# Thank you for trying Cyberdrome!



## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

*Thank you everyone* for trying my SF technothriller novel, Cyberdrome during the month of December.
The Kindle version has been selling ridiculously well since I dropped the price, but what is even more amazing is that the paperback is now selling well too!
I am also very thankful to those who have taken the time to add their reviews, *especially P. J. Salisbury's glowing review last week*, since those honest, outside reviews really help other Kindle owners separate the good from the bad in Indie fiction.

This is not meant to be a "plug" and I will not bump it - it is just a simple thank you to all who "took a chance" on my novel recently!

Respectfully,
Joseph Rhea


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## Emily King (Jun 9, 2009)

Just bought it and put it into the to be read pile.


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## osnova (Oct 20, 2009)

Have bought it and read a couple of pages so far.  It seems this is my kind of sifi.  Thanks.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Picked it up two days ago... it's somewhere in my 120+ book TBR pile now. =)


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

Thank you, 911jason, osnova, EKing, and everyone else here on KindleBoards!

Your willingness to take a chance on an "unknown" science fiction novel have 
helped keep Cyberdrome in the top 10 in several categories all month!!

I really appreciate your help! - and I hope you like the book 
JR


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## Emily King (Jun 9, 2009)

Joseph,

Just wanted to let you know that Cyberdrome worked its way to the top of my TBR pile and I read it in less than 2 days!    I got pulled in and basically read at any point I had time until I had it finished.  I don't normally read the sci-fi genre, but I absolutely loved this book!  Some of my favorite books I read in high school were by Michael Crichton (Sphere and Andromeda Strain to name a few) and this reminded me of these books.  The characters were great and I found myself pulled into the story very quickly....

Thank you for such a wonderful story!  I need to see if any of the others on the account want to read it before leaving a review; we like to combine our thoughts on reviews, since it's just the one account.  We will most definitely post a review when we get our thoughts together.

-E


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## osnova (Oct 20, 2009)

I've finished the book too.  It took me only several flights across the country.  A great read!  I really liked it.  I'd recommend it to anybody who likes sifi.


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

@EKing - I'm thrilled that you liked Cyberdrome so much, and even more thrilled that you compared it with some of Michael Crichton's earlier works (which I consider his best, IMHO). I would welcome a review from you and your account-mates whenever you get the time.
Thanks again!

@osnova - Thank you for writing as well, and I'm really pleased that you also liked the book!
Regarding the name "Mathew" (Alek's father) it was intentionally spelled with one t. "Mathew" is less common than "Matthew," but still a legitimate spelling, and I used it to avoid being associated with some famous people (note I used the surname "Grey" as opposed to "Gray" for similar reasons). If it is spelled with two t's somewhere, I will do a search and replace right away to correct those. If there really are other issues, please feel free to email me with them. I would appreciate hearing from you.

As for parts of it feeling like a "fairy tale, rather than a more sophisticated scifi," I would welcome some details on why you fell that way. I consider Cyberdrome "hard" science fiction in that every bit of technology is based on current cutting-edge research (I'm a scientist in real life and I had access to a lot of stuff while researching the book). However, in an attempt to make the book as widely acceptable as possible (especially as a debut novel from an unknown author), I made a decision to write it as a classic "Mythological Hero's Journey" (See Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces"). As Carl Jung said, "The repeating characters of the hero myth, such as the young hero, the wise old man, the shape-shifting woman, and the shadowy nemesis, are identical with the archetypes of the human mind, as shown in dreams. That's why myths, and stories constructed on the mythological model, are always psychologically true."

Of course, it doesn't hurt that many modern film makers, including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Coppola, follow this format as well (and don't we all want our books to be made into movies? 

Anyway, enough quoting dead and/or famous people  
I would love to discuss this in more detail if you (or anyone else reading this) are interested, either here in this thread or directly via email.
Please go to http://JosephRhea.com to get my email address.

Thanks to both of you for posting here! The book has sold more than 500 copies in the past two months, and it looks like those who loaded up their Kindles are just getting around to reading mine now. Most people never respond one way or the other, so I really appreciate both of you taking the time. And on the same week, how cool is that?!


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## Emily King (Jun 9, 2009)

Joseph, a quick note to mention that my mother decided to go ahead and move Cyberdrome up to the top of her TBR pile and just recently started it. She just emailed to let Lee know it has pulled her in right away and she really likes it. We will post our review when she's finished. Thanks again!

-E


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

EKing said:


> Joseph, a quick note to mention that my mother decided to go ahead and move Cyberdrome up to the top of her TBR pile and just recently started it. She just emailed to let Lee know it has pulled her in right away and she really likes it. We will post our review when she's finished. Thanks again!
> 
> -E


When someone's mom likes your book, especially what most reviewers consider a "high-tech" science fiction book, that's something!
Thanks again for the nice comments, E (can I call you "E"? Are we on a first initial basis now? )
J

p.s. forgot to mention that Cyberdrome has a Facebook fan page in case you are interested: 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CYBERDROME-The-science-fiction-novel-by-Joseph-Rhea-and-David-Rhea/56061145938


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## Emily King (Jun 9, 2009)

E = Emily (lazy blackberry user here) 

To be fair, my mom and I are both programmers, which probably helps a bit in enjoying a more "high tech" novel. I've been pushing my hubby to try it, since he is also a huge Crichton fan. It is in the TBR pile.

Thanks for the facebook link - I will go check it out at home... For some reason, they block facebook at work.


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

EKing said:


> E = Emily (lazy blackberry user here)
> 
> To be fair, my mom and I are both programmers, which probably helps a bit in enjoying a more "high tech" novel. I've been pushing my hubby to try it, since he is also a huge Crichton fan. It is in the TBR pile.
> 
> Thanks for the facebook link - I will go check it out at home... For some reason, they block facebook at work.


I was a big Crichton fan before he got all preachy in the last years of his life. He also started lecturing too much to the reader, like in "Prey" and "Timeline" where he kept stopping the narrative to explain things to the reader, usually in a rather condescending voice (IMHO of course.) I sort of gave up reading his stuff after Prey. Now that he is gone, I might go back and read some of his later books, just as sort of an homage to the fact of how his earlier works affected my own desire to write...

Oh, and I hope your husbands likes the book as well as you did, Emily! 
Thanks for commenting again.


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## KayakerNC (Oct 7, 2009)

Just finished Cyberdrome.
Great book, it kept me glued to my Kindle.
With all those worlds inside of that digital universe, I hope you can find another book waiting to escape.
Thanks for the great read.


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

KayakerNC said:


> Just finished Cyberdrome.
> Great book, it kept me glued to my Kindle.
> With all those worlds inside of that digital universe, I hope you can find another book waiting to escape.
> Thanks for the great read.


Thank you for the very kind words regarding Cyberdrome, KayakerNC!!
When you get a free minute, would you mind adding a review on my Amazon page (I only have 14 right now and could always use a few more).
I would be greatly in your debt...

Also, I do in fact have more stories planned in the Cyberdrome universe. I originally had 4 planned stories (a "quadrilogy"), but it took me so long to write this first one, I might just write the final "conclusion" story next - this is where Alek finally makes it out of Cyberdrome and you find the real reason for why he was sent there. You will also discover the true nature of his powers (only briefly hinted at in book one), but I can't say any more without giving to much away...

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to post here!
JR


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

Just a quick "shout out" to the newest reviewers of Cyberdrome: Kathy Bell (author of Regression), Nelson T. Champine, and Michael P. Gallagher. 
No one is forced to post reviews, especially such positive ones, so I appreciate each of you taking the time to do so. 
Thanks to all!

p.s. anyone else having problems getting onto this site today? 
It keeps freezing on me (took me several repeated attempts just to post this short message)...


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## Emily King (Jun 9, 2009)

Joseph,

Finally got off my lazy butt and put a review out there for you. Hubby hasn't read it yet, but a few of us have and all agreed that it's a great book. I'm sure he'll agree with the review once he gets to it. 

So, we should be review 15 for you.

Emily (reviewed by A.M. Brown on the page - my mother has the account)


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

EKing said:


> Joseph,
> 
> Finally got off my lazy butt and put a review out there for you. Hubby hasn't read it yet, but a few of us have and all agreed that it's a great book. I'm sure he'll agree with the review once he gets to it.
> 
> ...


Thank you for wonderful review number 15, Emily!
5-Star reviews always have a way of making an author's week that much nicer. 
And thanks for posting here too!
JR


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

Just a quick note because this is kind of exciting - okay, not kind of, it's really exciting!

The Kindle version of my SF novel, Cyberdrome, made all the way to 1020 last night, and more importantly, has finally entered the coveted "zone" - staying below 1,500 for the past 15 hours straight! It's also staying in the top-10 in at least three very popular genres (down to the top-5 last night.) The snowball effect of "ranking = visibility = sales" is finally occurring and it's really exciting. What is also really nice is that the book is doing this well at $1.99 - still a bargain compared to many other books, but at least I didn't have to drop it to the bottom (99 cents) to get sales.

I'm mentioning this here because I need to thank each and every person here who bought my book during the past 3 months. I don't advertise anywhere at all, so all of my sales started here. You people regularly spend your hard-earned cash to give new and unknown authors a chance, and I think we should all thank each of you, every single day. Today, I am thanking you!

Cheers.
Joe


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

(Great news, Joseph. . . . .but just a gentle reminder that we do ask you not to bump your thread more often than once a week. . . .of course, you may respond to specific questions and comments in thread.  We want everyone to get their turn on the front page of the Bazaar so they can all get the same great results!)


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

You're right of course, Ann, and I never have "bumped out of turn" before this. The news was just too exciting to contain (but it won't happen again, and I removed yesterday's post so that there is only one official post for this week.) However, my honest intent was to simply thank everyone here, not ask for more sales. (Thankfully, those are happening all by themselves right now.)


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## osnova (Oct 20, 2009)

Joseph,

I saw your other recent post where you ask how to improve the sales.  You've already created a world, characters.  I think you could turn this into a series.  I think that's the key: give the audience that you have already attracted some more fuel.


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