Two quick questions for you

I’ll be so grateful for your help if you’ll answer! I’d really like to understand what readers pay attention to and what’s useful to them. I promise, this won’t take long at all. If you will, please just number your answers and respond in the comment section below (as opposed to emailing me). This is so I have all responses in one place and can share them with my publisher.

#1. Do you read/use/care about having “Discussion Questions” (also sometimes called a “Reader’s Guide”) at the end of a novel? If you’re in a book club, does your club consult the suggested questions? And, a corollary: if the questions aren’t in the printed copy (or ebook or audible version), do you go to the author’s website to look for them if the text says they can be found there?

#2. When choosing a book to read, are you influenced by a blurb (quote praising the book) from a famous author or a “logline” on  the front cover? (A logline is sort of a very brief teaser–one sentence– about the contents. Corollary: would you rather see a blurb or a logline or neither one (let the cover speak for itself)?

So, I asked you to give me input on two questions, so I know a 3rd isn’t fair. There’s a bonus to this one, though:

#3. IF a logline is used on the cover of my next novel (The Corners of the Sky, coming 10/14/26) which of these, if either, would interest you more:

• 
  

  • Do women hold up half the sky—or maybe more?

  • How does addiction start—and how will it end?(It’s fine to say it if you hate them both!)

If you take the time to answer these in the comment section and also do the third question, I’ll add your name to a drawing, and two winners may pick a novel from any of my backlist that I have copies of, and I’ll send a signed (and inscribed if you wish) copy to you or any gift recipient you designate.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your answers will be very influential. I’m really grateful.