How many pages of a book do you read before ditching it?

[Cav Scout wife]

There have been only three books I have stopped reading; I usually stick it out until the bloody bitter end, but those were horrible.

The Cell-Stephen King (usually I'm a huge King fan, but this sucked!)
Twilight-Stephanie Myers (got about 100 pages in, and it was ignorant)
Anatomy of Criticism- Northrup Frye (VERY dry and boring, but his other works are good)

Originally Posted by netwit

What is now called self-publishing is also known as vanity publishing, for a lot of very good reasons.

In the normal course of events, a publisher takes a chance on a writer because he likes the story, not the other way around.

I stay away from the self-published books. Publishing may eventually change due to ebooks and such, but in the meantime there is no vetting process for self-published books, and most of the time there is nothing to them but the writer's vanity and unwillingness to be an apprentice to their craft.

I don't consider it "vanity publishing" at all, when there are hundreds of great authors with awesome stories out there, being told no left and right by publishing houses that think Twilight is the next American Magnum Opus!

I know of a few self-publishers personally, one was a very dear family friend who told her story (about a year before she died), and it was GREAT, seriously the Help was good, but this was better. Another is one of the English Proffs at my local Community College. He was self published, then picked up by a publishing house, and is doing great. The last one is my hubby, and he's currently working on a novel for a publisher who read his SP book a few years before that, and loved it.

Normally, an author WOULD wait, but publishing houses are flooded with manuscripts and 90% of them are horrible, so the 10% that are great books usually never get read, or will be given the chance to let the public decide.

As for the vetting process, if some of the current best-sellers were vetted, then I think I'll take my chances with SP, some are awful, just awful!

[e_cuyler]

I try to give it 100 pages if it seems like I might like the book. There are some books where I know right away they're not for me.

I also use the "percentage" method too sometimes.

[AnneWest]

Originally Posted by Cav Scout wife

There have been only three books I have stopped reading; I usually stick it out until the bloody bitter end, but those were horrible.

The Cell-Stephen King (usually I'm a huge King fan, but this sucked!)
Twilight-Stephanie Myers (got about 100 pages in, and it was ignorant)
Anatomy of Criticism- Northrup Frye (VERY dry and boring, but his other works are good)

I wish I could've stopped at 100 pages on this one. As a veteran of bodice-ripper sagas going back to the late '70's, I usually found they improved as they went along.
Twilight was just not written well at all, and it was about vampires! Where was the moody, scary, threatening dark atmosphere? This was just teenage hormones and angst. :P