Do blogs sell books?

    I've heard it said by people who supposedly speak with authority that blogs don't sell books. Now, I know that even the most popular book blogs won't have a readership to rival that of the newspaper book pages, but even so, I'll wager that we have greater influence among our own, smaller readership than do the reviews in the press - that is, you may be more likely to listen to the views of Blogger A or B, whose tastes are similar to yours and who feels more like a friend recommending a book than those of the (perhaps anonymous or less familiar) reviewer in the paper. That point has topical relevance, too, in that tonight sees the announcement of the 2010 Man Booker Prize winner, and a huge upsurge in sales for that book, whatever it is, is guaranteed, but some readers who instinctively shy away from Booker books and the like may yet be drawn to them by a blogger's having paved the way, as it were - by a post along the lines of "I enjoyed it, so you may, too."

    I am still a regular buyer of books, despite being sent so many by publishers, and while I read the newspaper book pages, most of the books I end up getting are those I've read about on blogs. Often the acquisition is months after I've first seen the post in question, but I keep a note of titles I want and will either get them myself, as and when, or put them on my Christmas and birthday lists as suggestions for the family when they ask me what I'd like. No-one would be able to trace the eventual purchase of Book X back to a review by Blogger Y, but that is where the sale arose. Furthermore, when I in turn come to talk about the book here, others will read it, and that viral effect shouldn't be underestimated.

    To go back to publishers for a moment, I'd love to know something about their policies on sending out review copies, but judging from the multitude I am offered and the number of individual houses or publicists within the big houses who are regularly in touch with me, they must see the blogs as a worthwhile means of spreading the word about their books.

    So, let's have an informal poll:

1. Have you ever bought a book or borrowed one from the library (I'm including borrowings as library requests must have some trickle-down effect on sales) as a result of reading about it on a blog or blogs?

2. If you blog about books yourself, have any of your readers ever come back to you to tell you that they've read a certain book because of your post on it, or have you been aware of such a purchase through affiliate links?

    My answers to these questions are "yes" and "yes", but I'd love to know yours if you have a moment to spare.

Comments

[Linda Baines]

Karen, Reading about books on blogs offers new potential interesting reads. I've been persuaded to buy books I've read about snd I've been introduced to some interesting authors that I'd not heard of before, such as Wallace Stegner.

[Bloomsbury Bell]

What an interesting post! And in answer to your questions:

1) Yes

2) No one has come back to me to say they have read a book but many say that they will

[Audrey]

Yes, absolutely, to no. 1. I take gather suggestions from blogs, and often from newspaper or magazine reviews, but rarely from advertising. The thing about blogs (for me) is that after a while I get a sense of shared interests and tastes from a given blogger (such as you!), and that gives me an added confidence that I would enjoy the book.

No, sadly, to no. 2. I do like it when someone comments that a book I've written about is going onto her reading list, because I feel that I'm returning the favor!

interesting discussion, great questions!

[Kari]

Great post. I have absolutely bought books (actually, most of the books I buy) after reading a blog post (especially yours!). I agree - I feel like I can trust the recommendations of my favorite bloggers (and haven't been disappointed yet!) more than a review. I live in Ecuador, where English-language books are hard to come by, so I use blogs to help me compile my to-buy list for when I get back to the States and have to stock up!

[natalie]

Yes, I bought The Guernsey Potato Peel Society after reading about it on a blog and it was AWFUL.
I think it's one of maybe half a dozen books I have (not) read in my life where I battled to get three quarters of the way through and just decided that the characters and plot were so unremittingly tedious I gave up.

Currently reading City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris which is a real page turner.
http://www.zoeferraris.com/city-of-veils.php

[Cornflower]

Oh, Natalie, what a pity - I loved 'Guernsey'! Thanks for the City of Veils recommendation; I'm off to look it up, which just goes to show that comments can be as powerful as posts themselves in drawing potential readers to a book.

[Susan in TX]

Absolutely yes, to #1. I am much like you in that regard in that I keep a list of things to pick up when I'm out, or add to my wishlist for others to purchase for me. I have all of the Bloomsbury group reprint releases solely because of bloggers -- I'm not sure I would've heard of them otherwise. As for #2, I don't have a blog, so can't answer that one.

[Coffee and a Book Chick]

Yes and yes to both of these -- I also keep a note of books that I read about from the lovely bloggers out there who write fantastic reviews. I might hop on Paperbackswap.com to see if it's available, but most of the time, I'll just take that handy list with me when going to the store. And yes to the last question -- I've had reviewers that have sent me a short note thanking me for the review and how much they loved a particular book that they normally wouldn't have picked up. A good feeling, indeed! And I would agree with you that the book bloggers out there do help support the essential word of mouth buzz that a book needs to have in order for it to truly pick up steam!

[William Rycroft]

I certainly buy books from reading blogs, I'm terrible for it. In fact that's where I'm most likely to get book buying hints rather than the newspapers. As for number two I've definitely had people buy books after reading about them on my blog and contact me afterwards to say thanks or discuss further. I also saw things bought through an affiliate link before I took it off. I don't claim to be having any impact on book sales but I do always feel great when someone's buys, reads and enjoys a book because of something I wrote about it.

[Susie Vereker]

Yes, to both questions. The newspapers tend to review high lit whereas these days I lazily read around the mid lit mostly! No, I didn't much like the Guernsey Potatoes either, Natalie - seemed to me to be a whimsical way of dealing with a serious subject. Relieved to hear there is somebody else who didn't.

[MzTallulah]

I don't blog myself, but I'm much more likely to buy a book after reading about it in a blog than in a newspaper. This applies to fiction, but especially to craft- and cookbooks - I have The Home Cookbook on my wishlist beacuse of your posts!

[Dark Puss]

The answer to your first question is yes for novels borrowed (and no for novels purchasd, since I no longer do so) notably all but two of the CBG books. Other weblogs have led me to borrow fairly diverse books, from authors ranging from Murakami to Bulgakov.

I have a weblog, and I do write the occasional review, and I'm not in the least surprised that absolutely no one has told me that it influenced them in any way at all! I have had some indication that book recommendations I have made while commenting on other peoples weblogs have been taken up.

[Ros]

Yes and yes. I rarely read newspapers at all any more, and it would be extremely rare for me to pick up a book at the suggestion of a critic in the press or on the radio (which is probably my main source of mainstream reviews). Partly because the genre where I read most (romance) is largely ignored by these critics. But even for mainstream books, I prefer the recommendation of a friend, whether in real life or on their blog.

[Pauline Barclay]

Yes and No. Yes I have bought books after reading Blogs, even more so when I have got to know more about the author. It feels personal. No on point 2, mainly because readers have said they are looking into my books, but as yet no one as confirmed a yes! Conclusion, I think bloggging works and if it didn´t we wouldn´t read the, write them or follow them....and we do! Thanks for an very intersting Blog.

[Crafty Green Poet]

I blog about books regularly and often my readers say that they have bought / borrowed books that I've written about. I have also sometimes read books that I've first heard about on blogs.

[Ruth H]

I've bought LOADS of books because I've seen them recommended on blogs. Particularly when the blogger in question has similar taste to myself.

And yes, I've been told that people have bought or borrowed a book because I've blogged about it, and enjoyed it.

[Verity]

Ha, whoever suggested this has not seen my bank statements... So yes, and yes too.

[Pip]

Definitely yes to number one: I get so many of my reading ideas from blogs. I make a list of all the books I see on trusted blogs and am gradually working my way through them. I totally agree with Audrey that it is about confidence. Even about trust - I always feel that on the book pages of newspapers, everyone is in a little club and may well know the author (even sometimes be married to/friends with them - I have read about that in Private Eye!). Often, they are not readers, they are reviewers - which has a different agenda and outlook.

I'd also say that it might not be immediate, as I'm far more likely to note down a title and come to it much later.

[Yvette]

Great question. Just a few days ago I bought a book by James. R. Gaines recommended by Roberta Rood over at her BOOKS TO THE CEILING blog. It was a total impulse buy - a book about Bach and Frederick the Great - it just sounded too wonderful to pass up.
Though I mostly read fiction, I do enjoy the occasional non-fiction as well. So the answer is yes, I have bought books recommended on a blog. Nancy Pearl's blog, especially. But there are several blogs whose comments I pay special attention to. CORNFLOWER among them. ;)

Mostly though, I go to the library. But where would I be without blog recommendations? Nowhere. The funny thing is: I've just started really paying attention to online recommendations since I've had my own blog.

By the way: I loved the 'Guernsey' book.
Emerson: No two people read the same book.
So true.

[April (Books&Wine)]

I do purchase books based on blogs all the time. Blogs are my main source of recommendations. I don't read the newspaper, mainly because our local newspaper is TERRIBLE, plus they don't even put book reviews in.

As for number 2, I have heard of plenty of people who say they will add a book to their TBR after reading my review. I may have had someone purchase based on said review. I rarely get purchases through my affiliate link, however, I am only affiliated with Amazon, although I am starting to link other book buying sites, despite having no affiliation with them.

[Tina]

1. Yes. Most of the books I buy now are based on reviews. I only buy books without reviews if they're authors I know already, or if I'm feeling like splurging. But before I buy, I usually check reviews and if there are more favorable reviews especially from people I trust, then I would buy it.

2. They aren't much, but I know some of my friends have been influenced based on the reviews I wrote. One of my Goodreads friends told me that I have convincing power, but I don't know how big is that. :D

[Alison's Book Marks]

YES and YES

Even as a blogger, I find so many great books through other book blogs. When I go into a book store, I'm not seeing those covers for the first time there, I remember seeing them (and their reviews) on book blogs, and they influence whether or not I'm going to buy said books.

It was an exciting and humbling experience when I first learned that my reviews influenced readers. I'm still taken aback when someone sends me an e-mail to let me know that they enjoyed a book I recommended! But with great power comes great responsibility! :)

If book bloggers had no influence, we would not have been so warmly received at BEA, ALA, Comic Con, etc.

[jenn]

Yes, yes, yes. In fact, over the last several months, almost 100% of my reads have come from bloggers. I star my favorite posts in GR and go back to copy down the titles.

Last night, I did a search for all these books on my library's website. They have a handy little deal that allows you to create a list.

As for the second, I've had several mention adding something to their list - or they come back and comment after having read a particular book. It's always a great feeling.

[Dark Puss]

Hello Yvette, as a passionate library reader I was pleased to read "Mostly though, I go to the library." Your next quote "But where would I be without blog recommendations? Nowhere" caught my eye, I quite often (once a month-ish) borrow a novel completely at random from my library and I commend it to you as a way of finding some books and authors that you would never come across or pick up by other means. Of course quite often you take it back after reading only 10 pages next week, but sometimes you hit a gold nugget.

Just a suggestion for you to consider.

[Joanna]

The combination of discovering book blogs and awesome books means my TBR pile has now overlapped onto a second bookcase. I buy loads of books as a result of rading blogs, they aren't always brilliant but I've discovered enough new authors I wouldn't have known about otherwise (and rubbed some books I'd previously thought I might fancy off my wish list)to make it well worth it.

[Linda Gillard]

Yes, the vast majority of the books I buy or borrow are as a result of blog posts. (I even order books that have been mentioned in the comments on blog reviews.)

As an author I can also confirm that blog reviews have stimulated sales of my own books on Amazon. I've never noticed that result from a review or feature in the press.

I'm convinced this is because newspapers are not targeting book buyers. Take the Aberdeen Press & Journal, which ran a positive review of STAR GAZING. Only a small number of readers would have read that review. Fewer still would have been looking for a book to buy, let alone one by an unknown author. But blog readers (even if we've sworn not to buy another book!) are always prepared to be tempted.

I send every blog review I get to my agent and publisher and I always have, because I'm trying to convince them that blog reviews do actually shift copies and therefore bloggers rather than print journalists should be sent the few precious review copies publishers are prepared to send out.

(For the record, every blog review I've had - and there have been many - has been a review of a copy I've sent the blogger or one she has bought herself.)

[Barbara]

Interesting questions. My answers: Yes and yes.

[Anna]

Pretty much all the books I order from the library I heard about on blogs. The one I'm reading now, in fact, I heard about from your blog (The Season of Second Chances).

As far as I know of nobody's ever bought a book based on my review, but it's possible it has happened and I just didn't hear of it.

[Sandy]

I have bought a dozen books since joining you here a few months age and they were all bought as a result of reviews here.

[sandpiper]

I mainly read 3 book blogs - Cornflower, Dovegreyreader, and Other Stories. I've added countless books to my wishlist based on reviews on these sites; far more than I've ever made a note of from newspaper reviews. I've only ordered one from the library - that was Stone's Fall, which I couldn't wait to read, but couldn't afford the hardback at the time. I adored that.

The other two that stand out for me, as books I wouldn't have read otherwise, are The Girl with the Glass Feet, and Brodeck's Report, both of which I enjoyed. And I have DGR to thank for introducing me to Penelope Fitzgerald.

I wouldn't be without book blogs for the world - you and the others offer a far more personal review than you find in the papers, and it is wonderful to read about your cookery-related book posts. You've even got me to try things a couple of times - I remember the no-knead bread, that was a marvel to watch bubble. :-)

[David Nolan (dsc73277)]

Another definite yes to question 1. I've read 56 books so far this year, and at least half of them were as a result of blog recommendations. Linda Gillard will be pleased to know that "Star Gazing" was one of them, and you will be equally pleased to know it was as a result of reading about the book on this very blog. I should add that the overwhelming majority were borrowed from the library rather than purchased. I don't write a blog so q2 does not apply to me.

[Vasilly]

The majority of the books I buy or check out from the library, I've heard about from the various blogs I visit. Publishers may not be able to measure the influence of blogs but it's definitely there. I've also had fellow bloggers pick up a book because I've recommended it. That's a great feeling.

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks, David, for buying my book and proving my point. :-)

[B]

Nearly everything I read now is from a blog.There are so many authors and books I would never have heard of otherwise.I now read a better balance of old and new fiction as blogs tend to mention books apart from newly published ones.
Off to read The Country of The Pointed Firs.
Thanks to you 1

[DamsonLily]

Yes, I regularly read your blog and one or two others and am certainly guided much more by your comments than the book reviews in the papers. I feel the blogs I read give an honest, considered perspective on the books reviewed and this certainly influences my book buying/borrowing a lot.

I don't have a blog myself but I do run a reading group and regularly update the members by email on book reviews I have found on blogs, or on books I have read as a result of reading the blogs. Group members do then come back to me and say they bought or read a book on my recommendation, so I think although this is off at a tangent to your question, it's probably still relevant.

[Amy]

Oh man, most books I end up reading are somehow influenced by one blogger or another! And I have heard occasionally people coming back saying they've picked up something because of me. I have a few friends in real life who don't blog and get recommendations strictly from bloggers (and not just me!).

[Merilyn]

Yes, Yes since I have been reading blogs all my books I have been reading and buying of late have been recommended on blogs.I have found so many authors I have not read or heard of I am now enjoying. My pile is starting to get very unstable! I love reading your blog its just wonderful

[Rhys]

Good morning Cornflower,
The answer to question 1 is yes. Lots of times, in the past. I hate to say it but Dark Puss (and his arguments against buying books) has had an effect upon me and I now mix up where I find books and will happily go to (various )libraries to look for books and borrow from friends. (Dark Puss.....don't you dare come back and give me that Cheshire Cat Smile......)

Question 2 does not apply to me but I do like to think that I can join a happy band waggon and comment on other Blogs and rave about a book I have enjoyed .....and then who knows what the effect on people can be....Dark Puss.....

[Jennifer Dee]

Yes the definitley do. I have to say all of the books I've read in the 5 years or so are books that have been reviewed on blogs.

[dovegreyreader]

Great post Karen and it's a Yes and Yes from me though I know many who are very disparaging of a blog's effect on book sales though how they can measure that and be so sure there is little effect I really don't know.
I do also read the review pages and may request a review copy as a result if it's expensive, but for some reason that still feels like I'm being a bit cheeky.
I have a lot of publishers who kindly send books and I am incredibly grateful to them and though they'd love me to write about them all the next day most are very understanding about a book having to wait its moment in time and also fully appreciate that the moment may be months away or may never come if I don't enjoy the book.
Other publishers clearly approach this more aggressively and are much less patient and using blogs as a free marketing tool, only happy if their books appear very quickly and sometimes a terse message appears asking why, if it hasn't appeared and the books then stop coming.
I can't play that game at all... which is why I have just this minute bought my own copy of ...no I couldn't possibly say:-)

[LizF]

I don't have a blog so question 2 doesn't apply but it is a definite YES to the first.
In fact a copy of The Country of Pointed Firs has just arrived and I would never even have heard of it if it wasn't for you and Danielle at A Work In Progress.
The vast majority of the books that I read now are down to recommendations from five or six bloggers who seem to have similar taste to mine and I have a very long wishlist!
It is down to blogger influence (frequently yours and DGR's) that I have broadened my reading scope too which has got to be good.
I do tend to use the library a lot as money is rather tight (and getting tighter what with junior daughter heading for uni just as the new fees are likely to be coming in...) but as with The Country of Pointed Firs, sometimes the library stocks just don't have the books and I end up buying them after all!
There are one or two newspaper reviewers that I read, notably Marcel Berlin on crime novels, but more often than not the reviews are of books that are too 'high' as Susie Vereker puts it, for my reading tastes.

[Dark Puss]

Good heavens! Oh my fur and whiskers ...

[Cornflower]

Definitely relevant!

[Cornflower]

Thankyou, Merilyn, that's very kind of you!

[Cornflower]

Rhys, your comments always brighten the day!

[sakura]

Yes and yes! I think most of the books I buy or borrow now are recommendations from book blogs and I've almost stopped reading print reviews. I was a huge fan of the Saturday Times Books Section which I read religiously every week but now I just read blogs.

[Sue Roebuck]

Yes I read blogs that give book recommendations and I have bought books because of them.

No to question 2 probably because I have so few followers. How do you get people to follow? Sigh...

[Harriet]

Yes and yes!

[Vanessa]

My own feelings are that yes, blogs (a very few) do sell books but what's frustrating is that bookshops sell a whole lot more and sometimes publishers and publicists seem quite reluctant to send us proofs etc, presumably because they've sent them all to bloggers! It has to be said that we handsell a heck of a lot more copies than most bloggers can hope to however gushing their review. Building a buzz online is all very well but what counts is books rung through the till and that's where they'd do well not to forget us. We might not have time or inclination to rave about titles online but we do put copies into customers hands and say 'read this, it's brilliant' when we feel passionately about a title.

And if you wanted to guess at whether your reviews sell, I expect your Amazon associates report would be quite accurate as I expect a good few of yuor readers click straight through if they like the sound of a book you've reviewed.

Best

V

[Julie Fredericksen]

Amazon.com will tell you that based on my account, your blog sells books! And just yesterday, I read Never Let Me Go based on Simon's (Savidge Reads) review. Can't say I loved it, but I am glad I read it (especially since the movie is coming out and spoilers will abound).