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Tag: Self Publishing

Posted
August 26, 2017
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Wonder Woman sucks and so will Black Panther

I can’t understand the hype for WonderWoman. I simply can’t bring myself to understand how a movie, which shits the bed in the third act, can get so many glowing reviews.

I would give the movie a 6 out of 10 stars at best, and that was only because the first half was so strong. I keep scratching my head, wondering how a movie can be so completely different from the start to the end. It was like the movie was directed by two different directors.

Now I have a feeling I know why it got so many great reviews from critics, but I’ll come back to that later.

Now the first half was strong, it set up the origins of the protagonist beautifully, with the right amount of back story and open ended questions that needed to be asked later. It showcased all the characters and when the group formed, that would help our main character out, they all slotted together, with each character bouncing off the other.

So far so good right?

Yeah, I thought so.

I know a lot of people criticised the main character as annoying or stupid, and that the actress who played the role didn’t give a wide range of emotions, but you have to remember that the protagonist is sort of a child.

She was sheltered from the outside world her whole life, she hasn’t seen the horrors of the world fully, and doesn’t understand that some people can be evil because they are.

Its sort of the rich kid who has been in boarding school their whole life, now trying to make a living in the ghetto.

I thought the actress played it great, to the point of me being annoying at the character. I was annoyed at the character because I was invested, I wanted her to awake up and smell the roses.

No, none of that was a problem for me. What was, was the shit show, which was the ending of the movie.

What. The. Fuck.

The final battle was so cliche filled with terrible CGI, that I didn’t know what was going on half the time. It was just down right…. Bad. Added with 80’s style one liners that made me shake my head, I felt like I was cheated out of my cinema money.

OH, OH!

Also the big reveal that the protagonist was indeed a god was just tossed into conversation, like a jockstrap in a washing hamper.

The only thing that was good about the ending of the story, was that Chris Pine stole the show with his sacrifice.

Now if you look at rotten apples, which has rated this movie so high, you would be lead to believe that this movie is actually good. And it is at some parts, but the reason that this movie is so highly rated on there is that far left liberal film critics, are bending over backwards to praise this movie because it stars a female lead.

The first female lead in a superhero movie.

But they shouldn’t.

Regardless if this movie is starring a female lead, black lead, transgender lead or anything between, it shouldn’t be given special treatment because then you are making a mockery of your own grading system.

If you compare rotten apples reviews to IMDB, where regular movie goers post their comments you would see a night and day difference. IMDB’s rankings for the movie is two stars lower. With many people asking on that site, why hasn’t anyone given an honest review of the movie on rotten apples.

When we allow political opinions, to shade what is good or bad then we are on a downward spiral to mediocrity in our entertainment.

We should be pushing the boundaries. Not catering to any crap because it might align to our agendas.

This is the same reason that Black Panther with the first male black man as a superhero will be shit!

The movie will be a terrible mixture of hip hop video like material, with black people trying to act super fly. It will be cliche filled, and it won’t be real. For some reason, Hollywood can’t make a serious film with people in colour, without it being…. Type casted!

Just once, once in my lifetime, can I get a film where my black lead doesn’t talk with a heavy slang accent or come from the streets. Or is something between.

And I know everyone reading this will be saying, but Black Panther is an African king and blah, blah, blah.

It still will be missing something, something I wish I could describe in words but… I can’t.

It’s why Red Tails should have been a great movie and failed, and its why this one will be the same.

Sigh…

Look, my grandmother had a saying. If you want to do well in any industry and you’re a minority, then you have to surpass the competition till people can’t ignore you.

And I don’t see us getting there, by want Hollywood has been putting out lately.

I may be wrong, I hope I am, but Hollywood hasn’t proved me wrong so far.

Posted
July 31, 2017
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Short cuts

In business as well as in life, shortcuts do not amount to what you expect them to be.

I love writing, I wouldn’t want to do anything different, but I also treat it like a business and being a business, I admit a small one, you will get times were people steal from you, double cross you, and lie to you.

That’s part of the game.

It’s not a part that many people talk about. It’s not a part of the game that you hear Tony Robbins or any other motivational speaker approach, but it exists and it is very real. I can see your eyes rolling now as you say, that’s life Dom, deal with it.

And you’re right.

It is.

But it doesn’t make me or anyone else that has been taken advantage of feel any better. But there are lessons to be learnt in every obstacle. There are things to be learnt, and things that can be taken away from any negative experience in business.

Now regards to what happened to me, I wanted a quick fix to getting a lot of sales. I had heard wonderful things about a certain person’s service and I jumped at it with both feet, but as my grandmother always says, if it’s too good to be true, it normally is.

I should have taken a step back, spoken to some people who had used the service, and gotten a better feel of what I was getting myself into.

I didn’t.

So I paid the price.

One thing above all else that I believe, in is that 99.99% of anything that happens in business or life is your fault.

It is as simple as that. I will learn from this mistake grow from it and move on. The only words of warning I can give you, reading this right now, is to take your time when parting with your cash, on promises that seem too good to be true.

Greed tends to place blinders on us all when we can earn something of monetary value.

But then again, we all know that, we just rush to quickly after the carrot before looking what its attached to.

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

P:S Follow me on Facebook & Twitter… Yeah I twit now… who knew

 

Posted
May 15, 2017
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Longevity over everything else

The time for my latest launch is nearly upon us. Well, when I say nearly, what I really mean is in a month and a bit. The closer I get to that deadline the more I want to see what happens, but its also the time where self doubt starts to creep in.

Doubt about how good the books in the new series really are.

Doubts about if it will make any money or will it just be a flop.

Doubts that I may get all one star reviews and people will hate it.

All authors have doubts. Some more than others. I place myself on the very start of the scale, as in I care a little bit, how people will take my books but not really. Once I like what I produce and I’m happy with it, I really don’t care what people think too much. Now don’t take that as I don’t take criticism well, because I do. If a reader highlights something that I can improve on, then I will look into it.

But if it’s just this book is shit! Then I really can’t work with that. Either give me a clear and precise point or fuck off!

But the reason I am writing this blog, is because in the mist of fear we tend to take the easy shortcuts. Be it a quick scheme to make money, or a choice that will give us quicker results.

But what we should always go for, is longevity.

Leaving a legacy is all we as artist should care about. It shouldn’t be what genre I can write in quickly, or how I can make a quick buck.

It should be the path that you can see yourself staying on for the next five to ten years.

The double L’s, is the name of the game.

Longevity + legacy= Success

This new series I am writing in, is a book that I saw missing in a genre that was all about the gadgets and not about the characters. In the sci-fi genre, I have only read a handful of series that made me happy. I love guardians of the galaxy and firefly, but there was nothing like that in book form, so instead of complaining I tackled the topic head on.

Now, the reason that these books don’t exist, is because the audience simply isn’t there for them. If that’s the case there is not much I can do. But till I try, I shall never know, and I shall always be wondering.

Better to do, then to wonder.

As Osho once said- Instead of stopping to think if you should jump off, jump off, and then you’ll have all the time you need to think on your way down.

Anyway

 

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
May 3, 2017
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Success

If you’re an indie author, then you know the fascination with earning 10K a month. It’s something a lot of authors aspire to because it resonates with success in their eyes.

But to me thats a really big goal to aim for, right off the bat.

Not many lawyers, doctors, or people in those sorts of professions make 10k a month. When you add up the years of studying, working underpaid, and the like, its just mind boggling. They have put in the time. They have earned their paycheque.

To think that any author should do that in in a year or less is insulting.

Respect the arts, respect the profession.

Don’t think I’m standing on my high horse looking down on everyone else, I used to think the same. I think it stems from keeping up with the Jones’s.  You see one author making bank, so you question why ain’t you to.

You see one author hitting the top 100, and you read the book they’ve wrote and your not impressed. But things sale for a reason, whatever that reason may be.

Every time the above thought creeps into my head, I have to remind myself of that.

When it comes down to it, how much do you really need to be happy?

I’ve come up with a figure, and its 50-70K a year after taxes.

There was a study that was done, that all human needs can be met after earning 70K. If you earn anymore, than you won’t notice a huge level of happiness. The baseline as it were, was 70k.

So that for me is my goal.

That for me would be life changing money. When I left school, I never thought I would see that sort of yearly paycheque, and for me to get it by doing something I love; I would bite your arm off and chew it raw.

70K a year is just over 5K and change a month. (That is without taking away taxes) I could live quite easily on that type of money, I could travel, I could have a comfortable life, I could go to the gym when I wanted. I could live a life of peace.

I could see the world.

Awww, just thinking about it now makes me smile.

When authors talk about making 10K a month, to make them happy, it’s not the money they need to worry about, its all the bills that they have to pay.

Down size and simplify your life.

The more things you own the more things own you.

Experiences over possessions any day of the week.

Anyway,

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
April 28, 2017
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Three months later

I did promise to update this blog, every week on what I was doing… well it didn’t really work out like that.

As you can very well see by the dates on the last post and this one, you will notice a fair time has passed, since I posted anything.

The reason for this?

I have been busy.

I noticed something interesting in the writing indie community. Those who talk the most, in blog post, forum’s such has Kboards, are usually the writers who haven’t done anything to further their business.

You can see it from posters who post comments every day, at hundreds of words a clip who go six months to a year between releases. Then they are the first to tell you that, the gold rush is over. You can’t make a full time living at this anymore, and blah, blah, blah.

If you watch the actions of people, who are making money at this, then you’ll hardy ever see a post from them. From Lindsay Buroker, Mark Dawson, Chris Fox, Michael Anderle, any of these big hitters are busy doing something to further their brand. Making some other content that will get them in front of readers eyes. From promo’s to admin type shit, to writing. They are too busy to entertain thoughts of failure.

Too busy to care what the latest KDP payout is for that month.

Their one and only goal is hard, crippling work. Each put out more than five books a year. Each knows that nothing will sell a book better than the next one.

This is nothing new!

But yet people still complain.

Each and every author from the above, didn’t hit it out of the blocks, with their first book. Heavy hitters such as Hugh Howey was on his five or six book, before Wool took off. This was during the early days of kindle when all you had to do, was release a book to make money.

Patience and hard work will get you to any goal. No matter how far off it may seem.

Lindsay Buroker is sort of a secret mentor to me. Her advice is always on point, always easy to follow.

She is a self-confessed lazy author, in that she doesn’t do much promo’s and facebook ad’s isn’t really her thing. But she does believe in putting out books. In the six or seven odd years since she first published her first book, Linsday has put out forty plus novels.

In interviews, she has stated that there where other authors who were making more than her. Other authors who had bigger list than hers. But she stuck to her guns and released book after book. Now she is making a six figure income, and her latest book is number 458 in the amazon.us store.

I bet any money in a year or two, she will be hitting a seven figure income. Don’t be surprised she hits that this year.

That’s all it takes.

Hard work. Writing every day. Publishing more than three books a year.

So sorry if I haven’t been as active on here has I said. I have a mission in mind to go full time, by Dec31st this year. And that means writing more fiction words.

I will post here and update, what I am doing a bit more regularly, but for the time being the one post a week may be a bit much. Maybe not, we’ll see.

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Nights

Posted
January 30, 2017
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Speaker of the dead!

I finished speaker of the dead this week by Orson Scott Card, and while I think Enders game was a better book. This novel was simply brilliant. Nothing major happened in it. There was no planet defining battles. There were no explosions. There was no great war. There was no evil bad guy.

Thinking about it now, there really wasn’t a protagonist in the real sense that we know it to be. But I’ll get onto that later. For anyone new to the game of writing, and I mean you haven’t  got ten years under your belt, this book is a great read to see how to keep a reader engaged just by human emotions.

This book for me is the most literary book I have read in a while, I think the last one before that was the Kite Runner which was four years ago. Shit maybe more. But anyway this book to me was more literary than that.

I think people get caught up in the trap that literary books can only be about past or current events. There can’t be any aliens, there can’t be any spaceships, there can’t be any magic swords or rings.

But Orson for me anyway, has shown that you can have space and aliens and still make the book thought provoking.

It was masterful how each characters real enemy was themselves.

And that’s what as human beings we struggle most with right? Just getting out of our way. Just trying not to fuck up long enough so we actually get to our goal. And this book had that in spades.

Halfway through when I saw that there was no real war. No real actual violent conflict about to take place, I thought I would be bored. But nah, I kept on reading, because Orson had me invested in the characters simple life’s.

(By the way I have heard people call him by Scot. So I don’t know if that’s what he likes to be called.)

I think Orson, highlighted in such a beautiful way what it means to be human, by showing us our flaws when compared to the other alien race in the book.

The book was slow for me to read, because it didn’t flow as easily as I would like a book to. Some books are great wines, some are water, some are spirits.

I like my books to be a lot plainer to read. Less condense.

It’s the difference in reading a hard sci-fi book, to say something called Monster Hunter.

(I know that may not make sense. But writers and hardcore readers will understand where I’m coming from.)

All in all,

It was a cool book.

But I don’t think I would read it again.

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
January 22, 2017
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Week 2

This week has been stressful, a few unforeseen events have knocked me off course but I’m still going strong. One novel is done and just waiting to be sent to my proofreader, than the book will be already for publication. I am going through the second book, which will be the last draft. It needs a bit of work. I wrote this series lean, without a lot of flowing words. I tend to like to ear on the side of lots of prose, and making everything look pretty. But with this series, I wanted it stripped down and raw.

Just action and dialogue.

I think I pulled that off, but I may of gone to the extreme. So I’ll add a few words here and there, just to bulk up the novel. This is the first series that I have wrote which I really enjoy, the action is on point, the jokes crack me up and the story moves at a nice pace.

Although I love this series, weather it sales or not is another thing. But one thing I know, I can hold my head up high and be proud of what I have produced.

As a writer I can’t ask for anything else.

I don’t like marketing, but its a must that needs to be taken care of if you want to sell books. Well I learnt a hard fact this month, no matter how much you love your story sometimes it just doesn’t sell.

My first series, no matter how much time and effort I put into it, it just didn’t take off. So I think it’s time to close that door on the old girl, and move on. Its done well enough, just not as well as I would have liked.

Sometimes I say to myself really what do you expect?

Its your first series, do you know how many bestsellers didn’t make a buck or get any traction till they wrote or published at least six novels.

A bunch.

More than a bunch.

All I can do is write and produce and learn on the ropes, while not trying to get hit by the big punches of life.

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
January 15, 2017
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Week 1

I was listening to Gary Vaynerchuk (google him and get pumped), and he gave me an idea that I couldn’t stop thinking about. He basically said that you should document everything you do. That and put out as much product as you can. So if  you write, or sing, or draw, the way to get to success is just produce, produce, produce.

That is why I’m going to put out six novels this year. Where I only released three last year.

But apart from that I am planning on documenting, my road to success or failure. I aim to become a full time author by dec 31st 2017. I believe I can get there, its just a matter of how much work I am willing to put out. But once a week I will blog, how I’m feeling, my thoughts, what I’m doing. Everything really.

Some weeks will be tough, but I aim to have 52 post at the end of this year. Maybe more.

I’m excited.

I see it as a challenge, a fight. The thing that scares me the most is after these 52 weeks, I fall flat on my face, then the whole wide world will get to see it. Nothing like having an audience to view your failure.

But we as authors, don’t really get that luxury.

If you really want to produce your best work you have to bleed on the page. Allow your blood to be the pathway, to letting other people see your dreams. If they can’t see it after that, you are either not doing a good enough job or….your work is shit.

All the blog post and emails from authors moaning that they are two- three books in, and they haven’t made a cent. Maybe those two-three books were not up to par.

There is a saying that your first million words are shit.

That doesn’t mean you can’t publish till then. Just believe in yourself and keep your head to the grind stone. Be so busy that you pass success by, till then just keep working.

So onwards and upwards. Sorry this post is short, but I can’t really think of anything else to say.

Apart from, damn! This is going to be fun.

Until next time,

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
December 19, 2016
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Year end wrap up!

This year has been amazing!!!

I wouldn’t change it for anything. I have seen more places than I ever dreamed of, I have wrote more words than I ever thought was possible. I have received more love for my books than I thought a newbie author like me would get.

Man. This year has been a blast. Where do I start?

Well the start of the year saw me in Budapest.

(My phone broke so no pictures)

I really enjoyed that city, there was more walking than I would have liked but at least I didn’t put on weight from all the food that I had eaten.  Hands down, their food was some of the best tasting I ever had. I fancy myself a foodie so, my standards are always quite high. But they blew my tastebuds away with the variety of dishes they had.

Plus everything there tasted fresh. It felt like as soon as you ordered your food, they sent someone out the back to kill it for you. I eat so much, that it made my girlfriend angry at how gluttonous I was being.

So if you like history and good food, Budapest is the place to go. Not to mention that they have the best outdoor mineral pool in the world. That was fun.

I can’t remember if I was writing my third book in the Fallen series or fourth. But either way the words were flowing on that holiday.

I released my third book thereafter, Takeover and it’s my favourite in the series.  Everything came together in that book and it was so easy to write. And it introduced one of my most beloved characters Zami. That girl always makes me laugh.

Next came another holiday to the Norfolk coast.

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Sunny, beautiful scenery, peaceful. What else does a writer want?

In that time I wrote my fourth novel, which to date is the biggest novel that I have ever wrote. Coming in at 107K, it was epic to say the least. It was suspenseful, some characters that I came to love passed away, but it felt like it completed the series. To this day I still can’t place the Fallen Angels it in a proper genre. It’s not urban fantasy enough for that genre. It’s not Christian fantasy enough for that catalogue either.

In the end I stopped trying to label it, and just said to anyone that asked, that it was a cool series about angels.

Then it was another trip to Athens.

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The food was divine, the water was crystal clear. The locals where friendly. I did nothing but write and laze about.

I finished a new novel in a new series, which I loved. It has now gone on to become my favourite novel.  It has everything that I love, action, swearing, and bad guys that give a fuck.

I released the final book in my fallen series, and it didn’t do as well as I expected. But that’s life I guess. I learnt some hard lessons from that book and I hope not to repeat them.

The final trip of the year was to the Dorset coast.

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Now Dorset always holds a soft spot in my heart. I don’t know what it is, it just does. If you haven’t noticed, a theme in my holiday destinations is I like to be near water. It calms me. It relaxes me. I like to reflect, breathe and take the waves in. I just don’t feel right unless I do. And not being by an ocean where I live kinda sucks, but I think if I lived next to it all the time I would take it for granted.

The ocean gives me strength. ( I know that sounds hippish and oo lalala) But it does.

On that holiday I began the second book in my new series, which I finished in the last week of November.

That book was a bastard to finish, and things didn’t seem to come together easily for it. The editing which I will be starting in a day or two of writing this is going to be an up hill battle. But hey if I wanted to do something easy I wouldn’t be writing now would I.

As the year comes to a close, I can’t really think of any other way I would want it to end. I have had my ups and downs like most people, but as the first signs of frost are coating the roads, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

With the winter firmly leaving its boots under the table, hinting that its going to be staying a while, I am busily planning my goals and ambitions for 2017.

I know people don’t normally do this sort of thing, or they keep it private, but fuck it!

These are my goals for next year.

I want to publish six books.

I want to earn 10K in a month.

I want to go full time by Dec 31st 2017.

Will I meet those goals?

Only time will tell. But, I can tell you one thing, the universe better clear a path out of my way because I’m coming for it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas or time off if you don’t celebrate it, and I wish you get everything you deserve in 2017.

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
December 14, 2016
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Luck?

hardworl

I would be lying if I said that luck didn’t have a part to play in success.  I know a lot of people don’t want to think about that, but it does.

Luck and success go hand in hand.

Lady Luck walks in a red flowing dress split at the hip. While Mr Success escorts her by the hand in his three piece suit.

Where you find one. You normally find the other.

But here’s the dirty little secret, that nobody ever tells you. The harder you work, the easier it will become to meet them.  People always ask when will they make it as a writer. When will they leave the 9-5 job. When will they be successful.

When will they this. When will they that.

Why hasn’t it happened for them yet? Why are other less talented people getting what they should be getting.

But you see, all those questions are pointless. They are a waste of breath and energy.

It will happen, when it happens.

I will say again.

It will happen, when it happens.

Just work.

Don’t worry about the rhyme or reason, just work. Because as you work you will keep busy, and the busier you are, the less likely that your mind will wander. The less likely that doubts will creep into your mind.

And you know what; before you know it, success will come knocking at your door. But you will be too busy to notice. To busy to care. Because your next project will need to be done, and you won’t have time to bask in some imaginary glow. Your head will be down at the grindstone and distractions, will simply pass you by.

Winners think of winning. Losers think of winners.

I always have to remind myself of that saying time and time again. Because like most of you, I sometimes get caught up in a jealous angst. Where I focus on what the competition is doing more than what I am doing.

That is a failing on my part, which I can’t allow to become my normal.

Because

Winners think of winning. Losers think of winners

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