
The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for The Coal'd War
Because The Coal'd War 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.
Heidi M Simone

Without this program, I would not have sampled this book. The cover isn't very appealing, the title isn't eye-catching for me, and the blurb proves this book would be too political for me. Personally, I don't tend to enjoy spy/political thrillers. There are no customer reviews, and the OBC review mentions this book has some errors, which I don't like, and that it would be good for those who enjoy reading about the Cold War and spy novels, which I don't.
Based on what I read, the book could use another round of editing. For example, the line, "Her words were cut short as he scowled; 'Get me a drink.'", a semi-colon should be replaced by a comma. Also, the formatting could be improved. There is an inconsistency of paragraph spacing and odd spacing throughout. I think the author captured Plakinov's harsh and aggressive nature well toward the beginning. However, the excitement in the Prologue dwindled within the first chapter as the reader follows Gennardy and Tony spending time together. I don't have any investment in their outing or discussion afterward at Tony's place. Due to my lack of interest and the amount of errors and formatting issues, I do not plan on buying and reading this book.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 7:11 am by Heidi M Simone.
MarisaRose

I'm not a huge fan of spy thrillers, so 'The Coal'd War' is not a book I would choose to purchase blindly. The OBC review didn't sway my opinion much in this case, despite the positive feedback, mostly because the genre just doesn't pique my interest. After reading the first ten pages, I thought the author did a great job of setting the scene. The tone of the book is apparent from the very first scene set in Moscow. I could feel the cold as if I was in Russia myself. However, I did find the writing a little tedious at points. Although there were no noticeable grammatical errors, the narrate tended to meander and lose my interest. Due to the tedious writing and uninteresting topic, I don't plan to read any more of this book.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 7:09 am by MarisaRose.
Mercelle

From this book's cover, I wasn't intent on reading it. The review was informative but because it indicates that the book is about, the cold war, I envisioned a dull, boring read. This is a huge contrast to what I came across when I read the sample. From the onset, the story was captivating and I liked how the author painted a realistic picture of what the Poles experienced in England. I also appreciated that I encountered no errors and I hope the rest of the book is just as flawless. I, however, won't read the whole book because my to-read list is presently too long. As it is, there's absolutely nothing I would change about the book.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 3:34 am by Mercelle.
SPasciuti

I wasn't very interested in this book based on its blurb and reviews prior to reading the sample. I think the cover likely fits the book, but nothing about it really grabs my attention. The sample starts off with a vaguely intriguing prologue, but I found myself growing irritated extremely fast.
The formatting of the sample is absolutely atrocious and makes it difficult to read. I can't stand how the paragraphs are set up and it is therefore incredibly distracting to continue reading the story. There is a lot of exposition in the first chapter and what little dialogue there is has been muddled up by the way the sample is formatted. I don't feel like I know the characters well at all thus far and ultimately the book had a hard time capturing my attention thanks to the disjointed way in which the paragraphs were set up.
The book, or sample, really needs to be reformatted and that is the major improvement I would suggest for this books. Paragraphs either need to be separated by two lines or begin with an indent. They should all have the same right alignment and random paragraphs should not have a left alignment out of the blue.
I won't be reading this one partially due to my lack of interest, but also because the formatting frustrated me so much.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 2:33 am by SPasciuti.
Annelore Trujillo

I would not have sampled this book based on the genre, blurb, and OBC review. The Cold War isn't a time period that I really enjoy reading about. After reading the first ten pages, I won't be finishing this book. The content isn't for me, so I really found myself struggling to get through the first pages. I also thought the writing was a little dry. I did like the cover. I thought it was unique. It didn't seem to be professionally edited as there were several missing commas throughout the sample.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 2:17 am by Annelore Trujillo.
Vickie Noel

I'm not big on war stories that are so obvious from the cover page so I probably wouldn't have sampled the book outside the program. Reading the first ten pages reiterated my initial opinion. The plot was slow and boring, unable to pull me in. I didn't find anything particularly interesting, personally. There are way too many errors tripping over themselves, specifically missing commas and incorrect punctuation that the flow was tough. For example, "On a January night in 1981 the door of the sanctum sanctorum of the Politburo meeting room..." Only a skilled reader would read fluently at first glance and understand without having to reread the sentences. Thus, the book lacks professional editing and needs another round of proof reading. The OBC review was slightly stimulating but after reading the sample, my interest capsized.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 1:57 am by Vickie Noel.
IsabelMay

I avoid reading political novels since they all support some kind of a propaganda in the end, so I sampled the book only thanks to this program. The thing that ruined the book for me is the formatting. Weird spaces before sentences, uneven spacing between paragraphs, indents and all sorts of things I can't believe are there since this is a published work. It completely ruined the reading experience. The story itself isn't bad, it flows nicely and it isn't as dull as I thought it would be. The book seems proofread, if not edited. The book is unreadable due to the formatting, so I won't be buying it. No reviews could convince me otherwise.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 1:53 am by IsabelMay.
Catherine Hsu

If I had not read the sample I would not have read the book as I do not think the book is my genre, though I do think that the title is interesting. After reading the sample I have not changed my mind. There were just too many formatting errors where sentences would be divided in the middle, and all the dialogue was lacking correct punctuation. For example, the first one was "I am in no mood for stupid pleasantries" - there is supposed to be a comma after the sentence, but that is lacking. Heavy editing is needed. I did not read the sample but that did not change my mind.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 1:21 am by Catherine Hsu.
Jaime Lync

The Coal'd War by James Alan Thompson did not attract me in any way so I would not have sampled it had it not been for the first ten program. Judging from the book cover, first ten pages, and the book review, this is a story about the Soviet Union trying to make the United Kingdom (starting with England) into part of their communist regime. There were a number of characters introduced in the sample I read and I was not able to connect with any of them. This sentence," The United Kingdom was to Europe what Cuba was to have been to the United States in 1963." in the prologue just seems very faulty. Other than this, the book seems to have been professionally edited. I am not interested in reading this book but those who like stories pertaining to the cold war may find this intriguing.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 12:12 am by Jaime Lync.
jwalker73

This is not a book I would have looked at if not for the First Ten program. I am not interested in novels with political themes. I did not understand the title at first, but after reading the blurb and review it made sense. The first ten were descriptive and introduced several of the characters and some of the issues/themes. Despite this, there was nothing in the sample that grabbed my attention from early on to make me want to keep reading. From a spelling point of view, the book appears well edited, however, reading the sample on kindle cloud reader was not particularly easy. There were multiple blank lines inserted mid sentence (e.g. location 80 and 100) and some sentences continuing after an indent or midway through the line (e.g. loc. 191). I still do not intend to read this book do to my lack of interest in this novel's genre.
First Ten review added on April 10, 2018, at 12:11 am by jwalker73.
Afuglsan

This doesn't look like or sound like a book for me. I don't like this type of genre either. Quite frankly, it's all a bit dry for me. The reviews were fine, but again, I don't like these kinds of books. The formatting of the first ten pages were off. The writing itself was fine, but it was dry. Nothing exciting happened to grab readers' attention. I didn't really enjoy reading the first ten. I didn't see any editorial issues, but I will not be reading the rest of the book.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 10:48 pm by Afuglsan.
Christina O Phillips

The title and cover match, but did not catch my attention. The summary was informative, but this is not my usual genre so without this program I would have skipped this sample. I noticed some minor punctuation issues that could be errors or the author's preference (single quotations rather than double and a lack of commas before closing the quotations), but other than that this seems to be professionally edited. There was a lot of telling rather than showing in this sample. The dialogue did not feel natural, but that could also be because of the setting. While there is nothing wrong with the book (the plot moved, the situations explained and could be interesting), this is just not my kind of story so I will not be buying it.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 6:10 pm by Christina O Phillips.
Bluecobia

The title is a good play on words for this story. The amazon and book club reviews support this being an interesting read. Having lived through these years I am not inclined to rehash them. I probably would not have read further if I were not part of this program. Reading the first ten pages I found that the story has some depth and a decent plot line. I could guess some of the direction it would take early on. This is good and bad. It sets a tone but makes it harder to suprise the reader. From the reviews and the first pages I see more political games than I care to read about and remember. So I don't plan on reading the rest of this book. I did not see any editorial errors in the first ten pages so I presume that it was professionally edited.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 5:17 pm by Bluecobia.
Izesicle

Had I not actually sampled the first ten pages as part of this program, I would have chosen to read or sample this book based on the pun in the title.
I am not going to buy and read the whole book because of the typos and formatting mistakes that the review mentioned.
Based on what I read, the book seems like it was not professionally edited. I did notice a lot of typo or grammar errors. The first page alone was missing some commas and a dash.
What I like the most in the bit I read is the vivid description. It was easy for me to imagine the scenes.
What could be improved is to shorten the title or remove the subtitle. It sounds like it's non-fiction.
The book has an Official OnlineBookClub review that I saw.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 3:22 pm by Izesicle.
Scerakor

From the cover, review, and blurb on this book I may have picked it up. I love the idea behind the book and am a sucker for novels around espionage. After reading the first ten pages I didn't change my mind. I love that the book got right to the chase and the plot was identified from the get go. I did notice a few formatting errors, usually in the form of awkward, mid-sentence, line breaks. Although I won't be buying it right now, I will definitely keep this one in mind for a future read (and therefor say yes below). The official review did not affect my decision at all.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 1:13 pm by Scerakor.
ReviewerDiksha

I like reading political thrillers, especially, the ones with the setting of Russia. So, I could have bought this book. I didn't get to read its review so I didn't know much about it, just anticipated things from its title. I read the sample, and one thing is clear- the title is pretty apt. The prologue had the air of secrecy with a plan hatching out in a KGB officer's house. The writing style was good. The precisely written lines not only provided a good picture, but also added an essential pace to the story. I didn't see any grammatical mistakes.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 11:08 am by ReviewerDiksha.
Sarah_Khan

At first glance, I would not have picked this book up because the plot does not seem unique. The title and cover do not interest me. I found a couple of missing comas in the first few pages, so I would say that it does not seem professionally edited. The OBC review was favorable, but it made me think that this book would be hard to keep up with. Overall, nothing in the first ten pages piqued my interest. Therefore, I do not intend to read the rest.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 9:44 am by Sarah_Khan.
RebeccasReading

This is a book I would have normally read. I enjoy historical thrillers. After reading the sample, my opinion is the same. I enjoy the topic the most. However, I also think the cover, description, and writing are excellent. My suggestion for improvement is the editing. I noticed that all of the speech in the sample uses an apostrophe instead of quotation marks. For this reason, it doesn't seem to be professionally edited.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 8:14 am by RebeccasReading.
Cristina Chifane

The word play in the title (The Co(a)l'd War) is cleverly chosen by the author to synthetize the storyline of a novel which the Amazon blurb describes as a strong, fast-paced thriller. I also think the cover is appropriate because of its symbolism related to the Cold War. If it had not been for this program, I would not have chosen this book especially since there are no additional editorial or customer reviews on Amazon. I know how many people like reading spy or political thrillers, therefore I am convinced the OnlineBookClub community will provide the necessary feedback to boost the book's popularity and the eventual sales figures. Everyone would be curious to enter the mysterious world of secret agents. The prologue immediately caught my attention by starting in the aftermath of a top-level KGB meeting. I noticed the author's descriptive skills and I appreciate his grim portrayal of Yuri Plakinov, the newly appointed head of the KGB. At the end of the prologue, the readers are left wondering how the two KGB colonels, Cheslav and Andrei will accomplish their mission of creating economic difficulties for The United Kingdom. Chapter 1 preserves the fast-paced rhythm imposed by the prologue. Two years later after Yuri Plakinov's orders, the action moves to Newcastle upon Tyne and follows a delegation of Polish miners. I think the author does a good job in describing the cultural differences Gennardy Mardosov experiences and his gradual understanding of the fact that he had been subjected to manipulation and political propaganda all his life. A keen eye for detail helps Thompson to sketch the subtle contrast between Ray Mullaney's revolutionary claims and his real self dictating him to profit from his cosy life and to get along with things as usual. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the OnlineBookClub official reviewer in terms of editing and formatting. Although I was impressed with the plot and writing style, I will only give this book a chance after another round of proofreading.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 3:16 am by Cristina Chifane.
N_R

This book sounded wonderful and I was looking forward to reading the sample. However, I was quite disappointed with the spelling errors and formatting problems. Something quite basic, i.e the spelling of Comrades, was quite disappointing and I do not like books that have a lot of spelling errors as they are quite distracting. Also, the formatting was quite strange where sentences would end halfway through and the rest of it would continue on the next page. For these reasons, I am not going to buy and read the whole book. This does not appear to be professionally edited and proofread. The review for this book was positive, although did note the issues with the formatting and spelling which is why they did not rate it as a 4 out of 4. I think that my favorite part of the book was the description of the general as this reflects my thoughts about how they would behave and the kind of attitude that they would have.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 3:12 am by N_R.
Bruin Dez

I most likely would not pick this book to read because the genre is not something that I am interested in. I might have given it a try if there were high ratings or an official book review to learn more about what the book is about. I was pleasantly surprised, after reading a few chapters, at how interested I was in learning more about the characters. The story is well written, with very good descriptions of the surroundings and characters. I did notice that “treacherous” is misspelled in the title. There were also inconsistencies in the line spacing in between paragraghs. This gave me the impression that the book was not well edited and I did not want to continue reading it.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 12:58 am by Bruin Dez.
BookishCreature

At first glance, I would not have picked this book up. Political thrillers aren't my cup of tea, so despite the premise being interesting enough, this just isn't a book for me. After reading the first ten pages, the first thing that stood out is that the book really needs a good proofreading. There are many missing commas and a lot of incorrectly punctuated dialogue. The first sentence of the prologue alone would benefit from a comma after '1981' and 'opened' - it would make the line much easier to read. There's also a weird formatting error where the text seems to have hard page-breaks that don't translate well to an e-reader. Between the errors and the genre, I have no interest in finishing the book.
First Ten review added on April 9, 2018, at 12:06 am by BookishCreature.
ScoutWrites

I think the title of this work is clever, but I would not have read the book based on the cover, genre, or customer reviews because it does not seem like my kind of genre. Nothing in the first ten pages caused me to change my mind about buying the book. Mostly I think it is the language and writing style that caused me to decide not to read the book, because the words fail to draw me into the action of the story. In the sample I read, I noticed some odd page breaks as well as errors in the way some of the quotations were punctuated, so it looks to me like it could use polishing. What I like most about this book is the clever title, but the voice tended to be somewhat passive and kept me feeling distant from the action, and that is why I will pass on this one. Reading the official OnlineBookClub review for this book helped to confirm my decision.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 11:26 pm by ScoutWrites.
bookowlie

This is not the type of book I would have sampled on my own, as spy novels and international political thrillers are not my cup of tea. Also, despite giving an overall positive rating, the OBC reviewer mentioned serious formatting errors that I think would be distracting. The Amazon blurb appears to be edited well and gives a clear explanation of the plot. Although the subject matter was interesting to me, I can see this story appealing to readers who enjoy international thrillers. Unfortunately, I found several formatting errors in the sample pages (extra line breaks, inconsistent indenting, incorrect line breaks in the middle of a line) as well as grammatical errors (missing dialogue punctuation). I wasn't surprised by these errors as this was pointed out in the OBC review. However, I was surprised to see so many formatting errors in the first few pages. It made me think the entire book would be full of these errors. On a positive note, the author did a good job of describing the Russian setting and the dialogue was realistically written. There are a lot of characters introduced in the beginning and I found the story a little busy. While the characters might become more defined as the story progresses, I am not interested enough in the subject matter and genre to continue reading.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 10:50 pm by bookowlie.
NL Hartje

I think the cover art is fitting for the book's contents and will likely call to those who enjoy war or economic stories. There were no Amazon reviews to reference but after comparing the sample to an OnlineBookClub review, I heartily agree with the commentary on missed edits. Within the first ten alone, there were missed commas after introductory phrases and interjections, inconsistent word spellings, and misplaced apostrophes. I think of any wartime era, the cold war would least appeal to me on a literature basis. Although one can certainly find a sense of intrigue when the KGB is involved, I am not overly sold on an economic shutout being a page-turner. I might have given this one a chance if only to read more about the inner workings of the KGB, but the multitude of mistakes immediately turn me away.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 10:00 pm by NL Hartje.
CrescentMoon

After reading the blurb, I think I would pick this book up because I really like the genre and premise. Spy thrillers and action are so much fun to read. After reading the first ten pages, I didn't really see any spelling or grammar errors. I think the author did a good job laying down the groundwork and setting up the story by introducing the scenery and characters. However, I did find it dry and pretty boring. I'm sure the action will definitely pick up later in the book, but I just wasn't hooked into reading the rest so I'll pass on this one.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 9:30 pm by CrescentMoon.
ccrews0408

Based on the review, had I not read the first 10 pages, I would not have read this book. I don't usually enjoy historical fiction nor do I like war novels. I also didn't care too much for the plot of the story. Now that I have read the first 10 pages, I still don't plan on reading this book. The book was well-written and the story seemed like it would develop rapidly, but it still didn't hold my interest. I didn't notice any typos or grammatical errors and there was an official OnlineBookClub review.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 8:45 pm by ccrews0408.
Tbunde5

Though the graphics are great, the title of the book is a poor play on words. It was difficult to see the plot development in the opening chapters. The Kindle formatting is messed up, leaving partially blank pages and right-justification on others. That was almost as distracting as the horrible editing. There are multiple punctuation errors on every page, which left me frustrated and distracted from the story. The OBC review acknowledges the formatting problems but not the other errors. Although the reviewer states that the pace picks up later in the book, I don’t think I would be able to slog through the first half in the hope it gets better. I will not be reading this book.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 8:42 pm by Tbunde5.
micoleon13

While this is a well done cover page and the title is a clever nod towards the Cold War, this doesn't really grab my attention. The OnlineBookClub review outlined the story well, with the title explained by the plot incorporating the miners. The fact that there were many writing errors mentioned further put me off reading it. The pages which I read were well written, but it was immediately apparent that the editing and formatting were an issue, with some pages having just one word, and others having odd paragraph spacing. The introduction from the KGB side sets the scene well, but I found the story moving too slowly. I would recommend another check with the editor to format correctly. I will not be continuing with this book.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 7:27 pm by micoleon13.
kfwilson6

The genre and plot of this book did not appeal to me. The onlinebookclub review provided a little more detail about the storyline and further convinced me I would not enjoy this book. The sample chapters were slow and boring. There was way too much character introduction. The e-version does not seem to have been edited professionally. There is a typo on the cover and the formatting is all over the place shifting from left alignment to right alignment and there are weird section breaks. I would absolutely not read this book. There wasn't really anything I enjoyed about the sample.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 7:01 pm by kfwilson6.
Seraphia Bunny Sparks

After reading a sample of, The Coal'd War by James Alan Thompson, I have decided that I will not be reading this book. At first glance, I didn't think that this book would appeal to me. When I first saw this book, I thought it would be non-fiction. The reason why I say this is because of the cover and the title. When I read the blurb about this book, I learned it was a political thriller about the Cold War. If I had not read a sample of this book, I would not have picked it up. The Cold War has never been a subject of interest for me. I do enjoy political thrillers, but this book did not pique my interest. As I read a few pages of this book, the author does not engage my interest in the story. The pace the author sets is slow and ponderous. I was hoping that the author would give some information of the meeting mentioned in the beginning. Plakinov appears tired and out of sorts, but the author doesn't indicate why. I feel disconnected and disinterested in the story. Based on what I have read this book appears to be professionally edited. This book does have an official OnlineBookClub review. The reviewer points out some positives of the story but does not engage my interest. I don't feel that this book will be a good fit for me. I will not be purchasing this book or putting it on my to-be-read shelf.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 6:57 pm by Seraphia Bunny Sparks.
ladycraic

I would not have chosen to sample The Coal'd War as neither the title nor the cover appealed to me. This is not surprising as I'm not interested in reading books centered around certain historical events like wars, etc. Terms like "Soviet Union" and "Cold War" ultimately made me question whether I would enjoy reading the sample of this novel. I was doubtful of the plot's ability to capture my interest. The sample was a slow read for me as I felt disconnected from what I was reading. The plot did not engage my attention and that is the sole reason I will not be reading this novel. Seeing as I did spot quite a few mechanical errors, my suggestion for the author would be to have an editor look through the novel if he hasn't already. The official OBC review didn't influence my decision.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 6:49 pm by ladycraic.
Chelsy Scherba

The cover design is beautiful and vividly illustrates the war between freedom and communism which is the subject of the book. The review mentioned the book’s ebook format is bad, but the sample looked fine as far as I could tell. I didn’t see any typos or errors. This isn’t really the kind of book I tend to read, so the first ten pages didn’t change my mind. I’m not big on war or communism, especially fiction. The book is fine though and I’m sure it can find an audience, especially since the end is exciting to read. I like that it has a definite end, but leaves the possibility for sequels also. This isn’t my genre, so although the cover catches my eye, the sample didn’t really inspire me to read further.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 6:03 pm by Chelsy Scherba.
Azeline Arcenal

After reading the first ten pages, I decided not to finish reading the book. The sample wasn't interesting enough for me and I don't really like reading thrillers either. I do like the book cover and title so if I were to sample the book based on just the cover and title, I probably would have chosen to sample it because they both look interesting. While reading the sample, I didn't notice any grammatical errors either. I also read the official OBC review for this book which was helpful in solidifying my decision on taking a pass on this book. There isn't anything I would change anything about this book.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 5:58 pm by Azeline Arcenal.
DancingLady

The title of this book intrigued me because it reminds me of our current controversies regarding coal in the US. After reading the review, I thought it sounded like a good book, but not one I particularly want to read. The first 10 pages were well written and quickly build tension to draw the reader into the story. I enjoyed reading about the plot to spy and the cleverness of using miners to infiltrate but was not interested enough to buy it. I didn't find any spelling or grammar issues in the sample, but I did see some major formatting problems. There are large spaces and gaps throughout the text that make it look very choppy. It appears that paragraphs are not always separated by a double space, and sometimes there is a large gap in the middle of a sentence. This really needs to be corrected because it interrpts the flow of the text.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 3:51 pm by DancingLady.
Emmanae

I don’t know that I would have sampled this book without the First Ten program, as war books aren’t typically my thing. I enjoyed the sample, but don’t think I’ll buy and read the whole book. I did thoroughly enjoy the moment when the KGB guy had his assistants/bodyguards learn English as part of a scheme. Most of the reason for not reading the book are the layout errors, though I do have a lot of books on my TBR list. I noticed in the sample there were a couple of half blank pages, like the official OBC review says. This leads me to believe the book may not have been professionally edited, at least for kindles.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 3:16 pm by Emmanae.
CataclysmicKnight

I'll admit, when I first saw this title I assumed this would be some kind of farcical [?] novel. I probably wouldn't have checked the book out any further based on that first glance if it wasn't the book of the day.
I'll admit, when I first saw this title I assumed this would be some kind of farcical novel. I probably wouldn't have checked the book out any further based on that first glance if it wasn't the book of the day.
The introduction of the book was rather interesting, going into some secret Soviet plans. Although they don't go into great detail here about what the plans are, the Amazon description clears that up, which explains why chapter one then jumps to coal miners. This bit really covers in an interesting way the terrible circumstances the coal miners face. The bit I've read of the first chapter was intriguing, but I really haven't been won over by the book as a whole yet. It sounds like there's a lot of promise here, and I saw no errors yet, but it just didn't capture my attention yet.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 2:22 pm by CataclysmicKnight.
Snowflake

The title and cover give a very good indication of what this book is about. The Amazon blurb was good too. This is not a genre I often read so it is unlikely that I would have sampled this book without the first ten pages program. The sample was good. I did not notice any obvious typos or grammar errors. The text flowed smoothly and the characters were well depicted. I enjoyed learning about the characters and the plot seemed to be setting up well and fairly clearly. This really is not one of my favoured genres though, and so I do not plan to read the rest of this book.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 1:53 pm by Snowflake.
desantismt_17

Neither the title, description, nor other information about this book made me want to read it before I read the sample. I don’t often enjoy reading spy novels or thrillers. After sampling, I won’t be reading this book. The formatting is all over the place, and the writing is sloppy. I struggled getting through the first ten pages. Sentences like “The four then made their way in silence down the wide, carpeted staircase and through to a side door leading to four massive, chauffeur driven, Russian built, black limousines” are both long and information overload. This style kept up through what I read, and if it continues throughout the book, it would greatly hinder my reading experience. I also noticed many punctuation errors, mainly the lack of commas of direct address in dialogue. Only reading the sample, I’m not sure how I feel about a prologue. Often prologues are not necessary for a story to make sense. Thus far, the pacing is too slow. This book could benefit from a professional edit (as it does not seem it has had one) and a reworking of the pacing in at least the beginning. The best thing of what I read is the characterization. The characters feel real and developed. The OnlineBookClub.org review I read did not change my mind. I won’t be picking up this book because it does not interest me and because the writing is poor.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 1:04 pm by desantismt_17.
ritah

Based on the cover and title, I wouldn't have sampled the book because it doesn't look like a novel I'd typically pick up for myself. I read the official review and then sampled The Coal'd War. I noticed the issue with the format mentioned in the review (a sentence that leaves a half blank page and continues on the next page). I also noticed a few sentences where I thought there should have been comma usage. An example,
'With the door closed Plakinov swept the open palm of his hand across his body indicating where the men should sit.' I think the book would read better with additional editing and a reader-friendly format. I will not be reading the rest of the book because I felt the narrative isn't for me, as I didn't feel compelled to read on after I had sampled it.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 12:27 pm by ritah.
MsTri

Both the cover and title immediately let me know that this is not a book for me, as I could already tell that it's not a genre I enjoy. (With that being said, I DO like the pun involved in the title.) The synopsis and review confirmed these initial thoughts. The sample read was very difficult due to the formatting issues and my lack of interest in the subject matter. The one thing that made me smile was when Gennardy and the miners went to the supermarket and shop and were astounded by them. The only suggestion I have is to have the book properly edited. I will definitely NOT be reading this beyond the provided sample.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 12:16 pm by MsTri.
Helen_Combe

The cover is very good, it says everything about the book in one visual statement. However, I wouldn’t read the book as I find it rather close to home. My parents live in Yorkshire and feelings still run high there. Whole towns bitterly resent the destruction of their livelihood when the strike was broken and the pits were closed. Therefore, a fictionalisation of the political climate of the 1980s doesn’t appeal to me.
The OnlineBookClub review mentioned punctuation and formatting issues which I find really off-putting in a book. I read the sample and did indeed find that a lot of commas, and in one case, a full stop were missing. There should always be a comma before someone is addressed. The formatting was also haphazard. I was reading the sample on an iPad on Safari (if that helps at all).
What I liked best about the book was the cover which I believe would be very attractive to people interested in the politics of this troubled time. I was puzzled by the section where Gennardy is laughed at for saying that Russia put the first man into space and invented the TV. I know that they didn’t invent the TV, but I’m pretty sure that Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 11:42 am by Helen_Combe.
lavellan

I probably would have read the sample of The Coal'd War if it had not been a part of The First Ten program. The Book of the Day review made the story seem exciting and left me curious as to who would win the war. The book seemed like it was professionally edited and I did not notice any errors. I enjoyed the premise of the book. I was curious to find out if the Russians' plan would be successful. To improve the review, I would have liked to have seen more information on the Russians. I probably will not buy the book today because I'm not really interested in spy novels.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 10:49 am by lavellan.
gali

I wouldn't have sampled the book on my own, as I am not fond of Political Thrillers. Neither the cover nor the blurb enticed me. The cold war theme isn't very original, not to say passé. Reading the sample strengthened my first impression. The sample was slow to start and didn't grab my attention. There were too many dialogues and not enough action, and I quickly lost interest. I liked the way the author compared between the polish and English miners' lifestyles, though. It rang true. The book could use another round of editing. There were some extra words right at the start (the word 'sanctum' appeared twice), missing commas, and few run-away sentences. I won't read the book, as the topic does not really interest me. The official review didn't sway my decision either way.
First Ten review added on April 8, 2018, at 7:15 am by gali.
Total ~ 7%
The Coal'd War earned a score of 7%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 7% 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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