Shady Lady Julie

All writers get feedback and it's something that most of us love... when it's constructive! I fully understand someone buying a book and it not being to their taste that they may feel they have 'wasted' their money. They may then express that feeling of 'waste' by criticising the writer.

However, in the scenario where the book is free and labelled as a sample then the reader has wasted nothing so a simple 'don't like it' is pointless. Not helpful really, as telling the writer why you didn't like it is better. Even better would be telling the writer what you are looking for.

So that brings me to my rant. I posted a free book that someone has taken upon themself to give the feedback of 'stupid'. That's it one word!

Of course, I rushed to their author page to see what great works they have, perhaps someone I could learn from. But what do I find?...nothing!

Well as I suspected my blog would fall into disuse, ending up being a dust-covered relic in the corner.

Writing a lot of different things and should focus on just one thing and get that done. Well, that's what I keep telling myself..."Focus woman."

The trouble is, it's like having lots of children you want to hug them all at once. When you layer onto the new stuff the polishing of older stuff into anthologies (posh word for collections) life is pretty busy

Well they say every day is a learning day.

I have now downloaded Calibre and wrestled with it for a while, not sure I am winning but I certainly know a little more.

This means that my readers should get an enhanced experience as they will get the pretty book cover that appears on the site on their e-reader. Also it gets my name right.

Does that matter?...who knows but it's fun learning.

Now onto the TOC otherwise known as the Table of Contents. The instructions to try to add this to an existing book are written in a language that means nothing to me...pure Geek-en-ese

However if you write in Word (which I do) and you highlight a phrase making it Heading 1 then, like magic when Calibre converts the doc to ePub the TOC is magically there.

I am so proud of myself for learning geek though I do have the desire to lie in a dark room with a damp towel on my head.

When I started on my publishing career (still very grateful and humble to those of you who have bought) I decided to throw in a few free books. These would be tasters as they tend to be very short, almost like a chapter for the more experienced writer/publishers, but would give a reader an idea of the sort of thing I write.

The only thing I asked for is perhaps a short review and/or maybe a few stars (hopefully 5 but not holding my breath) yet to date I think only one person has done that even though there has been at 140 downloads.

I suppose the question in my head is whether I should stop posting free books here or just carry on as at least people haven't left 1 star reviews.

When you publish a book you have to give a sample, a taster if you like. But there hangs a question, how mush is just right. Not enough and the reader never engages, not enough and the reader has half finished the book before they decide whether or not to pay for it.

I did try uploading a custom sample as I thought perhaps later in a book might be more 'exciting'. What a disaster that was so will using the percentage of the book as a guide.

So I have been playing around to see what sort of length feels right (hmmmm that could have been phrased more modestly, no matter).