Jonathan-David’s Comments (group member since Jul 25, 2013)

Jonathan-David’s comments from the Editio Self-Publishing group.

I love Kickstarter. I've backed only one project (a board game, 10 Minutes to Kill), but I often check in to see what new projects there are, particularly in technology and design. You see a lot of really unique things on Kickstarter, things you wouldn't see anywhere else. So because I love it so much, I'm considering using Kickstarter to help fund my upcoming fourth book.

Patti - How did you go about marketing your Kickstarter project?

Thanks, I've entered for the free review. To be honest, though, the site looks really unprofessional. They offer proofreading and design, but they haven't incorporated either of those things into their site. Oh well, it's free. :p

For some statistics on this, including information on which price points sell the most books and which price points make the most profit, see the 2014 Smashwords Survey: http://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/2014-smashwords-survey-how-to-sell-more-ebooks. The whole thing is interesting, but if you skip to slide 63 that's where the pricing information starts.

Of course, the data is from Smashwords, so things may be different on sites like Amazon.

I'm interested. My email address is chaoswhistler2@gmail.com. You can see more about me and my books at jonathandavidjacksonwrites.com. Thanks. :)

I've published three books with CreateSpace as my printer and their logo isn't on any of them, you don't have anything to worry about. :)

I check mine once a week, on a Monday, because otherwise I'd be checking it all the time. Checking for updates so often really gets in the way of doing other stuff I should be doing, just like checking Facebook or checking emails. If I did it any more often I'd definitely still have a limit, like every 3 days or once a day in the morning or evening.

To get ideas for other things to start sentences with, just pick up a book you like in the genre you're writing in. See what they do. :) This is also helpful for dialogue - pick up a book where you like the dialogue and see how it's written.

Something I find helpful for self-editing is to get a text-to-speech program which will read your book out loud to you. There are a lot of things you can't see when reading that will immediately sound wrong when you hear them.

The things you're using to break up your dialogue are called 'beats', and in my opinion having one after every piece of dialogue is too much.

There are a few books I'd recommend -
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - $5.74 used (http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fi...)
This points out some common mistakes that beginning writers make, and how to fix them.

The Elements of Style - $0.49 used (http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-...)
This is a quick (66 pages) rundown of basic grammar and writing rules.

Another thing you might find useful is Pro Writing Aid. It's a free program that will analyze your text for you and give you a lot of useful information, including overused words, grammar, cliches, etc. It's not perfect, but it's useful and free.
http://prowritingaid.com/en/Analysis/...

What's bad about Smashwords? As far as I can see, they're a great distributor. Upload your book to Smashwords and you've got distribution to iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Nook, Diesel, and 5 or 6 more that I can't recall.

Nadia,

I am interested, and I have emailed you. Thanks!

I wouldn't worry about it, as long as your book is otherwise in good shape and looks nice.

I published my book through CreateSpace and their name is not inside the book. My publisher is listed as Kipling Books, a publisher name I created. I used the $10 ISBN option, which is between the free option and the $100 option.