Forum Poll Called Due To Google Fumble

When I checked the blog this morning I discovered that the latest poll was broken! Google could no longer find the Blogger created poll, and getting the Blogger designer page to re-create it wasn't working either.

It happens, and frankly, I don't think there's any reason to start the poll over.

Last time I checked, 8 people said; "The blog is more than enough" while three voted for the creation of a forum.

While that's not a huge poll turnout, it's enough for me to see a clear trend. I know the following behind Spinward Fringe is fewer than one thousand readers, and while it's growing, that's no where near what most novelized series with active forums have. Most series or author based forums are started after millions of copies have sold. Even after several best sellers, there are normally only a couple hundred active forum members, give or take. Every author and series has a different reader participation level.

The reader participation level for Spinward Fringe is really high, nearly ten percent, as estimated by a friend who's much better at math than I. For comparison, most popular books have less than 0.01% reader participation. That's why I thought it would be better to ask about a forum instead of a assuming that one wasn't necessary. As it turns out, people are enjoying the blog and don't need a forum yet - for the most part.

I'm glad I checked, to be honest. I was on the verge of just opening one as an experiment, but there's nothing worse than an empty forum. It's like a convention with booths but no patrons.

I plan on checking again in six months since more people download Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins every day, and the Spinward Fringe series is about to launch on the Sony Reader.

If anyone would like a place other than this blog to talk about the Spinward Fringe series, Allan started a threat on the Amazon.com boards here. If you're getting shut out because you've never made a purchase at Amazon.com, don't worry, I'll be starting a Spinward Fringe thread on a prominent eBook fan forum this weekend.

RL

Now, back to work on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6: Fragments.