How Best to Support Authors When Buying Books

I am an avid reader. I often buy books at thrift stores and from the internet because I dont have a lot of extra money to spend. I want to support the authors who have brought so much joy into my life and encourage them to keep writing. This leaves me torn. When I buy a book on amazon I've heard that authors revive as little as a dollar or fifty cents in profit.

So here's where I'm stuck...

Should I buy a brand new copy of a book and hope that the author get a little money from it

Or....

Buy a used copy for 20% of the cost, save enough money to buy used copies of 4 of their other titles while knowing the author will get nothing.

I want to read as many books as I can, but also support their creators. Is this to much to accomplish as a money strapped reader?

Those are tough questions to answer. While it is appreciated that you consider the author when buying, and I think that is rare and noble, you should do what is best for you. I can only speak for myself. Knowing someone read what I wrote is my satisfaction. I haven't made money to compensate for my time writing and don't expect to, however there is always hope that what I write will benefit others. A good review is a form of compensation.

I agree with Abe. Do what's best for you. Buy new books as gifts and as many as you can afford for yourself at discount prices. If you have a Kindle, you can read all the classics for free and hundreds of indie/small press books are free every day.

As Abe said, good reviews are always appreciated. If you have purchased one thing on Amazon, you can sign in and leave a review for any book you have read. Even, "Wow! What a great read! I highly recommend you read this great fiction story." If you have a blog, add reviews to your blog - they might be picked up by Google.

Tell your friends. Tell your relatives.

Books are expensive. I can't buy the books I want to read. I watch for some of them to offer free copies as ebooks and I wait - eventually they are reduced somewhere.

Same dillemma occurs to me, as Jummpin-Jig.
Most of the time I read a nice book, the author can't be traced or may not even be still alive. So then I get demotivated from posting a review!

One of the things I did on Facebook was to start a group in my genre (biographies related to Hollywood's Golden Age) where published authors and their fans/readers/ (buyers) actually chat with each other on a daily basis.

The response is amazing and the membership is growing at a steady pace. I found that the authors in my group are less concerned about how a reader got their book, or whether it was at the Dollar Store.

What looks to be happening is that these readers (the non-authors) are sharing reviews and and comments on many blogs and other social media sites. This inevitably will lead to increased sales and exposure.

Indeed, one of the authors in my group (Michael Ankerich) told me he gets more satisfaction from seeing one of his books in a library shelf than he does from a sale. Sure, we all want a best seller, but having readers read lasts longer than the few-dollars paid in royalties!

Let's face it. Royalties from 5000 books and under of about 250 pages with a small press amount to about $2.50 per printed book. If that happens, it's going to be right after the release of the book.

Most likely, royalties dribble in over the years with a small press, print on demand book or all at once with a New York published print run book - and the remainders end up at the dollar store or Big Lots for $1 to $3 and nothing from that for the authors.

Talking about the books you read, whether from the library, the dollar store, Big Lots or the local used book store or library fire sale...talking about them encourages others to buy them. Talk by a formal review at Amazon.com; talk by telling people on blogs and social media and in forums. The more you talk about a good book you have read, the more people will be inclined to purchase the books.

As Abe said, reading the book and telling someone you liked it is more important than how it came into your possession. I have bought my own books as "used" from Amazon.com at a price far below I could by them from my publisher!!!

As others are already saying, great reviews help. They're easy to post on sites like GoodReads, Amazon and B&N. Or, if you have a blog, you can mention books there, too, even if you don't do a formal review.

Word of mouth helps a lot. Most friends talk to each other about the books they're reading, or even mention their favorites on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

These things help the authors you like even if your budget makes it better to buy their books used.

Great question.

Malcolm