Recent content by Holoman

According to other authors I've spoke to, it's not great, but not terrible. Some say a great description will get a 10% buy rate.

Hi I published my book a few weeks ago and am trying to improve my conversion rate. Currently about 2-3% of those sent to the Amazon page buy it and I want to know if there is some way I can improve what's on the page, particularly from you fantasy readers. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a...

To start with its a mixture of him choosing where to go and his friends telling him what they need to do to fix him. They also have a lot of conflict between them and at first he just gets pushed around, but a few chapters in finally stands up to them and starts to drive the plot forward...

That's interesting, in fact I can think of a character like Tony Stark that I really disliked when I first watched Iron Man but that has grown on me. Part of the problem is he has a sort of amnesia, so he's not got a lot of character to start with. His positive attributes are that I try to...

The problem is these comments are after only a couple of chapters. There's no time for growth, as they don't really give him a chance. It's tough but I'm going to keep playing around with it to see if I can fashion something that the majority of readers don't dislike. There are plenty of...

It really depends how often it is done. If they go off on tangents all the time then it could become irritating, but if it's like once a chapter then I wouldn't mind the insight into the character's thoughts. But I do find stories more engaging when things are actually happening and the story...

In my WIP I have a protagonist that is pretty anxious. He's physically quite strong and fast though never described, but there are people around that just trounce him in a fight. He gets seriously injured a couple of times to which he's in agony and is in tears. Many, many alpha readers have...

I'm giving it a go with my current WIP. It's on Scrib if you fancy a read, see if it's the same sort of thing you are thinking of. Personally, I think of things like comic books and superhero stuff. Its a bit like fantasy (though usually contemporary) mixed with thriller, so no reason it...

One thought. If your fantasy world has cheap, readily available or an over abundance of food so they don't really need to farm, then maintaining a standing army is suddenly a lot easier because you don't miss all those people not being in the workforce.

Personally I hate ambiguous endings. But, if something is obvious I don't like it being spelled out like to a child.

And this is why I never give the colour of my characters' skins. Especially in fantasy, there is no real reason to give it. It tells you nothing about their personality, upbringing or culture because the world is not our own. The only reason to go over and above describing all the ethnic...

This is what I would do, fwiw. I think you should personify these things concretely. I couldn't work out if you did do that, but have each one as a person that moves around corrupting people. I would have the seven of them working together, not necessarily in the same place, but they know each...

In Mistborn the Lord Ruler was worshipped as a god and he had a huge religion following him. LOTR has no established religion, but it goes into the subject heavily outside that series and hints at it in LOTR. Illuvitar (sp?) is God, and Gandalf is resurrected by a virtual god when he returns...

I'm not sure if my story is "original" or not, but I took a slightly different take on religion than what I've read before in fantasy. In my world there is no real religion to start. The powerful magicians are worshipped as gods but they aren't immortal. There are many superstitions but not...

I try my best to give the impression I am all George RR Martin and will kill anyone off, but the truth is most characters that I kill off have a death sentence from the moment I create them and I don't kill off main characters. I am a sucker for the happy ending and create characters...