The Page 99 Test

[ASparrow]

Originally Posted by James_Wilde

How did you get to see this comment, David? I checked "Show all feedback" and all I saw was a bar chart with different levels of interest. Or did this come anonymously to your email address?

The feedback is optional. Some readers opt to comment but many don't. If you see only the bar chart, then that just means that so far you have no comments. Give it time, though and they will show up.

[M T McGuire]

Originally Posted by DavidRM

My opinion of the "page 99 test" has dropped with just one comment:

"There were a lot of characters to keep track of on this one page..."

If you wanted to meet the characters, maybe you should start from the beginning.

I would guess, for most novels, page 99 is quite "en media res".

Ah, well.

-David

yeh, so far I've had a long schpeil about my grammar - something the professional proof reader I hired missed, clearly (bugger, well, I've changed it for future editions). The other one picked up on a mention of the main character's relationship with his father which they thought was boring (unfortunately it's a fairly essential few lines).

I was reading other people's stuff thinking "this is from the middle of a novel, it may not make sense". Like yours, people seem to be reading mine thinking "why hasn't anyone explained who these people are?" Leaving me thinking "er... I did in the preceding 99 pages".

Cheers

MTM

[ASparrow]

Originally Posted by M T McGuire

I was reading other people's stuff thinking "this is from the middle of a novel, it may not make sense". Like yours, people seem to be reading mine thinking "why hasn't anyone explained who these people are?" Leaving me thinking "er... I did in the preceding 99 pages".

Cheers

MTM

One would think that the words "Page 99" would give critiquers a clue. Some act like they're reading the opening page.

My most common critique involve the names of my characters. I write fantasy so I can't very well name them "John" or "Dorothy."

[markuskane]

Originally Posted by M T McGuire

yeh, so far I've had a long schpeil about my grammar - something the professional proof reader I hired missed, clearly (bugger, well, I've changed it for future editions). The other one picked up on a mention of the main character's relationship with his father which they thought was boring (unfortunately it's a fairly essential few lines).

I was reading other people's stuff thinking "this is from the middle of a novel, it may not make sense". Like yours, people seem to be reading mine thinking "why hasn't anyone explained who these people are?" Leaving me thinking "er... I did in the preceding 99 pages".

Cheers

MTM

I had the exact same response. Two mistakes the copy editor missed and one review said "I'm intrigued about the letter, but I'm one who reads the first few pages, not page 99, and you better grab me at the beginning."

I guess that reader missed the entire point of the website. Understandable, I guess. I once thought "YouTube" only showed TV shows about "you", meaning me.

[M T McGuire]

Originally Posted by ASparrow

My most common critique involve the names of my characters. I write fantasy so I can't very well name them "John" or "Dorothy."

One of the pages I looked at had that... although to be honest a couple of the names were a bit way off. Like you, I write fantasy so I reckon I'm pretty open about what people are called- but one in the excerpt I read had what looked like a silent W at the end which was kind of odd...says she who writes about the K'Barthans and a bloke called The Pan of Hamgee (which has already been criticised)?! Mmm pot, kettle black.

Originally Posted by markuskane

I had the exact same response. Two mistakes the copy editor missed and one review said "I'm intrigued about the letter, but I'm one who reads the first few pages, not page 99, and you better grab me at the beginning."

Yeh... Doh!

Cheers

MTM

[basilsands]

Interesting thing is that the negative comments on mine have said things like "Well written, but I hate blood and guts and dying tigers." so then a thumbs down. So while the writing was considered good, they voted it down due to genre...

Oh well...such is the open forum we live in.

[DavidRM]

Originally Posted by basilsands

Interesting thing is that the negative comments on mine have said things like "Well written, but I hate blood and guts and dying tigers." so then a thumbs down. So while the writing was considered good, they voted it down due to genre...

Oh well...such is the open forum we live in.

Yeah, I've had that on both my pages that are there: well written, but not something I read (thumbs down).

There's no mechanism on the site for smacking people...which is probalby for the best...

-David

[M T McGuire]

Originally Posted by DavidRM

Yeah, I've had that on both my pages that are there: well written, but not something I read (thumbs down).

There's no mechanism on the site for smacking people...which is probalby for the best...

-David

Yeh, I think we can safely categorise most of the page 99 reviewers as f***ing irritating. ;-)

Cheers

MTM

[mish]

I like this idea. I'm looking at it from a reader's perspective, not a writer, and I've already found a few books and authors I'd like to explore further.

It is interesting to see how different the opinions of each sample can be. I also suspect many writers do not necessarily choose the actual page 99, but pick out a page that is more representative of the book, or one they feel will get a better review.

From a reader's perspective it looks like a good way to do a mini test drive for books in the reader's preferred genre. I wish there was also the option to pick specific books or authors instead of a random draw.

[mish]

I just did a page 99 and it was a book I read a while ago...I didn't even recognize it! lol! But it also answered one of things I wondered about. The first few I did were all self-pubs. This one was a popular trad author (for paranormal genre).

[DavidRM]

Originally Posted by mish

I also suspect many writers do not necessarily choose the actual page 99, but pick out a page that is more representative of the book, or one they feel will get a better review.

I have *got* to stop following posted rules so faithfully... ;-)

I did consider posting a different page from both my books, but decided to stick with the "spirit" of the site.

-David

[DavidRM]

Originally Posted by lance@page99test

We're trying our best to make the site fun and useful -- especially for writers! We've made some tweaks to the site in the past 48 hours:...

I like the changes. Good job!

And, yes, a chapter 1 site would be good, I think.

Thanks for dropping by.

-David

[joycedb]

I was curious and just uploaded my page 99. Problem is it didn't take the whole page. And on the preview some sentences were split up on two lines. I tried to edit the upload page, but two lines wouldn't change no matter how many times I tried. I'll report back when I get some reaction.

For what it's worth, I'd rather read the first couple pages then somewhere in the middle.

Joyce

[jaxx6166]

I found this site about a week ago and hadn't had a chance to post it yet. Curses for beating me to the punch.

It's a fun little distraction, especially with naNo around the corner..but you know.

Lance, David Farland's workshop has a "Yawn or Read On" forum. Maybe you could do something like that, where people post page 1

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by basilsands

Interesting thing is that the negative comments on mine have said things like "Well written, but I hate blood and guts and dying tigers." so then a thumbs down. So while the writing was considered good, they voted it down due to genre...

Oh well...such is the open forum we live in.

That's definitely a problem. Even if I sort away, say, horror and other genres that I don't read, there are still items that show up that I wouldn't personally give shelf-room to. But I still try to judge them on quality of writing.

And I think I ran into the UK/US English problem with one reviewer who complained about a character who "...loaded [her tray] with drinking glass.." and complained about "cash desk". Is that supposed to be hyphenated? Maybe I've lived overseas too long.