04-11-2011, 10:47 AM | #1 |
Wizard
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Avoiding Romance offerings at ebook sites?
Anyone know of a way to prevent the flood of chick books when you visit
these sites? It's bad enough trying to find something worth reading while in the checkout line at the grocery store. How come us guys have to wade through all that romance, to find a new Fantasy or SciFi novel? The "new offerings" pages are full of those mushy stories with their "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" Guy covers. Couldn't they offer a way to exclude some categories from the displayed books? There are way too many of those frustrated female offerings these days anyway. Luck; Ken |
04-11-2011, 10:58 AM | #2 | |
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04-11-2011, 11:09 AM | #3 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Hey, I want to avoid both the romance AND the SF/fantasy!
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04-11-2011, 11:12 AM | #4 |
Wizard
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You should try browsing by genre?
Or are you complaining about the plethora of paranormal romance or romantic urban fantasy when you try to browse fantasy/sci fi? I know I don't like it-- I do read a lot of romance but when it comes to fantasy/sci fi I usually want something quite different, not fangbangers. It's annoying to wade through that when I'm looking for milSF. |
04-11-2011, 11:13 AM | #5 |
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Wow. Not all women like romance novels. I'm female and I heartily prefer sci-fi over some cheesy romance novel. Stop stereotyping.
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04-11-2011, 11:33 AM | #6 |
Loves Ellipsis...
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Well, that lets you know that romance is the ebook top seller. There's nothing wrong with that. For years people who wanted to read romance had to wade through the "frustrated guy" offerings. Suck it up.
However, if you are interested I am part of a Fantasy (NOT sci-fi) group at Goodreads. Fantasy Aficionados Great recs. |
04-11-2011, 11:44 AM | #7 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Generally stores (real world or cyberspace) tend to go where the readership is I think. Romance has had a large following for many years. Publishers want to make $$ so they tend to stock what they think the readers want and of course authors tend to follow the trends as well in hopes of making a sale. If someone writes a paranormal romance between a vampire and a werewolf for example and makes a good amount of $ on it others see it and figure if he/she can do it so can I and then you have a flood of paranormal romances between a vampire and a werewolf hitting the shelves. And some sellers tend to go more towards just a few genre's that they know they can sell a lot of books in as well I think. Partly that's because the editor and readers tend to buy what they themselves like. You can write a great SF book, but if the readers and editors of a publisher don't like the genre you won't make a sale. And so there are online stores that cater to certain genre's and sub genres.
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04-11-2011, 11:49 AM | #8 |
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I like some romance. BUT my preference is Science Fiction/Fantasy & Mystery/Thrillers. I would like to see more of other genres offered in free books & discounted books.
I mostly shop by genre but I do notice a lot of times romance is chosen as possible reads I'd be interested in. I do buy one now & then, but not that often to suggest that is my preferred read. |
04-11-2011, 11:49 AM | #9 | |
Reading is sexy
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How come us girls have to put up with stereotypes like "frustrated female" (because that must be the only reason people like romance?)???? I'm female, and I prefer to read SF/F. I've never yet had a problem restricting my ebook browsing by selecting the proper genre filters (though the paranormal romance genre is starting to creep into some searches). Are you saying you can't work a website? |
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04-11-2011, 11:53 AM | #10 |
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Romance is really the top-selling genre, and romance readers have been quick to adopt e-reading. The market is just following that. Genre filters work somewhat but I do see a lot of the Charlaine Harris and the like when pulling up "Science Fiction" as a genre, and I don't think that is even SF, it is urban fantasy or something. I like it when a site has subgenre filters like "post-apocalyptic science fiction," "epic fantasy," "historical romance," and the like. That way you can look at offerings closer to what YOU want.
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04-11-2011, 12:21 PM | #11 |
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Having firmly reestablished my "chauvinistic pig" statis, I should admit to there being a
time when, at least the covers situation was reversed. I was of an age that found the spaceship on the cover more interesting than the scantily clad lady being accosted by the slimy alien, but looking back that might have annoyed the female book browser. I do of course use the genre sorts, but it would be nice to be able to do a quick check of "What's New" and find something besides Romance ebooks. There are a number of books in different genre, other than romance, that I would be interested in and having to check into each one separately to see what's new, takes more time. Luck; Ken |
04-11-2011, 12:45 PM | #12 |
Wizard
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When I first got my reader, I downloaded every free book I could, even romance. I then stopped, because I knew I was never going to read them. Growing up my mom always had them around, and from seeing them then I knew they were really not good or interesting to me.
I also noticed then that Harlequin was one of the few publishers that fully embraced ebooks. That is why you see such a flood of romance books. They publish an immense number of books, since romance novels are quick reads and a volume tactic seems to be followed by the publishers (not to mention, most authors in the genre are unknowns, so cheaper for them to produce books). Now, that in mind, it means they have a large backlist they're converting, as well as a good number of new books as well. As far as filtering, not all sites are designed well enough to allow filtering. For instance, I often hit up free or cheap lists on the various ebook stores, and some of them flat out refuse to let you filter in those categories. |
04-11-2011, 01:13 PM | #13 |
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But how do you decide what the target market is? Sex? Age? Income? Education? Nationality? And what if you're in the things-that-blow-up target but you really like cozy mysteries, or you're in the "chick lit" target and prefer military SF?
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04-11-2011, 01:18 PM | #14 | |
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* contemporary category romances * heaving bosom type historical romance AND * military and postapocalyptic SF AND * really dense works of interesting nonfiction on diverse topics like Dawkins' _The Ancestor's Tale_ and Crossan's _The Birth of Christianity_. Why oh why is the opening browse page not tailored for ME??? Even my automatically generated recommendation lists look weird. |
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04-11-2011, 02:27 PM | #15 |
Loves Ellipsis...
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I like to read:
*contemporary category romances *heaving bosom type historical romance *Sword & Sorcery fantasy (I heart S&S) *hack & slash action fantasy (Gemmell, anyone?) *Horribly long character based fantasy (The Name of the Wind) *Kick-ass female protagonist Urban Fantasy *Kick-ass male protagonist Urban Fantasy *Classics *Adventure Fantasy *Military Sci-fi *space opera You know what Amazon recs for me? Urban survival gear. Hey, if I can do it, so can you. |
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