Hey everyone! We finally made it to the last stand-alone post before the hiatus. This is another opinion post but make sure to stick around until the end for the big reveal announcement about what the next series will be about and the new schedule. So, without further ado…
How I Find Books To Read
As I mentioned before, most writers tend to also be readers. We are not only creators of books but consumers of them as well. However, I’ve heard a lot of people say that they have a difficult time finding new books or finding something new to read. I, personally, never seem to run out of books to read. Part of that is because I’ll read almost anything and part of that is just that I get my book ideas from multiple sources. I’m hoping that for this post I can write about just a few places that I get ideas for books to read.
Amazon
A lot of book people have a wide range of feelings about using Amazon as a place for books. I will say that I tend to not buy books from Amazon directly unless they are books that I can only find as an e-books because the author only ever published digital versions. BUT Amazon is a great place to find books similar to the books that you already enjoy. I tend to use Amazon by going to books I already really like and looking in the related products section. I can usually find some good suggestions for books there that I can then search for at local bookstores or libraries.
Goodreads
Goodreads is a website where I go to find books using books that I already enjoy much like Amazon. The difference that I’ve found between Goodreads and Amazon is that Amazon’s lists are mostly curated by publishers and people who want to make money. Most of the time Goodreads lists are curated by readers like me and so finding books that are in a similar genre, have a similar vibe, or have a similar main character are easier to find on Goodreads than Amazon.
The other things that I like about Goodreads is that it’s easier to find out if the book is part of a series, find the other books in a series, and also find more books by the same author. It also gives me quick links for purchasing the book both in digital and physical format.
With Bookstagram becoming a bigger and bigger thing another great place to get book recommendations is Instagram. I don’t live in a very populace area and so because of this we don’t really have any big brand bookstores. Because of this I tend to use Instagram as a place to find out what is popular in the book world recently. It’s also a good place to find more book friends or even find books in a new genre.
Friends
I also tend to ask my friends for good recommendations. My friends and I generally have a very similar taste in books, but we also have different levels of access to a different pool of books and so this makes them a good group to ask for book recommendations.
Libraries
The last place that I usually find new books to read is the local libraries. Libraries are always getting new books, displaying different books in their collections, and creating librarian curated lists of book recommendations. If I’m ever out of book ideas or just need to try a new book in a genre I don’t usually read so much I always end up at the library at some point either asking a librarian or browsing the library collection.
These are just a few ways that you can find new books to read. What kind of ways do you find books to read? What do you like to do? Who do you ask? What websites help you? Depending on your region, country, and income there might be different ways for you to find new books to read.
ANNOUNCEMENT
That’s all for this week’s post but now the part you’ve all been waiting for. It’s time for the announcement of the new series and the schedule. And the new series is…….
GENRES!!
I’m going to be writing about the different types of genres and typical tropes or things that exist in those genres. I’m hoping this series will help writers to identify what genre they are actually writing to help them not only avoid issues with their writing but also to help them avoid the issue of marketing their story incorrectly.
This series will begin in the first week of September and will run until the first week of November. There will then be stand-alone posts for the rest of November and there will be a break in December followed by the yearly reflection post before we start another new series in January. Stick around after the break for the new series.
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Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next series!
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