My usual way to get a handle on what’s popular in bookland is through word of mouth, blogs, and a select few review sites. Occasionally, I check the Amazon bestseller lists to see what the masses are reading. While these lists weren’t always helpful, I did discover the odd book I was interested enough to purchase. Lately, though, the Amazon bestseller lists are next to useless. The reason? They’re dominated by $0.99 deals, mostly by authors I’ve never heard of before. Instead of being guidelines for readers, the lists have metamorphosized into promo vehicles for authors.
I’m an unpubbed writer. I get that it makes sense for authors to avail of every opportunity to promote their books. Offering them at slashed prices attracts buyers. Fair enough. I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say I’d never contemplate selling a self-published work at a low price. But speaking as a reader, this trend irritates me, particularly the way in which in it affects the Amazon bestseller lists. When I look at the current lists, I’m instantly wary. Are these books top sellers because people like them, or simply because they’re cheap? Why are novellas and short stories on the same lists as full-length novels? As a writer, I get that it takes almost as much time to plot a novella as it does a novel. Writing short doesn’t necessarily mean writing fast. As a reader, though, it makes a hell of a difference to me if a novella is being sold for the same price as a novel.
And of all those $0.99 books on the lists, how many readers actually read them? Or were they purchased because they were a good deal, then promptly relegated to the digital TBR pile? I realise it’s impossible to know what percentage of purchased books are read, regardless of the sale price. But when it comes to the $0.99 deals, my inner cynic comes out to play.
What say you? Do you check Amazon’s bestseller lists? Do the number of slashed price books on the lists make them less useful? What’s your attitude to the $0.99 book?