What makes you buy a book? I've been thinking about this more and more since I've been published, because now I know tons of other authors who are starting out just like me, and trust me, we hope each other will buy our books just as much as we want non-writers to buy them. If you check out Romancing the blog's entry from yesterday, you'll see why!

So why is it that I'll buy some of the books and not others? Why is it that some books by really sweet people get passed over in favor of other people's books? Since of course I don't have unlimited funds!

I'm still a sucker for a good cover, which I know often has nothing to do with the contents of the book, but there you go, it makes a difference! I like covers that make sense and have a great color scheme. I guess I don't want to be confused by what I'm looking at late at night!

I'm not an excerpt person. I almost never read them, though with ebooks I'm reading them more than I used to. But even then, I'm just looking for smooth writing, not really a sense of what the book is about. I'm told this is critical for many readers, though.

The winner for me is...back cover copy! That's the most important thing, followed by the first page if I'm not totally sold. At Ellora's Cave, Cerridwen Press and Lavender Isis, three of my publishers, the author writes their own back cover copy. I know this isn't true of many publshers, but it's a good/scary thing that all that marketing power is put in the hands of the person who knows the plot best. I wish we had a training class, but I take as a master class reading back cover copy whenever I can, so I can pick up the rhythms.

What makes you choose a book?