Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
Here are some factors that have stopped me from buying a book before. I will put a star next to the ones that apply to books with no DRM too:
- *the price was too high for what the book was
- *there was no sample available to help me make a choice
- *there were no reviews so I did not have enough information
- *the author's website was confusing or poorly written or badly done and either did not give me the information I wanted or made me think the book would be awful
- *the sample and/or reviews were available but did not give me enough information to make an informed choice on the book
- *the sample and/or reviews were terrible so I opted not to buy the book
- the book was not available in a format I could easily read or convert
- the book was geographically restricted and I could not purchase it
- *the book was no available at a venue from which I purchase and I did not want to set up a new account
- *the book was part of a series and the whole series was not available to me
- *the author said something in a message board or internet forum which turned me off or made me think they were not a good writer
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You left off the big one:
I did not know the book existed.
Setting aside the issue of "books I have no interest in"--it doesn't matter how well-written the newest military adventure novel is; I'm not going to read it--my #1 reason for not buying a book in one of my favored genres is that I didn't know about it.
*After* I get a list of "books I have discovered," which includes recommendations, things I've seen on TV, things mentioned in friends' blogs, and books I saw while browsing a bookstore for other books--then I check things like can I afford it, is it in a format I like to read, does the synopsis look interesting, do I have any reason to specifically avoid that author, can I navigate the shopping cart, and so on.
But it starts with knowing the book exists. And that's an area where traditional publishing methods are falling apart on the internet; the methods that sell books for them offline, don't work here. (Two months ago, I didn't know Stieg Larsson existed.)