Comments/Feedback on SciFi prolog

[majalak]

http://www.geocities.com/jeanboyle2/Prolog.HTML

Above link points to the prolog from a SciFi/Medical thriller. It also contains links to a synopsis of the book and some of the science behind it.

 

[ray gower]

Sorry it has taken so long, Michael, but I managed to miss this post!

I have to say both the Prolog and Synopsis are tense reading, if you don't gather some readers for that, then there is no justice.

Would be interesting to see if you could keep it up through the 'rebirth' of humanity, if indeed it does, without hitting Aldis like pontification. Though the Amazon list shows it is less than 300 pages.

I'm not really up to the science, but could a virus tie itself to the free nitrogen in the air?

I know the rabies virus, which you linked your disease to, is quite small as viruses go, but it is still large in comparison to a Nitrogen molecule

 

[majalak]

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply, Ray. I'll do my best to address your comments.

Would be interesting to see if you could keep it up through the 'rebirth' of humanity, if indeed it does, without hitting Aldis like pontification. Though the Amazon list shows it is less than 300 pages.
The books published by PublishAmerica are not the same size as most of those you find in bookstores. The word count in my book is just over 118,000. I've been told that the average number of words per page in typical paperbacks is about 250. If this is correct, my book would run to about 470 pages in a standard size book.

I'm not really up to the science, but could a virus tie itself to the free nitrogen in the air?
See below.

I know the rabies virus, which you linked your disease to, is quite small as viruses go, but it is still large in comparison to a Nitrogen molecule.
The pathogen in the story has four long cilia-like appendages. These appendages have thousands of valence holes which are perfectly matched to the free valence electrons in the outermost electron shell of nitrogen atoms. The organism isn't trying to tie itself to nitrogen, the two just fit together whenever they come in contact with each other. The electromagnetic force is many orders of magnitude stronger than gravity, so once this EM bond is established gravity becomes irrelevant. The book contains a few paragraphs describing the quantum interaction between the virus and the atmosphere, but not too much, because this is a work of fiction.
Thanks again for your comments!

 

[ray gower]

Thanks for the response.

Still not entirely happy with the science, but then I'm not that big on biology or chemistry so can't protest too far. It sounds good and convincing and that is what matters in Science Fiction.

Even at 100K words it does not sound terribly long either. There are much shorter works that are like wading through treacle.

Just a question on the side. If I understand you right, this is a Publish on Demand book. I keep hearing horror stories about these, no profit, no money, scrappy presentation etc. Are they as bad as that, or is it a matter of where you have them done, do they work?

 

[majalak]

I don't have any experience with a conventional publisher with which to make a comparison, but I don't have any complaints about Publish America. The book looks good, and when I asked if I could make a few minor changes they accomodated my request. Royalty checks arrive in the mail. They've gotten bigger every time, but they've still got a long way to go to pay for my time and effort.
I think publishing technology is at a crossroads right now. An entirely new printing machine has just been invented, one that must be giving Penguin et al nightmares. This machine is not much larger than a conventional printer, costs around 15K, and can print a standard paperback in about 5 minutes for the cost of the paper and the electricity. Local coffee shops will be able to afford them. When hooked to a browser, customers will be able to select the book they want and have the finished copy in their hands before they walk out the door. In today's paradigm, people join book clubs and the publisher decides what book you get, based largely on amortizing the payouts they made to celebrities for books few people want to buy. Technological advances have forced the recording industry into a similar state of flux. The big publishers can fight this new technology, but it represents progress, so they are destined to fail. I suspect the big houses will be advertising concerns before too much time goes by.

 

[ray gower]

Funny we should be discussing PoD's, greyhorse has made a post on much the same topic Trade Paperbacks: format of the future? but feels rather more negative towards them.

The few Trade Paperbacks and PoD books I have seen, have all tended towards looking amateurish. Having done a fair amount of Desktop Publishing at work I can understand why:- It is not as simple as it looks, yet people think it is because it is done on the computer so it is handed to the temp to work on. I can also see the things being presented better in the future when they've worked out what they are doing, overall it doesn't help sell the book. Perhaps Publish America are doing better than the average?

 

[majalak]

The only experience I have is with PA, but the jist of my last post isn't really about POD, at least insofar as publishers are concerned. The technology exists right now (albeit still in its infancy) to allow the reader to print on demand. Imagine eating your bagel and sipping your coffee, browsing a world of book selections by reading a synopsis and maybe an excerpt. If one of them catches your fancy, you just click 'Print It!' and the finished paperback is ready when you go to pay for your chow. The big publishers will scramble to get text distribution and royalty rights for the Tom Clancy's of the world, but a person browsing the 'Bookstore of the World' could order a selection by John Doe just as easily. Bad news for Random House, but I think it's good news for the reading public. How long will this take? Probably a few years, but not much longer than that as trendy hot spots start making this service available.