poll: what are the first three things you look at in a book?

[astra]

Impossible to answer.
It is way too simplistic approach.

[beppe]

I am so lucky to have a network of competent, compatible and very diverse friends. With whom I discuss books and share interests and advises. I never buy or start a book without any previous knowledge about it, except maybe cooking books, but my cooking guru knows and owns them already. Usually.

Only one exception to that.

[purple_fishy]

cover art/title
excerpt or blurb on the back of the book
GoodReads ratings

[Frida Fantastic]

I get most of my non-indie books through friend's recommendations, and I don't really look at much if it's coming from a friend I trust. For indie books that reached me without me knowing anything about the book itself...

1. Genre
2. Blurb
3. Sample (read at least 5 whole pages and skim if anything interesting happens after)

From those three, I try to infer when I'm probably in the "mood" for that book, with genre, pov character, tone, and setting being the main factors I look at. I like to switch it up. Even though I mostly read SF/F, I can't stand, say, reading two door-stopper epic fantasy books in a row. I also like to change up the tones--from light and humourous to serious and crapsack world, etc.

I also tend to a prefer a 50/50 gender POV ratio, which is hard to do in this genre, when everything's so dominated by male protagonists. I read books every week, and when I go for a month looking at fictional worlds through a man's eyes (regardless of the gender of the author), my next book would have a female protagonist.

So if you're an SF/F writer, I'm just one individual that's not necessarily representative of the SF/F reading audience, but I really wish there were more female protagonists in this genre. If you have a good one sitting in your mind, please write them. And don't feel the pressure to rewrite them as guys to appeal to a "wider" audience. There's enough white guys around in this genre. I need to sit in other character's brains. Reading about similar types of characters is like reading the same setting over and over again--it gets boring. I'm not sure what's the next time I'm gonna read space opera with a male dare-devil womanizing protagonist, or a epic fantasy with an angsty mage-type cloaked in black. I'm sure they can still be done well, they're turn-offs for me at this point.

Also, books with protagonists who are past their biological prime are interesting. Old people can be heroes too.

[GraceKrispy]

Before I buy a book?

pbook- spine/cover, book blurb, author blurb

ebook- blurb, err.... that might be it.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by Frida Fantastic

So if you're an SF/F writer, I'm just one individual that's not necessarily representative of the SF/F reading audience, but I really wish there were more female protagonists in this genre. If you have a good one sitting in your mind, please write them. And don't feel the pressure to rewrite them as guys to appeal to a "wider" audience.

Do you find that MALE authors can do a good writing form the FEMALE perspective?

As to the topic.....if I limit to first 3....

Genre, description/blurb, format (I am only reading e-books any more).

[mikegetz]

Once upon a ...



</jk>
seriously ... i tend to stick with series i know ... not a lot of reading time lately and i have been re-reading a lot. to get into a new series / author right now would take a serious recommendation.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Do you find that MALE authors can do a good writing form the FEMALE perspective?

I'll bite.

I think, in theory, anyone can write any type of protagonist. And I could name quite a few authors who write very good, well-characterized opposite-gender characters.

I think, in practice, it's a rare male author who can really nail a female perspective. And nothing hurls me out of my reading more than hitting a female viewpoint that is a collage of stereotypes cobbled together by a male author who apparently didn't think he needed to challenge his own assumptions about women while writing.

(Note that same-gendered characters can also be poorly written, and thus this phenomena is not limited to male authors writing female characters or vice versa. This is particularly endemic to "chick lit" -- I have no joke seen all kinds of stereotyped assumptions about women, especially from new authors, who think that "zany chick lit" means that the woman should behave in a completely random, chaotic manner without rhyme or reason.)

[VydorScope]

Interesting. In my second book I have some first person scenes from a female main character, and not being confident of my ability to think like a woman, I wrote out all the scenes best I could and then handed the text to my wife and asked her to "make it sound like a girl"

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Interesting. In my second book I have some first person scenes from a female main character, and not being confident of my ability to think like a woman, I wrote out all the scenes best I could and then handed the text to my wife and asked her to "make it sound like a girl"

I highly encourage authors to hand off a "different-from-them" character to someone more in touch with the character type for constructive criticism.

The other thing to remember is that your character is a person, just like everyone else. I.e., not just a gender, skin color, sexual orientation, etc. with the accompanying stereotype baggage.

And ANY time a writer says "well, stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason..." put down the pencil and back away for a breather.

[wendym]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I highly encourage authors to hand off a "different-from-them" character to someone more in touch with the character type for constructive criticism.

I like to get feedback on all my writing before finalizing, whether or not the characters are different from me. Everyone has a different background and perspective, and you can get some really eye-opening comments from doing this.

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Do you find that MALE authors can do a good writing form the FEMALE perspective?
.

Definitely. Actually, one of my favourite fantasy heroines of all time (who I am attached to because the book really helped get me into SF/F in my youth) is written by a male author. Garth Nix wrote Sabriel.

And look at it the other way too, J. K. Rowling wrote an entire series from the perspective of a teenage boy. I'm not sure why some men find it so hard to write about women when women do it all the time. It just takes powers of observation and some feedback from others. Makes me wonder why some authors find writing about time travel easier than writing about a slightly different human being.

I guess it's easier for many people to write from a white het male perspective, because let's face it, it's still the default POV in fiction in the Western world. Just look at a Hollywood movie poster, who's the protagonist and what is he gazing at? Again, I'm not discounting fiction just because of who the protagonist is, but it's like reading/watching the same setting again and again... I'm bored of it.

I think any writer from any background should be able to write anyone of any background. Again, it requires observation, research, and feedback. It's not an easy road, but it's more appealing to me than reading another book with a daredevil womanizing white guy in a space opera book because--yes we all grew up with Star Trek! Fiction does not exist in a bubble. I don't see the point of reading books if it's a rehash of familiar tropes and ideas that have been done better.

It's okay to be inspired by LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek, George R. R. Martin, but SF/F writers are trying to appeal to other genre geeks like them... and these genre geeks have read/watched the same stuff. I want something different. If all SF/F had left to offer me were epic fantasy wars of whateverthecrap, and epic space opera wars of whateverthecrap... and all told from the same types of characters... I'd turn close the book, turn off the Kindle, and go outside and play lacrosse or something.

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

The other thing to remember is that your character is a person, just like everyone else. I.e., not just a gender, skin color, sexual orientation, etc. with the accompanying stereotype baggage.

Agree. I look for real individuals, not types. Types aren't memorable. Having flat characters can really make a good book mediocre for me, because it shows the artifice of the medium and breaks my suspension of disbelief for everything else.

[speakingtohe]

I think, in practice, it's a rare male author who can really nail a female perspective. And nothing hurls me out of my reading more than hitting a female viewpoint that is a collage of stereotypes cobbled together by a male author who apparently didn't think he needed to challenge his own assumptions about women while writing.

Ahh but isn't it often entertaining when they try.

I have found that many female author's attempts to portray a female character of another culture/age group/social status/challenged etc. to be just as cliched/flat/unrealistic/one sided/stereotyped, as a man's viewpoint.

If the book entertains or captures my interest to the point that I actually finish it,(and usually I do finish at least 70% of the books I start), then the author has done his or her job from my perspective.

If everything was written exactly to my tastes and standards, a lot of other readers would be most annoyed, maybe me among them.

Helen

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Ahh but isn't it often entertaining when they try.

I think trying is better than not trying, and just because the author didn't nail it the first time, doesn't man she/he'll nail it down in the second. Again, if the author observes others, does research, and gets feedback from people who could relate more to the POV character, I think there really are no boundaries.

[Edit: added example]

There's one white American female author who recently published a SF/F book about bisexual (and other) muslims in a colonized planet. (God's War by Kameron Hurley). Was the POV character a factor in me purchasing it? A bit, just because I haven't seen it before. Was it a good book even beyond the POV character? Heck yes, it's one of the best SF action-adventure books I've read. Did she portray her Muslim characters in a manner that Muslims would find authentic? I have no idea. They're in space, religions and cultures change. And it's interesting.

The author is aware that she relied on some stereotypes on the first book, and got some reader feedback on it, and she's addressing those in the book she's writing now. I think risks are worth it. What is the point of writing if authors could only write what they have real life experience with? SF/F as a genre wouldn't exist.