The Things That Inspire Readers to Try a New Author
A while back, I asked this question on my Facebook page. “What inspires you to try a new author?” I received so many fascinating responses, that I decided to count them and create a pie chart.
#1 (with 27% of the vote) – Recommendation from a fellow reader
There is still no substitute for readers recommending books to fellow readers. “Word of mouth” will always be the very best form of discoverability.
#2 (with 21% of the vote) – Cover and title
A huge number of readers will try a new-to-them author if they’re drawn in by the book’s cover and title. This one is harder to get right than you might think! A great cover/title is appealing to the eye and also clearly communicates the book’s sub-genre and tone. It takes a well-thought-out concept + a skilled graphic designer to pull this off.
#3 (with 19% of the vote) – Recommendation from an author
Until I ran this poll, I hadn’t realized that readers valued recommendations from authors so highly. This one made me smile because Christian fiction authors do a great job of spreading the word about books. In the above example, Rachel Hauck is telling her Instagram followers about Katherine Reay’s The London House.
#4 (with 17% of the vote) Plot line
This is another one that is difficult to get right! I quail each time I try to boil my entire novel into a blurb that will hopefully give away just enough detail to make a reader think, “Ooh! I want to read that.” Like with the cover, book summaries are best when they communicate the sub-genre and tone accurately. The fact that this ranked so high on the list affirms that this piece of the puzzle is worth a great deal of time and effort.
I called this category Miscellaneous because it’s a catch-all for a wide range of answers. For example, Bookstagram. Goodreads. Kindle suggestions. Reviews (like the one above for Dani Pettrey’s The Crushing Depths.)
#6 (with 3% of the vote) – Excerpt
Some readers run in terror, shaking their arms over their heads, and yelling, “Nooooo!” at the prospect of reading an excerpt in advance of a book’s release. But a significant number of readers love them. So much so that it seems worthwhile to make advance excerpts available. ….If you’re not someone who runs in terror, you can read the excerpt for Stay with Me (pictured above) here.
Many of you enjoy participating in Facebook groups! They’re a great gathering space for like-minded readers who enjoy offering suggestions to readers searching for a particular type of book, gushing over a novel they loved, and connecting with one another.
That’s a wrap! THANK YOU to those of you who recommend books to others. That makes a world of difference. Thank you, too, for leaving reviews, posting on Bookstagram, rating books on Goodreads, interacting in reader Facebook groups, and all the other things you do. Christian fiction exists because of your support.
What did you think of the results? Do these answers reflect the things that inspire YOU to try a new author?
