I’d never heard this particular term until I got on WordPress. But to me auto-buy authors are the authors whose books you buy without thinking about the series or reviews or anything. You just buy the book because it’s something new you haven’t read from one of your favorite authors. If I’m using this definition, then I have none.
I don’t buy books as authors write them. And I don’t think I own every book written by any particular author. I started most of the series I read long after they initially began. Even my favorites like Harry Bosch and Alex Cross were started more than a decade after the first books in the series were published. But I understand that if you’re caught up with an author’s series, then you’ll likely pre-order or buy their new book on release day. I can understand that. I think it’s a little different story when people do that for every James Patterson novel because you’re talking multiple books a month rather than one or two a year.
The one thing I do have in common with everyone else and their auto-buy authors is that if I’m reading a series I enjoy, then I won’t be checking to see what the next book is about before buying it. So I guess I auto-buy the next in the series? Which is what I imagine most people do. What if you read Half Blood Prince and didn’t much care for it, was there any chance you weren’t going to read Deathly Hallows? No. Of course not.
Do you have any auto-buy authors? I think I auto-buy series, but not authors.
Johnny Reads 
I do both, I guess.
I have loads of auto-buy authors.
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Then you must have stacks of money to spend on books. 😂
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LOL I wish.
I still need to depend on my parents to buy books, so I’ll only get some two or three a month., if at all.
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Well that’s better than none, right?
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Yup.
I’m saving up, though. There’s this used bookstore that’s getting renovated. They sell books by weight.
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By weight? I’ve never heard of that.
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They do! Really old books from ten, twenty years ago. But also kind of new ones ,too.
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Find some shorter ones and just get a million.
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I don’t understand.
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Oh well.
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The closest thing I have to an auto-buy author is Sharon Shinn…though I am missing a few of her most recent ones, there was a long period where I bought her latest just because it had her name on it, and was never disappointed. Harry Potter was an auto-buy series for me, which is why my first three books are paperback (since I didn’t read them until they were already out in that format) but the last four are first-edition hardcovers that I anxiously waited by the mailbox for.
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I have no idea who she is it or what she writes. I also didn’t buy my first Potter book until last year. 🙈
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Nabakov is my only auto-buy author. If I come across a book by him that I haven’t read yet, I don’t even care what it’s about. I buy it. He never disappoints.
Other than that, even some of my favorite authors (like Eoin Colfer) are not auto-buys for me. I have a bad habit of sticking to one series by an author and not trying out their other stuff. I haven’t even looked at JKR’s non-Harry Potter stuff yet.
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Got it. Hasn’t she only written like three books outside if Harry Potter? Maybe four? Not like there’s a long list.
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I only really auto-buy for others. My mom likes certain authors, so I’ll buy their new books for her, but for myself, I’ll read almost everything as an ebook from the library before I’ll buy it. If I love it, I’ll buy it. I know that will make some people crazy, especially because I’m a former bookseller, publisher, writer, etc., but that’s really why— when I bought everything I wanted to read, I was perpetually broke and buried in books that I theoretically wanted to read but not yet. Now, I buy books that I want to re-read. If I get a book from the library and love it, I’ll often buy two copies— one for me and one as a gift for someone in my life. I have auto-reads— I’ll eventually read most books by Ann Patchett and Amy Tan, Jane Austen, I’ll read but not own most series.
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John Berendt and Elizabeth Gilbert, Jen Hatmaker and Brene Brown in nonfiction.
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I have no idea what this list of authors is here for. You already said you don’t auto-buy.
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I thought of others I automatically read and added them, as a completion of a thought. But don’t let it bother you.
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Your comment answered the question and then morphed into answering several others. Rereading. Ebooks. Libraries. Buying books and not reading them. I don’t think there’s anything for me to add here.
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I don’t auto-buy any books because I know that, even if I like an author, there may be a book I don’t fancy reading.
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So you wouldn’t buy the next book in a series you’re enjoying if you read something about it you may not like? Especially if it’s been a year since the previous book was released.
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I usually auto-buy series, like you said. I have stopped mid-series in some things, though, and never went back to that series.
Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything I auto-buy. There are a ton of books written by authors I love, but if the synopsis doesn’t sound good, I won’t buy it. Why would I? It’s a waste of money to buy something you don’t like only for the sake of being consistent and loyal to the author. I’m the same with celebrities. While I have a few favorite actors/actresses, it doesn’t mean I’ve watched every single thing they’re in. If it’s a genre or a plot I don’t prefer, I skip it.
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Hm. I don’t see always buying the next in the series as being consistent and loyal to the author. I see it as reading what you know and enjoy. Especially if all you’re basing your decision on is the synopsis.
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Well, it’s not always the synopsis. Usually I read a couple pages, just to be sure I’d like it.
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You obviously have superpowers.
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Erm… how? What kind of sarcasm is this? My doofy brain needs explanations.
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To know if you’ll like something just by reading a few pages.
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When I was younger I had a whole list of authors I auto-bought. However as I got older I found other things to spend my money on. I agree with the series auto buy in theory. When I am reading a series and I find I really like the first book I will go to the library website and check out all the rest in the series for delivery to my kindle or pick up in house.
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What would you rather spend money on than books?! 😂
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travel. children. house.
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Rhetorical.
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Currently Rainbow Rowell.
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And John Guillen. If he’d ever write something and release it. 😂
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Oh yes. Obviously.
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I did a post on this a while back. I have a handful of auto buy authors…They’re people whose work I’ve come to love and I trust in whatever they put out next. Sure, I will like some of their stuff more than others, and I do read book descriptions first, just to see what the latest is about. But I’ll basically just buy whatever they write.
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Like who? Just wondering.
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Christopher Moore, Charles de Lint, Paolo Bacigalupi, Walter Moers. Tanith Lee as well, though now I don’t know if any new material of hers will be released.
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Welp. Haven’t even heard of them.
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They’re all fantasy writers, if you’re into that, look them up.
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Haha. I think for me that’s Stephen King. Maybe Margaret Atwood but I haven’t read everything by her yet. Oh and Junot Diaz, because I look up to him as a Dominican author (and because he only has three published books so far which I’ve read so it’s not hard to follow him as a reader). And I will probably own everything ever written by Octavia Butler. She rocks my socks off with her delicious prose.
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Hm. I’ve never thought of prise as being delicious. That’s a new one.
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Prose*
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Really good writing satiates you sometimes in ways that actually food cannot. I’ve been feeling like that A lot lately.
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Whaa?
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You must notice the conventions of writing, right? Other than the plot? It’s how I read and study the works of writers. And when something is crafted so tightly and precisely, it fills me up, like a good meal.
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That’s…..well, okay.
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What do you mean it’s okay? I guess we just read things differently is all.
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You compared reading to eating. And that makes no sense to me.
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Okay. I can see how that could be a little confusing. Good writing fills you up in a different way – obviously not Literally but food for the brain. Does that make sense? Like, when I watch a silly comedy, that’s brain candy. When I read a good book, it’s brain Food. Clearer now?
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Much better. 👍
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