Traction

I've had surgery, which means I've been laid up on my easy chair and only able to type with my left hand again. Therefore, writing isn't nearly as time efficient as it was before, so I've been doing other things, namely reading. It had been a few months since I read, but I just knocked out literary poet Sylvia Plath's novel "The Bell Jar" followed by Earnest Cline's NYT bestselling "Ready Player One."

It's a departure from what I've been reading this year, which has been mostly local authors. I've been making it a point to read and review as many of them as I can for the karma. It is my hope that, if I review all these books, when I publish my own full novel they will feel obligated to review mine. Yeah, that's a compromise from my original high minded ideals. All things being equal, I wouldn't want anyone to read a book unless they good and felt like it, but there's a problem with that for the new author. The market is absolutely choked with books, and it has never been enough to simply write a brilliant one. It has to be noticed.

Take "Pawn" as an example. It's a pretty great book. Everyone I have convinced to read and later been able to inquire has agreed; they were pleasantly surprised. However, they would never have read without my fanatic campaigning. It's a self published first novel from a local author. You wouldn't know to type her name in the Amazon search engine, because you've never heard of her. The title is a nice fit for the story inside, but it's so common it shows up on the third page of an Amazon book search. Be honest, you never look past page one, because there are plenty of other books with the word "pawn" in the title, with a lot more favorable reviews. Speaking of which, over a year after its release this one only has eleven, which means it has incredibly little chance of showing up in the "recommended for you" or "customers also bought" columns. The only reason I read it was because the author is in my critique group, and I read the first couple pages of the first draft of the second book in the series, "Royals." I couldn't have read it before, because I didn't even know it existed. It struggles for traction.

I liked "Pawn" so much, I wrote a supplemental short story for the series, with the author's blessing of course. It has an equally common title. It's published under her account so I don't have direct access to the data, but last I checked it had eight (mostly free) downloads, two reviews (one was my mom), and generated just a couple new downloads and one review for the actual novel (also my mom). Does this mean I suck? That we suck? That the only people who can tolerate our crapburger stories and novels are people who know us and are invested in a personal relationship? Well, maybe. But I posit that it is because nobody has a reason to pick our stuff up in the first place. See, I wouldn't have given "The Bell Jar" a second glance if I hadn't heard Sylvia Plath mentioned seven or eight times in the course of my education, and had the opening line,

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenburgs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York,"

quoted by multiple sources as one of the best opening lines in literature, ever. I enjoyed "The Bell Jar." Four point five stars, would read again. I only read "Ready Player One" because it's an NYT bestseller, and a friend loaned it to me. Five stars, immersive experience, reinvigorated my passion for writing and my awe for what can be accomplished with the written word. Wouldn't have read either of them if I just stumbled over them in the marketplace which, in the case of "Pawn" and "Fool's Game," would be unlikely since hard copies of the former appear only in one book store, and digital copies of both appear only in the backwaters of the turbid Amazon.

I am of the opinion that "Pawn" would be a bestseller if it came from a well established brand, so let's test that theory. If you have enjoyed soft sci-fi action before, give it a shot. If it isn't as good as "Divergent" or "The Maze Runner," or any of those other touted titles, denounce it. For the low price of $3.99 and a few hours, your faith in the system can be reaffirmed and you will be justified in sneering at any title not offered by a major publishing house. If you enjoy it, though, and want the next installment, please, please leave a review. It's not fanmail, and it's not redundant. Reviews mean traction, and if there aren't at least fifty, there aren't enough.