Has anyone ever tried Ingram iD? If so, has it worked for you? Could I get by without paying for ads on it (for Instagram, Google) while I am just starting out on there? Would love to know thoughts on this.

Here's something that confuses a lot of writers: "show, don't tell" was never a law. It was a suggestion. Somewhere along the way we forgot about nuance and turned a helpful reminder into a commandment carved in stone, and now writers are terrified of a sentence like "She was exhausted." That's a fine sentence, man. When you use AI or even grammar correction tools like ProWritingAid or Grammarly, they want to eliminate passive voice and telling entirely. That's not the answer. Writing is about thinking and feeling, and the whole idea was to stop you from flatly reporting emotion when a moment deserves to be felt. But awhen you treat "always show" as gospel, you get 400 pages where every cup of coffee gets a paragraph of description and nothing actually happens. (Looking at you, epic fantasy) You get vivid description and zero story. Telling is a tool. It compresses time. It let’s you skip the boring parts. It hands the reader information fast so the showing has room to breathe. "Weeks passed in a blur of training" is a gift to your reader. The writers I coach who create great stories aren't the ones who show everything. They're the ones who decide, scene by scene, what deserves the readers full attention and what deserves a sentence. Show what matters. Tell what doesn't. That's the actual rule.

Should a writer take days off? Steven King says write every day (so do I, usually). Writers will often brag about the hours they put in, and if you work a day job, is writing your job on your day job days off? Oof. Sounds like a lot of work. For me writing time is me time too. In a way, it’s part of my relaxation. Editing? Similar most of the time. Marketing, admin, and taxes? That’s work. But what does that mean to you? Well, as many other things, it depends. Some people need quiet time to think without writing. And even your creative brain needs a break. But you have to get to know you-your most creative time for writing, how to balance the rest of your life, and more. We can coach you. Offer advice. But you have to listen to you for all of this writing life to work. So, do you take time off? What does that look like?

Hi, I'm new here. I'm wondering where else to add my metadata? I've posted it to my website (price changes, keywords, categories); I spent a good amount of time updating it on OpenLibrary... Where else should I add it to? I have Instagram, tumblr, goodreads, but no TikTok or Facebook (I'm not into those). Does IngramSpark allow you to insert a bunch of keywords, as in 50 of them? Or anything more? I know for Amazon, yes, you update the categories and add keywords, but Amazon changes frequently.