New Author Challenge 2012

New Author Challenge 2012 It’s the fourth year for the New Author Challenge and I’m hoping everyone is still enjoying this reading challenge.  Last year I attempted to do more mini-challenges and wasn’t that successful. So this year I’m not going to promise that I’ll be more consistent with them, but I will say that I am going to attempt to do a few during 2012. So we’ll see if I can’t do better this year.

For those new to the New Author Challenge, the whole idea started when I first started book blogging. I didn’t know that many authors in my favored genre, so I went looking.  I gave myself a goal of finding 50 new authors and ended up reading 56 the first year I did this.  I loved finding these new worlds and cultures, so I want to help others find new ones as well.  Since 2007, I’ve tried over 100 different authors I may not have tried otherwise and I have found some 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 and 2011 Challenge pages.  With over 1000 reviews posted, I’m sure there will be something there for everyone.

Here are the guidelines:

  1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.
  2. 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 anthologies.
  3. I want this to be an easy challenge, so you can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors.  It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be.  For me, I want to say I’m going to do another 50 new authors, but with two kids, I didn’t made my goal in 2011, so I’m going to be smarter and say 25.  If you reach your goal halfway through the year, don’t stop.  Any new author you try can be added to Mr. Linky.  We all want to know about your new experience.
  4. After reading your new author, write your review and then come back here and add your link to Mr. Linky.  Make sure you include your name and the author, but adding the title is completely up to you.
  5. 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?

Grab the Button! NAC2012.500×323 | NAC2012.300×196 | NAC2012.200×131
Disclaimer: Artwork used for the button is Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast by Albert Bierstadt (1870).

Reviews & Participants:

27 Comments

  1. Very excited to try to find new authors to read and commune with other book lovers. This is my first time to this site, so I hope all my posts and whatnot are in the appropriate place at the appropriate time. I whipped up a quick blog in order to write my reviews, but I really don’t know the first thing about blogging (like what a wrap-up post is), but I’ll do my best. Thanks for organizing this challenge.

    • Lindsey, a wrap-up post is typically done once a challenge is completed and most people will list all the novels they tried and what they’ve thought of the challenge. It’s like a “looking back” post, I guess that would be a better description.

  2. This will be my first experience with the New Authors Challenge, and it looks like a lot of fun! Wasn’t sure whether to link to my sign-up post or to my blog’s home page, so I did the former — hope that’s okay. Looking forward to getting started in 2012!

  3. This will be the first challenge I sign up to but I love the idea of being adventurous with the literature I use. Because this is the first challenge I am signing up to then I am going to attempt to disover 15 new authors. I am lookig forward to getting started and I think this will be my new year resolution!

  4. I think this is my first-ever reading challenge, though I’ve watched Christina (at Christina Reads) complete various ones and often thought of participating.

    I’m going to go for broke and say I’m going to read fifty new authors in 2012.

  5. Excellent idea for a challenge! According to my statistics, I’ve so far read 54 new-to-me authors in 2011, so I’m going to go for broke and attempt 50 in 2012 as well :)

  6. I’m very excited to be participating in this challenge. There’s just so many books I’ve won from giveaways and haven’t had a chance to sit down and read them due to so many review books. 25 is the magic number for me. :)

    • @Christina – You can link up to your sign-up post or homepage. I’m not really picky. *grin*

      @Sarah – Thanks for signing up! NAC is a really easy, flexible challenge, so it works with any others you sign up for as well.

      @Cate – 50 can be really easy to do depending on the number of series you read and when their new releases come out. *grin* I did great the first couple of years, but I started lagging due to trying to keep up with my series.

      @Kati – I’m having the same issue! Although many of the review copies I receive tend to be new authors, so that helps a lot. *grin*

  7. This sounds like fun! I’m actually pretty new to the whole challenge thing but since I’m a bookseller and frequently read new-to-me authors, this seems like the perfect way to ease myself into challenges. I think I’ll be bold and set my goal for an in-between number of 40.

  8. I was going to just do 15, but then I made a list of all the new-to-me fiction authors that are currently sitting on my shelf and got to 31, so I figured 50 was a better choice!

  9. This is quite an interesting challenge! I will go with 15 authors since I do tend to read from authors I am already familiar with, and most books on my TBR list are from these authors :)

  10. I am going to go with 15. Most of the books that I have read this year have been new to me authors. Unfortunately working a job with 60+ hours a week put a dent in my reading. In January, I start grad school, so I’m not going to get ahead of myself. :)

    Thanks for hosting this!

  11. This next year will be my first year participating in challenges since I’m a new blogger. I’m really excited to sign up for a bunch of reading ones. Can’t wait to see everyone’s reviews! I’m signing up for 25 new authors during 2012!

  12. I’m so excited that it’s almost new challenge time! I saw this challenge earlier in the year and made a note to participate in 2012. I can’t wait! :-D

  13. I’m unclear exactly where you might be having your information, but great subject. We has to spend an afternoon studying much more as well as understanding far more. Appreciate your great info I had been looking for this info pertaining to our vision.

  14. This is the first time I’ve signed up for any reading challenge and I’m doing it as one of 6 at Reading Challenge Addict. I really like the idea of the New Author challenge as it will get me reading authors that I may not have looked at otherwise.

  15. I really wanted to do well on this challenge last year, but often forgot to keep up with what I had read which means that I didn’t keep track of the books in my posts very well. I am determined to do much better in 2012 and focus on some of the authors I have wanted to read for forever. Thanks for hosting this one again!!

  16. I just wanted to ask a quick question. I have two blogs, a YA blog and a fantasy blog. I’ve signed up for this challenge on my YA blog, but planned to post links to new author reviews I use on the fantasy blog in my sign up post. Is that ok? Even if when I post links on Mr. Linky to reviews, they may be coming from two separate blogs?

  17. 2012 will be my first time doing reading challenges. I really like the idea of committing to trying out new authors. I have no idea how many books I read in a year, so I’m a little uncertain how many I should try for, so I’m going to err on the side of caution and just go with 15. :)

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