Book club members advice - Robot VS Android

[Dennis]

We just got some feedback from our beta readers, as usual, it was constructive and insightful. Thanks beta readers.

I have two questions and I’m hoping for some comments from the Goodreads book club members.

The book is futuristic, there are humanlike house helpers and then there are the “mechs” who definitely don’t look human, they can be spiderlike or snakelike, etc. A beta read thinks we should call them all androids, we are calling them all robots.

1 – Would it be confusing to you, the reader if we called some robots (the mechs) and some androids (the humanlike)?

2 – Is the term android as popular/recognizable a term as robot for the general reader?

The book is the Neuromorphs [http://dennismeredith.com/the-neuromo...] and please note I do not add the link for promotion, just if you need/want more information.

Regards,

Joni
Joanne Meredith
editor@glyphus.com

[R.L.]

Oh yes most tv shows and movies refer to the humanoids as androids so I think people will have no issue if you decided to change it.

[Erin]

Robots and androids are quite different. If I read that a robot grabbed the bad guy by the wrist and flipped him I will be confused. If an android does it then it makes sense.

[Carole]

Androids doing things feels a lot more ominous than a robot. Robots come off robotic. I think Eric hit the nail on the head.

"please note I do not add the link for promotion, just if you need/want more information"

I think it's great you added your links and I want to encourage everybody to do that. We don't see it as promotion, but sharing. How else are we supposed to learn from each other. And, if someone sees your site and decides to buy a book, than that's a great thing.

[C.L.]

The root "andr" in "android" is greek for man, so "android" means a man-droid. They are man-like by definition. So a non-humanlike robot cannot be an android. Your reader is wrong.

"Android" generally brings to mind Data from Next Gen - a robotic human.

I would avoid robot altogether - you have androids and mechs.

[Dennis]

Carole etal,

Thanks so much for your comments and support. This is what everyone said. I belong to a lot of Goodreads Book Clubs and they have been a wonderful source for beta readers.

Carol FYI: Do you know about
https://www.amarketingexpert.com/

We used Penny Sansevieri for our book The Cerulean's Secret http://dennismeredith.com/the-cerulea... for promotion early on when we were just getting in indie publishing. She has a great resource https://www.amarketingexpert.com/52-w...

She was costly, and of course, you are never sure if paid promotion is worth it as it is impossible to tell. But I thought of the expense as tuition in 'Publishing 101.' I just thought if you did not know about her company you might want to give her website a look. You can never have too many resources. Her blog is great.

Regards,
Joni
editor@glyphus.com

[Erica]

I personally feel the term Android has become more popular recently. Especially with the recent surge in superhero movies and tv shows. I visualize an android as a human like robotic being with a more complex character than a robot.

[Dennis]

Erica,

Thanks for your comments. I think we may change the manuscript as the story involved three types of "creatures"

-- Humanlike ones that we can call "androids"

-- Human-shaped, plastic-clad Helpers that we can call "mechs."

--Then, there are spiderlike military Defenders. Perhaps they should be called "robots".

[Dennis]

C.L. wrote: "The root "andr" in "android" is greek for man, so "android" means a man-droid. They are man-like by definition. So a non-humanlike robot cannot be an android. Your reader is wrong.

"Android" gene..."
C.L.,

Thanks for that information.

The story involved three types of "creatures"

-- Humanlike ones that we can call "androids"

-- Human-shaped, plastic-clad Helpers that we can call "mechs."

--Then, there are spiderlike military Defenders. Should they be called "robots"?