Well, Okay, it’s a review on Amazon.com. But it’s the first time anyone has written a review of my book since Oxford University Press accepted it 'way back in the Pleistocene era.It’s the first review I’ve heard since then by somebody who didn’t know me. And it’s a good one!
I’ve been dying here because the book came out last summer, and I haven’t had a speck of feedback until now. (I haven’t been waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop. I’ve been waiting for the first one.)
Neat! :). I don’t know what it is like in the US but certainly in children’s literature in NZ and Australia there are increasingly few reviewing publications. On the plus side this means you never have to read a crap review but on the debit side you don’t get the feedback either. And writing in a vaccuum sucks.
Did Oxford send out review copies? Have you asked the editors if they have any reviews? Sometimes I’ve found that they have a nice little collection from the clippings agnecy which they kinda forgot to forward. They’re a tad discombobulated with royalties too.
They did indeed send out review copies. I personally sent out copies, too. After I didn’t get an reviews I bugged a few of the placs that shoud have gotten copies to see if they really DID get copies. One of them finally responded. They did, but it didn’t look like they would do a review. I was beginning to wonder if anyone who wasn’t a relative had read the book.
BTW, Primaflora - what sorts of things do you write? Anything besides children’s lit? Any books we get here in the States?
This week’s Washington Post Magazine published a piece on the perils of being a “midlist author”, that is, anyone who’s good enough to be published, but not in the ranks of the superstars whose names are on the bestseller lists.
It’s not cheery reading; it sounds like an author at your level, Cal, is pretty much on his own, in terms of hoping to generate any intelligible promotion of his/her book.
Know of any MBs or listservs dedicated to ancient history? My wife subscribes to a listserv of mystery fans, and a whole bunch of midlist mystery authors are active participants. I’m sure that helps the word-of-mouth for them.
I thought the review was very flattering. I’m going to have to see if my library can get hold of a copy.
In my opinion, it is impossible to be too much of a polymath. Trust me, if I had any money at all, I’d help you out. Over the summer, I checked at the Harvard Coop, and they had a couple copies there, and I leafed through. Certainly seems like the sort of style I would enjoy. And to judge by your Teemings submissions, it’s sure to be well-written and thoroughly researched.
Actually, while we’re on that tangent, I remember learning about those ingenious bombs in various aeronautics classes. I was mildly dissappointed that you never got into a real discussion of the magnus effect (which causes lift on a spinning cylinder much like on an airplane wing, and was used in the Fletnor Rotor to propel a boat). I guess I can understand not going off an that tangent, though.
Thanks for the kind words. The Coop had copies because I went around and asked them to stock it. I’ve done that with any bookstore likely to carry it in my area, but I can’t hit too large an area that way. I feel pretty sure that Stephen King doesn’t have to do this. (Whoever at OUP is responsible for hitting the Barnes and Nobles has done agood job, BTW. I’ve gone into a few of their stores and already found copies on the shelves.)
As for the Magnus effect – yeah, that would’ve been a digression too many. Especially when the point of the Teemings article was the surprising possible anti-science theme in Star Wars. But digressions are like salyed peanuts – it’s hard to resist just one more.
Congrats—isn’t it wonderful getting feedback? Though a bad review will be branded on your heart forever (I can still recite mine from memory).
Being a midlist author is indeed hard work—I love the research and the writing, but selling and promoting your book (and keeping on your publisher’s butt to make sure they’re doing their job) is exhausting. I will be starting my own Web site, which should help. As Andy Warhol said, “in the future, everyone will have his own Web site for fifteen minutes.”
I just read a bio of Thos. Chatterton, the British poet who had the good sense to kill himself at the age of 17. In a 1770 letter to his sister, he wrote, “No author can be poor who understands the art of booksellers. Without this necessary knowledge, the greatest genius may starve; and, with it, the greatest dunce live in splendor.” Well—the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Congratulations! I’m glad you posted this, because it reminded me that I want to read your book. I still have the bookmark I saved from way back in June when your book came out.
Bookstores might carry your book if you ask. I asked at one and they said, “Well, we don’t carry small press…”. When I told them it as Oxford University ress they changed their minds. It makes me glad that I didn’t go with Crazy Ed’s All-Nite Pizza and Vanity Press. The Harvard Coop balked, too, until I told them that I’d given a lecture on the topic at Harvard. So it doesn’t hurt to ask, but it helps if you have an “in”.
A week ago I get my first review on amazon, and now I learn another one has gone in. Not only that, but I have two “real” reviews. One is in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, February 2001 (see http://www.shpltd.co.uk/jhacont21.html ). The other is on-line at Green Man (www.greenmanreview.com/medusa.html ).
Over six months of silence, then suddenly people seem to notice. I don’t understand.
A week ago I get my first review on amazon, and now I learn another one has gone in. Not only that, but I have two “real” reviews. One is in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, February 2001 (see http://www.shpltd.co.uk/jhacont21.html ). The other is on-line at Green Man (www.greenmanreview.com/medusa.html ).
Over six months of silence, then suddenly people seem to notice. I don’t understand.
By the way, I notice that on the “people who have bought this also bought…” listing on my Amazon page is listed – Eve’s latest book! It has to be an SDMB reader, as we have no other connection.