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What gets you to try a new book?
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Ryan wrote: "I can't say what gets me to try a new book, but the first sentence of a blurb I just read included the words 'rascally crew' and it immediately put me off reading it. Rascally. Rascally!I've read..."
Lol! I will remember that one Ryan, thanks! No rascally allowed!
Since Amazon allows people to have lengthy titles, these words will tell me not to buy the bookcozy as in Perpetual Potion: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery
unputdownable as in The Vampire Gene Series Book Bundle: A gripping, unputdownable, action-packed, sexy, time-travelling romp
edge of seat as in The City: A spellbinding and captivating epic fantasy that will keep you on the edge of your seat
paranormal romance as in Three Wishes: a Djinn Paranormal Romance
pounded as in Slammed By The Substantial Amount Of Press Generated By My Book "Pounded By The Pound: Turned Gay By The Socioeconomic Implications Of Britain Leaving The European Union"
gripping as in Artemis: A gripping, high-concept thriller from the bestselling author of The Martian (I bought this one anyway because of the author)
on the other hand, an intriguing title will work (I bought all of these)
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
Reamde
Mod
I just wish they wouldn't cram a descriptor or two or three or more into the title of the book. But a lot of the so called advice to indies (self-published in my world) sites advise doing that to get people to look at their books. I know lots of people that wont read anything but cozy type books, so I guess it would work for them.
Unputdownable deters me, too! I thought I was just weird. I tend to go straight to the negative reviews when I'm mulling over a book, and I ignore the glut of five-star reviews. Sometimes the things written in a negative review will actually pique my interest and I will try the book, depending on the negative. But when I see blurbs such as "tour de force", or blurbs by A-list authors, I have learned to steer clear. Maybe I'm getting contrary in my old age.
Michelle wrote: "Unputdownable deters me, too! I thought I was just weird. I tend to go straight to the negative reviews when I'm mulling over a book, and I ignore the glut of five-star reviews. Sometimes the thing..."Oops! So funny you said that Michelle! I just mentioned in a review of a book that "unputdownable" is becoming overused, yet the term applied anyway in the case of the book I reviewed. Penalty marks against me. lol.
CBRetriever wrote: "I just wish they wouldn't cram a descriptor or two or three or more into the title of the book. But a lot of the so called advice to indies (self-published in my world) sites advise doing that to g..."CBRetriever, yes you are correct, that is the advice that Indie authors are receiving. Also, it seems a lot of the really catchy titles i.e. the nice, succinct ones, get taken quickly, so I find titles are becoming more expansive. Love John Gwynne-type titles - short and sweet, but it's hard, I think, to come up with those and be original, and still keep the title relevant.
Well, now I'm curious! Which review did you write for the unputdownable book?
Mod
So I guess I'm a sucker for a title and a pretty cover.
Ryan wrote: "I can't say what gets me to try a new book, but the first sentence of a blurb I just read included the words 'rascally crew' and it immediately put me off reading it. Rascally. Rascally!I've read..."
I think I may have just read this blurb too. Rascally doesn't work for me, either.
Michelle wrote: "Well, now I'm curious! Which review did you write for the unputdownable book?"Michelle, I'm guilty as charged, lol.! I recently wrote a review for a novella I received a free copy of from a very popular Indie author who writes thrillers that I follow on Twitter - good guy.
"Lust, Money, and Murder" (part #1) by Mike Wells.
There are some real horror stories (for authors) re books on shelves in bookstores.One I heard from a knowledgeable source is publishers pay to have their books listed as "bestsellers." I guess it's the same as companies paying grocery stories to show their products on endcaps and such.
John wrote: "Another source I did not see mentioned is the Internet Archive. Was the only place I could find a copy of A Night in the Lonesome October for a monthly read. Books can be downloaded or borrowed for up to 14 days..."Thank you John for the recommendation. I've accessed things there before, but don't think to use it regularly as a resource. Alas! I wish I had known about this copy of A Night in the Lonesome October earlier! Every year I finally mean to read it, but since I wasn't aware of any ebook copy, and it can take weeks to ship internationally, I always forget and seem to miss my window of opportunity. Next year, for certain!
As to what gets me to try a new book?1. Familiar Author - I likes what I likes.
2. Friend recommendation - Similar tastes I trust
3. Lists with my preferred genre, tropes, and diverse representation
4. I encounter the author on a podcast, around the web, etc.
Other factors:
To see if an unknown book makes it to my TBR
- Reviews - I like to scan the middling-to-bad ones for my pet peeves
- Page test, quotes
Whether I actually pick it up and get it read
- Mood
- Buddy read
- Availability
Like someone else said, I don't pay much attention to blurbs. I have such an obscenely long TBR, that many titles are left with only a vague impression of it's mood and style. I've also seen plenty of interesting premises that were written poorly, so the hook itself is less important.
*Exception. I realize I used to scan physical shelves back for titles/covers/blurbs back when I was a child in the US. And I still do that for Japanese books and manga, attracted by beautiful artwork.
Michelle wrote: "Unputdownable ..."That's not even a word!
Antidownputable is the word they're after.
Illiterate cretins!
Ryan wrote: " ... 'rascally crew' and it immediately put me off reading it. Rascally..."Was it about rabbits? Because if so, then ...
Joseph wrote: "There are some real horror stories (for authors) re books on shelves in bookstores.One I heard from a knowledgeable source is publishers pay to have their books listed as "bestsellers." I guess it..."
That's a real shame Joseph. I know that "bestseller" can be open for interpretation (i.e. bestseller in a specific category, etc.) but I detest false advertising / playing fast and loose with the truth of how well a book is selling. Wish there was more of an industry standard - i.e. if your book doesn't sell x amount of copies, it's not considered a "bestseller".
Melissa wrote: "As to what gets me to try a new book?1. Familiar Author - I likes what I likes.
2. Friend recommendation - Similar tastes I trust
3. Lists with my preferred genre, tropes, and diverse representat..."
Thanks Melissa! I love artwork and brilliant covers too. I am finding especially with indie fantasy the correlation that some of the better written works have exceptional covers as well.
I was thinking about that again and concluded that two things are enough. 1) Someone recommended it or it's an author I like.
That a Booktuber/friend recommended is many times enough since I'm often trying new authors.
2) The book is on sale. :-) I rarely buy expensive books.
Joseph wrote: "There are some real horror stories (for authors) re books on shelves in bookstores.One I heard from a knowledgeable source is publishers pay to have their books listed as "bestsellers." I guess it..."
this is interesting
https://observer.com/2016/02/behind-t...
Micah wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Unputdownable ..."That's not even a word!
Antidownputable is the word they're after.
Illiterate cretins!"
😉
I'd agree with Micah completely - except for price, since I don't buy books; I just borrow them from a library. The only books I buy are non-fiction, (new or second-hand) and that's not very often. It's just not affordable. In addition to Micah's:Awards and recommendations by other authors included on the cover or inside make no difference to me.
It is quite hard to find new books to read, when I've read so many of the good ones. Expanding into something a bit different is also hard, because it's untested and you have to go through bad ones to get an idea of what's good, and to find the good ones.
Librarian-type recommendations on posters or summaries - if you like this author, try this - are sometimes helpful. The best are those that use style, theme, etc., directly, rather than just author to recommend. Not many of them around that I've seen, though.
@TamaraI often get good recommendations on Youtube but that is also no guarantee since people have different tastes. It is indeed difficult if you like only one genre and nothing else. My mother likes only mystery and adding to that closed doors mystery so I often can't recommend her anything because even if I read widely it is not in a genre she likes. I now and then read her recommended books, will unfortunately not always like them.
I have tried the library here but unfortunately I didn't really get used to reading in German, a lot will go over my head. Perhaps if I pushed through and read more books in German I would go over that getting familiar with the language barrier but I'm probably too old for that so that I get used to German the same way I got used to English. And the libraries here have few books in English, I did read around 6 books per year before but they were mostly YA because this is what I could find in my library. No problem though, I have anyway way more books than time to read them. I am always finding good deals in English books and go on reading them for the same reason I read them in my teens, there are few books translated in Portuguese and they are much more expensive than the English copies.
Melissa wrote: "John wrote: "Another source I did not see mentioned is the Internet Archive. Was the only place I could find a copy of A Night in the Lonesome October for a monthly read. Books can be downloaded or..."Internet archive? What internet archive? Are we talking about https://openlibrary.org/ ?
This is the first I've heard of it. Seems like Gutenberg for current books. Is there something else/similar?
Thanks.
CBRetriever wrote: "Joseph wrote: "There are some real horror stories (for authors) re books on shelves in bookstores.One I heard from a knowledgeable source is publishers pay to have their books listed as "bestselle..."
Big Thanks for this. I sent it out through my networks. An excellent read and quite a hoot!
Again, thanks!
Joseph wrote: "Internet archive? What internet archive? Are we talking about https://openlibrary.org/ ? ..."Different site which could have pages from openlibrary or gutenberg in their Wayback Machine. Here is Wikipedia article on Internet Archive
Tamara wrote: "I'd agree with Micah completely - except for price, since I don't buy books; I just borrow them from a library. The only books I buy are non-fiction, (new or second-hand) and that's not very often...."\
Hi Tamara, thanks for the input! I wish I was a frugal when it comes to books as you - I admire you for that - although I'd like to think in general I am careful with my money but books is one of the few vices I have, lol, where I will spend the $ on a new book I want.
Leticia wrote: "@TamaraI often get good recommendations on Youtube but that is also no guarantee since people have different tastes. It is indeed difficult if you like only one genre and nothing else. My mother ..."
Hi Leticia thanks for the advice! I am starting to look at Youtube (bloggers) more and more in order to help guide my reading tastes, but then it is all about finding the blogger you trust / whose tastes seem to be similar. That's one of the aspects I've been working on in terms of selecting books.
CBRetriever wrote: "Joseph wrote: "There are some real horror stories (for authors) re books on shelves in bookstores.One I heard from a knowledgeable source is publishers pay to have their books listed as "bestselle..."
CBRetriever thanks for this! Very interesting and also disturbing in a way...but at the same time, the ethical debate surrounding this sort of thing could certainly take up another lively discussion thread. I.E. what constitutes a "best-seller", which I hinted at in earlier comments.
Leticia wrote: "And the libraries here have few books in English, I did read around 6 books per year before but they were mostly YA because this is what I could find in my library. "I used to go to all the Vide Greniers (open attics = yard/garage sales) and Brocantes when I was in France to find English books. A Kindle and the monthly deals on amazon.fr, the Baen free books and gutenberg.org saved my sanity
Joseph wrote: "There are some real horror stories (for authors) re books on shelves in bookstores.One I heard from a knowledgeable source is publishers pay to have their books listed as "bestsellers." I guess it..."
Back in, I think, the 1970s, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles on how books got listed as bestsellers, mainly in newpapers (including the LA Times itself) and popular news magazines of the day.
It uncovered some disturbing facts, such as that, if I recall correctly, the New York Times relied heavily on clerks at certain high-end New York bookstores for information on what was selling well, and in selected categories only. This automatically put a thumb on the scale as to what books could achieved that status.
There also was some suspicion that, for example, "Catch-22" had made the NYT list, and stayed there, because the clerks then involved in compiling the list agreed that it deserved it, whatever the actual sales figures were. Naturally, the publicity boosted sales, so it may have been there legitimately at some point. There was no way to figure out if the reverse attitude was keeping books off the list, regardless of real sales.
Of course, in those days, inventory control was labor-intensive, and it may have been hard for even the store management to figure out what was selling well at any given moment. These days, bar-code scanning does, or should, keep a real record of what is paid for, in real time. But I doubt that many stores open their computer files to newspapers.
By the way, the LA Times then announced that it was changing the way it compiled its bestseller listings, to make them less susceptible to manipulation. After it changed hands, and editorial policies, and the disappearance of its Books section, this may no longer be the case.
PL wrote: "Leticia wrote: "@TamaraI often get good recommendations on Youtube but that is also no guarantee since people have different tastes. It is indeed difficult if you like only one genre and nothing ..."
I like very much Kalanadi for Sci-fi recommendations
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOF_...
Today I discovered a channel who seems awesome for fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRjh...
And I also recommend Kitty G for fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCube...
CBRetriever wrote: "Leticia wrote: "And the libraries here have few books in English, I did read around 6 books per year before but they were mostly YA because this is what I could find in my library. "I used to go ..."
I buy most books online. I just miss going to a bookstore with a really great number of shelves filled up with Sci-fi and fantasy books. Last time I did that was in Ireland where I bought ten books in one day. :-) And I didn't buy more because I was travelling through the country.
I think I'm like most people: either it's an author I already know and love or a recommendation. I sometimes browse Goodreads and randomly find something. Recently, I've realized that most of the sci-fi I've read was written by men and decided to read more sci-fi by female authors. Since then, I've been asking people here for recommendations and browsing various groups bookshelves with this goal in mind. I've also checked some self-promo threads for self-published indie authors and added those to my to-read shelf.
Hans wrote: "Phew, totally situational for me. Sometimes it's by recommendation, either by a friend or by the GR-algorithm.
Sometimes a cool cover gets me interested.
High ratings and reading some reviews mig..."
Hans, I completely agree with you! It's situational for me too, which keeps things interesting...I never know when a book will intrigue me!
Leticia wrote: "PL wrote: "Leticia wrote: "@TamaraI often get good recommendations on Youtube but that is also no guarantee since people have different tastes. It is indeed difficult if you like only one genre a..."
Thanks for these links Leticia! Much appreciated! I will check them out!
Alina wrote: "I think I'm like most people: either it's an author I already know and love or a recommendation. I sometimes browse Goodreads and randomly find something. Recently, I've realized that most of the s..."Thanks Alina for the input! I am also now looking at the SPFBO past entrants (great link on GR here) to help guide my reading, I've found a lot of good ones there too.
PL wrote: "Alina wrote: "I am also now looking at the SPFBO past entrants..."I looked into SPFBO, sounds interesting :) Is there a discussion about it on Goodreads (you mention a great link, but I'm not sure what you mean)? I'm focusing on sci-fi now, but I can't only read sci-fi, so I might check it out in the future!
Hi Alina! The SPFBOs on GR are broken down by #, which corresponds to the year of the contest.You can find them under the subcategory of Listopia.
Here for example is the link to the 5th contest for SPFBO.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Thanks a lot for explaining, PL :) (is that the right way to address you?)
Alina wrote: "Thanks a lot for explaining, PL :) (is that the right way to address you?)"Yes Alina thanks P.L. is fine! Have fun looking through the SPFBO lists! Hope you find some worthwhile material to read!
Leticia wrote: "I often get good recommendations on Youtube but that is also no guarantee since people have different tastes. It is indeed difficult if you like only one genre a..."Thanks for the suggestions. I looked at the link for the fantasy reviews on YouTube, and while he seems to prefer books which are too violent for my tastes (also epic fantasy, which I'm not really into - but am planning to try B. Sanderson's 'Way of Kings', to see if all the hype is true), it led me to a site where he's one of the reviewers, which I liked.
An unequivocal review like this one for a relatively unknown book gets my attention. The review is so well articulated with reasons for the praise that the book is now on my TBR. Path of Darkness by C.M. Lackner. The reviewer is Becky M.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuQyq...
I usually find new stuff through recommendations from friends, family members, my favorite authors, or people online, but sometimes I'll just see a book cover that catches my eye. If the blurb seems interesting, I'll read the first page or two to get a vague idea of the writing style, and then decide whether to put it down or keep reading.
I don't buy books (no extra money) but I acquire books a lot anyway thanks to Little Free Libraries and community free-books shelves. I pick up whatever looks interesting at the time, which is pretty mood dependent, and also books by authors I have already read or that have been talked about enough that I feel left out of the loop if I don't read them eventually.I also love going to the library and just picking out 3-5 books randomly that catch my interest. I spent a couple years reading all the adult fiction books by authors whose names began with A at our local branch library, but I lost interest once I got to Piers Anthony and VC Andrews. Andrews is ok, but I was not sure I wanted to read that many back to back. Anthony is offensive and I finally gave up trying to read his books a decade ago.
Mostly aside from these sorts of library reading projects, and reading from particular lists (Boxall 1001, Guardian 1000, etc) I read what I have on hand. And once I own a book, I will eventually read or at least try to read it before it leaves my custody. I own more adult fiction books than our local branch library now, most likely, so usually if I have a desire to read a particular topic or setting, I have books on hand that will work. I try to keep my reading diet varied so I don't lose the ability to appreciate a broader range of writing, so if I have only been reading a particular genre or only reading fiction I may pointedly switch to something different for a few books, or go for another batch of random library books.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Path of Darkness (other topics)The City (other topics)
Three Wishes (other topics)
Slammed By The Substantial Amount Of Press Generated By My Book “Pounded By The Pound: Turned Gay By The Socioeconomic Implications Of Britain Leaving The European Union" (other topics)
Artemis (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
C.M. Lackner (other topics)Mark Lawrence (other topics)
I've read great books with uninspiring blurbs, so I guess an author just has to avoid having a terrible blurb rather than getting their team to come up with a great one.
Rascally ffs.