I don’t care what you read or how you read or when you read. I don’t care if you collect 1st edition hardbacks or are exclusively reading papyrus. However, I do care if you read.

For me it’s not about the quality of the material (although some of you know there are certain authors that will cause me to give you a look of pity or resignation but that’s only for discussion in person).

I wanted to talk about a couple of sites that I’ve used both as an author and a reader. They’re called Bookbub and Instafreebie. You probably know about them already, and if you do – apologies – I’m a recent convert/discoverer and they’re changing the way I read books.

I’ll grant you that there’s a decent amount of stuff you probably don’t want to read on each site BUT this is what I like about both sites – their potential for author discovery. By that I mean that the sites take your preferences and try to find authors that you’ll like. They’ll feed you offers for people you know and have read but they’ll also find you authors you haven’t read. It’s this last bit that works for me because I know the authors I like but, as with new music and film, it can be tremendously hard to figure out new authors who I might not have come across before. Combine that with the fact that these platforms typically showcase books at special offer rates (either discounted or completely free) and I find that I’m typically not taking much risk in trying out new authors.

It may not be for you. But hey, if you like reading, like new discovering new authors and can say what your preferences are these sites might be good for your totally under control crack reading habit.

Also, as someone pointed out, there are other sites like this, but these are the ones I’ve settled with – both as author and reader.