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Hmmm
I get the Prolific Works (formerly Instafreebie) email newsletter twice a week that features giveaways from self-pubbed authors. And download a decent number of books from it, too. While I've discovered only 4 or 5 authors that I've continued to read in the past year and a half or so and deleted many more books after a few pages, I have discovered that the perfect time to read these books is in the middle of the night, when I've given up on trying to sleep and gone into another room in an attempt to break the association between my bed and lying awake as my brain explains that I'm a terrible person, I've done nothing useful this past day, hey, remember that embarrassing thing you did when you were 7, and oh yes, one day you're going to die. As your brain does.
ANYWAY, there is nothing more soporific than bad fiction, it turns out. So far, the longest I've lasted is 45 minutes, and it usually takes less than 30. If I'm reading and find myself getting interested in the characters or the story, then I start waking up and I know to put a hold on that book until daytime sometime, and switch to another, hopefully more boring, book.
When you go to the page of a Prolific Works giveaway you get confronted with a grid of book covers. If the cover and title intrigue you--and I derive a bit of enjoyment from recognizing the stock images people have been using--then you click on the cover. A window pops up with the book's description and a few reviews in a small iframe.
Usually the reviews are of the book they're associated with, even if the review is just "A fantastic cover!" (often, the cover is...not fantastic). Sometimes not...
Oh, dear. Not sure how this particular review got associated with this book. The rest of the reviews actually seem to be associated with a different book sample* by the same author (which I downloaded, because the description was "An enterprising young dragonrider sees her father kidnapped before her eyes -- so she pulls her assassin grandmother out of retirement and puts a hit out on the kidnappers to rescue him." and ASSASSIN GRANDMOTHER was worth a try).
* Most of the freebies are book 1 of a series, or a novella or short story associated with the series the author is trying to sell. If the full series isn't out yet, they often just put a sample up.
ANYWAY, there is nothing more soporific than bad fiction, it turns out. So far, the longest I've lasted is 45 minutes, and it usually takes less than 30. If I'm reading and find myself getting interested in the characters or the story, then I start waking up and I know to put a hold on that book until daytime sometime, and switch to another, hopefully more boring, book.
When you go to the page of a Prolific Works giveaway you get confronted with a grid of book covers. If the cover and title intrigue you--and I derive a bit of enjoyment from recognizing the stock images people have been using--then you click on the cover. A window pops up with the book's description and a few reviews in a small iframe.
Usually the reviews are of the book they're associated with, even if the review is just "A fantastic cover!" (often, the cover is...not fantastic). Sometimes not...
Oh, dear. Not sure how this particular review got associated with this book. The rest of the reviews actually seem to be associated with a different book sample* by the same author (which I downloaded, because the description was "An enterprising young dragonrider sees her father kidnapped before her eyes -- so she pulls her assassin grandmother out of retirement and puts a hit out on the kidnappers to rescue him." and ASSASSIN GRANDMOTHER was worth a try).
* Most of the freebies are book 1 of a series, or a novella or short story associated with the series the author is trying to sell. If the full series isn't out yet, they often just put a sample up.