Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I just don't believe this to be true in general. It may have been for you. But someone noticing—after the fact—that many of the books on their shelves were published by the same houses does not suggest that the knowledge of said publishing house was influential, any in any way, with their decision to read said books.
I look at my shelves and notice that many of my books have covers whose colors primarily feature blues and greens. That certainly doesn't mean that the colors green and blue are extremely influential in my decision-making process. It means blues and greens were popular colors for covers when I was buying them.
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Yes, it's certainly possible that it's only true for me personally, though one again, the number of posters who talk about getting the Baen monthly bundles for years and years seems to indicate that it's not simply me personally. When I saw that I look at my book shelf and see a lot of specific publishing houses, it isn't an after the fact thing.
Do I primarily buy something because of the publishing house? No. Am I aware of what publishing houses publish my favorite authors? Yes. Am I more likely to take a chance on a new author because he or she is published by a publishing house that publishes my favorite authors? Absolutely.
Is it a genre thing? Most likely. At any given time since the 70's there have only been a few publishers at a time that publish a lot of SF&F. For example, Ballantine Books published the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series as well as the various Tolkien books, so I did indeed keep an eye out for Ballantine Books way back when I first started buying books because many of the Adult Fantasy books were by authors who I had not heard of before. I suspect I was not the only one since the whole purpose of the series was to introduce readers to older classics as well as new writers in that tradition. So yes, the publisher had a big influence on getting me to at least pick up a book and take a look at it. (note, from a historical point of view, the best SF&F selection in Atlanta back in the last 70's and early 80's was the Georgia Tech college bookstore, which really isn't all that surprising to anyone familiar with the GT student body at the time. )