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Pleasing the Many…or Else!
I’ve been monitoring the reviews coming in on my books pretty heavily lately. Well, by heavily I mean I check sometime in the morning every day – if I remember. So maybe not so heavily, but the fact that I’ve been keeping an eye on reviews is a chance for me. The question is why? After all, there’s virtually nothing I can do about them except in rare exceptions.
Amazon has a good system in that it prevents authors from having any impact on the general public’s opinion of a product. As a consumer, I approve of that. But as a provider of content / products, it can be frustrating. I have a few reviews that are irrelevant. A friend of mine has one review that is intentionally spiteful and borderline libelous against her and her family. Yet we can’t do anything about them. On the other hand, I had one reader who copied and pasted the same review and applied it to multiple books, even indicating he hadn’t read all of the books in the review. I did get Amazon to remove those reviews.
So the answer is to write books that everybody likes. Or buy reviews. I’m not in the habit of buying, so that leaves me with needing to write books that are likely to be well received. Since I’ve been monitoring incoming reviews lately, I seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.
But having said that, I was still momentarily stunned the other day when I saw a 1 star review come in for The Lost Girls. I read the brief review and felt a flash of irritation. It said something to the fact that, “I downloaded the book and found it had strong homosexual subplots. I deleted it immediately.”
I have to ask, why was this person so stunned by it? The book is included in a category with the word, “Lesbian” in it. It’s not erotica, but the main character is a hardcore man-hating lesbian. She mellows over time but she’s got a lot of issues she has to work through. And yes, she likes girls. There’s nothing misleading about it, so why did this person feel the need to light a torch and post a 1 star review?
After the brief moment of annoyance passed (it was surprisingly brief, I think that means I’m growing up finally), I let it go. Everybody has a right to their opinion. Unfortunate for me that my book was hit with it, but the review clearly indicated the readers problem and explains that they didn’t read the book. Aside from dragging the ranking down ever so slightly, it does nothing to discourage people who are interested in that type of book from reading it. Clearly it was a case of not being able to please everybody.
Likewise, I’ve received a couple of reviews on this book that I believe were written by men asserting that I had no idea how to write a female character. Conversely, I’ve had more reviews from women that applauded my depiction of the female characters and said I touched them very much because it brought back memories and emotions they’ve dealt with themselves. To the women out there that felt that way – contacted me, I thank you very much! To the men who claim I’d make a terrible female lead – Pthbththtbtbbbt!
Um, hang on. I’m not saying I want to be a female lead. I – aw, crap, you get the idea.
I reasoned a long time ago that I wouldn’t want everybody to like my books. If they did, there’d be no controversy and no reason for people to buy them. Looking back, I don’t fault that line of thinking but I think I’d rather have universally liked books. Then everybody would still by them because they like them. Maybe they wouldn’t generate as much passionate conversation, but I’d be okay with that. Conversation doesn’t put food on the table or electricity in the power lines, after all.
The other unfortunate part is that I can’t write generic crap that everybody is guaranteed to like. My characters are quirky and troubled. They’re often super-heroes in disguise – but I feel that way about every one of us, real or imagined. We’re all the main characters of our own story and we all do amazing things at time, even if we’re the only one around to see it. And we all have faults that we’d like to overcome – or that others wished we would overcome.
I’m disappointed that this person did not read The Lost Girls. I have a suspicion that if they had they might have found that the main character’s sexual orientation didn’t really matter. It’s a story about stopping cruelty and her own path to find acceptance and forgiveness. Those are topics that should be near and dear to all of us. As with just about everything I write the genre and the action is just a backdrop to a more important story, the story of a character (or characters) growing and healing.
So yes, I think my books could please the many, but they won’t. We have too many ideals and morals that prevent us from looking beyond the surface. There are great stories out there, whether they belong to me or somebody, but they require a person to suspend their disbelief and allow themselves to honestly ask the question, “What if?” That’s why I love science fiction and fantasy, they challenge me to be open minded and to wonder at just what possibilities are out there.
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to learn about him, his books, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.
The Lost Girls Meet a Black Widow
Thanks to a timely turn-around by my content editor (Lisa Shalek), I’m happy to say that Black Widow is out a couple of days before I expected. Black Widow being the fourth book in my Lost Girls series. It brings together everything from the first three books as well as a tying up some loose ends presented in Voices and Bound. All in all, it’s got quite a story arc and I’m very pleased with how things turned out. I suggest checking it out if you enjoy strong female leads, a touch of urban fantasy, and crime & mystery thrillers.
For Katalina Wimple the memories of a lifetime of struggle can disappear in a moment of bliss. They can also come crashing back in when she’s confined in a cold, dark tomb at the mercy of the knife of a new kind of killer.
Katy’s new case puts in unfamiliar territory. This time it’s a man who’s been hurt. A man from her past that she once admired. To solve this case Katy has to find peace with her past and find a killer with more reason to hate than even she has.
Black Widow on Barnes and Noble (coming soon)
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to learn about him, his books, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.
Fire Hydrants Beware!
March 1st is the official launch date of Wolfgirl, my latest book in my Lost Girls series (follow The Lost Girls and Traitor). This makes it a trilogy, but don’t worry, I have no plans on stopping at only three books. I’ve already thrown some virtual ink on virtual paper for the next book in the Lost Girls series, Black Widow. I won’t begin serious writing on it until later this year though. If you just can’t wait there is a novella set in my Dark Earth setting called Voices that actually takes place slightly after Wolfgirl ends and includes a rather important cameo appearance of the main characters.
I’m also running a special promotion on the 1st and 2nd of March that has The Lost Girls, book one of the series, free on Amazon.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, first let me give you a teaser of Wolfgirl:
The world of Dark Earth is the latest vacation thrill for the wealthy. When an all inclusive vacation to see how wild the west really was goes wrong the CEO of a biotech company’s family is attacked by natives and one of their number held for ransom.
Lieutenant Katalina Wimple is the perfect woman for the case. Not only does she have the experience, the skills, and the friends with the right talents, but it turns out she has a distant relationship to the kidnapped victim. In order to do the job she has to put personal tragedy aside and return to the world she hates in the hopes of not only rescuing her estranged family, but finding the acceptance that’s missing in her own life.
Wolfgirl takes Katalina back to Dark Earth, a place she’s grown to despise. As if Dark Earth wasn’t bad enough she’s also got to spend some time in New Vegas, the wicked step-sister to our own Las Vegas. The difference? Minimal technology and even fewer human rights. For a cop who often becomes a monster so she can fight monsters she might find she’s bitten off more than she can chew this time around.
Wolfgirl is available all over the place, find a link below if you’re interested and don’t forget to tell a friend and / or write a review!
Wolfgirl, book 3 in the Lost Girls series, by Jason Halstead
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to learn about him, his books, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.
Writing Outside of the Box
I had somebody ask me a while back on this very blog if it was suicide for a writer to write in more than one genre. My feelings are that it should be quite the opposite, and here’s why.
I’m a science fiction writer, but my second most successful series is a fantasy series called Voidhawk. Granted, Voidhawk is a space fantasy, but I assure you there is little to no science to be found in it. I’ve also dabbled in a few other genres, including romance. Only once so far, but it was a fun experience and I may very well revisit it in the future. So with that said I clearly have no qualms about jumping genres. In fact many of my titles cross genres. I’m reckless like that. I’ve been known to let my veggies cross the line on my plate to mingle with my steak as well.
I believe in a story, whether its mine or not. The story, if it’s good, determines how enjoyable a read it is, not the genre or length. So you’ve got astronauts landing on a derelict space ship, neat. They stumble into a locked vault that hasn’t been opened in centuries? Cool. Their are giants entombed in the hold with the bodies of horses? Rock on! They just woke up and sank their fangs into the human astronauts, sucking out their blood and turning them into vampires? Um…sure, why not?
My stories aren’t quite that exotic. If I could find a way to make it work I wouldn’t be opposed to giving it a shot. I do have a series that starts with urban fantasy and jumps heavily into paranormal (Dark Earth). From there it continues to blend in science fiction and more paranormal (The Lost Girls, Voices), and also introduce a heavy dose of mystery / hard boiled detective (The Lost Girls, upcoming release of Traitor).
Readers are smart people. They know what they like and when they find it, they’ll read it. In most cases they’re not going to view a writer who strayed from their chosen genre as a traitor. In fact, it’s far more likely that they’re probably going to be more likely to step out of their own comfort zone and try something out of the ordinary because of it. I have a few readers who have told me that they’ve strayed into unfamiliar waters because they liked my writing style. The end result was them being excited at being introduced to a new genre.
Now if you’ve got a genre where you’re consistently nailing best sellers with each release it might be prudent to stick with it. Otherwise expand your horizons and branch out. Try something new, you’ll grow from it and more than likely grow your reader pool, rather than decrease it!
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to learn about him, his books, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.
