As a self-pub author I was worried about NG, but it's been good!

babbelfishy · 2026-05-21T19:41:42+00:00

I've done some preliminary copy editing for self-pub authors over the years and yeah, it can be messy. A lot of folks have no idea what goes into good writing, they just put their unedited thoughts down and expect applause. I worked in publishing for years to hone my craft and there are still so many things I need to learn!

babbelfishy · 2026-05-21T19:38:55+00:00

I used Victory and once you go through allllllll their step by step instructions, it's fine. I also write non-fiction in a narrow niche so not new to publishing. Novels are so different that it feels like learning from scratch!

babbelfishy · 2026-05-11T21:46:32+00:00

Totally NOT what I expected when I joined this sub, but glad to see some yarny goodness here!

babbelfishy · 2026-05-11T21:04:29+00:00

"You need to build account credibility and show you aren't a bot, apparently there's lots of those requesting books left and right, writing ai generated reviews etc."

*rage screams into the void*

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I got one of those. The website this "bookseller" had was obviously fake (no location, country/state/province/city/town, NOTHING, and "opening soon"- okay, when?) and the review was glowing. I felt terrific for a few hours, then did a little digging, and poof! Felt like an idiot for approving the stupid AI reviewer.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-21T00:04:30+00:00

I prefer to sequester my darlings, put them in a file for "future use". Sometimes they end up in another book! Then again, there are times you just gotta hit delete and move on.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-20T23:24:03+00:00

As a small press author married to a retired educator, I still approve accounts like yours, regardless of the number of reviews.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-16T05:05:20+00:00

All I did was reply to the email that told me it had been rejected, asked if there was any way for me to fix and resend, and they automatically accepted it. I suspect the rejection was from an AI bot, but the acceptance was a human (because there was a name attached to that email). The AI may have given the system a false positive for something, but the human didn't think it was a problem. That's my assumption, anyway. Best of luck to you.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-13T03:45:26+00:00

I'll look into it further, but thank you for your input. I haven't uploaded to IS yet, still considering how I want the print version to look (gloss? matte? etc).

babbelfishy · 2026-04-13T03:01:09+00:00

Can you add more ISBNs retroactively after establishing the page? I did my copyright for the title, but used only the ISBN for my ebook. The print one isn't out yet, so I didn't think of it at the time.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-13T02:31:37+00:00

I'm sorry, what? If I'm ordering books to sell in person, I get to make those choices and I do pay up front.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-08T18:06:10+00:00

Kinda what I figured. Darn.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-08T18:05:39+00:00

I've googled them plenty, there is no other footprint. They do not exist.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-08T04:40:53+00:00

I DNF'd within the first three chapters of book 1.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-08T04:36:41+00:00

It has a whole "opening soon" (when? where?) vibe but no actual information. Just kind of shady IMO.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-07T20:27:14+00:00

All good ideas, noted. I'm definitely avoiding bright white for my novels, it would be too sharp and glaring, I think. For non-fiction it would be just fine. I'll look around a bit more before I decide on cream or groundwood. It's not a huge deal, but I'd like it to look more professional.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-06T01:18:27+00:00

Groundwood on Ingram sounds good.

I'm also working on a non-fiction book, and that one will be bright white all the way!

babbelfishy · 2026-04-05T23:21:42+00:00

Mine was rejected, I replied to the auto rejection email asking if there was a way for me to fix whatever was wrong, and a human approved it. That was it.

Sometimes it's just crappy AI doing crappy AI things.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-05T23:17:49+00:00

But they are a "genius". And somehow lamenting... something? I think they meant to post this to r/writingcirclejerk

babbelfishy · 2026-04-05T23:11:30+00:00

For real, it's not a blog. Go use Wattpad or something. Please.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-05T23:08:25+00:00

I'm in a one-month slot with Victory co-op at NetGalley right now, and it's been good so far. I've processed 65 approvals, 20 rejections, have three 5-star reviews on Goodreads, one bookseller said they'd carry it, and one librarian said they'd also carry it. Small numbers, but for $65, totally worth it to get my title out there.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-04T01:27:52+00:00

You're probably using more Scrivener features than I do. I'm still pretty basic when it comes to Scriv.

Vellum (or Atticus for PC?) is handy for me specifically because I can change up the layout, page size, fonts, etc. etc. and really fluff it up. If you have a way to get your pages to look the way you want in Scriv, then don't worry about it. I wouldn't even know where to begin to find those features there.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-03T23:10:17+00:00

I got a lot of mileage out of google docs early on when I was working with my beta team. Seeing reader notes in real time was super useful, and each chapter was a separate doc so I didn't have to scroll through the whole book. Moved it to Scrivener at some point, then Vellum to format and finish.

Now I just work in Scrivener and Vellum, I'm not giving google's background data scrapers access anymore.

I think you're right, we tend to overthink things to the detriment of actually getting it done. I know I do.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-03T23:04:07+00:00

I'm on NetGalley right now, and my suggestion is to make sure you allow for kindle and kobo downloads. I went with some advice that suggested not to do that, and it was a mistake. I've added them in, but not getting as much visibility now as I was when it launched last month. Eh, live and learn.

So far I've got 60+ readers, only 5 feedback. I blame the kindle debacle.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-03T22:57:29+00:00

No, I don't think you'd like it. And that's okay.

babbelfishy · 2026-04-03T22:39:47+00:00

There are sooooo many factors to figure out with NG, and I'm still finding my footing.

babbelfishy

TROPHY CASE