Welcome back to the New Authors reading challenge! I’m hoping everyone is still enjoying this reading challenge as we head into our eighth year.
For those new to the New Authors Challenge, the whole idea started when I first started reviewing and I didn’t know that many authors in my new favored genre. So I went looking. I gave myself a goal of finding 50 new authors and ended up reading 56 that first year. I loved finding these new characters, worlds and cultures, so I want to help others find new ones as well. Since 2006, I’ve tried over 150 different authors I may not have tried otherwise and I have found some really great authors.
The idea behind this is to find new authors that you’ve never tried before, not necessarily ones that are debuting. They can be in your genre of choice or be brave and try something new. You never know what you’re going to like until you try it. If you’re looking for some suggestions, you can check out the Author page here at Literary Escapism or the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Challenge pages. With over 1000 reviews posted, I’m sure there will be something there for everyone.
For those who have joined us before, I’ve made a couple changes. First off – NO MORE MR. LINKY or LINKYTOOLS. Every year it seems there’s something that makes the Linkies wonky, so you know what, I’m not doing it anymore. Nope. Google Drive is my friend and he’s going to help us out this year as acting as our keeper of the links. *grin* Hopefully this won’t drive anyone nuts. Any comments (or heaven forbid problems), let me know.
The second change is the goal levels. When I first started this challenge eight years ago, I read a lot, and I mean A LOT. Now, not so much. In fact, one of my goals this year is to actually make time to sit down and read. I got my hands on a book that wasn’t due out until the beginning of October and I was excited. It was one I’ve been waiting for. I was halfway through it when I sat it down to work on one thing and I haven’t picked it up since. I blame part of that on my Kindle, but that’s another topic for another day.
Needless to say, I’m not reading as much as I use to and there’s no way I could do 50 again if I wanted to. I tried for 25 last year and it was an epic fail. I know I’m not the only one who has (or is) going through this, but I also know there are people who breeze through 50 new ones like a hurricane. So I’m not putting down any numbers. You tell me how many new authors you want to discover. If you only want to read one new author in 2016, fine…go for it. If you want to read 100 new authors in 2016…now that would be pretty spectacular and I would have to reward the reader for that.
I mean, seriously, 100 never before read (by the reader, not the general public) authors in one year, on top of all the other novels/series I’m sure they’re trying to keep up on – that totally would deserve a reward. Don’t you think? I’ll have to think about what I could do. Maybe a decent giftcard, or picking numerous books from my stash (and I have a tendency to acquire signed copies), or maybe even registration for Coastal Magic 2017? Mmm…maybe I’m putting the wagon before the horse (is that the right saying?). First, let’s see if anyone can get through 100 new authors in 2016, and if I see someone is getting there, then I’ll start figuring out what I can do. One caveat…if there are multiple readers who get to 100, then I’ll probably randomly select one winner depending on what I do. Everyone who gets to 100 will definitely get a chance to go through my stash though.
Getting back to what’s going on now…it’s the New Authors Reading Challenge 2016 guidelines:
- The challenge will run from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016.
- Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels. Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from short stories/novellas or anthologies.
- I want this to be an easy challenge, so you tell me how many new authors you want to discover. If it’s 1 or 100, go for it. It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be.
- After reading your new author, write your review and then come back here and add your link to the form.
- Bloggers or Non-Bloggers alike are welcome. You don’t have to have a site to participate. You can link up via Facebook, GoodReads or even Amazon if you’d like.
Once you reach your goal, you don’t have to stop. Any new author you try, go ahead and head back here and add it to the list. Introduce us all to whoever you find. Afterall, there’s no reason to stop trying new authors, right?
So what do you think? Are you game to try a few new (to you) authors? If so, join the challenge by clicking here or filling out the form below.
so I’m curious, how are we going to report our links? Will we be able to see others links as well? I tried to do without Mr Linky at one point on my challenge, just using the comments, but it got quickly insane.
There will be another form to add your reviews to. If you go to the main Reading Challenge page, you can see how they will be displayed by looking at the participant sign-ups.