Reply To: Poll–Purchase Reservations
Hello, new here. I did have a kind of “Toss up” reaction. Mainly because of the cover, and the price.
As to the cover, basically a 3d render for a cover says to me that the book is completely self done, the author can’t afford a very good artist, and/or they are trying to go with the “quick fix”. That then tells me “BAD EDITING!!!! RUN!” However the reviews helped me on that end.
For the price, I just find anything over $5 kind of crazy for a digital book. For a print book sure, $7.99 with most of it going to the publisher, I can see that. But $6 for what looks like a self-published e-book? That just seems a little steep to me. The only reason I decided to give it a shot was because of the page count, and the fact that amazon is really good about refunds.
It turns out I’m glad I did. There were still some of the editing problems, no where near as many as some self-published works, but enough to notice. However the story was intriguing enough, and the characters engaging enough to push through them. I was very satisfied with the length, it’s so annoying to pay for a book and then finish it in only a few hours.
Also, as to the length. I saw in one of the amazon discussions talk of going “episodic”. I’ve read books that take that route that I enjoy, but my only warning would be to be sure you can keep up with the timescale you set out on. If you’re going to publish 300 pages every 3-6 months, you need to keep with that or you will lose readers. Also this gets into my “It’s annoying to pay for a book and finish it in just a few hours” thing. I can finish 300 pages in about half a day or less if I find it engaging enough. This is usually offset for me if the author is good about releasing additions in a timely manner though. However I wouldn’t pay more than $2.99 or so for anything 300pages or less. (Btw my favorite author that does this well right now is Niall Teasdale. Each book is pretty short but they come out pretty fast and don’t cost too much.)
Well thats it for me. Enjoyed the book, and waiting anxiously for the next installment!