Eat, Drink, Read, and be Merry

We had a great 4^th of July with friends, hamburgers, and noodle salad. Breaking bread with friends is one of the pleasures in life. I think it goes back to campfires and caves, when you savored eating instead of being eaten.

Bookbar, Denver

Books can be friends, as well. That’s why I liked this Flavorwire article on “10 Literary Restaurants for Hungry Book Nerds Around the World.” I think I’ll put all 10 on my bucket list.

If you believe reading and food go together, you’ll enjoy Book Eats, a blog dedicated to food and books.

Word-of-Mouth is Still King

Goodreads has completed a survey of their members about how they discovered books. They published the results at the link below.

Goodreads Survey





How do people discover what book to read? Unsurprisingly, word-of-mouth is still king. A recommendation from a trusted friend is the top answer, with "Everyone talking about it" in second place. The third most frequent answer: a book club recommendation. Since book clubs are made up of trusted fellow readers, I would add this answer to the word-of-mouth category. These three answers put together dwarf all of the other responses.

What does this mean for an aspiring author? One thing, and one thing only: write a good book. There are many out there who believe the trick is to jump on the next e-book marketing gimmick. That works ... but only for a brief period. People don't recommend or talk about shoddy books. If word-of-mouth is the #1, #2, and #3 best way to sell books, then authors need to write books that people want to share with friends. As Goodreads says, the survey pointed out "one powerful need: wanting to be connected with our 'tribe' through stories." 

So if you want to be an author instead of a digital huckster, write a good story, polish it to perfection, have it professionally edited and proofread, and then do it all again.