I wanted to share with the group a review the book got on amazon.com. This person gave me 1 star, and had the following to say: This book devotes over 250 pages to windows and DirectX programming before it gets into the real reason why I bought it: isometric game programming. And then, much of the info on isometric game programming can be found on the web for free. If you want to learn windows programming, there are plenty of good books on that subject. There are also plenty of good books on DirectX programming. The information that this book provides is only worth about a fourth of what the book costs. I agree with most of what this reader says, especially about the windows and directx part. There are lots of good books on these topics, and my book doesnt really absolutely need them. However, I did not have a choice in this matter. The author''s guidelines specifically stated to include basic WIN32 and DirectX subject matter in the book. If i had not included it, they wouldn''t have published my book. The purpose for including these topics (as i understand it) is to maximize the target audience and include people who are beginners, which i can understand, because a book is published to make money, and not to be a great contribution to humanity. As far as the "this information can be found for free" bit, i agree also(I know, I wrote some of it), although I did my best to expand on the current base of knowledge and refine things and bring the various different ways of doing things together solidly. I also been in contact with the other "isometric biggies" like Jim Adams, Dino Gambone, Yanni Deliyannis, and others for a few years. At times, we''ve been like a sub-sub-subcommunity of isometric programmers. We''ve been sharing ideas for a long time, especially on this message board. So, I''ve learned a few lessons during this whole writing thing. First, you can''t please everyone. In fact, something that one persons likes the book for is going to be something that someone else will hate it for. Second, there are a number of milestones in the path to being an author. These include getting a contract, reaching your first deadline, finishing the book, having the book published, seeing your book for the first time, seeing your book in a local bookstore, getting your first review, and getting your first bad review. Not all of these milestones are positive experiences, especially the bad review one. Even though intellectually I knew that there would be people out there who would not like my book (for whatever reason), it is an entirely different matter when you actually get the review at amazon that says "not so good...". At times, my head was so big i thought i would topple over (especially when i saw my book in physical form for the first time at the GDC). When I saw my first bad review, I was devastated. Third, you come to some realizations about authors. For example, Andre LaMothe has sort of an "aura" about him, and undergoes hero worship from people who have read his books. People put authors on a pedestal (this has happened for me a little bit). Authors are not superhuman, just knowledgable enough and/or lucky enough and/or persistent enough to get a book deal. We have no special qualifications of any kind, we are just people. For example, I have never been to college (not a single day), and I have never taken a programming course outside of some really basic ones in high school that didn''t teach me anything because i just took them for the easy A. Anyway, I just thought I would share with the group.

Do publishers (or whoever it is that makes you include such beginning information like DX/win32 stuff) do so in the event that your book does good, then a second book called "Advanced Isometric Game Programming" can be written in the future? Hmm, or maybe is it to make the book have more pages? Anyways, congrats on making your first book.

Visit my Webpage and Project: LoreQuest

I have never wrote a book but I had a game published and it was hard when I came across a bad review. Constructive criticism is easier to bear because you kinda *know* what was missing and tend to agree with the reviewer. But time constraints and sheer practical issues are usually the cause of these things. So a lot of the time they are not actually telling you anything you did not know.

Destructive comments and downright piss taking are difficult to take though.

From one author to another there is a massive leap from thinking about doing something to actually doing it. Count yourself in the category of actually doing it and give yourself a pat on the back for having accomplished that.

Now dust yourself off and get on with the next book.

Don''t worry TAN.
We all know how much your tutorials have helped us.
A bad review is not something to worry that much.
I believe there are good reviews too.

I''ve been in this forum when you first announced that you would write this book and i fully supported your decision.
I''ve been helped so much by your tutorials and no bad review can change my mind.
It is true i''ve abandoned this forum for a long time due to my projects and due to i''m using VB and not c++,but i still appriciate the work you''ve done.

Anyway,how are sells going?

------
AncientCode
A site dedicated to VB Game Development.
By Voodoo4

Bad review on your book? That person should be burned at the stake for that! Yes your book does go into some basic things but you even say in it to skip ahead past the win32 part if you know how to do it. As was said before in this thread you cant please everyone, but you made a pretty good effort. The 200 pages didnt really teach me and I could have done without them but they could really help someone else. $50 for a new 700+ page book about computer programming isnt bad. If you havent read this book yet, you should its a good book.

It takes guts to share the negative sides of oneself (or ones work). Most people would try to ignore the issue in hopes it will fade away or lash out in anger. I believe you have taken the more noble track, thanks for sharing.

hebertjo

But that''s why Amazon provides the email address of the person who submitted
the comment. Right? Assuming that they didn''t give you a bogus email address,
I would assume most authors would be quick to reply to their email, and provide
them with answers to their questions or send them things like updated code.

Most people might see this as a sign of good intentions and turn around by
posting another reviewing saying the author is quick to respond to email,
yadda yadda yadda..etc, so I would like to bump up my last review by a few
points.

Of course, you should never beg them change it.

yes, i MIGHT have tried doing just that, had the reviewer left his name or email address. Instead the person is simply "a reader from Seattle, WA".

Saying that the book is bad simply because it devotes some time to teaching the reader the simple stuff theyll need to know is a pretty thoughtless thing to do. Obviously it''s there so that people who dont know directx but have some programming background can pick up the book and have (hopefully) everything they need to be able to make an isometric game. Thats just like saying a car is crap just because it has 4 seats and you only need 3. The fourth is there just in case.

TAN, I''m picking up a copy of your book this afternoon, but if what that reviewer said is true (WIN 32 / DirectX / Can find all this information on web for free / etc) then good, for the follwing reasons:

1) A different view on how to setup DirectX 7 / Win32 Applications
2) A centralised source of Isometric information, which I would have to search for read and decide on how useful it is before reading to understand.

Yes the review, at face value, is bad but what it tell me is that this book is a collection of inforation that I do not need to go and look for, thus saving me money (I have to pay a telephone bill + ISP charges) and time.

Keep up the good work and if I like the book I''ll post a review on amazon for you, if not expect a letter to arrive by pigeon post for the money I''ve spent on your book. Only joking.