Space Opera Fans discussion

Self Promotion Warning- Feel free to ignore.

I recently received the following review on Amazon.com:

. . . The author's style harkens back to E. E. Doc Smith not in scope, but in Smith's innocent prose. There are some humorous scenes and lines. I gave it three stars for the humor, and the low stress story-line (that I was currently in the mood to read).

I think I have to assume that my book is probably a Space Opera. I hadn't really thought of that, but it is somewhat galactic in scope (four different races, three alien, multiple planets). This is my lowest rated review, and yet in my mind it is one of the best.
So, if you are interested in a Space Opera which apparently harkens back to E. E. Smith, you might read the first four or so chapters on Amazon.com

The Toad King: A Soldier's Story
Some Adult themes, but relatively mild in nature.

NO IT IS NOT!

Its military sf!

Basically your hero is making some military units. Story is about some military organizations, and your hero is just a part of it.

(Now that I have enlighten you, I want free copy of your book in return :P )

Przemek wrote: "NO IT IS NOT!

Its military sf!

Basically your hero is making some military units. Story is about some military organizations, and your hero is just a part of it.

(Now that I have enlighten you, ..."

I am now trapped between two genres and doomed to failure. However, there are many battles to be won and lost.
And for your audacity Przemek, send me a private email and I will figure out how to gift you a copy.

Simplest distinction between the two I have (so far) seen focus on characters acting on their own, or acting inside of military organization. Of course there can not be space opera without "space" affecting plot of book somehow, and msf can be about something different (like alternative history). But when they both contain "space" as significant factor, you check if characters are part of military organizations or individuals.

I hope your book did not rendered this classification irrelevant...
(cause I've maid it myself ;) )

Anyway now I've become your fan (just because of your avatar :P ).

Przemek wrote: "Simplest distinction between the two I have (so far) seen focus on characters acting on their own, or acting inside of military organization. Of course there can not be space opera without "space"..."
The distinction in this novel is a bit blurred as to whether he is inside or outside the "organization."

The avatar is a photo that was taken by my Grandfather during World War I. I am slowly scanning them all.

If you are interested, I have the book up on a Kindle giveaway at Amazon.com. I am going to run it until it hits 500 or midnight tonight!

http://www.amazon.com/Toad-King-Soldi...

Thx for info!

I was thinking and thinking and thinking about how to crack genre of your book.

It's hard :D

Only thing that keep me thinking about it as Military SF is fact that it was not his private venture but he was rather forced into it (even if "it" was mere "space mining/weather control industry" renamed into military).

He is responsible for military force of space nation (as pacifist as you can get...).

There's no reason it can't be both. Star Wars was space opera, and they were always blowing something up in a military sense. It's like saying a sci fi story can't also be a good detective read.

To me, Military Sci Fi mainly focuses on how to blow things up IN THE FUTURE, and Space Opera plays fast and loose with the science so that we can have a swashbuckling tale IN SPAAAAACE. There is a little room for overlap of those circles.

FYI, how did that 500 book giveaway go? Was it worth it?

The book giveaway was a bit of a bust. I picked up a few sales, but it was only for that month. Word of mouth seems to be working much better. I have doubled my sales in each of the last two months and it looks like I might just double it this month too.
I think if I were to run another promotion, I would just reduce the price to 99cents for a week. 99 cent books seem to have a big following. I track another book that has similarities to mine as a benchmark and that author has had some success at 99 cent sales. But I would have to fall much farther in sales to do that.




Shuvom wrote: "There's no reason it can't be both. Star Wars was space opera, and they were always blowing something up in a military sense. It's like saying a sci fi story can't also be a good detective read. ..."

Hey Everyone:
Interesting thread. I'll have to read those chapters and see what I think it is.Your debate has piqued my interest.
Have a Great Day!!!
The "Creature"

I just squeaked into the top #100 for Kindle Space Opera.


#99 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

I probably won't be there long. :)

Ward,

Good job! Yeah, those rankings will drive you crazy- I know my book bounces between #100,000 and #200,00 on the Kindle store every few days, just based on a few sales. That's the unfun side of the asymptote!

Thanks for the info on the giveaway- the Libbo folks are buzzing my book in some circles, but now I know to stay away from mass giveaways!

And your premise looks good, I'm going to check Toad King out!

Word of mouth seems to be working much better. I have doubled my sales in each of the last two months and it looks like I might just double it this month too.

I, too, believe that word of mouth is going to be the best method of promotion. In fact, the last three books I ordered on my Nook were due to someone I know recommending them to me. The first one was off-the-cuff a month or two ago, and since I enjoyed that one, I picked up the other two (just yesterday, in fact) off another of his recommendations.

I think if I were to run another promotion, I would just reduce the price to 99cents for a week. 99 cent books seem to have a big following.

It's been my experience that 99-cent deals can work well for promotion, but if they're done, it's best of they can be set at that price for several months. If you turn it off and on (to 99 cents, and back to regular price) in the course of a month or a week, very few new folks will even notice.

It's very much a chicken-and-egg situation, because the only time that people perk up that quickly about a price drop is if you're well-known, but the entire point of dropping the price is to get your book into the hands of more people (i.e., to become well-known).

T. M. wrote: "Word of mouth seems to be working much better. I have doubled my sales in each of the last two months and it looks like I might just double it this month too.

I, too, believe that word of mouth is..."

T. M. thanks for the insight. I think I am just going to let things go and see where it leads. When I get my sequel done, I will probably drop my first book to 99 cents for a month or two.

I think there is a limit to where micro/self published book can reach just because of the competition from the big guys. So at some point all of our marketing has diminishing returns.

Not just because of competition from the big guys, but the sheer number of other titles available (because of the ease of anyone with a book being able to publish it themselves) makes it hard to get noticed.

Well I haven't read your book, but I know military sci fi tends to be very realistic. If your novel is more light hearted and less into the realistic science that could really happen then I'd classify it as a space opera.

Luminoustyto wrote: "Well I haven't read your book, but I know military sci fi tends to be very realistic. If your novel is more light hearted and less into the realistic science that could really happen then I'd class..."
Thanks for your comment. I tried to keep the science somewhat based on known facts. I certainly had ideas of how the weapons and other fun toys in the book would have been designed (the engineer in me just wouldn't let it be anything else). However, my sense of humor did become intertwined with the science along with a somewhat cynical view of the world.

Shuvom wrote: "There's no reason it can't be both. Star Wars was space opera, and they were always blowing something up in a military sense. It's like saying a sci fi story can't also be a good detective read. ..."

The Honor Harrington series, for one, is usually classified as both a space opera and military Sci-Fi...and you can't get much more technical than those. But it still remains a character driven story, thus the overlap.

I am doing a 99 cent sale on Amazon. I just pushed the button so it may take an hour or so to "take." I will probably run the price through the weekend.

www.thetoadking.com

Just thought I would drop in the latest review off of Amazon-

"An excellent story, well told.
I very much enjoy exactly this type of tale...an average man, a common soldier, taken by advanced aliens and asked to do the impossible. From there it goes quite a bit differently than i would have written it, but that's the kind of thing i like about books...you can make up your own tales but you can't really surprise yourself like another author's imagination can.
Today i finished this book and searched for another...sadly, this is the only title i've found by this author. I certainly hope he's busy writing...
Absolutely worth every penny, buy it, read it, you will not be disappointed...until it ends!"