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Book launch checklist Every step from finished draft to after launch, each with the guide or tool that covers it. A free tool from Bervet. bervet.com/tools/book-launch-checklist

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Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 4h

Gluttons for punishment! And somewhere in the back of our minds is another idea brewing that will keep us awake all night!

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 6h

A PNWA finalist placing is exactly the kind of line that earns a closer look in a query, so lead with it. And no shame in the earlier novels being practice. They built the one you're sending out now.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 6h

Chapter 17 of book three while giving book one a refresh is serious juggling. The "why did I decide to become an author" feeling seems to come free with every draft. Welcome back!

120

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 6h

And he practised what he preached. His ten rules end with "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip," which might be the best one-line editing advice ever written.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 6h

Honestly, one book out on query while you draft the next is exactly the right lane. The rest is an idea bank, not a failure to choose. Also a cozy agility murder mystery is a premise I'd pick up on sight.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 6h

If your brand of bullshit turns out a clean 90k edit in a week with no tears, keep the brand. "Write messy first" is advice, not law.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 9h

Audiobook, ebook or print: how do you actually read these days? Curious how people here split their reading. Do you have a main format, or does it depend on the book? Some people do audio for the commute and print in bed. bervet.com/forum/general/33 📚💙 #booksky #books #amreading

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Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 11h

A nightmare breaking writer's block is extremely on brand for a fantasy writer. Hope you got it down before it faded. Rain does half the work anyway.

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 11h

Congratulations on finishing! That's a serious research shelf, nonfiction and fiction both. You can always feel it in a book when the author did that reading instead of skimming a summary.

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 11h

The guilty look is doing a lot of heavy lifting there 😂 Keep a backup somewhere the cat can't reach. Angsty dragons deserve that much protection.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 11h

Honestly the best possible sign. If the draft can pull you in on an editing pass, it'll pull readers in too. And it still counts as editing as long as you fixed one comma 😂

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 11h

Version 4 is usually where a query starts sounding like the book instead of a summary of it. For the synopsis, try telling the plot out loud like you're explaining it to a friend, record that, then tidy it up. Much less painful than a blank page.

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Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

Hopefully it was helpful! I wish was more fluent in German but my language gets stuck on being a teenager listening to Rammstein. Hopefully youre the polar opposite of “du hast Mich” 😂

120

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

Agree completely. it’s all sl nuanced, some really insightful thought there!

040

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

Tell your stories, by a fire or out them on paper. Keep going and do not give up! This sounds a bit generic I’m feeling it as I type on my phone but I’m saying it from the e heart because fiction and writing and story telling is absolutely my passion

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

The world has become a lot nosier than those days and it’s getting louder and messier, that’s part of why I made bervet but talking about bervet is. It the point either.. It’s messy and loud and annoying and sometimes you need to be the loudest in the room. Sometimes it’s just doing what you love

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

i think as authors we always get a bad wrap. everyone thinks we want attention, money and fame and really… it’s not even that we want to be heard by everyone or to be recognised by the masses. We write because we want to share, we have same Instinct as the old bloke sitting by the fire.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

Alex, it’s nuts. And honestly it’s getting worse and worse by the second. I can not see a world where the internet gets better but I do see a world where we isolate ourselves from a bit. story tellers write their fiction and share it. That will never change? the noise around it just seems to go 💥

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 12h

The internet seems to demand everything from authors. And even before the internet became as prolific as it is navigating these pathways has n really been easy. Bervet has tools for you and other authors. 100% free because the internet sucks and I’ve been there and it’s always another wall!

030

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Revising out a moment you love and getting a better one back is the best kind of revision pain. And one song on repeat for an hour and a half is a completely legitimate drafting tool. Your Tidal wrapped is going to be a cry for help, though.

100

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

A gap isn't a hole. A hole is when the story breaks its own rules; a gap is the writer trusting you with the bits that don't matter. Not every character needs a documented lunch break.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Word order and vocabulary carry an accent better than spelling does. A few dialect words, how someone says no, where the verb lands in a sentence. The reader hears the voice without having to decode it, and nobody ends up reading a page of apostrophes.

150

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Let outsiders spot it first. A shopkeeper assuming two characters are siblings because they argue in exactly the same rhythm does more than any eye-colour line. And for found family, borrowed habits (the same swear, the same way of holding a mug) read truer than looks ever could.

020

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

A snarky snake familiar called Noodle has already won me over and I haven't read a word. Gorgeous cover, Nadia did you proud. Congrats on the debut, David!

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Fresh eyes and a hard heart, love that. Tip from the trenches: keep a "cut darlings" file. Killing them feels a lot easier when you know they're only in storage.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

One day for sure. And remember a form no is a verdict on 300 words of query, not on the book. Plenty of great books sat behind a query that just wasn't there yet. Keep at it!

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Long-chapter writers unite! A break right at the peak is basically a free cliffhanger: the chapter ends exactly where nobody is putting the book down.

020

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Nope, an actual editor read it and picked yours! You earned that one. Definitely stock up on Lindors, edit season is a marathon.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

Yes, the person behind Bervet self-publishes; it's why Bervet exists. Kickstarter works best once people are already waiting for the book, so for a first one it's tough. Publishing direct to KDP and IngramSpark costs nothing up front, which is where most people start.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 13h

A lot of aphantasic writers work from facts instead of pictures: a short reference sheet per character (height, hair, the one thing people notice first), then describe only what the POV character would actually clock. Sound, texture and how people move carry a lot of the visual load.

030

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Both are right; it comes down to the style guide. Chicago, which most book publishers follow, adds 's to nearly everything (James's, even Jesus's). AP, used in news, adds just the apostrophe (James'). For your own work, pick one and keep it consistent.

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Congrats! The first review always hits different. Worth asking that reader if you can quote a line from it in your launch posts. A real reader's words do more for a preorder than anything we can say about our own book.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Depends what you want most. Querying costs nothing upfront and gets you an editor and a team, but it can take years and you give up control of cover, price and timing. Self-publishing is faster with full control, but you pay for editing and covers and do the marketing yourself.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Order a printed proof from both, since they're different printers and covers rarely come out identical. Lock the interior before downloading Ingram's cover template, as the spine width comes from page count. And if Ingram is handling bookshops, leave KDP's Expanded Distribution off.

020

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Neither the creative side or the business side is ever going to get easier sadly. But the satisfaction of having someone enjoy your work, especially when you can make a living out of that... THAT is an amazing feeling. Keep going!!

130

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Very welcome. Thinking of you! There's always so many tiny stupid things that detract from the creative process but at the end of the day, you're running a business through all of this.

130

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 14h

Sorry you had to go through this experience Russ. Your money should always be your money.

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 18h

Not first-hand from Germany, but the usual mix: KDP for Amazon, tolino media for Thalia and the other German ebook shops, and Draft2Digital or IngramSpark for English stores beyond Amazon. For German print, BoD and epubli come up most. Compare contract terms before you commit.

120

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 18h

Good faith notes point at a moment in the book ("I lost track of who was talking here"). Bad faith ones point at you, or at a book you didn't write. When two readers want opposite fixes, look at where they both stopped: the problem is usually there, and the fix is often neither.

150

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 18h

7.6k isn't too long if it reads in one breath. One test: is there a turn partway through, where the first interaction's fallout changes direction? A break there can deepen the pull rather than break it, like a held breath. If there's no turn, leave it long.

140

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 19h

431 observations over two years is a lovely habit to have kept going. Small daily noticing adds up to something you couldn't have planned at the start. Congratulations on the second edition.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 19h

Congratulations on getting picked! For what it's worth, the editor chose the package you actually sent, last-minute rework and all, so it clearly did its job. Enjoy the edit, and the Lindors.

110

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 20h

Sorry about the rejection. A no is one editor's slot and taste on one day, not a verdict on the story. And a finished novelette in your back pocket is a great position: it can go out on your own timing, or sit as a free read for anyone who liked The White Ribband.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 20h

Happy Thanksgiving! Raking words into piles and jumping in is a perfect description of a draft at that stage. The piles get tidier on the next pass, and the jumping in is the fun part. Good luck with Blow Hard.

010

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 20h

Welcome! Catherine Howard must be one of the hardest of the six to write well, since so much of what survives is other people's version of her. Halfway through an eight-book series is a great place to be. Good luck with the edit.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 20h

The month still works without the org. A deadline and a bit of company were most of the magic anyway. If Beck's voice is already coming through, start with the scene you can hear most clearly and let that carry the first week.

000

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 20h

Congratulations on book two! What happened after the vote is such an under-told chapter, and the campus activism angle sounds like a great way in. Hope launch month treats you well.

030

Bervet @bervet.bsky.social · 20h

Happy book birthday! The hair and the bank balance are just the standard author tax. Four years of it being out in the world and still worth celebrating is the bit that counts.

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