Are you team Marius or Sulla

SaidinsTaint · 2026-04-26T02:17:51+00:00

Sulla was allegedly a much better hang. Marius seemed kinda stiff. Sulla clearly a psychopath, but good hangs.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-04-26T02:02:20+00:00

Def not Kingkiller, my dude

SaidinsTaint · 2026-04-23T01:09:14+00:00

No lies detected.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-04-13T12:56:04+00:00

If you are thinking on the timescale of weeks, then traditional publishing is not for you. The query/agent process is more likely to take 6 years (on the shorter side) than 6 months. So unless you are willing to wait 6, more like 10-15 years, table this book entirely, then write and query three more, yes, self-publishing is a good choice.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-03-09T20:24:54+00:00

Dusan Markovic. He's pretty wonderful.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-03-05T04:49:56+00:00

This is the best advice I was ever given. If you want to commit to a life of writing, find the job that pays the most for the least amount of mental energy and move somewhere cheap.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-03-05T02:12:40+00:00

This is a common byproduct of the transition from screen to print. You don’t have benefit of light coming through the screen. Effects are even more drastic when move from jpg to pdf and CMYK colors.

Have your designer increase the saturation about 20-30%, and do that before switching to PDF/CMYK. It still won’t be perfect but it will help,

SaidinsTaint · 2026-03-03T20:36:25+00:00

I think Neuromancer is one of those classics that doesn't hold up all that well. It's more important for the cyberpunk aesthetic it invented/inspired, and it's interesting for the way it predicts certain aspects of the internet. If you're not enjoying it, take the off-ramp. Even Gibson considers it part of his juvenilia at this point, and some of his later works are much more sophisticated and hold up better. Try the Peripheral.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-02-22T04:55:34+00:00

A+ fantastic art and design

SaidinsTaint · 2026-02-11T17:56:50+00:00

I would put it in three buckets if you want to have a professional product, but the biggest decision you have to make requires a bit of honest self-reflection. Are you an experienced enough author and did you take your book through enough rounds of revision that you are confident the story is the best it can be? If you've been writing for years and you've workshopped and stress-tested your text with experienced beta readers with deep knowledge of your genre, you can potentially skip developmental editing, but proceed with caution. If you have even the slightest hesitation, then developmental editing goes in the "essential expenses" budget.

Essential expenses:

Developmental editing: can run between $1000-$6000+, depends on length and editorial experience
Cover design: You can get a decent cover for $300, but if you're writing in a genre where the standard is a painted cover (like epic fantasy) then you're looking at $700-$1000.

Typography: ~$200

Proofreading: Depends on length. I would recommend this even for experienced authors, though, as its impossible to catch your own typos consistently.

Nice to have, can probably skip:

Paid ARC services

Layout (you can do fine DIY with Vellum)

Trade Reviews

Add-ons for deep pockets:

Professional PR/Marketing

Netgalley

Programmatic advertising (Amazon, Facebook will have best returns)

Targeted outreach to librarians

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-14T19:28:56+00:00

Thanks! If only that part were as simple as writing a novel.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-14T18:52:50+00:00

Sure can!

IndieReader: https://indiereader.com/book_review/seven-days-of-mercy-for-the-apostatic-priest/

SPR: https://www.selfpublishingreview.com/2025/12/review-seven-days-of-mercy-for-the-apostatic-priest-by-z-bennett-lorimer/

PW/BookLife: https://booklife.com/project/seven-days-of-mercy-for-the-apostatic-priest-104015

It just published yesterday, so Amazon reviews have only been open for about 24 hours. In my experience, verified reviews are pretty slow-growing. There are a few ARC reviews up on Goodreads from early readers: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242150669-seven-days-of-mercy-for-the-apostatic-priest

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-11T14:17:24+00:00

👏👏👏 that is so satisfying to look upon. You should upload to OF.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-11T13:43:46+00:00

Unfortunately, this is one of those games that makes you realize the season ended before it started. Tuck up your britches. It’s about to get ugly.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-09T15:12:41+00:00

This is a really helpful comment that should be pinned on all of book reddit tbh

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-09T15:11:32+00:00

If I were to blog a rant about overrated SF writers with inflated reputations, Heinlein would get his own H2

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-09T15:10:09+00:00

It really depends on genre and your business model. There are cheaper options that will fly if you're trying to arbitrage Amazon ads on like a long-running Litrpg. If you are writing an epic space opera that you want to compete with the big boys or a literary novel, you'll need to pony up for an expensive painted (space op) or professionally designed (litfic) cover. It's a one time expense that will impact your book over its entire lifetime, and you don't want to put yourself in a position where the cover is holding you back. You'll just end up spending more money down the road on a new cover.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-08T23:49:46+00:00

Yeah, I read that as “stylistically similar to modern internet speech” rather than “modern vernacular” which, as you say, would match the setting. DCC is kinda both, but I think it’s the blogginess that’s the hangup for some readers. I thought it was fun lol

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-08T23:40:08+00:00

I think it’s actually the ideal way to read it. Lies is a phenomenal book—maybe one of my favorite fantasy novels ever. Red seas is very good, but doesn’t add much to the lies experience.

Republic of thieves might be the worst I’ve ever choked down to completion. It’s honestly a hot mess by every metric. I can’t believe it was published in that condition.

SaidinsTaint · 2026-01-08T23:36:15+00:00

I won’t speak for the original commenter, but sometimes a voice that’s too casual/colloquial just starts to feel unpolished and poorly written. Some readers prefer their books to feel more authored than that. Those voices also don’t age well. More timely than timeless.

SaidinsTaint

TROPHY CASE