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As always seems to be the case, some of my favorite writers break most of these rules fairly regularly. I do think those ten rules are quite helpful, though. Here's a link for anyone who doesn't want to google.

https://www.liferichpublishing.com/Auth … iting.aspx

This.

I felt like there two episodes with somewhat proper pacing. The second episode which was full of tension and character development and the finale. This could also be because the pacing was so piss-poor in the rest of the season that these shined through.

Everything felt rushed which left the viewer needing to piece things together when there was so little to go on. Over-reliance on fade-to-black scenes left out pivotal dialogue. They could have easily stretched this another season+ and it would have been much more satisfying. The turns would have made more sense, the payoff would have been better.

The NK "twist" for me will always be a bit of a let down because it seems to fly in the face of the overall narrative of the entire story, though. If Martin's books really were an allegory for climate change with the NK being the bigger threat it was a shame to see that petty human politics didn't have to be resolved to combat it and in the end, it became a footnote after so much build up.

I think you're all getting to why extra points haven't been offered.

There's potential abuse of both the systems proposed so far and they also steer people away from certain reviews or could be used to inaccurately feed points.

The problem is never the "good" uses, it's always the abuse that prevents things from materializing.

This is just my personal experience so take it with a grain of salt. I wrote a prologue for my first book and filled it with purple prose and background info.

About my 4th or 5th draft, I hid it on here. By the 7th draft, the prologue had been deleted. What I found with my prologue was that I was using it as a crutch to introduce my protagonist and the larger world itself. I even had a different POV and had this R.A. Salvatore-esque idea that I'd start and end with first-person pov for my main protagonist. My prologue handicapped me and my book became better by deleting the wretched thing.

I've read great and terrible prologues from all kinds of authors in many different genres but the one thing I've internalized from being here is to keep what is necessary and cut what's fluff. Prologues for me are fluff. They may not be for you, though. It's your book, write it your way.

In-lines over Regular in almost every case. The one exception to this is whenever I review poetry—which I do rarely.

I much prefer an in-line because it will often target grammatical errors or plot errors. Comments can be added at the end to cover the section as a whole if needed.

I was offered one of these "deals" early on and had a fellow writer get offered one. To me, they seem like complete and total scams. You pay and absorb all the risk. There seems to be no benefit to this at all. If your book flops when you publish it yourself you're in the hole whatever you put into it. If your book flops with a vanity publisher you're still in the hole but probably put in an extra 1-2k just for the vanity pub's name and you still get a tiny slice of the royalties with no advance.

Any publisher that asks you for money to publish is taking advantage of you. If they include "editing services" you're probably still paying more than you would if you used a freelancer, bookbaby, or some other on-demand editor. You also lose control of your book and you lose similar chunks to your royalties that you would through a traditional or small publisher without any of the benefits. I think my offer was 25% royalty with 3k paid by me. My friend was asked to pay 4k. They'll pepper the letters with love for your book and its marketing potential but the truth is in the price tag.

Just to share - I hit 60ish rejections if you count the non-responses. The usual responses were "This is good, but not for me at this time." Which is a bit of a played out line. I chose self-publishing because I'd been through the rounds with agents that would actually look at my book. Not easily fitting into genres limited my options (and potential sales) so I swallowed a bitter pill and shelled out for some professional editing because I didn't want to release a piece of crap. I thoroughly enjoyed working with my editor and I think she made my book into something I can be proud of.

When I paid my editor I knew I likely would not break-even on royalties. I suppose I went in with eyes wide open. I plan to do the same for my second book and use the same editor. For me, personally, I like having total control of my book. But it is a lot of work. Website and Cover alone were a few months of learning and doing and I still think both could be much better than they are.

As a side note - I plan to go to a few cons in the coming years to sell. This won't work for every book-type of course and the tables can be expensive so I'll be splitting costs with a woodworker.

Nice, Randall. I already purchased a copy but I'll spread the word.

Are you in Kindle Select? I noticed Amazon now blocks non-kindle select titles from running promos.

Reading between the lines I'm going with December 8th Thanks for the update!

Congratulations!