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<\/a><\/p>\nCome check out<\/a> the ones that lived.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Well, in this series, I promise not to compromise.<\/p>\n If somebody is charging us money for their books, we have the right to expect a few things. They should be good stories, well told, with proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The logic of the story should be consistent, the choices and behaviors of the characters should be plausible, and they should actually be doing<\/em> something. Something interesting. Something worth telling stories about. A book that gets all those right will probably go the full 40 minutes with me. Sadly, a great many indie books do not seem to get those basics right.<\/p>\n To make it\u00a0fair, I operate on a three-strikes policy. Remember, I\u2019m actually trying<\/em> to stay engrossed. I don\u2019t want<\/em> to have to stop my workout early, so I really do try\u00a0to keep my head in the story world for the duration. But when something clubs me across the brain-pan and forces<\/em> me out of the book\u2019s world, that\u2019s a WTF interruption. And when a title has collected 3 of them, the clock stops, the treadmill grinds to a halt, and I\u00a0toddle off to write up a report of what went wrong.<\/p>\n Then I share that report with the world, posting\u00a0here on Creativity Hacker, as well as on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>, Google+<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Tumblr<\/a>. They\u2019re also available as a weekly digest email. Just plop\u00a0your address into the box in the right-hand column (over there \u2013>), and be sure to check \u201cImmerseOrDie weekly digest\u201d before clicking the \u201cSubscribe\u201d button.<\/p>\n Summary of Issues:<\/strong> I have posted a database summarizing the problems I frequently encounter, along with a discussion of why it\u2019s a problem for me, and with links to examples taken from real books. That info is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n New Submissions Welcome:<\/strong> I am currently accepting books in fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and thriller genres. Details and submission form are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recently Posted Reports:<\/strong> If you\u2019re accustomed to seeing the most recent reports listed down here, you\u2019ll now find them on the Recent Headlines page<\/a>. Now you can just jump straight there instead of scrolling past all the explanation stuff up above.<\/p>\n