|
There's quite a few ways I find new books/authors to read:
1) I run an indie review site and people email me with requests to review. This puts a book right in front of my face in a way and I can peruse the sample and see if I'm likely to enjoy it and if the grammar/spelling isn't totally ghastly.
2) Freebies. I have a couple of email subscriptions to ebook freebies/deals and I also scan the relevant forum here for deals going on. I "purchase" much more than I buy, but I do sometimes see something that interests me and that goes on the list to read.
3) Book Clubs. What people nominate and what gets chosen to read in book clubs can quite often interest me. I don't participate in every book club, but I do often look at the books that are nominated/selected and these can quite often end up on my list to read.
4) Buzz. By this I mean what people are talking about - in forums and in everyday life. People talking and writing about specific authors will quite often get my interest. The amount of natter about Lois McMaster Bujold on this forum in particular led to me downloading a bunch of books she's written. Admittedly, I haven't read anything yet - but I'm quite likely to when the opportunity presents itself.
5) Author's self-promotions. I don't read through all of these in detail, but if something catches my eye I might give it a go. I've found some great authors this way.
6) Bookstores. Yep - still a nice place to find a new book/author to read. Although I never actually purchase anything there, it still provides some inspiration from time to time.
7) Amazon's referrals (Customers also bought - you might like etc..). Occasionally, I find something this way.
With me, once I've written an author off, I very rarely look closely at anything they write going forward. It usually takes a book club or significant buzz to get me paying attention again. Conversely, once I like an author, I will usually pay attention to every book/story that comes out.
So if you hook me once, it's easier to keep my attention going forward. If you've disappointed me once (or I've made some arbitrary decision that I'm not interested - eg Terry Pratchett), it's really hard to get me interested again. Grammatically incorrect blurbs from indies will usually mean I won't even look at anything else from that author (harsh but true).
Genres are also an easy filter for me. It's much harder to grab my attention with romance, erotica and paranormal romance. Urban fantasy, vampires and werewolves are now getting limited attention from me unless they are clearly horror-based and I'm pretty picky with YA these days as much tends to fall into the above genres/sub-genres.
|