A Blog's Influence

A number of bloggers are talking about the effects (if any) blogging has on reader buying habits. Melissa Senate's column at Romancing the Blog got the latest round going. Jorie summarized the discussions she's seen on the subject, so I'll just link to her rather than be repetitive.

I've actually blogged about this before, but I decided to revisit the topic as it seems to be of interest. Yes, reading an author's blog can spark an interest in their books. It's about name recognition, and in most cases, that's a good thing. I've bought and read several books with this method:

• Arm Candy by Jo Leigh: Tried it, liked it, now I buy her books.


• The Bane Affair by Alison Kent: I read Alison's blog, read the book excerpt, and ordered the book. I loved it, and I've bought the subsequent SG-5 books.


• Finding Hope by Brenda Coulter: I was interested enough after reading her blog to look for her book at the used bookstore.


• Love Is All Around by Lori Devoti: I saw this book at the store last week, remembered her name from her blog and from Romancing the Blog, and bought the book. I haven't read it yet.


• Seduce Me by Jill Shalvis: I visited her blog and received Seduce Me in a giveaway. Now I buy her books.


• Wicked Women on Top by Tina Donahue, Jen Nicholas, and Jordan Summers: I was at the bookstore trying to decide which Brava anthology to buy. Most of the authors were ones I hadn't read. I settled on this one because I remembered reading Jordan Summers's blog and I wanted to try one of her books.

I've also bought books after reading a review at a reader's blog. I've done this more times than I can count.

As for whether I am turned off of an author because of her blog: yes. So far, it's happened once. Not because I disagreed with her political leanings or religious beliefs. If I only read books by people I agreed with, my TBR would be seriously diminished. (Though a smaller TBR pile might be a good thing . . .) What this particular author did was made huge generalizations and slammed an entire group of people. She has a right to her opinion and she exercised that right, but she ensured that I'll never be one of her readers. She's got name recognition, all right, but I use that recognition to stay far away from her books.

An author's blog can be a powerful tool.

Alyssa