Give it to me straight, I can take it.
This week I received a royalty check for the first few months of Hearts of Iron sales. It’s not huge, and I’m no means bragging. But it marks a particular milestone in my career, and it leads into a post I’ve been meaning to write for some time.
Again, the check is small, but many royalty checks are. Given how my contract is structured, it’s for foreign sales only (namely Canadian, European, and in the UK), but it comes with a handy accounting of exactly how many copies have made it into the hands of readers in the last few months.
And before I forget, I’d like to thank those of you who happen to live in Canada, the EU, and the UK. According to my handy piece of paper, there’s enough of you out there to make me a very happy nerd.
So, why haven’t I heard from you? As of this morning, there are a grand total of 3 reviews on Amazon.uk. The main product listing has 10, and as above, I thank all of you for your comments.
Especially the two who didn’t like it.
I’ve asked before for folks to post their reviews of Hearts of Iron on Amazon.com. Other than my Mother (4 stars!) and one other, so far I don’t recognize any of the names associated with the comments posted there. Those of you who’ve volunteered your opinions in-person make me happy, even those who read it only because I wrote it, and didn’t care for it.
I won’t go into sales numbers here, but I’d be a lot happier if I had a better sample of how the book is being received other than numbers on a spreadsheet. As I continue working on new projects, real feedback is more and more important. Whenever someone is honest with me about what they take away from my work, the next book/story/sidewalk poetry gets that much better. But a favorable review helps someone else discover the book, and the more that are posted, the more visibility it gets.
So I’m asking, again, for those of you who’ve picked up a copy of Hearts of Iron to take a few minutes and share some honest impressions on the amazon storefront.
