Tuesday, July 24, 2012

You Be the Judge



Home Inspection has been available as an e-book on Amazon for 8 days now, and it's been available as a free download for 2 days, and will be available for free until Wednesday at 9 PM Eastern time (midnight, Pacific time).  It's sold a few hundred copies to date. 


So far, 4 reviews on Amazon with the full range 1, 2, 4, 5 stars.



  • bsw says it's a great read.
  • Sacco says it's fiction for low-brows (it's not enough to insult the author, ya get the reader, too)-- fluff at the 2nd grade level.  A second Amazon reviewer also called it fluff, but noted they'd seen worse writing.
  • Rob and Tigermom have both emailed me saying they like it.  (I'll omit any details beyond this because they were private emails).
  • Sarebear enjoyed it and had mixed feelings about reading the therapist's perspective on therapy (Is that a fair summary) and was kind enough to point out some typos to me that I fixed.
  • Meg, with her doctorate from Harvard, stopped after 5 chapters to put an endorsement up on her Facebook page.
  • A says the sample chapter of my other novel was annoying with bad grammar, spelling errors, no plot, and unsophisticated writing, so this book must be the same.
  • A Critic found the beginning stiff, compares it to In Treatment, but is now enjoying.
  • Anonymous, also a publisher, is hooked and says it's well-written, happy to have it free
  • A couple of people have mentioned that the psychiatrist has too many problems, and people seem to have feeling about his sexual issues.
 So you know, I wrote this novel about 10 years ago, well before the In Treatment series.  An agent represented it, but couldn't sell it to a major publisher.  I tried small publishers, and one asked to meet with me to tell me what was wrong with it: he suggested it would read better if the story was told in first person, and so I re-wrote it, changed the names of the patients, and retitled it Patient Pursuits and began another round of looking for agents.  At some point, I surrendered, wrote another novel and that was so bad, even I couldn't stand to read it.  Somewhere in there, I wrote a children's book, Mitch and Wendy: Lost in Adventure Land, and then Double Billing-- which I hoped would have more commercial appeal.  I forgot about Home Inspection, and then remembered it. I thought this would be a good time to pitch it because of it's similarity to In Treatment.  How I watched seasons of In Treatment and didn't think "hey, I wrote a book with this format," ....I'll never know.   Roy convinced me to give Amazon's publishing a try, and so I'm starting with this novel, but the other two will go up soon, hopefully later this summer.


Is it good?  Is it fluff for second graders?  You be the judge.  I think what's unique about it is that it's a psychiatrist's view of psychotherapy, and while it's not all completely on target because it is fiction, the give-and-take, and how the shrink's thoughts wander, do have a realistic feel.  


Chat here, if you'd like, but please also put your reviews on Amazon.  And I'd be very appreciative if you'd tweet, blog, and link it on Facebook so others can find the free promotion. 

15 comments:

chewing taffy said...

I'm really enjoying it! Still reading...hooked for sure! :-)

rob lindeman said...

Thanks for respecting our privacy, but you can reproduce what I wrote.

Zoe Brain said...

When's the sequel coming out?

If you do ever lose your license because a former patient's son gets murdered by a boyfriend years after seeing her - I reckon you could do quite well as a professional author.

Prudhomme said...

Oy vey ! Are you desperate for some sort of external validation? Clearly. How sad.

Febreeze said...

Get over yourself. Your pals, colleagues and sycophants tell you what you want to hear. No one insulted you as a person or a shrink. The fact that you cannot write well is no your fault. Your need to insist that you are a good writer is annoying. I can find a lot of people to tell me that I am a good looking man even if I am not. The subtext is: well, some people might find you good looking, especially those who are not wearing their glasses.There are many adults who either do read at an early grade school level or who are able to read above that level but choose not to. The choice to read low brow fiction does not imply that the reader is a person of little worth. They are probably tired and unable to invest themselves in novels that demand any higher order thought.
In Treatment had its flaws.Those aside, it is tough to compare that series with your novel.Your ego has run away with the man in the moon. Feel free to write what you write and to self publish. Feel free to take the reviews of your friends and family as representations of something more than their loyalty to you.Stop stifling bad press and stop implying that poor reviews are a personal insult and likely based on a personal vendetta.

Jane said...

It's official. Dinah is famous. She is already getting internet haters. Next comes the creepy letters in her mailbox and stalkers who obsess over her night and day.

Sarebear said...

She's doing what any good author does, and that's promoting her book.

Marketing is part of being an author. A large part, even if some people find that distasteful. I've read that oftentimes new or even veteran authors find marketing, or aspects of it, distasteful. Whether someone finds it so or not, a good author WILL promote their book.

Authors seek out their fans. Some may find that self-aggrandizing, but that is part of being an author.

Authors seek press, especially good press for their book. They seek people who like them or their writing, to review their books.

I read a galley copy of a major author's book coming out next month, earlier this year. It was sent specifically to a group of his FANS, people who would be predisposed to liking it, even loving it, people who were already invested in the characters. This is how the publishing business works. Any author who doesn't do these things isn't doing everything possible to market their book.

Some people may not like it, or think aspects are under-handed or self-serving.

People write books to get them READ by people, let alone the money, and to get your book read by alot of people, you must promote, promote, promote.

Dinah, don't let the naysayers drag you down. Writing and selling books is a business, and even though some may say you aren't very good at that business, keep your head high because you need to do what every author needs to do.

I, like Zoe, would like a sequel!

Anonymous said...

I'm now 74% of the way through the book and I'm still really enjoying it. Though, I want the shrink to figure it out already!! URGH... Okay, back to the pages.
PS - I'm the "A" you reference. And just to be clear - I'm glad it was free on Amazon because I'd hate to give them my money. But I'd gladly pay through other outlets, like my corner bookstore.

Anonymous said...

I loved it! Although I got a stomachache every time the legal issues came up. Can't believe you didn't resolve the case....sequel?

Curtis.

Dinah said...

Chewing taffy: thank you , and I checked out your blog and like it.
Rob: Thanks you. I think we both agreed that I might not fully appreciate the sexual aspects of being a man. I imagine there is some inter-man variability -- right? How'd I do?
Zoe: Thank you. It's amazing what one can be held responsible for.
Prudhomme: Pathetic, isn't it? Those moments of external validation are very nice...
Febreeze: I'm sure you are very handsome.
Jane: I'm not up for stalkers right now. .
Sarebear: I'm trying. : )
A: I'm glad you bought it and I'm even happier you enjoyed the first 74%
Curtis: Thank you! Pepto-bismol maybe-- the plop plop fizz fizz stuff. There was a resolution, at the 11th hour, I changed the ending because one of my kids said it was too predictable. The kid is my source of wisdom in this world.

A said...

Um, the Anonymous who claimed to be A is actually lying, since I am "A." S/he may have been "A critic" or an "Anonymous" but I am most definitely A. I did get your book and am 71% through. I stand by my previous words. The absolute best I could say about this book is that it's fluff. The writing is poor, the plot is not engaging, the characters are one dimensional and annoying, at best. And if the shrink is based on Dinah's real professional side....jeez. That's all I can say.

Anonymous said...

I am the "a" from this and an earlier post you mention, A. Clearly I am not you. We are distinctly different people. I certainly never intended to be you or confuse anyone. Calling me a liar is rude and unnecessary. When multiple people post anonymously, confusion can happen. You're taking this comment section quite too seriously.

A said...

Anonymous: there is no other comment from an "A" or an "a" listed on this post. See for yourself. Perhaps the spambot ate it...but it's not there.

I don't care if you're a liar or not. What I do care about is that by stating that you are A from the previous post, when the only post from an "A" on this subject is mine, your comment makes it seem like I have rescinded mine, that I have read the book and changed my mind to think it's great, rather then lousy, which I most certainly have not.

ClinkShrink said...

To capital A, small cap A and other anonymous commenters:

I've checked our spam filters and nothing was caught there that wasn't spam. The only comments I or the other Shrink Rappers delete are comments that are clearly spam or robots, or comments that are over-the-top profane. As far as I know, none of us have trashed, deleted or otherwise nullified anybody's speech here.

Anonymous said...

Well, that is certainly a politer way of saying it. Thank you.