Where do you go for "new authors"?

[novella]

Three main ways for me:

--I have a huge, sort of famous, used book dealer near me, and she vets what she puts on the shelves very carefully. She's read almost everything she sells and only buys books she thinks have quality. Average price for hardcovers is about 3-4 dollars, so I just go spend 30 bucks or so and fill a bag up. If I don't like all of them, well, ten books altogether cost about the same as a new list-price hardcover. So it's not that big a gamble.


--sometimes I read the obituary of an author I haven't heard of. This is rare, but has been extremely reliable.

--I read first chapters online whenever I'm thinking of getting a new book. If I don't like the first chapter, I probably won't like the book.

I never trust book reviews, and I find most recommendations pretty iffy.

 

[Carlos]

Just browse through ebay for me

 

[Toadal]

Shade recently linked to Palimpsest which I really liked.

 

[hay82]

I have 3 ways to find new authors.

1) I read what people say about books and authors here.
2) I use amazon's "people who bought this also bought" feature.
3) Browse the local bookstore and see if I find anything that sounds interesting.

So far it has worked great.

 

[Helenl]

Also bought

That "People who bought this also bought...." thing on Amazon and several others is phony. A friend who has about 8 books on Amazon has that after every one, and they were there when the books were first put on and nobody had bought them. One book has only been on for about two weeks and has them, and none have been sold of that one.

 

[Wabbit]

Well, I don't think that Amazon actually ever said that people really brought those books - although it's a clever use of words - but still it's very useful and does not matter to me if people are really buying them or not. All it is saying is that these books are similar and you may like them too! I find it very useful along with there other features such as listmania and their recommendations. I find them VERY spooky in their accuracy of what I like :-O

 

[hay82]

That "People who bought this also bought...." thing on Amazon and several others is phony. A friend who has about 8 books on Amazon has that after every one, and they were there when the books were first put on and nobody had bought them. One book has only been on for about two weeks and has them, and none have been sold of that one.

I didn't know that but I still find it usefull and I don't buy any of the books unless I find them interesting..

 

[Sentinel]

I don't think the "People who bought..." feature is phony. It's one of the simplest uses for datamining. I have programmed something like that myself for my employer's Online-Shop. It's simply math.
But (!) it is stupid since it only uses numbers and is not programmed in any way to "see" where it's needless to display a certain title.