The Wheat from the Chaff: Filling the role of The Gatekeeper

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think that what DD is saying (and I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong) is that he doesn't search for books in online bookstores. He buys a book knowing in advance which one it is that he wants, having learned of its existence by other means. The number of self-published books in the store is, therefore, of no relevance.

Correct.

I've always done a lot of research into which books I'm going to read. Adding indie books into the mix (and I certainly don't exclude indies as prospective candidates) hasn't increased the time I spend vetting works/authors at all.

I don't go browsing through titles and covers. Never really did. Books/authors come up in conversations with people whose tastes I've come to respect (both traditional and indie published). I jot them down, or add them to a virtual "shelf" to check out later when I have time.

[ZodWallop]

I buy a mix of tradpub and indies and Amazon's algorithm has been very good at making recommendations for me.

For an indie author I've never heard of, I usually go by a mixture of reviews and checking to see if the author has more than one book out. I don't think the process is particularly arduous or time consuming. I don't think I spend any different amount of time deciding on an indie than I do on a tradpub. I dunno. Maybe it's the genres I peruse. Could be I have lower standards.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Really? So when you do a search it takes you the same amount of time to look through several hundred titles--self-pubbed and traditional--as it would to look through just the several dozen traditionally published? The fact that your search results are bloated with all those extra books has made absolutely no difference to the time and effort involved?

I hardly ever use Amazon's search engine when I'm looking for something to read. I'll use that to find a particular book quickly but not to browse.

I browse pretty much the same way I have all my life. I look through a few books and when something interests me I take a closer look. What grabs my attention might be the large print blurb or it might be the cover or, more likely, that it's from an author I enjoy. I look at a couple of reviews. I use the "look inside" feature to read a paragraph or two or three. I might or might not read some editorial reviews. If I find myself feeling like I want the book I'll buy it if the price is low or put it on my wish list if it's not and wait for it to go on sale.

I've never timed myself but offhand I'd say a typical browsing session is 5 to 15 minutes. Maybe 3 or 4 sessions will pass before I buy a book or put it on my list.

When I was young most of my book browsing was in drive in grocery stores and drug stores, which always had a book rack or two. Till I got the Kindle I read paperbacks almost exclusively. I'd read the backs of some books whose covers attracted me. With a few of those I'd look at the first page. As with Amazon, several browsing sessions would go by before I'd pick a book. I've always been good at remembering authors and titles so if I was interested in a book I'd ask my friends what they knew about it. Eventually I might buy it.

Nothing's really changed. It's still pretty much the same process. If anything it's easier and less time consuming and more effective now.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I do the same. Right now, for example, I'm reading all of Dick Francis' novels (with other stuff in between, of course). I'll buy each one in turn from Amazon, based on the list of them in publication order at "Fantastic Fiction". I won't need to browse anything at Amazon; I'll go to the Kindle Store each time to buy a specific book.

I've also begun reading the Dick Francis novels in order. I've read quite a few of them over the years, though not nearly all of them, and without respect to sequence. A few months ago I read the first one and I read the second one a few weeks ago and the third one is on my Kindle now waiting for me.

It's a funny thing about his books. Between reading them I remember them simply as interesting mysteries. While reading them each surprises me all over again at just how good a writer he was. I'm glad he wrote a bunch of them.

Barry

[sun surfer]

Luckily I don't have to worry about this problem at all really because I have way too many well-known, i.e. publishers', books I want to read so for the vast majority of the time I don't even think about it. Really the only time I do think about it is here, since so many on Mobileread do like to read self-published authors and discuss the nuances of the trade. The only rare time I would bother with a self-published book is if it were highly recommended from people I trust, and then I would expect it should be well enough written to warrant the praise. For instance, I did read 'Wool', I think before it was picked up by a publisher but I'm not certain.

But my opinion on the 'problem' of self-published dreck is that we're in the Wild West phase of it. I don't think it will last like this forever. Like the Wild West, people are lured to become a self-published writer by a chance at freedom and riches and the 'anything goes' atmosphere that currently pervades. The Wild West eventually faded as the area grew and matured. I think something along those lines will happen with self-published authors eventually. Though there will always be authors trying to make it, my best guess is that the free-for-all shiny and exciting allure will fade for whatever reason and less people will be interested in trying to write and publish their grammatically challenged masterpieces.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Dusky Rose

Yeah, same here.

I'm already on line, reading forums, checking email, chatting with my kids. So it really takes no extra time for me at all.

So far, it's been working well for me. Maybe because I'm used to plowing through and just doing it.

Same - I enjoy talking about books, and listening to other people talking about books. It's part of my entertainment & socialising time, not 'work'. Heck, I've just spent days on end at a convention with a whole lot of book discussion.

[GeoffR]

I'm another one who doesn't browse at retailers, instead I browse publishers' sites and only visit the retailer to check prices and availability once I have decided what I want to buy.

I actually would like to be able to browse at the retailers' sites, because visiting a different site for each publisher/imprint, each with a different interface, gets to be a bit of a pain. But at the retailers' sites I am knee-deep in self-published crap (or up to my neck in it at Amazon) so they are useless for browsing.