Anyway -- I've been busily blogging over at Random Thoughts.
I've discussed the stigma of self-publishing, here: I'm Legits, Yo!
And the making of my book cover, here: Cover Talk!
If you haven't seen it yet...here 'tis. :)
Yay. I really need the next two weeks to speed by quickly. :)
Anyway--in the course of preparing for publication, I set out to do some cross-promotion with other YA authors. I've been reading a lot of YA. A lot a lot a lot. (g) Of course, time is running low and I'm having to start cutting myself off with the sample chapters that Amazon will let you download for free. It gives me a chance to get a little taste of what the writing is like, etc..whether or not it can snare me in the few pages I'm able to read. I told myself: if they can get me with the sample, I'll buy the book and read the whole she-bang.
Unfortunately, that hasn't really happened yet. Sigh.
I'll admit, I'm a cover to cover kind of girl--no matter how bad a book may be. I think I have this all encompassing hope that SOMETHING redeeming will spring forth from the page to save my reading experience. Needless to say, that usually isn't the case and I often times find myself disgusted with the number of hours I wasted on a book I didn't like.
So...I'm finding myself wanting to buy these books despite the fact that the sample pages aren't grabbing me. EEE. LOL. How weird is that? But I keep thinking, maybe it gets REALLY good during the next chapter. Maybe the writing will smooth out, I mean, openings are difficult... we all know that, right? So maybe it's unfair of me to make such a snap judgment based on so little.
Head. Desk.
Is anyone else like this? Is there a name for this ailment? I-must-finish-what-I-start-itis perhaps? And how long do you give a book before calling it a day?
Just wondering.
At any rate, my search for promotion partners in crime continues. I'm keeping the faith! LOL. Until next week!
I'm a cover to cover girl too but recently I've given myself permission not to finish things. If I find that I have to force myself to pick back up the book, if I feel I ought to read it rather than I want to read it, or if the writing makes me angry, I stop. It's been kinda liberating though I still have flashes of guilt.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting better at the cover-to-cover stuff. Too little time, too much to read. What I've done is research my genre and pick up some books to sample. I'll admit, I've never read much in this genre before and fell into it when my WIP just appeared, so I'm playing catch up. That's a good excuse to buy books, isn't it? ; )
ReplyDeleteI do the same as you, but I'm getting better as well. I now give myself permission to skim a little, especially if there are lots of typos and other mistakes and my hand's getting tired from all the correcting that no one's going to see anyway [bg]
ReplyDeleteS.P -- Yes, yes...the guilt. (g) I always run a series of 'what ifs' through my mind and it's just exhausting. I'm getting better too...mostly. :)
ReplyDeleteZan Marie -- It's a very good excuse to buy books. :) That's one reason I'm loving my Kindle so much these days. All the free samples--it's probably saving me a lot of time, but some serious duckets as well. :)
Deniz -- I've never been a skimmer. Nope, I read every word, no matter how difficult. Probably why I'm such a slow reader. (g) And you're too funny, Miss copy editor. :)
I'm the same - I hang in till the bitter end when reading books. I just have to know how it ends, if it gets better, etc. If something is truly awful, though, I won't go back to that author and get drawn into another book. Which still gives me that uncomfortable "what if" when I hear others raving about an author I've had a bad experience with.
ReplyDelete