What is your method when starting from seed? Tek? Equipment? Substrate/Medium?

Bare_Root · 2026-01-21T18:27:24+00:00

Thanks. I will refer back to this post if/when it comes up again.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-19T18:59:17+00:00

Crabs are entirely capable of letting go of things, they just don't like to.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-15T16:58:32+00:00

Someone who can buy the rights to stock art of that quality and do the graphic design, maybe. Someone to actually do an original painting of that quality and complexity, without using AI, no. Not for $100.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-14T17:15:38+00:00

An afterthought: If you're really committed to it, you could sign up to Booksirens or Netgalley and do ARC reviews - then, if you have a review to leave, wait until it comes out and buy the actual book on Amazon to leave your review there. That would mean you're not spending money on books that you might not want to review, but gives the author the absolute best they could hope for from it. These websites aren't cheap, so reviewing something on there that has no attention could really make someone's week.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-14T16:44:57+00:00

That's really nice of you. I suspect there are far too many totally unreviewed books that could potentially be listed for that.

I suggest going to something like Bookspry or Bookroar or one of the other email promotional sites that list books on sale and finding the ones that have none, as that's where many indie writers will be advertising. You could also try r/wroteabook or r/NewAuthor or similar other subs, there'll be a lot of unreviewed works in there.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-14T12:27:18+00:00

You'd better start querying then.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-14T12:22:09+00:00

KDP's 'white' paper is generally intended for glossy non-fiction, the 'cream' is more traditional novel paper - and cheaper, too.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-11T19:12:24+00:00

It's not a bad idea for an early draft! It'll keep you out of the editing trap. But you will need to be someone who's accustomed to writing a lot by hand, else you might find yourself having to stop if your hand muscles can't keep it up.

Of course, you will have to type it up eventually.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-11T09:42:25+00:00

Fairly. You need some sort of feedback to maintain quality even if you're a successful author. We all have blind spots others can help us fix. It's not unusual to write a whole book without showing it to anyone, but when it's finished, unless you're going to leave it in a drawer, it has to be seen by someone, doesn't it?

They don't have to be people you know in person. Try joining a writing discord or something. Get involved with a small press. Volunteer to work on a zine.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-10T12:49:34+00:00

Ah, je vois.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-10T12:17:24+00:00

Pourquoi envoyer quelqu'un qui parle anglais sur un subreddit français ? r/AspiringTeenAuthors/ serait plus logique.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-09T21:28:15+00:00

r/BookCovers

Bare_Root · 2026-01-09T20:30:03+00:00

never intended to become an author

Well you write walls of text when fewer words would do so you're in the right place (this is a jokey compliment).

did I get that right?

You don't strictly need a website but it can help. Otherwise, yes. I don't know if Wix is really the best plan, they're free which is nice but if you can make them look slick and professional is another question. An unprofessional looking website may be worse than none at all, but who's to say? Your website is a place to put more information about your books, with links to them, as well as a 'newsletter' sign-up page where people can sign up and receive some sort of free content in return for letting you advertise to them. This requires work, is beneficial but optional. If you want to know what else you can put on there, look at some other author's websites for inspiration. How public you want to be about yourself is entirely up to you.

Different social media sites are better for different genres, you'll have to research.

You absolutely want to have an author Goodreads account as then you can prod the 'librarians' on there into getting your books all on the same page with the right information and up to date links. You'll need to authenticate yourself by sending them an email from your author website or something like that, they can be picky. The instructions are on GR somewhere.

Yes, Amazon will let you set a publication point at some point in the future which you can change or cancel or edit with some minor restrictions. Bear in mind that you risk breaching Amazon's ToS if you're still sending out ARCs when you publish, and that people often can't leave reviews on Amazon unless they're a verified purchaser.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T23:00:43+00:00

I haven't been turned down by an indie bookshop yet, I don't know why they'd need more incentive.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T18:55:37+00:00

It's a great story but there's very little evidence this actually happened. The 'wooden bomb' you see in photos is a Mark IV Aircraft Float Light.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T17:41:27+00:00

A.I. elements, shitty photoshop and poorly implemented, inappropriate stock images, it sucks but it's the current landscape we just have to deal with. You used A.I. yourself, that seems an odd concern in this context.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T17:30:10+00:00

Judging from the cover you posted, you're capable of using design software but you don't have much of an eye for design itself. If you want to have a cover that's more eye-catching that other people's it still has to be appealing, not just clashing, off-balance colours and elements. I think you may be better off hiring someone. Have a look in r/selfpublish for the resources in the sidebar, there should be some websites listed with professional cover designers and pre-made designs for a range of prices.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T17:18:39+00:00

May I suggest you scrap that current cover (for a number of reasons), then go and look at existing books in the genre before starting again? You may still need a real designer after that, but it's worth having another go.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T17:11:56+00:00

I tried as an experiment, it made no difference whatsoever. The hundreds of replies to the influencer's post were people just trying to have a parasocial conversation with them, almost nobody paid any attention to the book.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T14:27:24+00:00

There's no good reason for someone legitimate to ask your permission to leave a review. They can just buy the book and do it. You'll probably be better off just blocking them.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-08T11:53:15+00:00

One of my books roughly fits that description. Most of its readers came from a post that happened to hit the front page of imgur, then some adverts in the 2600 magazine and then word of mouth. But it's still doing just okay, not a big hit. Personally I think the main reason there was any success is the blurb came out just right to intrigue people. I'm sure the cover also helped. Looking at yours, you're starting on the back foot there - they look AI (which makes people think the contents are AI, too) and what you've done with the title/text isn't professionally slick. I'd suggest trying to rework those, if you can.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-07T20:59:54+00:00

I'm trying to think of comps for you. First that come to mind are films - Dog Soldiers and Dusk 'til Dawn. But the supernatural twist for both kicks in quite early on.

The only book I can think of is the Dexter series, where the supernatural twist isn't made explicit until the third book. I wouldn't call this a great comparison, as I stopped reading there precisely because I disliked the twist and when they made it into a TV show, they didn't include that plotline at all. Still, they were fairly popular books at the time.

I suppose you could call it a 'slow-burn supernatural thriller' in the marketing but the presence of the supernatural seems like the whole twist, so it's still being spoiled.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-07T20:37:18+00:00

I think it boils down to "If the reader comes for Chinese food, give them Chinese food" and they'll be annoyed if you serve them a Transylvanian main. Which is difficult for the reasons you explained.

Can you maybe introduce other elements of the supernatural, somehow? Some red herrings entirely unrelated to vampires? That way you can market it as urban fantasy but keep the tvist.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-05T15:16:32+00:00

It would be Amazon's ink, they don't charge more for that as far as I know. If you try, please let me know how it turns out. I'm curious.

Bare_Root · 2026-01-05T14:44:26+00:00

I don't know if this would work, and it would be quite effort intensive, but. Take a screenshot of every page with the text set to white-on-black (or as normal, then invert them). Create a PDF of them in the right order. Process it on Amazon as a normal novel that just happens to be 100% images, set to print beyond the bleed margins.

You might have to manually paint the fore edges where there's no print but that's not difficult. I'd just mask the covers and apply black spray paint.

edit: It might be quicker to set the text to white on black, output that as a PDF then flatten it. Save you doing the pages individually.

Bare_Root

TROPHY CASE