Let’s talk about reviews.

Make no mistake - this is the Big Ask. This is more important than you pre-ordering the book in the first place. This is what separates a nifty thing I made for all of you from a CULTURAL JUGGERNAUT. This is what takes the signal from AM to FM. This is what gets me closer to the dream. This is what gets you closer to owning a highly-prized First Edition Asteroid Made of Dragons instead of owning a Dusty Paperback Your Friend Wrote One Time.

When you receive your copy (soon!) and you turn the last page of the story proper - before the Acknowledgements, before the Author Info, before anything - I’ve added in an Author’s Plea. It’s a bald-faced request for a review. That is how important it is. More powerful than marketing, more potent than cover design, more influential than scores of social media posts - an honest review is what makes people read new books.

Sidebar: an honest review. What do I mean by that? I mean don’t just run  and give me all 5 stars to help out.  It will not hurt my feelings if you think AMOD is a 4 star book, or a 3 star, or a...2 star....or.....a.......1.........(faints)

Where am I? Who took my pants and replaced them with no pants? An honest review is what I want and what new readers need. I have personally read and loved books BECAUSE of bad reviews. The thing one person hated about a book - lo and behold was exactly why I knew I would LOVE the book. An honest reaction to a book - warts and all - is invaluable, because it cannot be bought. It cannot be manufactured in a Marketing Department. I almost always read a couple of reviews or articles before I try out a book that is an unknown quantity - most readers are the same.

Here’s a review I just wrote for The Life Engineered by JF Dubeau. I think a lot of you know that we’re bunkmates on the Sword & Laser shelf, and if you like great worldbuilding and robots this book was written just for you. I really liked it  - but I had some cranky quibbles, and I was honest about them here. As far as I know, JF has not launched any Capek assassins in my direction - fingers crossed. This is the type of review I love to get. Feedback, validation, criticism - what you liked, what you didn’t. I’m still growing as a writer and I benefit immensely from this kind of data.

One last thing: I need 100 reviews on Amazon. 

That’s the magic number, the tipping point if you will for that site’s algorithms to take more notice of the book. Amazon is the 500 lb. gorilla for better or worse and for the book to succeed, that’s the platform the book needs to be visible on. If 1 out of 4 of my followers here on Inkshares leaves a review - we’ll hit the magic number.  Actual written reviews are better, but even just taking the time to leave a star rating is all that is needed. 

Okay - I’ve yammered about this enough FOR TODAY. It’s just over six weeks until the official launch of AMOD, so I’ll be bringing this UP again. Give me some feedback here - does this make you feel weird and imposed upon? What other sort of topics can I regale you with?

As always - thank you so much for your support and attention. Crazy to think we’re coming up on the year anniversary of the Sword & Laser Contest that started this all in motion.

Only a week left for pre-orders. If you have any interest in preordering (and getting a Felicia Day headshot, which she’s extending to all hardbacks ordered before 2/22) definitely do it now. Onto my next writing column:

SCREENWRITING TIP #3: Plot (1)

Some describe the plot of a screenplay as the spine of your story. Some say it is a series of red dots, each red dot being an important emotional or/and expositional step in the story being told. And then there is the old architectural standby, the plot is the support beams, the super structure upon which rests your story and characters.  Whatever you call it, what you are trying to lay out is the inevitable order of your story.  Not one scene too many, not one scene missing.

I think the best screenplays are the ones told with the minimum number of scenes, each one a truly BIG scene, not a string of little moments but a series of monumental scenes with as much depth of character and plot as you can muster, full of conflict.  Also with as little shoe leather and transition scenes, as possible.

You also want the audience, the reader or the moviegoer to become a participant in the story telling.  The human mind is always trying to make order and sense out of everything around us.  We look at the stars and without the proper science, make a mythology to explain what we see up in the night skies.  We explain the illogical untimely deaths of beloved men and women with conspiracy theories. So a good writer takes advantage of this predilection by leaving out parts of the story, the pieces that are obvious, and making the audience fill in those bits, forcing them to become a participant in the storytelling itself. Making them invest in the tale.

The hazard is that you can leave out too many bits and confuse your audience – and lose them.  Once they pull out of a movie and turn to the person next to them and ask, “What’s going on?” you have lost them. The suspension of disbelief you’ve worked so hard to achieve is gone and you have to start all over again.  Difficult enough the first time, even harder the second. So abbreviate carefully.

Also, be careful that you don’t beat the audience up with one big action or emotional scene after another.  A scene can be important, BIG, but still be quiet.  There is a natural rise and fall in good drama where the valleys are as important as the mountains.  As in music, the silent rests are as important as the notes. A grace note here and there can give the audience some respite and also set them up for the next tense scene. 

More about plot in the next update.

Hi everyone, I’m doing a reddit AMA right now if you’re interested, talking about PARALLELS and THE LOST ROOM and, of course, CHAMPIONS OF THE THIRD PLANET:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/462ywz/i_am_christopher_leone_writerdirector_of/

30 days left and 62 pre-orders. Am I downhearted? Nope. 
188 to reach Quill, but with the possibility of an extension, this is do-able.
My thanks in particular to Thomas J. Arnold for the review and recommendation. Wow. That bolstered my ego no end. Thanks also to everyone who has pre-ordered, and especially those who have shared on social media.

Yesterday I co-presented a book themed radio show on my local station. I was joined by published author Simon Dawson and we had a blast. 
I read the weather in a variety of literary styles as suggested by Simon and we interviewed each other about our books. Not that anyone ordered the book as a result, but it was fun. I promoted Inkshares as well.

I have paid Facebook to put my posts in front of avid readers and lovers of historical fantasy although $15 later I have had three click-throughs and two followers. I’ll have another crack at that though as it may yet bear fruit. My Facebook author page is https://www.facebook.com/ollitooley/

I am also giving £1 (that’s $1.45) to Cancer Research for every pre-order between 02/08 and 02/29 £12 ($8) so far, but I hope to be paying out three figures on March 1st. This is regardless of whether I hit my funding goal or not, so don’t be afraid to order now. 

My Twitter account just for me as an author was set up in January, and now has over a thousand followers. I didn’t pay for any of them. Tweet me @OTooleyAuthor 

There are a few lovely but technologically inept friends who want a paperback copy but don’t want to pay $15 for postage. Some have no online presence (my mum) or are having technophobe issues. For those people I will be using a friend’s account to buy up to 10 copies. This will be genuine demand, so I am not "gaming the system" hope that’s ok.

On the subject of pre-order exchanges.  There are numerous books that I have a sincere interest in reading but were I to buy all of them with my credit card, I would very rapidly go bankrupt. I’m sure many other authors feel the same way so if you are not pre-ordering my book for a genuine lack of funds you can always ask me if I am having the same problem with your book.  

Hew-mons!

I’ve begun self-editing, for over 4 weeks now. Things have not progressed as fast as I expected, and that’s partly due to my cramming in reading a self-editing book (to/from work), Anne Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, Matthew Sobin’s The Last Machine in the Solar System, work and spending my time with my soon-to-be-walking 1 year old! No surprises that the last two taking up most of the time :^)

So, just chugging along... oh, there’s 19 days of funding left, so please do help me get a few more pre-orders if you can.

Yeah, that’s it... take care folks.

LLAP \V/,

Hello readers!

Friends,

I had certainly intended to spend this weekend writing; however, this is the time in my life when it appears I was meant to break my laptop. I’m not sure how long it will take; it’s a minor screen issue, but I’m unable to get any files off until it’s fixed. I took to writing on a different computer while I wait.

This means two things: Firstly, I don’t have access to any of my old notes, nor the beginning I’d written for Chapter 3. Therefore, I’ve attacked these new notes with a fresh perspective, challenging myself to remember my characters and discover more about them along the way. I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve made. 

Secondly, I needed specific notes and my original document to continue Chapter 3. Without them, I won’t be able to connect the puzzle pieces in the right way. As such, I won’t be releasing Chapter 3 until I’m sure I have what I need to do it right. I will, however, be working on details for future chapters, and may even start writing 4 or 5. I’m not one to release things out of order (unless of course anyone would be interested in skipping to more of the action-centric stuff), but I will definitely try to post my progress every couple days.

Until next time!

—Jason C.