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A. Woodley

A. Woodley

Crime Fiction Supernatural Suspense Action & Adventure Fantasy Horror Teen & Young Adult Children's Poetry General Nonfiction
      • A. Woodley A. Woodley 4 years ago
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      • I do my own covers & they may not be perfect but they do what it says on the tin & I like them.
        They cover the books & both the pic & the title point to the genre, I think that should be enough.
        Would I like perfection by way of an artistically outstanding, professional piece of art designed for me? Of course I would, but I can't afford that, so I do the best I can & I've had some good feedback on some of them.
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      • A. Woodley A. Woodley 4 years ago
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      • I only have 4 reviews at the time of writing this & 2 of them are for the same book (on different Amazon locations).
        I do read them & none have been negative so far, but as long as a negative review is justified & designed to be helpful to the author, then I believe the author should appreciate them.
        Some people give harsh reviews that are unfounded or invalid, I'm sure this must hurt & I hope to always receive honest reviews (whether good or bad).
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    • AllAuthor AllAuthor 4 years ago
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    • Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
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      • A. Woodley A. Woodley 4 years ago
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      • Selling more books & having people enjoy them.
        It's always exciting to see a new sale & whenever I see one I hope my new reader enjoys my book/s.
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    • AllAuthor AllAuthor 4 years ago
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    • Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?
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      • A. Woodley A. Woodley 4 years ago
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      • I have a large following on Twitter & I see again & again from other writers, not so much advice, but made up 'rules'. These annoy me, as a lot of new writers believe they must follow them. This is simply not the case. An example would be 'show, don't tell'.
        Some people (readers) love long, flowery descriptions & some prefer 'to the point, just tell me the story, I'll view it in my head, in my way' stories, whichever way you tell it, some may love it & others not, that's fine. I say if you tell it in your way, in your voice, that's far better than trying to copy the way of everyone else. As long as your grammar doesn't let you down & you've made sure the proofreading is at least as good as you can get it, you can forget the (non) rules. Every traditionally published book I've ever read has had some typos etc.
        As for stressful, the only part of the entire process I find draining is the marketing, I don't have a marketing budget, I don't have an anything budget, I had to learn to format & make my own covers, I edit & proofread my own books & the cost has been zero.
        Other writers will tell you it's imperative that you hire an editor, a proofreader, a cover artist etc etc & for some people that may be required, but it is possible to do everything yourself (depending on your ability) & still be appealing to readers.
        Not all readers write, so a lot of them are not aware of these (non) rules, they just enjoy reading books.
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      • A. Woodley A. Woodley 4 years ago
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      • I'm sure I must have started writing as a child but I never actually kept any writings until about 1980.
        I began writing poetry then & amassed a fair few poems that I kept in a folder.
        I also wrote a few children's stories that I'd read to my daughter & later to my granddaughter & a short story (the 1st in Murder Melange), but it was so much harder to publish then, so I never tried.
        I started writing a tarot book (Delving into the Tarot) but I didn't complete that until much later.
        In March 2017, I discovered self-publishing & typed up the old poems, 1 children's story (My friend the dragon), the tarot book (which I finished) the short murder story & then I added another tarot book in rhyming form, (The Fool's Guide to the Tarot).
        I then wrote more poems (enough to fill 2 books of 50 in each, (Glimmer of Hope & Life and more) & wrote more short stories to complete Murder Melange (20 murder shorts), then came 3 standalone shorts (If... Spending a Million, Ferrying Riches & Blocked. These 3 are also now in 1 book, Trio). I also have 3 reincarnation shorts that make up Life Returns.
        I wanted to try my hand at something longer than a short, which gave birth to my 1st novella (Witch Spelling), being a tad impressed with myself that I'd managed that, the next step seemed to be to attempt a novel, so I wrote 2 (Restless Spectres & Serial Stalker).
        That was a lot of writing over a short period of time, I put out 13 books in 13 months & then needed a break from fiction as the brain was a tad fogged.
        My next project was my perpetual calendar paperback (Sentiments) which has a quatrain on every page (365 poems took a long, long time, even though they were only 4 lines long, but I'm happy with the outcome of that).
        I'm now writing some poetry books in a new name, so it may look like I've finished writing for a long time but the creative output is still happening.
        My other children's books may be published one day but I can't draw, so I'll have to wing it or take photos, time will tell whether I'll get those done.
        If you're tempted to try out any of my books, thank you, I hope you enjoy them, reviews are always appreciated, if that's also something you'd consider doing.
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