I would agree with you. The bookstore (or library) method as limiting as well as hit or miss.
"Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" on Amazon is extremely useful. In one case I saw an author's titles continually pop up for months, looked him, found his blog, realized he was a genius, an then end up buying everything he wrote.
Pretty much everything I read now comes from that process.
There is a networking effect in place here. The first is from Amazon, the second is from the blogosphere/wherever authors are interacting.
One thing is for certain -- authors absolutely need to have good blogs and write frequently. Some of my favorite authors have infrequently updated blogs or Twitter accounts. Unfortunately I forget about them.
"Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" creates chains if you dig deep enough. You will not be limited to a single pool of books (or music for that matter.) But, I find its also important to hand search the authors (or musicians) that come up for rarer and often just as meaningful work.
"Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" on Amazon is extremely useful. In one case I saw an author's titles continually pop up for months, looked him, found his blog, realized he was a genius, an then end up buying everything he wrote.
Pretty much everything I read now comes from that process.
There is a networking effect in place here. The first is from Amazon, the second is from the blogosphere/wherever authors are interacting.
One thing is for certain -- authors absolutely need to have good blogs and write frequently. Some of my favorite authors have infrequently updated blogs or Twitter accounts. Unfortunately I forget about them.
"Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" creates chains if you dig deep enough. You will not be limited to a single pool of books (or music for that matter.) But, I find its also important to hand search the authors (or musicians) that come up for rarer and often just as meaningful work.