New Killer Instincts Review: Badelaire 1, Patterson 0

Ever since my mega-promotion back in April, the reviews for Killer Instincts have been steadily trickling in, and this morning I saw my 30th review, a 5-star from Amazon reviewer Doris Nester. The review is short but very positive, and I'll quote it here:

I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes James Patterson books. It was just as good if not better than any of Patterson's books. So well written and exciting. Thank you Jack Badelaire for a great book.

 Given all the recent discussion over James Patterson's appeal to the federal government to "bail out" Traditional Publishing, I can't help but feel a sense of vindication while reading this review. That an unknown reader who has no stake in my success or failure would take the time to leave me a review, where she states she enjoyed my book as much or more than those "written" by a guy who makes tens of millions of dollars a year off his books, is amazing.

I'll also take the opportunity to point out that Doris is only one of many female readers who has either written a review of Killer Instincts or added it to their Goodreads listings. For a novel filled with a lot of pretty shocking violence, lengthy and detailed passages of "gun talk", and female characters appearing in only 4 out of 24 chapters, you might this this book falls outside the normal range of what would appeal to female readers. Clearly, however, that is not the case, and I think it is further evidence that an author should never write off a demographic as uninterested in their work because of preconceived notions of their target audience.