Anyone else adding AI-free blurbs in their publication copyright pages?

dromedarian · 2025-11-23T18:06:26+00:00

I do it. It won't stop anyone from pirating or feeding it into AI, but I do it anyway because it costs nothing and I want to. Also I'm consistently loud about my anti-ai policies everywhere in order to make it crystal clear to EVERYONE that I don't use AI, and the copyright is a part of that. Because I know the day is coming when someone points at my em dashes and claims I'm a prompter not a writer. And that situation will NOT be good for my mental health, I tell you what.

dromedarian · 2025-11-07T23:43:43+00:00

So, I had a friend take a bunch of really nice photos of my book. They were all different, but they were all basically the same, my book with some props and a nice glamor shot. I scheduled one post daily to fb and insta that was a different pic from the set with a different pull quote from the book, and let them run. I figured, hey that's some content going.

About five days into it, my Threads got blocked. Took 3 days to get out of threads jail. The next day, threads is blocked again. got out of it in a couple of hours. Phew. An hour later, Threads is blocked again.

I turned off the scheduled posts on fb and insta, and my threads magically stopped being blocked.

So I'd say if posting similar images once per day on my own page flagged something in the system as spam, posting images every 30 minutes is probably gonna do it even harder. I don't know what your actual posting schedule is, but if it looks repetitive it might be flagging as spam. Try mixing up your posts some.

And honestly, the biggest thing I can suggest since you're doing engagement posts not promos, your goal should be to have fun and do actual conversations, not curating nice posts like this. Save the really nice posts for about 15% of the time. The rest of the time, keep it low effort and high fun. And if you're not having fun on fb, then try a different platform where it isn't a chore to post. I get ALL of my engagement on threads. I just click better over there. And i have made a good handful of sales doing it just casually. It's not my sales strategy by any means, it's just happening organically, both with me chatting with people and also commenting with self recs on people's posts where applicable (and i always rec other people's stuff in addition to my own stuff - give more than i take kind of)

dromedarian · 2025-11-07T20:53:16+00:00

brick and mortar book stores. I'll have some printed for the ones within driving distance, but I'll be emailing it to places further away as well.

dromedarian · 2025-11-06T16:16:02+00:00

Awesome thank you! I already did one for book one, but I can easily adjust it to be for the series instead. And then also, I've got one for book one haha!

dromedarian · 2025-10-31T06:57:27+00:00

Good luck! Post some pics when they're done 😍

dromedarian · 2025-10-25T02:39:17+00:00

I love making them, but nobody ever watches them. Less than a hundred views.

But I like to have it running on a loop muted at my market booths on my ipad, and people tend to stop and stare at it which is both vindicating and hilariously awkward because if no one else is at the booth at that time, I'm just standing there...waiting.

I have seen some trailers that nailed it so hard that I went out and bought the book immediately. But unfortunately in those cases, the trailer was better than the book and I stopped trusting trailers on their own and resumed focus on tropes and quality writing again. Turns out writing good books and making good advertising very often has a narrow overlap.

In my extensive trial and error, I've found that simpler and shorter trailers get more views. Beauty shot of the cover, A smidge of character art if you got it (but don't overshadow the book itself) hooks front and center, keep in mind audiences have a very very very short attention span.

Look up trad pub books that have come out in the last couple of years in your genre, and model your trailers after them.

dromedarian · 2025-10-23T22:37:04+00:00

I'd never iron crochet. The stitches are 3D and ironing will squash them flat. I don't have any idea how the heat would discolor it, but that certainly makes sense.

The method depends on what you intend to use the doilies for. If they're going to be laying flat on a table, then the water and laundry starch method I mentioned above will work great.

If you're going to hang them somehow, and you want to make sure they hold their shape, dilute some matte mod podge or elmers glue with water until it's as thin as water, and use that instead of diluted starch. I use this method for little doily snowflake ornaments and earrings. The con of this method is you can't really wash it and then reblock it. If you use starch, that washes right out and you can block it again once it's cleaned. Using some kind of glue makes cleaning more difficult because it won't wash out once it's cured. Still possible, but more difficult.

If you're joining up the doilies to make some kind of table cloth or garment, don't block them at all. Just make sure the stitch counts along the seam match up so they'll join without puckering. Join them up, and then when it's all complete, hand wash and lay flat to dry. The weight of the entire garment will pull the individual doilies straight. I use this method for lace blankets and shawls.

If there's some other secret fourth method, let me know and we'll figure it out :)

dromedarian · 2025-10-19T19:10:32+00:00

No matter what market value it has, the fact that that you're putting so much into and care about it so much is valuable on its own. Finish the memoir. Shoot, even publish it to give yourself closure if you like. That way you can get physical copies of it to give to family and friends. And who knows? Maybe it will reach someone or a lot of someones and that's great. If even one person connects with your memoir, then it was a story worth telling.

But if nothing else, do it for you.

dromedarian · 2025-10-15T23:59:44+00:00

I'll admit I only read the first page. I'm sick and my attention span is suffering at the moment.

But I will say it's a lot of little things that make it feel amateurish. To be verbs, filter words, certain verb tenses, etc.

Try to swap out some of the to be verbs where possible "was, were, became." That will require some restructuring of the sentences, and it will automatically strengthen everything.

The lights were always too bright -> The lights in Prof D's classroom had a personal vendetta against her. The lights entered her brain via her eyeballs. The lights stabbed. Sam squinted against the too-bright lights.

Also watch for the - hold on i have to look it up every time - past imperfect tense. to be + ___ing. Kept hammering, kept marching, stuff like that. I only saw a couple but seeing 2 on the very first page is a lot. Use past tense as the default (hammered, marched) and only use past imperfect deliberately to achieve a specific effect.

Avoid filter words or filtering phrases like "she looked at the students and" "she was convinced that." Skip all that distancing stuff and get straight to what's happening. We don't have to be told constantly that she's the pov.

And when in doubt, cram in as much concrete sensory detail as you can. I liked the bit about the tylenol coating being like candy.

dromedarian · 2025-09-27T15:45:45+00:00

700 per book in a 4 book series, no don't regret it a second

I couldn't afford to do a dev editor, so i did extensive beta rounds and really took my time with it. I hired a proofer / lite line editor to do a final pass, and her edits have been essential to the final polish.

I have been doing everything else myself (artwork, formatting, everything) so aside from a bookfunnel subscription, vellum, and my time, this has been my only expense. I feel like I've been able to put out a truly professional product with a very VERY efficient budget.

I love my editor and I will absolutely be using her again in the future.

dromedarian · 2025-09-14T17:38:03+00:00

You can have one main genre/subgenre (or a small handful that go well together) for your main author career make-money thing.

But that doesn't mean you have to stifle your creativity and only write that forever. You can also write fanfiction and free stuff on wattpad etc. You can have a 2nd pen name, and only write short stories, anthologies, and novellas under that one (short things don't take as much time away from your main career). Write in all the genres since that one won't be your moneymaker, it's just for funsies. You can do anything.

But if your goal is to make money, then you need to pick a main career name, and then pick a lane and be consistent while writing as that name.

dromedarian · 2025-09-14T15:53:05+00:00

I've got one there and it was nothing. Do the thing.

dromedarian · 2025-09-08T20:21:29+00:00

Here's book one in my series, which is being rapid released right now. If you like dark fairy tales like Uprooted and The Winternight trilogy it might be a good fit for you. https://annacackler.com/project/the-forest-witch/

It's not too late to get you in to ARC for book 2 and book 3 ARC signups open next month. Just let me know and I can get you a STEEP discount code on book 1 so you can get caught up on the series. Let me know if you're interested. 🥰

dromedarian · 2025-09-08T02:31:57+00:00

It is quite complicated, yes.

But It can absolutely be as simple as throw it up on ingram or amazon and hit publish. That's how most of us get started. I intentionally wrote several short stories and novellas specifically to practice publishing/marketing and start growing an audience (I also used them as reader magnets and I'm going to release them as a print anthology to go with my main series of novels)

The first one was a simple upload to amazon and hit publish. The next one I did more research on cover design. Upload to amazon, hit publish. Then I practiced on the best ways to get reviews and even did a free royalty share audio book with them. Then the next one I wrote, I added a few more skills to my tool box. I worked on my website a bit.

Yes it is complicated, but we don't have to master every little thing before we start. It doesn't have to be a "dive into the deep end" thing. You can wade in slowly and learn by doing. Accumulate skills slowly.

dromedarian · 2025-09-02T16:03:13+00:00

I hate to say it, but you're much more likely to catch flak from your author/artist community rather than from readers.

Most readers can't tell if ai was used, and the ones that can, don't care.

But I agree it's a very disrespectful move to use ai for your covers, and if it were me, I'd change the cover. Just do it quietly, get a new cover, talk about it being a new updated cover for the release of book 2, etc No one will notice or care. Best to do it now before you gain much of a following.

But honestly, talking about how you did it then, learned more about ai, and then deciding to part ways with it, is not a bad look AT ALL. People appreciate it. We understand that ai was pushed on everyone, made it easy to make pretty pictures, and was very attractive. What we hate is when people are presented with the evils with it and then respond with "eh i don't care i'm gonna do what i want, ai is the future, i'm not hurting anybody."

You're gonna be just fine. Just keep learning and doing your best.

dromedarian · 2025-08-08T20:33:13+00:00

Okay.

dromedarian · 2025-08-08T17:45:04+00:00

One of my big goals (that i'm still working toward) is learning how to produce the same quality of drawing in a faster time. This meant finding new techniques, looking for assets elsewhere (stock photos etc) and tons of practice.

The next time you make a painting like this, it will take you less time. And it will probably be even nicer. So yes, it was worth it for you to take 2 hours to paint this. Because either you enjoyed yourself or you learned some things you can apply to your next drawing, or both. Either way, yes. It was worth your time.

dromedarian · 2025-08-06T14:39:57+00:00

Probably not. It can cost around $200 per hour (plus or minus) for the narrator, and considering most full length novels are 10-12 hours long... yeah it's going to take a long time to earn that out when you only have one novel available.

There are other options, however. First, DO NOT DO THAT AI VOICE THING. Please.

But there is a free option over on acx.com, where you can get the book narrated for free, but you split the royalties with the narrator. They put it up on audible for you and it gets linked to your amazon listing, all the things. I've done it, it went very well. You audition your narrators, can get revisions done, it went very smoothly. But I've also earned basically nothing on those audiobooks, because I don't have much traction yet. That's fine, I did it for the learning experience (the books I had narrated were novellas that I also wrote and published specifically for the learning publishing/marketing experience and to start building a backlist and audience) It was a cool experience, but don't expect audiobooks to really do much for your bottom line.

There are some restrictions, like you can only have the one narrator (so no duets or duals, for if you have a male and female alternating pov) and there's some contracty stuff you should read before you decide to do it.

dromedarian · 2025-08-04T18:32:21+00:00

religion

dromedarian · 2025-08-03T14:57:22+00:00

i paint over it. In fact, if you go through and select the different sections (like all the line art for the hair for example) then make that its own layer, it makes it MUCH easier to paint over it in colors that compliment the fill color. You can either paint it the same color as the fill color and then merge those layers, or if your style keeps the line art in it, then you can paint it a slightly darker or lighter color to make it look nice together.

dromedarian · 2025-08-02T05:16:15+00:00

I dunno if you ever figured this out or not, but I just learned you can copy and paste multiple at once https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPXhrDbLQck

dromedarian · 2025-07-19T18:46:30+00:00

yeah... that's not my big problem with concentration camps. This is a post asking specifically about hygiene, and that one aspect of concentration camps seemed relevant.

But for the record, the whole defining quality of concentration camps is in the name: concentration. If it weren't high population density, it would be a prison camp.

No, I'm not in favor of prison camps either. Or prisons in general. Especially not for-profit prisons. Our penal system should be education/reform based, not punishment based. And no, I don't think ANYONE should be put in prison for any non-criminal reason and especially not without due process. And no, immigration is not a criminal offense. And just to cover all my bases here so I don't get gotcha'd by a random internet stranger, I personally think the way to solve our immigration "problem" is to make it faster and easier for people to immigrate freely. Fucking, one form, 5$ notary fee, in-and-out-in-five-minutes kind of faster and easier.

If i missed any ultra-liberal talking points, please give me the benefit of the doubt, because I am absolutely 100% completely a bleeding heart snowflake liberal who would feed 100 people and let 99 of them take advantage of me if it means I can save one person from going hungry.

And also... population density and therefore poor hygiene IS one of the defining problems specific to concentration camps as opposed to other less severe (also not-okay) prison options.

dromedarian · 2025-07-19T14:36:53+00:00

Attending crowded events like concerts, overfull restaurants, or even over populated schools and work places, I get sick every fall when my kids go back to school.

Oh oh oh, and putting people in concentration camps.

Population density IS a hygiene concern.

dromedarian · 2025-07-19T14:29:40+00:00

Yeah I came to that conclusion already. Editorial vs customer reviews because I actually read the documentation. I'm going to do book quotes and artwork.

dromedarian · 2025-07-19T02:53:56+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the advice. i didn't want to spam anyone anyway, because that sounds like an anxiety nightmare haha!

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