Fantasy-Faction.com discussion

Hey I'm having tests and I'm also a student so I wont be around often so please tell me every bits and details about it.

Shane wrote: "Alex wrote: "Shane, no offense but you should really try to entice your readers more and work on your pitching. Archana here has asked you twice what your novel is about, giving you the perfect op..."

Hey Shane,

I think you should listen to Alex. I've done some pretty extensive research on this, and the most common way that readers pick out books is: Cover, Pitch, Preview.

Having reviews is great, but beyond the first review (to give readers some level of comfort that somebody else has bought it and read it) reviews will not help sell your book (even if it's free).

Strengthen your pitch. It takes very little effort, and frankly, not doing so is pushing the work of enticing your readers onto the readers instead of taking on that responsibility yourself.

I'm very sorry Shane, your book may be free, but I don't think I'll bother.

Your attitude towards your potential readers stinks. If you can't be bothered to string a few sentences together to sell your book, why should I believe that you've put any more effort into your book?

Cherie wrote: "I'm very sorry Shane, your book may be free, but I don't think I'll bother.

Your attitude towards your potential readers stinks. If you can't be bothered to string a few sentences together to sel..."


I have to agree with this. Just reading this thread as really turned me off from wanting to read your novel. Sorry, and good luck to you in the future, but the attitude shown on here has really left me not interested in the least.

Also, not all the reviews you mention are positive.

Shane wrote: "If I had no interest in discussing then I wouldn't be responding to these comments. I really don't understand why I have made people upset because I would rather use reviews I have gotten instead of simply rehashing my book's synopsis. "

Hi Shane,

So I piped up on this once before, but I can see that it still hasn't sunk in. So I'll try to make the point a little more clear.

Somebody basically asked you "What is your book about?"

You have several choices for how to answer them:

1) Give them a short (or elevator) pitch, which will hopefully entice them into wanting more, thus making them click the link to check the book out.

2) Give them a long pitch, which will give them a little more detail, and will likely have a better chance of drawing that person in if it's well written. They like it, they click the link and check out your book.

3) Tell them to click the link a read reviews.

Now... you chose option 3. But reading it layed out like this, which option do you think is the most likely to garner a click?

Not only that, but which option do you think is likely to garner the clicks of other people (like me) who happen upon this thread?

Don't get me wrong, you're reviews are great, but the unfortunate truth is, we live in a world where people game the system, and thus, it's become very hard to trust reviews. Not only that, but sending people away to read reviews not only doesn't answer their question, but it's also lazy, as it demonstrates a desire by you to just get them to click through the link, rather than a desire by you to sell your book.

Pitch your novel, entice them to click, and they will see all the great reviews you have once they click. But if somebody asks a direct question like "What is your book about?" and you basically evade it, it sends a message that you either: are not as familiar with your book as you would like people to think, or alternatively, are too lazy to try to properly sell your book.

The problem with taking the approach that you have taken is: by evading the "what is your book about" question, you have actually driven away a number of potential readers. And to have a haphazard attitude about this ("I'm sorry to hear that, but that is your decision.", "I'm afraid I am going to have to disagree with you, as each review I have gotten so far has increased the number of downloads, thank you for your interest though!") is sending another message: You don't care about your readers.

I'm positive that you are neither lazy nor uncaring towards your readers, and thus I will pose the question one last time:

Shane, What is your book about?