I would like to star again by apologizing for not being on here for a while. But I was taking a bit of a break from writing. I know that’s bad, but I was getting ready for shearing season. The alpacas got sheared on Sunday and now I’m getting back to writing, and above all trying to get back to giving advice on writing. Also, things are happening in the writing community besides #cockygate that are having an effect on us writers.
I would say at this point, pay very close attention to what Amazon is currently doing in the next couple of weeks or even the next month. Amazon makes most of its changes during the month of July so any policy changes will be taking effect then. I do know of a couple of changes that Amazon is going to be putting in place, such as when you release a book you can only have 5 advanced copies. Anything more than 5 will have to be purchased or your readers will have to purchase so that they can leave a review of the book. One reason for this change is that there are so-called scammers, who would get over 1,000 advanced copies and would say that they are advanced copies and those readers would put out reviews. This was giving a disadvantage to those that could not get a whole lot of advanced copies. Therefore, Amazon is trying to make it fair for all.
Granted, there are bad and good things to come from this change. But there are other changes that may be taking place too, as I said before that will affect us, writers. As for readers, they are also becoming aware of the changes that are coming into play for us and some are like it’s good to know information and there are others that really don’t care. That’s fine, but right now our job as writers is to assure our readers that what we are doing is not changing, for we are still going to be putting up content and writing the stories that they want to read.
In other news, there is so much discussion going on with traditional publishers, indie publishers, vanity presses and the like that I want to write a post on this. The issue that it boils down to is that you and me, as writers trying to publish our works, should not have to pay a so-called “publisher” to publish our books, and therefore, some of these different avenues for publishing are considered as scams. So when I get into that it will probably be lengthy, as we as writers, even first time published authors should not be taken advantage of.
So I know that you are all probably wondering about The Raven Prophecy. The book itself is still being written, the front cover is done, for I do not have any more desire to re-make my front cover. But I have also been spending some time making/working on the back cover, which I will put down below both the front and back cover images. Overall, I just got back to working on the draft, for I last touched it on May 27. Trust me, when I say looking at it again it’s been a while but on the bright side, I knew where I left off so I wasn’t lost again.
As much as I say this, I’m back and I want to get more content on here about writing, what is going on in the writing world, what is going on with my writing, and furthermore some tricks and tips that we as writers can take on with our projects. But I must say that I’ve missed you all and hope that you will look forward to what I have in store to share with all of you.