Week 5 Prompt

Week 5 Prompt Response

If you want to be successful in selling something, you need to market it to the right people or no one will know how great it is.  Somehow, books and literature seem like they should be somehow excluded from this.  They aren’t however; and successful publishers and authors know this.  It is sad that some books get all the attention while others, even if they are great books, languish.  That is just the way society is.  There is always the next big movie, book, clothing item, vacation spot, etc. that everyone talks about.  In some ways, it is like one big book club, where everybody is discussing the same book for a while before moving on to the next big thing. 

The Billionaire’s First Christmas is not a romantic suspense novel.  The descriptions do not indicate any of the romantic suspense genre elements such as a threatened heroine and graphic details.  It seems to be a straightforward, holiday romance.  I would purchase this e-book upon request if it was available through Overdrive—although it is free on Amazon.

The positive reviews for Angela’s Ashes indicate that it will be an in demand book and several copies should have been purchased for the collection at the time of publication.  Our library purchases many copies of bestsellers and also keeps a few “Express” copies that no one can hold or renew.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I understand that we want to get books in the hands of people when they are wanted, but after the high demand for that book has ended, we are left with many copies that are then taken out of the collection.  Further, it is not always possible to predict what will and won’t take off so sometimes we have multiple copies of books that were never in high demand. 

I have mixed feelings about sources that won’t print negative reviews.  I think no review is probably pretty negative.  However, once an author is established, I think readers should be able to get reviews of their new works whether positive or negative.  If a source will only publish positive reviews, they are not giving readers what they need to make informed decisions about what to read next. 

I don’t heavily rely on reviews for my reading decisions.  I subscribe to a number of reading related Facebook groups where I get reviews and recommendations.  I look at Amazon and I read Library Journal.  Other than that, I rely on reading my favorite authors new books, personal recommendations, and anything that just looks interesting.