Should I withdraw Footprints?
I'm thinking of withdrawing my first novel Footprints because I don't think it's a good advertisement for my work. It's a different style to my later work, isn't as well-written and hasn't been professionally edited. I'm concerned that this might put people off reading other, more polished titles.
Writing and publishing Footprints for Kindle, without any real novel-writing experience or any sort of budget, was the right thing to do given my position at the time and I would advice other aspiring authors to do the same - you've got to get your work out there. However, now that I'm starting to build a reputation as a professional author, I'm not sure that keeping Footprints on Amazon is a good idea.
This dilemma has reached a head because, whereas Footprints was previously selling in dribs and drabs, last week it was in a Select promotion and was downloaded 27,000 times, then sold 600 copies and I found that I was embarrassed rather than excited.
The case for keeping Footprints out there
- It shows where it all begun.
- It provides an alternative for people who aren't interested in the topics / genres of my other work.
- It has some interesting elements.
- It does generate a little income, which I could use to strengthen other projects.
The case for withdrawing Footprints
- It hasn't been proofread and I don't feel it's got enough potential to justify taking hundreds of pounds away from other projects, making it my only Rosen Trevithick title not to have been professionally edited. This means that people who only read Footprints might expect my other projects to be littered with typos.
- The story isn't in-keeping with my usual style, so probably won't attract many new readers from my target audience.
- Although it has some interesting elements, it is not as well-written as my later titles, which may put people off my other work.
- I've personally lost confidence in the book, which makes it hard for me to support it.
Any feedback welcome please.
+6 comments
No. It is a valuable piece of work. And it isn't THAT different - for me, it is recognizably by the same author as SooU.
I know a couple of people have given it a bit of a knocking on Amazon, but you HAVE to stand by it.
It.
Is.
A.
Good.
Book.
Therese - I'm pretty sure that you downloaded 'Straight Out of University' before it was proofread. Having said that, I've since discovered that the man who I paid to proofread that one is not a very thorough proofreader, so I'll probably have to get it redone at some point (grr).
J.S., thank you for the vote of confidence. It's not just the bad reviews that's the problem, I was uneasy about the work before those cam in.
I didn't think the editing was that bad. I thought the story was surprisingly fresh for such a socially unacceptable concept. Your writing style is flowing, making it easy to forget you're reading.
I really enjoyed following the mystery along and sometimes being right in my guesses. I must admit, I did not anticipate the outcome. I think it was well done, and I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thank you Judy. I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Well, I didn't think it was all that bad other than the slow start and the unedited bit, but I suppose some might judge on that. I'm guessing you didn't have Straight out of Uni edited either though as there were a few typos in it (unless your editor didn't catch them?!?!) Anyway, that's my 2 p for what it's worth! ;)