Hi folks, you can find information about my first eBook "The Ultimate Gag Book for Magicians (aswell as others) here:

http://www.magic-fx.co.uk/general.html

This review was featured on MagicBunny. Since it was posted, the point raised about the intro's has been fixed.

Thanks for reading...

Comments:

I have to admit I wasnt sure what to expect with this but it was a very enjoyable read. Some very painful material in here but there are some real corkers that could be used or altered to be put to very good effect. I also did notice that while reading in my head I was reading it in the voice Paul Daniels which was odd but highly entertaining! This wont apeal to everyone but it could be great as a reference guide if your working on patter for a particular effect. You will also find yourself thinking I've gota remember that one! The book is layed out in sections ranging from intro's and volunteer gags to prop patter and even spongeball related. I gave it 7 out of 10 because I would have liked to see intros to each section with some detailing on ways to handle the gags and ideas for alteration.
All in all a fun and enjoyable read a very good first book and I look forward to seeing more from Scott Watson and http://www.magic-fx.co.uk/

Regards
Rammeh

If there is anyone out there in Magic Café-Land who has bought The Ultimate Gag Book, feel free to let us know what you think. I like to hear from people in the know (that means you btw )

Thanks folks!

I bought the Ultimate Gag Book and have found five lines that I may be able to incorporate in my show. Of course, that's me. You'll have to find the stuff that fits you. You may be attracted to more or fewer jokes.

My little pet peeve revolves around the number of typos and design problems in the PDF file. I realize that even professionally edited books can have a mistake slip by, but in this case it looks like the author didn't really take a lot of care. Repeatedly spelling "you're" (as in "you are") as "your" is a bit distracting. There are several problems with line spacing as well. Considering the publisher also advertises design service for web sites - well - it doesn't build confidence.

that's really something we should all consider before sending material off to either a printer or into cyber space - have a good look at the text. Ask someone to proof it for you. It takes very little time and often another set of eyes can be helpful.

Thanks for your input Doiron, we always aim to please. Would it be possible for you to send through some of the mistakes that you have found.

It is very hard to please everyone when it comes to the design of the eBook itself, we opted to go for a simple design for the reason that it doesn't detract from the book itself. This in turn has been one of its more prominant selling points. This is however your own opinion and we thank you for sharing it with us. We will revise what you have said and aim to make it better in the future.

As far as our Web Design service, it is going very well indeed, and we have had a lot of good feedback.

I apologise that you feel you didn't get much from this eBook and I hope that it doesn't stop you from visiting Magic-FX in the future.

These inputs are vital to ironing out the creases in our new business and we appreciate every input that we get.

Thankyou Doiron

Hey guys, just to let you know, The Gag book has been reviewed, and altered. All one of the spelling mistakes has been sorted, the r was removed from the end of the word you.

It has been proof read by a further 3 people one of with is an English Instructor. So you can rest assured that there are no grammatical errors.

Doiron: I don't mean this to sound cheeky in any way. I did ask for a review after all, however I thought it would have been an honest one. I'm not sure how things work on the Café as I am new here, however it is standard on all other forums that I am a member of to ensure you know what you are talking about before posting a review on someones products.

It is unfair to post false information about grammatical errors on a book that someone is trying to sell. Especially in a new business such as Magic-FX.

Perhaps I brought this on myself by asking for someone to review the book. I don't know.

In summary, I feel I have to embarrassingly ask that if anyone does write a review, please take this into account. "Is what I'm saying correct? Could I be wrong?" I'm not asking you to lie, just to be honest. If you don't like something about it, then say, and we will do our best to fix it. However please do not nit pick at things that don't actually exist.

I am sorry guys if I seem a little ticked off. I am new to the forum and I don't want to come across as a power freak. Thanks for reading...

Oh yeah nearly forgot, thanks for bringing up the line errors Doiron this was a problem that occured when converting to PDF. It seems to expand and squash certain peices of the document during the convertion. This has now been fixed. Thank you for you input.

Scotty

" it is standard on all other forums that I am a member of to ensure you know what you are talking about before posting a review on someones products.

It is unfair to post false information about grammatical errors on a book that someone is trying to sell. Especially in a new business such as Magic-FX. "

•Out of curiosity, what did you mean by the above first sentence? Are you claiming that he doesn't/didn't know what he was talking about? How so?

•In your second sentence, above,I noted that there were no complaints about grammatical errors in the mentioned post. Only spelling errors that were a pet peeve.

Regarding your first sentence, above. It is not a requirement of the Café to know anything about what you are talking about. All are welcome to blather to their heart's content...thus, ONE of the values of the Café. Get used to it.

•Good luck on the Ebook, and thanks for doing it.

Tom, thanks for you comments. Sorry that you didn't understand what I was getting at. My point is, the claim was made that I was in the wrong for using the word "your" opposed to "your're" however at no point in the eBook is this the case. Technically this is would be grammatical error not a spelling error. This ticked me off a little because as you can imagine starting a venture in the magic world is no easy business without set back like this. This is the first problem I have encountered from a group of fellow magicians like this, and to be honest I was quite disappointed.

I don't mean that Doiron doesn't have a clue or anything like that, that would be just down right disrespectful. However he should check that what he is saying is true before making a claim like that. In this case it turns out that he was incorrect.

I understand that member of the Café don't have to have degree's in eBook Reviewing. I know I certainly don't. However the point I raise, is that surely for the Café to work properly there has to be an element of trust in what people say. We are all friends here are we not? Therefore why write something unless it is complete accurate.

Now I understand that I have a B in my bonnet about this. Howefver I have not completely diregarded everything that Doiron said. The point raised by Doiron about the line formatting has been taken into account and fixed. I am grateful that he brought this to my attention.

As for "blathering", GREAT! I love blathering, blooming eck I get enough practice at it with the amount of Magic Forums that I am a member of. I agree it is a great value for any forum and that should not be changed.

Cheers!

Well - I may be a bit on the slow side but I honestly had no idea that my comments would arouse so much ire.

I really didn't mean to be offensive and I apologize if Scott took it that way. When I said design problems I was referring to the line spacing, not the look of the whole book which I find appealing.

As well, I think five usable jokes out of approximately 100 is a pretty good ratio. How often do we hear that "if you get one good trick out of a book, it's worth it"? Same way with a joke book, I think. So that wasn't intended as an insult.

I have to confess that I was a bit surprised at your comments about my brief "review" and an attack on my honesty. I was going to send you a private message but since you seem to want to malign me, perhaps it's better for my own defense if I make the following comments in this public forum.

I was distressed to see the number of instances where commas were omitted in the PDF file. Sentences such as: "The card that is not my finger", and, "Of course you didn't it's a trick." require a second reading to get the gist of them.

As far as spelling errors go, despite your assurances, there were certainly more than one. There seems to be an inordinate number of misuses of the lowly apostrophe, for example. I've just done a scan of the book and may have missed some, but here are a few mistakes I noticed with their page numbers and corrections:

3 Intro's (in the chapter heading) -- Intros
5 you wont be able -- won't be able
8 you mind -- your mind
8 your happy -- you're happy
8 your divorced -- you're divorced
9 you wife -- your wife
9 worlds fastest -- world's fastest
10 they way -- the way
10 teachers pet -- teacher's pet
10 plenty time -- plenty of time
10 I once new a magician -- knew a magician
11 its your fault -- it's your fault
11 wont need -- won't need
12 came out of it quite well to -- too
12 non the less -- nonetheless
14 about psychic's -- about psychics
14 you all have them to -- too

As to line spacing - I certainly understand how line spacing can get all screwed up from time to time, but you did see the PDF before you offered it for sale and that would have been a good time to correct the problem.

You said "it's unfair to post false information ... "

As you can see, it wasn't false.

Okay, Doiron!

I once again have reviewed the eBook. However I still fail to find any one of these mistakes. I 'presume' the error we have made, is not uploaded the revised edition to the Payloadz server. I will look into this in more detail.

I offer my apologies to Doiron, for the so called attack towards him, however please understand my frustration about what was said and when I review the book it is not the case. Anyway Doiron I am sorry.

As you can imagine with the launch of the comapny, things do get quite hectic and it is easy for it to slip the mind to reload updated versions on to the server. I will be happy to send you through the revised edition of the eBook Doiron. PM me if you would like this.

Thanks...

THE LINK DOES NOT WORK. SRRY.

Why would anyone lie about mistakes found in a document? I don't get it.

John

Magic-FX,
If you want to be successful in the ebook business, you should not insult your customers, even if they are wrong. Doiron mentioned a few things and you basically said he didn't know what he was talking about.

I buy LOTS of magic. Ebooks,props,books DVDs. I won't buy any from you though, simply because of your bad customer relation tactics.

There are too many ebooks out there with authors that are giving great service.
I just bought two:
AAA mobile phone by Marc Paul -Great routine and stellar customer service.
SBO by Jimmy Fingers-Another excellent routine, with great service.

Those are just this weeks buys.

Anyway, you asked for reviews and then said the customer didn't know what he was talking about.

Good luck to you, you will need it.
Sincerly,
James Linn

John, I'm not sure I get your point. Are you suggesting I lied or that it's unlikely anyone would lie about something like this?

If the former, I assure you I did not make anything up. I'd have no reason to. I don't know the people behind this project and I hold nothing against them. Further, if you check my posts, you'll find I'm generally very positive about any product, book, etc. that I comment upon.

On a related note, I actually bought another one of their ebooks on a particular magic effect.

No, I was referring to Magic-FX disclaimer that what you pointed out was not true. The fact that YOU bought the PDF found mistakes, pointed them out and Magic-FX
says that those mistakes are not reality.

I was stating why would someone who purchased the PDF LIE about mistakes that are contained within it.

John

I'm sorry, but reading this would make me not want to deal with this person/company.

Their is KNOW excoose for mispeled wirds an gramatycal airs.

Pretty much shoots the credibility of the product.