Five Books, Five Lessons

I purposely read a bad book.

I’m not going to tell you the title or the author. I won’t give bad press to another author intentionally. The book looked neat. It had a great tagline. I wanted to support the author.

Once I started reading it, though, it was clear this was not going to be good.

So why’d I finish it?

Simply put: To learn. What made this a bad book, and how could I avoid writing my own books that way?

In fact, over the last couple weeks, I’ve finished a number of books and been disappointed with… more than one. So I’m going to do a few quick reviews and share some of what I learned.

• Children’s fantasy adventure from a major publisher
  • DNF
  • Incredible prose and likable characters. Inventive world!
  • In the first fifty pages, nothing happens. It’s all, “This is what the world is like for these characters.” I didn’t bother reading past it. It wasn’t even a cozy book; there were definite adventures later on!
  • What I learned: Get moving with that adventure. Yes, the reader needs to know how things are at the start, but we don’t need to linger there.
• Adult indie fantasy
  • Finished!
  • Advertised as a western fantasy; I didn’t get many (if any) western tropes, other than the setting was in a desert
  • Prophecy introduced literally five pages from the end that solved the major conflict. I think the author wanted to seed it earlier and intended to, but it just didn’t connect.
  • What I learned: Get someone else to read the manuscript before you publish. This is the kind of mistake I would make, because the entire story is in my head. I value my editor even more now.
• Children’s classic mythology
  • Finished!
  • The cover looked like action anime. It was a book from 1901 that had received a new cover. The interior did not match the exterior.
  • The book itself was fine, but because it was not what I expected, it took me longer to get into it.
  • What I learned: Your cover needs to convey what the book really is. I think we’ve done well with that with our covers, but it’s a really good reminder!
• Classic science fiction novel
  • Finished!
  • Sometimes, a classic is a classic for a reason. Though written in a very different style (from the 1800’s), I was held fast the entire way.
  • That being said, sometimes there’s a reason some styles fall out of fashion. There was a lot of falling action, ending with a fairly pessimistic ending.
  • What I learned: I really need to read more classics.
• Classic American fiction novel
  • Finished!
  • And sometimes a classic is a classic because it keeps getting taught in high schools. The story was fine, but it could have been half the length and lost none of the style nor plot.
  • What I learned: I need not be florid.

Do you ever line up the books you’ve read and consider what you can learn from them? If you’re a writer, it may well be worth your time!

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Oh, and in case you missed it: I’ll be running a Kickstarter starting May 1!

Mr. Frankie always wanted to be a substitute teacher. After the last incident with the accidental blob, though, no school will hire him! 

And that’s when he sees an ad: “Wanted: Substitute Dragon.” 

Being a substitute dragon shouldn’t be harder than being a substitute teacher… right? 

You can click here to be notified when the campaign launches! It helps an author out a lot to have that button clicked, so please do so to find out when Mr. Frankie, Substitute Dragon begins!