[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I think this is where you and I differ most greatly. I don't trust reviewers, especially reviewers in the old media world (a bigger bought and sold bunch there is not). I do respect the opinions of friends, even when those opinions are absolutely wrong and I hate the book/music/film etc.

The fanfic world has the same problem, only more so. (There've never been any notable publishing standards in fanfic. There's great stuff, and crap, and sorting them out has always been the reader's problem.) In the fanfic world, we have fests and awards and "rec lists" (recommendations) and reviews; while a total beginner is working a bit blind, they can at least find something that says "I might like this."

For fanfic, I suggest they start by looking for stories that won awards, possibly multiple awards, and read a couple of those; if they like them, look for authors who are featured in the same rec lists with those authors.

This is considerably harder to do for non-fanfic; the only ebook awards I know of are the Eppies, which don't cover free ebooks, and don't get much (any?) attention from print publishers. I don't know of any genre-specific awards for "best science fiction ebooks;" none for "best mystery ebooks;" certainly none for "best poetry ebook."

I know what I like, and the preponderance of 'indie-publishing' efforts means that I have more chances of finding something I like, not less. .... I still don't understand why so many readers are reticent to try new writers and, especially, writers who offer their work for free. You'll know within a chapter if you like the work or not.

I tend to stick to fanfic by authors I know, trying out new ones when they're recommended by people whose tastes I know I like. I have less reading time than I'd like, and I'm not wasting it downloading, transferring, and reading a chapter or two of something totally unknown, instead of something I *know* I will enjoy.

I usually know after a paragraph, and then that's after I've first been enticed by a blurb. I spend no more time deciding on fiction now, than I did before I got a reader.

I used to be able to pick up a book, glance at the cover, and open the first pages. Time: maybe 30 seconds. Decide to buy: another minute. I can equate "read the ebook page" with checking out the cover--that gives me a paragraph of info to decide if it sounds interesting. However, the "open book & read a few lines" part has gotten a lot more troublesome.

Connect Reader to computer: 30 sec
Download book: 30 sec-2 minutes, depending on details of connection (we'll bypass my dialup issues at home; I try to download where there's free wifi.)
Disconnect Reader, start Reader: 30 sec-1 min
Go to "books sorted by date;" open new book: 30 sec-2 min, depending on book

At least 4x as long, sometimes 10x as long... assuming I don't have to tweak PDF settings to make the book readable. And another minute or two to get rid of it if I don't like it, or having to do it all again, adding a "go find the website again," if that was the free sample and I like it and want to pay for it.

Forget it. I've got plenty of stuff to read at Yuletide. Converting those stories to RTF and throwing them on my Reader is much less hassle than trying to find new authors.

I don't need a publisher to tell me what I like, but my time is valuable, and I'm not wasting it downloading and sampling ebooks at random, either. Not when there's endless good content in genres I know I enjoy, with filtering methods I already understand. It's more hassle to branch out to new ebooks than it is to find a new pbook that I'd enjoy.