Don't understand why it says 'upgrade' on my portfolio to make it visible, as the only upgrade is to premium membership, which I have, and which doesn't expire until February of 2017. I would like that fixed so people can see my portfolio. Also, do you accept American Express. Would prefer to use that for my auto-renewal.
This shouldn't be happening. I'll look into it. I believe the site accepts Amex.
Hi all,
I'm pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 Strongest Start Competition. They are:
Grand Prize Winner:
Founders: Sifter Series Book I by graymartin
Runner-ups:
Beneath the Silver Rose: A Tale of Shadyia, Part 1 by A.T.Schlesinger
Beyond Paradise by denisef
Congratulations to the winners! And as I say every year, congratulations to everyone for working to make your start as strong as possible.
Sol
Floating overlays, even top bars, consume space on the screen. On small (smartphone) screens, every bit of space is precious.
Yes, I've wondered myself about whether the top menu should be sticky on mobile devices. Right now, it floats but we could easily change that. Use it for a few days and then let's hear some feedback. If eveyone finds it annoying, we can stick the menu at the top on mobile. We could also do the same on desktop.
Sol
Are you excluding the new layout from the forums until testing is done, or will there be two interfaces (regular vs forum)? I hope it's former.
It's the former. We want to make sure members like the new format before we implement it on the forum.
How do I read a work posted outside of my groups? Or do I have to join the group to read its posted works? Just curious.
It depends on the setting the writer selects. They can post just to a group to connections, etc. But generally, you have to be a member of the group that user posts to.
Hi all,
You may have noticed that we are testing a new menu for much of the site, excluding the forum. We wanted to see if this simplifies using the site and makes it easier to navigate. Let us know what you think. If you like this new menu system better then we will incorporate it into the forum also.
We also made a few other significant changes. On the homepage, we limited the listings to Books, Poems, and Short stories as the other categories were not seeing enough volume to justify the space. You can still access other Types from the Read and Review tab.
We also changed the system so that Basic users can no longer post. Not many were doing it but those who did had content that lingered on the site and distracted from Premium members.
Thanks,
Sol
I wanted to provide another update. I have been in touch with all of the judges and should have the final results in the next day or two. So, I hope to announce the winners before the end of the week. Thanks for your patience!
Unless you self-publish, only the publisher gets sales numbers from Amazon. Amazon rank is indicative of sales in a general way, but not specific. If your ranking climbs, you know that's because of a sales increase, but a rise of several thousand in rank may only translate to a couple of books sold. I don't think your idea is workable, Sol. And I don't really see the point, as it would create an irrelevant competition among TNBW published authors who write in various genres and use various promotion discounts.
I was really thinking of this more as a separate tool from the site that you could use to put in your sales results from the various sites that you have published on and track individual sales that way. But I can see it probably won't work for individual authors. It will probably be more of a tool for publishers to keep track and account for the sales of their authors. Getting data from Amazon and other sites and then parsing it and creating reports is a major pain in the kneck.
Ok. I'll have these all up pronto!
I'm wondering if it would be helpful to have a feature that tracks how your books are doing across the sites where they are for sale. How do people check their sales today? Is it a difficult process?
Sol
Hello Sol,
The Kurdish Connection, workshopped on TNBW, will be possible next spring by Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC.
Regards, Randy
Congrats Randy! When it's up on Amazon let me know and we'll add it to the bookstore.
Hi, would anyone be interested in writing an article on the steps to take to hire a cover designer? It should cover:
1. The different types of design choices: custom made cover, self-made cover, off the shelf cover, etc.
2. The pros and cons of each approach.
3. Some places where writers might want to check out.
4. Anything else that is relevant.
About 800-1000 words.
I can pay $30 for anyone who is interested. Let me know.
Thanks,
Sol
Hi, would anyone be interested in writing an article on the steps to take to hire a cover designer? It should cover:
1. The different types of design choices: custom made cover, self-made cover, off the shelf cover, etc.
2. The pros and cons of each approach.
3. Some places where writers might want to check out.
4. Anything else that is relevant.
About 800-1000 words.
I can pay $30 for anyone who is interested. Let me know.
Thanks,
Sol
Hi all,
We're going to be making the Bookstore (list of content workshopped on the site and published) more prominent shortly. In advance of that, if you have a book that was workshopped on TheNextBigWriter that is not published, and it's not on our Published list, please let me know so we can add it. We'd love to give you the extra exposure.
Yes, as soon as we close out the Strongest Start.
Those judges who have gone AWOL should not be asked to participate in the future.
I'm very disappointed in this. It's the first time it's happened to in a contest and they certainly will not be asked back in the future. I am hoping I will hear from then soon.
I still haven't heard back. I'm going to give it a few more days and then make a decision. I may just have to use the votes from the judges who got back to me. I just wanted to keep everyone updated.
Sol
Hi all,
I need to get a book cover created. Can anyone recommend a good book cover artist or graphic designer?
Thanks,
Sol
Hi all, I'm still waiting to hear back from one of the judges. I apologize for the delay. If I don't hear shortly, I may have to exclude their voting from the competition.
Sol
Hi all,
Just an update on the contest and the final round winners. I am waiting on the judges to provide me with their scores. Once I receive them, I will post the winners. Sorry for the delay, but it is out of my hands until I hear back from them.
Sol
It's been fixed. Sorry everyone. Our digital certificate had a problem. There was never a security problem. All should be resolved.
Sol
Hi all,
You might have noticed a secure certificate warning when visiting the site. We experienced a small glitch and should have it fixed shortly. There is no security issue.
Sol
Interesting suggestion. It's certainly something we can do. Let me take a look.
Hello everyone,
I'm happy to announce the finalists for the 2016 Strongest Start Competition. Before I do, let me say that this was the toughest judging year. The quality of the entries were simply outstanding and many more could have been included on this list. As I say every year, I have no doubt that many of these starts will go on to become successful books, as other non-winners have in the past. So, if the competition served as an impetus to refine your first three chapters, I consider that a success and hope you do also.
Please join me in congratulating the six finalists:
Spark by Susan Stec
Sister Margaret's One Big Lie by Linda Lee
Beyond Paraside by denisef
Beneath the Silver Rose: A Tale of Shadyia, Part 1 by A.T.Schlesinger
Homegrown Healer--Strongest Start, 2016 by Janet Taylor-Perry
Founders: Sifter Series Book I by graymartin
We hope to post the winners next week.
Congratulations again!
It's OK. The correct list was used. The finalists will be announced today or tomorrow. The winners hopefully next week.
