Beta Sign Up
Okay we’ve got a widget on the site for reporting errors and requesting to become an E-ARC beta reader. Its on the main blog screen, the big gold button below the search option.
We’ll come up with instructions for reporting errors later. For now you can just use it to apply for the E-ARC lottery.
The first editing pass is completed and now its just waiting for the Beta’s to get back their concerns on grammar, diction and all those pesky little things that bug the eyes on a first read through!
The Deposed King
15 comments
Emil - May 5, 2013 5:43 am
Sent in my application.
Also, about my review, even after a few reading through other peoples reviews, then comparing to my own, editing my own and re-checking the result is the same: I pretty much repeat what the other ones say.
I’ll try to look into a review again on the next book so I can post it first, I hate to be a copy-cat-review’er.
(Currently on my third pass on the book, taking it slow now while waiting for next)
// N.1 European Fan
Alves - May 5, 2013 2:27 pm
Heh, now I am back to checking here two or three times a day hoping the book is released on amazon. 😀
Paul - May 5, 2013 3:48 pm
I’m pants at editing myself (either I’m caught up in the story or I’m not reading the book) so I’ll be waiting for the the alpha release.
Vamen - May 5, 2013 4:18 pm
Emil, don’t worry about your review being similar to other people’s – in fact, if you say something that a bunch of people have already said, the amazon system recognizes that. I believe it actually VALIDATES your sentiment more fully to echo previously espoused thougts, compared to if you said something wholly original.
For example, if twelve people say, somewhere in their reviews, “Best Space Opera on Amazon!” then Amazon will group those together, and it will probably end up as one of those little quotes next to the review breakdown graph that shows how many five star, four star, etc.. Likewise, if another group of people all say something along the lines of “Stale plot, stagnant characters, I won’t buy any more.” then that quote will show up.
On the first book, we suspect some people come in and targeted negative phrases, just to get those phrases to show up on the review comments section. We’re not whining; life’s a fight 😉 But the system is designed to express real, honest opinion by the readers, which is why we’ve never tried to cheat. We want our customers to know what they’re getting, and you guys are the best judges of what that is!
That said, only write a review if you want to. If you don’t see the benefit, no worries =) There are times when people hang bad reviews up, and it can have a pretty strong impact. If our competitors, or whoever, keep doing it then I could see a situation where we send out a rallying cry to our most faithful to put their own, honest review up, to minimize the bad review’s efect, but we haven’t even done that yet. Maybe we’re naive, but we believe in letting the system do its thing.
I’ll be putting together a sticky post about reviews at some point in the near future, detailing what I understand, and asking for input where I might be missing something. But they are super important. For example, you can’t even advertise a book with the bigger sites unless you have minimum 40 reviews with a 4.0+ review average. Also, Admiral Who? had literal sales spikes following every positive review for the first few months.
Emil - May 6, 2013 1:11 am
Review been posted, Should be up soon. Took me awhile to edit it I must admit, was a wall text of a 1457 words.
Well, now its cut down and I tryed to remove all possible spoilers. Enjoy!
When can I expect the next book? >;)
// N.1 European Fan
Paul - May 6, 2013 1:47 am
I just gave you a ‘yes it was useful’ Emil at least IMO it was a good review. That is, a review that works to give the reader enough info to form a decent opinion about whether or not Admiral’s Tribulation is the right novel for them.
Which of course it is.
Vamen - May 6, 2013 2:55 am
Awesome review, Emil. That is extremely helpful. Regardless of your star ranking, I would encourage readers to upvote that review. You gave an honest, well-stated opinion, and it will help people know what to expect.
Stellar job =) Thanks a bunch!
Emil - May 6, 2013 3:39 am
I did enjoy the book, but for me the first 2 were the best. Seriously, I could pick those up any day when I’m bored.
Really looking forward to the 4th one. Also, do keep up the good work. Not many authors as you give out this kind of quality work
on their first books. I bow to the master ;D
// N.1 European Fan
Emil - May 6, 2013 3:41 am
//Edit
MasterS, can’t forget that your brother help you out alot aswell, would be unfair to give you all credit. Dont be sad, your still a good author 😉
Emil - May 6, 2013 3:44 am
//Double edit. (We ever gonna get an edit button? )
Actually, to be truth said you are the best writer so far actually, I’ve read hundreds of books, but your the only author who I’ve ever read the blog at, or even been remotely this interested in. And the feelings I had when I was awaiting the n.3 book? Damn lad, that’s a first, especially for a book.
N.1 European Fan
Ulrich - September 5, 2013 10:29 pm
BTW, do you want people to list in again as BETA Reader for every book or do you look at the old list and decide from there if you send out a book again?
The Deposed King - September 6, 2013 7:24 am
Way I see it. I want you to sign up when I say the book is ready for beta readers. People who’ve beta’d before and given good feed back will be preferred and possibly even solicited going forward, even if they haven’t signed up yet. So wait until the new book is ready and then I’ll send out the sign up signal!
The Deposed King
David - December 4, 2013 6:29 pm
A general comment: ALL the books have multiple “apostrophe abuse” errors like a prominent on in this post: “Beta’s”. Apostrophes are NOT used to indicate plurals. The proper form–in this post and many, many times throughout the Spinward Sector novels as published–is “Betas”.
David - December 4, 2013 6:30 pm
(AK–Keyboard cruft error in the comment above: one. :-))
Vamen - December 4, 2013 8:31 pm
Good to know, David 🙂 We’re always looking for help with punctuation when crafting these books. We’ll be running our future books through the website, http://www.pacificcrestpublishing.com, so if you’re interested in contributing to the quality of these books – and would like a free, early look at the works as they come available – go ahead and sign up!
We’re still under construction over there, but it’s feedback like yours that helps us drive forward and continue to grow as writers; we would love to have you on the beta team!