Are Readers Tired of Free Books? By S.C. Wynne
Good morning!
Authors talk a lot about burnout, and it's a real thing. Trying to come up with interesting, unique story ideas takes it's toll. (Actually, the ideas are the easy part. The writing side is hard.) Authors are having to pump out books at a break neck speed. I see some authors putting out two to three books a month. I'm not sure if they're magical, or using ghost writers, but that's a schedule few authors can keep up.
Being creative takes energy both physically and mentally. You can't refresh your imagination if you're writing non-stop. You have to have down time to refill the creative tank. Unfortunately, the current climate of publishing doesn't allow for down time.
Realizing how burned out I can feel at times, it got me examining the idea of reader burnout as well. There are SO many authors offering free books all the time, they don't seem to be valued much anymore. Many ARC team statistics are a joke. You can give out a hundred ARCs and sometimes you're lucky if you get fifty reviews from that. I don't quite understand the psyche of a person who agrees to download your book for free, and leave an honest review, but then they just download the book and don't bother doing a review. It's almost like they feel entitled to a free book just because. I'm not sure why? It is a truly interesting, and frustrating, phenomena.
**I should note my ARC team is actually pretty good about following through. Some of them are absolute super stars!**
There's also the problem of some reviews being so hastily written, they get half the details of the book wrong. I'm sure it's because many readers are on lots of different ARC teams, and they are having to read at a crazy pace just to keep up. I actually feel bad for them. It must take some of the joy out of reading if you're always rushing through books.
I blame Amazon for most of this because they've made it so that reviews factor into the algorithms that get you seen on Amazon. We authors wouldn't even care about reviews if Amazon didn't force us to care. They have actually created the fake review problem so much of Amazon suffers from. If they took the reviews out of the algorithm, authors would stop needing ARC teams, and there would be less fake reviews.
Maybe ARC teams will become a thing of the past because readers just don't feel inspired to read and review when the only payoff is a free book. I find that kind of sad. Writing is hard work, and most authors I know put their heart and soul into their books. To have them potentially devalued is depressing.
What do you think? Do you still get excited when you get a free book? Or is that no big deal to you these days?
S.C.
www.scwynne.com
Authors talk a lot about burnout, and it's a real thing. Trying to come up with interesting, unique story ideas takes it's toll. (Actually, the ideas are the easy part. The writing side is hard.) Authors are having to pump out books at a break neck speed. I see some authors putting out two to three books a month. I'm not sure if they're magical, or using ghost writers, but that's a schedule few authors can keep up.
Being creative takes energy both physically and mentally. You can't refresh your imagination if you're writing non-stop. You have to have down time to refill the creative tank. Unfortunately, the current climate of publishing doesn't allow for down time.
Realizing how burned out I can feel at times, it got me examining the idea of reader burnout as well. There are SO many authors offering free books all the time, they don't seem to be valued much anymore. Many ARC team statistics are a joke. You can give out a hundred ARCs and sometimes you're lucky if you get fifty reviews from that. I don't quite understand the psyche of a person who agrees to download your book for free, and leave an honest review, but then they just download the book and don't bother doing a review. It's almost like they feel entitled to a free book just because. I'm not sure why? It is a truly interesting, and frustrating, phenomena.
**I should note my ARC team is actually pretty good about following through. Some of them are absolute super stars!**
There's also the problem of some reviews being so hastily written, they get half the details of the book wrong. I'm sure it's because many readers are on lots of different ARC teams, and they are having to read at a crazy pace just to keep up. I actually feel bad for them. It must take some of the joy out of reading if you're always rushing through books.
I blame Amazon for most of this because they've made it so that reviews factor into the algorithms that get you seen on Amazon. We authors wouldn't even care about reviews if Amazon didn't force us to care. They have actually created the fake review problem so much of Amazon suffers from. If they took the reviews out of the algorithm, authors would stop needing ARC teams, and there would be less fake reviews.
Maybe ARC teams will become a thing of the past because readers just don't feel inspired to read and review when the only payoff is a free book. I find that kind of sad. Writing is hard work, and most authors I know put their heart and soul into their books. To have them potentially devalued is depressing.
What do you think? Do you still get excited when you get a free book? Or is that no big deal to you these days?
S.C.
www.scwynne.com
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message 1:
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Maria
(new)
Aug 27, 2018 05:41AM
I’ve never received an ARC. I tried once at Netgalley and was not accepted so I never tried again. My reviews are more my opinions. Actually, I’m a lousy writer but I’m honest! I skip long drawn out reviews or reviews with a lot of pictures. Let me decide for myself please. As a writer, I don’t know how you do it. I’m most appreciative that you do. Paying for that privilege is the least I can do. Perhaps if I had ARCs it would be too much pressure to read, I don’t know.
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