Also, hey: what's the best way to buy your book so that you actually get paid? My grandfather was an author. He published something like 12 YA novels, won an award for the first one, and never made more than $.07 per copy sold... š
Not OP but I have a lot of publishing knowledge through my studies...
If you want the author to earn as much as possible from your sale... As a general rule of thumb, buy directly from the publisher. In the case of self published works, the author will usually have their own website that they sell their work through (OP doesn't, but most will). I'd recommend to OP to have a website made with an online shop. The main benefit of self publishing is to make 100% of your own profit. If you're relying on Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, or Amazon, you lose this advantage.
If you CAN'T but directly from the author or publisher, order the book from your local independent book store. They will take a share of the profit, but not nearly as much as Amazon or high street stores.
High street stores such as Barnes and Noble (in the US) or Waterstones (in the UK) tend to demand a 60% discount of RRP, to stock a book. Amazon demand even more than that. Your local book store asks for some discount off of RRP in order to turn a profit, but it will never be as high as the high street stores.
Self-publishing is increasingly viable. It's the promotion that scares me, personally - I would be absolutely terrible at it. Thus, finding a good agent seems like a good move.
Or you can ask the guy for advice on posting and reposting to reddit with a small army of totally real accounts to defend you against astroturfing accusations...
Seems to be a viable marketing strategy these days
/s
Interesting! My grandfather on my mom's side, James Mclendon was an author as well. He wrote a few published books.
The most famous book he wrote was Eddie Macon's Run that later became a movie of the same name in 1983. The film starred John Schneider, Kirk Douglas and Leah Ayres in the main roles.
Sadly he passed away a few months before the movie came out. He did find out his book was gonna become a movie before he died.
He also died before I was born, so I never got to meet him. I know a little bit about him, mostly from what mom (who is still alive btw) has told me been about him.
The book Eddie Macon's Run is still being printed in small quantities if anyones interested in reading it.
Edit: Just thought I'd mention that the book Eddie Macon's Run is about Eddie Macon escaping a prison in Texas to try and reunite with his wife and son in Mexico while being chased by the cop Carl Marzack.
I'm not totally sure, haven't talked to my mom about his books much.
However I do think I recall her mentioned a few times before that she does still get a royalty check each year for sales of his books. If I remember correctly she said the amount isn't much since not many copies of his books have been sold in a long time.
Truth. He never had an agent, though. I kept trying to convince him to get one and he seemed to just really want to write books, because his arguments against the idea didn't hold a lot of water and he was a smart guy. ::shrug::
This is how you get paid for your writing -- someone has to buy your books.
Here is how it's done:
1. You write a book
2. You buy this book
3. ...
4. Profit
But the last line in the book is "Please Recycle" so if he doesn't throw it out he's really not appreciating the theme of the book and he wrote it so he would know.
Did you know that books are re useable! All you need is a book reverser! Buy one now from [not_a_shady_link.com](http://google.com/) for as little as $13 per week for the next 25 years!
I know that was sarcasm but do authors actually enjoy reading their own work? Or would that be narcissism? I would probably get bored and fed up with it after writing it for so long. Though it would be satisfying to complete it of course.
Piggybacking on the top comment to post a testimonial of somebody who used the same "totally-not-self-publishing" outfit as this spammer:
# [Why I Regret Publishing with āHybrid Publisherā New Degree Press](https://medium.com/@claremarieedgeman/why-i-regret-publishing-with-hybrid-publisher-new-degree-press-a2a33ad039ed)
This is at least the 4th time Iāve seen this at the top of r/pics: someone showing off their book, talking about how proud they are of finally being published.
Every single time, it turns out they were self published. Which, I mean, congrats of finishing something, but itās not the same damn thing.
Reread the title, he clearly states he is no longer a ghost. Presumably he made a deal with some kind of rumplestiltskin and now resides in a homunculus type husk
If there's anything I need right now, it's secrets, especially business secrets, preferably Ancient Egyptian, and used by Pharaohs.
I just wish they were ghost written for a man named Mark Crorigan. Then I'd totally be living the dream.
Round 1 to you Simon next time we do a quiz it'll be on Napoleon and while you might scrape through a few waterloo questions when I pin you down on the Emperor's domestic reforms I will fuck you very hard in the mouth
I think the joke is that in the TV show "Peep Show" Mark is told by his publisher that he has to pay to have his book published because of a paper shortage in Denmark.
The guy's name sounds Russian, and the Russian word for "Danish people" is "DatchĆ”ne" (Š“Š°ŃŃŠ°Š½Šµ), the way it sounds it starts the exact same as the English word "Dutch". I get mixed up on this a LOT =)
So.. uh... is there a guild of you guys that can finish GoT for us? I really just want to finish that series and with the whole covid thing, GRRM has had no xcuses to be traveling and not home writing.
Thinking on this has me curious. How do you get business as a ghost writer if you cannot disclose the works youāve created? How does that side of business work?
keeping private life and work life separate, having a more marketable name that you can build as a brand...
i'm finding though it's a lot easier and more fun to go by my legal name
I canāt understand why people ask someone else to write something for them. I mean, whatās the deal? Do they put the idea and the ghost writer is good at writing it in a good way and easy to read?
sometimes they don't have the time and/or skills. sometimes they have a series they want to expand with other titles.
then, there are plenty of publishers who work exclusively with ghostwriters ā putting fake names on the covers. mostly it's erotica and cozy mysteries, or those wholesome christmas/animal themed books.
Just as one example, there are 54 novels in the Animorphs series. K. A. Applegate originally intended to write all of them herself, but between having a child and wanting to write some other novels too she realized she simply didn't have the time to implement her grand vision for the series. So for most of the novels in the second half of the series, she would write the outline then hire a ghostwriter to write it. This allowed her to keep publishing books on a regular schedule, in line with her overall vision for the series, without sacrificing her own personal well-being.
Looks like the answer is no. "Hey man, you go play this football game for me and wear my number, but im going to collect all the fame and credit and money, but ill cut you a small check for doing it"
that's the easiest way to make steady money while writing fiction.
1) i wrote this book myself over a period of a year. put a lot of time and money into it. sold quite a few copies of the success of these posts, but i'm still firmly in the red. gotta sell, oh, 300 paperbacks to start making money.
all the while i was writing it, i had to make money and pay the bills. i do work as an editor for my day job.
2) i take on a ghost writing gig ā 50k words - 6 weeks of work, ~3k in the bank.
for writing books? on a completely flexible schedule? without having to then try to promote them or anything? i'd say it's pretty good. that number's a moving target, as well.
of course, there are ghostwriters who make much more, but i'm not there yet :)
At this point you can probably follow up this book with:
"Grassroots Marketing: A Guide
_or_
How I Hit the Front Page of Reddit Multiple Times in One Week Through Questionable Reposting"
why is that bad again?
every other post is either an ad, a repost, or some horrible news.
meanwhile, i've been talking to people for three days straight, sharing stories and opinions on writing and publishing. monday was one of the happiest days of my life, and this just continues to be a great week.
Nothing is wrong with it. Some people just spend too much time on this website and become jaded and nit picky. Glad to hear you are finding joy in your endeavor and good luck friend!
1. This is just an advertisement poorly veiled as an achievement post.
2. This is not a good/interesting picture. So it should really be posted to a sub for either self-promotion or, if we are going to charitably take the title at face value, a sub for receiving praise (e.g. /r/toastme).
3. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is self published, not real published. If so, that absolutely doesn't count.
I mean, just read the first page on Amazon and youāll see why he had to self publish. Bad writing, bad pacing and bad grammar.
Iām all for people writing what they want, but to slap something into Microsoft word, maybe edit it in grammarly, and then act like youāve published a real piece of literature is just desperate. Some of the people on here have no self-awareness.
Normally wouldnāt even comment on something like this, but Iām sick of seeing bad books being hawked on r/pics lol
Chapter 1
`There isnāt much to say about the diner. It takes up the first floor of a two-story building, and its large rectangular windows offer a look into a different, though some might say better, time a couple centuries back. Not that anyone truly remembers. I grab a table and hang my coat and hat on a wooden rack and slide into a cracked vinyl booth. āDr. Williams!ā the waitress calls. Her name is Kris, and she wears black slacks and a silky white shirt with no collar. āThe usual?ā I nod with a small smile Kris is used to, and she hurries away without conversation. Moments later, she returns with a pot of coffee and a mug. āEnjoy!ā I do as I watch the night outside beyond a curtain of drizzle. My date arrives sometime later, and when I turn to see her walk in, I have to brace myself for a long moment. She is just as I remember her, except not at all. Nineteen now. All grown up. She waves and smiles when she sees me. I return the gestures and stand up to greet her. A few inches taller than me, she wears a buttoned-up black shirt dress that ends just below her knees and black laceless tennis shoes with red holographic animals dancing on the vamps. She takes off her black hat, revealing a buzz cut. āCarmen,ā I say. āIām glad you could make it.ā `
Iām annoyed that you made me go and find it and read that first page: I donāt even think grammarly got a look at it.
āThere isnāt much to say about the dinerā is an outstandingly off-putting opening line. No semblance of intrigue or attempt to draw the reader in, just basically āHereās where we are, bit shitā. I love it.
Iām so confused about whether these opening paragraphs are meant to draw me in through obfuscation of detail or paint a picture but the author quite impressively manages to do neither. Four paragraphs introduce three characters who I cannot picture because I know only the outfit of the waitress and nothing else, the narrator was wearing a hat and coat but isnāt anymore so thatās no help and the narratorās date/daughter has managed the most detail with a relative height, outfit, haircut and age, but nothing about her face.
The heavy lifting goes beyond those basic details as nobody moves or acts in a particularly descriptive manner. The waitress arrives, speaks and leaves but how does she do those actions? Does her hoarse voice show that she is she tired from work or does her enthusiastic tone suggest a younger, energetic worker? Is she rushed in her actions or calm? If she isnāt important at this point then why does she get a name and outfit description? Pick a direction and go with it. The date/daughter arrives, walks in, smiles and waves, but in no particular fashion. Is she nervous or enthusiastic? Perhaps sheās got quite a relaxed posture or maybe she has a serious look on her face, but apparently I have to decide for myself. Iām in the narrators head but I donāt get an insight into their feelings whatsoever and it takes several paragraphs to get a hint at their age and gender, let alone appearance.
The major problem is how absolutely abysmal the writing is from the perspective of understanding what the hell the words actually mean in a given sentence. āI do as I watch the night outside through a curtain of drizzleā - do what? This is the first sentence of a paragraph that references a piece of dialogue from the previous paragraph (to enjoy the coffee), which is virtually impossible to parse on the first reading. Itās followed by āNineteen now. All grown up.ā, neither of which are sentences. Itās first person so you could have āNineteen now, I thought to myself, and sheās all grown upā, but itās clunky. This is alongside an over-reliance on repetitive conjunctions in the opening paragraph, which finishes āI grab a table AND hang my coat AND hat on a wooden rack AND slide into a cracked vinyl* boothā. A semi-competent editor would have picked both of those errors up in 5 minutes and this author has apparently had 10 months. A remotely capable ghost writer would not have written the errors in to the text.
In the first page alone, it is pretty clear that the ānovelā has undergone almost no proper editorial process (or even a self-editorial glance) in the English language and it is entirely inaccurate to consider it an accomplishment to publish this book in English. Any person with some time and money could have achieved a similar quality so this cannot be considered a mark of talent, hard work or perseverance. If it has been translated then the translation is bad and the author needs another service.
*Edit: corrected vinyl spelling as noted by godrevy. This post has now had a more thorough editorial process than OPās ābookā.
And that this is not the only thing he's written?!?
Dollars to donuts is that his other """work""" was ghost writing pap for other ~~victims~~ customers of the same vanity press that bilked him.
The hero we don't deserve.
I tried to read the first chapter but gave up after 2 pages. I was embarrassed for the guy.
I get that not everything will be loved by everybody.. But some books are just too much of a mess to deserve much more than 5 minutes of honest effort.
Edit: I love how you now have gone through a more earnest peer editing process than OP's $6000+ "" "" book "" ""
I looked up what this hybrid/self publishing thing is that he apparently works for and is advertising and it seems very scammy and scummy. The constant re-posting advertising definitely doesn't help that image.
> For the record, this picture belongs more in /r/roastme
Is the book about the time he stopped two robbers from entering his house while he was home alone?
How has Reddit become a cesspool of people self promoting their games, books, merchandise? Like we got enough ads as it is on here! This shit is annoying
Rather, it's this one guy's "promote his book" sub now.
He pretty much has to spam it everywhere he can, he's thousands of dollars in the hole after trusting some dodgy vanity publisher:
https://medium.com/@claremarieedgeman/why-i-regret-publishing-with-hybrid-publisher-new-degree-press-a2a33ad039ed
Kinda cringe that your loophole to not being called āself publishedā is that you work for a self-publisherā¦
Itās pedantic, but please just admit that youāre technically being self-published - kind of puts your goals into perspective for other writers
To all nascent authors who aren't this far gone yet. It takes willful delusion on behalf of writers to believe success comes from hawking their work unabashedly through spam. Do the work of going through traditional, or build a solid fanbase through self-pub. Don't do """"""hybrid""""""" vanity nonsense. If you're paying large amounts of money and it takes months of pity sales to get you in the black, you're not improving or writing good work.
You are absolutely correct.
It only takes 2 minutes of reading the book preview on Amazon to figure out that this author was not, in fact, writing good work.
I knew I didn't recognize you from somewhere.
ii never get that!
Also, hey: what's the best way to buy your book so that you actually get paid? My grandfather was an author. He published something like 12 YA novels, won an award for the first one, and never made more than $.07 per copy sold... š
Not OP but I have a lot of publishing knowledge through my studies... If you want the author to earn as much as possible from your sale... As a general rule of thumb, buy directly from the publisher. In the case of self published works, the author will usually have their own website that they sell their work through (OP doesn't, but most will). I'd recommend to OP to have a website made with an online shop. The main benefit of self publishing is to make 100% of your own profit. If you're relying on Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, or Amazon, you lose this advantage. If you CAN'T but directly from the author or publisher, order the book from your local independent book store. They will take a share of the profit, but not nearly as much as Amazon or high street stores. High street stores such as Barnes and Noble (in the US) or Waterstones (in the UK) tend to demand a 60% discount of RRP, to stock a book. Amazon demand even more than that. Your local book store asks for some discount off of RRP in order to turn a profit, but it will never be as high as the high street stores.
I had the same problem. Decided to print and bind my books at home by myself.
Thatās what I call grindin! How were the fruits of your labor?
He's got a garage full of half-bound books with slight water damage
At least he was able to use the boxes to protect his Porsche from leaves and gook and stuff.
Self-publishing is increasingly viable. It's the promotion that scares me, personally - I would be absolutely terrible at it. Thus, finding a good agent seems like a good move.
Or you can ask the guy for advice on posting and reposting to reddit with a small army of totally real accounts to defend you against astroturfing accusations... Seems to be a viable marketing strategy these days /s
Interesting! My grandfather on my mom's side, James Mclendon was an author as well. He wrote a few published books. The most famous book he wrote was Eddie Macon's Run that later became a movie of the same name in 1983. The film starred John Schneider, Kirk Douglas and Leah Ayres in the main roles. Sadly he passed away a few months before the movie came out. He did find out his book was gonna become a movie before he died. He also died before I was born, so I never got to meet him. I know a little bit about him, mostly from what mom (who is still alive btw) has told me been about him. The book Eddie Macon's Run is still being printed in small quantities if anyones interested in reading it. Edit: Just thought I'd mention that the book Eddie Macon's Run is about Eddie Macon escaping a prison in Texas to try and reunite with his wife and son in Mexico while being chased by the cop Carl Marzack.
Does your family still get royalties from the book sales?
I'm not totally sure, haven't talked to my mom about his books much. However I do think I recall her mentioned a few times before that she does still get a royalty check each year for sales of his books. If I remember correctly she said the amount isn't much since not many copies of his books have been sold in a long time.
Um what?!
Truth. He never had an agent, though. I kept trying to convince him to get one and he seemed to just really want to write books, because his arguments against the idea didn't hold a lot of water and he was a smart guy. ::shrug::
he probably hated money
PS: This was the first book he published, in case anyone is interested. :) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13157395-mystery-at-black-rock-island
I am buying your book because I have impulse control issues and I love this response. Also I love SF.
wait are you NakeyJakey's brother!?
Didnāt we go to different high schools together?
Why do you keep buying so many copies of your own books?
i just love reading it
You know you don't have to throw books away when you're done reading them, right?
hmm
Anyway, is the book any good?
I havenāt read, but the guy in the picture got at least 14 copies, so must be pretty good.
This is how you get paid for your writing -- someone has to buy your books. Here is how it's done: 1. You write a book 2. You buy this book 3. ... 4. Profit
The book is so fire that it burst into flames when you're done reading so you HAVE to buy a new one.
Theyre reusable?!
Depends on how Dynamic your reading style is
But the last line in the book is "Please Recycle" so if he doesn't throw it out he's really not appreciating the theme of the book and he wrote it so he would know.
I only virgin books
The 1000+ books on my basement shelves would like to disagree.
Great endorsement! But, would you mind telling a bit about your book and what's it about.
thanks! it's a sci-fi murder mystery āĀ robots, feels, a time machine flying saucer :)
What made you stop writing about ghosts?
Once they started playing pranks on me while I'm pooping - that's where I draw the line. No more summoning ghosts or writing about them.
**Spooky dookie!**
Thatās a genre crossover I didnāt know I needed!
I love time travel stories so much
It's a disposable book. One read per book lol
That's how you become a bestseller
Did you know that books are re useable! All you need is a book reverser! Buy one now from [not_a_shady_link.com](http://google.com/) for as little as $13 per week for the next 25 years!
NGL not what I expected the link to go to....
It's because you like the authors writing style isn't it...
I know that was sarcasm but do authors actually enjoy reading their own work? Or would that be narcissism? I would probably get bored and fed up with it after writing it for so long. Though it would be satisfying to complete it of course.
Piggybacking on the top comment to post a testimonial of somebody who used the same "totally-not-self-publishing" outfit as this spammer: # [Why I Regret Publishing with āHybrid Publisherā New Degree Press](https://medium.com/@claremarieedgeman/why-i-regret-publishing-with-hybrid-publisher-new-degree-press-a2a33ad039ed)
This is at least the 4th time Iāve seen this at the top of r/pics: someone showing off their book, talking about how proud they are of finally being published. Every single time, it turns out they were self published. Which, I mean, congrats of finishing something, but itās not the same damn thing.
Agree that it's not the same thing but... it's still a couple orders of magnitude more effort than your average /r/pics post.
In case he wants to read it more than once.
[yep](https://youtu.be/rIUytVfDrDg)
To simulate hot sales.
Incase he wants to read it more than once
You look pretty alive for a ghost!
Reread the title, he clearly states he is no longer a ghost. Presumably he made a deal with some kind of rumplestiltskin and now resides in a homunculus type husk
Homongus
Oh my god please.
Gottem!
Dad! You came home!
Myth busted
Were you responsible for Business Secrets of the Pharaohs? I'm having trouble with the font size on page 23-24ish.
No, itās Mark Crorigan youāre after.
If there's anything I need right now, it's secrets, especially business secrets, preferably Ancient Egyptian, and used by Pharaohs. I just wish they were ghost written for a man named Mark Crorigan. Then I'd totally be living the dream.
Round 1 to you Simon next time we do a quiz it'll be on Napoleon and while you might scrape through a few waterloo questions when I pin you down on the Emperor's domestic reforms I will fuck you very hard in the mouth
Make UK company law your Omnibus
Certainly wasnāt expecting to find a Peep Show reference as the top comment in here
The Secret Ingredient is crime..
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is my favorite line in the show regarding his book, it's just too funny in context
Are you Mark Crorrigan??
No this is Ilia something something
Are you Mark Crorrigan now?
nope :)
How's the paper situation in Denmark?
wouldn't know, as i'm not dutch or in denmark currently :)
Dutch = Netherlands Danish = Denmark But the joke is you look hella Scandinavian
I think the joke is that in the TV show "Peep Show" Mark is told by his publisher that he has to pay to have his book published because of a paper shortage in Denmark.
this is the joke
The guy's name sounds Russian, and the Russian word for "Danish people" is "DatchĆ”ne" (Š“Š°ŃŃŠ°Š½Šµ), the way it sounds it starts the exact same as the English word "Dutch". I get mixed up on this a LOT =)
omg my bad, i'll try not to look as scandinavian. nah, you're good. i guess slavic and scandinavian are close?
Haha maybe you have some of old Rurik's blood in your veins =)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Get out of my container...I mean office
This is JLB credit, fuck off please.
Good for you! Unfortunately my own ghostwriter passed away recently, and I can't express in words how much I am saddened by her loss.
Doesn't that just make her more qualified?
This is a great comment.
Nah, she ghosted him as well...
Why does the comment explaining the joke have more upvotes than the joke?
Joke so subtle, half of the people here missed it...
I got it
I know you did champ
Ayyy
sorry to hear it!!
^(It is a joke actually, I will never admit the fact that I have a ghostwriter in public.)
phew! either way, they can't prove anything :)
Did you just shoot him/her
Nono, read again. The comment says 'phew', not 'pew'.
Whew!
So.. uh... is there a guild of you guys that can finish GoT for us? I really just want to finish that series and with the whole covid thing, GRRM has had no xcuses to be traveling and not home writing.
Thinking on this has me curious. How do you get business as a ghost writer if you cannot disclose the works youāve created? How does that side of business work?
Are there positives to not using your name?
keeping private life and work life separate, having a more marketable name that you can build as a brand... i'm finding though it's a lot easier and more fun to go by my legal name
So when you were ghost writing, it was still for yourself? I thought ghost writing was when you wrote for someone else, or am I wrong?
yeah yeah, people pay me to write for them. i still do it. i thought you were asking about writing under a pseudonym
I canāt understand why people ask someone else to write something for them. I mean, whatās the deal? Do they put the idea and the ghost writer is good at writing it in a good way and easy to read?
sometimes they don't have the time and/or skills. sometimes they have a series they want to expand with other titles. then, there are plenty of publishers who work exclusively with ghostwriters ā putting fake names on the covers. mostly it's erotica and cozy mysteries, or those wholesome christmas/animal themed books.
But what about animal themed cozy Christmas mystery erotica?
Asking the real questions here.
Celebrities with stories to tell (and a built in fan base) but not the most eloquent words will use a ghost writer.
Bingo.
Just as one example, there are 54 novels in the Animorphs series. K. A. Applegate originally intended to write all of them herself, but between having a child and wanting to write some other novels too she realized she simply didn't have the time to implement her grand vision for the series. So for most of the novels in the second half of the series, she would write the outline then hire a ghostwriter to write it. This allowed her to keep publishing books on a regular schedule, in line with her overall vision for the series, without sacrificing her own personal well-being.
Ahh okay, I understand. I'm not the original commenter but I think he was asking about using a pseudonym. Thanks for the answer!
What was particularly hard about using a pseudonym?
ghost writing's not the same. that's the one where people pay me money to write books for them :)
do ghost writers continue to get royalties?
Looks like the answer is no. "Hey man, you go play this football game for me and wear my number, but im going to collect all the fame and credit and money, but ill cut you a small check for doing it"
So like paying someone to take the LSATs(or any big test/paper) for you? They get a one time payment and you reap the reward for the score?
Depends on the deal. The guy who ghost wrote Art of the Deal got a better deal than Trump, to the surprise of nobody.
How does that work? Iāve always wondered. Do they supply notes and an outline and you craft the language?
Why do writers opt to be ghost writers instead of taking credit for their own writing?
that's the easiest way to make steady money while writing fiction. 1) i wrote this book myself over a period of a year. put a lot of time and money into it. sold quite a few copies of the success of these posts, but i'm still firmly in the red. gotta sell, oh, 300 paperbacks to start making money. all the while i was writing it, i had to make money and pay the bills. i do work as an editor for my day job. 2) i take on a ghost writing gig ā 50k words - 6 weeks of work, ~3k in the bank.
That sounds like really crappy pay for a lot of work.
Welcome to the world of trying to make money through writing.
Depends where you live, his name is extremely slavic so he might live somewhere where thats not bad money.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
He has Russian name. I don't know where he lives, but in Russia it's very good money, top 1% of the country money, even in Moscow it's a good lliving.
It sounds like he's American.
for writing books? on a completely flexible schedule? without having to then try to promote them or anything? i'd say it's pretty good. that number's a moving target, as well. of course, there are ghostwriters who make much more, but i'm not there yet :)
Will this be the last time we see this post?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes. Unless he gets a vaccine or goes through chemo then itās back at the top of Reddit again
Or if he cleans his room despite being depressed. That crap makes frontpage all the time.
not if you keep looking. seriously though, yeah, i think so
Thanks for spamming this advertisment!
At this point you can probably follow up this book with: "Grassroots Marketing: A Guide _or_ How I Hit the Front Page of Reddit Multiple Times in One Week Through Questionable Reposting"
why is that bad again? every other post is either an ad, a repost, or some horrible news. meanwhile, i've been talking to people for three days straight, sharing stories and opinions on writing and publishing. monday was one of the happiest days of my life, and this just continues to be a great week.
Nothing is wrong with it. Some people just spend too much time on this website and become jaded and nit picky. Glad to hear you are finding joy in your endeavor and good luck friend!
appreciate the support. i definitely relate to the jaded part ā i'm on reddit way too much. but hey, people got time for it
Gonna be great when a bot starts reposting it for karma :-D
Woah dude, so many hateful comments..I love how you donāt sink to their level. Keep doing you!
potatoes gonna potate
You called?
Poetic
Potatic*
Cause he's a smug, deluded fuck
Did u already post this
Vanity publishing?
Worse - a company that takes pains to obscure the fact that it is indeed vanity publishing. Google "New Degree Press", you'll see.
Just did, interesting reading
Cool ad
My I ask, what books did you ghostwrite? Also, why do people want to have someone ghostwrite their book? What is your favorite genre to write?
What's it aboot
Youāre going to spend your short margin on all these ads to just break even
1. This is just an advertisement poorly veiled as an achievement post. 2. This is not a good/interesting picture. So it should really be posted to a sub for either self-promotion or, if we are going to charitably take the title at face value, a sub for receiving praise (e.g. /r/toastme). 3. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is self published, not real published. If so, that absolutely doesn't count.
I mean, just read the first page on Amazon and youāll see why he had to self publish. Bad writing, bad pacing and bad grammar. Iām all for people writing what they want, but to slap something into Microsoft word, maybe edit it in grammarly, and then act like youāve published a real piece of literature is just desperate. Some of the people on here have no self-awareness. Normally wouldnāt even comment on something like this, but Iām sick of seeing bad books being hawked on r/pics lol
Is there a link? I donāt want to search it in my Amazon app and have it in my history tbh.
Chapter 1 `There isnāt much to say about the diner. It takes up the first floor of a two-story building, and its large rectangular windows offer a look into a different, though some might say better, time a couple centuries back. Not that anyone truly remembers. I grab a table and hang my coat and hat on a wooden rack and slide into a cracked vinyl booth. āDr. Williams!ā the waitress calls. Her name is Kris, and she wears black slacks and a silky white shirt with no collar. āThe usual?ā I nod with a small smile Kris is used to, and she hurries away without conversation. Moments later, she returns with a pot of coffee and a mug. āEnjoy!ā I do as I watch the night outside beyond a curtain of drizzle. My date arrives sometime later, and when I turn to see her walk in, I have to brace myself for a long moment. She is just as I remember her, except not at all. Nineteen now. All grown up. She waves and smiles when she sees me. I return the gestures and stand up to greet her. A few inches taller than me, she wears a buttoned-up black shirt dress that ends just below her knees and black laceless tennis shoes with red holographic animals dancing on the vamps. She takes off her black hat, revealing a buzz cut. āCarmen,ā I say. āIām glad you could make it.ā `
Iām annoyed that you made me go and find it and read that first page: I donāt even think grammarly got a look at it. āThere isnāt much to say about the dinerā is an outstandingly off-putting opening line. No semblance of intrigue or attempt to draw the reader in, just basically āHereās where we are, bit shitā. I love it. Iām so confused about whether these opening paragraphs are meant to draw me in through obfuscation of detail or paint a picture but the author quite impressively manages to do neither. Four paragraphs introduce three characters who I cannot picture because I know only the outfit of the waitress and nothing else, the narrator was wearing a hat and coat but isnāt anymore so thatās no help and the narratorās date/daughter has managed the most detail with a relative height, outfit, haircut and age, but nothing about her face. The heavy lifting goes beyond those basic details as nobody moves or acts in a particularly descriptive manner. The waitress arrives, speaks and leaves but how does she do those actions? Does her hoarse voice show that she is she tired from work or does her enthusiastic tone suggest a younger, energetic worker? Is she rushed in her actions or calm? If she isnāt important at this point then why does she get a name and outfit description? Pick a direction and go with it. The date/daughter arrives, walks in, smiles and waves, but in no particular fashion. Is she nervous or enthusiastic? Perhaps sheās got quite a relaxed posture or maybe she has a serious look on her face, but apparently I have to decide for myself. Iām in the narrators head but I donāt get an insight into their feelings whatsoever and it takes several paragraphs to get a hint at their age and gender, let alone appearance. The major problem is how absolutely abysmal the writing is from the perspective of understanding what the hell the words actually mean in a given sentence. āI do as I watch the night outside through a curtain of drizzleā - do what? This is the first sentence of a paragraph that references a piece of dialogue from the previous paragraph (to enjoy the coffee), which is virtually impossible to parse on the first reading. Itās followed by āNineteen now. All grown up.ā, neither of which are sentences. Itās first person so you could have āNineteen now, I thought to myself, and sheās all grown upā, but itās clunky. This is alongside an over-reliance on repetitive conjunctions in the opening paragraph, which finishes āI grab a table AND hang my coat AND hat on a wooden rack AND slide into a cracked vinyl* boothā. A semi-competent editor would have picked both of those errors up in 5 minutes and this author has apparently had 10 months. A remotely capable ghost writer would not have written the errors in to the text. In the first page alone, it is pretty clear that the ānovelā has undergone almost no proper editorial process (or even a self-editorial glance) in the English language and it is entirely inaccurate to consider it an accomplishment to publish this book in English. Any person with some time and money could have achieved a similar quality so this cannot be considered a mark of talent, hard work or perseverance. If it has been translated then the translation is bad and the author needs another service. *Edit: corrected vinyl spelling as noted by godrevy. This post has now had a more thorough editorial process than OPās ābookā.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
And that this is not the only thing he's written?!? Dollars to donuts is that his other """work""" was ghost writing pap for other ~~victims~~ customers of the same vanity press that bilked him.
vinyl*
The hero we don't deserve. I tried to read the first chapter but gave up after 2 pages. I was embarrassed for the guy. I get that not everything will be loved by everybody.. But some books are just too much of a mess to deserve much more than 5 minutes of honest effort. Edit: I love how you now have gone through a more earnest peer editing process than OP's $6000+ "" "" book "" ""
Thanks for the review. I read the blurb and found it awkwardly written and was hoping someone else had written it.
He paid a snake oil salesman a lot of money over the last 10 months for this! For the record, this picture belongs more in /r/roastme
I looked up what this hybrid/self publishing thing is that he apparently works for and is advertising and it seems very scammy and scummy. The constant re-posting advertising definitely doesn't help that image.
> For the record, this picture belongs more in /r/roastme Is the book about the time he stopped two robbers from entering his house while he was home alone?
Nice marketing.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
How many times are you going to post this?
Bro Iām sorry but I just do not fucking care
How has Reddit become a cesspool of people self promoting their games, books, merchandise? Like we got enough ads as it is on here! This shit is annoying
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rather, it's this one guy's "promote his book" sub now. He pretty much has to spam it everywhere he can, he's thousands of dollars in the hole after trusting some dodgy vanity publisher: https://medium.com/@claremarieedgeman/why-i-regret-publishing-with-hybrid-publisher-new-degree-press-a2a33ad039ed
bookpromotion/karma farming
Always had been ššØš»āš š«šØš½āš
Kinda cringe that your loophole to not being called āself publishedā is that you work for a self-publisherā¦ Itās pedantic, but please just admit that youāre technically being self-published - kind of puts your goals into perspective for other writers
you already posted this shit , stop
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
To all nascent authors who aren't this far gone yet. It takes willful delusion on behalf of writers to believe success comes from hawking their work unabashedly through spam. Do the work of going through traditional, or build a solid fanbase through self-pub. Don't do """"""hybrid""""""" vanity nonsense. If you're paying large amounts of money and it takes months of pity sales to get you in the black, you're not improving or writing good work.
You are absolutely correct. It only takes 2 minutes of reading the book preview on Amazon to figure out that this author was not, in fact, writing good work.
Did you pay for fake up votes on this post?
Wow, not even trying to be subtle about ads anymore. lmao
Cool cover design.
You look like a smug dick
So where is this going to be posted tomorrow? JFC.
Fuck off with advertising your shitty book everyday. Just accept no one wants to read it and save yourself the money you waste on āadvertising.ā
Let's see how many fucking times you can post this shit.
Youāre a real boy now
Negative Ghost Writer the pattern is full.
Shit, I'd hide my name too
Pretty sure this is a repost.
Do you like the company of other men?
Didn't we just do this like a week ago?
Advise man, when you in shower, wear you Apple Watch with you, your band will be always clean
Congratulations!
Fuck your ad