How Much of the Book Do You Read?
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Jan 22 2015
I absolutely LOVED this article from The Guardian about how ebooks can tell us how much of the book readers are actually reading.
It’s a fascinating look at how some of today’s bestsellers are actually not being finished. Frankly, this information doesn’t surprise me at all. I haven’t read many of the books mentioned in the article, but I am notorious for putting a book down when I just don’t love it any longer. Life is short and if I have time to curl up and read a book it better be a good book and not just any book. By the way, good book is entirely subjective.
As an agent I would love information on how books are being read and when they’re being put down. It’s great sales research. As an author advocate I’m not so sure it’s great for an author’s sales if this kind of information becomes widely known. After all, would you buy the next big bestseller that everyone is talking about if you found out that everyone only read the first 25%?
Either way, it’s definitely cool information.
-jhf
I don't find it surprising. I also skip sections if the book is moving slowly or I don't enjoy it. As a writer I think it would be invaluable to learn if folks were always skipping sections. There are also books that are just too long.
Love this. This is not only cool it's amazing.
Now if I could figure out when an agent stops reading my query or my sample pages, maybe I would nix my nap and not act so smug.
I was surprised that the MOST finished ebook in the UK was only finished 83% of the time. It is so rare for me not to finish a book!
It's impossible to gather, but I'm very curious if there is a striking difference between finish rates of ebooks vs. paper books.
Last year was the first time I chose to not persevere with books I didn't like. I don't have time to spend on a book I'm not enjoying.
Looking back, the one thing all the books I didn't finish had in common was they were free.
I guess I spend money on books I'm pretty sure I will love.
Most books I didn't finish were digital, but a few were freebie print books from the RWAus conference. With a free book I don't feel that I have to keep reading if I don't like it. No investment in the book.
Of interest, for all the free books I have on my kindle, there have only been a couple of instances where the free book has resulted in me then purchasing other books by the same author. And only in one instance so far has an author's books become 'auto-buy'.
I try so hard to read a book all the way through–especially if I've bought it!
If it gets to the point where I'm just skimming to read and don't care and am not retaining what I've read, I'll stop. Every once in a while, I'll skip to the end to see if it gets better (And I never read the end first!).
Sometimes, it's hard to say if the book isn't for me, or if it's because I'm headed into a slump. I think I'm headed into a slump now. I didn't love a major YA title that many other people are loving and buzzing about. I put down two other books without finishing them for the moment because I wasn't enjoying them, and I've been looking forward to both. I picked up the one again two days ago and managed to finish it BUT didn't really enjoy it and I normally love the author!
So am I slumping? Did I just have three not-me titles in a row? I don't know!
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