3 book scifi box set special

[evanhson357]

The Storm of Legend trilogy box set is at a special price of $2.99 before Nov 24.
https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Legend-...dp/B0745JG88P/

[darryl]

Thanks for the link. I had a look at the Amazon page and wasn't sold so thought I would look a little further. I went to the individual books in the trilogy. The first was published in August 2016. It is the only one of the trilogy available on KU. It has a single one star review. It's Amazon rank in 3 categories ranges from 2,349 to 3,461. I read the single one star review, as such ratings are often not a fair reflection of the book. However, I thought the review was well written and made a compelling case for the low rating. Normally I pay little regard to reviews in any event, but in this case was already doubtful. That the author is new to me, that there is only one review since the book was published and that a bad one, and an author's bio which to me grated left me not inclined to part with my money. I did read an excerpt which was neither terrible nor wonderful. I already have many books to read and this one does not make it past my superficial personal filtering process. I recognise the possibility that I am depriving myself of reading a very good series and may be being unfair to this author. By no means am I saying don't buy it. Just don't do so unthinkingly because of the low price tag on the assumption that the author is a more established and popular one.

And if anyone does read it and finds it wonderful please post so I can remedy my mistake.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by darryl

Thanks for the link. I had a look at the Amazon page and wasn't sold so thought I would look a little further. I went to the individual books in the trilogy. The first was published in August 2016. It is the only one of the trilogy available on KU. It has a single one star review. It's Amazon rank in 3 categories ranges from 2,349 to 3,461. I read the single one star review, as such ratings are often not a fair reflection of the book. However, I thought the review was well written and made a compelling case for the low rating. Normally I pay little regard to reviews in any event, but in this case was already doubtful. That the author is new to me, that there is only one review since the book was published and that a bad one, and an author's bio which to me grated left me not inclined to part with my money. I did read an excerpt which was neither terrible nor wonderful. I already have many books to read and this one does not make it past my superficial personal filtering process. I recognise the possibility that I am depriving myself of reading a very good series and may be being unfair to this author. By no means am I saying don't buy it. Just don't do so unthinkingly because of the low price tag on the assumption that the author is a more established and popular one.

And if anyone does read it and finds it wonderful please post so I can remedy my mistake.

That was a very well written review. I decided to have a look inside. The description and the beginning of the book are at complete odds with each other.
Why did you make me go read that biography? Grated is an understatement.

Sorry OP, between the review, the beginning of the book especially combined with the description and your biography made me want to keep my money in my pocket.
Sorry, you had an awkward childhood but that is not a good opener for a biography. I am glad you enjoy writing but also not good for a biography.

In all honesty, with the world of books you do not want to draw attention to yourself as a self-published author. That in itself will turn off many readers.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Why did you make me go read that biography? Grated is an understatement.

Purely selfish and irrational reasons, Cin. Firstly, I didn't want to suffer alone! Secondly, I was curious if it was just me who was turned off by it.

I should add that I think it is a good example of what I will call "personal gatekeeping". I am happy to be able to do this for myself in exchange for the ability to read the many many books I enjoy which would never previously have seen the light of day. And full marks to the author. His promotion brought the books to my attention and I did consider them. I think there are a lot of lessons here.

And thanks to the OP. I do appreciate you posting these promotions. Please keep it up.

[JSWolf]

That is one very well written review.

[evanhson357]

Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback. Any honest feedback is a help.
This trilogy of books is the result of nearly 3 years of very hard work, I do research to keep my books realistic. Of the people who have actually read the first book, a high percentage of them have returned to purchase the second and third in the trilogy. (It looks like about 90% to me)
Considering that anyone can download a hundred free books on any given day nowadays, I take it as a strong affirmation of the quality of my books. Let's face it. If you don't like what you've read, you certainly aren't going to come back for more.
The one star review you're talking about actually isn't as well written as you might think. His sentences just go on and on with hardly a comma in sight. There are a few spelling errors thrown in, and his overall assessment of what the book was about was completely wrong.
The guy latched onto it at a forum, and then went over the top to nit pick it to death. This was just a case of getting trolled,
and is probably partially due to the fact that I am a self pubbed author. His review was totally lopsided, and he actually tried to make the book's strengths into weaknesses. He also happened to leave out that it has a very tight plot.
The story was always meant to be an action adventure set upon a sci-fi background. In some ways it's not unlike the John Carter of Mars novels. From what I've heard about this kind of thing though, it seems that he trashed it simply because the plot didn't
go in the direction he thought it should. Just for your information, the cardinal rule of reviewers is not to blame the author if the story doesn't go in the direction you would have liked. The truth however, is that the book really was exploring one of the paths he mentioned, but he just wasn't perceptive enough to pick up on it.
His simplistic summation of the lead character also goes to show how little he knows about life.
The person the book is about is retreating from a very dark past, and is a Jekyll and Hyde character. Basically he's a hollow man searching for his own humanity. If I'd portrayed him any other way, it would have been unrealistic.
In the second and third installments, his darker and more merciless side comes out for a peek.
As for the comments he made about rationalization and vindication. If he hadn't missed that subplot I mentioned, and had any understanding of what was really going on, he might have realized how ridiculous that comment was.
The reviewer's comments say more about his own personal biases, than it did about the book.
Throughout the story, the lead character doesn't go running to anyone, any more than James Bond would go running to M.
The playoff between the male and female leads in the book comes to one simple conclusion. A new friendship is formed.
It comes about in quite an interesting way as well, which he also chose to overlook.
I just wish that readers would learn that most of the reviews in this industry are bogus.
I recently downloaded a book that had a couple of high level reviews beside it. On opening it, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Honestly, the book was a disaster area. I found a number of blatant spelling errors, and half of the formatting was missing.
If that wasn't bad enough, all of the print was forced over to the right side of the book.
And then there's the nasty one star trollers. I recently learned that there are more than one hundred one star reviews beside The Great Gatsby. I don't particularly think I'd like the book, but I'd never be so mean spirited to give it an unbalanced one star review. I hope I don't need to point out that virtually every book is going to get one star reviews at some time or another.
As for the lack of reviews for my books, that really comes down to my bad luck. I only started releasing them around the time of Amazon's last rule change. I was inexperienced in the business side of this, and underestimated the need to get reviews early.
Instead I used the time to write another two books for a total of five. I really put everything I've got into writing an engaging plot in every book I write. Probably the best guide for anyone these days is to just read the first chapter on Amazon. You'll certainly get a better idea of whether the book appeals to you or not. If it doesn't happen to grab you, then that is fair enough, but it pays to remember that we all like different things. What doesn't appeal to you, might very well appeal to somebody else.

[Dr. Drib]

You may consider the above post to be a promotional post.

Thank you.

Don
(Moderator)

[Cinisajoy]

Hi again.
Oh your book is action/adventure. I thought it was a book about how bad the main character's life was. I did look inside. Couldn't get past the first couple of pages without either trying to fall asleep or screaming will the author please shut up about this character (whom I am liking less and less by the second) and get on with the story.

Now I want to address a second thing about your latest post.
Calling a reviewer a troll is in very bad form. For one thing, it gives more credit to the review. I don't care that the review missed a couple of commas. I do care that you are trying to make the reviewer look bad. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with your book.
I did notice what the reviewer focused on, that told me that there is too much mental stuff in the book and not enough sci-fi. (Your opening chapter confirmed that.)

Oh by the way, I looked at your book rankings on Amazon. Just out of curiosity, approximately how many sales does it take to get those rankings?

Not all reviewers are bogus.
Now if that review is so wrong and you have loyal readers, why do you only have one review?
In my mind, that reviewer was being kind. Wait until you meet the real critics.

[ZodWallop]

Having read the review, I think the author should take it to heart. To me it didn't feel trolling in any way. It was far more detailed than your average one star review. He did have good things to say about the book and he seemed to back up his criticisms with examples.

It might be a good idea to take another pass or three through the books and put out a revised edition

[darryl]

I too am disturbed at your attitude to the review and the criticisms made. And, quite apart from the bad review, the lack of reviews and the ranking of the book are objective facts. A book that has been out as long as your first in the trilogy should by now have garnered more than a single review. The rank seems to suggest few readers, at least on Amazon. Surely one who loved the book would have left a review? Surely one would have been so outraged by the bad review that they posted their own good ones.

I hate to say it but your attitude to writing needs a major overhaul. You don't have a publisher who leaves you free to pursue your art sheltered from the vicissitudes of the real world. Even if you did have a publisher, they don't do that any more except perhaps for their mega-sellers. You are running an enterprise. If you want to succeed there are many aspects that you must attend to (or pay someone to attend to on your bahalf) apart from the actual writing. It is not a choice between writing and the other aspects of your enterprise. By all means ignore this if you want. Many write as a hobby and don't care if they sell books. Otherwise, you need to be professional. You need to recognise that the actual writing is but one part of your business.

Amazon's last rule change on reviews was an attempt to eliminate or reduce the bogus reviews you wish all readers would learn about. Assuming you only wanted legitimate reviews I fail to see how this was bad luck for you. If you do want to get serious, then a good start would be the Writer's Corner on Mobileread where you can get some practical advise.

I won't comment specifically on your books, since I read only a little of the first book using the look inside feature. I would not want to comment further without reading the book. But I am not inclined to do so, for the reasons outlined in my first post in this thread, now aggravated by your last post which simply adds further fuel to the fire of my original decision. In this brave new world of self-publishing I as a reader have a choice of books to read which may as well be infinite. I can't read every book that comes to my attention to decide if it is worth reading. I have finite time. I can only read so many books in my lifetime. Your post here brought your book to my attention. You won the lottery right there. I had "discovered" your book. I had a necessarily superficial look at it and the material available about it, and decided I did not want to read. As I expect will others.

Good luck with your writing career. I do hope you will not abandon it. But authors need not only thick skins, but also the ability to recognise and take to heart constructive criticism.

[evanhson357]

Hey again. Although I could easily answer all of your comments in very reasonable ways, it would just end up making the post too long. I think it's best to just answer a few of them.

Oh your book is action/adventure. I thought it was a book about how bad the main character's life was.

No, that's really just the background theme to reveal where the character is coming from. It also establishes the friction between himself and the female lead.
This trend thins out as the book progresses, and the second book is very different. It is however very necessary for the flow of the series.

Calling a reviewer a troll is in very bad form.

Really? And taking a personal shot at someone you don't even know isn't?
You probably missed it, but since it was directed at me, I most certainly didn't.
He began by saying that "choice" was part of the reason why he didn't like it. He then went on to complain about how I gave a specific description concerning the female lead. As the writer, I have every right to do that to establish the overall mood of the book.
He then turned around to do the same thing, only worse. When he said, "it isn't art", he was taking away the right of every reader to decide that for themself. He was also underhandedly taking a personal stab at me for what I happened to say in my BIO. That was when I said that I found writing to be so much like chipping away at a piece of stone to create something. Anyone who has ever actually written a novel would know that what I said is true.
His comment concerning art tells me that he just doesn't understand what art is. Basically you can love it or hate it, but everyone's opinion is valid.

I did notice what the reviewer focused on, that told me that there is too much mental stuff in the book and not enough sci-fi. (Your opening chapter confirmed that.)

No, it didn't confirm anything of the sort ... it was just the first chapter. There is certainly more Sci-Fi than in the John Carter of Mars novels.

Good luck with your writing career. I do hope you will not abandon it. But authors need not only thick skins, but also the ability to recognise and take to heart constructive criticism.

Thanks for the positive comment. You don't receive many of those in this industry, and it's always appreciated. I actually do learn from criticism though.
I could very easily have trashed the reviewer in the comment section below the review, but instead went back to my work to polish it even further.
I even went as far as to take out the chapter that he didn't like, because I figured other readers might feel the same way.

I too am disturbed at your attitude to the review and the criticisms made.

If you are so easily disturbed at something as relatively passive as my reply, then try to understand my side of it for a moment. I've spent up to 15 hours a day on most days over the last 3 years writing those few books. That includes week days and public holidays. Then in the space of just a couple of minutes, some guy who read a reviewers guide once comes along to destroy that work. The fact that his assessment was largely wrong isn't what disturbed me at all. It's just that he went that extra yard to make it a personal attack.

And, quite apart from the bad review, the lack of reviews and the ranking of the book are objective facts. A book that has been out as long as your first in the trilogy should by now have garnered more than a single review.

I'm sorry, but you'd really need to be somebody in the industry to understand what is really going on out there.
Let me provide you with a few statistical facts. Several years ago there were only about a million books on Amazon. It was widely understood at that time that a book had to be downloaded around a thousand times in order to get just one honest review.
There are now however over 4 million books on Amazon, so how much harder is it to get that one honest review?
Going by that reasoning, you could only reasonably expect one honest review per 4,000 downloads now.
As I pointed out in the previous post, people are certainly getting reviews, but many are anything but honest. I'm not the only one in the industry who recognizes this either. But here is the vicious circle that many of us are caught up in. Without decent reviews, you just can't get enough downloads to get enough reviews.
I don't like the idea of paying for reviews, and that also contributes to why I haven't got any honest ones yet. But there's other things to consider as well.
Some writers had the advantage of having already established a fan base of readers before this massive influx of new writers got under way.
I'm not complaining about that either though. Good for them. They were Johny on the spot, and are now reaping the rewards for their efforts.
But there's yet another reason I've had trouble getting those honest reviews. It comes down to the fact that Sci-Fi readers can be more picky than anyone else.
I didn't realize this until I read it at a site which discussed the different genres. Unfortunately for me, I had just finished the 3rd book in that first series.
If I'd known what I know now, I would have probably chosen Horror or Fantasy to write in. There's more I could add on this subject, but I think you should get the point. It has been estimated by some that somewhere around two thirds of the reviews in this industry are dishonest. That includes both good, and overly bad reviews.

The rank seems to suggest few readers, at least on Amazon.

Like a lot of others, I've actually only managed to get dowloads in the hundreds. Those were from free promotions of the book.
But I've only just recently learned that it's a very poor way to get people to read your book. Most people who download free books have so many of them that they never get around to reading them. I've also heard it said that giving away free copies is an easy way to get trolled.

Surely one who loved the book would have left a review? Surely one would have been so outraged by the bad review that they posted their own good ones.

Nope! It once again comes down to ordinary people having busy lives. Unless you're very lucky (which I'm not), the thousand download rule still applies. Unfortunately for people who go around trolling books, it's actually a big part of their life. Just remember what I said before about The Great Gatsby.
Basically what it tells us is that there are over 100 individuals out there who commonly trash what are fundamentally good books.

Many write as a hobby and don't care if they sell books. Otherwise, you need to be professional. You need to recognise that the actual writing is but one part of your business.

You're not actually telling me anything I don't already know. But a few years back when I started this, the overall picture was a lot brighter than it is now.
I only got involved because it looked like an independent author had a chance of making it in this industry. If I'd had any idea at the time that things would change so radically, I never would have bothered. I don't blame anyone for it though. It was just unfortunate that I jumped into it a little too late, and there are a lot of others in the same boat.

[gmw]

Hi Evan,

Take a deep breath. Hold it. Now let it out slowly.

Do that a few times. (Don't go too fast or you will hyperventilate and that won't help.)

Now, consider: At this point in time the bad review looks like the very soul of discretion and reserve in comparison to your responses. You are not doing yourself any favours.

I mean that quite seriously. The reviewer has carefully stated their reasons for not liking your book. They did not attack you personally - I know it feels like that, but they didn't*.

But even if it had been much worse, you are expected to just let it go. I mean that.

Repeat after me: There is no cardinal rule for reviewers. They can say what they like provided they remain within the hosting website's rules.

As unfair as it may seem, you do not - ever - argue with critics. They have a right to their opinion, and a right to state it openly in their review. You gave them that right when you published.

Let me repeat that last bit: You gave them that right when you published. It's too late now to complain that people don't like what you wrote**.

The only thing you achieve by carrying on as you have is to convince everyone that you have a lot to learn***. Start now. Learn from this experience and try to do better next time.

(I am not even going to start talking about your suggestion that it is harder now than it was before. This is more demonstration of how much you have to learn.)


* The repeated use of your name in the review may make it seem quite personal, but everything said still comes back to being about the book and what the reviewer thinks, in their opinion, was missed or wasted in the story.

** If that was going to concern you, you should not have published. This applies to your books just as it applies to the posts we make here on MobileRead.

*** We all have to learn these lessons. You may think that I do not understand your situation because I don't, currently, have such a review on any of my books. But the fact is that I have had a very bad review - and I literally paid for it! It was a paid professional assessment of an early draft of my first published novel. It took me quite a long time to come to terms with some of what was said - and yes, some of it really did seem like it was personal. (It wasn't.) Some of it was the same as a problem you stated above - that the reviewer was trying to read a different story to what I had written. This, in itself, once I understood it, was very instructive. I had done something wrong to let this happen, and the changes needed led me to improving my book. It is a hard lesson to learn: take what is useful and leave the rest.

[Dr. Drib]

Please take further comments to the Writers' Forum, where constructive criticism between author and critics can take place.

Thank you for your understanding.


Don
(Moderator)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by evanhson357

The Storm of Legend trilogy box set is at a special price of $2.99 until Sept 27.
https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Legend-...dp/B0745JG88P/

Your books are not available for me on Amazon.com. I get it when some tradpubs are not available (authors might have contracts with different publishers in different countries), but a self-published book not available worldwide...what is the purpose in that? You just rob yourself of potential customers that way.

[evanhson357]

Your books are not available for me on Amazon.com. I get it when some tradpubs are not available (authors might have contracts with different publishers in different countries), but a self-published book not available worldwide...what is the purpose in that? You just rob yourself of potential customers that way.

Sorry.
My books are sold in a number countries, but my own country has high bank fees for international transfers.
That means I can't sell them where Amazon won't allow the money to add up before sending it to me.
Basically I'd be paying somewhere between $15 to $18 (at least) in bank fees for every book I sell. (Even if the book is only 99c)
Obviously that isn't a viable proposition for anyone in my position.
Wouldn't it be great to live in America though.