Comments for If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen

Comment on A Snail-Mail Letter a Day in February by Tim Dodge

Tim Dodge — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:53:32 +0000

Great! I hope she likes them.

Comment on A Snail-Mail Letter a Day in February by Dennis Ashley

Dennis Ashley — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:23:39 +0000

Tim, I think I might try this…I like the idea. I plan to send a few of these letters to my wife, especially for Valentines’ Day. Thanks for the suggestion!

Comment on Podcast Extra — Jennisodes Episode 79: Marketing by Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:57:37 +0000

I had a lot of fun with this interview. I learned a lot about marketing your game and how to promote it at conventions and online! I’m glad you enjoyed the show and have many more interviews coming out soon!

Comment on To Self-Publish or Not? That is the Question by Podcast Extra — Jennisodes Episode 79: Marketing | If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:45:24 +0000

[...] points about contracts with illustrators and other outside content creators. As someone who is contemplating self-publishing, I had not given this any thought, which is especially bad since I spend much of my time on the day [...]

Comment on The Key To Marketing Your Writing by tdodge

tdodge — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:40:01 +0000

Thanks, Brian! There’s always more I could be doing, though.

Comment on To Self-Publish or Not? That is the Question by What Will Happen in the Publishing World in 2012? | If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:32:51 +0000

[...] is a fair amount of discussion about this in the comments section of this post. As I’ve discussed here before, I’m giving serious thought to self-publishing one or both of my podcast novels this year. I [...]

Comment on The Key To Marketing Your Writing by Brian Rathbone

Brian Rathbone — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:20:41 +0000

There are quite a few things I’ve done that have taken a while to pay off. Some have taken so long that I forgot about them until someone else mentioned them. But I will say that whenever I see the name Tim Dodge I think “Heartwarming stories by Tim Dodge”, so you must have done something right…

Comment on Free Download: ‘Santa Claus Got Eaten by the Kraken’ by Pandora Celtica by tdodge

tdodge — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:38:54 +0000

You make me blush. Thanks for the great song! A holiday song that manages to mention all the major Christmas characters, iPads, Facebook, Twitter, and hot elfs is a treasure indeed.

Comment on Free Download: ‘Santa Claus Got Eaten by the Kraken’ by Pandora Celtica by Rubiee

Rubiee — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:44:24 +0000

You Sir, are amazing!!!! <3

Comment on Christmas Listening: ‘Merry Christmas From the Heartbreakers’ by Mur Lafferty by More Christmas Listening: ‘The Christmas Mummy’ by Heather Shaw & Tim Pratt | If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:12:45 +0000

[...] Christmas, I posted Mur Lafferty’s story Merry Christmas From the Heartbreakers in my feed because I love the story and wanted you all to have the chance to enjoy it, too. This [...]

Comment on Holiday Music: ‘Seasons Geekings’ by John Anealio by John Anealio

John Anealio — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:58:34 +0000

Too kind. Too kind. Thanks so much Tim.

Comment on Halloween’s Over. It’s Christmastime! by My Christmas Rituals | If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen

My Christmas Rituals | If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:08:00 +0000

[...] up: This is another Christmas-related post, hot on the heals of the one I wrote a few weeks ago. We’re well into December now, and it’s time for those “rituals” (for lack [...]

Comment on Dragon*Con Wrap-Up (Long) by tdodge

tdodge — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:59:55 +0000

Rubiee,

Oh, I definitely will. As it is, I feel like “stalking” isn’t too wild a description for what I did this year. I even saw Shadow Cat at the Starbucks in the Marriott…

I’m loving the “On Thin Ice” CD this holiday season. Listened to it again at work yesterday. Anyone reading this blog, check it out!

Thanks for reading my blog,

Tim

Comment on Dragon*Con Wrap-Up (Long) by Rubiee

Rubiee — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:31:52 +0000

Yay!
I am so glad that D*Con was good to you, and I’m glad that you enjoyed our concerts!

Next year you should come say hi and talk with us more. We really do love chatting people’s ears off

-Rubiee
Pandora Celtica

Comment on The First Draft is Done! by tdodge

tdodge — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:13:08 +0000

Thanks, Bill! It was nice meeting you, too. I’ll definitely give that podcast a listen.

Comment on The First Draft is Done! by Bill Pfohl

Bill Pfohl — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:54:34 +0000

Congrats! And good for you Tim. Many people believe that a person who writes for a living can easily turn out a story or book off hours or on their own time. I think it’s much harder to sit back down in front of a computer after working all day and try to be creative. I admire the discipline it took to do this and I wish you well with it.
BTW, check out David Sparks commentary on sell publishing vs traditional on the Podcast “Mac Power Users” (episode #59 iPad at Work) his decision to go the traditional route was pretty convincing.
Nice meeting in person yesterday.
Bill

Comment on To Self-Publish or Not? That is the Question by Scott Roche

Scott Roche — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:24:35 +0000

I concur with the above commenters. Certainly have someone(s) else look at your manuscript, but as Nathan Lowell said, the cost of editing is prohibitive to a self published author. Skip it. Definitely get some pro-art. I spent $100 on mine. Money well spent.

As far as the price you charge for a dead tree version I’d say charge whatever you need to cover the cost that create space says is the minimum and tack on 10%. Charge $2-4.99 for the e-book and there you go.

If you need any help with ANYTHING, tag me. We’ve got a team at Flying Island Press and we’re looking to help authors get their product out.

Comment on To Self-Publish or Not? That is the Question by tdodge

tdodge — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:21:57 +0000

@Mitch and @Abbie,

Did you two talk before you wrote your comments? You both seem to be on the same page.

You do have me re-thinking the editing expense. If readers really do not care about professional editing, then perhaps that’s something that can wait for another day. It would certainly drop the break-even point. I do agree that the cover art is important, as I heard two authors discuss on a podcast last week (thanks Abbie and Renee!). I actually have an artist in mind, someone who used to attend the writers’ group Mitch and I belong to.

Thanks for your comments!

Comment on To Self-Publish or Not? That is the Question by Abbie

Abbie — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:30:39 +0000

Should you self-publish? Absolutely. Should you spend 1.5-2K on an untried product? Absolutely not!

The thing you must have is good cover art. If you spend money on nothing else, spend money on that. If you look very carefully, you can find/commission something high quality for $100. If you’ve got a little more money than time, you can get something excellent for around $300. That is money worth spending.

I would not spend money on editing. Take it from someone who has. It’s not worth it. Readers don’t care. If your writing is not riddled with basic errors, you’re not going to see a monetary return from costly editing. Nobody will buy your book who wouldn’t have bought it anyway. Also, with eBooks, you can always come back later (after the book has earned its editing fee) and produce an edited version. If you’re getting lots of reviews that say things like, “This was great, but it could have used an editor,” I’d do that. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. Get half a dozen friends (who have never read the book before) to read it for typos, and you’re done.

Formatting costs nothing but time. I’m not sure what you mean by “distribution fees.” There are no listing fees for Amazon, BN, SW.

I think your price point is about right, but you can always play with that over time.

That’s my 2 cents. If you’re determined to drop two grand on your book right out of the gate, drop it on the cover. For that price, you could get someone who does covers for the big 6. But I recommend just spending $200-$300, not putting the book in serious debt from the outset.

Comment on To Self-Publish or Not? That is the Question by Mitch Mitchell

Mitch Mitchell — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:03:28 +0000

My man, you’re thinking about this way too deeply. Let’s take a different look at this.

Editing. You don’t need the greatest editor in the world, you just need someone competent. You want someone you can talk to, who’ll show you the first few pages of edits, if there are any, so you can see the quality of work they do. You could find someone who’d do it for 1 or 2 dollars a page; heck, I’d do it for you for that.

Book cover. I know both stories and you’re not going to look for someone to do full-on graphic novel cover art. With your connections you could probably find someone local who could put together something nice for $200 – $300 dollars, possibly less. Costs always increase depending on how fancy you’re trying to make your cover; how fancy would you be looking for?

Third, price point. How much you’re going to sell your book for depends on where you’re planning on selling it from. Since I’ve read both stories I’m thinking your price point is too low because of how many pages each is. I’m betting that since you already kind of have a readership based on your podcasts that you could market it yourself at a higher price. Or you could go other ways such as through Amazon, Ebook Palace or many other places. You could even market it through your blog; that would be a very smart move to make.

The thing is that you don’t need perfection; you just need very good. And you can get very good for way less than what you’re thinking. If a regular publisher decided they liked it later on, they would bring in their own editors at that point anyway.

Just my thoughts on it all.