Okay, this is pretty cool. Paul and I are guests at LibertyCon 31 in Chattanooga, TN. Our publisher made this flyer up for us, so I thought I would share. We are also on a couple of panels, so if you get a chance, drop by and say hello; and don’t forget to grab a book if you haven’t already.
I’ve been thinking more and more about this writer thing and how to be more productive. Disclosure – the above picture is not my writing space, more of what I envision. My current “nook” is way too crowded and disorganized. It also has multiple uses, the most prominent being where I conduct all of my business for a small company my wife and I run, but that is for another post.
Paul and I seem to do some of our best writing out and about, usually at a coffee shop or restaurant. Currently that is a small locally owned shop near by called The Daily Grind. The owner, Tyler, is very forgiving of our long hours and makes an excellent, well, anything you could want from a coffee house. But I digress. Back to my current office. Every time I look up or over, I see work for the business that is not getting done. Several people have already “complained” that our second book is not further along and I couldn’t agree more. We are 53000 words into the first draft on a 120000 word novel. Not even half way. It seems like we have been stuck at this number for awhile now. One of the reasons is that after writing a chapter or section, you go back and delete your notes. It seems like taking two steps forward and then one step back. My solution is to move all of the business materials into a corner of my wife’s office and do any work associated with the business in there. Before getting your skivvies in a wad, this was at her suggestion. She wants to read book two as much everybody. For those who don’t know, I married up.
My “nook” will certainly not look like the one above – for now at least, but I will hopefully be able to get the feng shui right for optimal wordsmithing. “Shaking the tree boss.” Back to work.
No reviews, no revenue.
That’s the key takeaway from a new study published in Psychological Science, which finds that if two similar products have the same rating, online shoppers will buy the one with more reviews.
. . .
The study concluded that consumers see products with more reviews as being more popular, and they’re more comfortable having what everyone else is having, regardless of quality.
“[When] faced with a choice between two low-scoring products, one with many reviews and one with few, the statistics say we should actually go for the product with few reviews, since there’s more of a chance it’s not really so bad,” wrote researcher Derek Powell of Stanford University, lead author of the report. In other words, when there’s only a handful of reviews, a few bad ones break the curve and bring down the overall rating.
“But participants in our studies did just the opposite: They went for the more popular product, despite the fact that they should’ve been even more certain it was of low quality,” he wrote.
Matt Moog, CEO of PowerReviews, previously conducted a study with Northwestern University that drew from an even larger data pool of 400 million consumers, which also found that the more reviews there are of a product, the more likely it is that a customer will purchase that product. “Around 20 [and running up to 50] is the optimal number of reviews for a product to have to give consumers the confidence that this product has been tried enough by enough people,” he told Moneyish.
. . .
Most online shoppers (97 percent to be exact) say reviews influence their buying decisions, according to Fan & Fuel Digital Marketing Group, which also found that 92 percent of consumers will hesitate to buy something if it has no customer reviews at all.
And 73 percent of shoppers say written reviews make more of an impression on them than the star or number ratings, according to Deloitte.
There’s more at the link.
I guess that shows why writers beg, plead and grovel for reviews! I always tell people to leave an honest review, too. If you didn’t like my book(s), feel free to say so, and why; but if you did like them, please say that, too (and why). It not only helps me write better in future (and I do take such feedback seriously), but it also helps potential readers assess my books and decide for themselves whether or not they’d like to ‘take a chance’ on a new-to-them author.
Interestingly, even negative reviews can help sell products to people who know what they’re looking for. For example, one of my wife’s favorite cookbooks was bought because of a one-star review. The reviewer complained that it was nothing but a selection of the best recipes from four previous cookbooks by the same author. She felt cheated, because she owned the other books, and would not have bought this one if she’d known that. My wife, on the other hand, read the review, and realized that by buying one book, she’d get the best parts of four others. Sold! Another example; several readers, of varying political persuasions, have told me that they’ve sometimes bought a book in that field because of negative comments from reviewers of an opposing point of view. If a left-wing reviewer attacks a right-wing book, a right-wing reader might buy it because of that, and vice versa. I’ve never done that myself, but it makes sense to me.
So, dear readers; if you’ve read my book(s), and haven’t yet left a review of it/them on Amazon.com, please do so. Thanks!
Peter
32,000 words and counting on book 2. Needed a little bump so I walked over to the Starbucks that also just so happens to be in Barnes and Noble. The Barnes and Noble people would say that I walked over to the bookstore that happened to have a Starbucks inside. Either way, I Win. I got the mango black iced tea sweetened with lemonade. A most excellent choice for a hot summer day.
Thanks to all who bought the book so far, especially to Gary and Eric who also left a review. If you read it and like it, please leave a review, it helps drive positioning on Amazon.
For those of you with good monitors, you can see that Ashron and Laura are in book two and at least survive to page 85. Dr. Griid may or may not be wearing a red shirt. I haven’t decided yet. That may or may not have been a Star Trek reference. If you don’t know who Ashron or Laura are… Buy the first book. You won’t be disappointed. You’ll have to buy book to to see who Dr. Griid and Sam are.
Back at it Gary… Shaking the tree boss.
My first novel has finally been published. I wrote it with a long time friend of mine, Paul Barrett. He has several books out, one of which is in the sidebar. As you can likely tell from the cover of Knight Errant, the genre is Science Fiction/Space Opera. It is now available in eBook and paperback. So choose your preferred format or platform below and…
Paperback Link
All books today are driven by reviews online. So if you like it, please leave a review. This pushes the book up into “suggested for you” or “others who bought this book also bought…” status. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.
Thanks, Steve
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Trouble walked into the bar and Hawk took notice.
Patrons threw irritated glances toward the door as unwanted light streamed into the murky tavern and a breeze stirred the alcohol-tinged air. Protests in several languages demanded a return to darkness. As soon as the door closed and shadow reclaimed the room, the dissent settled. Hands, tentacles, and pseudopods continued lifting glasses.
No one else paid attention to the man who entered. Hawk, seated at a side table, saw the warning signs. Tense shoulders, clenching hands, darting eyes; all symptoms of a person on the edge of doing something stupid, dangerous, or both.
Hawk scanned the room. His gaze wandered over a multitude of species. He saw one other person observing the twitching newcomer: a slender human female with olive skin and black hair. Her eyes reflected a light of pure gold, marred only by the thin black dots of her pupils. She wore a deep blue executive unisuit and an expression of dread as she stared across the room. A corp-rat of some sort, she appeared completely out of place in a dive like the Ripspace Grotto.
Guess she’s slumming, Hawk thought as he poured a shot of Trill’s Gutter Run—his fifth in the past half-hour—and slammed it down his throat. He knew he shouldn’t be drinking so much, but that didn’t stop him. It hadn’t stopped him in five years, ever since… …
