“Our
Babies On Heroin”
Secret Pain In A Middle-Class Family
By J.D. Swoop
 When people purchase an eBook they are looking
for help dealing with a specific problem-in this case drug
addiction. They aren’t really interested in your story except
as it relates to helping them bond with you. When they relate
to your story and they think, “that’s my story too”, then they
are ready to pay attention and want to know what you have to
offer that will help them alleviate the pain they are in. The
problem with the eBook is that it focuses too much on the
family’s story without offering any real advice or solutions to
the reader.
The first thing you see when you look at an eBook is
the cover. And as I always say, people do judge a book by it’s
cover.
The cover photo does relate to the issue at hand but
it would be better if it filled out the page more. The bigger issue
is the way this eBook has been positioned in the marketplace. The
author says right up front that it’s about the secret pain in a
middle-class family with children on heroin.
The problem is that most people aren’t going to buy
your eBook as I said to read about your pain-they want a solution
for their pain- that may sound harsh but that’s just the way it is.
Believe me, my heart goes out to this family.
So the author needs to rethink how he can help other
parents deal with this painful and very trying problem and come up
with a title that then reflects this new direction for the eBook.
It seems that J.D. wants to help other parents with
drug-addicted kids but it’s not always clear that that’s the case.
However, assuming it is he leaves out a lot of vital information
that would be helpful and enhance the value of the eBook. Also, he
spends too much time trying to justify the way that he has raised
his children instead of focusing on how to help other parents. He
would also be wise to add criteria for choosing a rehab center
rather than just offering his beliefs on it. And he should consider
including a resource page and sections involving researched material
on recovery.
There is also no table of contents and very little
separation between sections. It would be better if the introduction
were labeled as such and the following sections or chapters
delineated. People want to know what’s in the eBook and where they
can find exactly what they are looking for when they need it. In
addition, the few subheads that exist could be punched up a bit.
And it might also be a good idea to use subheadings throughout the
body of the text for even more clarity and an easier read.
The large font make it easy to read and it has a
clean look; the vertical yellow line adds a little visual interest.
It follows the rules of web writing with short paragraphs and lots
of white space. However, there ware some spelling, grammatical and
punctuation errors which diminish the author’s attempt to come
across as an expert-which is one of the things you need to do to
sell a lot of eBooks. The author should have it read by several
other people to catch and correct these mistakes. He also needs to
get his definitions right. For instance at one point he uses
“anorexic” to describe his daughter’s eating disorder when the
correct term for her condition is actually bulimia (again this
detracts from positioning himself as an expert).
Another problem is that fact that he calls his sons
#1 and #2 son makes it impersonal and hard to relate to them. He
can use an *asterisk stating the names have been changed on the
first page if he is doing this in an attempt to respect their
privacy.
While it is very
heartfelt, it is sometimes difficult to follow. For example, how
did #1 son end up back in rehab after living on the streets.
There’s no mention of the reason for him returning for treatment.
Also, the author repeatedly inserts opinions in places that detract
from the story. I think that getting into the whole alcohol vs. pot
debate is counterproductive in this case. Parents just want help in
getting their kids out of this downward spiral and it just sounds
like a justification for addictive behavior. Remember you always
want to keep you eye on what people reading the eBook want and the
people reading this eBook want answers to dealing with drug-addicted
children.
I think this
book only fulfills the first part of any good eBook which is getting
the reader to relate to your story. After that you have to give them
valuable information that they can use to alleviate their problem.
I think the author needs to ask parents of addicted children what
they want to know about and answer those specific questions which
would make it useful as well as marketable. In its present form, it
seems mostly to be a way for the author to vent his feelings about
what he went through. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it
needs quite a bit of work if he wants to reach parents and make
money selling his eBook. I give this eBook one star for presentation
but it totally misses the mark in terms of being a marketable eBook.
I will no longer be doing ebook reviews in the
newsletter because it is so time consuming that it has delayed the
release of the newsletter.
However, you can now get an ebook
makeover through the ebook writers club. I do 3 of them per
call and the club meets once a month. To learn more or to join
go to
www.ebookwritersclub.com It's only $1 to get started.
If you would like
a full-critique of your ebook from content to formatting, title,
organization, ebook cover and more click here.
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