Hello lovely readers and welcome to another Let’s Talk Bookish post! Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, created and hosted by Rukky@eternitybooks, where we discuss chosen topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts.
I haven’t had time to do one of these in awhile with the holidays, but I’m excited to be able to participate again!
This week’s topic is: Does your like or dislike of an author bias you towards their books?
My answer: Yes, but only to a point.
I read for the stories not the authors
My author loyalty is low. I’m reading the book for the story so there is only one author I will give every single one of their books a shot and that’s Jordanna Max Brodsky. I love her books. The amount of detail she puts into them is just stunning and so I will always given them a shot.
All other authors I will read the summary of their book and see if I’m interested. I’m very particular about the books I choose to read for myself so if a book doesn’t sound interesting then I tend not to waste my money on it. I like Leigh Bardugo generally, but even with all the hype about Ninth House I have zero interest in reading it. However, authors that I know I like do get the benefit of me at least looking at their book. Half the battle I feel like is for people to even decided to pick your book up. I pay attention to the authors of stories I like and so if they say they are publishing a book I will automatically check it out. I will still decide based on the summary if I want to get it or not, but the chances are high that I’d probably like it. However, that habit can be a double edge sword for authors. If I don’t like the first book I read from them then it takes a lot for me to decide to pick up another one from them unless the summary is good. If the summary is good then I might be willing to give it another shot. If I read two books from an author though and don’t like either chances are I probably won’t read another one of their books.
Another bias that affects my decision to read a book
As much as authors only affect me to a point reviews are my kryptonite. I generally don’t read book reviews until after I’ve read the book. I find that even if I’m really excited about a book coming out, but it has even just some bad reviews it takes away most of the excitement I have for it. It’s horrible how easily I’m turned off books by bad reviews. It’s that fear of spending my money on a bad book syndrome.
