Why I Did It
Over the past nine weeks, I’ve read eighteen books that I reviewed on this blog. Here are some stats:
- Traditionally Published Books: 4
- Indie (Self) Published Books: 14
- Science Fiction: 9
- Romance: 9
- Books I would highly recommend to others: 2
- Books I might recommend to others depending on their taste: 4
- Sci-Fi that I will read more in the series: 2
- Romance authors I will read more of: 2
There wasn’t a book I would say absolutely don’t read, but there were a few that would come with fair warning that it they had issues.
Part of this nine-week goal was to read books in the genres I write or want to write in. I found a few surprises.
Romance:
I was surprised that The Nantucket Inn, which after a year continues to lurk in the top twenty clean romance books, reads more like a women’s fiction series (drama and ongoing relationships) instead of a happily ever after romance.
The even shorter-than-I-imagined length of most of the romance books I read shocked me. Mine are longer than all but two of these.
Science Fiction:
I do like military sci-fi, but I prefer a smaller team to follow. The books I liked better had this element to them. The stiffness of military structure is okay to read, but I’m not drawn to write it.
This isn’t a shock, but rather than idea driven stories, I prefer character driven stories. Binti is more idea driven, despite there being a great main character, and while I found it interesting, it wasn’t compelling to me.
In General:
I know many of these indie authors make six figures a year selling books on Amazon. They specialize in giving the readers something the same but different from the last favorite story they read. I want to draw on that resonance in my writing, while giving the readers something new but familiar.
In the meantime, I’ll keep reading and looking for those stories that I’ll really love!
