Quote:
Originally Posted by Atunah
Holy cow. I would go insane sampling 20 books to read one. I never sample. Yep, read that right. I don't do sampling. If I had to read 20 samples to finally read a book, I wouldn't have any joy left to read. 
So for me Scribd is not a sampling service. Its where I go to read the books I want to read.  . Full books from first to last page. I vet those books the same way I vet any other books.
I don't see how Scribd is of benefit for someone that reads 2 books a month though. I read an average of 15 a month, trying to do more. I don't plan on reading 15 Scribd books though, I still have already purchased books to read. I figured if I read 4-6 Scribd books a month, it will be worth it for the money once my 3 month trial runs out. The rest of my reading will be between my prime loan, library loans and books I already own, paid and free.
I am also dropping one out of state library card and planning on not buying a whole lot this year. I am just shifting my budget around.
Still at reading 20 samples just for one book. I must really be lucky with either the genre/subgenre I read or the authors I pick because its rare I can't finish a book or that I totally hate it.
Are you sampling that many just to find one good one because you read primarily indy? |
No, I sample that many because a few years ago I realized I wasn't enjoying many of the books I purchased (at that time mainly paperbacks) and I was tired of wasting money. I switched to kindle around that time so I added indies to the mix. I think it is mainly a middle-age book reading crisis. I used to read voraciously which means I've read a lot of books. And then I reviewed for a couple of years which mean I really read a LOT of books that I didn't like, but had to read because I agreed to read them for the site where I was reviewing.
Somewhere in there, I was in danger of losing interest in reading. So I stopped reading every book I owned simply because I paid for it. I stopped reviewing for the site where I did reviews and I started really trying to find books that I enjoy. I actually stopped buying a lot of books and started grabbing 15 or so at a time from the library. That is where the sampling began...
So it's just a continuation. Indies make sampling pretty easy because they give a lot of books away. For the trad publishers my rate of sample/discard is about the same, although I sample less of them because of the price--I will only sample the ones I think I might really buy since the run about 7 to 10 dollars.
I do waste a lot of time, but it's working for me because I feel no obligation to keep reading. I stopped reading Beast Behaving Badly at 80 percent. It was a really strong start and funny and then it started wandering. It was on Scribd so there was no compelling reading to finish it (meaning: not a loaner, not a library book, not taking up space on my kindle). It's a decent read, but the mystery started really taking a back seat to how precious and great the main was...and I just lost interest.
It does drive me a bit nuts, and I do love to read, but it's what is working for me right now.