Rebelious rules by Kristina Gallo

Did you ever write a book where the author talks about events that will happen in future? Like: "And then, something scary will happen. " Using that method, the author eliminates a moment of uncertainty and surprise. Readers are reading a predictable book.  Goodreads will remove the review that contain spoilers, where reviewer reveal what is happening in the book and spoil the fun for readers.  It is like you are watching a movie trailer that show everything important and exciting in the movie. Writing a book, the author should focus on secrets, to keep readers in mystery till the end of the book.  Why should I know on the beginning that two my favorite characters will get marry? Or, who will be killed? To make a book presentable, authors will try to pull shock effect, but this method is risky because it reveals too much for readers. Writing a good blurb, it would be desirable to ask questions instead of making statements. Like: " Who will be killed next?" Instead o...

The virtual world became a platform where people expose their frustrations. If you post something positive, you will not get reaction. Ignorance is mostly present when you express your happiness. If you post something that irritates people, you will get negative reactions. Many young users use internet to write negative comments, put dislikes and troll others. We are witnesses to young generation who is angry, passive and without a purpose. You Tube opted out dislikes for public. You can see in your private statistic a number of dislikes.  Some people have a bad humor and don't have a clue how their reaction can hurt others. You will tell me this is a freedom of speech and free choice, but also as an owner of my profiles in social media I have right to restrict negative comments. I am against censoring and dictatorship and every critic is welcome, but I don't tolerate rude and abusive behavior. Besides, if someone leave a negative, rude comment, that gives an ugly example to ot...

  Promoting your book is a hard path for indie authors. You don't have an agent, so promoting is your task. Indie authors will start on old fashionable way: offering their books in inbox, talking directly to people are they interested. Unless you are familiar with author, nobody likes to get messages from unknown artist who wish to sell their books. It is equal to beggaring. Also, tags are not welcome if you are not in author's circle. The conclusion is : to promote your book, you need to find your community. Making your profiles in social media means spreading a word about your books, so your followers should be members of your circle. When you want to establish your circle, you might have some obstacles. Someone will buy and read your book, but next time when you release a new book, this person will not buy it. People don't like to obligate. Someone will buy your book, but if a person is an author, you are committed to buy their book next time. Someone will promise to rea...

Today I am featuring one of the best science fiction indie authors.   USA Today Best-Selling Author, Michelle Medhat (known as Mish to her friends) writes fast-moving, ruthless political spy thrillers blended with thought-provoking sci-fi. Readers and fans call her addictive The Trusted Thriller Series “007 on acid with aliens” or “Bond meets The X-Files”. Her books are loaded with incredible technologies, but in every case, they’re grounded in real science. Why is this? Well, for 28 years of Mish’s life, she’s lived and breathed science, engineering and technology, including programming chips for different bleeding edge applications, established and run technology software companies, developed programmes to bring sci-tech closer to the public, and was heavily involved in the early 90’s in bringing to the UK the first notion of technologies we now take for granted, such as film-on-demand (hello Netflix and Prime Video!), pause and rewinding live tv, virtual reality and sensor appli...

Can you earn from writing? That is a basic question many people will ask, when they hear about indie author. You are publishing in Amazon, your covers are self-made, you are hiring an editor or editing by yourself and you are promoting by yourself.  Traditional publishing demands only to write a book and submit it to your publisher. If you have  publishers, editing, covers, formatting and promoting are their thing. Being a traditional published once, gave me next impressions: If you are not well known author, your sale will be low. If you are publishing in a small country, like mine (Croatia), your sale will be low. If you are writing in genre that is not popular in your country, your sale will be low. If you are not a member of some author's community or association, your sale will be low. That makes me question: where is a difference between traditional publishing and indie authors? Only amateur will say about how indie authors are not real writers. We are also investing ou...

Thinking about genres, my favorite is thriller and horror. Many readers will share my opinion. Excitement and adrenaline are elements of every horror story.  Recently I got review where the reader ask for a sequel. It was a big compliment for the book. I left the element of uncertainty, two characters have an unknown destiny. This is a material for writing more. As a little kid, I was watching many horror movies. Despite of fear, I would always watch more. Even when I got some nightmares, I still did not give up from horrors. What readers like : A feeling something is going on, that raise heartbeats. A feeling of risk. Something bothers you in real life, and you read about a risky adventure, a dangerous plot, and maybe it will motivate you to move on. An instinct of survival. Many risky situations will happen in your life, maybe the story will give you solution what you can do. Horror stories are fast read. Not dependable of number of pages in the story, the action is developing qu...

When the book is finished, it needs reviews. How to get reviews? One of the ways is to give your readers ARC (authors and readers copy) of your book. You can send WORD , PDF or MOBI format of your book in a return for honest review. While some authors prefer to give many ARC as giveaway, I don't support that idea. ARC copy should be a benefit, not a donation. I want to know who read my book. I don't need trash collectors, people who will get something because it is free. That is why I avoid free book promotions, especially I don't want to pay promotions of free books. If you give 100 books away, statistic show one to ten will appear with reviews. Maybe you will get nasty ratings without reviews, or troll reviews where author is a subject of mocking. What I suggest, is to give ARC copy to readers: Readers who are regularly buying your books. Readers who are talking to you about your writing. Readers who already gave reviews and who are genuine interested for your work. Reade...