I can see that, though a lot of the badly-written supernatural young adult novels that inexplicably pop up on Amazon for me despite my not reading those seem to get priced around 2.99.
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- Thread starter Tinwhistler
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Weird that Amazon's now selling the book for 9.32, but rather than that being the current price (indicating you did it), the 12.95 is slashed out. I hope they're not gutting your profits on their sale.
I just finished it ten minutes ago, and I'm gonna let my thoughts sink in before I write an Amazon review. That'll be shorter, but I wanted to get my full thoughts down here.
I also have to thank you for reminding me what a brisk read is. I read Cherie Priest's Dreadnought at the pace I do for work, proofing for 40 hours a week, and I think I ruined it for myself. I only realized what I was doing as I started reading this book, and decided I wasn't going to let it happen again. I'll have to take the same approach when I read Priest's Ganymede so I don't end up disliking that one too.
Let's do cons first, because I like to get negative out of the way. I think another read-through would be beneficial to the book in terms of punctuation and formatting of dialogue quotes. Fortunately, that stuff's easy to edit (as opposed to revising words). I had some issues with the pacing, but I can't really complain because I couldn't think of what else you could've done. It reminded me of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, my favorite movie, in that way--I can bitch all day about how they go from being captured, to being caught, to being captured... but hell if I know how else it should be done, because the story's fine as it is.
And that's a decent segue into the positives. On the one hand, I can say "Man, they sat around talking about magic for a long time," but then, that was probably where I was most eager to keep reading. I'm glad the Amazon description removed the note about the "magic system," because that sounded too much like video game speak to me. What I found really interesting were the explanations. No one of them was a big deal, but brought together, the magic angle was fascinating, and how each method could play off others. That's what's often missing from fantasy characters--creativity. The author is usually plenty creative, but you don't usually get to see that from the characters themselves, and I really enjoyed seeing Randall figure things out and think up approaches that the adults just wouldn't, even if those sometimes made his place worse.
On Randall, he's a teenager. You wrote a realistic teenager, with all the highs and lows that brings. He can be as endearing as he is frustrating. Randall's a normal, believable kid. He does the kind of dumb crap that my younger brother used to, struggling with something, and then making an ass of himself when he finally figures it out. Just when you want to congratulate him, you then wanna wring his neck.
As for the story, again, I had issues with the pacing, but I liked it overall. I honestly expected things to turn out differently after the first 100 pages, and maybe they would have had other things not intruded on the situation. There was a point where the whole book really synergized for me. I look forward to these in character-centric novels, where I feel completely locked-in. They only last a few pages for most books I read, but there was a good 20 pages or so here that were my favorite:
I could've read a section of that twice as long, though I'm sure other readers would've been annoyed.
I noticed someone on Amazon noted the ending being rushed. It was fast, but I disagree about it being rushed. I think it would've felt very cliche and tired if what that reviewer had probably wanted out of it would've happened:
What went on was far more personal, which is more appropriate for a book, especially one so centered on its protagonist.
Final thoughts: You wrote a good book, Tin, which is more than many people who write them can say. I've got a shit-ton of fairy tales, but they're really just short stories put together in a single cover, and I have manuscripts sitting with me, but I can't call them good books, because they need polish, revision, more revision, more polish. Aside from the punctuation quibbles, this is well-written, smooth prose that I can tell you paid great attention to. That's so damn important to a book, and so often it's ignored in favor of purple prose hack-job Stephanie Meyers-wannabe trash. I could go on a long rant on that, so I won't, but that's another thing I wanted to touch on. I've really wanted to give self-published books a chance, but most of the fantasy ones I see want to be rip-offs of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Twilight (lots and lots of fucking Twilight rip-offs). Why self-publish if you're going to write the same derivative stuff that the publishers already pump out by the dozen each year? I admit that at first I thought this was going to be in the Harry Potter category, and then it showed it wasn't, and then it REALLY wasn't. Maybe others will disagree, but in my opinion yours was definitely the right way to go (and I say that as someone who likes Harry Potter) and was more satisfying for it.
I just finished it ten minutes ago, and I'm gonna let my thoughts sink in before I write an Amazon review. That'll be shorter, but I wanted to get my full thoughts down here.
I also have to thank you for reminding me what a brisk read is. I read Cherie Priest's Dreadnought at the pace I do for work, proofing for 40 hours a week, and I think I ruined it for myself. I only realized what I was doing as I started reading this book, and decided I wasn't going to let it happen again. I'll have to take the same approach when I read Priest's Ganymede so I don't end up disliking that one too.
Let's do cons first, because I like to get negative out of the way. I think another read-through would be beneficial to the book in terms of punctuation and formatting of dialogue quotes. Fortunately, that stuff's easy to edit (as opposed to revising words). I had some issues with the pacing, but I can't really complain because I couldn't think of what else you could've done. It reminded me of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, my favorite movie, in that way--I can bitch all day about how they go from being captured, to being caught, to being captured... but hell if I know how else it should be done, because the story's fine as it is.
And that's a decent segue into the positives. On the one hand, I can say "Man, they sat around talking about magic for a long time," but then, that was probably where I was most eager to keep reading. I'm glad the Amazon description removed the note about the "magic system," because that sounded too much like video game speak to me. What I found really interesting were the explanations. No one of them was a big deal, but brought together, the magic angle was fascinating, and how each method could play off others. That's what's often missing from fantasy characters--creativity. The author is usually plenty creative, but you don't usually get to see that from the characters themselves, and I really enjoyed seeing Randall figure things out and think up approaches that the adults just wouldn't, even if those sometimes made his place worse.
On Randall, he's a teenager. You wrote a realistic teenager, with all the highs and lows that brings. He can be as endearing as he is frustrating. Randall's a normal, believable kid. He does the kind of dumb crap that my younger brother used to, struggling with something, and then making an ass of himself when he finally figures it out. Just when you want to congratulate him, you then wanna wring his neck.
As for the story, again, I had issues with the pacing, but I liked it overall. I honestly expected things to turn out differently after the first 100 pages, and maybe they would have had other things not intruded on the situation. There was a point where the whole book really synergized for me. I look forward to these in character-centric novels, where I feel completely locked-in. They only last a few pages for most books I read, but there was a good 20 pages or so here that were my favorite:
From when Randall knocks Brody off the wagon, through all the events up to where he makes his choice.
I noticed someone on Amazon noted the ending being rushed. It was fast, but I disagree about it being rushed. I think it would've felt very cliche and tired if what that reviewer had probably wanted out of it would've happened:
He likely wanted to see the book going through the events in the capital, with Randall on the front line. Probably wanted the two Mage armies to stand in a line across from each other, staring, and then suddenly charge screaming at each other like they probably masturbate to in every single fantasy movie for the last ten years. Bleh.
I loved what Randall did to Aidan, by the way. I knew he was making a rune, but I couldn't figure out what the hell he was trying to accomplish until it happened.
Final thoughts: You wrote a good book, Tin, which is more than many people who write them can say. I've got a shit-ton of fairy tales, but they're really just short stories put together in a single cover, and I have manuscripts sitting with me, but I can't call them good books, because they need polish, revision, more revision, more polish. Aside from the punctuation quibbles, this is well-written, smooth prose that I can tell you paid great attention to. That's so damn important to a book, and so often it's ignored in favor of purple prose hack-job Stephanie Meyers-wannabe trash. I could go on a long rant on that, so I won't, but that's another thing I wanted to touch on. I've really wanted to give self-published books a chance, but most of the fantasy ones I see want to be rip-offs of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Twilight (lots and lots of fucking Twilight rip-offs). Why self-publish if you're going to write the same derivative stuff that the publishers already pump out by the dozen each year? I admit that at first I thought this was going to be in the Harry Potter category, and then it showed it wasn't, and then it REALLY wasn't. Maybe others will disagree, but in my opinion yours was definitely the right way to go (and I say that as someone who likes Harry Potter) and was more satisfying for it.
This ever goes paperback or hard cover and it'll be in my next Amazon.ca purchase.
Just bought the 5th book of Games of Thrones yesterday, was a few dollars short of free shipping, so I bought the woman a 5$ book to make the purchase over 25$.
Needless to say, it could have been your book Tin, it could have been a sale.
I could have judged your work.
You would have been proud.
Why no paperback?
Why?
Just bought the 5th book of Games of Thrones yesterday, was a few dollars short of free shipping, so I bought the woman a 5$ book to make the purchase over 25$.
Needless to say, it could have been your book Tin, it could have been a sale.
I could have judged your work.
You would have been proud.
Why no paperback?
Why?
A Touch of Magic, paperback, Amazon.ca
See, they got this thing called a searchbar...
Looking more closely, I see that it has to be paid for using Canadian dollars, which as we all know isn't a real currency. I understand your plight now, Jay.
Posted Amazon review.
I feel like it's gonna be a while before mine shows up on B&N. I also decided to forgo iBook and Nook stuff and went with Amazon's promotional thing. The results of that will determine whether I go with it again for volume 2 in a few months or try your route with the other eBook applications.
I feel like it's gonna be a while before mine shows up on B&N. I also decided to forgo iBook and Nook stuff and went with Amazon's promotional thing. The results of that will determine whether I go with it again for volume 2 in a few months or try your route with the other eBook applications.
Yeah, that's mine
. I used to write a lot of reviews back in college. I'm still proud of my review of Stephen King's It being the top one on the book's page since that's one of my favorite novels.I did not know that; I was actually puzzled over the free promotion aspect. That will be useful, I hope. I'll let you know how it turns out and whether it helps boost actual sales after a while.
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