Today Writer Wednesday features tips on finding new reads from the founders of a new enterprise: Castle Gate Press.
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How do you find new books you want to read?
Somewhere out there is a new author you’ll love, you can depend on that. But with 600,000 to one million titles published just in the U.S. every year these days, how do you find him or her?
I’ve got some ideas. There’s the obvious: we all take recommendations from people we know very seriously.
Possibly less obvious: Amazon lists books that were bought together with you are looking at. So, locate a book you like on Amazon and scroll down to “Customers who bought this item also bought…” This can be a great way to locate authors who write similar books to one you like.
You can get active on Goodreads.com, a huge site that brings readers together and encourages us to write reviews and recommend books for each other. Another site to check out: WhatShouldIReadNext.com .
What about all those author voices on the Internet? Hundreds of thousands of authors are out to get your attention for their books. But who do you take seriously? You can locate a favorite author and follow his or her Facebook page to learn more and meet others. You may find new authors this way too.
Oftentimes, publishers will target a particular reader niche or genre. Authors who’ve been published by a third party have had their work evaluated and found good, as opposed to self-published authors who sometimes skip some editing steps. You may be able to identify a publisher who turns out the kind of books you like, and you can read a variety of authors from there with confidence. – Phyllis Wheeler
Castle Gate Press is a new independent publishing company focusing clean fiction with a touch of the fantastic. You’ll find engaging characters, twisty plots, and something odd going on: time travel, science experiments gone weird, supernatural beings, a bit of fantasy, or whatever. It’s run by a couple of homeschooling mom veterans, Suzanne Hartmann and Phyllis Wheeler, who both love reading and writing fiction with a touch of the fantastic, and who love editing too.
While Castle Gate Press’s books won’t be available until next year, you can find flash fiction, photo caption challenges, and other reader-oriented items on Fridays on its blog. Go ahead and sign up to have blog posts emailed to you, and you’ll always know the latest news! http://www.castlegatepress.com/blog
