Must be a happy moment. I’m nearly at 30k views and after nearly two years off due to life. I’m back and building my following, putting out posts which I hope you enjoy, including those I share.
The SCAM Publishers post written by Victoria Strauss from Writers Beware seems to be one of the best I’ve shared in a while. I thank you all for your comments and I’m glad it helps. Victoria’s article is great, as are so many others I find and I also hope you enjoy the ones I write as well.
My favourite this year is the one about Which English you use and who your Readers are, especially for those who want reviews. After all, you don’t want an American Reader to say you have spelling errors through your work when you’ve written in British English…Do you? I know I don’t
At the moment we are also celebrating five years of Awethors and our Awethology which we published in October 2015. About 54 Authors participated with two books of about 600 pages each. A lot of work and joy and the eBooks are still available FREE on Amazon.
Anyway, I’m wondering how to celebrate when I do hit 30k views…It could happen today or tomorrow. What should I do? Ideas are more than welcome in comments.
I’d like to welcome Cathy Stiner to my blog with her WORD WAR. Cathy is a proofreader and has her own business called Hawk Eyes Proofreading. I will be blogging Cathy’s WORD WAR items every week and they will go out on a Monday. What I liked most about Cathy’s posts are the simple and quick explanations she uses. I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts. Remember, they will be here each Monday. Meanwhile, you can find her contact details at the end of this post if you wish to connect with her.
Cac The Proofreader here, with Hawk Eyes Proofreading!
This marks the beginning of my WORD WAR column. Each week (sometimes twice) I will put up common mistakes I consistently run across while proofreading your projects and thought maybe you would like to head them off before they make it into someone else’s hands…or eyes! After all, the more corrections we proofreaders make, the longer it takes us, and the more dollars it costs you, the author. That is NOT our goal! Our goal (or at least mine!) is to make you look good…NO…make you look GREAT! This one is quite simple: ACCEPT vs. EXCEPT.
ACCEPT is to receive something {perhaps a gift} or regard it as proper {accept the idea}. Example: I accept the fact that I am a big word nerd.
EXCEPT something is to exclude it or leave it out. Example: I like them all except that one.
If you have a question about what I’m posting, please don’t hesitate to contact me. OR…if you have a WORD WAR of your own you’d like me to address, simply email me and I will add it to my rapidly growing list.
I’m Cac The Proofreader, and I’m at: cac@hawkeyesproofreading.com. The web address is: hawkeyesproofreading.com 833.I.PROOF.U/833.477.6638. The Hawk Eyes Proofreading Facebook page is in the process of being rebuilt. In the meantime, you can go to my personal page: Cathy Bozof Stiner.
There are many more WORD WARS contained there as well as a look-see as to who I am and what I’m all about.
Image shows a young woman on a fuzzy screen…the screen is glitching…
Photo by Darksouls1 from Pixabay
I’m not sure how many have noticed or become irritated due to the REBLOG button not working. Well thanks to Chris Graham mentioning something to him when I messaged him about having to continually follow his blog, it all sort of fell into place.
Then a client mentioned to me the tonight that she couldn’t reblog. Now this time it is a bit different because Patty uses a Screen Reader and I wasn’t sure if my idea would work… IT DID…YAY
If you wish to share via REBLOG and the REBLOG button is there, but not working…this is what you need to do.
RE-FOLLOW THE BLOG AND REFRESH THE PAGE EVERY TIME THE REBLOG BUTTON DOESN’T WORK!
Meanwhile, we all hope that WORDPRESS will sort this irritating glitch out.
I did some googling to find out what was happening and I found posts from ex employees who’ve not been paid, that the owner/director/operator runs when someone is trying to serve them papers…and the list goes on. All you need to do is google CoPromote. I did try with Creator Collabs…but nothing came up other than there website which…is defunct.
I personally wish I knew what happened to CoPromote. There was never an explanation as to why they closed down…all I remember was some kind of internet issues. I am glad I used a FREE Account. I doubt those who paid ever saw their money again.
CoPromote was a great loss. It was a great idea and worked really well. I had a massive following at one stage and then bam…They were gone. Like all small businesses who wish to market we go looking for other websites which do similar things. I did try one and got told off for posting to quickly…or was that to often. I never went back. I decided they weren’t worth the time.
Then I found Creator Collabs. Opening the site it looked nearly exactly the same as CoPromote. They were back and under a new name…at first I found this weird. I worked out it was the same company, however once joined up, you had to start from scratch again. This was off-putting so even though I used the site…I didn’t use it much, I wasn’t sure about trusting this site. I found Creator Collabs at the end of 2017 then in November they had a hitch which sounded very similar to what happened to CoPromote. However, they did get back online again. Then a found a post on Facebook from a friend asking is anyone used the site. We had a chat in messages.
It seems another hitch has arisen. This friend messaged them and got a reply saying they’d be back online soon. Then nothing. Messaged again…NOTHING... We spoke and I sent a message on TWITTER….Nope, no reply. This was earlier this year.
I just checked today…THE LINK IS STILL BROKEN! NO UPDATE ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK…NOTHING.
If or when this site come back online….I sure as hell won’t be using it. I don’t trust anyone who can’t give me a reply or who can’t explain what’s going on.
If I go back to when I first started writing in 2012 I didn’t know squat about publishing, never mind needing lessons in grammar, and the person’s voice. Like many others out there I tried traditional publishing. You remember the first publisher of Fifty Shades? It was an Australian Publisher – Yeah I tried them and was rejected, though I’ll say even now, my work was no worse than … I also looked for an Agent who thought they were Editors. No…they weren’t or if they were, they didn’t understand the historical genre of my novel. Since that time this same agent sent work to a UK Publisher who was iffy to say the least. In fact they closed down without paying anyone out and their bookstore was still going…probably still is.
Side tracked…sorry.
Anyway I found out that manuscripts needed setting out a certain way to be accepted by a traditional publisher. While I set out to learn I bumped into self-publishing and decided to go that way instead.
By the time I had learnt enough to make paperbacks and ebooks I had written four books. I bought some copies and was delighted with the results (now I just groan at my obvious need to learn more). I took them to the local writers group which showed little interest. Few of them were authors even less were published. This is where my company came in. “Can you publish my books for me?” said one man. “I can give it a go.” And I did. That journey though, is another story.
This all happened in May 2014. My company Plaisted Publishing House became a Limited Company on 1st August 2014. I filled out all the forms, set up a bank account registered for GST (VAT) etc. After paying or getting a refund on GST over three months I discovered I didn’t need to pay any until my business earned $60K NZD which won’t happen anytime soon due to the fact I have no investment other than what I earn and put back into the company. My aim was to start slowly and build gradually and make sure I wouldn’t fail or should I say close my company. It’s worked too.
Now you’ll note that even though I’ve published my own books, I stated I still had much to learn. My journey was only at the beginning. Over the last four years I’ve developed my business, building my professionalism, sharing what I know with the Indie Author Community. I’ve assisted over Thirty Indie Authors. If I included the Anthologies I could say I’ve assisted over one hundred.
As I’ve improved my learning (which I am still doing today) I have increased my prices, however, they’re still lower than most. You see I work in a different way. The aim of my company is to work with small businesses to contract work out to them and create packages for clients. All clients keep their copyright, all royalties and receive at least four formatted manuscripts for the different distribution websites. A client pays once. There is no profit made from continual book sales. A client could become a best seller…a millionaire…YOU STILL WON’T PAY ME ANYMORE….well unless you want too…LOL.
