Which book to read first?
Jul. 24th, 2012 04:14 pmIf you go to an author website, have a prominent link to "this is the famous book I wrote". There is no author so famous[1] that someone isn't sure where to start.
It doesn't matter that the recommendation won't be perfect, it's fine if you say "I like [my first book] but most people like [my best book]" or "I'm most famous for [first book] but I think [pretentious book] is a lot better". If you've genuinely written books in very different niches feel free to say "Try [fantasy book] or [literary book] or [YA book] or [maths textbook]".
I know it's painful to realise that not everyone is already a committed fan, but sometimes a new reader wants just a place to start: "What sort of things are this?" "What makes these books stand out (even if it's very subjective) so I can see if I need to put them on my MUST READ NOW list?" If the first glance seems reasonable, trust the reader to choose which of the obvious places to start, or solicit recommendations for the _best_ place to start.
But if you just offer a complete list of "everything I ever wrote", the new reader won't necessarily read through everything, working out which books are the start of series, which books seem bad places to start, which books may resonate with them specifically. They may just say "well, I don't know, I'll come back later". And the sad fact about people is, they rarely DO come back later :(
[1] Try reading one of the gospels, or one of the old testament books that's more of a complete story, or the first bits of genesis. Don't try to read the whole collection from the beginning until you're hooked :)
It doesn't matter that the recommendation won't be perfect, it's fine if you say "I like [my first book] but most people like [my best book]" or "I'm most famous for [first book] but I think [pretentious book] is a lot better". If you've genuinely written books in very different niches feel free to say "Try [fantasy book] or [literary book] or [YA book] or [maths textbook]".
I know it's painful to realise that not everyone is already a committed fan, but sometimes a new reader wants just a place to start: "What sort of things are this?" "What makes these books stand out (even if it's very subjective) so I can see if I need to put them on my MUST READ NOW list?" If the first glance seems reasonable, trust the reader to choose which of the obvious places to start, or solicit recommendations for the _best_ place to start.
But if you just offer a complete list of "everything I ever wrote", the new reader won't necessarily read through everything, working out which books are the start of series, which books seem bad places to start, which books may resonate with them specifically. They may just say "well, I don't know, I'll come back later". And the sad fact about people is, they rarely DO come back later :(
[1] Try reading one of the gospels, or one of the old testament books that's more of a complete story, or the first bits of genesis. Don't try to read the whole collection from the beginning until you're hooked :)