Randy Anderson's Blog - Posts Tagged "time-travel"
Reader gets blue balls, writes 1 star review
Reading can be dangerous. Especially if you find a book that tickles you — then leaves you hanging. This recently happened to a reader of Time Phantom: Amsterdam. Below is his review, and my response.
Top critical review
1 out of 5 stars
Urghhhhh…. yet another serial book
This is yet another in an endless series of serial books that fail to indicate upfront that this is Book 1 of a series. My favorite genre is time travel and so I was looking forward to reading this.
I found the writing to be good and the story compelling. As I was reaching the end of the book I couldn’t see how the author was going to wrap up the story line within the remaining chapters. Then I find out that the story continues in subsequent books!!
I HATE THAT!! To me it’s a cheap trick to try and hook you into acquiring the next book in the series. I refuse to fall for that kind of “bait and switch”.
Dear JLM,
I am so sorry my lack of disclosure has caused you to shout. Whenever someone types hate in all caps, I take notice. First, let me say that Amazon does indicate on the sales page that this is book 1 of 2. It’s right below the yellow stars. The ones that are now a little less yellow thanks to your 1 star rating. But the point is, Amazon is blameless in this. It is entirely my fault you didn’t know this was a series. Frankly, advertising that up front wasn’t something I thought about. And I get it. I mean, when I first saw Star Wars, nobody told me there would be sequels and prequels and “stories”. Man do they have a butt-load of my cash.
But I’m a little confused, JLM. I thought we had a good time? I know I enjoyed having your eyeballs brush against my words. And from your review, it appears that you liked it too. In fact, I feel like we had a connection. You liked the order of my words, the characters, you were following all of my story lines. You’d invested yourself to the point where you knew you’d never get satisfaction from the remaining fifty pages. That’s the kind of connection a reader and a writer aspire to, isn’t it?
I’m sorry I couldn’t just finish, clean it all up and bounce out of your life like all the other non-serials chippies you clearly enjoy reading. But this story, the one we’ve already started sharing together, the one that actually means something more than twenty minutes of fiction, deserves more than a one-night stand.
Listen, I get the whole, in-n-out thing. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a quickie too. And, the next time you are, might I suggest my novella, Divisible. It’s not your favorite genre, time travel, but it takes place in the future and it’s a pretty thoughtful read. Plus, it’s only 120 pages. I promise, we’ll go hard and you’ll be finished in an hour. You won’t even need to call me the next day.
If you’re looking for something a little longer with an emotional connection, my novel Careful clocks in at 100,000 words and will probably make you cry a few times, especially if you like dogs. The doggy-bags (bags containing dead dogs not leftovers) are quite numerous by the end. If you look at the reviews, those who read it are deeply satisfied in the “smoke a cigarette even though I don’t smoke” sort of way.
But those may not appeal to you because you like time travel. I do too. And I feel terrible that you thought our mutual desire to explore the world through this magical devise could be contained in just one session. But you see, I probably only have one shot at this genre and I want to savor it, take it slow, spread it out over the course of… let’s say six books. And I’m not breaking the books up because I want to. I’m breaking them up because well, when you’re having a good time sometimes it’s best to take break. You wouldn’t watch an entire season of Orange is the New Black in one sitting, would you? (Don’t answer that, I know it doesn’t prove my point.) But practically speaking, nobody buys a 500,000 word book unless it’s written by a Russian (which I’m not) or a ridiculously smart graduate of the Writers’ Workshop (not me either.)
We’ll finish, I guarantee it. Give me a chance. Bring me back to your bed or your couch or the subway or jury duty. I promise, we’ll have fun. After all, Time Phantom II: Copenhagen is only $3.99. A pittance compared to the thousands of dollars and countless hours I’ve spend producing it.
Come on JLM, come back! Let me show you a good time.
Top critical review
1 out of 5 stars
Urghhhhh…. yet another serial book
This is yet another in an endless series of serial books that fail to indicate upfront that this is Book 1 of a series. My favorite genre is time travel and so I was looking forward to reading this.
I found the writing to be good and the story compelling. As I was reaching the end of the book I couldn’t see how the author was going to wrap up the story line within the remaining chapters. Then I find out that the story continues in subsequent books!!
I HATE THAT!! To me it’s a cheap trick to try and hook you into acquiring the next book in the series. I refuse to fall for that kind of “bait and switch”.
Dear JLM,
I am so sorry my lack of disclosure has caused you to shout. Whenever someone types hate in all caps, I take notice. First, let me say that Amazon does indicate on the sales page that this is book 1 of 2. It’s right below the yellow stars. The ones that are now a little less yellow thanks to your 1 star rating. But the point is, Amazon is blameless in this. It is entirely my fault you didn’t know this was a series. Frankly, advertising that up front wasn’t something I thought about. And I get it. I mean, when I first saw Star Wars, nobody told me there would be sequels and prequels and “stories”. Man do they have a butt-load of my cash.
But I’m a little confused, JLM. I thought we had a good time? I know I enjoyed having your eyeballs brush against my words. And from your review, it appears that you liked it too. In fact, I feel like we had a connection. You liked the order of my words, the characters, you were following all of my story lines. You’d invested yourself to the point where you knew you’d never get satisfaction from the remaining fifty pages. That’s the kind of connection a reader and a writer aspire to, isn’t it?
I’m sorry I couldn’t just finish, clean it all up and bounce out of your life like all the other non-serials chippies you clearly enjoy reading. But this story, the one we’ve already started sharing together, the one that actually means something more than twenty minutes of fiction, deserves more than a one-night stand.
Listen, I get the whole, in-n-out thing. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a quickie too. And, the next time you are, might I suggest my novella, Divisible. It’s not your favorite genre, time travel, but it takes place in the future and it’s a pretty thoughtful read. Plus, it’s only 120 pages. I promise, we’ll go hard and you’ll be finished in an hour. You won’t even need to call me the next day.
If you’re looking for something a little longer with an emotional connection, my novel Careful clocks in at 100,000 words and will probably make you cry a few times, especially if you like dogs. The doggy-bags (bags containing dead dogs not leftovers) are quite numerous by the end. If you look at the reviews, those who read it are deeply satisfied in the “smoke a cigarette even though I don’t smoke” sort of way.
But those may not appeal to you because you like time travel. I do too. And I feel terrible that you thought our mutual desire to explore the world through this magical devise could be contained in just one session. But you see, I probably only have one shot at this genre and I want to savor it, take it slow, spread it out over the course of… let’s say six books. And I’m not breaking the books up because I want to. I’m breaking them up because well, when you’re having a good time sometimes it’s best to take break. You wouldn’t watch an entire season of Orange is the New Black in one sitting, would you? (Don’t answer that, I know it doesn’t prove my point.) But practically speaking, nobody buys a 500,000 word book unless it’s written by a Russian (which I’m not) or a ridiculously smart graduate of the Writers’ Workshop (not me either.)
We’ll finish, I guarantee it. Give me a chance. Bring me back to your bed or your couch or the subway or jury duty. I promise, we’ll have fun. After all, Time Phantom II: Copenhagen is only $3.99. A pittance compared to the thousands of dollars and countless hours I’ve spend producing it.
Come on JLM, come back! Let me show you a good time.
