# Finding new authors - here's what I do



## ScrappingForever (Nov 26, 2008)

I LOVE discovering new novels/authors on my Kindle. It's one of the many reasons that I love it so much - it's allowed me to explore genres I might never have discovered otherwise.

Here's what I do:

I get emails from Barnes & Noble, Random House and the "Whats New on Kindle" email. When I get those, I go directly to Amazon, to the Kindle store and search to see if it's there. If it's there, and I'm interested, then I download the sample (hence the many pages of samples I have!) I have found soo many wonderful stories that I would otherwise have never come across this way, or would never have explored, I guess I should say.

The other thing I do, and I LOVE doing this, because I love bookstores (surprise, surprise!) is to go to Borders or B&N and stroll around, making a list of any book that catches my eye. Then again, I'll cozy up with my computer and Amazon and see if the book is on the Kindle, and if so, I download the sample.

Life with a Kindle is good!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I do the same with book reviews...

Betsy


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

I use message boards. If someone says something that makes me interested than I'll check out a sample, otherwise I have no need to go out of my way looking for something to read. However, if I did need to look on my own I would use Gnooks. Type in a known name and other names pop up.


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## ScrappingForever (Nov 26, 2008)

Oh, that sounds neat, Selcien. I'll check that out. Thanks!


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

ScrappingForever said:


> I LOVE discovering new novels/authors on my Kindle. It's one of the many reasons that I love it so much - it's allowed me to explore genres I might never have discovered otherwise.
> 
> Here's what I do:
> 
> ...


That is pretty much my story, too... Kindle has opened up so many avenues for new authors and books I would have never considered before!

btw - I don't believe I have said hello and welcome to you ScrappingForever!! Hello and welcome!


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2008)

I just collar and kidnap them at signings.  If their books are good, I free them... for a price.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

You stole that idea from Steven King...

Betsy


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## Suzanne (Nov 3, 2008)

I sometimes use the site www.WhatShouldIReadNext.com  You enter in the title of a book and based on that book it makes recommendations. Now with the Kindle, if a book's on Kindle, I'll sample it.


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> You stole that idea from Steven King...
> 
> Betsy


You are being a cockadoodie DON'T Bee.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

All the new authors I have discovered in the past 8 months have come from a email list/yahoo group that I belong to: GWR (gay writers and readers). It's fun being on a list with the authors because I get the inside scoop on new stories, what they are working on, etc. 

L


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## robin.goodfellow (Nov 17, 2008)

Not a bad idea.  I myself have fallen prey to Amazon's "Shoppers who bought what you did filed for bankruptcy and then came back for this..."

They recommended that if I liked Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, that I might also like Tom Holt.  They were right.  The first book, "The Portable Door" has been hilariously funny, even though I've left it laying on the ottoman for more than a month now.  Guess who's stuff isn't on kindle yet?

I think it's a conspiracy.

~robin


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

robin.goodfellow said:


> Not a bad idea. I myself have fallen prey to Amazon's "Shoppers who bought what you did filed for bankruptcy and then came back for this..."
> ~robin


LOL!

Betsy


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Suzanne said:


> I sometimes use the site www.WhatShouldIReadNext.com You enter in the title of a book and based on that book it makes recommendations. Now with the Kindle, if a book's on Kindle, I'll sample it.


That's kind of cool. I also like www.literature-map.com, a site that someone recommended on the amazon boards. You put in the name of an author you like, and it gives you a kind of "map" of similar authors - the closer the name is, the more likely you are to like them, so they say. For example, I put in Madeleine L'Engle, and it had very close Edna St. Vincent Millay, then Laura Ingalls Wilder a bit further out, Willa Cather, and on out. It's fun to see the names kind of explode out from the center and float around until they find their place.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

marianner said:


> That's kind of cool. I also like www.literature-map.com, a site that someone recommended on the amazon boards. You put in the name of an author you like, and it gives you a kind of "map" of similar authors - the closer the name is, the more likely you are to like them, so they say. For example, I put in Madeleine L'Engle, and it had very close Edna St. Vincent Millay, then Laura Ingalls Wilder a bit further out, Willa Cather, and on out. It's fun to see the names kind of explode out from the center and float around until they find their place.


That is way cool...

Betsy


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## Suzanne (Nov 3, 2008)

That literature map site sounds cool too. I've bookmarked it in my Books folder. TYVM!


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## ScrappingForever (Nov 26, 2008)

I just put Diana Gabaldon in the literature-map thing. They have Marion Zimmer-Bradley and Sara Donati as being the only close ones. Then there's a big empty space and a bunch of other authors. I agree on Sara Donati, but not so much on Marion Zimmer-Bradley. I guess Diana is pretty much a breed all to herself!


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## Jamjar (Nov 22, 2008)

Thank you for the search  book links.  They are great.  They will be a part of my continual search for new Kindle reading material.  It will particularly fill my need for new mystery writers. 

Judy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

ScrappingForever said:


> I just put Diana Gabaldon in the literature-map thing. They have Marion Zimmer-Bradley and Sara Donati as being the only close ones. Then there's a big empty space and a bunch of other authors. I agree on Sara Donati, but not so much on Marion Zimmer-Bradley. I guess Diana is pretty much a breed all to herself!


I don't care so much for Marion Zimmer-Bradley myself. I'll have to look at Sara Donati.


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## Marci (Nov 13, 2008)

ScrappingForever said:


> I just put Diana Gabaldon in the literature-map thing. They have Marion Zimmer-Bradley and Sara Donati as being the only close ones. Then there's a big empty space and a bunch of other authors. I agree on Sara Donati, but not so much on Marion Zimmer-Bradley. I guess Diana is pretty much a breed all to herself!


I have & do read Zimmer-Bradley books. Generally speaking, her "Darkover" series follows a family or two across time and generations, and that may be why there are both somewhere on the map for Gabaldon.

Marci


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

Suzanne said:


> I sometimes use the site www.WhatShouldIReadNext.com You enter in the title of a book and based on that book it makes recommendations. Now with the Kindle, if a book's on Kindle, I'll sample it.


I have added this to my links on my tool bar so it is always handy. Thanks, Suzanne!


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

I like this literature map thing.  I usually don't look for new authors online.  I tend to go to a Half Price Books and just cruise the aisles waiting for something to catch my eye.  (I know the saying is that you can't judge a book by its cover, but I thing interesting covers seem to be on interesting books.)  Then I read the first chapter or two to make sure the writing style doesn't drive me crazy.
But I should be able to duplicate this through the literature map combined with Amazon to see the cover images.
Hey, what I save on gas, I can spend on books for my Kindle!
Andra


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## robin.goodfellow (Nov 17, 2008)

> I also like www.literature-map.com


Okay, that's just the scariest thing ever. It's like whoever wrote that walked thru my house and looked at my book filing system.

If they were going to do that, the least they could have done is left some groceries.



> I know the saying is that you can't judge a book by its cover, but I thing interesting covers seem to be on interesting books.)


Isn't that the truth? I have rarely been disappointed. I mean, except this one time were some author I've never heard from again wrote about a steam boat captain in the Pacific Northwest (yes, and it was even worse than it sounds, for it was also a romance novel) who always addressed people as "Y'all", which wouldn't have been so bad, except it was in every. single. sentence. the character spoke, and it was always spelled "Ya'll". I had to take white out to the pages just to finish that one. It was not one of my finer moments.

~robin


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

robin.goodfellow said:


> Isn't that the truth? I have rarely been disappointed. I mean, except this one time were some author I've never heard from again wrote about a steam boat captain in the Pacific Northwest (yes, and it was even worse than it sounds, for it was also a romance novel) who always addressed people as "Y'all", which wouldn't have been so bad, except it was in every. single. sentence. the character spoke, and it was always spelled "Ya'll". I had to take white out to the pages just to finish that one. It was not one of my finer moments.
> 
> ~robin


A Steamboat Captain from the Pacific Northwest saying y'all? How did that happen? I frequently say _y'all_. (Put down the whiteout and step away from the computer screen) It's such a good word, but I do use it judiciously. Sometimes the Jersey Girl in me pops out and I say _youse guys_.


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## robin.goodfellow (Nov 17, 2008)

Full disclosure:  I use "y'all" myself.  Being as I live in the South, it's not unusual.  But you are exactly right:  a steamboat captain in the Pacific Northwest?  It was both terrible and unconvincing.  The steamboat captain wasn't written as a displaced Southern character.  And it wouldn't have been so bad if she had used the term correctly, but she tended to use it more like this:
"Is that what ya'll are going to wear to dinner, Dad?"  "I'll love ya'll forever."  "Ya'll need to help me steer thru this storm, Jake."  It was awful.  And I think I just undid years of therapy remembering those sentences.  

I still carry the scars from that one.  I also started picking my romance novels more carefully after that.  Cheap pulp is one thing, but it's quite another to pay good money for poorly written cheap pulp.

Jersey girl, huh?  Do you like the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum novels?


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## Poi Girl (Dec 3, 2008)

Note to self: Don't read threads like this until you finish the books you have!


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## robin.goodfellow (Nov 17, 2008)

Yeah, cause you'll just end up bankrupt.  But hey!  Maybe we'll have cells near each other in debtor's prison!

~robin


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## Cowgirl (Nov 1, 2008)

Suzanne said:


> I sometimes use the site www.WhatShouldIReadNext.com You enter in the title of a book and based on that book it makes recommendations. Now with the Kindle, if a book's on Kindle, I'll sample it.


I always have a hard time trying to figure out what to read next. I have to try out that site. Thanks for the tip.


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## Poi Girl (Dec 3, 2008)

robin.goodfellow said:


> Yeah, cause you'll just end up bankrupt. But hey! Maybe we'll have cells near each other in debtor's prison!
> 
> ~robin


Lol, that's the truth. We could swap our Kindles through the bars.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

I love bookstores too and could still spend hours in them, then go home and download to Joy all I want to read! I'm feeling a little guilty about not shopping my local bookstores like I used to.



Cowgirl said:


> I always have a hard time trying to figure out what to read next. I have to try out that site. Thanks for the tip.


That's a cool tool! Even though I have a lot of books currently on Joy, I sometimes page through the lists and nothing sounds good. I think I'm hampered by not having the back or the fly to read the synopsis to help figure out what I'm in the mood to read.

When I found manybooks.net, I was astounded at the amount of free books I found that I wanted to read. They also have the "creative commons" category which has some good, modern books.

Sheryl


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

robin.goodfellow said:


> Jersey girl, huh? Do you like the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum novels?


Oh, yeah. I haven't lived in Jersey in a long time, but I can relate to Steph's Jerseyness. It's part of the series appeal for me. Three Plums in One is one of my first Kindle purchases. I finished Hard Eight and holding off on #9 until I get all those Amazon Gift Cards for Christmas.


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