How Do You Choose A Book?

[Paul Whybrow]

After doing masses of work getting my books ready to self-publish, considering things like the book cover design, formatting, blurb, plot line, characterisation etc etc I've become adept at these structural components. I've read many experts' advice on what a book needs to succeed, but all of such well-meaning tips don't take into account how readers actually choose books.
I've been keeping an eye on how I select consumer goods, and why I reject them too. I tend to buy books on eBay, AbeBooks or Amazon, using cheap price and free postage as an imperative. Were I to be borrowing them from my local library, I might consider the weight of them too, choosing a paperback over a hardback - as I have to carry them home.
My decision on what to read is based on several things, including a liking of the author's work, a good review and subject matter that interests me, which I'll skim-read off the back of the book. I may admire the cover art, or not, but it doesn't influence me greatly. I never read the opening of a book or sample passages from further in, to see if I like the style.
After overhearing a couple of readers talking to two librarians, saying that they chose what to read mainly be the title of a book, I've given more weight in my mind to coming up with catchy titles for my work, but I've never selected a book in this way. Again, I might admire the elegance and intrigue of a clever title, such as James Lee Burke's In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead but it's not an overriding factor.
I prefer American and Scandinavian crime thrillers, over those based in the U.K. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's something to do with liking the unfamiliar and wanting to get away from the plodding familiarity of British cop stories. I'm also more likely to choose a literary style novel about relationships that's set in a foreign land.
How do you choose what to read?

 

[Bernard Stacey]

The classics I've not yet read.
Recommendations.
Browsing the Booker, Costa, etc shortlists and pick those with interesting blurbs (cover irrelevant).
Probably in that order.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I have a few avenues for authors I've never read from before:

1) friend recommendation. This includes Goodreads, which I use religiously. Also includes recommendations from authors I already like.
2) title/cover/blurb. If I'm strolling through B&N or my local independent bookstore, I look at the cover design and title and I definitely read the blurb. If the blurb doesn't sound interesting and the cover art looks cheap, I likely won't pick it up.

 

[Emurelda]

I sometimes go to the library and choose random books off the kids section and pile 'em high. Which of the books i like depends on how they've gripped me and if it's a series the better for it..i end up remembering the first book and continue the adventure.

Otherwise it's on recommendation and nowadays i am reading books that agents/publishers, I am targeting, represent. Since I have submitted to David Fickling i have purchased Boundless and enjoying Kenneth Oppel's story telling.

If I am buying a pristine, brand-spanking, new book then it's overall appeal includes size and shape oddly enough. I probably think colour and title may have some subtlety as well but that's all after the blurb's intrigue.

 

[K.J. Simmill]

I have to browse the book store, read the synopsis, and if it catches my attention, very carefully open it (so not to break the spine) and read a passage.
Ebooks however, I am easy, if I interact with a writer on social media a lot I tend to buy their book. If an author approaches me, and recommends their book, has taken the time to find out what I like, and is polite, then I will buy the book (this has happened a number of times strangely). Although its position on my reading list depends on what I am in the mood to read.

 

[Amber Zade]

I'm a sucker for a cover.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

If I choose a book, usually from the library, more than likely it is for research for my novels. I'm very weary of reading anything in the genre I'm writing, for fear that I might pick up ideas already used, even unconsciously. I want to be as original as I can.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

If I choose a book, usually from the library, more than likely it is for research for my novels. I'm very weary of reading anything in the genre I'm writing, for fear that I might pick up ideas already used, even unconsciously. I want to be as original as I can.

Interesting. One of the top advice I've heard from authors is to read from your genre all the time. It helps you keep up with the genre and to study how the pros are doing it. You're never going to have an original idea. It's how you tell the story that makes it yours.

 

[Marc Joan]

Interesting. One of the top advice I've heard from authors is to read from your genre all the time. It helps you keep up with the genre and to study how the pros are doing it. You're never going to have an original idea. It's how you tell the story that makes it yours.

That's right. Interestingly, I was thinking about this in the wee hours this morning. Somebody once said that all stories are stolen. If so, it follows that it is the retelling that matters, like you said.

 

[Marc Joan]

How I choose?
The cover, title and general appearance induce me to pick it up.
The blurb on the back gives me an idea of what to expect, and may put me off.
If the blurb doesn't put me off, I look at the first page and random pages within the book.
If the style of writing appeals, and if the opening intrigues, and if my wife lets me, I buy it.
I never buy anything on the basis of reviews. Ever. Partly because I have idiosyncratic tastes and usually disagree with mainstream, approved opinion. And partly because I don't believe the reviews (I suspect that reviews in the press are often written by chums of the author or of the author's publisher. If you look closely, you often find that writer X endorses writer Y, and ooh, surprise surprise, X and Y are both published by Z. So, no conflict of interest then. And a bit later on, of course, writer Y endorses writer X, ooh how very reciprocal, surprise surprise, etc).

 

[Carol Rose]

Blurb and excerpt if available. Or if I know the author and like their work I will buy it automatically. A great cover doesn't mean crap if the book sucks. And I ignore reviews.

 

[Meerkat]

I buy exclusively from Amazon, so I don't even notice the cover art.

My attention is attracted by the title. Then I read the blurb. I only care about reviews if it's a nonfiction book and I want to know if the author knows what s/he is talking about.

 

[Carol Rose]

I buy exclusively from Amazon, so I don't even notice the cover art.

My attention is attracted by the title. Then I read the blurb. I only care about reviews if it's a nonfiction book and I want to know if the author knows what s/he is talking about.

Good point about non-fiction books.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

By word of mouth, often, or by trawling news feeds, spying out what's going on in my target territory.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

How I choose?
The cover, title and general appearance induce me to pick it up.
The blurb on the back gives me an idea of what to expect, and may put me off.
If the blurb doesn't put me off, I look at the first page and random pages within the book.
If the style of writing appeals, and if the opening intrigues, and if my wife lets me, I buy it.
I never buy anything on the basis of reviews. Ever. Partly because I have idiosyncratic tastes and usually disagree with mainstream, approved opinion. And partly because I don't believe the reviews (I suspect that reviews in the press are often written by chums of the author or of the author's publisher. If you look closely, you often find that writer X endorses writer Y, and ooh, surprise surprise, X and Y are both published by Z. So, no conflict of interest then. And a bit later on, of course, writer Y endorses writer X, ooh how very reciprocal, surprise surprise, etc).

There definitely is an old boy network when it come to reviews. It's easy to check how an author who says something favourable about a new book, which is quoted on the cover, is signed to the same publisher. True Story : In 1977 I was working as a dispatch rider on a motorcycle in London. I'd trained as a librarian, but decided that I wanted something with more variety and excitement, so donned my leathers. I was delivering packages for an art design studio at the time, which involved visiting magazine publishers, printers and publishers. Many of these documents would be transmitted over the internet these days, but at that time having a hard copy was vital. I was waiting for an executive to come out of a meeting to sign for a package, cooling my riding boot heels in a swanky publisher one day, when I recognised a celebrity sitting opposite me. It was a well-known lawyer and political adviser Lord Goodman, who regularly appeared on political discussion shows and in the newspapers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Goodman,_Baron_Goodman
A publisher's assistant went over to him, requesting that he sign-off that he recommended a new book, a guide to the law for a beginner. The baron glanced at the book, declaring that he hadn't read it, upon which the flunky stage-whispered that this writer had provided the blurb for his lordship's last book. "Do you happen to know if he even read it?" asked Lord Goodman. The assistant shook his head uncertainly, while taking the signature. Lord Goodman noticed that I'd witnessed this hypocritical transaction, shrugging his shoulders in a dismissive 'what-can-I-do-it's-how-things-work' way.
So that's how the system works, I thought, a little less naive than I'd been a few minutes before. All together now - it's not what you know, but who you know that counts.

 

[Jason Byrne]

There definitely is an old boy network when it come to reviews. It's easy to check how an author who says something favourable about a new book, which is quoted on the cover, is signed to the same publisher. True Story : In 1977 I was working as a dispatch rider on a motorcycle in London. I'd trained as a librarian, but decided that I wanted something with more variety and excitement, so donned my leathers. I was delivering packages for an art design studio at the time, which involved visiting magazine publishers, printers and publishers. Many of these documents would be transmitted over the internet these days, but at that time having a hard copy was vital. I was waiting for an executive to come out of a meeting to sign for a package, cooling my riding boot heels in a swanky publisher one day, when I recognised a celebrity sitting opposite me. It was a well-known lawyer and political adviser Lord Goodman, who regularly appeared on political discussion shows and in the newspapers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Goodman,_Baron_Goodman
A publisher's assistant went over to him, requesting that he sign-off that he recommended a new book, a guide to the law for a beginner. The baron glanced at the book, declaring that he hadn't read it, upon which the flunky stage-whispered that this writer had provided the blurb for his lordship's last book. "Do you happen to know if he even read it?" asked Lord Goodman. The assistant shook his head uncertainly, while taking the signature. Lord Goodman noticed that I'd witnessed this hypocritical transaction, shrugging his shoulders in a dismissive 'what-can-I-do-it's-how-things-work' way.
So that's how the system works, I thought, a little less naive than I'd been a few minutes before. All together now - it's not what you know, but who you know that counts.

Between that and the bacon books, I suspect you have one of those rare "crazy **** happens to me every day" kind of lives.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

So, I could sign a recommendation for Jason's book and vice-versa! Done deal lol

 

[Jason Byrne]

So, I could sign a recommendation for Jason's book and vice-versa! Done deal lol

SOLD! And thank you.

 

[Emurelda]

Sometimes the book chooses me

Well, it has been a long day...