Uphill push

I had a seller get back to me at 12:30 and at 1:00 the bank closes. Not to mention they closed two more branches and that meant I had 22 minutes to get 1.6 miles...uphill.

Made it. Was a little drained the rest of the day, though! The biggest upside to not having a car is with all the exercise I'm getting I am really starting to feel more my old self. (That is, as opposed to my old self.)

***

Just had another Fiverr artist: "Don't bother with the 3d book models, here's the page with the current book and cover, show me some different ideas."

Two days radio silence on a four-day order window. Then, "You forgot to tell me the book title."

Right. Not a good sign, but it was only twenty bucks and by this point I pretty much knew what to expect anyhow. Two days later, two (not the promised three) concepts...complete with 3d book models.

But they were different than anything I'd thought of before (well, okay, one of them is -- the other is actually the front image on my writing website) so I thanked her and marked it complete and payable.

No tip.

***

Meanwhile over on Pubby I asked for a KEDP review instead; that's the one that tracks page views. He completed and turned in his review...remember, I am paying for this service...at 73 pages out of 464 (Kindle Adjusted Page Count...has nothing to do with actual paperback pages or anything).

So he stopped short of where, by the usual structural measures, you'd expect the actual plot to start. Which is, alas, true for that book as well. He stopped at 16%. I have a distinct "refusal of the call" at 21% and a full commit almost immediately following.

And, okay, mea culpa. I lost track of time on a book I was doing for Pubby and had to turn in a review before I'd finished it. But I've finished the book since and wouldn't alter what I wrote before.

But...given the amount of time he spent at it (he ordered the book the day before the review came in), I wouldn't be surprised if my first "reviewer" stopped after the prologue. 

You know, that could be another reason why Pubby reviews tend to land on four stars. There is a slight air of paid-for about the process and that, and the fact that this is writers reviewing the work of other writers, means we may be more critical and we want to at least look like we are being honest with our reviews. I think I dropped mostly four stars, although my reviews are always long and in depth.

But it could be a different effect. If there are a lot of people who aren't bothering to read the book at all (something that Pubby makes far too easy to do, what with requiring authors to fill out a chart of the words and phrases they hope the reviewer will chose...!) then they are being Caesar's wife by carefully not giving out automatic five-star reviews. Three would be cruel; four hits the sweet spot of "Yes, I did my work and after careful consideration it is...good. Not great, but good."

I complained once to Pubby already. I think it may be time to cut my membership entirely.