The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for The Bennett Women
Because The Bennett Women 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.
Annelore Trujillo
I don't think I would have read this book just by looking at it. It didn't really seem interesting to me. After reading the first ten pages, I changed my mind. The writing style really pulled me in. I didn't notice any mistakes in the grammar of this story. It seems professionally edited. There also wasn't anything I could think of that needed improvement.
First Ten review added on July 31, 2016, at 3:25 pm by Annelore Trujillo.
truebookaddict
Yes, I decided to get the book after reading the positive OBC review. The blurb interested me, but the review sold me, especially after she mentioned the inclusion of a Christmas theme.
Yes, I will read the whole book (most likedly during the upcoming holiday season). Not only was I convinced by the OBC review, I also enjoyed the first ten pages.
The book is well-edited. I noticed no typos or grammatical errors.
I really liked the set up of the family dynamic. I can tell that the author knows how to tell a story about family. I was even very touched by the end of the first chapter. I had tears in my eyes. I really cannot suggest any improvements.
First Ten review added on July 31, 2016, at 12:38 pm by truebookaddict.
Heidi M Simone
Without this program, I most likely would not have sampled the book. I feel the cover and the title make it seem more like a nature-based memoir. Perhaps hiking in the woods somewhere. I've read a couple of these, and I think I could do without another one. However, after reading the blurb, looking at the reviews, and sampling the first ten pages, I realize that this is not the case. I've concluded that even with the story's positivity, I don't see myself finishing the book due to it not being able to hold my interest.
In the bit that I read, it seems like the book is professionally edited. What I enjoyed about this book so far is the idea of the multi-generation perspectives of three women. It seems like an interesting concept. An improvement I could see is to slow the transition from moving to one woman's perspective to the next because it felt rushed to me.
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 8:58 pm by Heidi M Simone.
Gravy
I love Muriel. This is not my type of fiction, but I could easily see being engrossed in this story. I would not have looked at it, though the cover is charming. I enjoyed the bait and switch of Lilia going to visit Ben, very clever and unexpected.
I noticed no errors, and enjoyed the sample a great deal, though it left off at the worst point. All the better to keep people reading!
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 8:25 pm by Gravy.
CataclysmicKnight
The cover looks so cute and serene, much like the brochures mentioned early in the book, so the first ten pages of the book were quite a shock! The book captures the relationship between the three generations of women exceptionally well. I already read a fair bit past the first ten pages to find out what was going on, and I'm sure I'll continue doing that until the end of the book as well!
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 7:45 pm by CataclysmicKnight.
gali
The cover is very fetching, but the blurb didn't really grab me. The sample was a nice surprise and I found it well-written. I liked the pace of the book and the way the author introduced the characters without further ado. As far as I noticed it was well-edited. The story interested me enough to want to finish it at some point.
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 2:11 pm by gali.
L_Therese
At first glance, I would be unlikely to purchase this book. While books about women facing crises and crossroads are sometimes excellent, the target audience is typically a woman older than I. In the first ten pages, I was pleasantly surprised by a more universal appeal. Three characters are introduced immediately: a mother, a daughter, and a grandmother. It is clear that each will be challenged by some kind of change as they continue to grow. The daughter seems about to graduate (probably high school), the mother is pushing the grandmother toward a retirement community, and the book starts hinting about the grandmother becoming lonely and possibly losing her independence. The cross-generational nature of the characters and the potential for each of them to deal with life changes means that whether younger or older, most women will relate to one or more of the characters. I changed my mind as I read these first pages; I do want to finish this book.
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 12:52 pm by L_Therese.
Vermont Reviews
I enjoyed reading the preview so much that I downloaded the complete book to read. The interactions of 3 generations is never easy. The author does a great job with her characters and descriptions. I do like the cover. I also looked over the reviews. Some of them were a bit critical. But then every reader is different. Looking forward to reading the rest of the book. It seemed to have been professionally edited.
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 11:23 am by Vermont Reviews.
bookowlie
The Amazon blurb made the story sounds like something I might like, although the summary is long-winded. The cover artwork are font used for the title is very appealing. I enjoyed reading the sample pages, although the pace was slow. The characters are likeable and I wanted to read more about them, especially Muriel. Based on the beginning, I would be interested in reading further.
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 10:53 am by bookowlie.
Rachaelamb1
I like the cover and description of the book, although the title makes me think of Pride and Prejudice. I'm not sure I got a very good understanding of the book from only ten pages. It seems like it will be a heartwarming story, but it is a little slow. Even so, it appears to be well written and I want to read further.
First Ten review added on July 30, 2016, at 10:47 am by Rachaelamb1.
Total ~ 90%
The Bennett Women earned a score of 90%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 90% 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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