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Insecure Writers Support Group

Jennifer Lane

ISWG Update: A couple of months ago I posted about setting the best price for ebooks. I’m happy to report that when my publisher lowered the price from $6.99 to $2.99 for two of my novels, sales improved for all three of my novels! Now, it’s not to the level where I can consider quitting my day job as psychologist (not even CLOSE), but it makes me happy to know that more readers are finding my books.

Today’s post is in response to author Darcia Helle tagging me for the blog challenge THE NEXT BIG THING. It all started from author Gail Baugniet HERE. The rules are:

Answer 10 questions about my current WIP (Work-In-Progress)
Tag five other writers and link their blogs so we can all hop over and read their answers.

What is the working title of your book?
Where did the idea come from for the book?
What genre does your book fall under?
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I liked Gail’s idea to answer one question a week, with the hope her WIP would be finished at the end of ten weeks. I’m 70,000 words into my WIP, so that’s a challenging yet realistic goal for me with my full-time job.

So, today’s question is: What is the working title of your book?

On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3)

Ta-da!

Now I’m tagging five writers for The Next Best Thing Blog Challenge. Tell us about your WIP…

Nicki Elson (blog)
Carol Oates (blog)
Jessica Subject (blog)
Cherie Colyer (blog)
Roland Yeomans (blog)

Two announcements to end this post:

1. I’m giving away an ebook of YA sports romance Streamline at Laurie’s blog until 9/22. Stop by to hear why I use a pen name and other strange information.

2. Thanks to fellow author Carol Oates, my free YA short story Swim Recruit has a new cover and wider availability on Smashwords.

This is my first story up on Smashwords and I’m finding it to be an awesome site. If you enjoy an Irish faerie short story, check out Carol Oates The Summer Prince HERE.

Writers, here’s to being bold and confident this month. *cheers*

Unknown's avatar

Published by Jennifer Lane

I write sports romance and suspense with a psychological twist.

58 thoughts on “Insecure Writers Support Group”

  1. My way is to underuse GoodReads. My account is flawed and underdeveloped — hence no reviews of my books. Amazon reviews seem to pack more weight with the buyers it seems.John Locke says a negative review just means that person is not one of your target audience. His or her loss. Nice attitude if you can believe it! LOL.

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  3. Negative reviews are a learning opportunity. Yeah, I know. Blah Blah Blah. They freakin suck. But, you can find some happiness in the fact that you have something to review. I haven't made it there yet. Take the constructive things out of bad reviews and use them. If they aren't constructive, ignore them.

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  4. As a reader, any review is that person's perspective at that point in time. I don't know about you but my perspective varies daily! I wouldn't let it discourage you. I review books on occasion and I didn't particularly like the book, I don't post the review. If I do, I always make sure that it is written with as many positives as possible along with the negatives

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  5. I read all the reviews out there. The negative ones sting a little, but I take them all in and hopefully grow from them. I realize I don't love every book I read…doesn't mean it's a horrible book, just wasn't for me. So, I realize people are going to feel the same about my books and my writing. 🙂 Hang in there, my friend. 🙂 Happy Writing.

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  7. Roland, I know a lot of authors who avoid Goodreads. Not only do they avoid obsessing over reviews, but some reviews there are so snarky that they border on character attacks. I've had a more positive experience interacting with readers there, fortunately.

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  9. Sydney, you're totally right…negative reviews mean that you're a published author so that's a great thing! I have taken constructive comments and made my writing better too–good point.

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  10. Heather, and I find that if I don't like a particular genre, it's really hard for me to write a positive review even if the writing, characters, and plot are great. Seems like paranormal and fantasy are all the rage but I just happen to prefer real life stories.

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  13. I'll take a negative review over a drive-by one star rating any day, know what I mean? At least when they take the time to review I've got something to go on.But a favorable review is the very best feeling in the whole world. 🙂

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  14. Good reviews make my day. Negative reviews are rough. I deal by walking away from the computer and whine a bit to my husband (*sad face* Someone didn't like my book. Can I get a backrub? lol) He nods and reminds me everyone gets bad reviews. I know they are part of writing so I get over it pretty fast.

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  15. Nicki, I hear ya, homegirl. Those one star ratings leave you scratching your head sometimes. I do admit that didn't feel bummed by one critical comment–instead I laughed–when one reviewer called my hero Grant a \”wuss\”. Hee hee.

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  17. Hi Jen. I'm new to the group too. :)I do read reviews, but I haven't really stalked the different sites, except when I have a book tour going on. Because books are so subjective, I think everyone will end up with a bad review. If it's one or two, then the book probably wasn't for that reader. If comments follow a theme, then I think I'd try to keep that in mind when writing my next book.

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  19. I'm still unpublished, so I haven't had to deal with reviews, but I've had some crits that were overly harsh and nearly as painful. Best of luck! 🙂

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  24. I already stalk Goodreads watching as people ad me to their 'to-read' shelves, I can't even IMAGINE how neurotic I am going to be when people are actually reviewing! I think I will just have to assume that everyone will hate it, then anything better than that will be gravy. 🙂 That was my philosophy while I queried and it severed me well.

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  25. Hi Jen: I've had one \”1\” ratng and though I've had plenty of good reviews, that one \”1\” sticks out like a sore thumb. What bothered me was that the reviewer states that my book wasn't her kind of book. If it wasn't, why read it? Review ratings posted should be based on a specific, established criteria which evaluates how well the story was written. Seems to me the world of figure skating went through a similar growth period when the marking system was changed to be more objective.

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  26. Cherie, that's excellent and what I try to do as well (when I'm feeling stronger):\”Because books are so subjective, I think everyone will end up with a bad review. If it's one or two, then the book probably wasn't for that reader. If comments follow a theme, then I think I'd try to keep that in mind when writing my next book.\”

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  27. Annalisa, no bad reviews yet? You're blessed, girlfriend! I have Google alerts set up to try to catch pirates and sometimes that allows me to stumble happily across a review.

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  30. Alex, that's a good idea to look for a common thread in negative reviews. But even common threads might be completely contradicted by common threads in positive reviews! The subjectivity is all very interesting.

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  34. Feather, I've found that readers who love paranormal don't tend to enjoy my novels as well for some reason. Maybe I try to dive into real world problems and there's no sense of escape for readers seeking that. I've also had readers who dislike romance novels try out my novels, which makes me scratch my head.

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  37. Okay, this may sound like nothing since I'm at the moment, a no-novel published author. I've had other publications, magazines and such. But, I got a review for a YA story I wrote last year, published in Jan. 2012. It was overall, a good review. However, this soul made a comment that crushed my spirit. It really was a small thing, too. Since it was negative in thought, I was offended.Then, an author friend of mine told me something I'll never, ever forget. She said, \”At least you have something published that's worth review!\” (Omg, why didn't I think of that?)And you know what? That's so true. From now on, I'll handle negative reviews with this in mind.Welcome to the IWSG. :))

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  41. Like Heather, I like the new cover for Swim Recruit. Thanks for tagging me. Check my blog for the title. Great to hear your books are doing well. Mine are walking a lonely road, but impossible just gives birth to legends, right? 🙂

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  46. This sounds like a plan. A question a week, I'm in! I'll start Friday. 🙂 Thank you for the mention.:) I'm glad your books are doing better. Your writing deserves a huge audience.

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  48. I LOVE this Blog challenge! Thanks for tagging me. I'll get started on it…er, maybe tomorrow or mehbeh next week. Love the new Swim Recruit cover and glad to hear you're enjoying your time at Smashwords. If there's anything I can do to help get it price matched at Amazon, lemme know.

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