This week for my discussion post, I'm wondering how everyone feels about preordering books!
I personally preorder most everything. Living in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota makes that the most convenient method of obtaining books. There is one store in the town near me that sells books, but they have the worst selection ever. There is a library in that town, but they don't really seem to get new books. Then the nearest places that have a decent selection of books to buy are all 2-3 hours away.
Having Amazon Prime makes preordering books the BEST way to go about getting them as well! Free shipping and you're guaranteed to get it on release day? Yes please! That way you actually have a chance to get the book read before someone posts something on twitter that you didn't want to see. Which seems to happen to me frequently.
Then there are the ever tempting signed preorders. I just jumped on that bandwagon for awhile, but as amazing as it is to have a book signed by the author, the price and the wait just haven't proved to be worth it for me. All the books I've gotten signed have ended up costing me double of what it would have cost me on Amazon. And the shipping seems to take FOREVER! I'm not about that life. Even if I'm not about to have the chance to get them signed myself anytime soon because no one ever comes to South Dakota. But that's okay.
I know that buying books from those places that offer signed preorders is better because they're actual bookstores, but I always try to buy a few books in real bookstores when I go out shopping so I think that makes up for the insane amount of books I order off Amazon. Plus, TWO DAY SHIPPING EEQUALS YES!
But my new favorite thing about preordering books is definitely all the sweet swag you get as an incentive to preorder! I'm SO jazzed about the short story Alexandra Bracken is writing in the TDM world that you get for preordering Passenger! I have had that one preordered since it was available for preorder I think!
So tell me friends, do you preorder books? Where do you like to preorder books from? Do you prefer the signed copies or do you live someplace awesome where you can get them signed yourself (lucky)?
I actually just preordered my first book last month. It arrived six days earlier than the release date, so clearly my first time experience was a success! I ordered mine through my local bookstore. The online price is pretty much the exact same as Amazon, so I figure it's probably better to support the bookstore. I'll never have authors coming to my area, either. It would be a dream of mine to meet a favourite author in person and get them to sign my book. :D
ReplyDeleteThat's a really awesome deal! And yeah, definitely support the bookstore! I like to support bookstores when I can too! It's not really near me, but the PassTruth Tour is going to Minnesota and that's right next door to me so I think that I'm going to go! I am so excited! :D My first author event and it's for my FAVORITE ONE EVER!
DeleteI never preorder but I also almost never buy books because I'm cheap, I have limited space, and I just can't afford it. I'm lucky to be a blogger who has access to ARCs which lets me read a lot of the new shiny titles I want and also a librarian with access to ARCs at work too. Beyond that I'm really really lucky to live in New York and be able to go to a lot of signings in person.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about your library and bookstore not having books you want: Definitely ask both places to order the books. It demonstrates demand for them and might also lead to a better selection (though with library processing "new" books will still be out a bit after the release date).
Last time I went in to the library, I dropped them off a box of books and they looked at me like I burdened them and I'm not quite over it yet. Haha! I could try asking ShopKo to get in the books I want, but they're SO expensive there! Also, I'm too chicken to go in and talk to them. I wish I lived in New York so I could go to the signings and be surrounded by amazing sounding food! Thanks for the comment!
DeleteI can see why you'd want to preorder! Your book situation doesn't sound too good haha. I usually only preorder books if I'm REALLY in love with them/the series and my library doesn't have it.
ReplyDelete-Amy
It is quite a sad area that I live in. Besides the bad book situation, the place that I live is the only place in the 48 continental United States that is over 100 miles from any McDonald's. It just really isn't a good situation in any sense! AND with Amazon Prime, sometimes you even get the book before it releases if they're really on top of their game and that is always a win!
DeleteI'm not a huge fan of pre-ordering simply because if I pre-order too many books it'd be hard for me to keep track of where my money is going. If I had the finances I would definitely pre-order more books. I love that pre-ordering is sometimes $1 or $2 less than the regular price.
ReplyDeleteThat does suck! I always put them on my credit card (because I get 3x the points for ordering from Amazon!) and depending on how far in advance I preorder, it gets confusing on what the world I bought that made my bill so high. For example, I've had Passenger preordered since February 2nd. But ahhh... All the books sound so good and I have to have them all!!
DeleteI rarely ever preorder books, although it tempts me extremely frequently. I've only preordered a book once from Barnes and Noble, which was The One by Kiera Cass since it was a special edition signed one with a special scene, but I had to pay for shipping which was super frustrating. I have a Barnes and Noble in my town so I usually go ASAP when books I want come out (if I have the money, that is) but the next time I preorder books I'll probably order from Amazon since AMAZON PRIME (so fast and free shipping) and awesome prices
ReplyDeleteI wish I lived close to a Barnes and Noble! Amazon Prime is SO amazing! Especially for preordering books! This year is the year I really started doing a lot of preordering. I think that the first one I ever preordered was Requiem by Lauren Oliver. I was SO excited for that one! I hardly ever have money for books, but that doesn't stop me from ordering them because I have a PROBLEM!
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