Look into self publishing, ebook marketing, and writers forums.

I wonder if this remark of Tolkien's about The Lord of the Rings is relevant?

>I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

Anything at all narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Redding!! The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan was my first intro to them and they’re a gold standard for me now. They also do many of Brandon Sanderson’s books.

I also was very impressed with Davina Porter’s performance of the Outlander series written by Diana Gabaldon. She had a knack for making her male gender voices NOT sound ridiculous, and I could actually hear the distinct differences between her male characters. Not to mention there’s a whole host of accents for her to master. Very impressive.

The best audiobook I’ve listened to is “You can’t hurt me” by David Goggins. The bonus was the 15-20 minute chat after every chapter by David himself. The book touches upon many social issues we face today including racism and spousal abuse. He also uses a lot of foul language and he is very unapologetic for this as he faced a lot of crap in his life. It’s not for everyone, while I loved it , my wife did not so just a warning. If you are a runner or a triathlete, you will love this.

You are not dumb. You read for pleasure, not for study. In studying a work of literature, you read first for yourself and then read multiple times for others.

This is a children book. How old are you?

If you are looking for a deeper meaning read Dostoevsky.

Know My Name and Between the World and Me

It's crazy how relevant the book still is (well, the prologue says it better). I also tried the original French and I agree with the dictionary's advice (it's somehow “harder” work, but absolutely worth it). It doesn't help that even today's written and spoken French are basically different languages 😆

Work, passion, commitment, community-building, and a little bit of luck ... if anyone on Reddit had an easy answer to this there'd be way more people writing books. And with that said, excluding self-published authors, roughly one million books are published each year in the United States alone and a very small percentage of those sell 10k copies. Stick with it if you enjoy the process and hopefully your wish comes true.

This would absolutely be The Vela, which was produced as a podcast available for free..

It’s narrated by a woman named Robin Miles who brings a stunning array of accents and acting talent to a story of emotion, character development, and unexpected events. I know she’s done a lot of narration but I think this is the best.

“Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. “

I am not sure where you get this information about the author.

I hadn't heard of this before. Thanks for sharing!

I feel like you'd get more help in another sub that is dedicated to such things. But I'll give it a shot anyways.

When you go through trad publishing, they provide the marketing for you.

Would you discourage starting with The Silmarillion if one hasn't read either?

Yo is Left Hand of Darkness the fourth book into a series? That might explain why it was so odd to start with no background knowledge haha. I really enjoyed The Lathe of Heaven and then tried Darkness and couldn't get into it, though I do plan to try again.

Yeah, but the book >>>> the play. I see the play as an original work, loosely based on the novel.

I’m still on the chapters about the bishop. Enjoying it, but I find myself googling historical people and events a lot because I’m unfamiliar with subjects like the French Revolution.

I much preferred the book as being so much richer but as someone who just doesn't like musicals I appreciated the bbc version, although I agree it was far from perfect. I thought their war and peace adaptation hit the mark much better.

Yes. Many drug addicts live productive lives. A writer for the Guardian used to be a heroin user. So you are showing your ignorance. Which is tedious these days.

I’ve found him boring for 45 years.

One of my favourites - although I could not have got through it without the tip about skipping the poems/songs. Maybe I am a superficial reader, but I just couldn’t get through them all..

The "deeper" meaning was Caroll's way to ridicule the direction mathematics was headed. There were alot or new theories that relied on untestable and unobservable reality. He thought this trend, one using ungrounded references, was driving mathematics into absurdity instead of progressing it.

Thank you so much.

really !!!

Not at all!