Since I'm writing science fiction, with a little bit of the whole Roswell conspiracy angle thrown in, I thought I would take the time to post what I thought of how George Lucas and Steven Spielberg approached it in the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, then this contains some spoilers.
I saw it yesterday and I was looking forward to it, since I thought the "Last Crusade" was a pretty good movie. Too bad "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" came 10 years too late. If they had made this movie before everyone started being crazy over conspiracy theories and Roswell in particular, this movie would have been much more original. Overall, the story was entertaining, but, I must say I've seen the same story in variations on TV and in other movies. Stargate SG-1, for example, covered the Crystal Skull angle a little over 4 years ago, along with the Roswell thing with the Asgard and a rogue Asgard scientist who conducted the experiments on humans. Not only that, the only difference between the Stargate movie and this Indiana Jones movie was the fact that it was in Peru and not Egypt, and those aliens influenced Peruvian culture and not the Egyptians.
The City of Gold angle was recently covered in "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets" and I think they did a much better job of storytelling. Although, I thought putting a whole city of gold inside Mount Rushmore was a big stretch. Next thing you know, in the 3rd movie, Solomon's treasure is hidden underneath the Alamo! If they continue the Indiana Jones franchise with the son, then replace Shia LeBouf with someone else who can at least pretend to know how to act.
Anyway, as someone who wants to write science fiction and write a litte about Roswell myself, it just shows me there's not really much that is new under the sun, and I think Spielburg and Lucas just wanted to cash in on the story with their own movie. Kind of reminds me of Star Wars 1-3, Lucas just wanted more money, and ripped out a really lame backstory to Darth Vader. He should of just let it alone.
Just my .02 cents, take it for what its worth.
I don't know about any other authors, but I'm somewhat obsessed with the sales rankings of my book on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com. I find myself looking at it at least twice a day, I guess because I bored or something. I watch how, at least on Amazon, my sales ranking goes up to a few thousand(around 100,000) and for a few days sinks into the millions, then out of the blue, jumps all the way up to like 70,000 or so. BN.com doesn't seem to fluctuate as much as Amazon, I don't know if their sales figures are more accurate or they have a different way of calculating the rankings. I'm sure I'll find out once Iuniverse posts what I sold in March in the next few days, which I'm am definitely looking forward to since I set a very modest goal of 100 sales.
Anyway, I was searching for a way to watch the figures and stumbled on rankforest.com, which keeps track of figures from both websites. I added my book and I watch the graph go up and down throughout the week, which is cool or not, depending on your mood at the time. I don't know how Out of Time compares to other book sales because I really don't want to get discouraged. I just wonder if authors like Stephen King or James Patterson ever obsess over sales anymore or now that they're rich they don't have to or need to?
If you're a new writer and looking for websites to market your work or yourself as an author, searching for those places online takes a really long time, especially if you don't type in the right keywords on google or other search engines. I thought I'd post sites all in one place so you can find what you're looking for without searching for days on end.
http://www.writersmarket.com Online version of the book
http://www.writersdigest.com
http://www.helium.com Where writers can post articles, stories, opinions
http://www.writing.com Writing site
http://bookmarket.com/index.html This is John Kremer's website where there are supposed to be "1001 Ways to Market Your Books"
http://authornation.com/ A community for authors and readers
http://www.bookreview.com/$spindb.query.bottom.booknew This is where you can get interviewed, post your book, or even get it reviewed.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/ Where you can post short stories, articles, or other kinds of content
http://www.oncewritten.com/
http://www.sffworld.com/ if you write SF, then take a look at this site
http://www.bibliophil.org/ a website you can have a customized library
http://www.ibookdb.net/ an internet database for books
http://ebookscafe.writergazette.com/addbook.php where you can list your e-books
http://www.published.com/ a free directory of writers and artists
http://thewriterslife.homestead.com/promotion.html book promotion links
http://www.writing-world.com/ articles about writing, or post your work
http://wordpress.com/ a blogging network
http://www.blogger.com a blog site
http://www.writermag.com a writing magazine
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pepb.htm a website that tells you which sites are real or not real
http://www.bookcrossing.com/ If you ever want to see if people read a book you just leave around, then come here
http://www.goodreads.com/ a social network for book lovers
http://www.librarything.com/ your personal library online
http://www.facebook.com You can do an advertising campaign for your website or book
http://www.authortree.com/ build your own author website
http://bookmarket.ning.com/ social network on Ning.com
http://www.authorsden.com/ Author community
http://www.authorzone.com/index.php another community for authors
http://www.shelfari.com/ List your library online
http://www.writerscafe.org/
http://www.squidoo.com/browse/homepage
http://www.editred.com/ Writing community
http://www.myspace.com this is obvious
http://www.redroom.com/ Author community
http://www.booktour.com/readers If you feel like going on a tour for your book, this is a place to post it
Well, these are most of the sites I have on my favorites list. Hope these links are helpful to the beginning writer. Have fun surfing!
incomestores.com
