Ouch! JA Gill did NOT like The Sixth Discipline

The Sixth Discipline launched at the end of March and since then I have been sending out review copies to lots and lots of review sites. It takes a while for reviewers to get to it, because they all have back logs, but reviews have started to come in. Some have been better than others, of course. There was one that liked the story but not my writing and one that liked my writing but not the story. Today I got a review that didn't like either, and in a big way, too. JA Gill posted a review on Big Al's Books and Pals that was completely dismissive of the story, the characters, and my style (the kindest phrase in the review called my prose “competent, clear, and bland”). Of course, JK Rowling also got dissed, so I shouldn't feel too bad. Also, the review confuses the Fifth Discipline with the Sixth, so it's not perfect either.

Big Al himself is much less inclined to snark; in fact he's famous for having kept his cool when an author went off the rails about a very balanced review (read the 309 comments and you'll see what I mean). I urge you to check out his site if you're at all interested in book reviews of self-published books. He doesn't confine the blog to any one genre so there is something for everyone.

Going mental in ebooks

I have been struggling with a problem unique to digital publishing. In print publishing, you have more control over the appearance of the page. In ebooks, there is no page, and the same book can appear differently on different ebook platforms. All ereaders let the reader change the text size, and some let him change the font (typeface). On some ereaders, particularly the Kindle, italic and bold text are not as noticeable as they appear in print.

This isn't that much of a problem in the average novel. Italic isn't used that often, and usually it's only one or two words. Bold is rarely used. But in spec fic, you sometimes have situations not found in non-genre fiction. My next novel Tribes, for example, has a plot point that involves technology creating a way to communicate telepathically. This results in “dialog” that's not really dialog. This is text that needs to look different on the screen.

I tried sending draft files to my Kindle with this text in bold and in italic and neither was distinct enough. Eventually, I concluded the only thing to do was to set that text off with a character not usually found in fiction, perhaps [square brackets] or {curly brackets}. I lean toward square brackets because I think the curly brackets look too geeky, but I'm wavering.

Once I decide, I'll be almost ready to send the files off to the conversion house. The cover is taking shape, but I asked for once last tweak, so I'm waiting on that. I'm excited!

A very nice review for The Sixth Disicpline

The Books and Things blog has posted a lovely review of The Sixth Discipline. This reviewer noted the romantic elements but said he considered it more of a science fiction adventure with romantic overtones (more of what I was going for, certainly!). He called the story "interesting and imaginative" and said that he enjoyed the writing style.

He also wants to read the sequel, which is the best thing any reader or reviewer can say.

Another review for The Sixth Discipline

The Android Dreamer blog posted an interesting review of The Sixth Discipline. Writer/blogger/editor Matt Heckler rated it as B- because it was too much of a romance for him, but he thought it was very well done. In fact, he said he was “thoroughly impressed with the quality of writing.” Hard to complain about that!

The Android Dreamer blog focuses on reviews of science fiction books, both traditional and self-published, and a few interviews, and it's very nicely organized. Check it out!

Another guest blog post

Today I am guest blogging over at the Kindle Obsessed site, which features reviews, interviews, and articles about all things Kindle, including (naturally) ebooks!  My post is about why there are so many errors in ebooks, and you should check it out if you are interested.

While you are there, you can check out some of the other posts and even read some book reviews if you're interested in finding something new to read.

A very mixed review

Well, The Sixth Discipline got a new review, but it wasn't quite the rave an author hopes for. The Sift Reviews site gave it three out of five stars, which doesn't bother me—much—as they're pretty tough graders, but I do wish I knew what things the reviewer saw as grammatical errors. Still, they liked the characters and the story line. Check out Sift Reviews  if you're interested in self-published spec fic.

Totally unrelated but too cute not to pass on

We humans tend to think we're unique in the animal kingdom, and in some ways we are.  But this video of an otter juggling a rock shows that we're not the only animal that gets bored and looks for ways to amuse ourselves. Aside from that, it is cute as all get out. Who doesn't love otters?

Tribes is taking shape

I got Tribes back from the copyeditor and I'm making my revisions now.  I hate that part of the process!  The thing is, the copyeditor points out things that aren't clear or plot points that seem inconsistent.  It's a lot like having a physical; just because it's good for you doesn't make it fun.

The cover is by a different artist, and that's taking longer than expected, so it's not a problem that it's taking me so long to get through the manuscript. But in a few weeks, I hope to post a link for a new book.  This one is not in any way connected to the Haven stories except that it's in the same universe.  But unlike Haven, the colony on Mariposa has been rediscovered by the outside universe.  And since Mariposa was founded by violent criminals, the world has some interesting customs.

For Hob, the protagonist, the problem is that when your tribe is everything, having no tribe means you have nothing.

No Safe Haven was listed in Locus Online!

I don't know why they didn't list The Sixth Discipline— possibly it was published too early in the year— but Locus, the trade magazine for speculative fiction, did list No Safe Haven as part of their new feature that lists novels published as ebooks. The listing very nicely does include the fact that the book is a sequel to The Sixth Discipline, and it has the Amazon link for that book, too, which is great.

If you have recently published a novel that is either science ficiton, fantasy, or horror, you can let Locus Online know by sending email to online@locusmag.com Please note that they want books that are only available in ebook form rather than those that are also printed.

Snark Down Under

The Sydney Morning Herald has a blog post that irked me. The author of the post "A Tale of Two Books" is John Birmingham, an Australian writer who has published a variety of books, including techno-thrillers and science fiction.  He appears to be the Herald's resident geek, but he writes this post as the expert on book publishing. He begins by lauding his editors, who spend months getting his books into a fit state to be published; he then states that this process is why books cannot be expected to cost only 99¢. His explanation for why there are so many self-published ebooks that cost 99¢?

"The reason? They were unpublishable. Their books were so bad that even the best editors could make nothing of them."

This strikes me as more than a tad judgmental. He is assuming a) that all self-published ebooks priced at 99¢ are self-published only after having been rejected by every editor in the book biz, and b) that they are all rejected for the same reason. 


This is simply not so. I am not saying that there are not thousands of self-published ebooks that are terrible, I'm saying this guy can't know what he's talking about because he assumes uniformity where none exists. Self-published books may have a higher rate of bad writing than traditionally published books, but they are not all at the same level, anymore than traditionally published books are. 


Nor do editors always reject books only because they think they are badly written. Book editors buy what they think will sell.  Award winning writer Ursula K LeGuin has kindly published the rejection letter she got when her agent submitted The Left Hand of Darkness. Clearly, that editor did not think the book would sell (it won the Hugo and the Nebula and it's still in print after 40 years!). 


Birmingham also pays no attention to the postings of Joe Konrath and other writers about how they have experimented with the prices of their books and found they often make more money with lower priced books than with higher priced books.


So, color me snarky. This guy ticked me off!