In the past years though things have changed. My primary source of non-fiction comes from magazine reviews..if the subject matter sounds interesting and it was given a review that makes it sound like I would enjoy it, I will consider purchasing. For fiction, I find I make heavy use of the “those who bought this book also liked” feature of the online websites such as Amazon. It leads me to books I never would have known existed. I also carefully read ALL of the online reviews about the book. In many cases the reviewer will give reasons why they did not like it and I can then agree or disagree (usually). I tend not to read any “professional” reviews as they usually are more concerned with things I don’t care about (just as professional movie critics rarely match my tastes).

I find the “inside the book” features do not do anything for me, reading a page or two may give a taste of the writers syntax abilities but won’t help me choose if I like the books plot.

Mark

I just saw this interesting pair of posts asking readers why they bought three recent books and reporting on the results. Well, somewhat late to the party I shall list why I bought the most recent 6 books (it doesn’t matter its the SAME reason for al…

So do give excerpts, but give enough. It pays.

Now you tell me!

Well, you didn’t ask me earlier, did you? Not my fault for keeping you in the dark.
The nerve of some people, I tell you…

You say: First books in a series are at a disadvantage over stand-alone books. First books in a series which are also the author’s debut… are in an even greater disadvantage.

Now you tell me! I honestly thought I was being savvy when I started writing a series as my debut, but I’ve since discovered otherwise.

The first is somewhat related to familiarity with an author’s previous work, and is the ability to sample the actual specific book.
Which can increase the chances of buying the book for two different reasons.

Buying a book is a gamble. You’re putting down money in the hope that you’ll buy something you’d enjoy enough to justify the cost. And all the book buying criteria are ways to make the gamble less chancy. If you read previous works by the author, there’s a chance the quality will remain consistent. If you get recommendations, other people liked it, maybe ones you know how to relate your tastes to, so you may as well. Even a high quality cover could indicate that the publisher invested in the other aspects of the book, so it’s likely they also carefully monitored the quality of the actual content.

But sampling the actual book, that takes the whole gable out of it. You don’t have to guess and hope that you’d like the book. You know you do.
Well, assuming you actually do, anyway. I hope this discussion focuses on buying books the reader will actually like…

Sure, quality can vary inside a book as well, but that’s very rare. If you like the first chapter, or few chapters, you’d like the rest of the book. And once the book is a sure thing, that puts it ahead of the competition with other books which are still gables and guesswork.

The second reason is that (assuming the sample is large enough to get a good idea of the characters and plot) the reader is already invested in the book. You started to read it, so you want to finish. And since the best way to finish reading the book is to buy it (unless both the entire book is offered, and the reader is one of those strange strange people who enjoy a book just the same if they read it on a computer screen), you’d buy it. Before you buy books you care less about and haven’t even started reading.

This can give any book an advantage that is otherwise reserved for second, and later, books in a series. The reader already wants to know what happens next.

Which kind of brings us to the other influencing factor. One which I think only has a negative influence, so there’s little chance of catching it on any “why did you buy the last few books” questionnaire.

First books in a series are at a disadvantage over stand-alone books. First books in a series which are also the author’s debut… are in an even greater disadvantage.

A series requires more investment in advantage. You know when you buy the first books that you’d eventually either have to buy more books, or will have to abandon a story in the middle.

For a known author you really like that’s less of a problem, since you have a higher likelihood for believing you’d enjoy the entire series and won’t mind buying the other books. Sure, there are cases of series going downhill in the middle, but it’s far from being a rule.

For a debut novel, though, and especially one where the author doesn’t have accessible short stories, or anything else published, it’s a big hurdle to pass. A debut is always a bigger gamble, but instead of gambling on one book the reader is asked to gamble on a series of books.

There are also people who don’t want to read a series until it’s entirely out. Meaning that they’ll only buy a book in a series when they buy the whole series. And that’s even harder to do when you don’t have any experience with the author.

It’s not a huge problem. I bought quite a few first in a series debuts myself. But it does get the book a harder time when prioritizing which books to buy.

I’m having too much fun trying to think up things now. Must stop.

Awesome survey though. You should do another. This time based on a writer’s beverage of choice while in the “groove.”

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