The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for Terms of Service: Subject to change without notice
Because Terms of Service was Book of the Day, some of our most trusted members have carefully looked over the cover, the description, and other aspects of this book as a part of purchase-intent focus group. We then asked each participant in the focus group if they planned to buy and read the book, and why they planned to buy and read the book or not. Their answer to that question and reasons are displayed below. We call this awesome feature The First Ten Focus Group.
Keep in mind, the responses from the members are not reviews. This is purchase-intent focus group which means the participants are people who have NOT yet bought or read your book. A purchase-intent focus group is an important and extremely useful marketing tool for any product, not just books. For other products, you might walk on the street and show people an item in a package and poll them about whether they would buy if or $X or not. These kind of focus groups are one of the ways big marketing companies find the ideal price points for products and test the effectiveness of different packaging. The focus group can help you identify your market so you how to target ads of your book, and it can (but may not) provide you new useful info about your "packaging" (e.g. your book cover, your book synopsis on Amazon, etc.). The point of the focus group comments is to give you information from people who have not bought or read your book about why they plan to buy your book which will help you in marketing the book. These are not reviews or critiques of your book because they are not from people have read the book. This is a marketing tool, not reviews. The trick of book marketing and book advertising is that you have to convince people who have not read your book yet that your book is worth buying and reading. For marketing, it doesn't matter much if people love your book after reading it if you cannot convince potential buyers before they read it that they will love it.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable. This is because we only poll about 20 or so readers, and all readers have to say "no" to almost all books. Over a million books are published each year. Even a very active reader cannot come close to even reading 1% of books out there.
This is also why publishing books is such a tough industry.
Favour Amarachi Mgbeoji
The review I read caught my attention. I believe I would pick this book even if I wasn’t part of this program because I am a science fiction fanatic, sort of a nerd. The title was very catchy. The cover page art was captivating as well. I believe it will be attractive to most science fiction fans. After reading the first ten pages, the chances of buying the book dropped because I expected the allure of the cover page and title to be carried over in the first few pages to seal the deal, but I was disappointed.
My disappointment came from expecting the first pages to capture my attention but they didn’t, leaving me to wonder if the rest of the book would be the same. However, I found no errors in the sample. I like the way the author tried to show some practical uses of the AI technology and how it can aid in one's daily life. I didn’t like the way it made me presume the book was about a person's daily life with the AI technology. I expected world events as the title suggested. However, I would proceed with this book based on the first ten pages I read.
First Ten review added on April 4, 2023, at 4:05 am by Favour Amarachi Mgbeoji.
Nisha DSouza
The book has an interesting title and cover. The blurb and the official OBC review were very intriguing. This book has been on my “To read” list for quite some time now because of all the great reviews I have read on OBC. There were many positive Amazon customer comments. I sampled the first chapter and was pleasantly surprised at how unique the storyline of this book was. I applaud the author’s imagination. I felt transported to the futuristic world described in the book. I did not enjoy the virtual game scene narrated; I could not understand the game because I didn’t know the rules. I assume the game referred to there was baseball, which is popular in the U.S. However, non-American readers may not be familiar with the game. But that is on a personal note and a petty concern. The rest of the sample was very creative, and I would love to get this book soon. I found two minor errors in the first ten pages; I have provided the details below.
Location 100 of 487
Error 1: Yes, of course the game was rigged.
Explanation: A comma is required after ‘of course’.
Location 100 of 487
Error 2: Yes, of course the AIs blatantly cheated.
Explanation: A comma is required after ‘of course’.
First Ten review added on April 3, 2023, at 10:25 pm by Nisha DSouza.
Patty Allread
I was already familiar with this book through OBC. I read the OBC review and forum comments, which influenced me to buy and read "Terms of Service." The title of the book caught my interest. However, even after reading the book, I don't completely understand the cover art. The Amazon blurb gives a good summary without giving too much away, and the editorial and customer reviews were mostly good. I had not read them when I purchased the book.
There was nothing I didn't like about this book. I love the book's premise and the early scene of Kim getting ready for work and traveling on the subway. Her character is well-drawn through her thoughts and observations. The author showed a lot of skill in doing that. The dystopian future world is chilling because it expands on some of the things happening right now in our society. Since I had already read the book, I didn't sample it again. I don't recall seeing errors in the early pages of this book.
Since I already bought and read the featured book, I'll mark it a "no" because I am not buying another one. I liked this book so much that I bought and read the sequel and loved that too. If Stanfill writes more, I will read it.
First Ten review added on April 3, 2023, at 8:37 pm by Patty Allread.
OTrain Disene
Told in a third-person point of view, the first ten pages of this book introduce us to the life of Kim. Kim lives in an AI-dystopian era, where AI has dominated the world and has taken the role of the world’s oppressor. We see this when one of her friends complains about AI cheating in the ball game. I loved how authentic the descriptions were. They wafted me as a reader into this make-believe world I was totally unfamiliar with. What I disliked was that the writing was a bit slow. The scenes were moving slowly. The cover and title gave me the impression that this was a nonfiction book, so judging by those, I wouldn’t have selected this book if I had come across it outside this programme. I will not be reading this book because I am not interested in this type of genre. I don’t have any suggestions. The bit I read was exceptionally edited, as I came across no errors.
First Ten review added on April 3, 2023, at 7:36 pm by OTrain Disene.
Owuamanam Eberechukwu
This is a great book on AI. With the strong manifestation of AI, reading this book would be nice. The book opened with Kim in her bedroom. She got drunk the night before and was knocked out in the morning. The AI house assistant made her a morning coffee and the rest. The author's ability to weave everyday life scenes with an AI is great, and I love it. The pages I read were exceptionally edited. I do not have any recommendations for the author. The cover design and title are a great fit. If my decision to buy and read the book were to be made based on the cover design and title, then I would buy and read the book. However, my current reading interest is metaphysical realms. On this note, I will not buy and read this book. These are my personal thoughts and were not influenced by comments, reviews, or blurbs on OBC or not.
First Ten review added on April 3, 2023, at 8:26 am by Owuamanam Eberechukwu.
This book appears to have been Book of the Day more than once. Only responses from the most recent Book of the Day focus group are shown. Older responses have been hidden by default to avoid confusion. If you would like to also view the older first ten responses, you can unhide them by clicking the button below.
Total ~ 40%
Terms of Service earned a score of 40%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 40% plan to read the whole book.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable.
Over a million books are published each year. Any given person could not even read .0001% of the books out there. This means readers have to be very selective. Even taking the time to look over reviews and blurbs, let alone read samples, is more time than most readers can afford for most books. The First Ten is a powerful focus group that addresses those issues. It creates a helpful tool for authors, publishers, and other readers.
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