Confusing!!!

  Hello, My Authors, New Writers. It's confusing being a writer. especially if you have no real money to do it with. The writing part is kind of easy, but the rest of the stuff is crazy. There's the editing of the first draft you've written, and the editing part is like 5 steps, if not more, until your draft looks darn near perfect. Then, between all that, it's the social media thing where you put the announcement about your new book, and also let's not forget, do you need an author website, and at what cost?? You see so much stuff to learn about becoming a writer, and I'm only doing this for a hobby, and maybe down the line, make some coffee and book money from it. God willing. Anyway, I'm still in the process of editing my stories, but I'm looking into a free author website. I've started with Google Sites. It's free, and I'm debating whether to use their free domain name or get my own for $20 a year. Some people on Reddit swear by Carrd. It's free, and it's a basic landing page for new authors. Some go with Substack. There are so many. I look for free stuff to use for my writing because I'm working with like $50 buck for this hobby at most.

So, my question to you is, do you have or are you thinking about making an author's website?  If so, who are you using?

                                       

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More Time to Write

  Hello, my writers and new authors, Happy Memorial Day weekend. With the long weekend, this should give you more time to write that famous or maybe not-so-famous book you always wanted to write. I set a goal for myself since I'm in the drafting stages of my story. Did I mention I hate editing like to write the story, but dislike going over it to make it sound right. Anyway, the question is what you are: a Pantser like me who creates stories off the top of their head or a plotter who plans everything out to the last detail. I mean, what fun is that? I like to see where the story takes me as a pantser, but to be honest, it takes me nowhere at times. I do get stuck a lot without a solid plan in place. Which would make the story easier to write. What do you think, are you a pantser or plotter?

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AI BookCovers Maybe?

  Hello, all my new writers/authors. Happy May. So, two things. First, I was thinking about using A.I. and Canva to create my book covers. Not to list on Amazon KDP, but other places. Then I was thinking sometimes I need to have an incentive to write, so I found an A.I. program that creates my characters' picture that's in my stories. The picture above is one of my characters I'm writing about. A.I. Created it from my prompts.  So, have you used A.I. for your book covers? And how did it go?  You also could use Canva for the titles and author name, which I plan on doing. I just needed a picture to go with it. I was going to use Fiverr and get a book cover artist, but I see what some of these artists are producing, and in my opinion, its crap, and they're using AI pictures to. I'm trying to write my books as cheaply as possible. So, I'm utilizing all the free programs I can get. 

                                      So, how are you making your book covers?

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The Horrors Of Amazon Kindle

  Hello, my new writers/authors, I have not yet finished writing my backlog; that's what I'm working on for 2026. To get a backlog of written material so when I decide to publish it, I'll have more than just one book to put out there. Anyway, I've been reading about where to publish my books. When they are finished. Some people are praising Amazon Kindle. Since they have the market on books and e-books, and have a large readership. But then I hear how Amazon takes a big cut of your profits when you sell a book and pays you every three months or so. Then they will delete your accounts without giving you any reason. All of this is making me rethink publishing my e-books on Amazon. I think when I'm ready to publish, I will be looking into other avenues. You shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket anyway. The companies on the internet are too funny nowadays. Especially when it comes to self-publishing, since there aren't a lot of companies that allow new writers/authors like us. To publish our stuff cheaply and make a profit from it.

 So, have you started investigating where you will publish your books once you finish writing them?

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A.I.

  Hello, my new Writers/Authors. Happy April.  So, how's the writing going? I know some people are against using AI to write their books. Me to for that matter. But you could use AI for other things, like brainstorming ideas. I use them for that. Also, giving you a basic book outline, or helping you to dive deeper into a concept for a book you're thinking about. I use it to develop my book characters. So  I can have a visual when I write. It helps me a lot. So, are you for or against using AI when it comes to your writing?  

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Why So Long...

  Hello, my new authors, Happy April. Is it me, but I'm starting to hate editing. It takes so long to read through the first draft, then you put it down for a while. Then you go back to edit it after a few weeks through Grammarly. You then find yourself doing some rewriting besides the spelling and grammar checking. After you have finished all that, which is taking me forever. I found out that I have rewritten the whole story over, trying to make it better. Which editing in my book sucks. It takes too much time, and I refused to give my first draft over to an editor because no one knows my story but me and how I want to tell it.  So, self-editing is it for me. But to be honest, my mind wanders. So, while I'm editing, I'm thinking of trying to write short eBooks of 50-60 pages or less to put out on Amazon for 99 cents to see if I get any bites. But then I need story ideas, need to write the stories, and again edit them. Which will all take me away from editing the stories I really want to put out. So, what do you do?  

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Series Or Standalones

  Hello, my new authors. Here's the question: Are you writing a standalone story or a series? I keep reading where it's best to write a series. So that way, the readers keep coming back for more of your work. But what happens if you don't have a series in you to write and only a standalone? I personally started with writing short stories, then I branched out into stand-atones. Although I have a problem with writing too many words for my stories. One I'm working on now has 322,000 words in it. Which I'm attempting to cut down to at least under 100,00 words. I know I write a lot.  I have to learn to cut back and to cut out unnecessary words. But I'm just starting, and that will probably happen to you too. Anyway, I say start writing short stories, then graduate to a standalone book of say 50,000 words or less and see how you do. As long as you have written something.  That's all that matters. Writing is an ongoing learning process. It will take time to get good at it, so be patient and just enjoy the craft.

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