How far into a book do people read--by genre.

[Fbone]

I read on a Sony 650 that doesn't have wifi so I suppose my reading habits aren't recorded and sent off somewhere but I'd have no issues if they were -- accurate or not.

My Goodreads stats say I've abandoned 17% of books started. Again I have no issues with abandoning a book. I enjoy exploring new authors and sometimes it doesn't work out.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

a book with low sales and high completion rates probably points to bad marketing or target a different audience, while a book with low sales and a low completion rates may indicate that they need to improve the quality of the product.

Are there examples in the data? Particularly of the first case?

Originally Posted by Rizla

Are there examples in the data? Particularly of the first case?

Blech. I incorrectly remembered a post from another thread. When I went back, it looked like they were sharing some data individually.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=29

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I abandon books with wild abandon and have ever since the freebie and borrowing became widely available. I don't even download a ton of freebies, but the ones I do, I at least sample most of them. I've stopped at just about every percentage there is: First page, middle, 10 percent from the end, you name it. Some books start pretty well and degrade as I go and I've learned to dump them early and often. Some books are real gems and I finish them and am thrilled to have found such a bargain.

Because of freebies, I will now happily abandon books I've purchased if I don't like them. It could also be some of the trends in fiction these days. Have a great plot going that degrades into a morass of love triangles or various ridiculous sex scenes in the middle of danger and I've learned to dump and dump fast. Too much exposition? Gone.
Something better comes along? Gone. Cozy mysteries are hit or miss with me, but if TSTL shows up in the first part of a book and I'm not likely to finish. Too much time spent swooning over a jerk of a guy...gone. Let's get to the dead body!

Maybe it's because my pleasure reading is mostly mysteries and thrillers, but I can't imagine abandoning one like this, since you really can't tell till the end if the various elements have come together in a satisfying whole. The seeming tangents may be important to plot or character, or they may be just so much filler. I guess I am always optimistic that it will be the former, and so I keep reading till the last page.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Maybe it's because my pleasure reading is mostly mysteries and thrillers, but I can't imagine abandoning one like this, since you really can't tell till the end if the various elements have come together in a satisfying whole. The seeming tangents may be important to plot or character, or they may be just so much filler. I guess I am always optimistic that it will be the former, and so I keep reading till the last page.

I agree that in a good mystery or thriller, this is the case. However, if I hate the characters, if the book is too violent or if the plot is boring me to tears, I'm going to move on. If I fail to CARE about the denouement, and this does happen to me, the book doesn't stand a chance.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Blech. I incorrectly remembered a post from another thread. When I went back, it looked like they were sharing some data individually.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=29

Thanks! I see that is something they are thinking of adding to the dashboard. I'd look at it were it available. This sort of thing could drive an author totally bonkers (and I honestly believe a good beta reader or 6 can help provide the same type of information). But it can be useful.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I have no objection or revulsion to abandoning books. If I selected books to read in a more willy-nilly fashion, I'm fairly certain I'd abandon a lot more. But as it is, my book selection process is such that a book that I dislike enough to abandon rarely gets past my filters.

I am like this too. I don't usually get a book unless I really think I will enjoy it -- luckily, I am also pretty good at spotting the bad stuff a mile off, and I am also fairly accepting of the books I do read.

Within the genres I like, I am not all that picky, so long as it is well written and believable. There are plenty of great books out there -- it isn't all that hard to find a mere few hundred a year that I think I will like.

I don't feel any need to experiment like crazy.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Maybe it's because my pleasure reading is mostly mysteries and thrillers, but I can't imagine abandoning one like this, since you really can't tell till the end if the various elements have come together in a satisfying whole. The seeming tangents may be important to plot or character, or they may be just so much filler. I guess I am always optimistic that it will be the former, and so I keep reading till the last page.

I'm waiting for when they sell mysteries in two parts. Buy the book, cheap. Read it. Buy the last chapter, not cheap...

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by murg

I'm waiting for when they sell mysteries in two parts. Buy the book, cheap. Read it. Buy the last chapter, not cheap...

Ha-ha! I gave a book one star because it went about halfway and then right in the middle of a cliffhanger action scene...had a link to "part two." NOT IN THIS LIFETIME BUDDY.

[theducks]

For 40 years that I subscribed to Analog SF&SF, I read the serials as soon as a piece was released. Niven, McCaffrey, Sawyer and others

They did say Serial: Part n of M right up front
Analog did include a Synopsis in the later parts, as a reminder

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by theducks

For 40 years that I subscribed to Analog SF&SF, I read the serials as soon as a piece was released. Niven, McCaffrey, Sawyer and others

They did say Serial: Part n of M right up front
Analog did include a Synopsis in the later parts, as a reminder

Oh, they are quite popular with some readers and I think we'll see even more of them, along with subscription type things. Ilona Andrews did it with CleanSweep and a major publisher released one of their steampunk novels in two parts (and then as one book after the release-release). I never did like that sort of thing, whether it was the never-ending TV show or the continuation of whatever. I can see the benefits for the author and there are some reader fans who like to get a weekly episode or monthly episode, etc. Just not my cuppa.

[murg]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Oh, they are quite popular with some readers and I think we'll see even more of them, along with subscription type things. Ilona Andrews did it with CleanSweep and a major publisher released one of their steampunk novels in two parts (and then as one book after the release-release). I never did like that sort of thing, whether it was the never-ending TV show or the continuation of whatever. I can see the benefits for the author and there are some reader fans who like to get a weekly episode or monthly episode, etc. Just not my cuppa.

My problem with the current 'serials' is that they aren't clearly marked as such. Even using terms such as 'episode' and 'part' don't clearly mark what you are purchasing as a 'chapter' that will eventually be part of a single book.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by murg

My problem with the current 'serials' is that they aren't clearly marked as such. Even using terms such as 'episode' and 'part' don't clearly mark what you are purchasing as a 'chapter' that will eventually be part of a single book.

Agreed. The one I gave a one star to was marked in the description with a list that said part one--title, part two-title, three and four. I took "part" to mean "book 1" of a series--NOT: This is a serial released book, all the same story.

Perhaps that was my bad, but I don't care. Each "part" had a "title" and it was long enough I assumed it was a novella or a novel on the short side based on the information provided.

I have yet to purposely buy or read a serial released novel. I read Cleansweep (after it was out as a complete novel) and it was a very good novel, but I felt it suffered from being serially released. The authors had already shared each chapter so there was less editing--going back and filling in IMO. In this case that mean some lack of development of the story/characters. There's a second one in the works, I think, but I may not read it. I like Ilona Andrews' work, but I'm just not sure about the whole way the novel comes into being and if it ends up being the best it can be. Who knows. Maybe it's BETTER than it would be without serially releasing chapters, but I felt there was just a tiny something missing, that magical attention to a few scenes.

(And don't get me wrong--the worst Ilona Andrews is probably better than a good many books out there. There was nothing wrong with Cleansweep overall...but something was missing for me.)

[jgaiser]

In the past couple, three years I've abandoned exactly one book.

Now, I do have a number of books on my kindle that have been around for quite a long while that I still dip into from time to time. Depending on my mood and how the book grabs me, it sometimes takes me many months to finish (and this include fiction and non-fiction).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Now, I do have a number of books on my kindle that have been around for quite a long while that I still dip into from time to time. Depending on my mood and how the book grabs me, it sometimes takes me many months to finish (and this include fiction and non-fiction).

This is one thing I have noticed since I started using an ereader. With paper books, I rarely abandoned a book. As I only carried one with me during my commute, I would always read it, sometimes forcing myself a bit.

Now, the ereader is stuffed full of alternatives, if I open my current book and just don't feel like it, it is easy to find something else. I have a few books where that has happened and I just haven't gone back to them. They have effectively been abandoned, but not deliberately so.