My brother and I have finished writing our science fiction book and have sent it to friends to read and critique. The strange thing is the wide range of feedback. There are some who only read through the book because they're our friend (they came out and stated as much). There are others who couldn't put the book down and lost sleep because they were trying to read as much of it as quickly as possible. The group that doesn't like it appears to not read much science fiction. Amongst the group that likes it, they are all avid science fiction readers. The group that doesn't like it says that it's hard to follow. The group that loves it didn't have that criticism at all. One person who loves it said that if he had paid money for it in a bookstore he wouldn't have been disappointed at all. So, one group raves about the book, the other didn't like it and only read it out of friendship. The group that likes it also seems to be our target audience. We're going to do more editing based on feedback, of course, but it sounds like we did well with our book. Now if only we can convince a publisher of that. It's just interesting how much the feedback varies depending on the audience. For example, I read The Host by Stephanie Meyer, and didn't like it at all, but my wife loved it.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Not likely. I helped write a science fiction book. For the most part, you don't get rich writing science fiction. David Drake, a best selling science fiction author, made $30,000 in one year off his best selling book. Of course, he writes a book or two a year, plus getting royalties from sales of books he wrote a long time ago. I don't think he's in the poor house. But you don't often see pictures of science fiction authors in new Lamborghinis. Also, even though it looks like we have a good book, there's still the huge obstacle of getting it published. And that's not a small obstacle, especially considering that the book is, shall we say, politically incorrect? The bad guys are rabid environmentalists, for instance.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I seem to remember that Mirk was interested, and now it sounds like you're interested. At first we sent it out to people we knew well so we could evaluate feedback in those terms. For instance, even though my brother's best friend gave it rave reviews, we know that he didn't do that because of friendship. He's a "tell it like it is, even if it hurts" kind of guy. All I really know about you is what I read in your posts. Still, it's something to consider. I'm just hesitant about the "sending it to people on the internet" thing. Definitely something to consider, though.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
