Okay, so you all probably know I've been committing myself to reading books by people I'm unfamiliar with and then, if I like the books, I review the books. I do it here and there throughout the year, and I mark the books on my Reading List with a # so you can see which ones they were.
Over the weekend, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to read. Scads of hardcopy books on the shelves, scads of downloaded books on the Kindles and nothing was perking my interest. So, I got an idea.
I went to the Top 100 Free book lists. First I went to the Top 100 Free of all books, but nothing was blowing my skirt up. Then I went to the Top 100 Free Paranormal. I scanned down the list looking for covers and titles that sounded interesting. When I found one, I went to the page for that book and read the blurb. If it sounded like something I wanted to read, I downloaded it. I picked up one right away.
During this process, though, I got a better idea. Find books with few or no reviews and read those. That was a little harder because often the covers or titles or whatever didn't thrill me enough to click through. But I found two.
The first one I read didn't have any reviews at all at Amazon and the one review it had at Goodreads was 'I liked it'. Which is sad because it was a fun book.
You know, it occurs to me this morning, I don't even bother reviewing books on Amazon by current popular authors anymore. They have thousands of reviews. Neither they nor their readers need mine. Unpopular and unknown authors need reviews.
So, here's my challenge to you all. Find a book with 10 or fewer reviews that you think you might enjoy. Read it. And if you like it, review it. (I say 'if you like it' because we're doing this to help authors who may be struggling and bad reviews don't help. And in these cases, bad reviews aren't really helping readers either. They're already not buying these books, why give them another reason?)
And just in case someone stops buy who needs clarification, I am not advocating giving good reviews to bad books. Or books you haven't read or anything. Read it, like it, review it. Personally, I don't finish books I don't like and I don't review books I haven't finished.
Easy peasy. You find a book you like and maybe you get a new author to read, and you give them a boost because maybe they're so down about the lack of reviews they're contemplating not writing any more books. Win win.
Just a thought. Anyone in on this?
Getting reviews unless you have a dedicated street team (which it seems only the best-selling authors manage to cultivate) is a challenge. Like you, I don't rate/review the big authors I read. Except on Goodreads. I review almost every book I read there. I like your idea and I should do that. Both of the books you picked look like fun. I'm about to get back into harness on my writing so reading goes on the back shelf for awhile. I WILL try to pick an "unknown" book at least once a month, especially since I have a KU subscription and don't always make use of it. Good idea!
ReplyDeleteOh, why don't you do a monthly post listing the books you read and those of us in on this can post the book(s) we read/reviewed in the comments. :)
Yeah, I do review most books on Goodreads, but sometimes when I see the book has thousands of reviews, I just rate it. Both of those were fun. And that's exactly what I wanted right then. I totally get it about having to put reading aside for the writing. I hope you do get a chance to do this and have fun with it.
DeleteThat sounds like a good idea. If I remember. We'll see. =o)