Teaser Fallout

     First off I want to thank everyone who read DM's teaser, I appreciate you taking the time to do so.  I got close to two hundred views which was way more than I had thought I would.
     Sadly putting it up turned out to be an exercise in dealing with disappointment.  With nearly two hundred views I ended up with five +1's, three comments (Two of those from friends.), and a whopping one feedback comment.
     One.
     And he hated it.
     Getting back to that in a second, I want to make it clear that I am grateful for every view and +1 I got.  Not bitching about that.
     I tried very hard not to get my hopes up.  I was under no delusions that my teaser was going to become some internet sensation or that every review would be a glowing report singing its praises to the heavens.  But despite my best efforts I was hoping for more than one feedback comment out of nearly two hundred views.  I cannot even begin to describe the perfect storm of self-doubt that inundated me.
     Was it boring?
     Did I screw it up?
     Was it really that bad?
     Or worse was it so blase and banal that it wasn't worth even leaving a comment to tell me it sucked?
     As the view count kept rising and nothing else, it was a bit difficult to keep moving forward.  I owe a big thanks to my Alpha reader Richard for keeping me going with his enthusiasm for the project.  There were more than a few times when the only reason I didn't quit was him asking me if I had finished the chapter I was working on yet.
    As for the one feedback comment I got I am actually okay with it being negative.  Cool as it would be for everyone to love my book I know that just isn't going to happen.  And despite his dislike of what he read his comment was constructive.  He didn't just type 'It sucks.  You suck.  Never make words again.', he was honest but polite and didn't leave things at him not liking it but told me why.  What it was that didn't draw him in, and other points about the content that in several cases were things that I had noted already and agreed with him on.
     One of the points he made was that the story was not focused on the zombies as much, that they felt simply like an obstacles for the characters to overcome.  Also he looked for more of a horror aspect which he felt was lacking.
     The horror part stuck with me because I had to ask myself, what kind of writer am I?  While there will be horror moments in the story (It IS the Zombie Apocalypse after all.) I don't feel the need to shoehorn it in their.  While I respect the horror genre, I'm not a fan and never really have been.  For me any moment whether its comedic, sexy, or scary should be part of the story not put there just to be there.
     I'm not a horror writer, my interest is in the characters.  Shows like 'Firefly', 'Farscape', 'Supernatural' are my influences, especially Supernatural.  The horror/scary elements are there but what drives the show is the Winchesters.
     The focus of 'Dead Moon' isn't the zombies, it's the characters.
     So in the end it just means that my book will not be that persons cup of tea.  And while I am saddened to lose a potential reader I am thankful that he took the time to read it, comment honestly, and wasn't a raging cock-bite about it.  Also as I said I did agree with several points he made and have implemented those changes.
     I didn't get what I wanted out of the teaser but the work goes on and it was probably a good lesson for me to have driven home.  Things aren't going to go like I expect and that's okay.