MY NOVEL IS FINALLY IN PRINT

After many many years and much support on this site, my first novel The Grease and the Gold has been published on Amazon as is available for Kindle or PAPERBACK. My baby is finally ready read proper

After many many years and much support on this site, my first novel The Grease and the Gold has been published on Amazon as is available for Kindle or PAPERBACK.

The link is below or you can search THE GREASE AND THE GOLD on Amazon and purchase!

My baby is finally ready read proper, in had, flipping pages, smelling the printed paper.

It s finally a REAL book!

I am posting this here since many of you followed my journey from the first few chapters when it was a rough piece of s**t and you always supported me and motivated me here.

This site was the jumpstart of newfound writing career. Everyone of you know who you are and I am forever grateful for your part in helping my grow and get to this point!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Much love and respect-

Beverly

Author's Note

https://lnkd.in/gGEqRe2

Reviews

[Paul Bell]

Well done Bev, don't you be getting swell head syndrome, and don't forget the little people like me.
Am I still getting 10% of sales.

[Coyote Poetry]

Outstanding job dear Beverly. I wish you great success. The writer's dream. To have their book published and read.
Coyote

[barleygirl]

THIS BOOK IS WORTH READING, EVERYONE! I read it & loved it. BBP is a real-life authority on the lifestyle about which she writes, so her characters are authentic & they pull us into this fast-paced dynamic story. (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Gee]

Just downloaded a sample, will most probably buy to read whilst on my hols

[Einstein Noodle]

big congratulations Beverly! i really enjoyed following your story here .. read every chapter .. i am so glad you did not forget us while putting the final touches on your story ... i hope with your success you still find time to share a thing or two ...right here at the Cafe' .. sending you a message .. let me know what you think :)
E.

[JayG]

You posted something on Amazon with no paragraph indents other than the first one? Did you not look at the online sample as you posted it, to see if it was clean? As it stands now it’s unreadable.

Use Calibre, a free app, to convert the document to a MOBI file to fix that problem. You can check the conversion on your computer with the free Kindle reader.

The only thing you need to do that’s not part of the Calibre instructions: Because of a bug in Calibre, when you select the “convert” function, and after you set conversion to a MOBI file, select Heuristic Processing, then check the box to enable it, and uncheck all boxes but “ensure scene-breaks are consistently formatted. Then, convert the file.

There is another problem that hit me that I hate to mention, which is that like so many hopeful writers, because no one reminds us that all professions are acquired in addition to the nonfiction, report-writing skills we’re given in school, pretty much every hopeful writer uses the skills they left school with in an attempt to write fiction. But our schooldays skills are designed to report and inform because that’s what employers need from us. Fiction’s goal is to provide an emotional experience as a form of entertainment. And such hugely different goals require different methodology.

Think of yourself. If you read a horror story, are you excited to be told that the protagonist feels terror? Or are you hoping the author will make the story seem so real that it terrifies you as you read, and makes you almost afraid to turn out the lights? If a romance, do you hope the author will make you know the protagonist has fallen in love, or make you fall in love?

To do that—to make the reader live the scene in real-time—takes an entirely different approach from that used to write the reports and essays we were assigned in school. It takes the craft and professional knowledge of the working Fiction-Writer—skills you can learn as easily as those you now use…though perfecting them to the point where you can use them as easily as your present skill-set will take time, study, and practice. But that’s true of any other profession, so it’s more a rite-of-passage than a disaster.

I truly wish there was some more gentle way of breaking such news. Unfortunately, I’ve not found one. And I hesitated on posting this because it is such bad news. But since the choice was to leave you wondering why there were no sales, and feeling that it was because of some failing in you, I went ahead.. But the thing to remember is that the problem is unrelated to talent, how well you write, or anything but the fact that you need to add additional techniques to your writing toolkit. As Mark twain put it: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

E. L. Doctorow defined the reason for those specialized skills with: “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

So how do you fix the problem? First, by digging into the differences between fiction and nonfiction technique, in general, to see if the prospect of learning those skills excites or depresses, because there is a fair amount of work involved. But if you truly are meant to write the learning will be fun.

Lots of resources and articles are available on the Internet, but immodestly, I suggest the articles in my writing blog. You’ll also find a few stories there to see the things I mention in use.

Then, depending on your situation, I suggest one of two books on the nuts-and-bolts issues of creating scenes that sing to the reader:

Debra Dixon’s, GMC: Goal Motivation & Conflict is a warm easy read, like sitting with Deb and talking abut writing.

Dwight Swain’s, Techniques of the Selling Writer is a more complete book, though because it delves into more technical detail, it can be a bit dry at times. It’s also an older book, one that talks about your typewriter. But still, it is the best I’ve found to date.

The local library's fiction-writing section can be a huge resource, too.

So…I know this was anything but what you were hoping to hear, and for the pain it may have caused I’m sorry. I know how it feels because I’ve been there. But keep Sinclair Lewis’s words in mind: “It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write.”

Hang in there, and keep-on-writing.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/

[BBP]

Oh Jay....we meet again! I wasn't asking for advice I was letting my 'friends' on this site know what I have accomplished. I tried to get what you were trying to say but unfortunately, this review is as confusing as a pig in a dress. I can't make any sense out of what you are trying to relay to me, except that you are pushing your own web services and promoting writing tools.

And I also love that you ask why I was wondering there were no sales with my book...… I've sold plenty and will await the real reviews from the people who are actually holding the books in there hands at this exact moment.

But, hey, thank you for taking the time to spit out a bunch of s**t I could care less to hear. Next time....when you see my name on a post... just don't waste your time even opening it. And that is just me caring about you and your precious time.

Thank you, God Bless and all that s**t.

[JayG]

• I can't make any sense out of what you are trying to relay to me.

I can understand that you might not be technically proficient, and so reluctant to use a program to fix the lack of paragraphing problem. But is is a problem, and a sales killer. So ask a friend who can understand, for help.

Selling a book that has no paragraphing seems not the best way to generate sales.

• except that you are pushing your own web services and promoting writing tools

My web services? Interesting. Given that I offer none, list none, and suggested none to you, what might you believe I'm selling?

And promoting writing tools? Damn, you mean suggesting a book on how to write fiction to someone who's still using twelfth grade English composition skills is wrong? Do the professors who teach Fiction-writing technique in the universities know that?

Okay, the book is up for sale. If you're right, and need nothing more in the way of fiction-writing skills, you'll have lots and lots of sales. If not, you just might want to look into a book on fiction writing technique.