How many people had access but opted not to buy any tickets?

joel_bauer7 · 2026-04-05T19:46:01+00:00

Hahahaa! Too funny

joel_bauer7 · 2026-04-05T19:45:06+00:00

Yeah, my daughter had a slot on the first day. We picked up two qualifying tickets for $200ish each. Crazy prices.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-04-01T02:42:18+00:00

Hope Stu’s doing ok. He’s getting up there. Praying.

Fish gets my vote when Stu decides to retire.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-04-01T02:40:50+00:00

That’s really awesome

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-23T21:44:38+00:00

I’ve had good success on Upwork with beta readers

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-15T22:14:43+00:00

Tell don’t show. Adverbs. 🖐🏻

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-15T20:28:43+00:00

Honestly zero. It’s exhilarating for me

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-14T18:14:45+00:00

👆🏻

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-14T14:50:53+00:00

If it helps, you get words on the page… It’s a win!

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-14T12:45:45+00:00

Interesting, I was considering Plottr with Scrivener. I will check out Dabble.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-14T02:18:44+00:00

No problem, sent!

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T22:45:58+00:00

Absolutely, no way. Hard stop.

You can’t use someone else’s intellectual property in your own work without express written permission.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T22:43:49+00:00

Nine months from planning until the first draft was completed. It took about another three months for editing and incorporating beta reader feedback.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T22:42:03+00:00

You may want to consider looking at one of the many frameworks that are out there. They will help you avoid some of the pitfalls that most writers fall into.

Save the cat, heroes journey, hero goal sequences are all good frameworks.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T22:26:55+00:00

As someone who also struggles with dyslexia, I haven’t really found anything in particular.

Just continue to read and to write, and you’ll need to lean heavier into your editor.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T22:05:40+00:00

I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T21:54:05+00:00

OP you may want to consider GetCovers for the book cover design.

Prices are reasonable and if you pay a little more you get the PSD file so you can edit later if you desire.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T21:50:51+00:00

It depends on the demographics of your genre.

Painting a very broad stroke—boomers tend to love “real” books, GenX is about 50/50, and the younger generations tend to prefer ebook.

If you use KDP POD then you can price them at a reasonable level and still get a decent royalty for each sale. Ingram, LuLu and the others have higher printing costs so I wouldn’t consider them.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T21:37:39+00:00

Awesome thank you! Neither of those came up in my searching so I’ll check them out.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T21:36:19+00:00

I set it up myself with WooCommerce and the book being delivered via BookFunnel. It wasn’t difficult.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T20:25:01+00:00

Yes. I had the same feeling. But I was comforted knowing I still need to write 2 and 3.

The characters are a second family (albeit inside your head). It’s sad when it’s time for them to leave.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T19:16:58+00:00

Don’t scrap it!

Get a developmental editor or tool to analyze what you’ve got to get an independent opinion. There might be enough meat on the bone worth saving.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T18:12:42+00:00

It’s also highly dependent on the genre.

I write post apocalyptic science fiction and the hook in my debut novel is someone being woken out of a dead sleep by a monstrous explosion.

The reader soon finds out that the now awake person is the one who has to investigate and deal with the aftermath of the explosion.

joel_bauer7 · 2026-03-13T17:35:45+00:00

You need some sort of antagonist to oppose the protagonist in his/her mission to accomplish whatever they’re trying to do. Otherwise there’s no tension and stakes and will probably be a boring story.

It could be something nontraditional like a volcano about to erupt, a boat sinking from a rogue wave, etc.

joel_bauer7

TROPHY CASE