My apologies for all the postings....

Folks: I apologize for dumping all these reviews and blurbs for The Mars Imperative and The Tesserene Imperative on you all at once.

Typically, I post them to a number of discussion groups and websites as they come in, maybe once every couple of weeks or so. I'd posted all the positive reviews elsewhere, but for some reason, I'd forgotten to do that here on Gather. Then yesterday I received my first negative review. No big deal, it's bound to happen eventually. But when I saw it posted here, I realized that I hadn't posted most of the positive reviews.

I didn't want to lose a bunch of potential readers because of one negative review in a vacuum, so I decided to post some of the positive ones as a counterpoint. I limited myself to only three new reviews (and a blurb for both of my books), so as not to completely overwhelm the groups here, but I realize that some people might be offended, or think this is a "drive-by spamming", so I wanted to apologize for any annoyance it might have caused and to assure you that this won't be a regular event. In the future, I expect only the occasional review post, or other book-related news, not a large batch at once.

Mark.

Comments: 9

Joella B. Oct 1, 2007, 1:37pm EDT

Thanks for the explanation I wondered a little bit...

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Peter D. Oct 2, 2007, 12:15pm EDT

It's easy for a well known author to "absorb" the occasional bad review. But unknown authors have a high barrier to climb, especially it they are not under the marketing wing of a major publisher. Only if readers give new authors a chance will they be rewarded with a greater diversity of voices in the already impoverished genre of SF...

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Mark C. Oct 2, 2007, 2:58pm EDT

Thanks, Peter! There's the thought that for a new author, any publicity is good publicity, and that's true to an extent. It's possible that some people won't read past the heading of the review and might have a vague memory of my name months from now, but nothing more. That's a plus. They might also read the review but forget it almost immediately, and again only vaguely remember my name. But there's the chance they'll also have a vague memory of something bad associated with my name, or perhaps they were even about to buy my book when they read the review.

I don't begrudge the reviewer her opinion. That's life. We don't all like the same books. But the great majority of reviews so far have been favorable (all but hers, actually), and she seems to be disseminating her review more than all the others combined, so it may have the greatest impact of them all, simply because of wider distribution. I think that's unfortunate.

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Bill's Spirit Oct 4, 2007, 3:44pm EDT

Thanks for the apology, but I wouldn't sweat it. Gather is blasted daily with postings of all kinds crud by folks who just want to earn points.

A least yours have a message and a point.

The books sound good. I plan on picking up a copy of the first chronicle as soon as I can.

Thanks, and best of luck.

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Mark C. Oct 4, 2007, 5:26pm EDT

Thanks, Bill. What's the point of "earning points"? Is there any concrete benefit to them, or is it simply vanity. (I've seen that manifest itself on other sites, where people obsessed over getting "recs" (recommendations) that mean nothing.)

Mark.

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Bill's Spirit Oct 4, 2007, 6:20pm EDT

Mark - Yup, there is real value in GatherPoints(TM). They can be cashed in for a variety of gift certificates that Gather offers through assorted partnerships with various businesses; such as Borders and Home Depot.

A fair number of members are all about earning points. Some members (like myself) use them to purchase things I would otherwise struggle to afford; like stuff for my crafting hobbies and my reading addictions. Other members donate their earnings to charities; Home Depot cards to Habitat For Humanity, and Borders gift cards to libraries (one of the charity donations which I have made with my GatherPoints).

The only drawback is that points accrue slowly and are only available to Gather members that live in the U.S. If someone collects more than $600 worth of gift certificates in a calendar year they (supposedly) get a 1099 from Gather.

If you would like more in depth information, you can go to your "My Gather" page and click on the points that appear under your name. That should take you to the explanation page and the list of available points offers.

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Mark C. Oct 7, 2007, 12:20am EDT

Thanks for the explanation, Bill. I'd noticed the points, but no explanation of what they were for. I'll take a look at that page.

Now it's back to scanning the galley proofs for The Tesserene Imperative (the follow-on to The Mars Imperative) for any glitches that slipped through editing. With luck, the ebook will be posted to the publisher's site tomorrow, and offered through Fictionwise.com sometime next week. Then it'll be a few weeks before the printed books are ready to be offered on Amazon. Busy, busy....

Take care.

Mark.

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Bill's Spirit Oct 8, 2007, 1:08pm EDT

Mark C. - Best of luck with the new book.

It sure sounds like a lot of work; and all worth it, I'm sure.

I will post a review of "The Mars Imperative" as soon as I've read it.

Peace -

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Mark C. Oct 10, 2007, 11:23pm EDT

Thanks, Bill. Yes, writing/editing a novel takes a lot of time and effort. Then there's the effort involved in promoting the book (posting to discussion groups, blogging, creating/maintaining a website, arranging book signings and other personal appearances and interviews, etc.). Now if I only had time to write....

Mark.

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My apologies for all the postings....

Comments: 9

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