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Mon, Jul 14, 2025

5:06pm EDT

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Writing Blog Number 2

by S 🤦

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #2311764

This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC

This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario.

An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"

Feel free to comment and interact.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

S 🤦

about 15 hours ago
In response to "20250714 Fact-checking"

Kåre เลียม Enga - so your blog would be like the letters of yore. Yes, some bias, but if you want to know, as the people on the ground. I always ask people in a field about their lives before I include them. Tomorrow, I'm having lunch with a local prostitute to find out how they operate in the country. She knows exactly why we're going out, by the way, but, as I told her, how else am I going to find out? She likes my honesty, apparently.

You might notice I did not mention religion at all in the blog post, and have received a private comment asking why The Bible was not included. Still debating how to respond...

Okay, I did not realise that about US books. Most books on Australia are written by (seriously) Poms (the British). When Australians write about Australia (especially pre-1988), apart from Manning Clark, it is seen as a talking dog. Nowadays, most books about our country are written by women. But our nation is also not very old, and we were treated like crap by everyone (still are, let's be honest); it makes us insular, self-deprecating and very biased against anything not Australian! Interesting to compare books on similar topics from our nations...

Thanks for reading and contributing!

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

about 16 hours ago
In response to "20250714 Fact-checking"

My journal and blog are more reliable because, as anecdotal as it may be, I try to share my experiences, and I'm quite upfront with being opinionated (but not necessarily right).

My experiences and insights about Costa Rica and Thailand are biased but based on the experience of living there, whilst Norway and Portugal are based on multiple visits. Same with Missoula and places I lived in Kansas, Nebraska, New York and Oklahoma.

As for on-line for-profit blogs or vlogs... many are rubbish because they are selling a product. Many travel essays are AI at best and fake at worst.

One thing you neglect to mention: most media, books, journals in the US have been written by educated white males. The bias is obvious to any neglected or marginal minority.

To be blunt? If a writer wants to know what it's like to be a drag queen they should talk to a drag queen.

Don't bother to ask most religious people about anything other than what they are taught and never ask a religious person about another group they despise. Same goes for ethnic groups and political partisans. In countries that have elites don't expect a charitable characterization of the poor.

Schnujo NEEDS to do homework

about 16 hours ago
In response to "20250714 Fact-checking"

There are a lot of peer reviewed journals that are available for free online.

Here's an article that lists 21 places to find articles for free.

https://www.scribendi.com/academy/articles/free_online_journal_and_research_data... en.html

And this has 10 (including some from the last list) places to find articles.

https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/best-online-resources-academic-research/

The 2nd link includes ResearchGate, which is what I use almost exclusively. I rarely (like once or twice a semester) have to use my school's library to access articles because I find plenty of free ones (at least, on my topics) through ResearchGate and I probably need 50 or more articles each semester.

Thank you for this article. I hope your talk on the subject went well.

Soldier_Mike

about 17 hours ago
In response to "20250714 Fact-checking"

We had World Book encyclopedia sets when I was growing up. I actually enjoyed digging for the information I needed for some school project or other, or even just for the fun of it.

1 Like

Schnujo NEEDS to do homework

Jul 7, 2025 at 12:50am
In response to "20250707 ARCs"

Apologies for my questions being anti-traditional publishing. I'm pretty sure that wasn't my intention.

I didn't realize that traditional publishers also did ARCs for book launches. Interesting! Yes, you might be missing out on sales, but I bet at least half of them wouldn't have actually bought the book anyway, but perhaps that's my disorganized self who believes too many people are like me -- meaning to do something, but never getting around to it. lol

Anyway, I totally believe reviews, and thus ARC reviews, are important. Just today I was looking for a couple of books to send a friend. "Oh, that looks like a good book! Never mind. No reviews. IDK if it's any good. Oh, here's one! Nah, only 1 review. It could have been their mom." lol Yep, even if the ARC reviews were hand-picked from their best folks, most likely to give favorable reviews, IDK that. It still makes me more likely to buy the book if there are at least 5 reviews (if it's in a hard-to-find niche like finger knitting, such as today's events) and it's rated at least 4.5 stars, though 10 reviews or more is better (especially in a bigger niche that's not so specialized).

You're right about Amazon being wishy-washy about ARC reviews lately. Some folks are having no issues, but others ARC reviewers are having to remove the detail of being an ARC reviewer from their review to get the review to go through. Yet, that's a requirement of the review -- to mention if you got the book for free. Whatever. lol

Is Bookgram Instagram for books, like BookTok is TikTok for books?

Anyway, thanks for this blog post! Interesting!

Schnujo NEEDS to do homework

Jul 4, 2025 at 7:53am
In response to "20250704 Types Of Editing"

Funny that you mention that many people will do line and copy editing at the same time. I had them listed on my To-Do list as to do at the same time. lol I also had the order reversed -- copy edits, then line edits, but I can see where doing it in the reverse order makes more sense. Thank you for this!

Schnujo NEEDS to do homework

Jul 2, 2025 at 8:52am
In response to "20250702 Answering Questions"

I think what your writing goals are makes a difference in what you should write. If you love writing about shape shifting alien roaches who have left their galaxy and gone off to conquer Pluto, know that you will likely find it VERY hard to get that published through a traditional publisher. If you are okay with that, so be it. Enjoy writing. Self-publish. Post short stories on your blog. Write for your own enjoyment. Whatever.

But if your hopes and dreams are to be traditionally published, you should probably consider what publishers are looking for. Shape shifters are still popular among many readers, but perhaps not alien roach shape shifters. Can you write about shape shifting wolves or dragons? It may not be your deepest passion, but if you can write about them and not hate your life, you should probably choose to do that.

Otherwise, you'll need to work very, very hard to find those very, very few fans who are interested in your shape shifting alien roaches and you'll likely have a very, very hard time getting traditionally published because there's virtually no market for that book and traditional publishers know this and aren't likely to be willing to invest in it.

That's my 2 cents from someone who has no interest in becoming traditionally published. I prefer to keep the rights to my stuff -- even if it isn't worth having. lol

The other organization I've joined recently also doesn't push social media, though they encourage it if you are interested. They recommend an author website, of course, but otherwise, just email lists to market to. They said with an active email list and a decent back catalog (not sure if that's the term I think they use, but I'm blanking on it) of books to offer, you can make $1500-$2k without spending any money on marketing. Impressive! Of course, they have folks making $15k-$20K/month with advertising (people post their "wins" from last month at the beginning of each month so we get to see who the high performers are), but they're also spending a good bit on advertising, so there's that. They're still coming out ahead, though.

Beholden

Jul 2, 2025 at 5:57am
In response to "20250702 Answering Questions"

Item 5 is excellent. If you can't write for yourself, you'll be like the rest of us - slaving away in a job you hate.

Beholden

Jun 30, 2025 at 6:06am
In response to "20250630 Letting ”The Idea Tap” Flow"

It does indeed answer the question - thank you. Lots to ponder on, including things that I've done in the past and allowed to fall away. Must really get into the habit of writing down ideas when they come and not trusting my memory.

AmyJo-Downhill slide begins!

Jun 30, 2025 at 1:20am
In response to "20250630 Letting ”The Idea Tap” Flow"

Well said! Thanks for some new to me ideas. I like the sitting down to write anything. Thank you for sharing.

September 9, 2024 at 4:15am

#1076511

20240909 #2 Book Available?

20240909 #2 Book Available?

My son surprised me by sending me a link. I thought my first book was no longer available, but it seems Creative print - Amazon's old publishing arm - have taken it over and it is actually still available.

ASIN: 1909049034

Relick

Product Type: Book

Amazon's Price: Price N/A

Buy Now!

If you are religious... then this humour book will offend you in all manner of different ways. There used to be a 1-star rating and review about the way it offended some American Christian, but all ratings/reviews have been removed.

Still... my first book is still out there!

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