What stops you from downloading a book?

Paula asked this question recently on FB.

A few days ago, I read the start of a novel on Amazon (using the ‘Look Inside’ facility) as it was set in Ireland and looked interesting. It also had 20+ good reviews. However, I decided not to buy it. Why? Because there was too much narrative, description, and backstory in the first few pages. Following this, I posed the question on FB and received about 30 replies giving different reasons why people didn’t buy a book after reading the Amazon excerpt. Here's a summary of the comments:

Inevitably quite a few people mentioned bad grammar or poor editing, or more generally ‘bad writing’. Linked to this, ‘style’ could be a deal breaker. Obviously this is subjective, as not every writer’s style will appeal to every reader, but some commenters felt it was important that the style, rhythm, or quality of writing appealed to them. One person referred to this as the ‘character’s voice’.

Another major off-putting factor was too much description in the first few pages - phrases used were ‘superfluous description’, ‘overabundance of exposition’, or ‘painfully describing every detail’. Info dumps and blatant factual research were also disliked, as was ‘all telling’ and too much backstory at the beginning of the story. However, one commenter said: “sometimes the author doesn’t give enough back story and you’re lost from the get go.”

Readers didn’t like slow-paced stories that failed to make much progression in the first few pages. The need to be ‘grabbed’ was important.

In some cases, dialogue could be the make or break factor. One person commented on ‘discussions about nothing,’ while another disliked ‘too  much dialog where the things the characters say gives you no insight into their personalities’. Both of these could be summed up as ‘waffling’.

Point of View switches came in for some criticism. Several disliked too many switches of POV, referred to as ‘bouncing’ or ‘ping-pong’ switches (even though, as one person pointed out, Nora Roberts does this all the time).

Other commenters were put off by: violence for the sake of violence, too many unpronounceable names, unlikeable characters, two-dimensional characters, too many characters introduced too quickly, too many adverbs, and four letter words. A couple of people also disliked stories written in first person present tense.

So there you have it. Now you know what to include (or rather what not to include!) in your first few pages. The ‘Look Inside’ facility is the one that seems to be universally used, and it is this, and not the cover or blurb, that will persuade your readers to buy your book - or not!