Reading Update and Selling the Next Book

However did a reader find books to read in the old days? The days before books went digital, I suppose is what I mean. I read about how I can optimize my sell-through by putting direct links to the next book in the back of the one the reader is currently reading. And how to do it for this retailer or this retailer or this… That it should be listed right after the end of the book, on the SAME PAGE as the ending—that that space is prime real estate. Have people really gotten that lazy? Am I wrong in thinking that if a person loved the book, they’ll look for the next one ON… THEIR… OWN…? It’s what I’ve always done.

I realize the competition out there is crowded, but the reader is already reading my book. If they didn’t like it, no amount of links will get them to click for the next one.

I just don’t get it.

That’s not to say I don’t put a link in for the next book, but it’s a link to my website (so I don’t have to have a zillion—yeah, sarcasm—different versions for each retailer) and it’s on the next page with other author notes and stuff (and before and after the first chapter to the next book teaser I share). So I do give them a short cut, but I just figured they’d keep scrolling to find them. Maybe I’m figuring wrong and people really are that lazy.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 47

Dates read: September 18 – October 1, 2021
Title: Heartless
Year of publication: 2021
Author: Gena Showalter
Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
Series: Immortal Enemies #1
# of Pages: 398
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: Vengeance is irresistible… Kaysar the Unhinged One, fae King of Midnight, can drive anyone to madness with his song. A ruthless warrior forged in hate, he lives to force his enemies to their knees. He will stop at nothing to succeed—even abducting and seducing his foe’s beloved bride to ensure his own child one day sits on the male’s throne. Except, his prize escapes to the mortal realm before the first kiss, her heart transplanted into a human beauty with dangerous secrets…
    Chantel “Cookie” Bardot is a professional gamer girl great at trash-talking, bad at peopling. After a long-awaited surgery, she begins to morph into a powerful fae princess. Catapulted into a strange land ruled by a cruel but seductive villain, she must battle flesh-and-blood monsters and navigate royal intrigues. But the true danger is Kaysar, whose every wicked touch tempts her beyond reason. Should she run…or descend into the darkness with him?
My thoughts: I don’t know that I would have read this book if a friend didn’t rave about how bizarre it is. And it is bizarre. Kaysar and Cookie are the STRANGEST romantic couple I’ve read about. Not exactly hero material, more like two villains put together. I did struggle to get through this (not so much about the bizarre behavior, but the fantasy aspect of it—it’s really not a paranormal romance as marketed), but ultimately, I wanted to know how it ended. Will I read book 2, which won’t be released until July 2022? Will I have remembered this book by then? I really don’t know the answer to either question except, maybe, we’ll see.

So… Do you read digital books? Do you click on the links at the end? I tend to read more paper books than digital ones. And clicking on my Nook doesn’t do much good as I keep the WiFi off most of the time (it drains the battery, and to be truthful, I usually only read from it when I’m on a trip and can’t get WiFi).

Happy Reading!

Stacy