Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Does a book winning an award influence you to buy it?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
Simple answer no. Often books are judged by writers and they look for different things to readers. Also not all books are entered into contests and everyone has different ideas. Occasionally if its by an author I like then I may be interested but on a whole no.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. I will be late replying as have a trip to the city today.
And don’t forget: if you’d like to participate in our weekly Book Chat by posting the question and your answer on your blog, drop us an email via our Contact page and we’ll send you the list of questions for 2021.
On the whole, no. Titles usually catch my attention. Then I will browse, ANDI fit then catches my attention I may read it. I try to read a wide variety of books. When I was a teacher librarian I was more influenced, but then I was buying for the school library, not myself. I usually read them then as I was reading to recommend to the children.
That makes a lot of sense Heather. I think for kids books it may be a help but again now I know more about contests and awards I know often only a few books get entered not all that have been released. I think often books have been out for awhile when they win an award so often I have read the book already.
Nope. I’ve seen books I’ve considered poorly written win big awards, so I don’t always have a lot of faith in the system. I usually choose a book based on the premise in the blurb or a writing sample.
I fully agree Carolyn. I too have seen a few win and wonder why. I feel excited for friends who do win awards but sometimes seeing the finalists I often wonder how a winner won.
No. I’ve usually bought and read it before I even know it was nominated for an award. Just because a book has won an award doesn’t automatically make it a good book.
Judging books really is subjective and comes down to the judges’ personal perspectives, experiences and preferences which could be very different from my own.
It is nice for authors to be recognised for their hard work though.
I fully agree with those points. and it is good to see them recognised.