What makes you pick up a book?

Start here, with Chuck Wendig’s awesome blog on the topic. But it’s a week old, which is ancient in internet time. So here’s mine.

I’m a sucker for paranormals. If it has a paranormal look, I’ll pick it up and read the back.

Excerpts sell me books. I read the first paragraph of Ilona Andrews’ book and bought the whole series.

Irony, satire, snark. Not meanness, which can be across a very thin line. But I like quiet satire. I like playing with tropes and expectations. I like cliches–as a launching point. I love Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and the way they twist reality and fiction and emotion and snark into a story.

Short stories sell me books. I don’t read a lot of magazines or collections or anthos these days, but I have discovered a number of great authors I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise through their shorts.

Knowing an author sells me their books. Not one a lot of readers can say, but I have discovered a number of good and great authors because I met them, liked how the talked about their book, or got excited about a concept or I wanted to support them and got a happy surprise. “Knowing” via reading their blog is the same thing.

Reviewing sells me books. I have absolutely bought print copies of books I got as limited-time ebooks for review. Or kept up with a series because I got one to review for free and loved it. Or started following authors because of a review book I got of their work.

A unique setting, character etc. Like the Africa-themed urban fantasy of Seressia Glass (or Alliette de Bodard’s Aztec urban fantasy series.) Or steampunk set in China. A certain trilogy of King Arthur-in-the-ghetto books. These do pique my interest if it seems just completely and utterly different. S.P. Somtow’s werewolf western Moondance is one of my favorites. So is Alice Borchardt’s Dark Ages Rome werewolf series.

Um, did I mention I’m a sucker for almost anything paranormal?