451 Reply by SolN

(2 replies, posted in New Members)

Hi Skip,

The best thing to do is add the chapter to the book you have already started. There is no need to make the first chapter inactive. You might have new reviewers who come along and want to start from the beginning.

To do this, click the blue Post Your Writing button at the top of the page. Find and click on the title of your book. Go to the Content sub-tab and click the big  blue Add Chapter button. Then, follow the steps to publish the chapter.

If you still want to make the previous chapter inactive, you can do that by following  the same steps but going to the Publish sub-tab. From there, find the chapter and switch it to inactive.

Let me know if you have any other questions. There is also a video you can watch on publishing process which you can find here:

http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/member/video-help-guide

Best,
Sol

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452 Topic by SolN

(16 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hi all,

We're ready to announce the Finalists for this year's Strongest Start Competition.  As I say during each contest, even if you didn't reach the finals, hopefully the process of entering it helped you improve the first three chapters of your book. Only six finalists could be selected but I know we will hear about many of the entries in the future as they make their mark on the publishing world. Congratulations to everyone who participated and made their book that much better.

The 2015 finalists are, in no particular order:

- The Fringers by Leanne Joseph

- Jewel by Lesley Weston

- Journey Through The Eyes of Zhou - Part One by Temple Wang

- PURGATORY, a place Down Under by Susan Stec

- Vitares by Penang

- The Laundromat at the Edge of the Universe by Ronald Quark

The winner will be announced on or around June 1, 2015.

Congratulations again.

Sol

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453 Reply by SolN

(48 replies, posted in New Members)

Hi Skip,

Welcome to the site! We can certainly help you lengthen that stride. Feel free to contact me with any questions. You can also post questions here and someone will be sure to answer.

Depending on your writing level, you might also want to check out the Intro to Creative Writing Class.

http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/group-i … writing-66

Sol

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454 Reply by SolN

(22 replies, posted in Intro to Creative Writing - Spring 2015)

Hi Alison,

Welcome to the class! I have extended this particular class. Work through the assignments and I will take a look if you post the assignments.

Sol

Go to forum: Intro to Creative Writing - Spring 2015

455 Topic by SolN

(2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hi all, we had planned to announce the Strongest Start finalists tonight but need one more day. We will make the announcement tomorrow.
Thanks,
Sol

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456 Reply by SolN

(342 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Just did a review, posted it, then the content page appeared again, with my review, and I posted it a second time. Two reviews of the same crit? Seems like a bug to me. Although, I did add one comment to the 2nd post. Is that how it is supposed to work?
Tanks-måx

You can post as many reviews as you want but you will only get points for the first one.

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457 Reply by SolN

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I posted a 12 line poem on Premium.  The first time I did it, I didn't have any content showing, which I'm sure I managed to mess up somehow.  When I went in to edit, I got the poem on, and it shows up, with the gold coins next to it, but none of my points were deducted.  Cool.  Please don't think I'm complaining about this, but I thought I should mention it.  I like it!

This is how the point system works. Once you make an initial post you can edit it without having to pay points. We had it so that adding content via an edit costs points but there was a huge outcry so we pulled it out.

This is a potential route for cheating the point system. I realize this wasn't your intention at all. The downside to this is that the content doesn't pay a lot of points and might not attract reviewers. My advice is to take it down and post afresh with the updated content.

Sol

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458 Reply by SolN

(6 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Sol, do you have plans to implement a mechanism that would allow authors to give points to others? I have a bazillion points, and it would be great if I could give some of my best reviewers points beyond what they earn by default. It might encourage even better reviews.

Thanks for the suggestion Dirk. At this point we have no plans to make any changes to the point system.

Sol

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459 Topic by SolN

(0 replies, posted in Intro to Creative Writing - Spring 2015)

Hi Class,

I posted the last lesson today on active versus passive sentences. Give it a read and then do the homework. Let me know if you have any questions.

http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/posting … ting-21157

Best,
Sol

Go to forum: Intro to Creative Writing - Spring 2015

460 Topic by SolN

(0 replies, posted in New Members)

We get a lot of questions from new members about groups on the site. What are Groups? How are they used? Which group should I post to?


Groups are communities on the site where can writers can gather. As a member, you can post your writing to specific groups or to more than one group. Some groups require points to post content, other groups do not use the point system.


When you are posting content, you can choose which groups you want to post that content to. My advice for new members is to post content to TheNextBigWriter Premium. This is a the largest group and uses the point system, which ensures you will receive feedback.


Confused about what points are? Read below:


http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/member/ … dit-system


Have other questions. Post them below and someone will respond.


Sol

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461 Topic by SolN

(2 replies, posted in Marketing Your Writing)

Here's another interesting read that analyzes sales on Amazon and comes to some surprising conclusions. It appears that although Hachette "won" the fight against Amazon it may have been nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory as Big 5 ebook sales have dropped since agency pricing went into effect.

http://authorearnings.com/report/may-20 … gs-report/

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462 Reply by SolN

(13 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

In each chapter header there is a printer icon. Press that.

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463 Topic by SolN

(13 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

We added a print feature for those that prefer to read a hard copy. For books, you can print the entire book or just a chapter.

Sol

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464 Topic by SolN

(20 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

The winner of the 7-line poetry competition is Dagnee for  A Gentleman of Verona.

http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/posting … rona-20517

As always, there were many excellent entries. Congratulations to Dagnee and everyone who submitted an entry!

We'll be announcing a flash fiction contest shortly.

Best,
Sol

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465 Topic by SolN

(3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

We'll be posting the winner of the 7-line Poetry Contest tomorrow.

The finalists for the Strongest Start Competition will be posted next Monday.

For the other contests, go to those groups for specific announcements.

Thanks,
Sol

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466 Reply by SolN

(36 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I just looked at Rosebud Lives by Adrian Langford.  I opened the first inline review (mobile interface).  About the first half of the items showed up with expansions.  The others I had to click on.

This bug is now fixed.

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467 Reply by SolN

(3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Can you post the link to the story so I can take a look. Thanks.

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468 Reply by SolN

(4 replies, posted in Marketing Your Writing)

Email them. Or win the Strongest Start Contest.

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469 Topic by SolN

(4 replies, posted in Marketing Your Writing)

A very informative survey for those who plan to self-publish. Some of the key findings:

- The survey suggests that self-published authors are not newbies to writing. 40% of respondents reported writing seriously for more than 10 years. Only 10% said they'd been writing for one year or less. Experience does matter.

- Respondents who had been rejected by traditional publishers first and then went the self-publish route earned less than their peers who never submitted their work to traditional publishers. This seems to suggest that a book that isn't good enough for a traditional publisher might not have a bright future in the self-pub market. Quality is quality.

- Investing in your book will pay off. Respondents who received help in copy-editing, proofreading, and story-editing earned 13% more. Those who hired a professional book designer earned on average 18% more. Book covers do matter!!

- The average earnings of respondents was about $10,000 per year.

- What was the single biggest factor contributing to higher earnings in the respondents - time spent writing and editing. The top earners spent 69% more time writing than the average author outside of the high earning group.

- The single most important factor in increasing sales and earnings was submitting books to popular reviewers on Amazon.

You can read a more in depth analysis of the survey here.

http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/05/ … ng-survey/

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470 Reply by SolN

(2 replies, posted in Crafting the Strongest Start - Spring 2015)

Yes, go to your name up at the top right and click on the Reviews option. Under that go to In-line Posted. It should be saved there as a draft.

Sol

Go to forum: Crafting the Strongest Start - Spring 2015

471 Reply by SolN

(342 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Sol, when you have a moment to come up for air, I was wondering if you can purge an orphan inline reply from Don Chambers for me. He deleted the chapter after I reviewed it and he had responded. It's his response I can no longer access and, therefore, can't clear the "new reply" count, which is stuck at 1. Just a minor nuisance, so no rush.

This bug was supposed to have been fixed. Do you still see the reply?

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472 Reply by SolN

(342 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I am able to enter the chapter number area in the left column, but don't see how to reorder them from there since all three chapters are "1

If you click into the chapter to edit, you can change the version number. This allows you to rearrange the order of the versions within a chapter.

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473 Topic by SolN

(0 replies, posted in Intro to Creative Writing - Spring 2015)

Hi all,

I wanted to let you know that Lesson 5 - Punctuating Dialogue has been posted.

http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/posting … ting-21111

In the lesson we cover the major rules for how to correctly punctuate dialogue in your stories.

Sol

Go to forum: Intro to Creative Writing - Spring 2015

474 Reply by SolN

(36 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

You can now print x-lines. We'll be taking this and also creating a print-friendly page of the main content soon.

Sol

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475 Reply by SolN

(11 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

You might want to try Google Docs. They offer a pretty good word processor for free. Just Google "Google Docs."

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