Well, time for a little update. Here are the results so far from my “Hobbit Birthday Party” last weekend. Total 40 free books were picked up. And so far 4 reviews have come back, which is great in my book. The fact that people went through it so fast and got back to me is terrific. I’m hoping with time, that as people get to read it and finish the book, they’ll leave reviews too.
Out of the 4 reviews I’ve gotten 3 were 5 Stars and the last one was a 3 star, but a very pleasant one mind you. They still encouraged people to check it out so I’m not going to complain.
This first review is from Amazon.com:
You’ll think twice about going in the water! April 5, 2013
These reviews are from Smashwords:
Review by: on April 06, 2013 :
Good ideas, well paced and well plotted, with interesting and engaging characters.
But it needs a thorough editing; I felt like I was reading an unpublished draft. The common banter style made the characters tend to blur together, and really, could they not sometimes just get on with their bloody jobs instead of making with the constant sexual jokes & innuendos? And the author very badly needed to consult someone actually British for the voice of the supposedly British characters – these are teeth-gratingly bad at times. (What is Oye even supposed to mean? Oy? Oi? Aye? What kind of English are we even talking about? Seems to veer randomly cockney & posh.)
I got the book free in exchange for a review; I hope this isn’t so harsh as to be discouraging. There’s a lot of good in it; it just needs some balancing and tweaking.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)
Review by: April 03, 2013 :
As someone who got to proof read this, I must say I love it! Found a few surprises in it that were not there before! Can’t wait for the next one!
(reviewed within a week of purchase)
Review by: March 31, 2013 :
The Bridge is an excellent book, well written. A genre I don’t usually read but, I will look out for Allen’s next book.
(reviewed the day of purchase)
Conrats, Allan. You’re getting great results.
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Congrats Allan, you are getting great feedbacks 🙂 Keep going!
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Wow, a ten percent return on reviews is excellent! I’ve had about 700 free downloads over a few weeks and only three reviews, and those 3-4 stars! Well done. (Maybe that suggests my book is rubbish of course, but I’m not giving up yet!)
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Good don’t give up. Keep writing. Did you ask for reviews when you set up the free giveaway? I asked for either that or for people to help spread the word of the book’s existence after they read it.
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I’m currently tied in to KDP Select so the giveaway isn’t that much under my control. Once my three months is up I’m going to take back control of my promotion and see if it does better. Definitely not giving up. They reckon a new novel, even traditionally published, can sell under 100 copies and I’ve already sold 20! 🙂
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Good point. I’d recommend Smashwords once your tour of duty with Kindle is over. There’s probably a bunch of Apple and Nook readers out there who would like to see your book.
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I need to do some work to get it onto Smashwords as it failed moderation the first time (there were a few fonts in the novel to make time-shifts and planet-shifts easier, but I’ve since changed it and hoped it still makes sense!) You’re right, though, I have had requests from Nook readers via my blog. Only six weeks and I’m free of Amazon! 🙂
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Good, sounds like you’ve already got an audience waiting in the wings. Good luck!
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