The data.

First of all, I should admit, I’m not a numbers person. While I’ve loved words all my life, math and I are acquaintances, at best. But since I posted the If I Die ARC giveaway yesterday, I’ve become obsessed with the statistics coming in with the entries, thanks to the optional questions on the form. (If you haven’t already, click here to fill out the form and enter the giveaway.) I’m thrilled to say that nearly all of the 400+ entries received so far have answered all three optional questions, and given me loads of data to sort through.

The interesting bits:

Most of the entrants fall into the 20-35 year old age range. I don’t know that that’s the average age of actual readers, but the vast majority of those who entered the contest fall into that range. Does that mean there aren’t many teens online right now? Or that they’re not searching the internet for books? Not sure how to interpret this one.Very, very few of the entrants first discovered me and my work in an actual book store. That’s not entirely unexpected, considering this is an online contest. Most of those who enter will naturally be people who spend a lot of time online and likely find most of their reads on the internet. Still, it kind of bothers me that only a handful (literally fewer than fifteen) out of more than 400 entrants report first finding my books in an actual store.Only a couple of the entrants report being younger than 13. This is good. I consider the Soul Screamers series (especially book 3 and beyond) more appropriate for readers 14 and older.At a glance, it looks like most people checked the box indicating that they’ve read everything available in the Soul Screamers series, but the second most commonly checked box in that category is those who’ve read one or more of the novels and online only novellas. The smallest category is people who haven’t yet started the series. Which tells me that I’m not reaching many potential new readers through this giveaway. And I’m not sure how to fix that.

In other news, I’m still typing away at SHADOW BOUND (Unbound book 2). As of this morning, the book stands at 78,061 words. I need to get to 81,000 words today, which is going to be tricky, because I have carpal tunnel, and my right arm is feeling pretty bad today. I’ll have to take lots of breaks. Wish me luck!

 

78,061 / 100,000
(78.06%)