99 Cents Book Offer_The Legend of Witch Bane

[KevisHendrickson]

Hi, everyone.

My name is Kevis Hendrickson, author of The Legend of Witch Bane. The best way I can describe my book is The Lord of the Rings meets Brothers Grimm fairy tales. I wrote my book to address some concerns I had about the growing violence against children. Instead of writing some boring treatise or magazine article on the subject, I ventured into the realm of fantasy, using my love of classical mythology and folklore to tell a heroic tale that would appeal to people of all ages.

Some reviewers have compared my book to The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Prydain Chronicles. If you are interested in reading my book and would like to download it to your Kindle, then please visit my Amazon Sales page.

For a limited time only, you can download The Legend of Witch Bane to your Kindle for $0.99. Why so cheap? Truth is, I am far more interested in having people read my book than making money right now. So I invite you to take advantage of this limited time offer and enjoy!

Here is the link to my sales page:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001U3YKRU


If you would like to watch the trailer for The Legend of Witch Bane, please visit this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h1KcowjjWw

Thanks everyone. I hope you decide to read The Legend of Witch Bane.

[Sporadic]

People are complaining about the formatting with this book.

Originally Posted by krisk

I've had my first bad formatting experience with an Amazon book. "The Legend of Witch Bane". It was either a free or .99 book. My Kindle reading habit is to go to the "cover" and catch all of the pages between there and where Kindle decides the first page is at. The first issue is that it would not let me do that. The next issue was the chapter headings page was all muddled up. The last (so far) is that on new chapter pages, the first word has an overly large letter Using the font adjustment. This always leaves an orphan letter on one page with the rest of the word on the next.

Unfortunately it is turning out to be a fairly unreadable book as well. It was touted as being similar to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Written primarily with children in mind but for adults as well. It talks down to kids while using at times confusing language.

I thought about putting this in the "Content" section, but this one won out.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44304

Until that is resolved, I won't be adding this back to the free/cheap list in the Kindle forum.

[KevisHendrickson]

Sporadic,

The formatting issues that Krisk refers to did exist in the early kindle version of my book. I took my publisher to task over releasing an embarrassingly sloppy version of my book and have since had them resolve the formatting issue. I assure you, the current version of my kindle book is on the level.

I have to admit, I'm clueless about the "confusing language" that Krisk mentions. My book has gotten terrific reviews and none of those readers found the writing to be confusing or condescending. Quite the opposite in fact. I can only assume that Krisk doesn't enjoy my writing style which is written in the storyteller mode.

I'll be honest, if you're looking for a fantasy book that reads like a screenplay with graphic description of sex and violence, you won't find it in my book. If one doesn't like the writing style found in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Brothers Grimm fairy tales, that person probably won't enjoy reading my book. On the other hand, if you're a reader who enjoys reading classical fantasy or the works of Dunsany, Lieber, Tolkien, Lewis, McDonald, and Alexander, I am sure you will have a blast reading my book.

In short, I know my book isn't for everyone. But the vast majority of people who have read The Legend of Witch Bane have not been afraid to say how much they enjoyed it. I hope you all decide to give my book a try. I guess the best way to find out whether my book is for you is to go ahead and download some sample chapters from amazon. Then you can decide for yourself whether or not my book is worth your 99 cents.

Thanks.

[sethuramang]

I think there should be a separate forum section for authors to plug their books (low priced or not). These one time visitors shouldn't be crowding out real freebie deals.
Looking forward to see if the author will return to the forum and address the issues of his book.
Additionally there are too many posts linking to the same freebie release. An example: Suvudu's release of Fate of the Jedi Outcast by Aaron Allston in their Free Library. It's not even a freebie. As it has been pointed out, it's simply a PDF of major characters and the story so far...

Edit: Spoke too soon...

[KevisHendrickson]

Sethuramang,

I hope my message above helps to shed some light on an unfortunate situation. My publisher behaved very unprofessionally and released a shoddily produced version of my book for kindle. According to both my publisher and the kindle owners who have purchased the new version of my book, the formatting problem that plagued the early version has been solved.

I apologize to everyone for my publisher's mistake and invite all interested readers to download a sample of my book that way you can tell for yourself if my book is worthy or not.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this issue.

[Sporadic]

Originally Posted by KevisHendrickson

Sporadic,

The formatting issues that Krisk refers to did exist in the early kindle version of my book. I took my publisher to task over releasing an embarrassingly sloppy version of my book and have since had them resolve the formatting issue. I assure you, the current version of my kindle book is on the level.

I have to admit, I'm clueless about the "confusing language" that Krisk mentions. My book has gotten terrific reviews and none of those readers found the writing to be confusing or condescending. Quite the opposite in fact. I can only assume that Krisk doesn't enjoy my writing style which is written in the storyteller mode.

I'll be honest, if you're looking for a fantasy book that reads like a screenplay with graphic description of sex and violence, you won't find it in my book. If one doesn't like the writing style found in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Brothers Grimm fairy tales, that person probably won't enjoy reading my book. On the other hand, if you're a reader who enjoys reading classical fantasy or the works of Dunsany, Lieber, Tolkien, Lewis, McDonald, and Alexander, I am sure you will have a blast reading my book.

In short, I know my book isn't for everyone. But the vast majority of people who have read The Legend of Witch Bane have not been afraid to say how much they enjoyed it. I hope you all decide to give my book a try. I guess the best way to find out whether my book is for you is to go ahead and download some sample chapters from amazon. Then you can decide for yourself whether or not my book is worth your 99 cents.

Thanks.

The formatting issue was the main thing I was concerned about. If it has been fixed, I will add it back to the list.

As for the criticisms about your book (I haven't read it so I can't comment), krisk posted more about it later in that thread

Originally Posted by krisk

It may be your cup of tea, however I found the writing style very odd. She swaps from speaking to very young children to speaking "down" to the reader to using words that the average 8th grader (which I assume is approximately target audience) wouldn't know. She also uses confusing sentence structure at times.

[KevisHendrickson]

Sporadic,

Thanks for posting the link to Krisk's comments. I've already apologized to Krisk on the thread regarding the early formatting issues and offered to give him/her a refund. However, I can't do very much about him/her not liking my writing style. As much as I wish it weren't the case, no author can please all of the people all of the time. Art is subjective after all.

While Krisk finds my writing style "odd", "confusing", and "speaking "down" to the reader", my readers say otherwise:

"It is refreshing to find a writer that does not talk down to the reader and appreciates the beauty of English language. Although some of the words used in his books are not commonly used by the youth of today, they will not be learned if they never are. I did not find them to be so excessive that they would cause a stumbling block to anyone."--Diane Wright


"Hendrickson's tale is fairly easy to follow."--Narrow Path Publishing

"The Legend of Witch Bane is an easy read--a definite plus"--Matthew Verish

"In a style reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien, author Kevis Hendrickson weaves a masterful narration sensitive to a young audience yet engaging for adults to read."--Sabrina Reviews

"The author, Kevis Hendrickson, has not only mastered the narrative style of writing (which I most enjoy), he has recalled the gems of the `Age of Story-telling.' At times, `Legend' reads like a favorite fairy tale, at times it feels more like classic mythology, but it is always told TO the reader."--CS Marks

"The Legend of Witch Bane" is exceptional especially in Kevis Hendrickson's use of a child's fairy tale narrative voice to tell a very dark and hopeful story. The whit, humor, creative solutions and mystical creatures clashed in an effective and interesting way with the bitter conditions and overwhelmings odds that the children of Witch Bane were faced with."--Marise

"The Legend of Witch Bane is a finely tuned, explosive page-turning fantasy story that will hold any reader's interest to the last page."--Crystal Reviews

"I found the book quite interesting, with a lot of excitement that kept me turning the pages to find out what would happen next."-Stories For Children Magazine

"Kevis Hendrickson has woven a classic fairytale that captures the reader from the very first page."--All Book Reviews

"I would rate "The Legend of Witch Bane" by Kevis Hendrickson the book a perfect five out of five."-Readers Views

"This is a great fantasy tale for kids and young adults ages 10+. Although some of the wording may be too advanced, it does read like The Lord of the Rings or Hobbit. The storyline is astonishingly exciting and the author has done a fabulous job of keeping the reader interested. Adults will also enjoy this novel for the story line and the characters."--GetBookReviews

"This book has such broad based appeal, whether male or female, young or old; I think anyone could find some aspect of this story to thoroughly enjoy. It is a fairy tale, fable, fantasy quest, adventure, tragedy. It is a wholesome, clean read, quite suitable for any age. There is absolutely nothing objectionable in this book, no bad language, adult situations, etc. It would be a perfect read aloud book to younger children or family reads. I love books with narration and this was done wonderfully. It really is an excellent book which I truly enjoyed, I am definitely looking forward to a sequel. I believe everyone who actually writes a book deserves high praise for all the hard work, but when it is also so very well written, I am impressed."--Zuset

"I teach seventh grade reading to readers who struggle. They loved this book. It is one of the few books that both the boys and the girls loved. The storyline can get complicated but the reading level was not so far above the students' heads that they were overwhelmed. We as a class hope that Kevis continues to write so we can continue to read. GREAT BOOK. We just can't say enough."--Robin Kuhn

"Suffice to say, I would recommend this story of love, camaraderie, betrayal, retribution, conviction and valor to any who enjoy fantasy. And even to those who don't.
It's a tale of good versus evil, hope versus despair, with enough new elements thrown in to keep the pages turning until the grand finale."--Julian Traas

"If you loved Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit, Grimms Tales, even far older tales lost in time then this tale has it all and will have you glued to its pages through every twist and turn."--RN Hadley

[CheriePie]

So if I purchased this book on March 28th, do I have the shoddy copy? Because there are still several formatting issues with the one I have, i.e. single large letter that starts a paragraph, appearing by itself on a single line, non-functioning table of contents that includes page numbers (irrelevant on Kindle) and doesn't link to individual chapters.

So though it's not the worst I've seen formatting-wise, there are still several issues with it that I personally wouldn't have wanted it released looking that sloppy.

Assuming I have the sloppy version, how do I go about getting an updated copy? Simply deleting it from my Kindle and redownloading it from my Media Library will send me the version I originally downloaded and not the updated version.

(I'll take screen shots and try to attach them here later tonight.)

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by CheriePie

Assuming I have the sloppy version, how do I go about getting an updated copy? Simply deleting it from my Kindle and redownloading it from my Media Library will send me the version I originally downloaded and not the updated version.

Are you sure about that? Because I think it will download the updated version.

[CheriePie]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Are you sure about that? Because I think it will download the updated version.

Yes, I'm sure. Unless Amazon suddenly changed their policies on that issue within the last 3 weeks. (And I'm sure we would've seen news of that here, no?)

[sirbruce]

So you've previously had books that udpated their Kindle files but you couldn't download? The reason I ask is because I know Amazon keeps track of a version number for the files, and it makes no logical sense that they'd require you to call them to get a fixed version if the previous version had some problem that required updating. But, Amazon has done dumb things in the past.

As to how you go about getting a new copy, if you're sure it won't be updated the next time you download, then you need to call Amazon KS. I just find it hard to believe they'd force you to do that.

[Sporadic]

Originally Posted by KevisHendrickson

Sporadic,

Thanks for posting the link to Krisk's comments. I've already apologized to Krisk on the thread regarding the early formatting issues and offered to give him/her a refund. However, I can't do very much about him/her not liking my writing style. As much as I wish it weren't the case, no author can please all of the people all of the time. Art is subjective after all.

While Krisk finds my writing style "odd", "confusing", and "speaking "down" to the reader", my readers say otherwise:

*million reviews*

Again I haven't read your book so I can't comment on the situation but you shouldn't have such an extreme reaction to constructive criticism. Of course you can't please everybody but you should look at negative reviews and see if it holds any water before rolling yourself in positive feedback.

Demosthenes said it best "Nothing is so easy as to decieve one's self; for what we wish, we readily believe."

[KevisHendrickson]

Sporadic,

I am not above criticism and know that like every writer that ever lived, I have much to learn to improve my skills. If I appear defensive, it is because as an author, I have a responsibility to defend my own work. It is neither a pretentious or arrogant act. I admit, that it is not your job or anyone else to teach me how to write for the masses. But I will gladly live or die by being true to myself as a writer than try to conform to a superficial commercial standard.

I stand 100% behind my product. Like Mark Twain or J.R.R. Tolkien or any other great author, I will continue to strive to become better than I am right now. All I can say is that I apologize to the readers who purchased the crappy version of my book that my publisher released.

I must say that I agree with you. If you have not read my book then it's difficult to comment on my writing. Even J.R.R. Tolkien, the most popular fantasy author of all time, has millions of people who despise his book. I am fully aware that not everyone will enjoy my book. At the same time, you cannot realistically expect me to sit by idly while my book is dragged through the mud. In the end, there is only one way to settle whether my book is awful or if it has literary merit--and that's to read it. I can only hope that the readers here on Mobile Reads will give my book a chance before condemning my book. That's all any fair-minded author can ask.

[CheriePie]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

So you've previously had books that udpated their Kindle files but you couldn't download? The reason I ask is because I know Amazon keeps track of a version number for the files, and it makes no logical sense that they'd require you to call them to get a fixed version if the previous version had some problem that required updating. But, Amazon has done dumb things in the past.

As to how you go about getting a new copy, if you're sure it won't be updated the next time you download, then you need to call Amazon KS. I just find it hard to believe they'd force you to do that.

Yes, I do know this from personal experience, and being told how it works by a Amazon rep, and having to manually request a refund on a book so I could repurchase it in order to get the updated copy on something I ordered in the past. So though it is very stupid that you don't automatically get updates, you can confirm anywhere you'd like to search for this, Amazon's own forums, here at MR, etc., that that is indeed the case.

I know there were several authors trying to push on Amazon to change their practices in this regard, but last I heard there hasn't been any progress on that front, which is why I said we'd probably have heard it announced here as well.

[CheriePie]

Originally Posted by CheriePie

So if I purchased this book on March 28th, do I have the shoddy copy? Because there are still several formatting issues with the one I have, i.e. single large letter that starts a paragraph, appearing by itself on a single line, non-functioning table of contents that includes page numbers (irrelevant on Kindle) and doesn't link to individual chapters.

So though it's far from the worst I've seen formatting-wise, there are still several issues with it that I personally wouldn't have wanted it released looking that sloppy.

Assuming I have the sloppy version, how do I go about getting an updated copy? Simply deleting it from my Kindle and redownloading it from my Media Library will send me the version I originally downloaded and not the updated version.

(I'll take screen shots and try to attach them here later tonight.)

Further to my post quoted above, here are the attached screen shots, which lead me to believe that maybe I have the "sloppy copy" as well. @KevisHendrickson, can you please confirm?