14 Quotes About Reading That Make All the Sense in the World

The Literary Site blog has collected fourteen quotes from authors about reading. I have to agree with Jim Rohn. “The book you don’t read won’t help.” His quote makes a lot of sense.
Or Joseph Brodsky. “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

All of them are worth a moment of your time to read. http://blog.theliteracysite.com/reading-quotes-list/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

What Books Readers Buy: Readers' Survey

Every year Smashwords examines sales data to extract insights about best practices that give indie authors and publishers incremental advantages in the marketplace. This data is probably the only firm facts anywhere about digital sales. The survey is based on over $25 million in actual verified ebook sales data, aggregated across the Smashwords distribution network between April 2014 and March 2015.

1. Preorders. Less than 10 percent of books began as a preorder, yet two thirds of the top 200 bestselling titles were born as preorders.

2. Series with free series starters earn more money.

3. Free still works to build readership.

4. Longer books sell better than shorter books.

5. $3.99 remains the sweet spot for full length indie fiction.

6. 99 cents is still good for building readership.

7. Bestselling authors are more likely to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and more likely to have a blog.

8. Top Fiction categories during the period: 1. Romance. 2. Erotica. 3. YA and teen fiction.

9. Top Non-fiction categories during the period: 1. Biography. 2. Health, wellbeing and medicine

Anyone seriously interested in making a success of a writing career needs to read the full article and apply areas that relate to them. Here's the link:
http://blog.smashwords.com/2015/12/SmashwordsEbookSurvey2015.html

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Accepting Criticism for Authors and Readers

No matter how good the book you write is, sooner or later there will be someone who doesn’t like it. I’m not just talking about trolls who get their fun from being nasty to authors. There are people like that everywhere and they are best ignored. Never engage in dialogue with a troll because that just feeds their sense of importance.

I’m talking about a genuine reader/editor/critic who doesn’t like your book. Maybe they only like short books and yours is long. Maybe they hate historical books which yours is. Or perhaps the characters who were so real for you didn’t gel with them. Whatever the reason, accept their criticism, cry in private if necessary, and then read their comments carefully and see if there is something you can do in future to improve your writing.

A good writer can turn anything into a learning experience and/or plot point.

Never do what Richard Brittain author of “The World Rose” did, which was stalk the person who gave him a one star review and hit her over the head with a bottle of wine. He’s in jail now. It would have been much smarter of him to drink the wine, cry a little, and then get over it.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Marie Force’s Reader Survey

Ms. Force is careful to say that her survey isn’t scientific. She sent it out into the world and it’s a compilation of those readers who responded to it. However, since almost 6000 readers filled the survey in, it’s well worth spending a few minutes reading the executive summary if not the entire document.

Note: All these percentages and numbers are of those who replied to the survey, not of the total population.

51% of readers are between the ages of 36 and 55.
95% are women.
Contemporary fiction is the most popular genre and Kindle the most popular ebook format.
Facebook is also the most popular way for readers to get information about authors (69%). Author websites came in second at 53%.

Free books continue to be a good way for authors to introduce themselves to new readers. 40% of readers said a free book introduced them to a new author they wouldn’t otherwise have tried.

For the full story see here: https://marieforce.com/images/docs/2015ReaderSurveyExecSummary.pdf

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Libraries list the most popular books borrowed

Library and Information Week has just ended in Australia and the Australian Library and Information Association has published its annual list of the most borrowed books.
Remember, this is an Australian list, but I’m sure readers will recognize many of the titles.

ADULT FICTION TITLES
1. Never Go Back by Lee Child
2. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
3. The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connolly
4. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
5. Eyrie by Tim Winton
6. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
7. Inferno by Dan Brown
8. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
10. A Wanted Man by Lee Child


CHILDREN'S BOOKS
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
2. 13-Storey, 26 Storey and 39-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
3. Geronimo and Thea Stilton series by Elisabetta Dami
4. Spot series by Eric Hill
5. The Wrong Book by Nick Bland
6. Just! series by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
7. Once by Morris Gleitzman
8. Peck Peck Peck by Lucy Cousins
9. Selby series by Duncan Ball
10. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

The worst things that can happen to a book lover

The worst things that can happen to a book lover

I can relate to a lot of these! Tell me which one is you.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/worst-things-that-can-happen-to-a-book-lover#.ndmw1DREA


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Women (and a few men), who write women (and their heroes), for women (and some men)

The biennial Australian Romance Readers Convention has just finished in Canberra, and this article is a thoughtful summing up of what happened there. It’s well worth reading for all romance readers and writers, not just Australians.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/things-no-one-tells-you-about-romance-readers-20150311-1415b4.html


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

End of Year Romance Statistics

According to the 2014 Nielsen Romance Buyer Survey, the top ten tropes for romance books are:
1. Friends to lovers
2. Soul mates/fated mates
3. Second chance at love
4. Secret romance
5. First Love
6. Strong heroines
7. Reunited lovers
8. Love triangle
9. Sexy millionaire/billionaire
10. Sassy heroine

Some facts:
Romance fiction generated $1.079 billion in publisher revenue in 2013.
9513 romance fiction ISBNs were published in in 2013.
Romance ranks #2 in publisher revenue for adult fiction.
40% of romance is ebooks
84% of romance buyers are female.
The biggest single age group of romance readers is 30-54.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.
The photo at the top of this blog was taken in 2008 at a romance convention. These are authors I worked with at the time.

Reader statistics 2014

The Romance Writers of America commissioned Nielsen to survey romance readers.

Some key things they learned are:
84% of romance book buyers are women.
The largest group is ages 30-54.
64% read romance more than once a month.
53% of print readers and 48% or ebook choose romantic suspense. Contemporary romance is the second biggest category (41%/44%). Historical romance is 34%/33% and erotic romance 33%/42%.

Most important factor when deciding on which romance novel to buy:
(1) The story
(2) The author
(3) Price

Ways romance buyers are most likely to discover new romance authors or titles to read:
(1) Browsing in a bookstore/ online book sites
(2) In person recommendation from people you know

In the last six months, the top activity done in regards to romance reading is searched for a new romance author to read, followed by: received social media updates from favorite authors through either Facebook or Twitter, shared author or book information on social media, offered feedback on romance to others, and participated in discussions online about romance books.

More details about the survey are at: http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=582

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.