Poll–Purchase Reservations
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Bit of a necro so sorry, but I thought you might like this blurb for the book:
“Tom, a young man of sixteen years, finds his soul kidnapped and turned into a demon to fuel a wizard’s ambition. Thrust upon him is a lifetime of servitude to his accursed master as a machine of violence. In a world that hates his kind he struggles to find meaning in his life and to deal with the essence of what is means to be evil.”
However, it doesn’t fit the cover… a blurb should always reinforce the messaging of the cover. Still, feel free to rework & use it if you like it.
Good point.
I had thought about that, but then decided I needed to move to the main story a bit quicker. May not have been the right idea. When you have the story and back story in your head, and “know things” it’s often hard to see things from an outside perspective.
I think feedback like this, discussion of what makes transitions better is why I want to do a beta program next time. And you need multiple points of view on this. One danger of using local friends is that they may know too much of the story in advance of reading, and don’t get the true “cold opening” experience.
I am thinking to do some of the backstory as an add on short story here on the site and may end up adding it to a later edition of the book. Or perhaps in the “Extended Director’s Second Final Extreme Re-Edit Edition” of the complete series. Assuming a convergence of books and movies happens by the time there can be a “complete series edition”
Hi,
One thing that comes up in a few of the Amazon reviews is that people who say they really liked the book also say they were hesitant to purchase it or had some reservations.
I am curious about this.
Obviously I completely get the not interested, or doesn’t sound interesting to me thing. There are lots of books that don’t sound that interesting to me.
But for people who are tempted, because it sounds like it’s the sort of thing they normally like but are “hesitant” for some reason, I’m interested in the reason why?
In particular for those that get the book and really like it, but had reservations at first. I see this as a “marketing” issue.
If you were hesitant, meaning “I should like this but…I don’t know…” and something was holding you back, what was it? I’d like to know if it is correctable. I’m a huge reader, so the story part, I think I get, but I’m a crappy salesman so marketing I don’t get.
Obviously feel free to elaborate in a message.
i think the cover (toms feet(?) aside) and description are fine if you (like me) are looking for something more original away from mainstream fantasy.
while the cover isnt especially well done it does get the main theme across (demons).i read quite a bit and iam now at a point where i sometimes get sick to my stomach by some of the fantasy “literature” out there.
when i read the description for into the abyss i was pleasantly surprised because it seemed refreshingly different, almost custom-made for me.so while the description may not convince your average fantasy reader, it probably will convince those who have had enough of tolkien, jordan, etc.
Had no problem with an Demon being on the Front page,
but the foot (it is a foot, right?) is confusing me every time I look at the picture.Hmmm good point on the cover.
That thought had crossed my mind.
In a previous millennia, as a lad, shortly after the first 3 books of Thomas Covenant had been published, the first editions were all quite colorful, but on the back, above the description was a box with a black border and a gold background that contained a blurb quote from some reviewer saying something that the book [i]”was one of the best works of [b]adult[/b] fantasy in many years”[/i]
I really wanted to read the books and I went to the bookstore many times and peered at them. But I was too scared my mom or dad would pickup the book and read the back and think I was reading pornography!
I eventually, after several months, got the courage to get the first one and just kept it very “buried” with my other books, I’m sure they never saw the back cover…
Of course, it wasn’t porn, just seriously negative and depressing and definitely not Young Adult so I’m sure that’s what the guy meant but at the time…
Thanks…
It’s an awesome book with just the right amount of humor, action, and, well I don’t know, everything?. I think the cover just makes people unsure. I share my amazon account with my family and didn’t want them to be thinking I’m reading something evil books just because they see the cover I’m reading on their kindles and they jump to conclusions. The second cover doesn’t matter as much since the readers will already be hooked. The second book will probably bring in more readers though. Anyway, I like the first books cover but it might lower the number of buyers since it shows a demon which is normally associated with being evil. So the cover kind of doesn’t capture the book for the biggest crowd that will enjoy the book. I am so glad I got the book and I want others to get the chance to read it! o:) In summary, the cover art is good. It just makes buyers unsure.
[quote]Maou>Personally I felt that the art seemed to come from multiple formats in a very limited space.[/quote]
Can you elaborate? Not sure I follow.
Yes, it’s his hoof…and you are not the first to comment; before release I was showing it to a friend, and he said the same thing so I redid it, and believe it or not it’s better. I don’t see it, but I think the reason is that I know what I’m looking at having seen the image in 3 Dimensions.
It is odd that once my friend saw “working” images of the entire scene from other angles, he mysteriously stopped noticing the foot so much.
I think this tells us something about how the brain interprets things. People seeing the foot “cold” so to speak may interpret it vary differently.
Which means, as something that presents a “cold opening” it’s a problem. If you have to know what you are looking at when you first see it. It’s not doing its job. Thanks…that helps.
In terms of the description etc. I myself was feeling very burnt out by the classic fantasy “tropes” and wanted to write something for people who had “read it all, one too many times” and wanted to turn the story on its ear.
So I take a lot of liberties and assume that most readers have “been there, done that” and like to see the board shuffled. It’s key in my mind, to play by the “rules of the genre” but to take a really experienced and more objective look at it.
So for me, it’s hard to be objective to understand how people outside this group might interpret it, since I’m firmly ensconced in the “read too much fantasy” category.
Hmm… While the cover could be better, the demon on it was what actually attracted my attention. Had it been some abstract sigils/glyphs on the cover as many fantasy books have I might’ve missed the book while browsing amazon. Hell’s an interesting theme to me.
P.S. But the hoof and the lamb head have to go…
OMG “the lamb head”
I never saw that or thought of that or anything, but now that you say that…I can totally see it.
I’d love to say something like the head looks that due to symbolism: “Tom was an innocent, condemned to hell as a sacrificial lamb for the betterment of all demonkind”
Or something good and cheesy like that…but it was/is a total accident…
#-o
[quote=jerry;150]
I’d love to say something like the head looks that due to symbolism: “Tom was an innocent, condemned to hell as a sacrificial lamb for the betterment of all demonkind”
[/quote]You don’t have to. I already thought of that 😀
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