lydamorehouse | (Reply)

From:

Interesting -- thank you for the background!

If something is standard advice like that, I assume that it either works or at least did work at some point in the past. (Rarely this isn't the case, but usually standard advice worked for someone.) I find that interesting since I don't think it works on me? But I suppose, say, Scalzi's Big Idea posts are that sort of thing (advertising guest posts on a popular author blog) and are very popular.

Maybe this is how people find out about new books and new authors when they don't have a good reading social network, or at least time to chase it?

Speaking as a reader, I mostly buy books via reviews, but not commercial reviews. When I find an author I really like, I often see if they have a personal blog, and then I start reading that and see what other books they really like, and try reading those. Some authors I really like read things I don't like at all, but the hit rate is fairly high. And then I repeat the process. I don't even remember what path got me here originally, but I loved the AngeLINK series, so here I am. And then when you mention other authors whose work you admire, I go take a look. Although mostly I'm reading because I love hearing the details of people's lives that they feel like sharing!

That approach gets me more books than I can ever possibly read in my lifetime, so I mostly ignore the hustles, which have a lower hit rate for me. But I suppose it can be hard for an author who doesn't know anyone to break in and find that first person to read their book, and maybe the hustle is the way they hope to do that.