I’ve recently started diving into publishing as a hobby/side gig. It got me to see the other side of things when it comes to books, and it’s quite the craziness.
The first thing I came to realize is how much I rely on word of mouth to select my books. Things like ads, author interviews and usual marketing stuff means nothing to me. But if I see a book listed in a post when searching for a specific genre or topic, or a friend recommends it to me, it almost always immediatly goes to my reading list.
So as I focus on getting my story published and read, I wonder if I should invest in anything other than word of mouth.
So, I wanted to hear from you guys. How do you usually put a book on your radar? How would you like to discover new books?
Previously, r/books. 6 years ago I used to be a voracious reader. When I finished a book I would look on reddit for similar books, download them (my habit was too expensive for my college kid ass, and my local bookstore only carries the latest best sellers, classics, and YA) and read through them. Then life caught up and I stopped reading for fun altogether.
Last year I picked reading up again and now I get my reccs from tiktok, discord, or people I know. I’m not anywhere near what I used to read, but it’s something. Currently I’m reading through the first book of the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, from the WH40K universe, and have another one in the series lined up, as an introduction to the universe. After those two books I have the first Dune book, Canticle for Leibowitz, and maybe finish Lenin on the train and Gentleman in Moscow (iiirc that was the title, about a rich guy stuck in a hotel during the october revolution).