His Robot Girlfriend – Review by quillaja


This review by quillaja was recently posted on Feedbooks.com.

This book was ok. I really was looking only for something short and moderately entertaining (though something more would also have been welcome), and “His Robot Girlfriend” delivered that for free.
One of my criticisms are that after the robot girlfriend arrives, most of the story revolves around buying her clothes and having sex. I can’t understand why this robot needs so many dresses and shoes. Apparently robots are programmed to be insatiable consumers.
My second criticism is that there are some typos, grammatical errors, and things that seem like incorrect technical wording. The typos and grammatical mistakes might just be in the feedbooks version, but the technical mistakes are probably not. For example, the robot implies that her experiential memory can’t be damaged or erased because it’s “write only.” If it’s write only, how does she access it? Also, though I never heard of “write only” memory, because it can be written to, one could still erase or damage it by writing bad or null data to it.
Thirdly, I know the girlfriend is a robot, but does she really have to act like the perfect female slave that waits on her man hand-and-foot, takes care of him, and satisfies his every sexual desire? She really doesn’t have much personality of her own; she simply behaves exactly as Mike wants her to (except when it comes to exercise, I guess). The fact that she babies Mike so much makes me dislike him for being such a helpless man. Someone reading this from the feminist perspective would have a great time ripping the story to shreds.
Anyway, it’s a decent quick read if you’re looking for some mild entertainment.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to read my book. A few answers to some of your comments.

One of my criticisms are that after the robot girlfriend arrives, most of the story revolves around buying her clothes and having sex. I can’t understand why this robot needs so many dresses and shoes. Apparently robots are programmed to be insatiable consumers.

Yes, I can see how that might bother some people. My idea was that having a robot would ultimately be something like having a really big Barbie doll. Check out the Barbie aisle in the toy store– lots of clothes and shoes. The story was originally very sexually explicit and I rewrote it to be less so, but there is still just as much sex as before, just less graphic.

My second criticism is that there are some typos, grammatical errors, and things that seem like incorrect technical wording.

I’m very embarrassed about the typos! Believe me, I have spent many hours editing and have had several others editing for me as well. This is a problem that most self-published authors, without the benefit of professional editors, face. It’s hard to edit your own writing, since you tend to skip over words without even realizing it, since you know what is there. I am going to go back again though, and when I find those typos or errors, I will fix them and update the file here.

As for the technical aspect you mentioned– write-only memory. Yup, that was just a mistake. It should have been read-only. I may go back and fix that, or I might just leave it to confuse the techies.

Thirdly, I know the girlfriend is a robot, but does she really have to act like the perfect female slave that waits on her man hand-and-foot, takes care of him, and satisfies his every sexual desire?

Well, the story is essentially a male fantasy play.

She really doesn’t have much personality of her own; she simply behaves exactly as Mike wants her to (except when it comes to exercise, I guess).

She is a robot.

The fact that she babies Mike so much makes me dislike him for being such a helpless man.

I can see that. Still, speaking as a man, that is probably the most realistic part of the story.

Someone reading this from the feminist perspective would have a great time ripping the story to shreds.

While I tried to make a few social comments in the story, I would be the first to say that it’s not that thematically deep. I doubt there is much femenist criticism to be done beyond what you have said about Mike above. Still, if someone writes a college paper on my book, send me a copy of it, and I will send you an autographed paperback.

His Robot Girlfriend – Popular Download

For a while, His Robot Girlfriend was the most popular download at Feedbooks.com. It has been pushed down into second place for the week, but continues to be the most popular download for the past month. And on the all time most popular book list, it continues to climb– it’s now number 12 with a bullet.

His Robot Girlfriend – Most Popular New Book


His Robot Girlfriend is the most popular new book download at Feedbooks.com for both the week and the month, being downloaded about fifty times a day.

His Robot Girlfriend Tops 1000 Downloads!

I told you how happy I was that His Robot Girlfriend, in the form of a free ebook, had been downloaded 100 times. Imagine my pleasure when I saw at the end of the second week that the downloads were topping 400. Today is the 1 month anniversary of the free ebook HRG, and the current download total is…. drumroll…. 850 on Smashwords+ 384 on Feedbooks = 1234!

His Robot Girlfriend – Paperback Updated


The digest paperback edition of “His Robot Girlfriend” has been updated, fixing a few typos that had eluded ten different editors. You can purchase it with the link to the right. It is available for $4.95, which is essentially at cost and fits in nicely with the free ebook, also available on the right side of the screen.

His Robot Girlfriend – Hardbound Coming

The order for the hardbound “His Robot Girlfriend” is in. I have already proofed and approved it, so it should soon be available at Amazon and other booksellers. You can purchase a copy right here right now by clicking on the link on the right hand side of the page.

His Robot Girlfriend on Feedbooks

In addition to the edition at Smashwords (which you can reach through the link on the right), His Robot Girlfriend is now available as a free ebook download at Feedbooks. You can follow this link: http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/5854

The editions have a few cosmetic differences, such as chapter heading fonts, but the text is the same. The whole idea is to have as many copies distributed as possible, and Feedbooks hooks into many distributors of mobile devices. If any of you got here through that route, drop me a comment and let me know.

Surprise Listing on Amazon

I was surprised to find the following message from Lulu.com in my email yesterday.

Lulu.com
Publish Buy Sell Services

Dear Lulu Author,

Congratulations, your book has been selected for listing on Amazon.com’s Marketplace! As a result, your book will now be easily found on the world’s largest online bookseller.

There will be some differences between your listing on Lulu and your listing on Amazon. Amazon charges a fee to list your book, and in order to cover that cost your book will be listed with a 30% markup; however your royalty will remain the same, and your book’s price on Lulu will not change. Furthermore, your book sales on Amazon will reflect in your Lulu account immediately.

Lulu is committed to helping you increase your book’s sales and we hope you enjoy the benefits of listing your book on Amazon.com.

Kind regards,

Lulu

You are free to opt out of the program if you are not interested in the benefits associated with having your book listed on Amazon. To do so, please reply to this email with the Project ID of the book you wish removed.

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This was all the more interesting since I was approving the hard cover for book store distribution at the same time. It would be cool if a few books were sold on Amazon, but really this book was designed as a freebie. Remember you can buy a paperback basically at cost $4.95 instead of $6.33, by clicking on the right side of this screen, and of course you can download the ebook for free.

Ebooks Just Published Feature

His Robot Girlfriend is currently featured on Ebooks Just Published. If you haven’ t stopped by this great site, it is a wonderful location for finding new ebooks, free and otherwise, all DRM-free. Check it out.

His Robot Girlfriend – Ebooks Now Available

If you take a glance along the right hand side of the screen, you will see that you can now download the free ebook version of His Robot Girlfriend. It was previously available only as a pdf file, but you can now download it from Smashwords.com as an ebook in a variety of formats. Download and read it on your favorite ebook reader. It’s free.