Welcome to my Friday Five Challenge
Get yourself a cuppa and give yourself 5 minutes. (Use your own pic or copy mine or anything else like a clock/ stopwatch etc)
In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?
AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?
My Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….
1) Go to any online book supplier,
2) Randomly choose a category,
3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book,
5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,
6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
(then write a little analysis about your decision)
This week I searched books under the “Indian Ocean” theme as I’ve been watching a TV series about the ocean.
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Book Description
Miles Morland is an adventurer. He was born in India to a naval father and a dangerously glamorous mother. When his parents divorced, Miles followed his mother to Tehran, which they had to leave in a hurry, and on to Baghdad, which they also had to leave in a hurry after the 1958 revolution. His early years were filled with desert journeys, riots, perilous near-misses, and adventures worthy of Kipling, after which he was sent to England for a ‘proper’ education.
Later, following years of shouting down a Wall Street telephone, Miles threw in his job, bought a giant motorbike and set off to discover things in places others did not want to go. Deported at gunpoint from Romania, saved from assassination in Ethiopia by a lucky plane crash, riding an Enfield Bullet through Ooty and following Che over the Andes – Miles has a knack of finding trouble.
Brilliantly observed and told with unique humour, Cobra in the Bath will have you crying with laughter and scared out of your wits.
Price; Kindle price £10.04 or $15.49
Number of pages; 385
Number of reviews; 13 Amazon.UK ( many from readers who have reviewed little else), a 1* with a very useful review. 1 from Amazon.US with a 3* luke warm reception.
Would I BUY or PASS? …..PASS
Analysis
I chose the book cover for the motorbike and the snake. Easy to see it’s a travel memoir and I quite like reading about other peoples adventures from time to time, in places I probably wouldn’t travel myself. The book description looked good, plenty of land covered with many stories to tell. A very quick dip into the reviews revealed too many glowing 5*’s that needed little search to find many of these readers have reviewed little else. I found the 1* and 3* reviews the most helpful. This is now a risk buy for me and at a very high kindle price, too much of a risk today.
Here are links to other #FridayFiveChallengers
Shelley has gone for #YA #Romance – http://shelleywilsonauthor.com/2015/10/09/buy-or-pass-young-adult-romance-fridayfivechallenge/
Cathy went in search for #Children’s books – http://betweenthelinesbookblog.com/2015/10/09/fridayfivechallenge-buyorpass-why-the-whales-came-by-michael-morpurgo-childrens-rosieamber1/
Barb has been weighing up the cost of kids – http://barbtaub.com/2015/10/09/bill-for-child-production-fridayfivechallenge-from-rosieamber1/
Bev went for a Post Apocalypse which has an added bonus of being #Free on #Kindle – http://baspicer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/welcome-to-my-fridayfivechallenge.html?showComment=1444405665429#c6618357408994892467
The reviews would put me off, too and it’s way too high for a kindle book. A PASS from me this time.
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Wow, way over budget for me. I agree that the cover and blurb are good but the reviews would put me off too, pass from me.
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Pingback: #FridayFiveChallenge ~ #BuyorPass Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo #children’s @rosieamber1 |
Pingback: BUY or PASS? Young Adult Romance #FridayFiveChallenge | Shelley Wilson
I adore the cover, would have leapt straight on it! The price is ludicrous – which says to me that it’s vanity published. Vanity publishers are total scammers, they accept any book, no matter how bad, charge the author £2000-odd to edit and publish it, then whack a great big price on, hoping that the author will make them even more money by selling it to all their friends, these being the only sales they ever do get ~ it’s just some vain wannabe author who wants to talk about ‘my publisher’ and flash his book around at dinner parties, I imagine!
Aha ~ yes, just read that 1* review that endorses all I’ve said. Alas, even the traditional publishing houses have a ‘vanity’ imprint because they make so much money out of the writers’…. vanity 🙂
Very interesting find, Rosie!
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Thanks Terry, I do enjoy a good travel memoir from time to time, but this one wasn’t for me.
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I love to travel and love the stories, but that kindle price would stop me cold. Great cover though!
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Way over-priced for a competitive kindle sale.
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The blurb would make me want to buy it but the price and reviews would stop me clicking on the Buy button.
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Yes, it starts out well with it’s selling points, but then, the reviews reveal more.
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I tend to look at reviews of books I’m considering, too. One thing I’ve found over time is that frequently Amazon reviewers will hype up a book more. I usually check on Goodreads too and have found that overall, the reviewers on Goodreads appear to be more honest and unbiased.
@dino0726 from
FictionZeal – Impartial, Straightforward Fiction Book Reviews
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Thanks Diane, I always check both Amazon and Goodreads to compare reviews if I’m a bit undecided about a book, and here’s a tip from a friend. If you are buying electrical goods via Amazon, check out the product reviews on the German Amazon site, not that this is topical, just an interesting fact.
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It looked good but you’re right about the price and the reviews. Enjoy the literary festival, Rosie!
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Thanks Olga.
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I was drawn to this – the cover, the blurb – but the price!! Hold on a minute, no way, so it’s a pass from me
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Bit of a stumbling block isn’t it?
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Found myself wondering about the editorial style comments in the product description. If Miles is telling us how brilliant his own book is, it’s a bit of a turn-off for me. The price is scary. PASS.
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Well spotted!
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I love memoirs of all kinds, travel ones especially. The cover is appealing but the price is too rich for my pocket. I agree, this is way over-priced for a Kindle.
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You do like your travel Tess, looking forward to your next Newfoundland post.
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And to think for 20 years I couldn’t care less.:-D 😀
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Very interesting… I was put off at once by the very high price for an ebook! I dont really pay too much attention to reviews, but these looked a bit dodgey. I would have passed too!
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Thanks Ali.
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