Focus Group Feedback

Ok everyone…

The results are in. The over four hour Focus Group debrief was audio recorded for my benefit. And, I just finished listening to all of it.

A lot of very helpful information and very positive feedback!

At a high level, the critical questions were all answered in the positive:

(1) did you enjoy it – 100% yes, but first half needs work – slow in parts

(2) would you recommend it – 100% yes

There was a lot of very positive feedback on the overall story, the characters, and the various twists and reveals.

The main criticism was that the first half of the book needs trimming to keep the action moving more rapidly.

Everyone loved the second half, with several readers using expressions like “page turner” and “couldn’t put it down.”

And the twists and surprises were unexpected, and fun.

So, after taking all of that information on board, I’ve decided to take a month to go through another edit and tighten things up overall, and especially in the first half.

This will push some of our deadlines for publication slightly, but the first critical piece that we agreed to for our indie experiment is that the product can’t get in our way.

The books, the series, have to be top notch.

First we get that right, then we do the rest.

In the meantime, we will of course be working on other aspects of the launch.