Tuesday, March 12, 2013

How Do You Discover Teen Books?

Tip of the Day: The Paparazzi Project is on sale for .99 cents! Check out this great review from Mundie Moms.

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile! I've been in the midst of selling my house, packing it up, and getting ready to move to a new house next month. It's become an all-encompassing project so writing has gone to the back burner for awhile. I'm looking forward to getting back to it once we're settled though!

I came across this post on facebook. Author Veronica Roth is asking her readers how they first discovered her book, Divergent. This is a great question and interesting to all YA authors really. I often wonder how people stumble across my book. On Amazon or Goodreads? A blog review? In the bookstore? Library recommendation? 

In the comments of that post it seems to me that the most people find their YA books by browsing at the bookstore. I do that too. This is when I find my impulse buys. I don't tend to go into a bookstore with a shopping list but stumble upon books that sounds interesting and have a great cover. And I hope the remaining bookstores can keep open for as long as possible so that people can keep finding books there. Though the bookstore is really only a peek into whats available out there. A large number of printed books never make it into the bookstore. Or if they do they're only there briefly - for 60-90 days.

So where else do people find them? A lot answered that they browse on Amazon or Goodreads. I can't say I spend much time looking on Goodreads for a new read. But I will browse Amazon a lot. Although, unless you come up in the first hundred or so in rankings (YA, YA Romance etc.) I probably won't find you. Most of the time the way I get turned onto a book is through word of mouth-- either over twitter or facebook or a friend or librarian recommendation. I also depend on reviews of the book. I like when they're at a central location like on Amazon, even if I don't buy from there.

How do you find your YA books?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

1 comment:

Donna Farrer said...

I search blogs and sites and look for recommendations and then try to leave my own to give others some new ideas. Here's my latest, Finding Tir Na Nog, book 3 in the Stelladaur series by Shari Whyte. Why I live her is that she also has an online scholarship program based on these books. The Stelladaur Academy. Nice to see an author go above and beyond the words on the page! Good luck all finding great books!