The Phantom Library

How often do you update the Library?

          The Library is updated with new materials once a month, on or near the last day of the month.  Updates include any and all new materials I've been able to find, as well as any older materials that might have sneaked past me in previous updates.  I'm always on the lookout for more and always glad to hear suggestions!

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How often do you post reviews?

          As often as possible, but there's no set schedule.  Different materials take different time; for example, it takes a lot longer to read and review a full-length novel than to watch and review an episode of a television show.  I'm also a full-time librarian, co-runner of a small game publishing company, and writing novels of my own, so there's a lot going on.  The progress meter on the front page is going to be your best bet for trying to guess when the next review is coming.

 

Do your reviews have spoilers?

          My reviews are pretty much nothing except spoilers.  They will tell you everything about what's happening in a given Phantom story in order to talk about what I think that means or what other Phantom materials it might be related to, so make sure you don't read a review of anything you want to be surprised by.

 

What are your credentials?

          I have a bachelor's degree in Music, with a focus on historical musicology and opera, and a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences, which is usually what people mean when they ask this question.  But I don't happen to think that anyone really needs credentials to talk and write about things they're passionate about on the internet.

 

Can I use/quote/repost things from the site?

          I don't mind if anyone wants to quote or refer to material from this site, as long as you link back to it and/or explain where you got it from.  Share it all around, y'all.  But please don't repost entire reviews to other sites, or claim them as your own work.  If you're a student, feel free to cite this site as a source if you want to, but check with your teacher or professor first to make sure they'll accept it as a legit reference.

 

Can you send me a free copy of [insert Phantom thing here]?

          No.  Not because I don't sympathize with the plight of broke Phantom-lovers everywhere, but because these creators worked hard and took a leap to put their stories out there, and I don't want to take potential support away from them.  If you can buy things from them, please do; if you can't, hopefully you can borrow them from libraries, but that's all I can offer.

          I do sometimes post Phantom material that is in the public domain - old movies that have fallen out of print, for example - on Tumblr, so you can take a peek there.

 

Why isn't [insert Phantom thing here] listed in the Library?

          If something isn't listed in the Library, that means either I don't know it exists, or I've already checked it out and determined that it isn't really particularly Phantom-related (this often happens with Beauty & the Beast-inspired spin-offs, for example, or romances where the lead wears a mask but there's no other real Phantom theme).  If you think I might be unaware of something or have excluded it in error, please let me know through the Contact page!

 

How do you decide what vendors to link to in the Library?

          For the most part, I try to link to the least expensive, most accessible version of a material first, to give visitors to the Project the best possible chance of being able to get a copy.  Usually, that means Amazon, with ebooks first and expensive hardback versions only as a last resort.  If a link does go to Amazon, you should be able to choose between different formats, so even if I linked to an ebook, you should still be able to find a paper copy from there pretty easily.

          If you don't want to support the evil corporate behemoth that is Amazon, I don't blame you.  Try secondhand booksellers like AbeBooks or ThriftBooks, or eBay for non-book materials - odds are, if Amazon has it, someone there will, too.

 

How does your grading scale for materials work?

          My grading scale is completely arbitrary and based on factors like my own enjoyment of a work, whether it appears to have had significant effort put into it, whether it's offensive or hurtful to its audience, whether it has anything new, interesting, or meaningful to say, how skillfully its creator got the ideas across, and whether or not I was tired or cranky on any given day that I was working on it.

 

Are you ever going to include/review fanworks in the Library?

          At the moment, I have no plans to include fanworks in the library.  This isn't because I don't consider them to have any artistic or cultural merit - writing and art are writing and art, and whether or not a publishing company thought it would make money or it was posted online instead of printed in a book doesn't make much difference.  But it would be completely impossible to review even a fraction of all the fanwork out there (with more being made much more quickly than published material all the time!), and because of the nature of online webhosting, trying to keep a running list of all the fanwork on the internet is probably doomed to failure.

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Why are you so cruel when you review things you don't like?

          Reviewing exists for a reason - it lets other people know what kind of content a book or film or other material has, and gives them the information they need to decide whether or not they want to experience it themselves.  It also tells creators what things might be problematic or substandard in their work, which might help them in the future.

          If I think something's bad, I'm going to tell you it's bad, because otherwise there's no point in a review existing at all.  I try to keep criticism well-explained - why it's bad, and what could have made it better - and to attack only the work itself, rather than its creator, but past that point, I'm not obligated to pretend I don't have feelings or that I can't express them on my own website.  If you release a story into the world and expect people to pay money to enjoy it, those people will (and should!) tell you what they think of it.

 

I wrote something you reviewed and I'm worried it will cause me employment or personal problems when people Google me.  Will you take your review down?

          I won't fully get rid of a review, but if you're an independent or self-published author and you're worried about your name being out there, let me know.  I'll scrub your surname off the review and the site, so it will no longer appear in Google searches or be easily linked to you.  We all write things we regret years later, and I'm not here to ruin anyone's life over something they put online when they were fourteen.

          If you're a professional author - meaning you write and publish a volume of material, have a website for your writing, or market yourself as an author - then no, the review stays.