Hello, Insiders.
David here.
While Matt and I write what we want to write—one of the joys of being an indie author—that doesn’t mean we’re not interested in what you, the reader, have to say.
That’s why we set up a survey asking you to let us know your thoughts on what we’ve done so far (if you haven’t filled it in yet and are interested in doing so, you can air your thoughts/grievances HERE).
By gathering and analysing your feedback, we were able to identify common criticisms and see if there was an opportunity for us to improve, and make you—beautiful bastards that you are—even happier.
Today, I’m going to share some of the feedback you’ve provided in your 700+ responses, and let you know what we’ve done to respond to your comments.
But first of all, some interesting statistics…
- Gender balance: 72% of our readers are female. Hello, ladies!
- Favourite series: London Coven is your favourite Uncanny Kingdom collection (the one I didn’t write – thanks a bunch, guys!)
- Use of British slang: 47% of you finds our colloquial dialogue unproblematic. 32% finds it endearing. Bully for you! We’re cock-a-hoop!
- Salty language: 83% of you don’t give a fuck about swearing (apologies to the 4% who do, though I suspect you may have already unsubscribed after reading Eva’s dialogue in the Dark Lakes books).
And now to the feedback we took on board…
- Book length: Many of you told us you felt our books were too short. Since then, we’ve cranked out 3 titles in the 100k+ word region. How’s that for service?
- Series length: There were those of you who asked for a series that went beyond 3 books. We gave you the 6-book Uncanny Ink series. We also extended Jake Fletcher’s adventures to include a second series, and we’re about to extend the aforementioned Dark Lakes saga with at least 2 more titles.
- Audiobooks: You wanted more, we made more. Lot’s more.
- Newsletters: Some of you said you felt they were too frequent. We heard you. Matt’s Sunday emails have been reduced to fortnightly missives, and the Thursday email is now being sent out likewise.
- Romance: The general feeling in terms of romantic content was, “Keep it in your pants, fellers”. Done and done!
- Horror content: Though you mostly expressed contentment at the level of scares and schlock in our work, one or two of you weren’t keen on the more horror-oriented Apocalypse Hill series Matt wrote. He has since removed the three-book set from Amazon and digitally erased any lingering evidence of it. Is he bitter about it? Hard to tell through all the crying.
Thanks again for all your feedback!
David.
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