionally and otherwise) at this point, and I would say only about 20% of them meet the standards of a publishing company. Granted, those standards are falling and the buddy system allows books that should never be traditionally published to be published, but I digress. The point is that these companies get boatloads of books to review from traditional publishing companies, so they are not going to reach out to you in an e-mail or phone call and tell you that you were chosen to be the singular Indie book they are going to review. Part of the reason they limit Indie books is because they were inundated with so many subpar books they couldn't afford all the people needed to screen them. This scam is implying that they have a staff not just scanning all the Indie books sent to them but also scanning every Indie book published!! I don't click on any scam e-mail, but my bet would be they charge you $600+ to get you that $400 review from BookBrowse or whichever company they supposedly represent--and that is only if they are trying to make an "honest" business of it, which brings up the question--why would they lie and tell you they represented these companies in the first place if they were honest?

(6) I can make you a better website/app/book trailer/turn your book into a feature film.

If you feel that your website is subpar or that you need any of these other things, then do research, find a reputable company with good ratings, and hire someone. If a person/company is relying on spamming authors to get business, they must be so bad at what they do they can't build good reviews online. 

(7) I am an Amazon Affiliate Marketer...

...and I want to share my commission with you. This should ring all sorts of warning bells, but the way it's worded, the person sending the e-mail makes it sound like s/he has to get permission from you to put a link on his/her website. This is completely false. Amazon Affiliates promote things sold on Amazon and then get paid per click. They do not need permission to promote any Amazon product. Since they can promote your book and get paid whether you agree or not, there is no reason for them to share their commission with you. Run--fast and far--from these. 

(8) May I ask you a question?

These are the most irritating people. I would like to believe these aren't really scammers, but the bottom line is that they are wasting my time. The biggest pet peeve is against people who want to ask me a question, but they expect me to respond just to find out what that question is. (It's right up there with "If you want to get scammed by me, simply reply with the word "DETAILS.") The best way to ask me a question is through blog comments on one of my blogs or through Goodreads--but asking me if you may ask a question is not going to get a response anywhere. Sometimes, however, I have gotten e-mailed actual questions, like "Is your book in hardcover?" I don't like answering questions through e-mail because only one person gets to see the answer. If I am going to answer a question like this, I will do it on my blog. The problem is that I am suspicious by nature. If you like me and like my books, you can clearly see on Amazon which ones are offered in hardcover and which ones aren't. There are many technical reasons why I don't offer all my books in hardcover versions. In the future, I suppose I could add this information to my website, and I might do just that, but that raises the third flag I had with this question: Which book? This question is really like the "May I ask you a question?" because anyone who has read one of my books or even looked at any of my online profiles would know I have written numerous books. To ask if a book (without naming the book) is offered in hardcover without naming it seems to be a fishing expedition to get me to reply and start a conversation, just as asking if they can ask a question is meant to start a conversation. I don't mind having a professional relationship with my readers, but should I ever become more popular, I wouldn't have that kind of time to dedicate to each one, so I'm not going to start now. Since this particular person did not specify which book and asked me a question readily available with minimal research, it raised flags. I feel most of these are actually scammers who are trying to develop a relationship with you first--similar to the my son is dying from cancer can you help me get food for him scams and the I am trying to settle an estate and want to make you the heir scams. 

Believe me, I would love for someone important to read my books--any of my books--and get end up a New York Times bestseller the next day with a movie option just as much as the next Indie author. However, I know realistically that even if that happened, I wouldn't be contacted about it by anyone famous or any major publishing/promotion companies until after I was at the top (and then I would have to be even more leery of scammers). I also recognize that my books have niche appeal that does not necessarily appeal to the business models of traditional publishers. Once upon a time, I did query publishing companies about my books. I have a 3-ring binder devoted to rejection letters. I stopped, when I got one that said my book was a perfect fit and they loved it, but unfortunately, their schedule was full for the next 2 years and so they had to decline it. Some might have been encouraged by that and kept going. I chose self-publishing, which means instead of struggling to find a traditional publisher, I struggle to find readers. No matter what you choose, there isn't an easy path. Don't let scammers convince you that there is.

Noob Writing Mistakes

 I read a lot of Indie books. (Yes, I am kind of masochistic that way.) In general, people who don't have some sort of state or top-tier private college/university education in writing should hire someone who does to help polish their book. Yes, this is expensive, but it's actually a lot cheaper and easier than in the olden days when you had to hire a vanity press. Even people with upper level education in writing need editors to help polish, they just don't need as much polish. Beta readers are okay to use in addition to professional help, but they should be used more for finding out if your book is mostly coherent and enjoyable.

I repeatedly find the same mistakes over-and-over in new indie author work, so I figured I would address some of them here to help those who, for whatever reason, feel they can't afford the education or hiring someone. These are not all inclusive and can never take the place of a professional.

1. Not re-reading what you've written in one setting.  This one always blows my mind. This is something that is drilled into middle school age students as soon as they are taught to write: "Proofread" your work before you submit it to your teacher. Like many goofy teachers below the university level, they misuse the word "proofread," but that doesn't change the fact that only the most immature writers think they can put out a written work without giving it a second read through. 

Most of my novels are 50,000-75,000 words. If I am not working on the same book every day, I always go back and reread the whole story before adding to it. It is unbelievably easy to either write things that you, yourself, do not understand the meaning of because you misworded it or to forget what you have already said in the story. I mean, if you can't stand to read your own work, why would you push it on others?

2. Excessively and awkwardly using literary devices. If you have used the word "like" more than once every 1000 words (about 4- 8,5" x 11" double-spaced pages) and you are not writing some sort of simile induced poetry, you are not truly writing descriptively but rather overusing a literary device in your prose. Similes are the most basic and overused of all the literary devices. Unless you are writing literary fiction, literary devices should be used sparingly. 

3. Author's notes before the book. Many indie authors like to talk about themselves and their books. Author's notes at the end of a book, explaining what inspired the story and the connection you hope the reader will make to it, can add a nice personal connection for readers. Most of the author's notes that indie authors use, though, are placed at the beginning of the book and these authors use them to either explain the book almost to the point of apologizing for writing it. If you have to explain details about your book to your reader before s/he reads the book--there is a problem with your book. If you have to apologize for writing it, than either you are trying to target the wrong market (that will reject it) or maybe you shouldn't be publishing it at all? There is certainly art for art's sake, but artists, directors, and authors who make this kind of art could really care less if you like it or not. If you, the author, do not feel your book is justified without a lengthy explanation, it is probably one of those things that you can regulate to the back of your closet for your kids to ponder some day instead of releasing it to the general public. 

4  Mislabeling the Preface, Prologue, Introduction, or Foreword (including misspelling any of them). Although Author's Notes don't really belong in the beginning of a book, there are several ways you can introduce the book without making an apology for it. A "Preface" is kind of like an author's note. It covers what inspired the book and how it came into being and usually ends by thanking the people who helped with it. (Just thanking people would be an "acknowledgement.") Whereas an Author's Note would focus on making a connection with the reader, A Preface would give more insight into the process and focus on praising those who helped the author. A Prologue is part of the story, usually backstory that the reader must know for the rest of the story to make sense. This is not just random backstory that the author finds interesting. Authors should know all the details of their characters' backstories--the readers do not need to know all this information in a dump at the beginning of the book. An Introduction tells the reader information that is necessary for reading the book, but that is not part of the backstory. If you have created a unique world, where let's say gravity is reversed, this isn't really "backstory" information but it is necessary or the reader is going to be confused when s/he begins reading. A Foreword is where someone who is not the author (but who is famous) talks about how great the book is and how it affected them. As such, Forewords should never be found in Indie books unless you happen to be on good terms with your next-door-neighbor, who also happens to be someone like Stephen King or Johanna Lindsay, and you are so close that you don't feel like a heel asking him/her to (1) read your book and (2) write a foreword for it. If your neighbor is truly famous enough to write a foreword for your book and actually impress your readers, then s/he is probably not going to be able to tell you "yes" or "no" immediately, regardless as to how many times you have saved his/her cat from falling in his/her pool, because they will have to consult their publicist or manager or whomever is guiding them on their public image before they help you with your book. 

5. Excessive typos. There is absolutely no reason for this, even in an Indie book. A few typos--whatever. Excessive typos? MS Word and Google Docs have a spelling and grammar checker built in. Grammarly has a free spelling and grammar check that is a little more advanced. Not using at least one of these is just lazy. 

Doubting what these are telling you and making changes to the programming (i.e. marking something as correct when it says you are not) when you have never had formal training and just "think" you are right, is just dumb arrogance. Once you have told these programs you want to accept errors, it is difficult to go in and fix that.

6. Not understanding what a paragraph is. As a general rule, sentences do not make good paragraphs. In dialogue, there may be a back and forth of one-sentence paragraphs, but in prose, repeated single sentence paragraphs should not be used. Most of the time, these single sentences can easily be combined with other single-sentence paragraphs around them because they are still on the same topic. 

7. Writing in a foreign language. If you don't speak the language, don't write in it. I read several languages well enough that I am confident translating into English from them. I only translate into English because I am a native speaker and native speakers of target languages are best because we are pretty familiar with nuances and idioms. That said, I feel confident translating into French/Spanish/Latin/Italian for the brief instances they may be needed in a book. For German, I can go to my Mutti, who is, well, German. Most newbies tend to think they can use Google translate or AI and that's close enough. It isn't. there are some garbage translations I have seen--to the point I have no clue what the author is trying to say because they chose some convoluted way AI told him/her to say it.

Also important on this topic: If your reader isn't going to understand what is happening in the book without you putting translation notes in it-don't write in a foreign language. I defer to The Lord of the Rings for the best example of how to do this. Tolkien was obviously inventing several languages. He was a linguist so he could do that and do it correctly. There is a glossary you can use to translate everything because without it no one would be able to translate what was said (he was the only one who initially knew the language he had invented, after all). Real, modern languages don't need glossaries because they are easily looked up online. At the same time, readers could read Tolkien and never look up what the orcish or elvish or dwarvish was saying because they never missed out on the actual story by not knowing what those words meant in English. Now, I have seen even traditional publishers, or rather Amazon imprint publishers, add in a translation after using a foreign phrase. In this latter case, the translation was not necessary because the rest of the story allowed the reader to understand what was happening. Having the English translation pulls you out of the story more than having text like: 

"I love you, my sweet," Emilio whispered in German. 

Using a foreign language for authenticity when you don't really know what you are saying and when you feel you need to translate it immediately back to English in the text is poor authorship. 

8. Not understanding formatting conventions or using them inconsistently. Print books have indents at the beginning of paragraphs. Online and e-books have spaces between paragraphs. Some newbies combine these, which is confusing and wastes space. Other newbies fail to be consistent in formatting and italicize things randomly, switch fonts without seeming reason or consistency, and improperly use things like bold face and all caps. Publishing companies have style guides for those areas of grammar that are flexible in correctness but that need to be consistent throughout a manuscript. It might help if you establish basic rules and write/type them out in your own style guide document. Then go through your manuscript after editing to ensure you have followed these rules consistently. (This is called proofreading.) 

9. Not citing works or including quotes without permission. If you quote anything in a book--fiction or non-fiction--you must cite the source. There are some times in fiction where using a footnote is a better choice that directly citing the source in the text. However, directly quoting another source in fiction--especially from songs--is plagiarism unless you have written permission from the copyright owner of that quote, and you then explain that you obtained that permission in the copyright notice. In general, you can quote up to 500 verses from the Bible in your work, as long as they meet certain requirements and you cite which version of the Bible you are quoting as well as the book, chapter, and verse of the quote. As an indie author, it is generally best to just stay away from direct quotes. 

10. Not understanding your target audience. Every book has a target audience. Usually, the people who are your target audience are those who enjoy reading the genre you have written in. This means that if you write a mystery and call it sci-fi, when it doesn't have any sci-fi elements, then you are going to make your target audience unhappy. I have definitely seen mislabeled books--some are occasionally even put out by traditional publishers in an effort to sell books, like 50 Shades of Grey, that are erotica to a bigger audience. By marketing 50 Shades of Grey as a romance instead of as erotica, it reached more people than it would have, because fewer people read erotica than they read romance. This, is extremely risky because in doing this, you have to have a big enough marketing campaign to get millions of books into readers hands before bad reviews start flowing in. In other words, the book isn't that great but you already sunk a bunch of money into it, so you have to create a massive marketing campaign to recoup your money before people start letting other people know how bad it is. Movie producers also do this--giving you a trailer that has only the best parts of the movie and then you get there and the movie is awful. It's a gamble, but if you are going to lose money anyway and if you are a big publishing or production company, it is a gamble you may take. 

In general, indie authors do not have well-funded marketing budgets. Five bad reviews can be pretty difficult to overcome, and it is even more difficult to get a decent reimbursement for your work prior to those bad reviews going live. 

Aside from passing erotica off as romance, the other area where authors regularly misread their audience is marketing something as a "Christian" book. Many people are "Christians" and don't seem to realize that their behavior and the things they are alright with are not actually okay when one reads the Bible. Evangelical Christians, who see the Bible as literal, make up 1/4 of the population of the U.S. and they have and extremely strong review system online and through churches. If you slap the "Christian" label on your book, and it doesn't meet the standards of what a Christian book is, people (including myself) will complain, and they will do it loudly. 

Granted, in my case, I complain against all mislabeling. I recently read a "mystery" series that was actually a soap opera in book form. That's the quickest way to get a one-star review from me--don't understand who your audience is and market to one audience when your book belongs with another audience.

How Do I Get Reviews for My Self-Published Book?

 Another author on Goodreads asked me this question on my profile, but after asking immediately pushed her own book. If you include a link to your book anywhere it wasn't asked for (including in a comment here), it is spam and will probably be deleted. I struggled all day today with (a) responding to her question on my Goodreads profile and thereby not only encouraging her (and others) to spam because her book link would now be published on my profile or (b) report her to Goodreads as a spammer or (c) ignore her. None of these options appealed to me. 

First, I have not read her book, and I do not intend to read or review it. It's a self-help book, and that is one of the few genres in which I have no interest. You have to write a really good self-help book to get me interested in reading it--although it doesn't necessarily need to be targeted to me. 

Second, she called me "Jenna," which makes me think I wasn't the only author who got thus spammed. Note: If you are writing to anyone, especially book editors of traditional publishing companies, and you are using a form letter, make sure you change names, addresses, etc. No one wants to get a letter addressed to someone else. 

Third, I have no way of questioning her to try to find out if she was intentionally spamming me or not. I have reported other people for doing things like this, but usually only under pressure from fellow moderators (who want me to report people because they don't want to be spammed, too--and by reporting them, it will mark them as a spammer and reduce their ability to do this or they will get their account banned). 

Finally, I really don't like to ignore questions--especially legitimate ones, which is why I decided a blog post was the best way to deal with this.

So, the best way to get reviews is NOT to spam people--especially other authors. Sending me a link to your book is not going to get me to buy it. Even if I do buy your book, that doesn't mean I have to or will review it. Plus, if the person you spam gets upset over that tactic, they could leave you a bad review.

I discussed Goodreads Giveaways as a method of getting reviews here. It is expensive and for about every 100 books I gave away, I got 2 reviews in return. Still, that is one way to get reviews.

You can also pay scammers to write (usually AI generated) reviews for you that are vague. These are generally all positive because you are paying them and really have little value beyond tricking algorithms (at least temporarily). These are also usually expensive, and you are not dealing with good people. Most fly-by-night marketing scams also use these. If you are caught doing this, however, you may end up getting your publishing account banned from Amazon. 

You can do review exchanges--but by that I do not mean you give me your book for me to review and I give you mine. This is called a reciprocal review (you are reviewing someone who is reviewing you), and it is forbidden (and can get you banned) on most sites that allow reviews. A legitimate book exchange allows you to give your book to someone to review and in exchange you review someone else's book. There are a few groups like this on Goodreads. These do not usually cost anything (or sometimes cost the price of a book), but they require a time commitment to reading other books.

There are also numerous paid services that have started doing this--but only a few of these are reportedly reputable. These are also online review exchange websites. These are a little more risky and also tend to be expensive. Some require you to use them with ARC (advanced reader copy) distribution before you publish your book fully (it should, however, be edited and polished fully). Some are set up so that you can give reviews for other books to earn your reviews, but all of them use a business model with varying costs if you want to get enough reviews for your book to be worth using the service. I watched a YouTube video where an author talked about how great one of these was. However, I noted that she spent hundreds of dollars and admitted she only got about 16 Amazon reviews. Goodreads reviews are great, but they don't usually translate into sales as well as Amazon reviews. I find it hard to justify that kind of money for the return. 

I have some other methods of getting reviews that I plan to explore over the next couple of years. I plan to write a second post about those methods and explain whether or not they worked. 

Avoiding Market Saturation with Books

 The problem with self-publishing is that anyone can do it. One problem is, of course, that books with little to no editing are published, which are irritating to read. Sadly, this is the least of the problems with self-publishing. Many self-published fiction books lack a beginning, middle, and end or other necessary parts of fiction. Non-fiction lacks proper sources and citations. Now, the above you can sometimes find in traditionally published books, as well. I have also, uniquely, discovered that the self-publishing industry is extremely dishonest because so called authors will publish awful "romance novels" that are 12 pages long and charge you $1 for them! 

Something else you won't usually find is market saturation.

What is market saturation? There is only a certain audience for any type of book. For example, just because you can put out fifty word search puzzle books a day doesn't mean there are enough people in the world to buy them. This is why puzzle books were usually created by specific presses dedicated to printing them and these presses only put out a limited number each month. They could put out ten books a month and make plenty of money where today a person could put out 50 books a day and might only sell ten books each month because the market is saturated. There is not a big enough audience for puzzle books to buy all the puzzle books that are being printed by indie publishers who have watched a couple YouTube videos on getting rich quick by publishing puzzle books. 

Obviously, there are a lot more than these "low content" books out there. Journals, coloring books, notebooks, planners. All of these are being pushed out because the latest "influencer" has said you can make a ton of money doing it. 

When the self-publishing craze first started, it was public domain books, like Pride and Prejudice. From the time Jane Austen first published her masterpiece until about 2005, there were about 100 editions of this book produced by various publishers. Now there are over 5000, which, of course means, thousands have flooded the market in the past few years. Amazon actually prohibits these at this point, but they are still getting produced by fooling the system. 

Once Amazon stopped people from reprinting public domain works en masse, people then switched to creating "commentaries," "analysis," or "reviews" of the books--again en masse. Market saturation does not make you a million dollars. Nor does attempting to enter a market that is completely saturated--especially if you are an unknown publisher. The only thing market saturation does is ensure people, who write good puzzle books or book commentaries will never make money off of them or even be discovered by readers who might enjoy their work. If anything, market saturation with quickly produced garbage only ensures that the market for those kinds of books will shrink even smaller. How many times is a reader going to purchase a book only to be disappointed with the content because it was generated by AI or only superficially written in a hurry before s/he decides to stop purchasing books?

Publishing companies with marketing departments understand this. If you publish one or two junk books each year, it won't destroy your audience. If you constantly turn out poor quality content, it will. This is why most of the major traditional companies have set up "imprints" to capitalize on the self-publishing craze while keeping a distance from themselves. I question if they will escape unscathed, though. 

I will tell you honestly that you may put little effort into jumping onto the latest self-publishing craze, but by the time you hear about it, it will already be a saturated market. If you want to make money self-publishing and have that income continue, it is hard work.

Off Topic Publishing More Scam Than Real Publishing Company

 So, I subscribe to Globe Soup's Contest Newsletter, which I plan to write about in the future. They send e-notices for contests not affiliated with them (albeit these are prefaced with warnings that they are not from them). Last month, I entered one from Tadpole (in addition to entering one from Globe Soup). I would deem Tadpole to be a legitimate publishing company--even though their material comes from publishing paid contest entries and the "longlist" winners seem to be high. The reason is because they are upfront about being an online literary magazine, and they have real prizes. Some of these are marketing packages, but you get a complete, free marketing package if you win one.

When I went to check out the Off Topic Publishing Contest, warning bells went off. First, there seems to be only one contest judge--the owner and founder of Off Topic Publishing. This, in itself, doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it is a flag. The only reason this would be legitimate, in my opinion, is if the small publishing company needed more submissions and was using the contest to do that. 

Then, however, I looked at the prizes. In reality, the first place prize is the only one that wins anything: a free manuscript critique/ and $100 CAD. That would be a decent prize, except a manuscript critique is not very valuable--you can get those for free from a beta reader. An edit would have been more valuable, as long as the editor knows his/her stuff. You also get free tickets to an online writing conference promoted and created by Off Topic Publishing. Writing conferences are, in general, scams. It is great to hear authors talking about their work, and this particular conference discusses copyright, which is important, but like all such conferences, the cost of attendance is high. Because this one is online, you could just go to YouTube and find a similar experience by piecing together your own conference. In person at major writing conferences, you might at least get some vendor freebies and contacts with publishing companies in exchange for the outrageous price. 

Sadly, and something that should always send up more warning bells, the rest of the prizes consisted of worthless "free" tickets to the conference and discounts on editing or critiques. Presumably, since you are paying for it, you get to choose which you prefer. Please note: A discount is NOT a prize. That is what car dealers send to everyone on the scratch off "prizes" they use to get you to come to their "sales event." 

At $20 CAD a pop to enter this contest, one has to wonder why the prizes are so chintzy. I have no clue how much she has offered to pay the four speakers at her conference, but at $120 CAD per ticket, presumably, she can have 20 full-paying attendees and still walk away in the black. Keep in mind that it is online, so she doesn't have to pay for space or anything else, other than potentially a Zoom meeting if she gets more than 90 people registered. At that point, she can certainly cover Zoom charges. As far as the contest goes, if she gets 5 entries, she has covered the first prize payout. In fact, if 125 people enter her contest, she has more than covered prize and conference fees. 

So, perhaps, she is just a smart businesswoman? (Even then I wouldn't recommend entering this contest--why pad someone else's pockets?) Then, I went to the "submissions" section of the website. Unfortunately, this is a short-story vanity press. You submit a short story/essay to their website, but you have to pay a rather large fee--$50 CAD, if you are accepted for publication in their anthology!!! Now, presumably 10+ authors will be included in this single book. For that $50, you get only 1 "free" copy of the book. I can publish and buy books a lot cheaper than that on Amazon-and Amazon allows you to have your own imprint if you want to buy ISBN numbers. Notably, ISBN numbers cost $30--but that isn't per book! I understand they are using IngramSpark, which is more expensive than Amazon but offers wider distribution, but IngramSpark does not require exclusivity. They could also offer books on Amazon and buy the copies they distribute to the authors for lower cost. Apparently, the founder is not a smart businesswoman.

I am okay with self-publishing authors starting their own publishing business, although I don't recommend it. (Yes, I know, I am trying to do just that.) However, I am not okay with self-publishing authors starting a vanity press. If you want to hire me as an editor, I am all for it and advertise my services on my website. At the same time, I do not have the capabilities at this point in time to accept and review manuscripts that I will then publish under the Dreaming Reality name. When I do that, if your manuscript is accepted, it would not cost you a thing to have me edit it other than a percent of the sales. This would be a big jump to go from only producing my own work to producing the work of others. I need to make sure all books I publish can be available across a wide spectrum of platforms--right now I am only set up on Amazon, although I am going to be expanding, hopefully by the end of this year onto other platforms (IngramSpark and Draft2Digital-formerly Smashwords) so I can get better library and institutional coverage. I would need to have more marketing strategies in place. I would need to also have the time to review submitted books--which for me would mean submission windows that would not be open all year. 

Most disappointing, is that since this contest requires you to submit the first 2,500 words of a novel, it makes it seem like you might get a publishing contract with them. However, when you look at their published book list on their website, there are only 10 different books and one calendar offered. Most of these are poetry anthologies edited by the founder, and two poetry books are written by the founder. Only one is a novella, which seems to be a collection of flash fiction--even though the contest seems to be looking for full-length novels. Although the contest does not limit genres, it seems like only poetry and flash fiction is all they have ever published. To me, there is no reason to offer a contest for full-length novels if you don't print them, except to get authors' hopes up that if they win they will get a traditional publishing contract. Instead, they will get connected to a vanity press that seems to have been started to boost the founders vanity. 

Big or small, a publishing company should put promoting their author's works and making money by selling them instead of promoting contests and making money by selling tickets to online writing conferences. In this case, it seemed like the "publishing company" also did little to promote the books they produced.

The Do's and Don'ts of Writing for Children

 I have one children's picture book that is currently published, but I have five children, so I feel like I am justified in talking about some basics when it comes for writing for children. I am going to use my book: Sal, Captain of the Baby Guards, and a middle reader book, Saving Bigfoot Valley, that just got a five-star review from me for examples.

1. Know your audience. Many people writing Indie books for children and think they all have to rhyme. This is false. In fact, unless you are a poet, you really shouldn't rhyme. Many books that I have reviewed in this past year that were rhyming children's books were written by people who used slant rhymes and neglected the meter. Sal, of course, doesn't rhyme. I actually have no desire to write a rhyming children's book. As you move into older age groups (i.e. 8+ is when beginning chapter books should start transitioning into a child's reading diet if not before), rhyming is not going to capture your audience. 

2. Unless your book has an upper and lower age limit, do not set it on Amazon. I get it. This feature can help you target your age group in Amazon searches. However, there is a big problem that I have occasionally fallen into: If you set a lower age limit, i.e. 14 years old, the upper limit is sometimes set to 18. 

So, if you click to Sal, you will see the age limit of 7-9. I probably should lower that to 3-9, but this works because adults are not going to pick up a picture book to read. Since the topic of the book is  a fear of vacuum cleaners, older kids aren't really going to be interested in it either. S.D. Brown's Saving Bigfoot Valley is targeting a specific age group: 9-12 year olds. Since this book talks about body changes during puberty, this is a good age group. One problem would happen if you wrote, say a book like Twilight, which would appeal to 14-year olds, but the top accidentally got set to 18 years. Twilight is a book that appeals to both children and young adults, so you have limited your audience. The other problem would be setting an adult book with adult subject matter to, say 13+, because it was written at a 4th-grade level. In this case, you are identifying your book as fit for children when the subject matter is not. Misidentifying your audience can lead to bad reviews. 

3. Including objectionable material in kids books. I list many things as "potentially offensive" in my reviews, including things like "parental disrespect" that some people might not find offensive at all. In this case, though it covers only the biggies: anything other than mild violence, rape (there a limited places where this could be used offscreen in a high school/YA book), any sex (again, offscreen is now okay in YA books, but this subject is touchy, so it's best not handled even in YA), religious topics unless it is a religious book, political topics unless it is a political book, LGBQT+ unless your book is an LGBQT+ book.

Anyone who has read the news, knows that several books are being banned from libraries and other places. Parents ultimately get to decide what their kids read, see, and hear. Inherent in the freedom of speech is the freedom to not listen to speech. If you include objectionable material in your book, you need to inform people about it instead of trying to sneak it under the radar just to sell books. Not telling your audience what they can expect leads to poor reviews and getting your book banned when parents allow their kids to check out a "children's book" only to find out it isn't. 

4. Does your theme make sense to the age group?

Just because you make a cartoon filled book, doesn't mean it is for children. If you make an adult cartoon book, you need to make sure that it is clear the audience is for adults. Animal Farm is a book about animals, but it also contains complex sociopolitical themes. It isn't really a book for 5-year olds. Think about what you want to say with your book and about the story you are telling. For younger children, complex explanations about nuclear physics is not appropriate. At the same time, books about everything from birthdays to potty training are in abundance. My son was afraid of the vacuum cleaner, which is why I wrote Sal. I couldn't find any books about that fear. For middle schoolers, the difficulties of going through puberty and books that show good examples of friendship are appropriate, but a book about potty training at this level or where a character gets married would not be. Young Adult books usually have characters who are on their own and out in the world--even if the character is only 16 and technically too young to have to face those things. Some books can appeal to more than one audience, but if you try to do that and fail, you risk getting bad reviews. 

Review: Saving Bigfoot Valley by S.D. Brown/Spike Brown

 In my reviewers group, this was a great find for upper elementary and middle school kids:

Potentially offensive items: mild violence, lying

This is the second book I’ve read by S.D. Brown, and I must admit, I was looking forward to it. I read Saving Bigfoot Valley with my fourth-grader before bed. She really got into it, was engaged and laughing, and afterward she wanted to discuss with me how she would have made better choices than some of those made by the main character, Arrth. In short, she enjoyed it immensely.

Bigfoot Valley is shielded by an advanced cloaking device. When Arrth, a “little” Bigfoot decides to save a rabbit from death at the hands of a hunter just outside the shield, he accidentally delivers one of the cloaking device repeaters into the skin-face’s hands causing the shield to destabilize. Wanting to make amends for his actions by finding and returning the device, he sneaks out of Bigfoot Valley and into the nearby skin-face town of Willow Creek (pop. 1743). Will he be able to do it before the remaining repeaters can no longer handle the load and shut down or will Bigfoot Valley have to be abandoned so the skin-faces don’t hunt all the Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) to extinction?

Many coming-of-age books focus on falling in love, but that is only one aspect of growing up. Here, the focus is on body changes, awkward clumsiness, and taking responsibility for your actions. There are a few schoolgirl crushes, but the story never becomes a romance, making it appropriate for older elementary and middle schoolers. It did have some typos, but it was so cute and appealing that it was easy to skip over them.

You Can't Break Grammar Rules You Don't Know

The last two indie published books I read (by two different authors mind you) were the same. Not in plotting or characters but in the fact that they existed on single sentence and single sentence fragment paragraphs. As in, almost the entire book was written this way with the authors hitting "enter" instead of the space bar after each sentence. 

Most people don't know anything about grammar except "rules were made to be broken." If you fall in that group, it isn't something to brag about any more than you should brag you are among those who know how to swim just enough to get yourself (or someone else) drowned. Personally, if you haven't taken at least one writing course at a college ranked in the top 100 in the U.S. or top 500 internationally by U.S. News and World Report, you need cough up the money hire an editor (and an editor is always good even if you have met the above requirement). I know, I am being harsh, but an unedited book doesn't just harm its author, it harms all indie authors. It keeps them from being accepted into contests for the traditionally published and encourages editors at traditional publishing companies to toss submissions from unsolicited authors without reading them. 

However, I am fair, I will explain what a sentence is (in case you were flirting with the kid next to you instead of listening in your high school class), what a paragraph is, and when sentence fragments may be appropriate. 

A sentence must have a subject and a verb. She ran. When I homeschool my children, I don't accept sentences under eight words. As you can tell reading this post, I practice what I teach (for the most part--I don't generally go back and edit my blogging posts). Short sentences have their place: They increase tension; they are great for young, new readers; they can stylistically be used to flush out a specific character's nuances through dialogue, and if someone knows how to use them correctly, they can contribute to an experimental or poetic work. If you didn't get a full on B.A. in English from one of the abovementioned colleges, don't even think you can craft something in that last category, please. I hate to say "no," but the fact of the matter is that one in a million people can do something like that without any training and 500,000 in a million will think they are that one. 

An incomplete sentence or sentence fragment, can be short or long and can have both a subject and a verb, but it is dependent on more information to form a complete thought. Into the night, the butterfly flitting left and right, fully abandoning myself to the freedom. That was a fragment. I know you are probably thinking that is just a jumble of nonsense and could never be a sentence. Try adding "I followed" at the beginning: I followed, into the night, the butterfly flitting left and right, fully abandoning myself to the freedom.

Fragments can be tricky. Most indie authors I read get overexcited about putting them in everyone's dialogue because they believe that is how people really talk. For one character, that could work. In response to a question in a tense moment, that could work. However, speaking in fragments denotes a character of lower intelligence (or one who wants you to think s/he is dumb). If you actually listened to people, you would soon discover that most use complete sentences in their dialogue most of the time. 

Another rule I have for my children are that their paragraphs must always be at least five sentences, but I am much more flexible on this. First, variety in paragraph size is a good thing. It adds interest to what you are reading. Second, whenever a new character talks, it needs to be a new paragraph:

"Will you go home with me?"

"No!"

"Why not?

"The game isn't over!"

The above is a perfectly natural stream of one-sentence paragraphs. However, when that is the way you wrote your entire book without rhyme or reason, it is like going to a movie and finding out the only background music through the adventurous parts, through the romantic parts, and through the comedic parts, is the same pounding four bars of music over and over and over and over and over again. You also would not want to write an entire book of back and forth one-liner dialogue. 

In high school, we were given paragraphs and told to find the main idea and then list the supporting details. Read your paragraph, and see if any of the supporting details ended up in the next paragraph (or next five paragraphs if you have resorted to mistaking the space bar for the "enter" key). Or pay a good editor to fix it (i.e., not an editor who is like, "Oh, you are such a creative genius for not using standard paragraph and sentence structure.")

Tricksy Amazon: The Real Amazon Royalty

 Amazon advertises a high royalty rate--up to 60%--on its print books. But have you ever looked at the price you put in and then looked at the calculated price you will be getting and scratched your head? 

Even a person who has basic math skills can figure out they are not getting the promised percentage. The trick is that Amazon deducts printing costs AFTER figuring out your royalties. So, if you sell a book for $8.99 and they give you a 50% royalty rate but the book costs $3.28 to print, the deduction comes out of your "royalties."

$8.99 x 50% = $4.495  - $3.28  = $1.215 

Now, Amazon is kind in that they will actually give you $1.22 because of rounding. That, as you might realize is nowhere near the $4.495 on the list price. 

Normally, the printing cost would be taken out first since the rest is the profit:

$8.99  -  $3.28  = $5.71 x 50%  = $2.855

However, Amazon can do whatever it wants because it is offering authors a way to get their books printed and distributed without the approval of a publishing house. It also isn't technically charging you anything to do it like vanity presses would. 

Still, it is important for you to know just how much you are making when you set prices. In the above case, it would be 13.6% of the set price or 21.4% of the net price after printing costs. This can make it difficult for two reasons. First, when you are deciding on book prices, you need to be competitive while making a profit. In some cases, the way of calculating the profit for you is difficult to calculate. The percent you earn is not stable and changes based on the price of your book. 

It is also devious. You are not getting a true 50% royalty. A "royalty" is a percent of the sale or a per sale flat rate given to an author for the use of their material. Here, Amazon sells your material, but it does not pay you a 50% rate based on the list price or on the net income from the sale. In actuality, Amazon charges you 50% of your book's list price as a sort of undisclosed "listing fee." It then charges you printing costs out of what is left. You are technically paying them to be your vanity press on a per book basis. 

The second problem with this is that you are not going to find many traditional book publishers who will negotiate a 50% royalty rate. If you are approached by a traditional publisher who is offering 25% royalties, you might balk because Amazon is "giving you 40-60%." In actuality, you would be making more money with the traditional publisher. (Don't get scammed--the only reason a traditional publisher would contact you about your already self-published book is if your book goes viral. If you aren't already making a good chunk of change and someone approaches you, read the fine print--they probably just want you to pay them money for something.) There are some people, however, who might be trying to go the traditional route and who get an offer for their book. If they have considered self-publishing on Amazon, they could think it makes them more money when it does not. 

Obviously, I use Amazon to publish my books, and I have recently started using IngramSpark. In my opinion, Amazon has the better deal, but I haven't used IngramSpark enough to make a final decision. A lot more goes into what a print-on-demand company has to offer than just printed books. For example, do your books get more sales because their marketing plans work better? Amazon is meh about free advertising in my opinion. You have to get a boatload of reviews before you will even start ranking in their lists. However, despite the huge chunk of change Amazon charges and the little you get in return for it, I like the freedom of printing my own stuff. 

Why AI Sucks and People Who Argue Are Trying to Sell Something

 About fifteen years ago, there were videos all over YouTube, websites, and advertisements promoting that you could get rich quick by hiring a freelancer to write your book(s) and then publishing them on Amazon or other platforms. Like any get-rich-quick scheme, these were bologna. Good freelancers cost money that most people couldn't afford to invest. If they did, they would soon discover that they then needed to come up with the money and time to market the book. This can cost four to five times as much as getting the book published. 

Now, all those get-rich-quick schemes have rebooted with AI in the place of freelancers--after all, you can use AI for free all over the web. In addition to the plagiarism problems that also happen with freelancers, you now have serious issues with the quality of AI writing. It's garbage. 

I came across an ad today talking about how it is the person's problem and not the AI's fault if the AI gives you garbage. This is another big fat lie. Obviously, the ad said, you aren't giving the AI enough information to do a good job. I could die laughing at this one as I am struggling to get my favorite free AI to generate the book cover I have envisioned for The Inconvenient Sister. 

First, you may ask why I am struggling with AI that isn't putting out what I want when there are plenty of other platforms. My biggest reason is because I have worked with other AI, and I also know its limitations. I think we are about as good as we are going to ever get with it. I also don't want to spend time looking for something that may or may not exist. Deep AI does a variety of things for free without requiring me to sign in. I need the image generator and right now, I haven't found too many free image generators. Feel free to leave a comment if you have one you like. 

So, let's address the problem that the ad mentioned--not specific instructions. 

Here is what I put in the prompt: "1750s dressed 28-year-old man with long, black, braid and green eyes and white cravat next to a 20-year old corseted woman with brown hair in bun and blue eyes standing in street." To me, this is pretty specific. I have gone into even more detail with the imagery and found that at a certain point the AI breaks down and doesn't give me anything better. I think with this prompt, which has been expanded as I see issues in the picture, it has too much information for the AI to process. I will probably have to ditch the ages. 

Now, AI could get this wrong in a variety of ways that I have not specified. For example, it could (and does) give me tons of non-period clothing even though I specified 1750s because I did not detail each piece of clothing they are wearing. However, it also totally screws up the things I have been clear about. I get men with 10 braids and women with braids. I get men with no braid and a man bun. I even get two cross-dressing women. Most irritating is that I get men with dark brown eyes and women with auburn hair instead of brown hair. Those two things I have been very specific about, so I cannot understand how anyone could support AI that screws that up. I have gone through about 100 images right now, so I will cut out some of the details and see if I can get it to go better for me. Since these things should be easy enough to find, especially 1750s clothing and hazel eyes, it is extremely irritating that the AI can't figure it out. 

Applying to Freelance at Reedsy

 Most of you know that although I am a devoted Guru fan, I haven't been getting much work there since I returned to freelancing. In fact, much work in the writing area hasn't been posted to bid on. I assume this is because all those "get-rich-quick" YouTube schemes that used to focus on hiring a freelancer to write/edit a book for you to post on Amazon have now turned into letting ChatGPT write your story for you. Good luck with that... 

So, I reevaluated Upwork because that and Guru have traditionally been the best freelance websites, in my opinion. This is primarily because of the SafePay/Escrow features. 

I did recently see a promotion (or rather an anti-promotion) for Reedsy. It was by a vanity press trying to sell its own "cheap" editing services. I investigated and discovered that according to Reedsy itself, its freelancers make a whole lot more than what I usually make, and they primarily attract overflow work from traditional publishers. This looked appealing. 

The catch is that they are picky in whom they "hire" or rather allow to work on their website. You fill out a profile, with a minimum of three links to books on Amazon and your website, and then they look and see if you are good enough to work for them. They do not, however, during this application process specify what you need to get hired--er, rather to work on their website. This is buried in a separate link.

First, you have to have worked in traditional publishing as an editor. For me, this was no problem because I have. The problem is that they want you to link to the books where you have worked as an editor--but these books can only be on Amazon because they will not let you upload a book from smaller, niche publishing company websites or from university publishing companies (where the theses and dissertations I have edited are published).

Presumably, you have to actually be credited as the editor (and I am not sure if I have ever been because I contractually do not allow my clients to use my name on their work without written permission--I also work under a lot of non-disclosure agreements). So, in short, I could not upload any of my "real" work. They do not tell you why you are denied, but I am certain this was one reason.

Second, although the profile you fill out asks for 3-5 book links, the hidden page on what they are looking for says you must have at least 5. Since they will not allow you to upload any more than 5, I question how you can have "at least 5." Perhaps they should have one of their editors look at their requirements and update them.  

I am glad there are "freelancing" websites that actually screen their employees. However, I have used many good editors on Guru who have probably not ever worked for a traditional publishing company. I also don't think a link on Amazon is the best way to determine if a publishing company is a valid publishing company. I cannot tell you how many publishing companies that have been formed in the past 5 years and post all their books on Amazon because they technically are self-publishing other people's books, are not legitimate publishing companies. 

The problem is that they cater to traditional publishing companies (the only ones who can probably afford to pay the prices). It makes perfect sense that they would want to use people who already have worked there. My question is, why are these people now freelancing if they were good editors at their respective publishing companies?

I do wish I had known these requirements before I went through the process of applying. It was a complete waste of time and had I known the requirements beforehand I wouldn't have bothered.

Kirkus Review's Slant for Traditional Publishers

Traditional publishers and those who service them are not ignorant about the self-publishing cash cow. Kirkus, a review service that has been around since the 1930s, specifically focused on traditional publishers and was funded by them, until it learned it could make money from indie publishers. It then set up its "Kirkus Indie Reviews." Now, in general, Kirkus only gifts less than 3% of all the books it reviews with a star. It also only gifts about 10% of its reviewed books with a "Get it" status (the second highest favorable review). Most of its books get general reviews containing the good and the bad, and I read about 20% end up with bad reviews. That means, starting off, you have a 1 in 5 chance of paying over $400 for a bad review. 

For comparison, if you submit your book for the traditional Kirkus review (which I believe is only for traditional publishers), the editors will pick which books get any review (I believe this is 10,000 books per year) and 10% of those books will get a star. 

Whichever way your book gets a Kirkus review, understand that you cannot get a star just because the reviewer liked your book (i.e. you cannot become eligible for their $50,000 prize just because you got an excellent review). The editors at Kirkus are solely responsible for giving out the stars and promoting the book.

However, Indie authors need to be aware of a few contract clauses that Kirkus has stuffed in that mean you may not be getting a fair review. Note: although the top of the Contract says it is a general contract, it specifically talks about Kirkus Indie--so it does not apply to traditional publishers.

First, know that you cannot cancel the contract, but Kirkus can cancel it as long as it refunds your money. It does have any time limits on when it must do this, however. 

The most important and detrimental thing about their contract is two-fold. (1) You do not have any input into who is reading your book, and Kirkus does not have any contractual guidelines that limit who can read your book. This is important because Kirkus can assign your book to be reviewed by anyone. If you have a sci-fi book, they could give it to someone who only reads romance. Even worse, they could give your romance to a computer programmer who only reads books when he gets paid to do so by Kirkus. His review, based on his lack of knowledge about any sort of writing except computer programming, is perfectly acceptable under the Kirkus contract and you cannot complain about it. Nowhere in the contract does it say the reviewer has to be qualified to review the book, but it does say you cannot even request that the reviewer is qualified to review the book.

(2) In addition to the above, under "Miscellaneous," they clearly state they can hire freelancers to review your book. This means, you are not getting reviewed by Kirkus review staff with years of experience. No, if you are an Indie author, you are going to be reviewed by a freelancer. 

Kirkus' contract fully covers its butt. In my opinion, its "Indie" section is nothing more than a moneymaker for its annual award, which it usually gives to traditionally published authors. In 2024, all the finalists were from major publishing companies or their imprints. I did not go back further than this, but I presume the results are the same every year--especially since it seems most of the stars go to books selected from traditional publishers by editors and those same editors give out the stars. 

They state they make the "best efforts to provide" an unbiased book review. It does not say they will provide an unbiased book review. Nor does it say they will provide a "fair" book review, i.e. one by a qualified reviewer who actually reads your book in its entirety. 

Kirkus has been targeting Indie authors for years with marketing campaigns. My advice to those who are self-publishing is to save your money. 

A 5-Star Reader's Favorite Book Review: When Eagles Vie with Valkyries: War and the Journey Home by Paul Hellweg

[cultural sensitivity, racism, prostitution, offensive language/profuse swearing, drug/alcohol/smoking, violence, graphic violence, violence against women, mature themes, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, depression, PTSD]

5-stars

In When Eagles Vie with Valkyries: War and the Journey Home, Paul Hellweg gives us raw, gritty free verse poetry from his experiences in Vietnam. Using literary devices like irony, repetition, allusion, and enjambment, we are transported to the battlefield in Vietnam—a young history major’s first day on the job—or we are brought to modern day bars and brothels in America where that same vet is trying to forget what he had to do. This book is not just dealing with the trauma our Vietnam vets went through, though. It also highlights the trauma of war through the eyes of a soldier who is so talented he can turn swearing into poetry in places and convert the sounds of the battlefield into a Wagnerian symphony. 

I think When Eagles Vie with Valkyries: War and the Journey Home reveals universal truths about all war to which any soldier can relate. It should be required reading for government officials who have never served a day in uniform but have no problem sending young men and women to fight wars so they can line their pockets as their military industrial complex stocks rise. Paul Hellweg is both graphic and witty, with poems like, “A Tidy Battlefield.” But there is tangible vulnerability and pain in the mix that is especially poignant in poems like, “Boots in the Mud,” “The Peace of Westphalia,” “Wounded,” and “Pain.” Some of my favorite lines are too brash to be shared in a review, but one was from Bête Noire, where after a land mine explodes under our author, he notes that as he is heading back down to the hole it created under him, “Gravity does what gravity must, and you meet the beast, maw open wide in greeting.” The best part about these poems is that they do not stay stuck in 1968, but they show a veteran slowly regaining his life again over the course of the next 50 years. 

Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favori

BYOBA: Buy Your Own Book Award

 There are so many horrible books I have read lately that are "award winning" and by "award winning authors." Yes, you can buy your own book award, but why go to the trouble when you can just make one up yourself and post a website somewhere for it? This fad is going to cause serious problems in the future and the people pushing these awards should be prosecuted for fraud. These are not real awards. 

One example is: Literary Titan This not only allows you to pay to get a book award, you also get a good review (or many good reviews) out of it. 

Another is the Book Excellence Award. They are trying to sell you their promotional services. 

Yes, bad reviews are hard to stomach. But they should be learning points. Did the reviewer personally not care for your book or was there a universal flaw that needed to be fixed? Being told your book is amazing as long as you can pay someone to say that is not an accomplishment. 

How do you know it is a fake award? There are many ways to tell. 

• You could read a few samples of the "award-winning" books on Amazon and look for typos and content issues. 
• How long has it been an award? If it has been around for decades it has a better chance of being legitimate. If it started after 2019, it's probably a scam.
• What kind of prize do you win? A lot of awards talk about the "cash value" of the prize you win. For example, with the Book Excellence Award, you get a grand prize with a "cash value" of $30,000. Now, that is their estimated cash value and the only real thing you win is a free marketing package that the sponsoring company does. Grand prizes should be the chance to get real representation and traditionally published or produced. 
• Is the sponsor their own editing/marketing/book cover design/vanity press type company? If it is a company that is selling any book related services in addition to the contest, its a scam.
• If the award is offered by a publishing company, look carefully at their website and see if authors must do pre-orders or pay a fee to get their book published. If either of the above is true, the contest may be a front for getting more clients. There is nothing wrong with entering it (as long as the entry is free or low enough cost you don't mind losing the money), just be prepared to be solicited if you lose the contest. 
• How often are awards given out? If it is any more frequent than yearly, it's a scam. 
• High entrance fees.

A lot of people say if there are a lot of categories it is also a warning sign, but I disagree with this. Final Draft, for example, is a good reputable script competition, but it has a ton of different categories. The more categories and the more prize levels the more likely you will win--especially if you write in a niche category. However, a lot of categories doesn't necessarily mean it is a scam.

Probably the worst part about being self-published is that major publishing companies frequently are the sponsors of legitimate book awards. This means, in case you didn't guess, that you will probably not be able to enter. 

Goodreads Book Review Group Blues

 So, I am in the regular Review Group now, and I am having the same problem as before. You can see this by looking at some of the reviews for the Baroness of Surli on Goodreads. Now, if you have been following me, you should know I have a book review matrix that I believe helps me give unbiased reviews. I adopted this when I started reviewing indie books and working for Reader's Favorite. (I tend to be harder on traditionally published or vanity press books--depending on the vanity press.) 

I also happen to like almost any genre. I do not care for memoirs, self-help, business books, horror that is supernatural or gore, erotica, and a few others. I will, however, read almost everything. (Erotica is the reason I have a clause in my freelancing contract that says I have the right to stop working on a project and refund any deposited funds without giving you anything if I deem the project to go against my ethics. Too many people told me they were doing "urban fiction" or "romance" and then tried to get me to work on their smut. Every sex scene I edited out they put back in with all my other edits when I finished. I wanted to throw up. Just as it is wrong to feed a Muslim pork and tell him its beef or vice versa for a Hindu, it is wrong to use a person to complete a project that as a whole is unethical to them.)

Anyway, since the Genre Specific Group is indefinitely closed, I started doing these general groups again. I decided any review is better than none. And, as before, most of the reviews say the same thing: "I don't really like reading this genre of book." Okay, okay--I get it, I created my serial novels as my own way of competing with some of those writers who put out thousands of "works" in their lifetime. My mashup genres combining historical novels in a sci-fi setting is a new thing and not going to appeal to everyone. That is why I am publishing them in serial for the first half, so people can see if they like the style before purchasing it. 

However, one review got to me because it was point on--and it wasn't even a bad review. She said the book was filled with typos? (The blog for the books is filled with typos--I put out my first draft so I can publish a chapter every day, but I do proofread it before publishing.) She gave one example where I used "to" instead of "too" and suggested I get an editor. (For the record, I used "too" correctly 20 times and "to" correctly "1012" times. I did misuse "to" about 8 times which are now fixed--but usually I misused it by creating a split infinitive.) I am thankful she pointed my typos out. I just wish she would have done it privately because I really do not think it is completely filled with them. But these are the unforgiving rules of the group--if you have published a book with any typos they can be called out. Since even traditional publishers usually have a few typos (many typos now), this is a real possibility. Since some people are not aware that things like serial commas may or may not be a typo depending on the style guide you use, this can also create problems. (To instead of too is always a typo. Split infinitives are also always a typo unless you have a single character who always uses them in dialogue. I am not saying this review in particular was wrong.)

She went on to say that I wasn't really creating a new world or new characters, but that was okay because some people do that. This, I hope she is wrong about. She did not read the original novel, to the best of my knowledge, so her comment is justified from her point of view. 

The Baroness, in my book, is trained in military arts and kicks butt--she even takes down the male lead while pregnant and saves his life when she is not. I promise that did not happen in the historical novel it is based upon. The original character mostly faints and screams and gets taken advantage of or almost taken advantage of by several men. My male lead is tortured by what he does, but his actions, in my opinion, are not nearly as bad as the actions of the male lead in the original. The original was not a character I had any feelings for and I certainly wouldn't have married the jerk, I can at least understand the male character I created. In the original, the Dad tries to shoot the Baroness, and then when they make up, he kisses her on the lips "like a lover" while she is sitting on his lap--yeah, that's not a translation issue and I was grossed out, which is why it isn't even remotely a part of my book or his character. 

I felt the reviewer, like some of the others who have reviewed me, was belittling me for recreating a once popular but little read public domain book--this is my interpretation and feeling about the review, so hopefully I am not correct. Reviews can hurt some times--and most of it can be what our own minds make of them.

I could have written my book without citing the original because it is in public domain (and it is doubtful many people today have already read it), but I am not like that. I believe the original authors deserve credit. Since these are mashups, I deliberately keep some of the original text in tact, but I also believe I have changed my books enough to pass the 70% copyright test. 

You cannot copyright ideas because ideas don't tell the story. Since college, I noticed my talent is to capture all the main ideas of a plot in a novel way, like for example, John the Baptist's beheading or Jael's driving a stake through Sisera's head. I have my own ideas, too, but I equally like recreating things my way. Saying these books are invalid because of that would be the same as someone saying, Gordon Ramsay is just remaking Beef Wellington so there isn't anything special about it. I mean he is using the same beef anyone else can use!

In the meantime, I am back to the Review Group. It is always tough to get a less than 5-star review. Authors should take those and learn from them if they can (like fixing typos), but as an author you also need to recognize when the reviewers negative opinion is not the end of the world. In the end, it is one person's opinion. If this one wouldn't have told me to get an editor on a book that has been through two beta readers and that I have been through twice myself after writing it and then rewriting it, and if I wouldn't be a degreed, professional editor, that probably wouldn't have hurt so much. But I have always said that you need to have someone else edit your own work regardless of your qualifications. This is still true and the review is proof of that. That said, the only reason she could have found so many typos when four other previous reviewers did not, would be that she was not interested in the story. I'm sorry for that, but it is unfortunately the nature of the General Review Group. 

A 5-Star Reader's Favorite Book Review: Dogs of DevTown by Taylor Hohulin

I give this book 5-stars.

[drug/alcohol, gambling, gangs, somewhat graphic violence, violence against women, murder, mature themes]

Dogs of DevTown by Taylor Hohulin is a thrilling ride through a dystopian future. Shan is a bounty hunter who will work for any mob boss as long as the boss pays in cash and uses a paper contract with her. Living in a dystopian world where everyone wants to get hooked up to the Net through a port in their necks and most are on the drug Oracle, Shan is unique in that she does neither. When one of her regular employers, Loxx, hires her to find one of his absent employees, she enters the underground turf of someone calling himself Sigma, who is even more powerful than any of the mob bosses she knows. Will she be able to finish the job for Loxx and walk away from the mystery she has glimpsed without looking back and triggering Sigma’s ire?

Dogs of DevTown was so good that I went back and checked the copyright page halfway through because I couldn’t believe a major publisher hadn’t released it. The theme that no man is an island rings especially true today when many people think they can shut themselves off from the rest of the world and survive alone. However, as was true in this book, once you try to live independently from the world, you may find your plans ruined by something your neighbor did. This may be an especially hard lesson for people like Shan, who only see how independent from the world they are, but the truth is she relied on others even when she thought she could take care of herself. I also enjoyed the message that sometimes the weakest people in our lives are the strongest in our moment of need. However, this book does not moralize. Taylor Hohulin filled his book instead with action and moments where the intensity is not a fistfight but a battle of strategy. I highly recommend this book!

Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favorite 

The Dangers of Defunct Goodreads Groups

I have posted on here before about the dangers of exchanging book reviews on Goodreads, so I went into this with open eyes. Unfortunately, the Genre Specific Goodreads Group only has one active moderator left. I reached out to him to try to get it going again and offered to split the work and run the groups for him, but he declined. He told me to contact the moderators of the general Review Group to find out how I could get it started again by myself. I don't need to do this because I know I can't and the moderators of another group cannot do anything about it either. Unfortunately, Goodreads does not seem to "clean" its groups when moderators are AFK for months or years. 

I haven't been on Goodreads in a long time. First, I was focusing on freelancing and then on the court cases. Needless to say, I found myself in a lot of defunct Goodreads groups that haven't been closed. Goodreads really need to close groups if the moderator has not been on in a year. If the moderator has been on but has not been active and Goodreads gets complaints because the moderator cannot be contacted, again, Goodreads should reach out to the moderator with a warning that the group will be closed if the moderator isn't involved in it. 

This is important because people in groups or joining groups who do not pay attention to the moderator activity can get into trouble. One of the groups I was in no longer had a moderator. I believe it was a review group that connected people who wanted to read books for free and review them with people who wrote said books. This in itself will always be a problem. There are usually way more people writing books than those who have time to read them. Anyone posting in that group that they were interested in reviewing specific types of books would get flooded. Even people who had not been active in months or who said they were not longer accepting reviews would continue getting requests. A moderator could have set rules--like your post stays up for five books and then it gets taken down and you have to repost when you have finished those. Or, the moderator could have closed the post when the original poster said they were done. Only the moderator and not the original poster have this ability.

I also did not realize that these posts are searchable in Google. I briefly offered a free pdf to people who were interested in reviewing it on their blog. To make matters worse I did this in a group that did not have a moderator--so the post could not be taken down easily or quickly. And I was even more stupid in believing that only members of the group could see the post so I added my e-mail address to save time. Yeah, dozens of spam messages later with some of them threatening me if I didn't pay them to review their book, and I am a much wiser girl. I was able to edit the post and remove my e-mail. I also contacted Goodreads, sent them copies of the spam messages and e-mails, and told them to please remove the post altogether. It took a few weeks and I still get spam from one of them who keeps changing her email address, but eventually I hope they all get blocked. I also reported them to Amazon. You cannot post paid reviews on Amazon except in the author section. In other words, paid reviews are almost worthless and you probably won't see an increase in income. Plus, if you get caught your account will be suspended. 

So, I have tidied up my Google Group memberships and canceled several with no moderators. Some, I am still hanging around but I will cancel in June if they do not have some moderator activity. Once spammers and other unethical people take over and find out they can post whatever they want, it isn't the place you want to hang out and try to promote your book. It also can waste you a lot of time (cleaning out the spam) and it can cause you grief as well as cost you money if you aren't careful. 

Online games frequently delete accounts or kick you from being a leader if you don't log on enough. Goodreads needs to learn from this example for its groups--especially ones with a lot of activity and no moderator. It would be simple for them to send out a message saying due to lack of leadership this group will be closing on X date. Please download or save any posts you wish to keep. 

Keys to Genres (1)

Authors who self-publish often have trouble classifying their work. I recently did a post on the different levels of heat in romance. But what is a romance novel? A romance novel must have two main characters the reader likes and can connect with. These characters must develop some sort of emotional connection that grows with the characters throughout the book.

Fantasy deals with the realm of magic. If something is magical or supernatural (like spiderman) it is in the realm of fantasy. This includes magical creatures and monsters.

Science fiction is similar to fantasy. The difference is there is no magic. Science fiction takes place in the future from when the book was written. (So 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is science fiction even though we now have submarines.) Science fiction can also take place in an alternate reality. Anything that scientists might talk about--time travel, faster than light speed travel, etc. is game even if science could never actually accomplish it. 

Magical realism is different from fantasy in that the magical things that happen are more along the lines of miracles that are then accepted by people who are living in today's society. 

Non-fiction is still considered non-fiction even if you have changed the names and identifying traits of some of the people. I am currently reading a book that claims to be both fiction and well-researched, conspiracy theory truth (and no, I don't think the guy is trying to do this for literary reasons). Non-fiction (except for something like a memoir or literary fiction, poetry, cookbooks, etc.) usually requires research and footnotes or a bibliography. There are a few fiction books that imitate this with footnotes (Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell comes to mind). If the footnotes are real and not made up, it is non-fiction. 

Poetry can cover a lot of things. The problem is that it must have either rhyme, shape, meter, imagery, or some other literary device, usually one that includes the repetition of sounds. 

Dystopian--the end of the world is grim. Usually, these are futuristic books with awful governments and people trying to escape them. 

Action/Adventure books--these books usually have a quest or mission and the daring feats or physical action drives the plot more than character relationships, world building, or character building.

Horror fiction is meant to scare or disturb you. There are a variety of ways this can be done from detailing grotesque torture to paranormal events. 

A thriller doesn't necessarily want to scare or disturb you, but it more is keeping you on the edge of your seat to find out what is going to happen next. 

If there is a genre you aren't sure about, feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to address it in a future post. 

A 5-Star Reader's Favorite Book Review: I Made This One for You by Christy Kim

 Christy Kim’s I Made This One for You is a picture book dealing with an important issue in our “sharing is caring” society. Hanuel is a young girl raised on this mantra. She soon discovers there are times when children don’t feel like sharing, such as when they are playing with a new toy. Hanuel struggles to understand how her friends can say “no” to sharing and still care about her. Will Hanuel learn that respecting others’ feelings is also an important part of caring?

I Made This One for You is a good way to teach kids about the other side of sharing. Parents realize the importance of teaching children to share their toys and other items but often overlook that some children could see this as a right to take anything away from another child. Christy Kim’s book also helps kids on the receiving side of the mantra understand the asking child’s feelings and how to deal with his/her own feelings and the feelings of the other child. I’ve had personal experience with this at a birthday party for my youngest. She had just opened a toy, and the child who gave it to her wanted her to share it with him. His parent even said, “Sharing is caring.” This put me in an uncomfortable spot because the toy was supposed to be a gift for my daughter. She reluctantly handed over the toy, and I felt her sadness and confusion. I wish I had this book at that time because it would have helped me (and my daughter) to deal with the situation. I highly recommend this book!

Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favorite

Funky KDP Ebook Formatting

 Most new authors have no problem uploading their books to Amazon's KDP. But even with a basic book, some people may be a little confused at what to do. This is why when people hire me to format a book for KDP for them, I include free uploading support. I go through it with them while they are doing it. On occasion, I have even done the upload for them--but I require they change their password to a different one for me to use, so I do not have their normal password and warn them this is risky for them. I especially don't want them to think because they can trust me that they could trust anyone else. All your tax and bank information is in your Amazon account--so please do not share your password or account information, even a temporary one, with anyone even briefly. It's like letting your kids talk to strangers--most are probably fine but there is always that one bad guy who will run off with them. 

The best format for paperbacks and hardcovers are PDFs. I recommend using a 5.5" x 8.5" format if you plan to do both paperback and hardcover because it will save you time. You also need to make sure your fonts are embedded in the .pdf. Using the styles feature is not always necessary, but it saves time and a headache in some cases. 

However, when you start to get into books that use a lot of different formatting and that have graphics, you really need to follow the recommendations and upload a .pdf instead of a .doc or other form. This will ensure your images and formatting stay put during the conversion.

For an e-book, you need to use either an .epub file or a .zip file. In addition to getting rid of Vella, Amazon is also getting rid of the .mobi file format and will no longer be accepting those files. Kindle Comic Creator (my go-to for intensive image books) will no longer work. Now, you need to use Kindle Create. 

Someone posted a project on Guru for formatting her book for Amazon. In the post she stated she would edit it and add graphics afterword. This is impossible. I mean, a .pdf or .epub could be edited if you have access to those tools, but I am not sure if an edited version would upload correctly--especially if the edits are as extensive as adding graphics. Further, you would now have to edit two documents instead of one. Once you have a .zip file, again, editing becomes a risky process and requires skill. 

Chances are good, if the poster of this project needs help figuring out how to format their book, they won't have the technical know-how on how to edit it afterward--regardless of whether or not those edits could survive the upload process.

Formatting is always the last step before you publish your book. Proofreading is both the last stage of editing and should fix the formatting, but a proofreader will not necessarily give you back the proper file formats. 

When I upload my ebook, there is nothing more depressing than finding out there are editing errors I missed (especially since I foolishly do this after I have done my paperback--a leftover from the days when you had to do the paperback first to save time and effort). This means, I have to go fix the document, recreate the .zip and .pdf files, and then I have to reupload everything. If I have already uploaded the paperback once, I also will have to wait the 72 hours to fix it.