Am I the only one who does this?

Mustafa said:

When I get a recommendation for a book I should read, the very first thing I do is check out (on Amazon) who the publisher is. If I don't recognize the publisher, I look them up. It is only after I've looked into the press that I read the back copy blurb about the book and/or the sample pages to see if I might like the book.

Does anyone else do that?

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Well, I do about the first half of that. If I don't recognize the publisher, I usually side-eye the cover to see if it looks professional or not, and if it does, download the sample. But I almost always read the blurb; terrible blurbs are educational in their own way, after all.

Well, no, because I only read physical books.

If it's on a bookshelf in a store, I trust it to be from a reputable publisher. Thus, I don't care at all* who the publisher/imprint is. I only care whether it's my kind of book.

*except for this one imprint that had the prettiest covers and the most dreadful books when they first started out. I got burned several times and am still avoiding them, even though they've probably improved since getting a foothold in the business. Woe to those who cannot afford to be choosy.

I'd figure that if someone I trusted was recommending it, there is probably some merit to it no matter who the publisher is and would probably check it out.

That being said, I do check publishers when a book looks unprofessional.

Pretty much what Katie said. But if the recommendation comes from a trusted source, why should the publisher matter? A good story is a good story in my book.

And if it doesn't come from a trusted source, the recommendation probably won't peak my interest enough to look in the first place.

I might look at the publisher, but it doesn't matter for me.

I'll go "Oh, Tor, that's cool..." And then move on.

There are a couple of publishers that I avoid like the plague, but other than that I don't really take much notice.

Mustafa said:

When I get a recommendation for a book I should read, the very first thing I do is check out (on Amazon) who the publisher is. If I don't recognize the publisher, I look them up. It is only after I've looked into the press that I read the back copy blurb about the book and/or the sample pages to see if I might like the book.

Does anyone else do that?

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Nope, I do that all the time. It's actually helped me find several great independent presses to follow. I don't believe the publisher has ever turned me off of a book. But crappy writing sure as hell does. However, checking publishers has helped expand my reading a great deal.

Actually, I read the 1-star reviews first. The thoughtful ones usually give some indication of problems. Once it passes that test, yes, I do peek at the publisher. Sometimes, I can tell from the 1-stars pretty much what the deal is with the publisher and look to verify it.

Sometimes, I'm very pleasantly surprised.

I'd like to say that I trust my close sources for books but there have been a few times where a good book was recommended, I blithely went in reading it and discovered it had a real bummer of an ending. I can handle bummer endings if I'm prepared. I wasn't. It affected me for months afterward and I was really pissed at the person who recommended it, even though it was a good book!

Just...bummer ending. Had I read the 1-stars first? I would have been more prepared. So...while I have trusted sources, I don't always take their word sight unseen anymore.

jjdebenedictis said:

If it's on a bookshelf in a store, I trust it to be from a reputable publisher. Thus, I don't care at all* who the publisher/imprint is. I only care whether it's my kind of book.

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This.

I don't that, but then I've never thought about doing that. If I get a recommend from a friend, I keep a list in my computer. Then I'll see if they're at the library or if I come across them in a bookstore. A quick snoop at the book to see if I might like it, but I'll always get it.

No I don't.

Now that Vintage is publishing 50 Shades of Grey, the "who's publishing this?" test is a little riskier.

Mustafa said:

When I get a recommendation for a book I should read, the very first thing I do is check out (on Amazon) who the publisher is. If I don't recognize the publisher, I look them up. It is only after I've looked into the press that I read the back copy blurb about the book and/or the sample pages to see if I might like the book.

Does anyone else do that?

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If it's a generic online recommendation (i.e. a random forum post), yes, that's exactly what I do.

The sad thing is that almost without exception these recommendations are for vanity published books and it's pretty much obvious they're posted by the author themself.

I do. It's simple to plug in the name of an unfamiliar press into Google and find out who is behind the work. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised. Other times I've found self-published presses with 1 badly written book. It's good to know.

If someone whose opinion I trust told me about it? No.

When I'm browsing for a new book to read in random categories on Amazon? Sometimes, though I prefer to just glance at a sample rather than hold their publisher against them.

Truthfully, I normally only read the blurb. If it's my type of book, it's my type of book. I normally don't hold a cover against someone because they can't control that all of the time. But if a cover is eye-catching to me, it will probably increase my chances of reading the blurb.

I never check the publisher. If I like the premise I'll check the blurb. If I like that, even if the cover sucks, I'll buy it. Usually I check on Amazon to see if there's an excerpt, though. A crappy excerpt or badly written blub is a huge warning sign. The publisher doesn't really matter because books published by the big six can still be boring, it just means the book itself does something fairly well.

Question said:

I never check the publisher. If I like the premise I'll check the blurb. If I like that, even if the cover sucks, I'll buy it. Usually I check on Amazon to see if there's an excerpt, though. A crappy excerpt or badly written blub is a huge warning sign. The publisher doesn't really matter because books published by the big six can still be boring, it just means the book itself does something fairly well.

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This.

Question said:

I never check the publisher. If I like the premise I'll check the blurb. If I like that, even if the cover sucks, I'll buy it. Usually I check on Amazon to see if there's an excerpt, though. A crappy excerpt or badly written blub is a huge warning sign. The publisher doesn't really matter because books published by the big six can still be boring, it just means the book itself does something fairly well.

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+2

Never the publisher, but always the 1 and 2 star reviews.

I don't care who the publisher might be, and I never read reviews.

If a friend likes it, that's enough.

Now, I might check the publisher after I read a great book, but only for professional reasons. As in, maybe they'd like a book from me.

But pretty much all publisher have great books, and not so great books, so I'm not about to buy or not buy because of the publisher.

No, but I always Wikipedia the author.

kuwisdelu said:

No, but I always Wikipedia the author.

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The one time I did this, it paid off. He was this old guy with an extensive and glorified Wikipedia page, as big as some celebrities'. He wasn't even remotely famous. The stories (award-winning ones, supposedly) it linked to were incredibly amateur. It was all clearly in earnest.