Book Shopping?

What motivates you to buy a particular book? Do you base your decision on the blurb? Is it the excerpts that draw you in? Do you like to try new authors or stick with the ones you know? Rely on reviews to guide your purchases? Do you judge books by their cover first then consider other factors? Stick to certain publishers? I'd really like to hear how you decide!

I've been thinking about this great deal lately. In this time of soaring prices, I am much more careful with my choices. I'm also much more likely to stick with a book longer, hoping it will get better, before deciding its not my cup of tea.

Personally, I don't like to read excerpts. When I buy the book then get to that point in the story the scene now seems anticlimatic to me if I've already read the excerpt. And no advertisement in a magazine or on a website is going to sell me a book, although it might get me to look at it the next time I'm shopping. Reviews are great, but I don't spend my money based on the opinion of someone who may not have the same reading tastes as I do. Free bookmarks and other promotional items never sold me either, but meeting an author in person will sway me.

It may be shallow, but covers do make a difference to me. I don't go for chick lit and I've found that covers for the genre tend to have a certain look that will make me pass right by to the next book. If the blurb can arouse my interest in the story, I'm sold. And if the cover happens to have the name of an author whose writing I've enjoyed in the past its even more of a done deal, but I don't shy away from reading new-to-me authors.

What about you? What will get you to take a closer look at one book vs. another? What prompts you to buy a title?