Dudes! And Ladies! And Assorted Pervs!
THANK YOU so much for taking my survey. Your responses were extremely helpful and will be instrumental in finishing up How to be Dumped.
First, though, WE HAVE A WINNER (via random.org)! Congratulations to AMANDA! You win a $25 Amazon gift card plus a copy of the book when she's all finished. **Happy dance!!**
Onward to the results.
(PS--when you put an "other" box on a form, you should expect people to, you know, use it. Hilarity ensues. I've published a few of the good ones below.)
(PPS--All survey results were anonymous, so I have no idea who filled out "other" boxes and will not/cannot reveal your identity.)
1. What is your general sentiment toward the title "How to be Dumped?"
Most of you (85%) feel favorably about the "How to be Dumped" main title, with 10% of you in the "Meh" or "Huh?" category, and some of you landing into "Other."
Some notable Other responses:
"I'm not a fan, as it implies how to sabotage a relationship when what you are going for is how to deal with being dumped."
Fair point. Noted.
"I would be embarrassed for it to be seen on my shelves! I like the twist on "how to" and it's witty, but it makes me sad."
Friend! Don't be sad! But this is what eReaders are for. 50 Shades of Gray sells like hotcakes mostly because women can read it in public--or in bed with their husbands--without ever being discovered. The Kindle is basically our new secret porn folder cleverly titled "vacation" or "spreadsheets" and hidden deep within the chain of documents on your hard drive. YES, WE KNOW YOU DO THAT, DUDES.
Either way, these are great suggestions to consider overall.
2. If you were to choose a tagline for "How to be Dumped" you'd pick:
These responses were especially helpful for me since my tagline MUST have some iteration of "break-up" or "ex" (or both) in it for search purposes. You all overwhelmingly chose "How to be Dumped: Simple Steps to Put Down the Ice Cream, Start Showering Again, and Ditch the Breakup Sweatpants" by 44% with the other titles evenly grabbing 13-14% of the vote.
Of course, you "Other" folks had some great ideas:
"Undoing the damage and prioritizing yourself"
I like this a lot, actually, since it's a key point that I needed to learn, for sure. Unfortunately, a little less right for SEO purposes. DAMN YOU, GOOGLE!
"the Complete Guide to Getting Over Your Ex and Falling In Love with Yourself"
This would actually work great for SEO. Not too shabby.
"How to be Dumped: It's Better Than a Lifetime with a Jag That Never Really Loved You (But Wanted to Bang Your Sister)"
GAWD, THIS ONE! I died, DIED. Alas...not sure if people are actually searching for these kind of keywords when sobbing over their laptops. Well, maybe they do.
"The best tagline is from a previous entry that in itself helped me get through a wretched dumping: "How to be Dumped: One Woman's Journey through a Break Up, feat. the F-bomb, Whiskey, Questionable Decisions, and One Neck-Licking Romanian.""
I, too, am partial to this tagline, but already had a male reader who was like, "I probably wouldn't read a book that had "One Woman's Journey" in the title." Fair enough. Let's not push it.
3. What images come to mind when you think of a breakup?
This question was written mainly to help guide my cover design. Most of you seem to think in terms of "Sweatpants, tears and overall sadness" when you think of breakups. So thanks!! I've already let my designer know, and I'm pretty sure she will come up with something awesome and eye catching and relatable.
Notable "other" responses:
"been too long for me to remember"
No one likes a braggart.
"wine & lots of it"
Yes! Agreed!
"Slouching"
Hahahahaha, awesome.
4. If you've purchased a book on dating, relationships or breakups before, what did you pay?
This question was more for me to make sure I give a fair deal to TNR readers first, while also hitting a "sweet spot" on Amazon in my genre. All that to say, I'll definitely keep 'er $9.99 or less (le duhz).
5. Do you purchase ebooks regularly?
Damn, you people are TOUCHY about your physical books! :) It does appear that many of you do purchase ebooks or have at least downloaded a .pdf from a website before. I'll admit, I'm tempted to figure out a way to self-publish a phsyical tome here, but really cannot see how the cost makes sense for me at this point.
So what I'll likely do is publish the main book to Amazon (and whether you have a Kindle or not, most devices--including the iPad, other tablets, and Apple and Android phones--support the Kindle app), but give some of you purists another option for consumption. Cool?
Anyway...THANK YOU. This survey has been most helpful and has me PUMMMPPED for what's next.
High fives to you all!