How do you guys find new SFF books to read?

Once you start leaving reviews and filling your bookshelves on Goodreads, the algorithms suggest titles. The SFF branch of goodreads also votes on their bookclub picks for each month. These are readers not writers. It's not always new books, but you get the benefit of crowdsourcing--also conversation.

I've joined Storygraph which has a similar approach, but the algorithm is different and supposedly better. Here are a few titles that Storygraph thinks I will like:

Winter's Tale by M Helprin
The Girl Who Dared to Think by B. Forrest
Just One Damned Thing After Another by J. Taylor

etc.

I’ll add “recommended in an Absolute Write post” to my list.

And recommended by Amazon’s “People Who X This Also Bought Y”.

Those and some of your list are what I use to find books, but I don’t necessarily buy many that way. Frankly, I don’t buy nearly as many books as I once did. There was a time when I’d buy cheap self-pubbed e-books on Amazon just to cast a wider net and potentially find some gems. (Hey, I bought Andy Weir’s “The Martian” that way for $0.99!)

Most often? Recommendations from friends.

Less frequent methods:

- liked a short story and looked for longer work
- know of the author and saw a new release on Twitter
- recommended on AW
- browsing a bookstore

Sometimes writers I like and follow will review and/or recommend books on their blogs or on social media.

Also, the speculative fiction magazine, Locus features advertisements for upcoming new titles and it also has bestseller lists and reviews. I do notice new titles there once in a while.

I sometimes find books via AW too, either because writers here have titles out, or because other members recommend them.

Of course, when an author I already like comes out with a new book, I will look it over.

Most often, though, I will see a title recommended via the algorithm on Amazon or Barnes and Noble when I'm browsing an author I like. If read the back cover copy and some sample pages and like what I see, I will purchase it.

I used to find new authors simply browsing the shelves at the library and bookstores, but as I get older, more and more of my shopping is done online, and I don't check out books from libraries very often anymore.

Once in a great while I will read a book that a friend recommends.

Here's a weird way I found one of my favorite contemporary series and one kind of mehh book:

I found an agent I was interested in querying and looked up who she represented. Then I read the main releases from those authors. It gave me a better sense for what this agent liked and whether my work might fit with her taste.

gtanders said:

Thanks, Introversion & Woollybear! Much appreciated.

Introversion, which methods from the list do you use, if you don't mind me asking?

(BTW, hoping to add everyone's additional methods to the list at the top, but I can't edit the post ATM)

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The ones I didn't suggest:

* Favorite author launches a new book
* Recommendation from a friend
* Googling something like “new [science fiction / fantasy] books”

I haven't visited a library in over a decade, because our town is small, and its small library has inconvenient hours and not much selection.

I probably haven't visited a bookstore in several years, because the only paper books I buy these days are hardcovers of books I loved and want to be sure I have a durable copy of. (I have probably 1,500 paperbacks and 500 hardcovers in boxes in our basement that I've no space to display, so don't want to fill the basement with more.)

I left Facebook this year, have no desire to ever go back. Have a Twitter account that I never use.

Will sometimes use GoodReads reviews to decide whether I want to buy a book, but I don't go there to discover new ones.

I'll also endorse recommendations made by AW members--and let's not overlook that there is an awesome level of talent represented by our own AW authors in virtually every genre. Spend some time perusing the AW library (not every member makes their work available there; but some do).

My top method for finding new authors is blogs. Yes, blogs. Yes, those are still a thing. You’ll pry my RSS feeder out of my cold, dead hands! You kids get off my lawn!

But it’s a great way to learn both about cool new things to read and potential marketing outlets if and when I ever publish my own thing.

In particular:

- John Scalzi’s Whatever has a Big Idea feature where authors can pitch their books;
- Mary Robinette Kowal has a similar feature called My Favorite Bit;
- Chuck Wendig's TerribleMinds does a Five Things I Learned feature;
- The SFWA Blog does a fair number of author guest blogs;
- And Cat Rambo also regularly features guest blogs.

Those five outlets? Probably the biggest reason for my 200+ ebook TBR pile and this gigantic hole in my wallet. Other authors I follow — Martha Wells, Carrie Vaughn, Ann Leckie — do reviews or recommendations on a more infrequent basis, which does its share of widening the hole. I also read Tor.com’s blog, and if an article or short story catches my attention I check the sig for their book (there isn’t ALWAYS a book, but it never hurts to look).

Social media, particularly Twitter, sells me a pretty decent amount of books — again, mostly from people I follow posting recommendations or retweeting something interesting. And this and the blogs can also count as a tick on the “favorite author releases a book” column; that tends to be how I find out.

Annnnnd there’s the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog, which is mostly geared towards romance readers but has a fair amount of crossover with SFF. Their weekly deals email is another big reason for this dang wallet hole.

Recommendations (or sig links!) from AW are a newer but definitely widening contributor to the TBR pile.

I subscribe to Locus, so reviews or interviews there can be added to the list. And I pay attention to awards (the Locus reader poll, the Nebula, the Hugo, the World Fantasy award would be the top ones) and stuff that shows up on the long and shortlist and the winners tend to end up on the pile. (GEE HOW DOES THIS PILE GET SO BIG I WONDER)

I’m afraid the library and bookstore don’t do much for me... even before pandemic times I was an infrequent library goer, and as a rural resident my bookstore access is, um. Well. Maybe once or twice a year when I got to a bigger city. I do tend to check out new authors found by other avenues more readily if they show up in Overdrive. Goodreads and the “other people bought” algorithms... eh, sometimes, I guess, but that’s more a “strike of lightning” thing than a regular thing. Algorithms are very, very hit or miss for me.

(But then I never could convince Pandora to stop recommending Coldplay either, so maybe this is a me problem.)

I love the library. Unlike others above! When it's open.

They have the new book shelf and I grab a dozen expecting to find comps.

I don't find comps.

But I find authors like Matt Haig, so it's a win.

It occurs to me we need an algorithm to plop in our hated books. I RYFW so I won't mention the big names I can't read, but I've gone down mostly dead ends reading books I was supposed to like. I was supposed to like them, only to find I hated them. Money wasted. These best sellers are not on KU, etc. Wasted. Money. Their metrics improve for the sale.

I love the library.

I usually follow Instagram accounts that post new books coming out. Not particularly sci-fi so I don't really have any to offer...

starrystorm said:

I usually follow Instagram accounts that post new books coming out. Not particularly sci-fi so I don't really have any to offer...

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I do this too.

Woollybear said:

I love the library.

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Me too, when I had the time and access to a larger one. The smell of acres of books is intoxicating! If I ever became insanely wealthy, I’d want a house with my own library.

Specialist Facebook groups e.g. Fantasy Faction book discussion, Grimdark Readers and Writers. Books that do well in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off.

I try to support physical bookstores when I can: Heffers, Waterstones, Forbidden Planet.

Failing that, I search amazon for books by authors I've already read and enjoyed.

Reviews and recommendations on blogs or at science fiction convensions.

Browsing friends bookshelves.

I admit I'm kinda lazy. You can chalk me up for browsing “New SFF” at the library, and that includes the library's Overdrive page.
My other source is thrift stores, as there are no book stores in my town, but lots of second hand places. I rarely like books that get a lot of hype (I've tried many) so now I tend to tune out the review/suggestion sites and just go by the blurb/opening pages of books I happen across more randomly.

- author I’m already familiar with
- word of mouth from friends or a podcast
- twitter and forum discussions
- occasionally by searching for books about a certain topic or with particular narrative features
- classics I’ve just never gotten around to

My to-read list is so long (and ever-growing!) I haven’t had to actively search out books to read in years.[SUB][/SUB]

I do love the library! Even if I don’t get my book recommendations there, I’d say roughly 95% of what I read is library-borrowed. These days that means mostly ebooks.

First one I read knowingly was, hello, yes a million years ago when my son was about 8, and I asked a young chap who worked in an independent bookshop for a recommendation for my kid who he had never met, and whom I probably described in overly necessary detail. Bookshop Guy suggested The Tripod Trilogy, so I bought it and read it so we could talk about it and - boom!

To be fair, I was up against my mother-in-law who had gone the same route two months before and sent him his very first Pterry. Just working it out, she would have been, yes, in her late 70s, then. And not a reader.

Ask the young bloke at your independent bookshop, is my point... bless their sweet hearts.

LibraryThing--both through their recommendation algorithm and through the science fiction and fantasy chat groups.

More often than not these days, my recommendations come from my writer's group. They're all professionally published authors and often will pop up with "I just read this and liked it". If it's an author you read, those recommendations carry weight. Also, when I find a new author I like, I will go back and read their entire back catalog, which kind of limits the amount of time I have to find even more new books to look at.

Cephus said:

More often than not these days, my recommendations come from my writer's group. They're all professionally published authors and often will pop up with "I just read this and liked it". If it's an author you read, those recommendations carry weight. Also, when I find a new author I like, I will go back and read their entire back catalog, which kind of limits the amount of time I have to find even more new books to look at.

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I was looking to join a writers group before COVID. Now, I'm holding off for a while. It must be a good help to be in a group where everyone is professionally published.