I know you have the best intentions and are anxious to “help” me become a NY Times Best Seller! All I have to do is purchase your pricey, ever-so-helpful course, which will teach me how to write and make tons of money, right?
I look at all of these offers with the attitude of “Once burned, twice shy!” I bit on one of those wonderful offers. Want to guess the result? Nada! It was supposed to be a big book show! I paid a lot of bucks, and my reward was that my inbox was filled with hundreds of “Offers” from many who promised to have their “friends” in the Movie Production business start production on my wonderful book! But not one sale! It’s not going to happen!
Everyone wants to “train” me to write best sellers! If they are so damned good, why don’t they have books on the Best Seller list?
If a movie producer does “find” your great story, you will hear from them directly with a contract offer, and NOT from an intermediary who wants $$$ to introduce you to their mythical friends.
My philosophy of my writing career is this: I have many stories screaming and streaming inside my head, wanting to get out. They may never get to the silver screen or become million sellers, but they insist on getting out. I do the best I can to make them the kind of books that I love to read.
I have tried several people as Beta Readers, but generally, they are too keen on correcting spelling and grammar! I have my friend Grammarly for that! Of course, there are mistakes in a first or second draft! I really need someone to help me discover what works, point out a lapse in flow, and point out mistakes, flaws in character, and generally flow of the story. And there is no hurry.
It is sad but predictable that the minute you self-publish a book, you will be inundated with offers to “help” you do everything from making covers that guarantee to sell to editing and polishing your book to the point that buyers will swarm the bookstores, demanding your book!
I write and rewrite and then let the manuscript “rest” for several weeks. I then read it like a reader would, and then I rewrite it again. Like other indie writers, my budget is on a shoestring.
I either love my characters so much that they come alive for me, or some of them bring out my hate for them. Many of my characters are “borrowed” from the people I met as a realtor and from my travels in our Motorhome at various resorts. I always change the names to protect the guilty.
Some of my stories are from real life! “Sleep Travelers” is from my daughter’s imaginary playmates as a small child. She had three, and as an adult, she could only remember the names. I created characters for them to fit the names. So far, there are three books in the series, and I have two more places in mind for the Sleep Travelers to go on their adventures. These will be fun to read to kids as the animals talk and all of the adventures occur when “Little Dawnie” goes to sleep.
My books are distributed to Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace Marketplace, Odilo, and Gardners.
I am currently working (if you can call this working) on Book 9 of the Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space, a YA series about real people. They didn’t go into space, and they were in grade school. They have both graduated from high school, are all grown up, and might have adult adventures in later books.
Thanks, see you later….
Am sorry to read you got scammed. There are so many crooks out there, and their con games keep multiplying. 🙁
Not to worry, It was a lesson well learned. I write because I need to and don’t expect to become a best seller. My family likes my books and that is good enough for me. Thanks for reading my blog.