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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 6h

Sounds like not the right editor for you then!

Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 7h

A copy editor is the kind of editor who goes through your work and fixes the spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. It's what I do!

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 8h

Well, spell checkers can help a lot, and copy editors do the rest. The important thing is the heart of your story.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 18h

Midnight Meadow. I just saw this video of theirs from a while back and it's driving me nuts because they literally paid in IOUs all this time and got away with it 😭
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8AAkFWu/

If I could go back, I’d have a business partner, but I’d still do it again. #indiepublishing #booktok #booktokdrama

TikTok video by Midnight Meadow

www.tiktok.com

Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 19h

Allegedly there is money in the accounts to pay us. Allegedly the owner never took a paycheck. Allegedly the checks were mailed out a month ago. But still not ONE person has been paid this year.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 19h

I have access to my own sales data (finally) and I know I was not the best seller by a long shot. The copies were overpriced (9.99 for the ebook!) and they sold at least a few every month, so there was profit coming in.

WHERE DID IT GO.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 19h

-royalties: obviously not paid
-ads: I'm unaware of them ever running ads
-marketing: mostly done on social media by the owner and an unpaid volunteer

All I can think of is the various subscriptions: Adobe, bookfunnel, woocommerce, etc. Which should have been more than covered!

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 19h

A publisher's expenses are many, but they managed to avoid almost all of them.
-covers: done in-house
-interior design: done in-house
-editing: done by people who were promised they would be paid later, which they weren't
-book sales/conventions: mostly paid for by the volunteers who went to them

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 19h

The really frustrating thing about my publisher is that I don't think this is a classic case of publishing not being as profitable as people think. It isn't, but I can count up the profits I know they made, subtract the few expenses they did have, and there still should've been lots left!

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Maybe so! I have no idea how neurotypicals think 😅 But I always figured they had more in common with each other than I do with.....really anybody, given how different autistic people are from each other.

Anyway if they do struggle with this, the same advice holds!

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Of course. It's just something I've noticed, working almost exclusively with autistic authors (because that is my whole friend group).

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

SERIOUSLY. People are different, if that's not reflected in fiction, something's gone badly wrong!

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

I love that 🔥 My character "Moira" was named, not after the real etymology of the name, but from the Sindarin root môr, meaning darkness. Not in an evil sense, but because to me she's parallel to Crowley in Good Omens 😅

But the readers don't need to know that 😉

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Right, like there are references that are Easter eggs, if they get them, cool, if not, the book still stands.

There are also references that come with a hint so they can go look up Lawrence Oates or whatever.

It's the ones with no hint but that are important to know that may merit a footnote.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

If autism weren't a disability, it wouldn't deserve the support and accommodations it *definitely does deserve.*

I know some autistic people are really reluctant to admit this.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly 😭 such a Victorian British thing to do!

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

It is a DISABILITY which means there are things we are NOT GOOD AT.

Other people struggle with knowing where to put the commas, I struggle with knowing which of my jokes people are gonna get.

Morally neutral. To struggle with something isn't bad.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

YOU get to decide how far you go to meet someone else, and how far you're requiring them to come and meet you. They then get to decide if that's worth it to them.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

But it's not "laziness" or ableism or any other vice for people to literally not understand what you are saying. It's morally neutral. And even putting effort in will not always make your writing clear to someone who doesn't know where to look for the answers.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Hey. Like I said. Your own personal sweet spot is going to depend on your own desired audience.

It's okay to write stuff nobody gets but you.

Or pull a Chuck Tingle and have a small audience of people who are willing to come along on an unusual journey.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Even with my own best friend, I sometimes have to beg to get the jokes explained. I don't think making yourself accessible and understood by others is a waste of time. I'm here to communicate.

The question is who really counts as your audience, and how to reach THEM, specifically.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

Definitely adopting this. And the abbreviation is needed, because AI users also don't read. I once explained in a paragraph that since the post was AI, I didn't read it, only to have the OP go "you obviously didn't even read my post!!"

Yeah. I didn't. Because you didn't write it.

Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 3d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

A struggle, maybe. Because we've always got to weigh how we want to write, vs what the readers will understand.

To me it's a flaw because it's hard for me to make that judgment when I legitimately *don't know* what other people are going to get.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

And then make your judgment call. You can't possibly please everyone. Some people will tediously explain to you that someone, somewhere, might not know what "lucent" means, while your besties might be like "who the heck doesn't know about Lawrence Oates?" So you've just got to pick your sweet spot.

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Sheila Jenné @jennelikejennay.bsky.social · 2d

I don't believe in too much dumbing down, it's tedious and some readers (like me!) enjoy stretching themselves. But at the same time you don't want to bog them down entirely. Consider who your intended audience is (is this supposed to have broad appeal? Or is this sci-fi for serious nerds?).

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