Subject: Explore the Influence of Recommended Reads

For Readers

Hi Friend,

Do you buy recommended books?

How many times is a book recommended before you just have to read it? For me, that is usually just once. If a friend recommends a book and it sounds interesting, I will add it to my "buy" list. But I've heard other people say that it takes three times or even seven times for a reader to hear that a book is good before they buy it.

Who the person recommending the book is and how readers feel about that person heavily influences readers' buying decisions. Any book that used to be in Oprah's Book Club instantly became a best seller. Or if a best friend whom you respect and who has the same reading taste recommends a book, that may sway some readers.

Book Riot shared, "In 2017, Gigi Griffis, a writer and traveler, created a survey to explore the motivations behind readers’ book buying habits." The survey questioned 355 readers (an odd number), posing a variety of questions. One question was about what influenced their book reading/buying habits. She found that 77% of those surveyed bought a book because a friend suggested it. Wow! That's high. We really value our friend's opinions.

What influences your reading and book purchasing decisions?

I changed my newsletter header again

It's a new year, so I thought I'd try a new newsletter header. I can't seem to find one that I like. I paid a designer for my previous one and really didn't like it.

So, I decided to create my own.

This will be my 2024 header. What do you think? Better? Thumbs up or Thumbs down?

For Writers

Recommended Books: The Key to Author Success

We all know that reviews influence book buyers. Interestingly, even negative reviews can help an author if the negative review is considered petty or intentionally written to harm a writer. Readers are smart and they don't like that.

The more good reviews, the better, but the number of reviews is important. The more reviews an author gets, the more visibility the book will get, especially on platforms like Amazon who will show the book more often.

But not only is getting reviews and recommendations good for authors but writing recommendations for other authors can also benefit both authors. Book Bub encourages authors to review books they have read and enjoyed. Catherine McKenzie, a guest blogger on Book Bub, wrote a piece about how she regularly recommends books across various platforms because it helps other writers, builds goodwill with readers and with

author communities.

I wanted to share this with writers because if you're like me, you read a lot, so why not review those books to help both that author's books and yours as well. One of my goals this year is to increase the numbers of reviews I leave for other writers.

These were my book recommendation during Christmas

If you are just starting out as a writer or you've ever said, "I'd love to write a book" then visit my How to Write a Book group on Facebook to read more of my blogs about writing for free, and to chat about your project and ideas with others.

Or if you want to be guided through the writing process, my course The Easy Tell Your Story Course for Beginners is a great place to start.

If you're interested in getting your book published, Book Publishing Success Masterclass can help you with this dream.

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Subject: Explore the Influence of Recommended Reads

For Readers

Do you buy recommended books?

For Writers

Recommended Books: The Key to Author Success

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