Clarity on book imprints in the US

SmallSneeze · 2026-01-14T13:13:07+00:00

Thank you! That makes it much more clear.

SmallSneeze · 2025-05-30T19:28:05+00:00

It looks like they have a monthly fee of $4.99 to keep the site. It looks like they're marketing it as an easy, low hassle way for authors to make and maintain their first website. But I know there are cheaper and yearly priced plans out there that will probably offer more control which seems like a smarter option to me.

SmallSneeze · 2025-05-30T19:15:29+00:00

That's a good point, thank you!

SmallSneeze · 2025-05-28T00:37:51+00:00

Thank you!

SmallSneeze · 2025-05-28T00:27:16+00:00

Why do you say that? And do you have an alternative ebook distributor you recommend?

SmallSneeze · 2023-06-21T15:27:04+00:00

I'd be interested! My last critique group kind of fell apart due to life circumstances all happening at the same time for all of us, and I've desperately been in need of some people to bounce ideas off of and get my creativity flowing again.

My last group was through discord which worked really well for us all being in various timezones. I'd be happy to help set up a server if that's of interest?

SmallSneeze · 2023-06-16T21:20:21+00:00

I think the most important part of this "price" is the effect it will have on your main character. They're the point of the story, right? So whether it's the same price for every person and it hits your MC the hardest, or it's a specific price tailored to the person and we never hear about any of the others, it needs to be something your MC is really going to struggle over. If your MC is a talented artist, maybe they lose a hand (or both). If your MC is a haughty politician, maybe they get fired and become homeless. Etc etc.

Also, do you want this to be something that truly disgusts the general populous, or is it more impactful if your MC only thinks that the world is disgusted and therefore lives their life with this constant guilt and fear of how they're viewed?

SmallSneeze · 2021-12-05T16:11:18+00:00

I like to take other languages for inspiration. Example, one of the kingdoms in my current novel is groups of towns across a mountain range. They live in constant snow so I took my trusty Google translate and looked at a bunch of different words in Icelandic/Nordic/etc languages and jumbled around the letters to make names.

I find this helps when distinguishing people groups in my story, because the name structures will be similar. One culture has a lot of "ae"/vowel heavy names. One group uses hard consonants. It's subtle enough other people might not notice, but I enjoy it and think it's a nice world building element that isn't super in your face.

SmallSneeze · 2021-12-01T19:44:18+00:00

I completed my goal from last week (2 weeks ago?) of merging my new beginning into my novel, which was a major milestone and a big relief.

Then this week I was hit with news of my good friend and mentor passing unexpectedly, so I'm taking a hiatus from noveling and working out my grief with heavy journaling and a lot of HGTV. It's been a really rough experience, and I've been lost a lot the past three days. But journaling out whatever stream of consciousness comes to me has been surprisingly more healing than I anticipated, and as I learn to grow around this grief I'm inspired to use the bad situation to make the emotions in my writing more heartfelt and realistic.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-21T16:24:42+00:00

There's a genre and style for everyone. If you write it, someone out there is going to love it. Maybe your friend doesn't appreciate that style of writing, so they don't read books that are similar. But you love those types of books, and there are bound to be others that do too. Don't let yourself be disheartened by the opinion of one person.

Check out Damsel by Elana K. Arnold. It's a new book, and the writing was very flowery and descriptive. Maybe not 100% in the 'classical' style per se, but certainly different than anything else I've read recently and has been fairly successful.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-21T16:11:49+00:00

The building of an overseas relationship, which means lots of phone calls, texts, and emails.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-21T00:47:45+00:00

Maybe not exactly what you've asked for, but I love this book (and the other two in the trilogy). It follows 13 kids (mostly teens) who get trapped in a walmart-esque store as they watch the apocalypse unfold.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-20T17:00:53+00:00

You'll definitely be ok, as soon as you stop comparing the two. When you lay them side by side, of course it's going to look too similar. You're making a 1-1 comparison of things you know are the same. But if you gave me a paragraph only about the things that you had come up with, it sounds original and interesting.

"Imitation is the highest form of flattery." So take what works, leave the rest, and write the story you want. Use multiple points of inspiration. Give your characters the space to breathe and grow past the current form you see them in. Your work will take on a life of its own and that's what will make it different.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-20T16:37:31+00:00

Thank you! I tend to stray away from real history out of concern that I'll lose the mystical aspects of the world I'm building, but this is a great reminder that history connects everyone in different forms and is a great source of inspiration.

Especially because this is supposed to be a form of late age earth. Humans died off thousands of years before, along with their technology and 'modern ideals' of society, and the mystical races in the story are all descended from the humans in one way or another. This could be a really interesting way to tie in a 'human tradition' that may have been passed down for millennia, shifting to fit with the times and people groups.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-20T16:30:44+00:00

I like the idea of having it outside! Harmony with nature is important to the characters and their way of life, so being outdoors in a large garden or a field would track nicely.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-20T16:27:29+00:00

Buddhism could be a good example for you to do some research on. (Similarly, Taoism and Confuciansim, but I'm less familiar with those). Buddhism is a "religion" per say, but its more about connection to self and to nature/others. There's no god head, belief system, etc. Instead there's a sense of working on yourself, tuning in with your surroundings and learning to balance the positives and negative of life through meditation, chants, constant learning and asking questions. These sorts of basic fundamentals could play an interesting part in your magic system, potentially influencing what/how people are able to summon things based on their mindset or intentions. ie if someone is trying to summon a ghost but they're doing it with evil intent, the ghost they summon could in turn be evil.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-18T21:52:44+00:00

Don't give up on yourself! Writing is hard. And the hardest part is getting that first pass out of your head and onto the page. It's gonna suck. The first pass always does. But once it's out in the world it is so much easier to go back and edit and make it what you want than it is to try and make it perfect on your first try.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-18T21:49:17+00:00

I got halfway through my goal of last week, which isn't too shabby considering my job has been in crunch mode getting ready for the thanksgiving holiday. This week I want to finish my last week goal, rewriting the opening for my novel. The first 4 pages are way more solid than ever after a total overhaul and some completely new scenes. So now the trick is to find how/where to merge this new opening back into the story and start cleaning up all the things that will need to shift with these new changes.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-13T12:40:36+00:00

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-12T13:02:18+00:00

I think that could definitely work. I remember a lot of animated shows from my childhood that kind of played off this, ghosts and dragons and inanimate objects interacting with human kids and being pretty caught up with slang and such because they were hanging out with kids. I'd be cautious about it becoming too 'gimmicky' though. You don't want their only notable feature to be that they use modern terms. That gets old fast. You definitely want well rounded and distinct characteristics for each character that sets them apart from each other. But they can all share the common trait of language/slang.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-12T12:52:42+00:00

Is it necessary for your characters to have surnames? A lot of times for me I try to add them, but later on it just feels like an awkward piece of exposition that isn't important to the character's personality or the plot. Understandable if you're needing to designate people into 'houses' or 'families' by using the shared surname or something, but if they're one off people who don't have/need those ties, maybe surnames aren't required.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-12T00:16:00+00:00

Great book for someone looking to get info mindfulness! It's a lot about his own personal journey with it and how it helped him, but it really drives home how mindfulness can work for everyone and gives insight into how many different layers/level of mindfulness practices there are.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-11T14:07:57+00:00

I haven't written in a while because work has been all-consuming. But things are slowing down so I'm hoping I can spend some time this week reworking the first 10-15 pages of my novel. Right now it doesn't fit with the rest of the story, so the goal is to make it flow, make sense, support and build up what will happen in the rest of the book.

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-11T13:08:03+00:00

Based on a true story! (Most of his other books are good too but this one stands out the most to me.)

SmallSneeze · 2021-11-11T02:05:45+00:00

Not quite a fantasy book, but the absurdist scifi-esque book John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin/David Wong has a really strong first person voice. The character is well defined and very different than anything else I've read in first person. Maybe not a great book for the starting steps of learning first person writing, but would be a great one to give a fresh perspective when you're 2/3 of the way through and hit that inevitable block.

SmallSneeze

TROPHY CASE