Recent content by Damage718

I've heard about Legends & Lattes for quite some time, everyone I've talked to who has read it has loved it. I recently started it myself. Only about 80 pages in, but am quite enjoying it so far. It's a comfy departure from other fantasy novels that's for sure, but still has those elements to it.

Late to this thread, but freelancers are also an option here. There are a lot of people with side publishing businesses like this who can help just do the heavy lifting for you. My editor and her daughter run a side business doing exactly that...editing, formatting, and uploading to Amazon...

I think the trick is to be ambiguous with them. I, too, have been spoiled on show plots based on episode titles. You don't want to give the farm away in the title unless it's super straightforward and intentional, like short story titles sometimes are, but that doesn't always translate well to a...

Some hate it, some love it. Others don't care either way. What's your take and why? I think it can be a clever and appetizing way for the reader to start a chapter, but it's not wholly necessary at the same time. My current WIP has chapter titles, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them yet.

As a marketing copywriter by day who writes boring nonfic stuff for a living, it all comes down to the audience. Who is this for? Why would they read it? What will they get out of it?

Time has always been my biggest enemy. FT job with a commute 5 days a week, plus a freelance job from home sucks up a LOT of my time. Then other commitments, family stuff, etc. and I can only write during little windows of time, really. That always seems to screw with my momentum. I have...

My first collection was pretty random, but like Homer said, I put a couple of the strongest stories first for the reasons he suggested. For my second collection, they were all linked and part of a bigger narrative, so my first chapter was a short little hook to the jaw and the last chapter was...

Great insight, thank you. And yes, you reiterated the challenge I'm having correctly. I slowly built up that there is something wrong with this pseudo-town (it was supposed to be a town but is only a baseball stadium and train station) with subtle hints from players who have played there...

In my WIP, there is a character who is sensitive to the strange (possibly supernatural) goings on in a mysterious town. There is no actual town there, though; it's one piece of land with a particular building in the middle of farmland. But throughout the story, I hint, through dialogue, that...

In reading it now I phrased my question above wrong (doh!) What I meant was that if you use an Amazon-created ISBN, you're limited to only Amazon, I think. If you buy ISBNs from a place like Bowker you can use them on Amazon. I've done it for all my books. I believe the snag is that the Amazon...

Can you only publish on Amazon if you have an Amazon-created ISBN? I thought that was part of the deal, though I could be wrong. In any case, it's good to buy your own ISBNs, not just for that reason but since you own your own rights.

WC is kind of like stepping on the scale. Unless you have a specific goal in mind, it's just a number. Similar to how you feel/function/look being more important than what you weigh, the WC should take a backseat to the story itself.

Isolation. Loneliness. Independence. I don't do it consciously, either. But I've noticed several times in my short story collections and in my current WIP, there are characters who spend a lot of time wandering in places by themselves, or living alone, or both. A lot of introspection and...

Almost done with the first draft of my next book (my 4th). The MC is a player on a small town semi-pro baseball team in 1914 as he's trying to get noticed and move up, with the dream of playing in the majors. The manager is a mean old bastard who used to coach in the major leagues and is trying...

Well, it's not a feat or accolade per se, just the usual overload and burnout that I've been dealing with. I work as a FT content writer at a marketing agency (for now, at least. We've had significant cuts in the last 6 weeks and about 15 people laid off or left), plus a side gig writing...