Some Begging and a Discussion….

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Let me get the begging out of the way. My book trailer for “Taking Command” is up at The New Covey Book Trailer Awards. It’s all based on popular vote. There’s a lot of very cool book trailers there, so you can check them all out. There’s two categories; relevance and intriguing. Please find me relevant and intriguing. LOL.

Begging over.

Now, discussion on promotion. One thing I love about my blog is the variety of people who drop by here. There’s the Divas. There’s other writers. There’s the Deadliest Catch gang (LOVE you guys). There’s also some Humboldt County folks. Oh, and then there’s other bloggers who find me or I’ve found them through my wandering around the internet. (Attila the Mom, Suicide Blond, Redneck Mommy and Lefty). All of you have tolerated my rants, my pimpage, my whiskey fueled blathering and contest madness.

So, I’m opening this up for discussion. The space between a reader noting a book and buying a book is a chasm I don’t see too often. As a reader, I skip over that chasm without even realizing I’ve done it. What yanks me into that world of an author’s imagination? On my blog, I try not to pimp all the time–my stuff or everyone else’s. But I LOVE to read, so I’m often raving about books and their authors.

For me, I started reading Harlequin romances at a young age when I stole them from my mother. Even then, I categorized them as “My Mother’s romances” so when she suggested I read Nora Roberts ten years later, I poo pooed her. But finally, one visit, I was out of books to read and read “Born In Ice”, the second in a trilogy and I was hooked. I discovered, after years of reading mysteries, thrillers and sci fi, that I still loved romances. Loved. Them.

So, it was word of mouth that pulled me into Nora’s world. But what does it now? As a writer, it’s tough to separate the “author” me from “reader” me. Would I have picked that book up if I hadn’t known the author? Would I have considered it if I hadn’t fallen in love with that person’s blog?

Word of mouth is STILL the way I find great books. Dayna’s suggestion led to “Paul’s Dream” by Rowan McBride. I read Joey W. Hill’s Erotic Romance because someone on Divas suggested it. But a lot of books I read because the author catches my attention, not the book. Steve Hockensmith, T. Sue Versteeg, Miranda Heart, and many others have become favorites because the author themselves appealed to me.

It’s an old question, one that my author friends and I contemplate all the time. Sometimes, it feels like there’s a secret, a “place” we’re missing out on. That chasm between being seen and being purchased seems insurmountable at times.

For a very long time, I bought books but I had no idea WHAT drew me. All I knew was I usually did author name/loyalty first, then cover appeal and finally, the back cover blurb. But it’s not like I knew my process. I had to pay attention to what I did when I looked for books.

My question to you is what does it for you? Or are you like me and just haven’t thought about it?

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Filed under Announcements and Celebrations, Pimpage, Writing

Tags: Book Buying, Promotion, Where ARE all the readers anyway.