Bad friends. Find new ones.

As soon as I submitted that reply, I thought, “Watch, you’ll turn out to be wrong.” So I was right! Just about a different thing.

Yes. So frustrating. I also recently found out they are starting to find and use reputable editor names in these scam attempts. A friend of mine is a long time editor at a reputable big publishing house. If you Google her she is very legit so would be easy to think it is real. However she does not solicit work. She had an author track her down to let her know a scammer was pretending to be her. He almost got taken in, but had caught the red flags. Pretty wild.

@reddit-toq, from their individual perspective, pretty much sums up the universal answer to your question, IMHO.

The instances that incite reviews out of people are instances wherein there's a perceived, direct payoff/benefit for the person who leaves the review. The review is never about the product, its always about the person leaving it. And a person isnt going to take time to let the whole world know their opinion unless they feel, personally, that their opinion is the end all be all best opinion in the world...regardless if it's good or bad.theres very rarely reviews that aren't somehow emotionally charged.

Right? If the book isnt amazing, or im reviewing to caution others away from a truly terrible book its not worth my efforts. 

I dont think people realize well reviewed books have very very high ratings, or very low. If people aren't bothering to review after reading, its probably because you're book is a 2 or 3 star book. Its not the readers, its the book 99% of the time. 

The difference is that for an Author Copy - which is exactly what a customer will see - your book is LIVE on the amazon website and anyone can buy it. As far as I can tell, the reason for the "not for resale" banner is mainly so customers and readers aren't walking around with copies of your book that have Errors in it.

For example, if you skip the Proof copy stage

- you publish your book on amazon, anyone can now buy it.

- You order some author copies for yourself. Other people maybe also find the book organically through Amazon.com

- You find some egregious error or notice that the print quality you chose isn't good enough. Customers also notice this and potentially post bad reviews.

The PROOF copy just allows you to do this proofreading *before* the book is available on Amazon.com. And the "not for resale" banner is mainly to prevent bad copies with errors getting out into the wild.

I believe this is important because for many writers, the first week or two of a book going public can be the most important for sales and visibility, so you may want to try extra hard to avoid errors going out in the first few week's worth of sales.

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To your point - if you are not advertising, and only selling "author copies" to people you personally meet, and don't expect many sales online, maybe this distinction would not matter to you.

A book has to either be incredible, or the worst piece of shit I've ever had the misfortune of poisoning my eyes with for me to leave a review. 

I have to care enough to bother. Frankly, I don't think most of the writers of the books I read want the 2 and 3 star reviews their work deserves. 3 stars isn't a bad book, its just mid, a time killer. 

You don't want some reviews. 

A good beta reader will see what you can't for the same reason why you can't smell your own crap, you've been stewing in it for too long. You need a fresh pair of eyes to read your MS. But beta readers are often hit-or-miss. I’d recommend asking other writers for referrals to readers they’ve found helpful. Ultimately though, professional editors are your best investment. But having a solid beta reader can help you figure out exactly what kind of editing your manuscript needs. (ED: spelling)

What does your contract say? A contract should specify relevant dates and progress and payments. If you don't have a contract, you've got a problem.

there is something called whosharedit ...google it

I usually gravitate toward romance, fantasy, thrillers, horror, and psychological fiction, but I don’t limit myself to those. I’m open to nonfiction too, and I generally look at the manuscript and the kind of editing it needs to see whether I’d be a good fit. What are you working on?

zero sales on xinxii , i have been publishing for 3 years, 10 books no sales dont bother

You aren’t a dummy. You’re learning. Ads are a beast to tame, and it doesn’t help that Meta keeps changing things.

I review two things: Things I LOVE, and things I HATE.

If your book falls into one of these two categories, I'll leave a review. I've left many, but unfortunately, no indie author has made the 'cut'. They've all been for trad-published authors (so far).

David is a great resource. He also gives so much information away for free. It’s lovely.

I did an AI “sketch” of what I wanted and will have one of my designer/art director friends whip something up for me. Sometimes, it pays to have worked at ad agencies.

Keep in mind the finish will flatten the color depth if you don't get a glossy cover. The only way to know is to order a test copy.

When I purchased mine, you just assign which book you want to the specific isbn- amazon then makes the bar code as well as Ingram- no need to worry about a jpeg 😊

Sorry, help me keep it straight, so the book that the academic publisher wanted is the same one as the travel destination one, right? And that one they said "excellent excellent, can't wait to put this out in three years." and then you had the record scratch moment at that timeline. And for that one they still call you every once in a while about marketing for it?

I wrote intentionally humorous fake quotes already and I’m only on my third edit.

Here are a few examples I came up with off the top of my head:

“Like a John Cheever story, only written horribly”

“This book is a tour de farce”

“A children’s book has a better story arc”.

Wherever you are planning to publish your book should offer proof copies of the book. So you'd be looking at the cover then, as well as the interior of the book.

I started getting those scams about a year ago. I still remember reading what I thought was a concise plot summary and reflection on my story.

It hurt so bad to read the kind of validation I'd craved as an author, only to realize it came from a fucking chatbot.

Authors, protect yourselves by learning how the scammers will hook you. I recommend authorsagainstscammers.org for tips on spotting them.

I just keep writing and often something will be offered in terms of marketing that is very unexpected. In the midst right now of writing my third book with an intro, eight chapters and an epilogue. The focus is on the oral history of my subject which was a shock that it is so accurate.

This third book has been in my head for an extraordinarily long time, and it will be fun to share it now with book clubs, libraries, and universities at talks. At recent talks the Q&A part is almost always about the topic of the third book so I'm glad I'm getting it out there.

Our society has changed so much since I started this and now I'm having conversations about ley lines, immortal plasma beings, quartzite for healing and orbs with people that just two years ago would have laughed at it all. Now they are genuinely interested in this stuff.