Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion

Had any good ideas on how we can run this group better? Any separate folders you'd like to see added? Or any other suggestions? Tell us about it here. If it's reasonable and doesn't involve the release of a strain of T-virus, I'll try and make it happen ;)

I had a bright idea once, but then I failed my save vs. shiny.

Dave wrote: "I had a bright idea once, but then I failed my save vs. shiny."

haha! I like that!

Alright you too wise acres ;p

Gah - I mean 'two'. Brain no worky good today :(

What a bout a folder for 'how's your week been?' to cover everything - from how our writing has gone that week, promoting we've done or want to do, sales, weather, health, family (if folks want to divulge) in fact just a general all rounder?

I'll start - I've had a so so week writing wise as I've been working at other things - as my Defender's Series has started to end it's Select period with Amazon I'm getting books organised and ready to upload onto D2D for distribution to Apple etc - Book 1 in the series, has been uploaded and is available now on B & N, Apple shouldn't be too long tho I did get an email from D2D saying Kobo is running waaaay behind in it's uploads. I've also started working with my editor on one of my books so that's good - in my eyes - the guy is great and so easy to work with, he has good suggestions and we've now settled into a way of working in that any small changes i.e. if he finds spelling, or missed commas etc he goes ahead and does that without me having to say 'oh yea, sorry, missed that' or some such lol. I've also finalised cover for one of my new books - hummed and hawed about it but realised I really liked cover in the first book in that series so just changed it about a bit and hey presto I'm happy! Again guy I work with is great, let's be honest with my indecision sometimes he has to be lol! I've got some stuff on tomorrow but I'm planning on getting stuck into writing on Sunday - three quarters way through and know in my head what's going to be happening but just haven't typed it out yet. Jeez, that's quite a lot done and I didn't realise it! How's you week been? Ava

I agree, Ava. A chat room thread would be good. Otherwise, we are clogging up the introductions thread with chat, which will make it hard for people to look through and see who is in the group.

My week has not been as busy as your week! I am working on a redraft on my WIP.

All work is a step forward, even if a small one, it's better than one backwards lol

True enough. :)

I have been very busy today so I'm going to go and sit down and possibly, maybe, have a glass of rose. Oh and a packet of plain crisps! yum

Good idea. I'll add a 'Coffee Break' folder for chat about anything. We can have a progress discussion ongoing in there as well as a few other threads.
BTW I'm quite happy for people to start discussions in the relevant folders :)

Tea break.

Tea/ Coffee? Compromise? ;)

Good bottle of wine break! No I'm only kidding

I like beer better than wine. :)

Same as hubby but he has taken a shine to the rose I am partial to! Hmm not happy bout that lol.

Part of the problem is that the MiL is a master vintner, so.... when I do get wine it tends to be very good, and I can't affor the good stuff.

Oh aren't u lucky! The wine I like my OH picks up when he's on the continent - a third of the price in the supermarkets here - yum!

J.A.'s mention of our bar in the 'Who Are You?' thread made me realise: this may be the only Group anywhere in the Goodreads Empire with a bar, but it doesn't have a name. I was thinking maybe 'The Slushpile'?

lolz, good name as any!

Yeah, that works for me. Happy hour at the Slushpile...

Eeeeeeww...Given that 99% of everything in the slush pile gets **ahem** rejected...I absolutely refuse to drink at any bar called the Slushpile.

Lol

In my youth I spent a lot of time in the slushpile, so going to a bar named Slushpile would probably be a trip down Memory Lane for me.

I have a slightly better than dim idea. How about a "want ad" section? Seeing as there are some multi talented folks and and some not as talented folks (maybe just me), could we have a section where those in need could post what they are looking for and what they are willing to pay or barter? For example, If I need someone to draw some wicked cover (which I may), I could post roughly what I want and what my price range is. Of course, if this already exists and I'm simply daft, could you point me in the right direction?

No that's a really good idea, Christina. I'll set up a folder for it a bit later :)

Awesome! Thanks!

*raises hand slowly*
Am I allowed to second that idea...?

Oh... I'm already too late, aren't I?

Also, Christina (while I'm at it) feel free to message me(or I can give you my email, if that's easier) what you have in mind and price range, and I'll see if I can help! (If you'd like, of course...>_>)

Tammy, to be honest, I already had my eye on you. ;)
I'll send you a message soon.

Excellent! Yes, just send an email over when you're ready, Christina! :D

One or two members of our Group will already know of, and perhaps even have participated in, another group called 'The Source'; and although that's now defunct, I think the idea itself was a good one and might be worth trying here on a smaller scale.

This is what's involved. An author posts their book; anyone else who feels like it can then screen it, i.e. judge its front cover, book blurb and a decent sample of text (for spelling, punctuation, grammar, formatting, general readability and so on) and either give it the thumbs up or a thumbs down. If it accumulates five Thumbs Ups it goes forward to be reviewed, five Thumbs Downs and it goes back to its author - who can later (having first raged at the unfairness of it all, tried to throw the laptop out of an upper storey window, hauled it back in again on the end of its cable, got blind drunk and woke up in a police cell next morning) rework the book and submit it for screening again. Books reaching the 'For Review' thread remain there until they've been reviewed five times.

It'll mean being brutally honest when criticising other Group Members' books. But, in return, the aim is to (a) eliminate all the amateurish front covers and inept book blurbs, all the typo-riddled and badly written prose which are giving indie books such a bad name; and (b) to get everybody who takes part five genuine, no-nonsense reviews posted on both Goodreads and Amazon.

So, what do you think?

Sounds good to me. I live in a trailer (no upper storey window) and I really would like to hear how people feel about my book. Promise not to find other means of ending it all.

Richard, that sound to me like a bright idea.

Would that be here on Goodreads, a thread in this group, or something like that?

I like it. I will definitely participate in the reviewing and try to put my critic pants on. If nothing else, I'm good at spotting other people's typos. (And maybe someone will find mine since they are invisible to me.)

That's exactly the idea - working together, rather than competing, to produce some thoroughly professional-looking books.

It would all be done right here in this group - in a single folder, much like the BOTM folder, with separate threads for screening and reviewing.

I'm on board. Sounds like a great idea. I have a lot of critique experience so I can probably help there. My one stipulation would be no abusive language in a critique.

So saying ' this really isn't up to scratch yet because of x, y and z' is painful (probably) but useful.

But ' this is shit, I have nothing to say' is neither helpful nor necessary.

Totally ok with brutal honesty as long as it is for a purpose.

Bah what am I worried about? You lot are great ;)

Where's the new folder, and sign me up! I may not be the most active, but I would love to get a chance to read some of the "current" stuff, even if it is just in short segments. Until I started skimming through the discussion threads, I didn't realize how badly I had fallen behind the times.

Richard wrote: "One or two members of our Group will already know of, and perhaps even have participated in, another group called 'The Source'; and although that's now defunct, I think the idea itself was a good o..."

All I can say is that I'll try my damndest to participate in the screening process.

So, mods, what's the process? When does a book become officially available? I assume we just read the preview chapters, so don't need free copies sent out?

I like that idea but man do I occasionally get anxiety about future reviews when the book's out. But i also want the honest reviews because how else do you grow?

What about book cover concepts? Can those be included as well? I usually don't finalize my cover art until well into the actual writing process. But, I start with a concept before the book even gets started.

I think I'd better set up that folder then and Richard can do a thread on guidelines for this. Exciting stuff :)

Richard 2060 wrote: "So, mods, what's the process? When does a book become officially available? I assume we just read the preview chapters, so don't need free copies sent out?"

I'm not a mod but I remember that the way the 'Source' worked was that authors would submit their titles (not the whole book at this stage, only one title and only the first in a series, or a standalone) for review of the cover, blurb, and the 'Look Inside' feature at Amazon Books.

After 5 positive reviews at that early stage, the author would have to make their books available for a review of the whole book. If there were 5 negative reviews at the early stage, then the 'whole book' review would be turned down.

I remember submitting my book but life got in the way for me and I just didn't get around to critiquing any of the books.

The concept was really kool. I'm looking forward to the guidelines and know it'll be quite a lot of fun :)

I've opened a new folder and a start up thread - which I'm hoping Richard will set out the guidelines for. If you have anything to add at this stage or suggestions to make, please now post them on the general discussion thread in that folder (The (smaller) Source) Thank you :)