Thursday 9 February 2012

Kids and ketchup...

…go together like kids and sweets or kids and scraped knees. When I was growing up, everything had ketchup on it, to the extent that I couldn’t eat my fish fingers and chips if the ketchup bottle was empty. The thing is, my kids wouldn’t touch the stuff until last week. Whenever I offered them some to go with their burger they just said “EEUUWW!”

It was the same with gravy, ham and a host of other foods: they didn’t like it, even though they hadn’t tried it. Whenever the bottle was placed on the dinner table they would push it away from their plate in disgust, just in case their food became contaminated by its mere proximity. What I had to do was get them to sample a little ketchup on a chip. “Go on, just try a little, see if you like it.” They still refused, until I promised to open the sweet cupboard after dinner (that always works). With fear and trepidation, the youngest opened her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut, as if expecting the chip to explode. It didn’t, and her face instantly lit up. “Mmmmm, that’s delicious!” Her twin immediately dived in and now we’re moving on to the next battle: salad!

That episode got me thinking, though. Gray Justice has had 17 reviews on Amazon US and 14 on Amazon UK (at the time of writing) and only four have been 4-star, the rest of the readers giving it 5 stars. Yet it isn’t setting the world on fire. Sure, the reviews tell people how good it is, yet there is still that reluctance to dive in and spend 72 pence on a copy.

I’m sure it’s not just my book, either. Many a reader will have their favourite authors and have an unwillingness to try something new, which means there are so many great reads they could be missing out on.

Can a little tell you a lot?

I guess for me it can, just like it does for my daughters. Like the vast majority of readers, I want a book to grab me from the first page, or even the first chapter. Unfortunately, in recent years I have purchased too many books that have left me bored to tears. That isn’t to say they are bad books, but they are just not for me.

This doesn’t just apply to self-published books, either. I have read bestsellers from my favourite genres, sometimes even my favourite authors, and yet I couldn’t quite get engrossed enough to get past the first couple of chapters, try as I might. Since I bought my kindle late last year I have added and abandoned five works and I knew it was time to take a different – and cheaper – approach to book selection.

As a member of Twitter and Goodreads I get recommendations all the time, and as well as reading the reviews (which go a long way to telling me how good or bad a book might be) I download the sample from Amazon. This can be done easily by clicking the Send Sample Now button, and the first 10% of the story will be delivered to your Kindle. For me, that is more than enough to make a decision.

So the next time you get a book recommendation but you’re not convinced enough by the reviews to make a purchase, try sampling first. In fact, why not try sampling now? US readers can get a sample of Gray Justice here, while those from the UK (where the book is set) can get it here

Like my daughters and their ketchup, I’m confident you’ll be back for more!

15 comments:

  1. Perfect post!! And the analogy you present here between those two different kinds of sampling is quite neat. Well done, Alan!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post!
    I think you are quite right, people are conservative change - whatever their age! Our tastes of novels sound very similar. I set out to write a page turner with an original twist - the kind of novel that I like to read. I will certainly check yours out.
    My daughter loves ketchup on just about anything btw. We have to ration it in our house LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm beginning to wonder if introducing them to ketchup was the right thing to do. It goes fine with chips and fish fingers, but I doubt I'll ever follow their lead and have it on my tuna mayo sandwiches!

      Sticking to my principles, I have downloaded the sample of An Unfamiliar Murder. The blurb looks really good and I'm sure this is one I'll be back to buy!

      Delete
  3. Your book's really good Alan - I'm sure that people will pick up a sample and be back for more. Great analogy, though, with the ketchup.

    Your reviews are excellent - it's just a matter of becoming visible and then the book seems to develop a life of its own. Have you tried Goodreads forums (the UK Kindle forum on Goodreads is excellent, with interesting people who are book mad and incredibly supportive) and the Meet Our Authors forum on Amazon? It only takes a few of them to be talking, and it makes a huge difference.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rachel! I will try both of those forums, just as soon as I've finished the sequel. I'm hoping to get the first draft done this weekend (if not today) then its on to a read-through before revision and sending to an editor. I'm prioritising that at the moment, but will get caught up with everything else soon afterwards.

      Delete
  4. "I’m sure it’s not just my book, either. Many a reader will have their favourite authors and have an unwillingness to try something new, which means there are so many great reads they could be missing out on."

    You're absolutely right that it's not just your book, Alan. My book has also been well reviewed (though not as well as yours! congrats!), but isn't "taking off" in any way, shape, or form. I think the main problem is that potential readers don't come across most books in the first place. They never see the cover, much less the blurb, much-much less the reviews, much-much-much less the sample.

    There are just so many ebooks available, at this point. So many. Good books easily get caught in a vicious circle: readers don't see them unless a lot of people have already bought them (which gets them widely listed as "also-boughts"), but how can a lot of people buy them if they never see them? It's rough, and I suspect there's a lot of randomness to what catches on and what doesn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Randomness, and a bit of social-media savvy. Before I published Gray Justice I knew about 3 people outside of work and family, so getting the word out was a huge task. I am so grateful to have found some wonderful friends on Twitter who helped to get the word out, but there is still a long way to go...

      Delete
    2. Hmm, good to know you found Twitter helpful. Reminder to self: must tweet :)

      Delete
  5. I agree completely.
    I've found that there are a lot of good to spectacular reviews and recommendations out there for books that aren't written even as well as Twilight, or as I've heard, Shades of Gray.
    So samples let you know if the book is written well enough that you can enjoy the story (we all have different standards on that) or if it is your cuppa tea.
    I read all kinds of stories, and have found gems in all genres.
    Great post. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. "There are just so many ebooks available, at this point. So many. Good books easily get caught in a vicious circle: readers don't see them unless a lot of people have already bought them (which gets them widely listed as "also-boughts"), but how can a lot of people buy them if they never see them? It's rough, and I suspect there's a lot of randomness to what catches on and what doesn't."

    the-active-voice... This is the very topic my friends talk about regularly. Some aren't adverse to e-publishing, they're turned off by the ease at which people can be turned off.

    There's no God equation to this formula. Even an army of friends on Twitter isn't enough to "buy" a book. Still, a good book is a good book. I guess what I'm saying is: There's too much stock put into breaking in rather than staying in. Staying power is the true author's kitchen clothing: messy apron, clean sleeves.

    I'll tweet as often as I can remember...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Ken.

      You're correct in that it is the long haul authors should be focused on, rather than hitting the jackpot with the first book. That does happen, but the majority of authors who make a living from writing are those with a decent number of books and a fan base built up over several years.

      Delete
  7. I think sampling books is wonderful - it's what you'd do in a bookshop after all, flicking through the first page or two, to see if it grabs you.

    Do you know if it's possible to find out the difference be those who just downloaded the first few pages and those who read those and came back for the whole book? It would be interesting to know.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Jo,

    it would be nice to have those figures, but I doubt Amazon would share them with us as it doesn't give them any finacial gain.

    I do know that my books get sampled because I got a one-star review for Gray Justice based purely on the that - the sample!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Excellent post, Alan! I love how you share a great story about your kids not liking certain foods without even trying them out yet. Then you ease us into the meat of the post... sampling Gray Justice. This is one of the most creative ways of marketing a book I've seen in a while. Well done!

    Cheers!

    Rob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Rob, though it's a shame Amazon don't let you know how many people have sampled your book. If they did, I'd know how effective this was :-)

      Delete

My Zimbio
Top Stories