12 ms·

The bookstore method of finding new authors was much worse than it is with ebooks. Your choices were limited by what the store selected to place on their shelve

by bcl 14y ago

The bookstore method of finding new authors was much worse than it is with ebooks. Your choices were limited by what the store selected to place on their shelves, a process that is more likely to result in what is popular instead of what is interesting to you. I like the ebook process of selection much better. I hear about books and authors from friends, blogs and discussions like this. I then go to Amazon, read the reviews, look at the kindle price (I don't pay more than $10 unless I am already familiar with the author) and click on the Buy Now button. ebooks may blur the lines between the genres, but is this really a bad thing? Is there any reason why a book can't fit into several categories? There isn't. Genre was a way for stores to organize their inventory, and now that shelf space is no longer a premium we can use better methods to find new reading material. Actually, since buying my Kindle I have read more than ever and find it hard to keep up with my reading list.

AJ007 14y ago
I would agree with you. The bookstore (or library) method as limiting as well as hit or miss. "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" on Amazon is extremely useful. In one case I saw an author's titles continually pop up for months, looked him, found his blog, realized he was a genius, an then end up buying everything he wrote. Pretty much everything I read now comes from that process. There is a networking effect in place here. The first is from Amazon, the second is from the blogosphere/wherever authors are interacting. One thing is for certain -- authors absolutely need to have good blogs and write frequently. Some of my favorite authors have infrequently updated blogs or Twitter accounts. Unfortunately I forget about them. "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" creates chains if you dig deep enough. You will not be limited to a single pool of books (or music for that matter.) But, I find its also important to hand search the authors (or musicians) that come up for rarer and often just as meaningful work.

by bcl 14y ago

AJ007 14y ago

I would agree with you. The bookstore (or library) method as limiting as well as hit or miss. "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" on Amazon is extremely useful. In one case I saw an author's titles continually pop up for months, looked him, found his blog, realized he was a genius, an then end up buying everything he wrote. Pretty much everything I read now comes from that process. There is a networking effect in place here. The first is from Amazon, the second is from the blogosphere/wherever authors are interacting. One thing is for certain -- authors absolutely need to have good blogs and write frequently. Some of my favorite authors have infrequently updated blogs or Twitter accounts. Unfortunately I forget about them. "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" creates chains if you dig deep enough. You will not be limited to a single pool of books (or music for that matter.) But, I find its also important to hand search the authors (or musicians) that come up for rarer and often just as meaningful work.