The Girl with the Dragon, Too:

Now that my first novel is published in both book and eText forms (see http://RavensGift.com for details), I can look back fondly upon my first attempt to get some feedback from a reader.

I only had a rough draft at the time. A librarian at the local library expressed an interest in reading my book. I suppressed the “What if it’s awful?” fears as best as I could, and deposited a copy on her doorstep.

The book was back on my front porch in less than twenty-four hours. My first thought was “She liked it so much, she read it non-stop!” (I’m an optimist.) Inside the draft, I found a note. She apologized that my novel was apparently going to be too violent for her, and she just didn’t read that sort of thing. Sorry.

She still works at our local library, but somehow, I never saw her in the four intervening years, until yesterday. She asked after my novel, and I told her I had self-published it.

She said, “I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo recently.”
I was aghast. I said, “If you read that, you could certainly have read my book.”
She responded, “I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I certainly didn’t like it.”