Ann Parker here, comfortably enscounced in my hotel room at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort for the 2013 Left Coast Crime convention. Mystery conventions are definitely one great place to find new authors to read ... at least, new to THIS reader! And, as other LadyKillers pointed out earlier this week, to be a "new author" simply means a reader has not read him or her before.
Left Coast Crime has two early morning events: The New Authors breakfast and The Established Authors breakfast. Convention attendees stagger in at 7:30 a.m., gorge on a darn nice breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit galore, little tasty pastry things, coffee, etc. etc.) and get to hear about 20 authors (each morning) give a quick one minute spiel on their latest books. At the New Authors do Friday morning, I sat next to an avid reader who was faithfully scribbling down name and title of each speaker. She informed me that she would turn the list in to her local library so they would be sure to order the books.
And then, there are the "presents before Christmas" otherwise known as BOOK BAGS. When you go to the registration desk to register, you usually receive a nametag, a program, and then A BAG OF BOOKS. It's like Christmas! You just never know what's going to show up when you open the bag!
Here are the books that I received in my Left Coast Crime bag this year:

And the book I brought with me to read on the plane is an ARC (advanced readers copy) that I received from some convention in the past. I have a stack of such books, and I just grab one that looks interesting (and that fits into my carryon) when I get ready to travel:

I'm enjoying THE SHERLOCKIAN very much... the author, Graham Moore, is new to me. If the book continues enjoyable to the end, then I will keep him on my radar for future books.
But conventions aren't the only place to discover new authors. Belonging to book clubs is another way to be introduced to authors that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Finally, someone mentioned something today, a place on the internet where you can put in the name of an author you like, and get a "cloud" of names of other authors that like-minded readers also enjoy. I didn't get the site down, but some thrashing around on my part turned up Gnooks. The descriptor: "Gnooks is a self-adapting community system based on the gnod engine. Discover new writers you will like, travel the map. of literature and discuss your favorite books and authors."
Well, shoot, I have to give this a try. In the box that says "Type the name of a writer to find" I typed "Ann Parker" (well, why not)?

Only to get this screen:

Huh. Okay. Let's try someone more... famous.
I entered Martin Cruz Smith (a fave of mine) and BINGO! I got a literature-map!

Down in the lefthand corner, it says "The closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them."
Looking over this map, I do believe I have a whole bunch of new writers to explore!
If any of you try Gnook or know of other sites like this, please share your results and suggestions. I find it all quite fascinating!
And, of course, there's always going to a knowledgeable bookseller or good friend, and asking: "Read anything good lately?"