Benjamin M. Weilert's Blog: BMW the Blog, page 10

How to handle a bad review

You can’t please all people all the time. The best you can do is please most people most of the time. This adage is as true in life as it is to writing. Some readers will love your book, others will not. We all love to receive glowing reviews, as they boost our confidence, but what about those readers and reviewers who don’t care for our book? While I’ve received a few bad reviews for my books, as a reviewer of books, I have had to write some bad reviews. If your book is out there for the public to read, you have to expect to receive a bad review eventually. There are two ways to deal with these negative reviews: the right way and the wrong way.

How you handle bad reviews says a lot about who you are as an author.

My first one-star review was for my first book, First Name Basis. While I was upset that I received this bad review from someone who hadn’t even finished the book, their comments were focused on what did and did not work for them. This was valuable feedback, even if I didn’t like hearing it. It meant that now I had something to work on to improve my writing. After the initial shock of the bad review, I allowed myself to figure out a plan on how to make my books better. Or, at least how to write books that could get people to read all the way through them.

Consequently, because of this review, I don’t give starred ratings for books I don’t finish. I will still provide a brief (but thorough) explanation of how and why I didn’t make it through the book, but I will leave the star rating out so as to not negatively influence the total rating of the book (I know how numbers matter for these things). That being said, I am often a glutton for punishment and will force myself through an awful book even if I should have stopped reading pages ago. These books will receive a bad review, as well as a low star rating.

If you learn from bad reviews, you come out ahead in the long run.

As I said before, there are two ways to take a bad review. The above example is the better way to go about it. If someone didn’t like your book, and they tell you why then there’s potential for growth in your writing. If the review is scathing and resorts to personal attacks, you might be able to report the reviewer to whatever website has hosted the review (i.e., Goodreads or Amazon). Just so we’re clear, personal attacks are not reviews. I don’t know why someone would care so much about reading a lousy book that they’d attack the author with their review. These are the reviews you should delete and never view again. Just ignore them, they aren’t helpful.

“But,” I hear you say, “what if the reviewer is wrong? I should let them know they’re wrong!” My advice: DON’T. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of the book replying to a bad review to defend the book’s honor, or if you’re an author who thinks they put out the next great literary masterpiece. The person who wrote the negative review has their opinion of the work, and they are completely entitled to it. If we’ve learned anything in this world, it’s that you can’t win an argument over the internet. Therefore, it is best to not even start an argument when it comes to a bad review. Other readers will see it, sure, but it’s up to them to determine if the points brought forth by the critical review apply to them. Maybe the reviewer didn’t like the particular genre and got the book via a giveaway or as a gift. Maybe the reviewer has some personal issues that influenced them when they read. Whatever the reason, the reviewer has formed an opinion, and if you press them on it, they might open up about more details they did not like about this particular book.

Some people will not like your book.

I’ve already written a post about YA fans who are a little too nasty in replying to bad reviews but let me regale you with a story of an author who did not agree with my review. To start with, I almost didn’t accept his review request because the e-mail he sent seemed like spam to me (i.e., a link to an odd website, “F-R-E-E” spelled out everywhere, etc.). When I did finally receive his book (and a couple dozen cards for F-R-E-E e-book downloads), I sat down to read it thinking it would be a pretty standard time travel sci-fi. While the plot was about what I expected, the writing itself was difficult to get through. Each page had about a dozen proofreading and editing errors that kept interrupting the flow of my reading since I wanted to correct them each time I came across one. Somehow, I made it all the way through the book, and the errors never got any better.

When I wrote my review, I highlighted the fact that the plot was mostly satisfactory, with a few characters making strange decisions to go on unnecessary tangents. My biggest beef was that the author needed to get a good copy editor/proofreader to edit his work, as it was almost unreadable in the state it was. Posting this review to Goodreads and Amazon, I thought I was done with this book and could move on to the next one. I was wrong.

This is what I saw on every page of this book.

A couple days later, the author e-mailed me and told me that he disagreed with my review. He seemed to think he had written this masterpiece, mostly because he had gained some glowing reviews. He had taken offense at my review and somehow thought that bringing these glowing reviews to my attention would change my mind. If you can’t tell by now, this is not something an author should EVER do. I responded back to him, highlighting the points from my review that justified my position since it seemed to me that he hadn’t read the whole review (merely latching on to one or two statements).

This back-and-forth continued for a few days, with me telling him he needed to hire an editor if his book was to be any good, and him explaining that he did hire an editor and made all the changes the editor requested. Each time I responded, I was increasingly flabbergasted that he kept harping me because of my bad review. I laid out more and more of the things that I thought he needed to fix to grow his writing, but he kept coming back with how many five-star reviews his book has received. At one point, I told him to never contact me again, which lasted for all of a week. Let me be clear to all authors: when you start an e-mail with “You probably don’t want to hear from me . . .” you shouldn’t send that e-mail. To this day, I’m still not sure if he expected me to change my review (which he denied) or to personally let him know that I was wrong in my assessment, but I just know that he handled my critical review in the wrong way.

Contacting a reviewer about a negative review serves no purpose.

One thing I think many authors fail to realize when they send books out for review is that the review they receive is out of their hands. Once their novel is out to the reviewer, they should not influence the content of the rating in any way, so as to have the review be honest and unbiased. In fact, most websites that have reviews (like Amazon) explicitly state in their review criteria that authors cannot “pay” for reviews by giving out free or discounted copies of their books in exchange for five-star ratings. Aside from the advice I’ve already given about what to avoid when asking for reviews, I only have these few additions:

Do not require the reviewer to send you their review for approval. Once your book is in their hands, their review is theirs to write, not yours.
If you have a book entered in a giveaway (like on Goodreads), know that many people will enter these giveaways for the chance to get a free book. If they do give you a review, and it’s a bad one, it’s likely due to the book’s title and cover being misleading or the genre being something the reader doesn’t usually read.
If you do not like a review, do not harass the reviewer. You might be able to take the review down if it doesn’t meet content standards, but also know that a book that only has five-star reviews seems more suspicious than one with a few unimpressed readers’ reviews sprinkled throughout.

Finally, one thing you should never do, regardless if you receive good or bad reviews on your book, is rate and review it yourself. This just looks desperate, especially if you’re the only one to have a rating and review on your book. You’re the author, of course you’d give yourself five stars and a glowing review. At the very least, don’t try to write a “counter-review” to debunk a negative review. This is another desperate move that will likely turn off readers as it screams of insecurity and low confidence. Basically, let your work speak for itself, and the good reviews will inevitably outnumber the bad.

The problem with self-publishing

As a self-published author, I was almost surprised to find how easy it was to get my book out there. Back in 2011, when I published First Name Basis, I used the tools available to me through my “print on demand” publisher of choice: CreateSpace. From the cover creator to the interior template, all the work I did on my book was my own. Sure, I had a few people read through it and give me some notes on proofreading errors and other minor tweaks, but in the end, I did all my own writing, editing, and formatting so that the story I wrote would be available to a broad audience. Since then, I have learned just how much more work must go into self-publishing a book. Still, it remains a free endeavor for anyone who wants to publish their own book.

Self-publishing a book is surprisingly easy.

Fast forward to today, and I have read more than my fair share of independent and self-published authors. When I was starting out, I was almost offended that these types of writers were looked down upon merely because they weren’t “traditionally” published. Now I know why. The best explanation I can give comes from a quote from The Incredibles. “When everyone’s super . . . no one will be.” For decades, if not centuries, authors had to pass through the “gateway” of traditional publishing. Those who chose to “self-publish” were usually relegated to the Kinko’s down the street, producing an inferior product when compared to the paperback and hardcover books that these publishers were putting out. When the digital revolution of the 21st Century came around, suddenly all you needed was a Microsoft Word document and an internet connection, and you could have a professional-looking book in your hand that you wrote. Furthermore, the batch sizes decreased to the point where a self-published author didn’t need to go to a vanity press to get 1,000 copies of their book made, and thus figure out what to do with that many copies. The “print on demand” structure allowed authors like me to print off exactly as many books as we need.

Adding to the ease of printing a professional-looking book, was the rise of e-books. I still have to pay for the raw materials and shipping for any book I have made through the print on demand service, but in a digital world where everything travels across the electromagnetic spectrum for free, costs were practically negligent for a self-published author. The problem this still enforces is that there’s no risk to the author. No money is tied up in their book, other than the amount they want to spend on editors, cover artists, and other marketing services. Suddenly, anyone who thought they had written a good book could make that book available at no cost to them. This flooded the system with books that had no quality control and no way to ensure that they were good.

The ease of self-publishing inundates the market with sub-par books.

Many people thought the rise of e-books and free self-publishing resources (like print on demand) would spell the end of the traditional publishing empire. I would almost wager that it has made it stronger. Sure, it’s tough to find an agent, and even tougher to have a manuscript published by a traditional publisher, but they are the gatekeepers who make sure only the “great” books make it to publication. Yes, I admit that not every book published by traditional publishers is “good,” but at least most of them have some commercial value. People want to buy these books because the idea is good enough to pass through the vetting process that involves agents and publishers, eventually making money for the publisher, and by proxy the author.

Unfortunately, some people see the challenge of obtaining an agent and querying to publishers as a non-starter. This wall forces them to find another way to get their book into the hands of their readers. I’ll admit that I’m certainly someone who doesn’t like rejection and therefore will never try to get an agent or submit my work to publishers. Still, I do enjoy maintaining the creative control of my craft. In the end, my writing is a hobby, and not something that I need to make a living. Sure, I’m serious about it, but I’m not going to necessarily rush something out the door before I’ve had a chance to make it into the best product I can. I still want to appear professional, especially to my readers.

Nobody takes self-published authors seriously if they don’t put out a professional product.

I cannot say that other authors share my eye for detail or commitment to creating a professional-level product. Having now read about two-dozen books by self-published and independently published authors, I have found many issues that keep cropping up that annoy me as a reader. These errors annoy me more as a self-published author since they make us all look bad. I understand that the “starving artist” stereotype can be applied to writers, and therefore any self-published author might not have the money to spend on editors or cover artists. Still, these small omissions noticeably degrade the quality of a self-published book. I’ve already mentioned two areas of quality control that are lacking in self-published books, but there are four in total that I would like to discuss:

Covers : A good cover must be clean, distinct, and grab the reader’s attention. So many covers are muddled, use “standard” fonts (or too many different fonts), or use overused stock images. Add to this an ambiguous title that doesn’t give the reader a sense of what the book’s about and you’re left with a dud.
Editing : A good editor is worth their weight in gold, so a lot of it comes down to “you get what you pay for.” If a self-published author is having their manuscript edited for free by their friends and family, there’s no way to ensure they’ll find all the incorrect homophones or that the punctuation stays consistent with an accepted style. I find these errors to be the most jarring to me as a reader, mainly because I would notice them in my own manuscript.
Plot : A good content editor (who can be the same as the editor mentioned above) will show a self-published author where their plot holes are. Not only does a good plot need a hook, but each scene in the plot must answer the question, “so what?” Scenes added as exposition dumps don’t feel natural, and other scenes don’t progress the plot at all, so a good content editor will recognize these pitfalls and help trim the plot into something that isn’t bloated and slow.
Characters : While there are plenty of good plot-based stories, some of the best books out there focus on the characters. Once more, an editor will let a self-published author know if their characters are flat, acting out of character, or just plain clichés. Nothing kills a story faster than having a tiresome character as the protagonist. A reader must be able to relate to the characters in some way that’s meaningful; otherwise, they’ll just tune out.

Finally, because there is a glut of self-published books now available online, every self-published author is trying to get their book out there and seen by a larger audience. One of the ways to do this is to offer a free copy to someone for an honest review. Although, in their heads, I think a lot of self-published authors are too close to their work to realize that a truly honest review might not be one that paints the book in a positive light. I get the sense that they think, “I gave this person a free copy of a book. That must mean they’ll give me a five-star review since I’m so generous.” While I could see this with a physical copy of a book, about 80% of these authors who send me a review request offer the “free” option: an e-book. What annoys me most about this is that they obviously have not read the requirements I put forth on my Amazon profile. I ignore probably a quarter of these request upon reading the first two sentences of their e-mail. My time is worth something, and I understand how important reviews are to gain exposure, so I want to be compensated by something more than a book that probably isn’t very good. Furthermore, the e-mails I get from self-published authors come off as a desperate marketing ploy by someone who really wants to sell their book. From comparisons to much better books to e-mails that look more like spam a computer cooked up, the lack of professionalism I see in these requests is quite appalling.

Respect your reviewers, as they’ll make or break your book.

Partly because I have noticed all these errors time and again, I started my vlog, “Writer Rant” on YouTube. I would urge self-published authors to subscribe to my channel so they can get a peek into the annoyances of a reviewer, reader, and writer such as myself. If we can nip these types of egregious errors in the bud, then maybe readers will start taking us more seriously. As it is right now, I’m embarrassed for the lot of us.

What a month of content looks like

Back in June, I wrote a post about what it takes to “do it all” as an independent author. While one of the many tasks of the independent author is marketing, nobody will buy your books if you’re always promoting them on social media. There needs to be a balance of promotion and what’s known as “web content.” Web content doesn’t need to be much, especially for social media, but the fact that you’re continually posting about something shows that you’re actively engaged with people who could potentially become your audience. There are plenty of debates about which social networks to post to, how often to post, and when to post during the day (or during the week), but this post won’t go into the details of that. I still haven’t figured out the “sweet spot” for social media, but I have accumulated a regular schedule of web content that helps me to be active on these platforms.

When it comes right down to it, since I am the only person doing my marketing, I also have to create all of the web content that I post. While this might take away from my “writing” and “editing” time, I consider it essential to maintain a consistent presence on social media. My current system/schedule is set up to post four times a week to Facebook, which automatically posts to my Twitter account (via “If This, Then That” (IFTTT)). Of course, that’s four times a week for my Author page as well as four times a week for my Photo page (along with an additional two posts on Instagram for the Photo page on the weekends). Not all of this web content is entirely original. I will often post articles, humorous memes, and web-comics that relate to the underlying theme of the page. While I don’t want to necessarily barrage those who have “liked” my page with promotional material about my books, I also don’t want to simply become a content aggregator (like Reddit or 9gag).

To attract an audience, you need to post regularly.

So, if I don’t just want to re-post the content other content creators are making, I need to include some of my original content in my social media posts. This content usually has some connection to my writing, but I’ve also included other topics that I think my audience might like so that they’ll consider buying my books when I do post a promotion for them. While I might post more when I have a particular event going on (like this month and National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo)), there’s usually a “set” of web content that I write/produce for each month. Because this web content posts on a regular and scheduled basis, I can usually write a lot of it beforehand, allowing myself to create a “backlog” of content that will post regardless of whether I’m actively producing it or not. This helps relieve some of the pressure of creating web content, especially when I go on vacation or if I’m trying to get some serious writing done (like during NaNoWriMo). Still, when I look at how much web content I create in a month, it seems like a daunting amount. Fortunately, I keep things simple, so I’m not overwhelmed by it.

Consistent web content is important, but don’t get burnt out!

Let’s look at a typical week in a typical month of my web content. On Mondays, I will post a link to my latest movie blog post (which publishes on the previous Friday). This blog takes two films and connects them via a common theme, actor, or director. Each week, I use last week’s “second” film and connect it to a new film via a new connection. It’s kind of like a never-ending “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” blog. These posts usually run about 800 words long, with an intro to the post, two intros to each of the movies, and two movie synopses. On Wednesdays, I will post a link to my latest vlog post. These “Writer Rants” are five minutes or less “because I have to get back to writing and so do you.” Each video covers some topic that’s bothering me at the moment, usually dealing with certain trends I notice in the work of independent authors. As an independent author myself, I want to make sure we’re seen as professionals and not looked down upon for simple mistakes.

Now, during the week, I will post three “reviews” from my main website to my personal Facebook page (also remembering to post to Twitter as well). Every Tuesday I will post a movie review, with Wednesdays being reviews of audiobooks and Thursdays being reviews of books by independent authors (or books I’ve received via Goodreads giveaways). Each of these posts is over 300 words and contains a picture of the reviewed item, be it a movie poster or book cover. Again, I try and make these posts simple on myself, while also providing enough content for it to be engaging to a reader.

Spreadsheets help me to schedule out my web content.

Once each month, I will try to post a longer blog post to (at least) my Author website. Sometimes these posts will connect in with what I’ve said in my Writer Rants, but sometimes they’ll cover something interesting that I’m researching for a short story or novel. As long as the focus is on writing in some form or other, I write a post about it. Heck, the post you’re reading right now is one of these posts. Since I usually have more to say in these posts, when compared to my reviews, these blog posts are usually over 1,000 words each.

Similarly, each month I will aggregate most of the web content I’ve created and release a newsletter. This newsletter has links to the Writer Rants for the month, the Author blog post for the month, three reviews of movies and books I liked during that month, and the “Weekly Photos” that I post to my Photography page. In this way, I can ensure the people who have signed up for my newsletter will see my web content (via a “push”) since I don’t know if they’ll see it on Facebook or Twitter (often considered a “pull”).

Over time, web content adds up.

When you add all of this web content up for a typical month, the amount of writing I have to do starts to feel quite significant. Four movie blogs at 800 words add up to 2,400 words for the month. Four Writer Rants at five minutes or less (not to mention the editing and uploading to YouTube) adds up to 20 minutes a month. Three reviews a week at 300 words apiece add to 900 words for the week and 3,600 words for the month. Add to this an Author blog post of over 1,000 words, and the grand total I write in a month ends up being over 7,000 words. If I wrote that much on a draft of a novel each month, I’d have a new novel about every six months (if a novel is defined as 50,000+ words).

Obviously, a lot of writing goes into creating consistent and regular web content. While it might distract a bit from the “core” of my writing (i.e., short stories, novels, and editing of same), at the very least it keeps me writing regularly during the month. If anything, they’re good warm-ups for when I do finally get around to writing my novels . . .

What about you? How much web content do you create in a month? Does it interfere with what you’re trying to accomplish?

So you want to be a writer . . .

Congratulations! Admitting that you want to be a writer is the first step in achieving that goal. “But . . .” I hear you hesitate, “what does being a ‘writer’ even mean?” Plenty of people have their definitions for the term, but in its simplest form, being a writer means that you write. Simple, no? Some of the complexity of the term “writer” comes when people make the transition to “author,” since being an author usually means you’ve published something (be it self-published or traditionally published). I consider myself an author because I have written books and published them. Others might disagree, since the process of being traditionally published is a lot more involved (and complicated). Either way, we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Let’s start on the ground floor: being a writer.

Being a writer simply means that you write.

If all it takes to be a writer is to write something, then you could be a writer just by writing e-mails and texts to your family and friends. One of the subtexts of the title of “writer” implies that you are writing stories. Whether or not they’re fiction or non-fiction, short stories or a series of novels, you’ll want some of the basic elements of a story in your writing. Most of these items are self-explanatory, and it would be hard to write a story without them (especially if you’re just starting out). Characters, settings, and plot are the basic building blocks of any story as they help to answer the “Five W’s . . . and one H.” Think of it as a pyramid, with the “character” at the top answering “who,” the “setting” answering “where and when,” and the “plot” answering “what, why, and how.” If you can answer all six of those fundamental questions, you likely have a premise on your hands.

Depending on your answers to the six aforementioned questions, you can easily define what genre you’re writing. Let’s look at a few examples:

Who: Ender Wiggin
Where: Outer space
When: The future
What: Fight aliens
Why: To save humanity
How: Games

Clearly, this is the premise for the sci-fi classic, Ender’s Game. Let’s do another one:

Who: Frodo Baggins
Where: Middle Earth
When: The past
What: Destroy a magical ring
Why: To save Middle Earth
How: Volcano

Again, we have a classic archetype for a fantasy with The Lord of the Rings. These are the easier genres to figure out, but even just one answer to one of the six questions could reveal your genre. If your “when” is “the past,” it could be historical fiction. If your “what” is “solving a crime” you could be writing a mystery or thriller. If your “how” is “farts,” you probably have a comedy (albeit probably a low-brow one). You don’t necessarily need all the questions answered to start writing, but the more you can figure out ahead of time, the better. Even though it’s not “writing” per se, the more books you read, the easier it can be to answer these six questions. If you want to be a writer, reading is certainly a necessary part of that.

So, now that you’ve said you want to write, and you have a few of your defining questions answered, you can finally start writing! Some people choose to take some time to develop the answers to the defining questions, planning out their book in more detail before they write it. Others will write by the seat of their pants, making it up as they go along the “stream of consciousness” in their mind. When it comes right down to it, the method you use doesn’t matter, as long as you sit down and write!

It doesn’t matter how you plan your story, as long as you actually write it.

At this point, two enemies of the writer will usually emerge. The first is known as “doubt.” Sure, you’ll start writing your story, and things will be going great, but then you hit a snag. Your character isn’t acting the way you want them to. The setting feels wrong. It’s taking forever to get to the “good stuff” in your plot. Now that little voice starts creeping into your mind and whispers its little lies like, “You’re not good enough,” or “This writing is garbage,” or “Nobody will read this.” In those moments of vulnerability, you need to shout at those feelings of doubt and tell them to “GET OUT!” A first draft is never perfect, but you won’t have a first draft to polish into a great manuscript if you stop writing now. Similarly, our second enemy, the “internal editor” will come along and want to fix things as you’re writing them. This enemy is usually one the advanced writers deal with, but even inexperienced writers can see what’s not working in their writing. While I allow my internal editor to make a few changes to the immediate scene, if I ever let it go back and tweak an earlier part of the story, it stops the momentum of my writing. Editing comes later (and takes longer), so just focus on the writing.

The best way to become a writer is to write, but the best way to continue being a writer is to continue writing. Inertia is a real thing when it comes to writing. A story at rest will remain at rest until an outside force is applied. Similarly, a story in motion will continue in motion. If you have momentum in your writing, it’s easy to keep writing. For me, the struggle has always been finding a large enough chunk of time so that I can allow myself to get into the writing without having to stop it for some other responsibility. It takes a little bit to get warmed up sometimes, but once I’m in the zone, the words fly onto the page. Similarly, if you can develop a writing habit, it makes it easier to find the time for it because you’ve scheduled it into your life. Maybe you have an hour before work each day or a couple of minutes at lunch or a few hours after dinner. Whatever time works for you, if you can write on a daily basis, you’d be surprised how quickly the pages start adding up. Case in point: if you write 1,667 words (about three pages) every day for a month, you’ll have 50,000 words of the first draft of a novel!

Each little bit of writing adds up over time.

Finally, now that you’ve decided to write, and you have a story you want to explore, I would encourage you to find a community of writers to join. Writing can be a solitary endeavor, and I know many people (myself included) who use writing as a form of therapy. That being said, when you’re around other writers, you’ll have other people who can help you get through writer’s blocks, provide suggestions for improving your story, or even just listen to the great sentence you just finished. This is why I strongly encourage anyone who wants to write (especially if they want to write a novel) to participate in National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo). Every November (since 1999), writers from around the world sit down to write at least 50,000 words of the first draft of a novel. Not only is it a concrete goal, but it has a deadline as well: 30 days or bust. Now, not everyone who tries NaNoWriMo manages to reach that 50,000-word goal, but the fact that they commit to writing something helps them to become a writer. After all, you can’t become an author unless you finish writing a story, but you’ll never finish writing your story if you never start writing it.

If you want to add me as a NaNoWriMo writing buddy, just click on this “Participant” banner.

Dear Young Adult Fans

Calm down.

I know you sometimes take it personally when someone doesn’t like a book that you love, but that’s the beauty of life: people are allowed to have differing opinions. When it comes to the Young Adult (YA) genre, I recognize that it’s not written for me, as the demographics of the genre sway more toward women than men. By the same token, I know most women aren’t going to read the science fiction or fantasy books that men seem to enjoy (this has its own problems, which I’ll get to later). With the enormous influx of YA books hitting the marketplace after the success of the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series, there are plenty of books to choose from . . . and not all of them are well written. Regardless, I still occasionally pick up a YA book that seems to have an interesting premise in the hope that it’s the rare gem in the sea of mediocrity.

When I first started reading books via the Goodreads Giveaway system, I came across a book that had an interesting title and cover, but I could not for the life of me finish. When I wrote my review of this book, which did not include a starred rating (for obvious reasons), I was viciously attacked by fans of the author. They would post comments on my review that said things like, “Who the hell is this guy? Nobody has even read his books, so his opinion doesn’t matter,” and, “Nobody will listen to your opinion because you don’t like YA books anyway.” Some of these comments were quite hurtful, all because I posted an honest review of the work. I do realize many books are beloved by most, but when a book by a practically unknown author has over 20 reviews and all of them glowing, I can’t help to think that these “fans” are cyber-bullying the negative reviewers to remove their reviews just because they disagree with something they loved. The books I take more seriously are the ones that have at least a few negative reviews to round out some of the hype.

Everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, even if they don’t match yours.

Sure, I have some qualms with the YA genre, but I think I’m justified in my opinions. After all, most authors are trying to grab a piece of the success by marketing to an oversaturated market. If an author says their work is “YA,” suddenly they have a ton of readers who would read their book merely based on that single fact, let alone if it was well-written or not. Sure, I’m certain some authors truly believe in the genre and want to write in it because it’s comfortable to them and it’s what they commonly read. I see it more as a cash-grab.

This book seriously needed an editor.

With the barriers to entry for publishing a book considerably less than they used to be, there’s a lot of books out there that aren’t that great. I’ve struggled through many books that seriously needed an editor, let alone a good one. Consequently, all genres of fiction these days have a large number of subpar works that are just as readily available as the good ones. But, as I said above, the YA genre has considerably more books entering the market, thus making it seem that more YA books are poorly written when compared to other genres.

There are two reasons I primarily don’t like the YA genre. First, is the formulaic clichés used to define the genre. Sure, other genres have their clichés and trappings, like the almost constant misogyny (even in today’s books), expositions on racism, and “heroic male” archetypes of the science fiction and fantasy genres. As for YA, from the almost required love interest/triangle to a main character who has some extraordinary ability they can suddenly use flawlessly to the (also overdone) dystopian future setting, these tropes end up being unoriginal and derivative. I put most of my blame on The Hunger Games since it seems most of these YA books are clones to try and repeat that success. Look no further than the Divergent or Maze Runner series for a less-impactful narrative. When I do find a YA book I like, it’s usually because it still has some semblance of the structure of the genre, but explores it in new and compelling ways. However, more often than not, authors are just trying to write the “next” Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Ender’s Game.

Many YA books are reusing the same formula.

Secondly, because most authors are writing YA for an audience who is not, themselves comprised of young adults, a lot of objectionable content is flowing into this genre. Almost by definition, a young adult should be someone between the ages of 12 to 18. This would then imply that the target demographic should be the types of readers who can handle up to PG-13 movies without an adult guardian. With this rating scheme in mind, this should restrict the genre to the amount and type of profanity and violence, as well as enforce the absence of sexual situations. Instead, what I have found time and again is that authors are writing for adults in the guise of the YA genre because they know adults will buy the book because they are fans of the genre. Sure, I know teens these days encounter harsh swearing, violence, and sexual situations in their lives, but does that mean they have to be subjected to it in their media consumption as well? In fact, since these boundaries have been pushed so much, a new genre known as New Adult (NA) has been created to accommodate these more adult situations. When we forget the roots of the genre and its intended audience, it merely enforces my thoughts about writing YA as a way to cash in on the craze.

In conclusion, I merely want to remind all readers that they can like whatever books they want to like. If you adore YA books, then don’t let me stop you from reading them. Just, when you encounter someone who holds a different opinion of the books you like, maybe hear them out instead of browbeating them about how “stupid” their qualms with the book are. Perhaps you might develop a critical eye and be able to identify which books are truly noteworthy and which ones were written merely to get into your wallet. I am open for an even-tempered discussion on this topic, but only if you’re willing to listen to both sides.

Just please . . . calm down.

What to avoid when asking for reviews

For almost a year now, I’ve been writing reviews of books and posting my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. At first, I began doing this because I started signing up for giveaways on Goodreads. My plan was to read the books, review them, then use them as prizes for the participants of National Novel Writing Month in my region. When I realized it was also easy web content for my website, I dove wholeheartedly into these reviews. After all, I had been writing movie reviews for many years, so 300+ words on a book I just read shouldn’t be too difficult. What I did not expect was that soon people would be contacting me to review their books.

When I received my first request to review a book, I was flattered that someone had found my review on Amazon and decided that they liked my review enough to send me their book to review as well. However, I soon realized what I had gotten myself into when the frequency of these requests increased. What I did not realize when I began writing these reviews is that authors will essentially lurk around particular books and will send out request once they see someone has rated it favorably (or even at all, regardless if they liked it or not). For instance, since I reviewed Practical Applications for Multiverse Theory, a publisher who publishes books in a similar way approached me with the opportunity to review Esper Files. Because I reviewed Hard Road, another independent author sent me Lonesome Cowboy. Because I reviewed Ender’s Game, an author gave me Julia Dream to review. When they see that someone read a book and followed through with a review, they realize they have a good chance of receiving a review if they query the reviewer.

Reviews are key for authors to be seen.

As an author myself, I understand the importance and benefit of having reviews on Goodreads, but the reviews are much more important on Amazon. The more reviews a book has, whether or not they’re good reviews or not, the better chance it has of showing up in Amazon’s suggestion algorithm. Consequently, I’m seeing a lot of independent and self-published authors trying to game the system by spamming reviewers with requests to read their books. This is the trouble with this spamming approach: to reviewers, these requests are just . . . spam.

I’ve read a number of books because the author or publisher reached out to me.

Once I recognized what was happening, I decided to put in place some protections so I’d receive less of this spam. After all, I am committing my time, effort, and energy to review a book. I have plenty of other, authorly things I could be doing, so it has to be worth my while. Some reviewers are probably content with accepting every unsolicited request an author throws at them, but my time is much too valuable for that (especially when I can tell I won’t like the book from the title, cover, or synopsis). For me to review a book, an author has to do one of three things for me:

Send me a paperback version of the book as a donation to the Colorado Springs NaNoWriMo.
Review one of my novels on Amazon and Goodreads.
Review one of my in-progress works as a beta reader.

Unfortunately, while a few people took me up on Option #2, I have yet to receive any reviews out of them (probably because I gave them poor reviews on their books). Still, enough have opted for Option #1 to give me a sizeable number of books to give away this November (potentially earning them a second review from whoever wins it as a prize). What genuinely annoys me, though, is that I know people have to click through my Amazon profile to find my email to even send a request, which means they should have seen these conditions before sending me a request. I still receive requests that don’t include which condition they are willing to meet.

Just because you think your book is great, doesn’t mean it’s on the same level as a classic.

Another trend I started to notice amongst these review requests was that they would try to tie their book to a famous book I had given a rave review. Honestly, as a reviewer, these requests just make me roll my eyes at the ignorance of these authors. When I get a request like, “Hey, I saw you loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, then you’d probably like to read my comedy book,” I almost always ignore them. After all, I don’t know these authors from anyone, so there’s no way that their book will be nearly as good as the famous one that I sincerely enjoyed. In fact, I added a note to my Amazon profile that explained how an author comparing their book to a famous one will backfire on them:

NOTE: If you send an e-mail comparing the book to be reviewed with a book I have given a rave review (especially best sellers and well-known books), I WILL directly compare the requested book to the one you have drawn a comparison to. If you think your book is at least as good as, if not better than the comparative book, you might receive a good review. More often than not, your review score will be much lower because you compared it to a book I thought was incredibly exceptional and your book did not live up to that expectation.

The worst offender of these comparisons is Ender’s Game. Everyone thinks they’ve written the next Ender’s Game, and none of them even come close. The book was perfect the first time, so stop trying to imitate it. If you feel the need to compare your book to a famous one just to get someone to read it, you need to go back and write a more original idea, or at least work on your pitch so you don’t use the famous book as a crutch. If the comparison is needed, then at least describe what “twist” you’ve made to make it interesting.

A polished product is more likely to recieve a better review.

Finally, I have found it’s easy to separate out the neophyte authors from the more experienced ones. Not only can I tell via the cover art, but if the only edition of a book is on Kindle, then your inexperience is showing. Yes, I know putting together a paperback can be time-consuming, but it’s not that cost-prohibitive. The fact that it is so incredibly easy to “publish” a book on Kindle means that there are very few barriers for an author to enter into the marketplace. This also means there are a lot of books out there that aren’t that good. As a reviewer, I want to know how much of a stake you have in your writing. If it costs a little bit to send me a paperback copy of your book, then I know you’re serious about receiving my review. If you’re willing to just send me a Kindle or PDF file with your book, there’s no real impetus for me to review it since it’s free for you and merely takes up my time (which is why I provide Options #2 and #3 to even things out). Just know that giving someone a free copy of your book does not automatically entitle you to a five-star review. In fact, it’s best if the reviewer gives an honest and unbiased review, so it doesn’t look like you’re gaming the system.

So, what does this mean to you, the author who wants your book reviewed? What can you do to maximize your potential reviews? My advice comes in three points:

Before sending out a review request, check to see if the reviewer has any requirements. If you don’t indicate how you’re meeting their conditions, you’re probably not going to hear from them. Respect their time and what they’re doing for you by reviewing your book.
Don’t send out “form letters.” There have been many requests I have rejected outright because the name in the “Dear ____” section wasn’t even mine. Some personalization goes a long way. Just make sure you are sending your request to someone who reads the same genre as your book, as that will also be an automatic rejection (often without a reply).
Don’t compare. Like I said above, I will accept review requests from unknown authors more often than not. As an “unknown” author myself, I understand the struggle of marketing and distribution. That being said, your work should be original and interesting by itself. The moment you make that comparison, you’ve doomed your review.

If you’re an author or publisher who is interested in having your book reviewed by me, you can send me an e-mail at info@benjamin-m-weilert.com. I will review your book and post a review on Goodreads, Amazon, and my website www.benjamin-m-weilert.com.

How Not Tetris explains my planning process

I’m a planner. Ever since I wrote my first novel in 2010, I’ve usually had many different story ideas tucked away in their own Word documents. Each time a new idea comes to me that would apply to one of these stories, I open up the document and jot it down so I won’t forget about it. Even though I plan my writing projects out years in advance, there are usually plenty of ideas I never use in the finished manuscript. Either the flow of the story prevents their use, or I find they aren’t as strong as I initially thought they were. While I’m not nearly as fastidious about collecting ideas together before starting a project as I used to be (First Name Basis had 35 pages of notes), I do continue to plan and research well ahead of when I finally sit down and write the first draft.

There are plenty of ideas I never use.
My Tetris fell over . . .

Recently, I’ve re-discovered a free computer game that I used to play years ago. This game is Not Tetris. Strangely addicting in its simplicity, Not Tetris takes the well-known construct of the classic puzzle game, Tetris, and adds realistic physics. No longer can you merely press a button and have the piece under your control rotate a stiff 90° to its new position. No longer do pieces simply stay where you put them when you add a new piece. No longer is Tetris a simple puzzle game. But, then again, this is Not Tetris.

Part of what makes this game so addicting is both the amount of and lack of control the player now has over the outcome of a round. A carefully placed piece may be off by a few pixels and doesn’t fall in the place the player intended. A loose piece that might prevent further clearing of lines may be smacked back into place via the momentum of a falling piece. A small mistake may completely ruin minutes-worth of hard work, or it may lead to a series of cascading line clears later in the game. When it comes right down to it, the amount of skill needed to play this game adds to its intensity. If you require an example of how mind-bogglingly challenging this game can be, check out this record-setting video below:

So, with this game in mind, why do I say that it’s similar to my planning process for a writing project? For the sake of metaphor, let’s say each piece in Not Tetris is a piece of information. If the pieces fit together, they create a cohesive element of the story (i.e. character, setting, plot, etc.) and the whole set of information allows the story to flow smoothly. If the pieces fill up the game space (or “story” in this metaphor), then the game ends because there are too many disjointed ideas to make a coherent story.

To prepare for a story, I gather my pieces of information and start the game of piecing them together. Early on in the process, the pieces will fit comfortably together because they’re the main ideas of the story. Sometimes I need to nudge certain details about a character or setting so that they can fit together with another aspect of the story. One of the most exhilarating moments of writing a story comes when you have a cluster of pieces that don’t fit that well together, but then the addition of one piece of information suddenly ties them all together and creates a cascading effect that can make a mediocre story great. Often, these moments come when I’m writing, and I realize I could add in a piece of information I referenced early in the story to connect everything together. It’s these moments that encourage me to keep writing.

Connecting everything together makes writing rewarding.

In a sense, Not Tetris also applies to a good plot as well. When the plot begins, the main character usually has their life together. As things start to go awry, mistakes and conflicts begin to materialize almost out of nowhere. And yet, the character persists, and eventually can “defeat” their problems with a well-placed item, skill, talent, or piece of information, thus showing their growth as a character and overcoming their situation in the process. Sometimes the “game” doesn’t end there, and you end up with a trilogy or series that follows the same ebb and flow of disappearing lines, each book representing the character’s growth and conflicts.

Of course, I’m merely writing about Not Tetris so I have an excuse to play it and procrastinate. I should get back to editing those novel manuscripts . . . but one more round won’t hurt.

What it takes to do it all

There are days I see the benefits of going with the traditional publishing route. When you are signed on with a publisher, they provide some of the hard work it takes to make a manuscript into a polished and publishable product. From editors to formatters to cover artists to distribution, these publishers have the resources to help an author be successful. But what about the self-published author? One of the common misconceptions about being an author (especially a self-published one) is that we only have to write. In reality, a self-published author needs to perform the entirety of the publishing process by themselves. Now, you may be asking yourself, “OK, you have to do it all, but what does that even mean?” Let’s start at the beginning of the process, and I’ll walk you through it.

If you want to self-publish, you have many jobs to do.

Many of the most famous authors have a research department (or person). These are the people who dig up facts and do “reality checks” to make sure a manuscript is not only accurate but realistic. A self-published author needs to do all that legwork themselves. Granted, the internet has made this task somewhat easier, and the “planning / outlining” phase of the process usually involves a good amount of research, but the end of the matter is that the self-published author has the burden of this investigation upon their shoulders.

When it comes to the actual writing of the manuscript, the self-published author usually has less stress because of one major difference: there is no deadline. Of course, this also has another effect: with no time limit, there’s no impetus to finish the manuscript. How many people do you know have started writing the “great American novel” only to fizzle out in a few weeks or months? Because a publishing house needs to have a regular schedule of released material, they impose deadlines on their writers so the rest of the process these authors don’t do can happen and the publishers can continue to remain relevant. The self-published author needs to be just as prolific as the traditionally-published authors, if not more so. The moment you don’t have any new content, you start to lose relevance, also losing potential repeat customers in the process.

One of the largest cruxes in self-publishing is the editing phase. While the publishing house will have a style guide and editors to conform their authors’ manuscripts to this standard, the self-published author is largely on their own. I spend probably the majority of my time editing my writing, mostly because I’ve become such a fast writer that I need the extra time polishing the manuscript to make sure there aren’t the typical proofreading errors that would cause a reader to stop reading my work. While a self-published author needs to be a good editor of their work, I would highly suggest hiring an editor. This facet of the writing process is one of the best-justified expenses for the self-published author. The money you spend will be worth it in the long run.

Of course, having a well-written and well-edited manuscript means nothing when your formatting is poor. Again, the publishing houses will have styles and standards that help keep their products looking sharp and professional. I’ve found simple things like using justify align, indenting the first line of a paragraph, and having a readable font are often missed by self-published authors and thus make their work seem amateur and unprofessional. If you need inspiration on how to correctly format the interior of your book, pick up one of your favorites from a famous, traditionally-published author and flip through it, taking care to see how each page appears. If you can format your book to look that way as well, you’re well on your way to having a professional-looking book on your hands.

As I’ve mentioned in my vlog, Writer Rant, most people will judge a book by its cover. And while I’ve used cover creators for my first three books, I’ve since increased my skill set to include cover design as well. This part of the process is another case, as it was with the editor, where hiring a cover artist can dramatically improve your book. The more your book can stand out and convey which genre it’s in and what it’s about, the better it is likely to do concerning sales. Also, remember to keep it simple. Too much on the cover can turn potential readers away as well.

The two biggest things the publishing houses give an author are distribution and marketing. These are the two toughest elements of the writing process for a self-published author. While I would encourage getting your book into as many formats as possible (i.e. paperback, e-book, hardcover, and audiobook), each one of them can take extra time depending on how well an author knows how to massage their work into the various formats. The more formats out there for a particular work, the more chances it’ll be bought by someone who exclusively uses a single format to read books. Depending on how you choose to self-publish, a lot of distribution channels are open to you, except for mainstream bookstores. Publishing houses still have that edge, but the self-published author still has the vast resource of the internet to distribute their work electronically.

While some of the marketing of a traditionally-published author falls on their shoulders, it wholly falls on the shoulders of the self-published author. From social media presence to regular web content (like this blog post), often these marketing efforts take away from the time normally spent writing or editing. Finding the balance between marketing and writing is a challenge, especially for the self-published author who wants to be “discovered.” The world of words is so oversaturated right now that it has become difficult to differentiate yourself amongst the horde of other authors putting out works of their own. Authors who have found their marketing identity and brand tend to be more successful, so make sure you have a marketing focus.

It takes A LOT of work to self-publish.

As you can see, it takes A LOT of work to be a self-published author. There are some ways to help with this burden, including “hiring” friends and family to help with the editing, formatting, and marketing. If you know a self-published author and want to help them out, I doubt they would turn you away. Just realize that, if you ask them why their books are so expensive, you now know how much goes into publishing their book (and how many jobs they need to perform to do it). Let’s not forget to mention the fact that they still only get a fraction of the sale price (due to the distribution channels they choose). The authors who try and do this for a living certainly have my respect, as I couldn’t cut it right now.

Finally, know that not all self-published authors will perform all of these steps to the best of their ability. Perhaps they’re excellent at research, but not so good at writing or editing. Or maybe they’re good at writing, but not marketing or distribution. The truly successful self-published author is a master of everything. Unfortunately, these self-published authors are somewhat rare. Because the ease of access into having a published work is now so easy (and virtually free), there is a lot of garbage that floods the system. If you find a self-published author you like and who presents a professional product, let them know it by leaving reviews of their books on Goodreads and Amazon. Sometimes these kind words from a stranger are what makes this whole process worth it.

How traveling improves your writing

With the invention of the internet and the ease of access to an endless supply of research materials, practically every aspect of the writing process can occur on a home computer. We all know the cliché of the writer who holes themselves up in their house and spends days upon days in a disheveled state writing their book. While I always encourage writers to get out of their house and write somewhere else once in a while (especially when they have writer’s block), many successful writers have found what works for them, and it often involves a routine centered on making themselves the most productive they can be. Depending on their home situation, they could very well spend most of their time writing from the comfort of their favorite desk or table.

Unfortunately, a limitation of spending so much of the writing process indoors is that some of the best research needs to happen in the field. One of the best ways I’ve found to increase the realism of the settings in my writing is to go out and experience them. For instance, I roughly knew how long it took to climb a mountain when I included a similar scenario in my first novel, First Name Basis. Similarly, I felt comfortable using San Francisco for a setting in my “Ironed Man” short story because I had visited there many times and was familiar with the layout and the geography of the city.

To better understand a setting, you should visit it!

As part of my research for the upcoming “Slumberealm” trilogy I plan to write in a few years, I decided to take advantage of a vacation to New York City (the setting of the novels) to obtain a better understanding of what the main characters might experience in their day-to-day lives. While this wasn’t the primary purpose of my trip, I did learn many valuable realities of the area. I learned that the public transit system (mainly the subway) is an incredibly useful tool for getting around the city and its different boroughs. I learned that it can be tiring to walk distances that I normally wouldn’t give much thought to, mostly because they’re on city streets and not mountain trails. I learned how small the apartments in New York City can be and how challenging it is to find a good grocery store nearby in certain areas. All of these experiences helped me to not only get into my characters’ heads but also to create memories I can pull from in my writing.

Can you truly appreciate the Eiffel Tower without actually visiting it?

It has often been said, “Write what you know,” and I can’t think of any better way to “know” a place than to travel there. This being said, I know many writers might not have the financial ability to go to some of the cities they want to use in their writing. In fact, there are some settings I probably can’t visit until I retire from my day job, mostly because some countries aren’t considered “friendly” to America in general. In these situations, the best advice I can give is to pick up a travel guide. You can either buy them from the bookstore or borrow them from the library, but they are an incredible resource that can almost transport you there. Sure, the internet is also a useful resource, but these travel books have a lot of the information you’d find on a lot of different sites collected into a single, easily readable format.

Even if you can’t travel there, read up on the location.

“But-” I hear you cry, “I don’t write in genres set in the real world. I write fantasy or science fiction.” I still hold that getting out of the house and experiencing our world will help you add realism to your settings. Let’s take The Lord of the Rings as an example: there is a lot of hiking and walking in this trilogy, over a wide variety of terrains. If you want to create a fantasy world set in a less-industrialized era, get out in the great outdoors and experience it for yourself! Go on hikes in lots of different climates, spend some time in a rainstorm in the woods, or climb a mountain to learn how it feels. If your setting is more science-fiction based, you should spend some time in cities. Think about how future technology would make them different (for better or for worse). At any rate, to make your writing more realistic, you have to go out and experience reality!

Where have you gone before that you can use as a setting in your writing? Where do you want to go to bring realism to your settings? Don’t let the writing process bog you down, get out there and do some research in the field!

Why exoplanets aren’t as reachable as you think

One of the tenets of science fiction is that of inter-planetary travel. The dream of boarding a spacecraft and launching out to the far reaches of the universe is an exciting idea, but the reality of this happening anytime soon is slim to none. Despite NASA’s Kepler mission identifying almost 3,000 exoplanets in its mere three years of research, there are limitations to reaching any of these newly-discovered planets. Through some research I’ve done for my science fiction novel, Frozen Planet, four boundaries are keeping us from traveling to the thousands of planets in the known universe:

Habitable Zone
Distance
Gravity Slings
Escape Velocity

The first problem with many of these planets is that they aren’t the right distance from their respective star for us. Too close and we’d burn up, too far and we’d freeze to death. The zone right in the middle is known as the “Goldilocks Zone” for being just right to sustain life. Fortunately, because the research that discovered these planets also provides an idea of their distance from their stars, this is an easy enough problem to solve. Unfortunately, of the 3,000+ exoplanets we know about, only about a dozen of them are potentially habitable.

We’ve discovered many exoplanets in just the last few years! (Source: Wikipedia)

So, of these twelve exoplanets, only one of them is less than ten light years away from us. This fact highlights the second boundary: distance. Even if an exoplanet has ideal conditions, if it’s over 1,000 light years away, we’re probably never going to get there in any of our lifetimes. Our current technology doesn’t allow us to go that fast. Sure, we can go fast enough to get satellite probes out to the planets in our solar system, but most of them are terribly inefficient. If we were able to implement nuclear options, or even “out of the box” ideas like mass drivers on the moon and other solar system locations, we might be able to get closer to the speeds we’d need to travel these long distances.

As it just so happens, we do have a technique for increasing our speed in space: gravity slings. Launched in the 1970’s, the Voyager spacecraft took advantage of the “Grand Tour,” which was an ideal alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune that used their enormous masses to accelerate the spacecraft to much higher velocities. Unfortunately, this is also a limitation, as this alignment only occurs once every 175 years. Our next “Grand Tour” possibility will be in the 2150’s. That being said, even with three of the four planets used for a gravity sling, we could potentially use the alignment by 2035. By then, we might even have an idea of where “Planet 9” is hiding and be able to use it to boost any spacecraft to even faster velocities.

Conditions need to be just right to leave our solar system.

While gravity slings are ideal for essentially getting “free momentum,” there is still another problem with them (aside from the aforementioned alignment timing). It’s easy to use gravity slings when you’re traveling in the same plane since any failed or sub-optimal maneuvers can be readjusted to hit the next planet. If you try to accomplish this outside of the plane of the planets, the accuracy for each maneuver needs to be incredibly high. These out-of-plane maneuvers have much lower odds of an optimal alignment, but they can be done if needed. Consequently, our best shot of leaving our solar system via gravity slings would be on the ecliptic plane.

If there are any exoplanets on the ecliptic plane which are close enough to travel to and are in the habitable zone of their star, we still have one enormous boundary to reach them: escape velocity. We’ve done pretty well at escaping the Earth’s gravity, but that’s because we “only” need to accelerate up to just over 11 km/s. The Voyager probes are traveling at 17 km/s, partly because they were assisted by the gravity slings mentioned above. This speed isn’t even close enough to escape our solar system! Despite these probes traveling faster than almost anything man has ever made, they are not going fast enough to escape the gravity of our sun. To escape our solar system, we need to be going over 42 km/s! Furthermore, once we get outside our solar system, we’d need to be going over 500 km/s to escape the Milky Way! Gravity is a harsh mistress, and right now she’s not only limiting interstellar travel to our solar system, but to our galaxy as well.

Even the Voyager spacecraft will never leave the sun’s gravity!

These last two boundaries have mainly constrained our reachable exoplanet to the intersection of the ecliptic plane and the Milky Way. If we were to find a close-by exoplanet, our best bet of reaching it would be if it were in the constellation of Sagittarius. Now, if we somehow manage to invent relativistic spaceships that can travel close to the speed of light, a few of these boundaries can be broken. Unfortunately, the distance boundary would mean we could travel the 1,000+ light years to get somewhere, but only with the understanding that we’d never be able to communicate with Earth ever again (after all, transmissions can only go at light speed as well).

I don’t mean to make people depressed by pointing out these limitations, but I do want people to know that the discovery of an exoplanet, especially a potentially habitable one, does not mean that we can visit it. While it’s nice to see that we can discover these distant worlds, we need to understand that physics limits us to what we can explore. That being said, I’d love to be proven wrong!