What would convince you to purchase a book from a new author?

I agree, but life aint perfect!
For an author that's another bonus of publishing on kindle, mistakes can be rectified that would have been too late in print and I've seen it done ... not only by indies but trad published authors too.

An unfamiliar author's name is unimportant. Supposedly, you should never judge a book by its cover, but that is what grabs my initial attention, as does the title. It's also important that there's a back-cover synopsis; something that's often missing here on Amazon. If what I'm considering purchasing is erotic fiction, I would like to see tags on the back cover to let me know what genres the novel contains. Some things I like, some I don't

All in all, I like to know what to expect when I start reading the book

Thank you so much Fran, I have just read your review above about pricing an e-book & thought it very helpful.

I offer mine free for a while & I have a (short) horror here until Thursday but I am a little disheartened as I have one good review from a UK reader & a bad review from a US reader & I didn't think the book was really that bad so I am learning all the time.

Regards Dale

Steven, you are absolutely right in what you say, the hard work is getting reviews for your published book it does help the book take off (or not) & any input within these forums helps all the time, the good, the bad & the ugly of reviews.

Keep up the good work my friend

Regards Dale

Audible books are intriguing, but has anyone a clue how much it costs to make one?

Hi Will, I am too looking into this aspect, is it possible to actually record yourself talking onto your computer mic, then saving the file?

I have looked at programs for recording from the computer but when I try & then play it back, the audio sounds terrible & fuzzy. I would love to know of any other ideas out there to convert books into audio.
Regards Dale

I started reading this discussion at the beginning, but do not have time to read through it all, so apologies if these topics already covered.

What makes me read a book? In order 1) cover & title 2) synopsis. Any errors in the synopsis, and it's over. It shouldn't be too long, too detailed, or contain those stupid quotes from interviews. 3) The 'click to look inside'. It needs to grab me on the first page. I agree, many self published books have grammatical errors or what they call 'clunky' sentences and would have been thrown straight in the bin by agents in the days when you had to send manuscripts out in the hope of a contract!

It's hard if it's an author with no back catalogue to look at, but I'd look at reviews, too - and also check to see if those reviews are authentic - lots of them have a load of amazing reviews done by people who haven't reviewed anything else, so you can tell it's just them getting their friends and family to write them.

So - Steven! Title & cover - doesn't have to be professionally done, as long as it's eye-catching. Synopsis must be spot on. And your grammar/spelling, too, of course! Then, you have to get it out there. I've discovered a lot of good new authors via Twitter - learn to tweet in such a way that it makes people want to look at the book. If you just put "ANOTHER BOOK by ANOTHER AUTHOR hashtag hashtag get it now!" and then the link, who's going to want to look at it? Look at tweets from authors who get readers - I've discovered a few like this - they've put an interesting tweet out, it's made me look at the book - and then I've bought it!

You're going to need to either hire or build a studio with professional recording equipment (especially a proper microphone).

You'll need sound editing software too.

And, most importantly, you'll need someone who knows what he/she is doing with all that kit.

Dale, Ian is absolutely right.

It isn't like self publishing. You do need proper equipment and someone who knows how to speak into a microphone.

It is possible to read it himself, but he'll definitely need a sound engineer to make it sound any good.

Agree on the engineer, but I still think a professional actor is needed too.

We all think we speak clearly and accurately inside our own heads, but listening to a recording of ourselves is often frightening...

Definitely true in my case, the frightening bit. It's amazing what correct intonation does when reading aloud.

I have seen a group of guys use their iPhones as microphones to record music and it worked very well, producing an MP3 or 4 file, but you still need to put it through some good equipment to get a finished and polished product. That is probably more important if you expect someone to listen intently for a few hours. Still I did use an iPhone to record the BBC Radio Devon interviews from iPlayer that went on my website without any further editing to it.

A band would possibly be different, as there are disparete elements going on. With a book, only the vocal line is there, and if the intonation or expression is off the mark, it's going to be boring, very quickly...

If I had to read my books myself, I'd probably get famous for the comedy value. I can't read aloud to save my life. Particularly not something I've read before; my mind keeps galloping ahead and I read what's not there.

I never meant to suggest leaping into audio at the start, just to use the website to read genuine reader reviews! It is a huge and growing international marketplace worth keeping in mind for the future. Clearly I have no idea of how much profit returns to an author after the recording and marketing organisations take their cut. It is another way of getting aname well known and attracting a new following.

Audible listeners are extremely fussy about narrators and a bad one or an imperfect recording will damn a book straight away. Some authors have done self narration but often they are less successful and attract criticism in this respect despite good writing.

My contract gives me the same royalties on an audio book sale as another medium. However, i suspect that the costs are off putting for my publisher.

Something to look into, though.

Don't own a Kindle, so referring to when buying from bookstores: I would say obviously it is the cover that attracts your attention first. Then I would read the synopsis to see if the book is in my taste (horror or thriller fiction mostly, but intelligently written) and see if there are any blurbs from other authors or respected sources. I know some people hate them, but I would rather buy a book that quite a few people I trust say are great than a book without any blurbs.
Why no blurbs? Did no one like it or were the ad agency just lazy? In my experience (and I read a LOT), books with no blurbs are usually below-average more times than most. Not always, of course, but mostly.

I promise this isn't meant facetiously, but do you mean the cover of the spine? Obviously, if the book is on a display table, you can get to see the cover, but if it's on the shelves, there's only the spine... Now here's a thought, maybe there's a whole new marketing exercise to be done with spine illuminations, you know, could be powered by a tiny battery like those greetings cards you can buy that play a tune like a Stylophone... (Darn, that dates me!)

In a bookshop, for me it's title first, then I pull out the book from the shelf and see if the cover attracts me. For instance, I'm not into romance so if the cover is a gorgeous young female in the arms of a dashing young man I won't even bother to read the synopsis.

I also wonder how much influence an author's name or pseudonym has, since it's normally only this plus title that's displayed on the spine.

I honestly have never seen a book in a brick and mortar store without blurb.

Same here.

Although, since I only buy e-books (except the odd paperback), I go for title and cover in one go. I think I take both in at the same time, then read the blurb. If there are reviews I read the negative ones only. After that I'll read the sample.

I treat all books the same, no matter how they were published, but I'm more wary with self published authors and will read the full sample, whereas with trad pub novels I only need to read a few paragraphs.

I have only just joined this discussion. I agree with everybody who says the synopsis is the first thing to read. If that is badly-written or badly-punctuated I won't go any further. I hope the first paragraph of my book, 'Looking for Jamie' stands out and pulls the reader in. I would be interested in hearing people's views.

The subject matter (the synopsis on the back) and then I scan the first few pages. It doesn't take me long to spot a writing style that I know I won't be able to live with.

here is a ittle story. I've written about 40 film scripts and most of them have been produced. I felt it was time to use the novel form and although different there are many similarities about character development, creating tension, rolling out the story, making sure it's a page turner. I tried for 6 months to get an agent helped by my film agent. In the end an agent rang my film agent and said that she couldn't put the novel down, loved the story and language and any publisher would enter it for a literary award. As this was recalled to me my my film agent i thought 'ahh, at last' But then she said, 'the thing is, the publishers are confused about what they want at the moment, mostly looking for the airport novels so I can't handle your guys novel'. I decided i would have to self-publish which i have done. Now I am getting emails from people saying they are buying, reading and enjoying; I have a couple of independent positive reviews, I am hoping that my friends pass the book on to others, i have tried to find on-line ways to publicise it but i do not hear the sounds of champagne corks popping nor congratulations from editors and reviewers ... its a bit lonely out here. Whoever said we should be able to write, do publicity and kiss babies?
So if anyone has any ideas, hearing about them would be deeply appreciated.....here is a link:
A Forgettable Man: A Psychological and Political Thriller

Robert, apart from the film scripts, most of us have similar stories. Perhaps some of us should take on the task, if they feel up to it!