Friday Fives: Why THIS Book?

If you look on my Blog Schedule tab (which is near to the Giveaway tab, which you must go to in order to stand a chance of winning my Book of the Year [ahem]) you’ll see that I’ve tweaked the Friday schedule. My plan is to follow the Paper Hangover Friday Fives theme, unless for some reason I decide to go my own way. This week, the Paper Hangover question has to do with favorite places to write, and I really only have one–my office (see last Wednesday’s RTW). So this week, I’ve picked my own topic, and here it is:

Give FIVE factors that go into choosing a book to read or purchase?

And here’s my answer. Remember, these are not the only five factors, but they are important ones to me. In no particular order:

Recommendation: If a book has been recommended to me–especially by a respected source (e.g., literary agent, friend or family member that knows my taste, or a blog friend) I will at least check it out, if not go ahead and buy/borrow it. I will especially take note of books recommended by literary agents that I’m interested in querying. This helps me know what they like to read, and these titles can be used as a “sweetener” in a query letter (“My novel has a similar theme to AWESOME BOOK by Paige Turner, a book I stayed up all night reading”).

Popularity: Just because a book is popular, that doesn’t guarantee it’s a good book. There are books that have hit the bestseller list purely out of curiosity (“S/he wrote a novel? I gotta see what that’s like!”)–like people who slow down to stare at a crash site. While I don’t want the market to determine what I write, if I want people to read my novel, it’s useful to know what people are reading. Enduring popular authors like John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, Nicholas Sparks, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and many others, are popular for a reason. There’s something about their writing, whether its genre, or style, or structure, or some kind of ingredient-x that keeps readers turning pages and coming back for more. Why not read them? I might learn something!

Education: When I started back into writing fiction, I became interested in how popular authors wrote things that, to me, sounded challenging. How do you write a good car chase, for example? Or a creepy, suspenseful scene? So, I looked for books that I knew would have such scenes (enter Ian Fleming–I read the entire James Bond series, and Stephen King). I didn’t know if I would ever need to write such things, but reading people who have attempted them gave me some tips on how I might write them.

Premise: If I read a review, or the cover blurb, of a book and the premise sounds intriguing (especially if I’m thinking “how on earth does this author manage to pull that off?”), I’ll more than likely want to read the book. A recent example that combines this with the “Recommendation” point: I ordered NUMB by Sean Ferrell, because Sean is one of Janet Reid’s clients (and I have a lot of respect for Janet’s literary opinion), and the premise intrigued me. It’s essentially about a guy who has lost his memory and is numb–he can’t feel anything. I haven’t read the book yet, but from what I gather, the book is his journey of self-discovery that takes him through circus freak shows, etc. I look forward to reading it.

Author/Series: Any book by an author whose previous work I’ve loved will automatically be high on my “to buy” list. Especially books in a series. I thought LIKE MANDARIN was beautifully written, so I am positively disposed to check out WANDERLOVE when it comes out. DIVERGENT was my book of the year for 2011, so you can be sure I’ll be getting INSURGENT. And once the DIVERGENT series is finished, I’ll be interested to see what Veronica writes next. And who isn’t curious to see what J. K. Rowling’s next published novel will be?

There’s the list. And this list is very useful to me as a writer, because if I, as a reader, think about book purchasing like this, doesn’t that tell me something about how I, as a writer, should approach marketing my book? There are a lot of questions we might ask as writers about both how we write or how we market our work that can be answered simply by asking “What would I think/do if I were a reader? Would I buy this book? Is this something I would love to read? Why or why not?”

What criteria do you use when making book purchases?

 

cds

Colin D. Smith, writer of blogs and fiction of various sizes.

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16 Responses

  1. Mandy says:

    I follow many of the same criteria as you (recommendations from friends, curiosity about an author’s work or process). I also flag reviews I read online from sites like YA Highway, Forever Young Adult, Stacked, and personal review blogs, and I pull out those titles when I’m at the bookstore deciding what to buy.

    I have also been known to judge a book by its cover. If a cover catches my eye and the book is cheap, there’s a pretty good chance that I will buy it. I’ve discovered quite a few authors that way.

    • cds says:

      Reviews are useful too, yes. I have a couple of books waiting to be read at the moment on the basis of reviews.

      It’s surprising how influential a cover can be–even as much as you don’t want it to be. Who really wants to judge a book by its cover (or have your own book judged by its cover), but we do! It’s sad. But just like a bad query can hamper a great novel, a bad cover can be a roadblock to picking up a book. Which is why the other criteria can be very helpful.

      Thanks for the great comment, Mandy!

  2. JaimeMorrow says:

    I’m with you on opting out of today’s Paper Hangover topic. Mine would have gone something like this: 1) Home office, 2) Home office, 3) Home office…you get the idea (especially since you seem to have the same situation). I like the topic you chose instead. I mostly go off of the book’s synopsis and I do get sucked in by covers (I know, I suck). Sometimes recommendations work, but since reading is so subjective I don’t usually let this influence me too much. I agree with you on the ‘popularity’ thing too. Not all books that are popular are ones that I find good or even interesting. I’ve stopped reading a few books that were not my cup of tea but that people rave about. Certain authors will always have my loyalty because their books are just always so good.

    Great post, Colin! 🙂

    • cds says:

      With regard to recommendations, that’s why I have the caveat that they have to be recommendations from sources I trust. You can earn my recommend-trust by 1) knowing me and what I like, 2) liking things that I like, or 3) being someone I think has good taste. I don’t just accept anyone’s recommendations.

      It so happens, most of the people whose blogs I follow have awesome taste. And whoever recommended the LEVIATHAN series to me (I’m pretty sure someone did), you have earned MEGA recommend-trust points! 🙂

  3. Kris Atkins says:

    My criteria are like yours, though my very most important are Recommendations and Author/Series. The few times I’ve randomly selected a book off the shelf, without prior knowledge, did not end well. So, I try to avoid judging a book by its cover. 🙂 Also, if I meet the author or read a bio of them or something, I’m more likely to at least learn more about their book, and very often I will read it too.

    • cds says:

      I’m not a very good compulsive shopper at the best of times, so I generally like to know about a book or an author before I commit funds.

      Good point about meeting the author or reading a bio–that can certainly rouse my curiosity to want to read their work.

      Thanks Kris!

  4. MissCole says:

    Popularity is one I’m quite hesitant about, because hype so frequently destroys things, but I recently picked up Peter James’ books and I LOVE them! They are set in Brighton, so I know exactly where everything happens.

    I’ll definitely stick with an author I like. I have a list of books I can’t wait to get my hands on from authors I like ^_^

    • cds says:

      I’ve spent most of the past 20 years reading mainly academic books, so my fiction library is relatively small–but growing. This means there aren’t many authors that I can count as “favorites.” I have books that I like, but not as many authors whose complete works I like.

      I like H.G. Wells, but I haven’t read all his stuff. I’ve read J.K. Rowling’s complete works to date, so she might make the list. I’m really enjoying the LEVIATHAN series, but I thought UGLIES has a strong start but petered off toward the end–so I like Scott Westerfeld, but I want more great stuff from him (like LEVIATHAN). I just need to read more. And if that’s my biggest problem in life, I’m doing pretty well I think. 🙂

  5. 02372210336792734641 says:

    I think you’ve pretty well covered it. Other things will make me pick up a book (cover, title) but they won’t make me buy it on their own.

    • cds says:

      I think that’s true for me too: an interesting cover or an intriguing title might make me read the cover blurb, but when it comes down to it, there must be something else that would make me want to read or buy the book.

      Thanks for the comment, Sarah. 🙂

  6. 05700980646607611949 says:

    These are also factors for me when I make a decision. My number one factor is the premise. If I think the premise sounds good, I’ll give the book a try. 🙂

    • cds says:

      Hello, Racquel! This is something I have to remind myself when I write. I may have an idea for a story that sounds like it might be fun, but then I ask myself: is the premise sufficient to sustain an entire novel, and would this premise interest me to read the novel if that’s all I knew about it?

      Thanks for the comment. 🙂

  7. Julie Dao says:

    I’m a faithful reader, too! I like to pick up books that have been written by my favorite authors. I’ll pretty much buy and read anything by Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child or J.K. Rowling now, as soon as the book hits stores. I also pay attention to GoodReads and Amazon reviews – if a book gets plenty of decent reviews, it’s probably going to be a good one.

    • cds says:

      I have had a Goodreads account for a while now, but I’ve not used it much (to my shame). I need to spend more time there, because you’re right, it’s a great source of book recommendations. And since Goodreads users voted DIVERGENT their book of the year, they clearly have excellent taste. 🙂

  8. Mrs. S says:

    I buy a lot of books–a lot a lot–because I am always trying to add to my classroom library. I try to balance the tastes of my hardcore readers–who luckily have tastes similar to mine much of the time–with the tastes of my pickier readers. For that reason, I’ve purchased a fair amount of non-fiction, a handful of graphic novels, a bunch of dark contemporary YA, and some fiction about sports or with lively adventure/suspense/mystery leanings. I do make an effort to read what I stock, so I can recommend effectively, but I don’t get through all of it. I have been surprised by how much I got into some of the above purchases–Beautiful by Amy Reed and Americus, a graphic novel by M.K. Reed and Jonathan David Hill were two I didn’t really expect to like but did. But I’m still more excited to pick up the latest fantasy or dystopian–which my book blogging kiddos grab out of my hands as soon as I’m done.

    This also, of course, affects what I buy in hard copy versus what goes on my Kindle. Non-YA books are much more likely to be Kindle books, whereas YA goes straight to the classroom.

    • cds says:

      That’s an interesting perspective, Mrs. S. It’s great that you get to incorporate your love of books into your job, and that it affords you the opportunity to read books you wouldn’t otherwise read.

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