More to read is leading to less reading?
As has been discussed, I am an avid reader. Always have been. My folks used to get annoyed I’d finish all my Nancy Drew books in a day or two and be asking to go back to the bookstore to buy more. Owning an e-reader has opened me up to an even bigger world of books. There are free deals every.single.day. While I don’t always get things, I have to say I “pick up” freebies or sale books several times a week. My To-Read list is huuuuuuge. If they were physical books, I’m sure the tower of them would be teetering over right now.
Here’s are the problems I’m having though:
1) I don’t always read them in the order I get them. Sometimes…okay, most of the time, I’m flipping through the “pages” on my Kindle reading titles and I have completely forgotten what they’re about. I’ve forgotten what drew me to get it in the first place. It often ends up leaving books on the list for a long time, until I’m desperate to read something new. A lot of times when I get to something I start and think “OH! This is good! Why did I wait so long to read it?”
As an author who took part in Amazon’s KDP program, I gave away a huge amount of my first book on my free days. I want to say somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 copies. People probably had the same mentality as me: “This looks good! It’s free. I’ll get to it someday.” Now my book probably sits on the last “page” of their Kindles waiting for a read. I think this because out of all those freebies, I think I’ve gotten maybe five random reviews in different places (Amazon, Goodreads, etc). I know a lot of people can’t be bothered to leave reviews or ratings but I’d like to think the percentage out of that many people would be higher. I’m hoping when people finally get around to reading it, they’ll opt to leave a couple of words. We shall see. At the rate some people are probably going with acquiring new reads, it could be years before I see those reviews.
2) I am finding, with such a long list of stuff available for me (not even including the free deals I can find that day!) I am more picky about the writing. I’m an Indie author. I have found a great deal of fellow Indies that I follow and love to read. I have also found a bunch of so-so Indies and some who should probably not be allowed to publish again unless they go through some rigorous training…It used to be, I’d suffer through a so-so or bad book just to see if it got better and to say I finished it. I hated to start something and not complete it. I felt like I was cheating myself by not knowing the ending. Now? I end up with the mentality of “why am I suffering when I could be moving onto something that is better?”
I have a feeling I’m not alone in this sentiment. I think it’s helped me to realize I need to be able to grab my reader’s attention and try my damnedest to hold it otherwise they’re going to move onto something else, leaving my poor story half finished.
If you have an e-reader, are you finding that having more options is leading to you reading less, whether it’s actually getting to the book you purchased or completing the ones you start?
