In a recent survey conducted by Book Marketing Limited, book-lovers gave a resounding thumbs down to ‘social networks’ such as Facebook and Twitter with only 3% seeing them as very useful places they would go to for recommendations on what books to read next.

Instead, they actively seek out more authentic expert views on the web from Author websites as well as trusted independent sources of guidance such as Lovereading.co.uk. In addition, when asked where they find out about the latest books, the web was the most used but email newsletter and reviews in the newspaper scored highly as well.

At the other end of the scale, only 5% of respondents said they often looked at the expensive posters sites typically seen on public transport.

Peter Crawshaw of Lovereading (http://www.lovereading.co.uk) said ‘In one way the research findings support the more ‘traditional’ view that is held about book lovers. What is interesting however is the high level of independence shown by them in the sourcing of authentic expert views on what they might like to read next. It also points to the ‘Stephen Fry / Jonathan Ross Twitter effect as being the exception rather than the rule’