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D.E. Eliot

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Posts posted by D.E. Eliot

  1. @Troy yes #10 was exactly that. I even took some of the copies to a few Half Price Books stores... so I got some money back on that. #12 was my cost of shipping from my website for the signed copies. This is where my biggest lesson was learned. I didn't research the cost of shipping with USPS, FedEx or UPS... nope I had a "I think I know everything" moment and priced my shipping at $5. Sounds good to the buyers but for me it was a nightmare. I didn't have the supplies, postages, etc, etc. On pre-orders alone I had over 200 copies go out. Each copy took me $3.17 to ship but the boxes that i shipped them in "AT FIRST" cost me $2.59... so i lost 76 cent on every novel shipped.  

    And sorry for the delay... writing my new book. 

  2. Self-publishing your book is an investment and you should treat it as such. This means before you sit down to write, you need to decide on what path will you take once the novel is complete. So many new authors get overwhelmed by the process because they went in without some sort of plan. They didn't take a class or attend any kind of writing conference so they were screwed from the word go. 

     

    Now what I am about to tell you is just my EXPERIENCE... so take from what you will and please don'twaste your breath telling me I should be done. Everybody's path is not the same even when everyone is walking the same road. Here are a few things I paid for. And please note that I have made 11k off of this book before I entered it into Kindle Unlimited. 

     

    1. The first thing you should get, while you writing is beta readers. Between 4 to 8 of them. People you can trust and most importantly people that read your genre. This should coat you nothing. 

     

    2. After the novel is finished it's time for step two. You love the book; you'e beta readers love the book. Now it's time to hire editing. The price here is based off of the the length of your manuscript and on how much work you feel needs done to your story to make it as perfect as possible. For example: I didn't know how to read until I was 10-years old so I suck at grammar. Really, really, suck at it. So I attacked the problem with 2 rounds of professional editing and 3 rounds of aggessive proof reading. Cost: $3,335

     

    S/N: being my first rodeo I hired Createspace to help me put a lot miscellaneous stuff together. 

     

    a. Book Cover $734 ($375 of this my screw up)

    b. Interior design $324 

    c. LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number) $25

     

    3. The one thing I wish I had more money to spend on was marketing. In my opinion, for my company to have made a major dent like the big boy, I would've had to spend about 10k on marketing. 

     

     

    Hopefully this helps a littleScreenshot_20180312-143329.thumb.jpg.0cb374cd871aca78127c92727637e2ad.jpg

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  3. Nothing you said was incorrect. And trust and believe I appreciate the feedback. I will admit that I have a soft spot for indie authors and I'm proud to be associated with them but I'm also a proud business owner. And although I worked hard to put out, in my opinion, a well written book some of the little things got missed when it came to the company. Me and my crew are learning as we go. When I saw you on the tea I knew this was a platform I needed to embrace and apparently I was right. I entered KDP only after two months of front selling. It costed me 10k to get my novel out and I made a little over all of that back. We decided, once sells slowed, little left in the budget for extended marketing, we voted 3-1, to try KDP because the other venues didn't provide us with numbers. Once we were out of the red and into the black KDP has allowed me to now focus on getting the book into more people's hands. Yes BIG publishers wouldn't use KDP but small publishing companies have used it because they lack Random House's coin and my company lacks more than them. I'm still trying to grow my following. I created Write On Publishing because I want there to be a place where black authors can come with stories not based on hood, thugs, BMs, slaves, and what it was like to be a slave. I also didn't want to make some white man a crap load of money off of my hard work. Again, your feedback is much appreciated. (Sorry for any typos... I'm at work) 

  4. No disrespect but no I don't really see your point, uncle Sam doesn't see it that way either. Write On Publishing has 4 employees that are NOT family members. I'm conected to it, yes, but it is separate of me. We are just starting out. We voted for me to put a book out first because I was the front man. Again I do see your point but I don't accept people's label of me... I label me. I'm a published author... Write On Publishing is a small independent company that will produce books. This is a fact... how other interprets that fact is not my concerned 

  5. Write On Publishing has a Tax ID/EIN... it is my company and I'm proud of it. Very Proud of the Fist. People have come at me believing I should change the logo because they are afraid it will scare white readers away. I refuse. I don't call myself a self-publish author because my company, it maybe small, but it is real and it will grow in time. You are only as limited as your limitations. 
    My ISBN is not with igramspark because they literally, not figuratively, literally cheated me out of money. Their customer service is the worse and I really don't have that type of training to deal with people that are rude when I'm trying to give them my money. So I'm in the process of hiring a publicist. Any suggestions?

    And on Point #3... thank you for that info. I'm down to link your 10 as long as none of my rights to this story is surrendered. Right now my novel is KU for 30 more days so I don't know how that will effect things. But if you wanna setup a call so you can walk me through it I'm down. I'm better with calls to have people walk me through stuff. I'll explain that another time. 

    So recap... Write On Publishing is a real company (most black people will say it isn't because of limitations)  
    And right now the website for this company is www.deeliot.com which is also a real website. 
    Thank you for the warning, the info on Point#3 and let me know if I need to delete any content or the account.  

  6. I don't know if I would go that far, although I do see where you are coming from. I felt the same way about Jodi Picoult and her speaking in, what I like to call, "Black Voice" in the novel Small Great Things. It bothered me, not because she wrote about a black woman, but because her novel would not be labeled as urban the way it would've been had I wrote the same exact story. I also don't blame Marvel for capitalizing on black folks. Hell if black folks created Black Panther would black people have supported it? Because you know as well as I do that black folks usually don't start bragging on black things created by black people until white folks try to claim it or Oprah gives it her seal of approval. We are systematically still locked in chains. Think on this... your two favorite characters, ironically are two of my favorites, are villains created by white men. Even the creator of The Wire, David Simon, is white. As a writer, trust and believe, that I do understand why it would bother you. On Facebook when someone would make this same exact point about Black Panther I would comment: "Okay well buy my novel if you are so eager to support black owned things... my novel is written by a black man, published by a company owned by black people, and the story has tons of positive images of black folks throughout. Not one dope dealer or thug or plug or side piece in sight." Hey I give Marvel a thumbs up for including positive images of blacks into their storyline because they really didn't have to do it.  

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  7. I like Loki a lot but I never felt sorry for him because I never thought he was being mistreated. He was selfish and deceitful. Had he not been such a dumb ass he would've been king because THOR didn't want the crown. But he is an amazing bad guy... can't wait to see him in the Infinity War 

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  8. Say what you will about the blockbuster film Black Panther, love it or hate it, I could care less, you cannot deny it’s brilliance. And that brilliance begins with the emergence of Erik Killmonger. A young man driven, not just by his hatred of the oppressors of black people, but by the animosity of those that live with peace in the private kingdom of Wakanda. I believe a lot of writers could learn a great deal from a character like Killmonger. Marvel purposely set out for everyone to feel compassion for the bad guy. That was a new twist in itself. Marvel wanted you to understand, to relate, to fear the bad guy’s demise. They gave Erik, what so many others did not have, a soul. How many of us walked out of that movie theater believing ol’ boy had a point? How many Killmongers do you think is out there right now because of the injustice of black people in America? How many black families feel left behind by other black families that found a way out of the ghetto? You see my point? We can relate to his assessment. We understand his compassion for revenge, for validation. So many novels, fantastic novels, lack the character growth of their villains. You never care about why they are trying to take over the world, you just know they need to be stopped, by any means necessary. And usually, if not almost always, the bad guy’s reasons for the hostile takeover is for self gain. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, is better than reading a story that involves an antagonist with a heart. An antagonist that is so complex and conflicted with himself you begin to question your own beliefs. Erik Killmonger may not be the greatest bad guy of all times… but he damn sure is the most relatable one.  

     

    black-panther-erik-killmonger-best-mcu-villain-1079608-1280x0.thumb.jpeg.546a3b4849e25c6ebc4f94da3988b160.jpeg   

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  9. I bet there were a few of you yesterday, not all but a few, thinking: who the heck is this new dope begging for a free book review, posting mushy quotes with bad grammar, and talking about the importance of black women. Answer? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Noooo? Ugh… fine, I’ll answer the freakin question myself, thank you very much. My name is Domovoi Elias Eliot. I’m a writer. Not inspiring. Just a writer (an author if you’re nasty). Truth is I’m no different than Tayari Jones, or Toni Morrison, or Ta-Nehisi Coates except they know Oprah and they are New York Times Bestsellers and I’m quite sure they’re better writers than I am but besides that there is truly no difference between us. I’m what you would call The Ready Unknown as in I’m ready and very good enough to someday be on everyone’s bookshelf or in their Kindle library but when will this miraculous moment happen is truly unknown. It may never happen. I might not ever meet Oprah. But I will never stop trying to seize opportunities to impress willing readers with stories that may twist the mind and quotes that may sooth the soul. If I’m lucky… I’ll do both.  

    Write On!!!
    https://www.amazon.com/Ruined-D-Eliot-ebook/dp/B077STV527/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 
      

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  10. “THE ONLY THINGS TRUE…ARE THE LIES”

    After living one way for a while, you tend to take certain facts for granted: the earth is round, the sun rises in the east, and the girl you’ve raised as your daughter is truly yours. 

    Everything changes for Michael Crusher after a car accident leaves his wife and his daughter, Raven, at death’s door. When a routine blood test reveals that Michael can’t be Raven’s biological father, he begins to question everything about his wife; about their love; and about their marriage. 

    Devastated, Michael investigates his wife’s past with the help of her younger sister, Zoey Jordan. What follows is a series of twists and turns that leads to a hard truth: his wife is not as perfect as he once believed. As they hunt down the answers, leaving no stone unturned, revolving around Raven’s parentage, they find the truth to be more difficult to bear than ignorance ever was. Zoey isn’t completely forthcoming with what she knows, and Michael doesn’t know whom to trust.

    Filled with searing emotions and heart-pounding suspense, "Ruined" is a thrilling mystery about skeletons in the closet and complex family dynamics. Each reveal adds a startling layer to the story that will leave readers yearning for more. Michael’s journey is arduous and very nearly consumes him, and this book maintains its emotional intensity all the way to the final page.

     

    72288880_High_Resolution_Front_Cover_7364476.thumb.jpg.0686fdcacf7d5777857038c57ef631d4.jpg72288880_High_Resolution_Back_Cover_7364476_(1).thumb.jpg.86ffb254134118cb52198455c9d0cff2.jpg

    • Paperback: 416 pages
    • Publisher: Write On, Publishing (December 19th, 2017)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0692927611
    • ISBN-13: 978-0692927618
    • ASIN: B077STV527
    • Product Dimensions: 5 x 1 x 8 inches
    • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces 

     

    https://www.deeliot.com 

    https://www.amazon.com/Ruined-D-E-Eliot-ebook/dp/B077STV527/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

    21687137_1483006218458476_9119967599856020249_o.jpg

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