Authors Looking directly for Readers discussion

Hi Readers!

I don't know if anyone's ever just come out and asked you this before, but how do you normally select the books you ultimately end up reading?

Is it some enticing advertisement on a website that you frequent?

Is it an awesome review by someone that you know or respect?

How important is a book's cover to the choice you ultimately make?

Are you more likely to try a book that's 99 cents vs. 2.99 or more?

I know there are a metric ton of books released every year (and even more thanks to the ease of the sudden boom of self-publishing), so your point of a view is EXTREMELY important to us. Please chime in and help a writer out.

I buy based on description. I don't care about price or cover art as much as I care about the quality of the story. A good review goes a LONG way towards most people's opinions on what books they buy, though, myself included.

I too buy books based mainly on the description. The cover art would draw my attention, but not important. For me, I do not take much notice of reviews as I like to form my own opinion. Cost is not a major factor.

So why does Goodreads display the cover, often without a text rendition of the title? When I'm looking at a friends picks, I often can't read the title or author in the thumbnail of the cover.

Willa - it looks like if you hover the mouse cursor over the image, it will bring up the text

BMB

Although a nice cover jacket may get my attention, the book description sells it. If the description lures me I definitely take the bait. Ratings don't usually discourage me from a book. Everyone has their own perspective. I do take the opinions of people with the same tastes as mine seriously though and if someone recommends a book or writer I will try it. I also rely on my favorite authors as well. Often times they recommend books on their sites or facebook and I try different books that way as well.

I buy books based on the description. I do not care what the jacket cover looks like, in fact, I prefer that the cover is plain (I like the war edition of books for just this reason). I often ignore the reviews until I have posted my own review. If someone (anyone really) says that a book is good I'll read it (since my sisters have different tastes than me I get a very wide spectrum of recommendations). If I buy a book it has to be between 6 dollars (plus shipping) and anything lower than that.

It doesn't seem like many people I know read either, if they do they are authors. To me it is cover as well!

I think life just doesn't afford people the chance to read as much any more. when I was younger with a relatively free amount of time, I tried to read occasionally. Then there were no ebooks, so it was a matter of going into a bookstore, headed to my genre section, look for the book that had a cover that drew my eye and see if the price was affordable

Forward years later, I grudgingly joined the ebook wagon, went to the free store on Amazon, narrow list down by genre and star rating. I never looked at books with less than 4 stars. It is the cover art that draws me in, then the book description. I tend to not look at the reviews (unless I was on the look out for non fiction)

If I really enjoyed the free book and it was part of a series, then and only then would I go and pay for the second book. I would be willing to pay up to £1.99 if I felt the length of the book was long enough. If the book after that was (for lack of a better word) orgasmic, I would consider dishing out up to £2.99.

Sadly only Stephen King gets the most money out of me as I know that his books were written just for me.

So it's not advertising that helps me choose, it is if the book shows up in the first say 5 pages of the searches I do and the cover art is attention grabbing