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Authentic

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Well...one of the two reviews posted, and while its 5 stars, and says nice things, there is nothing in it that indicated they actually read the book. Its all generic stuff.

GABR, contacted me, and said they were pulling one of them as it seemed sketchy to them, and put my book back out on the queue.

Amazon has not said any of my reviews were verified purchased, but in fact they all were. I sent the receipts to prove it. Not sure why Amazon is not showing them as verified, but they should.

I was intending to grab Empire, Capital, but some one else grabbed it first. I think it would be useful, if you indicated which was book 2 or 3 in the listing. Its hard to see on the cover in the thumb nail.

If it goes up again, I will grab it, but...my Goodreads reading round is about to start.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Well...one of the two reviews posted, and while it's 5 stars, and says nice things, there is nothing in it that indicates they actually read the book. Its all generic stuff.

GABR contacted me and said they were pulling one of them as it seemed sketchy to them, and put my book back out on the queue.

Amazon has not said any of my reviews were verified purchased, but in fact they all were. I sent the receipts to prove it. Not sure why Amazon is not showing them as verified, but they should.

I was intending to grab Empire, Capital, but someone else grabbed it first. I think it would be useful, if you indicated which was book 2 or 3 in the listing. It's hard to see on the cover in the thumbnail.

If it goes up again, I will grab it, but...my Goodreads reading round is about to start.

Empire: Capital = Book 2
Empire: Estate = Book 3
Empire: Metropolis = Book 4
Empire: Spiral = Book 5
Empire: Judgment = Book 6
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I put 'Empire: Metropolis' up for review yesterday. It got picked up within an hour. Today, I had two notifications from Authentic.' The first said the review request had been dropped. The second said it had been picked up for review. Something funky is going on.

'Empire: Capital' got a five-star review. A bit generic, but I think they at least skimmed through the book.

'Empire: Southern Heat' got its fourth review - three stars. That makes two five-star and two three-star reviews. The people who posted the three-star reviews didn't care for the naked people, though they did like the sense of humor.
 
Well...one of the two reviews posted, and while its 5 stars, and says nice things, there is nothing in it that indicated they actually read the book. Its all generic stuff.
Can't say I'm surprised really. A system that rewards people writing reviews so they can get reviews themselves? And then people don't actually read the books but just write a nice review and leave a 5 star rating? Sounds like what I'd expect.

I know some people who can get through a book in a day or a week, but I would be reading way to slow to make this worth the effort. I'd be spending half a year reading stuff before I could put up my own book, if not longer. So just leaving a generic review without actually reading would pretty much be the only way I could make it worth my time...
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Well… thats not exactly fair. Amazon does measure how long you spend on each page. And holds reviews that seem suspicious. GABR pulled the credit for one of the two and gave me my place in the queue back. So it did act to govern.

I think GABR is probably better than a reading round on Goodreads as my book enters a small library. Someone selecting it is showing some interest. I can assure i am not really interested in the books selected for me on goodreads and those reading mine probably will not appreciate my fantasy. Which is to say, there is less chance of finding the target audience that way. GABR gives a better shot at hitting the target.

Those mailing it in do get policed.

Also. I am a slow reader. And i have amassed 50 points pretty quickly. Its not hard.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Well… thats not exactly fair. Amazon does measure how long you spend on each page. And holds reviews that seem suspicious. GABR pulled the credit for one of the two and gave me my place in the queue back. So it did act to govern.

I think GABR is probably better than a reading round on Goodreads as my book enters a small library. Someone selecting it is showing some interest. I can assure i am not really interested in the books selected for me on goodreads and those reading mine probably will not appreciate my fantasy. Which is to say, there is less chance of finding the target audience that way. GABR gives a better shot at hitting the target.

Those mailing it in do get policed.

Also. I am a slow reader. And i have amassed 50 points pretty quickly. Its not hard.

The Goodreads Reading Round reviewers tend to bend over backward to be impartial. And to my surprise, I did genuinely enjoy several of the non-fantasy books that came my way, both on Goodreads and on Authentic.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Wow. The Authentic Library is mostly empty digital shelves.

I did put 'Empire: Spiral' (book 5) up for review.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
My book has been lingering a bit on Authentic and the book list has been growing longer. Some readers need to bite ;)

So far, I've been getting very good reviews. I am pleased :)

I got into a long conversation with the site runners at GABR, and now they want to offer me free points and promos. They were super nice, but I dont really need that. I think the site has a good enough mechanism as it is. All I have to do is wait.

On goodreads, I have been invited to be mod on one of the fantasy boards, but like so many groups there...its pretty much dead. But...I am getting deeper in :)

My review group is not as fun as I would like. I had to ding the last one I read, and it killed me to do it, cause I know he has not a lot of other reviews to absorb mine. But...It was not really my thing.

The one I am reading now, the woman says she loves Steven King and does not like fantasy.....Ugh!... Thats not gonna work. But, her book is pretty well written so far. She probably has no worries from me.

I dont want to have to ding people...I'd rather just not review them.

My last book there is a smut book...I may even have to give a spice meter.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Ahhh...I see the guy I dinged gave only 1 star to the book I am currently reading, and said DNF. I mean....its not cool to DNF a book in your reading round. I dont feel so bad now. I may go drop a star from him, cause I did actually give him one more than I though it was worth, cause I'm nice :)
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Sounds like you landed 'Cat' Green's billionaire romance on Goodreads. I found her confusing to deal with, but she did give a rave review for one of the 'Empire' books, so...

I think the lowest review I gave in a Goodreads group was two stars. A couple of the 'Empire' books did get two-star reviews from the Goodreads groups, which prompted me to run them through the free version of Grammarly. Since then, they mostly get four or five stars.

My books get snatched up pretty fast on Authentic. At the moment, I have so much real-world stuff going on that I find it difficult to get into review mode.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Yeah...I dont want to take on anymore till the reading round is over.

My next two books are Gloam and Billionaire's Naughty Secret

I mean, if I become a billionaire, I'd better have a small collection of naughty secrets.

Oh...I think her name is Cat... ;)



I want you to post up empire capital again, so I can grab it, as I already bought it. But...not till the reading round is done. If I find a bunch of errors, I'll send them to you.


I don't think I ever want to give out lower than three to someone with almost no reviews, but I did think first, 2 stars. I gave him 3. Even three was not a good feeling. I wanted to help him on his way, but really....I am not even sure how much work really went into it. It pretty tracks the Trump/Clinton election and just changes the names. It could all be AI. I notices he has a lot of these books all out together and all not no history of reviews. That seems strange.


I do think a series of two stars is probably a sign something needs to be improved. I'd ignore one, but not a good percentage of them. Sometimes the reviews are to shape you and make you work harder. Thats what I think the one I was looking at needed. So far, I think Gloam shows promise.


How so was Cat confusing to deal with? Is her book confusing, or is she personally confusing to talk with?
 
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