So, has anyone actually read this and seen if it’s any good or not? Was thinking of getting it after seeing it shilled here, but I’m on the fence.
Imagine reading a book because its "scary"
>>25330992Why are you thinking of getting your own book that you wrote and self-published?
>>25331357i am also wondering, and i am not the author. has anybody read it? how much is it retaling for and what is the page count? post a summary if you can
>>25330992No, nothing about it interests me and the cover is cringe.
>>25330992>So, has anyone actually read thisit's not on the free sites so no.
>>25330992The cover is shit.
>>25330992I bought it but I haven’t read it yet. The book closes with a ~4 line poem
>>25331495>i am not the author
>>25330992Why would I want to read a Giallo? Really defeats the purpose.
>>25331766Giallos were originally novels. It’s where the name of the genre comes from, because of their yellow covers.
>>25331766Listen to a Giallo insteadhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK4lM73L6gc
>>25331495I’m the author.The best way I can summarise it is that it’s gothic horror/murder mystery hybrid about a detective hunting down a serial killer who dismembers teenage girls, only to find that he himself is growing obsessed with the girls being targeted to the point that he begins to become sexually attracted to them. There’s a lot of giallo style sexualisation and debates around teenage sexuality, particularly later in the novel, which is why I felt I had to self-publish because a trad publisher would never accept it and it goes against a lot of mainstream liberal progressive sensibilities.I think most sites/platforms price the E-book around $5 and the paperback around $25, which was genuinely the cheapest price I could make such a stupidly long book while still turning a profit (I’m only getting like $1 in royalties per sale).I did however, make a free PDF sample of the first couple of chapters for people who were curious about the writing style and general direction. Also, if people want to pirate it and spread it that way, that’s fine, because I care more people reading it — profit is a secondary goal.Here’s the PDF if you want a free sample:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NoqlTSNgFhX5CEDFqsllglQFuNa-3GdD/view>>25331729Kek. I’m actually flattered you bothered to make this. I knew when I was making the cover that it was asking for a soijack edit, even though I was going for more of a Francis Bacon/Court of the Crimson King vibe.
>>25332088I made the pic lol just taking the piss. I'm a fellow indie author sharing my stuff here, you seem like one of the good ones. Wish you GL with this. I have a Giallo story of my own (more novella length) that I'll be releasing next year, I love the genre.
>>25332088>I’m the author.We already guessed that, OP.
>>25332088>such a stupidly long bookhow long are we talking here?
>>25332198539 pages (Amazon lists the page count inconsistently for whatever reason). Pic of my own personal copy for reference.
>>25332229This isn't ready. You should be playing with font and sizes as well as margins.
>>25332229Any tips for writing such a long book and for self publishing, shill-kun? I wonder if I can ever be published since I abhor social media and self-promotion.
>>25332299Oh, I was VERY thorough with font size and margins. The length is genuinely due to a mix of dense prose and multiple character subplots running concurrently. The genre-hybrid aspect also likely added to the length, since it’s juggling a whodunnit, a psychological horror, literary fiction and a teen soap opera all at once.>>25332308Consistency. I spent 2 years writing this at around 250-500 words a day (low targets helped me fight the urge to procrastinate). I couldn’t have done it without taking notes as to where the plot was going and ideas I wanted to include in each chapter. Can’t help much with marketing though, because honestly, I hate putting myself out there too. I mainly just bought ad spaces on places that I think fit the book’s genre, and mentioned it in places where self-promotion was allowed. I also had professional reviewers look at it. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that marketing is expensive. I’ll be very surprised if I break even with sales, but the point was to get people to read it anyway, and I would have made it free if it wasn’t for me wanting physical copies and also for libraries to stock it (which they have apparently).
>>25332229isn't that too long for horror?
>>25332088hey JLyour title is very funny. but you know that.!!!
>>25332351how are you getting into libraries, may i ask?
>>25332351you couldn't even use justified
>>25332395while im not a fan of the pdf layout (too large font, too few words per line, line/paragraph spacing isnt attractive to me) lots of books dont have justified text.
>>25332402by all means show me a published book without justified text. i have never seen it.
>>25332407uh, poetryand lengthy interviews
>>25332229if you are more economical with the layout, you can reduce the page count by a lot. most people are not looking for a long page count
>>25332407>>25332413heres one: DEGAS a very large tome put out around 1988, 89 ed Jean Sutherland Boggshttps://archive.org/details/Degas18341917/mode/2upcheck mate mother fuckerjk. most books are justified, but still
>>25330992I don't read books written by women.
>>25331357top kekkeroonis, upvoted my good sir!
>>25332381House of Leaves and It are both pretty long.
>>25332790yes, but are they justified?
>>25332395Fully justified text isn’t something I like all that much. It makes it harder to read (for me personally at least). So I just made it left-justified (minus indentations) and left it at that.>>25332391Buying my own ISBNs and using Ingram as my distributor. A few places have autostocked it and I’ve also paid for ad space at the upcoming ALA conference in case other sellers want to pick it up. I’ve also sold a signed copy to someone, so there’s that.
>>25332848ah, ok - so youre all in with Ingram for printing etc I imagine? I appreciate your efforts and reply.
If the author can’t even bother getting a proper edit, then I will not be bothered reading it
>>25332982said anon apropos of nothing
>>25332982>author claims he didn’t use justified text because he doesn’t like justified text>this is somehow the same as lazy editing ???
>>25333039good design isnt as simple as liking something or preferring somethingJL's combination of font size, line spacing, and lack of justification are kind of unattractive. but thats ok because most people dont care and are blind and ignorant, then they bitch about design. TOP KEK
So any other comments, besides the formatting sucks?
>>25333407The actual writing, plot and characters are well done even though it’s slow paced and purple in places. IMO, he’s a talented writer with some rough edges. Definitely good and a cut above the average /lit/ author, but with room for further improvement.
The story starts off with jailbait getting KILLED. I read the prologue last night.
>>25333026>>25333039All I had to do was read the first sentence. You can all flail about defending this but simply because he’s one of our own chanians doesn’t mean I have to respect this trite shite. Fuck off. Also I wasn’t the anon who was talking about the margins and I don’t care about that. The text itself proves my point more than any formatting trivialities ever could.
As an editor myself, behold five seconds of work. This ‘published’ work is sloppy and reads poorly. Maybe the content isn’t bad but it was rushed and suffers for it. My guess is I could easily trim 8-10k words from this story to no impact of its content. Then the line level editing would begin.
>>25333533Those are redundant cuts that read as preference rather than something that makes a substantial difference. There’s nothing in that page that reads as horrifically clunky.
>>25333548Well I hate to break it to you, but that’s exactly what editing is. Just because you have some opinion about it doesn’t mean you can avoid what the vast majority of the industry considers correct. Don’t be cheap when it comes to works you care about.
>>25333627>Look! I'm helping!None of what you touched had anything to do with what I actually dislike about the page.If you are le editor "in industry" it's no wonder you're all up shit creek sans paddle
>>25333533it has too many adjectives that sound unnatural. why sisyphean? why disingenous? why is the window moving down with indifference? (and followed by marching "with a fury?")i would also avoid repeating sedan in that second sentence and just use "it." that said, i agree with your edits, kind anon sir
>>25333533Figured I’d comment on some of these edits now that I’m back. I wouldn’t say they’re bad suggestions in a vacuum, but I personally felt as if removing them would’ve fucked with the rhythm I was going for with the prose. The “thereafter” cut feels like a good example of that. It’d be a good cut if the prose was going for a more utilitarian noir vibe, but I felt as though thereafter gives it a kind of archaic flourish the fits the melodramatic tone.That kind of answers a lot of >>25333803’s questions too. I wanted everything to feel heavy and almost overly dramatic, right down to personifying objects and adding mythical weight to the mundane. Giallo movies are melodramatic and unnatural with artsy direction, so in the absence of a camera for cinematography, the idea was to have that kind of vibe conveyed through flowery prose.I get that’s not everyone’s thing and some might find it pretentious, but it is what it is. I really dislike naturalism, so my writing style has always skewed maximalist, even after going through multiple drafts.
>>25333875prose, ie what sounds good to you, often doesnt survive good editing aimed at clearer delivery of clear ideas. of course fiction is its own beast.
>>25334093Yes this is accurate, but prose isn’t adding unnecessary stylistic embellishments like so many on /lit/ seem to believe..
>>25334093True. I suppose you’re just looking at it from an editor’s perspective. Still, it’s a different beast like you say and I know I’ve gotten some positive feedback on the style, so I know it’s going to land with the right audience. That’s kind of how I’m marketing it: selling it by pointing out the fact that it’s unique and weird and ISN’T for everyone. I had a review that favourably compared me to David Lynch, so I suppose that’s something. I appreciate the insight. I’m actually really eager to hear feedback when people have read the whole thing so I have some lessons under my belt for my next project. People talking about the book and all its content is what I want from the book more than anything. It’s a book meant to spark discussion.
>>25334134Good luck, man. It’s not easy publishing anything and you made it that far.
>>25334134i take great care with fiction editing to check in with the authors regarding their choices as style choices. truth is, a lot of times they dont really know what theyre after.
>>25332010How could an American author have written a giallo? You really aren't that smart.
>>25332848>this retard actually published a book with left margin textAbsolute amateur hour
>>25334913am i the only one who never heard of "giallo" until this thread?
>>25335055It’s a relative niche genre of horror that hasn’t been mainstream since the 70s. It’s the ancestor of the slasher genre (Friday the 13th and Black Christmas were giallo clones).
>>25332088anon, what softwares did you use to write and layout your beautiful book?
