The Care and Feeding of Your Favorite Authors

In the last month or so, I’ve had lots of people ask how they can help spread the word about the release of my upcoming book, so I thought it might be a good idea to do a post about the helpful things you can do to support all your favorite authors—whoever they are.

1.       Buy their book. –I know this should be obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t. If you can’t buy a copy, request that your local library buy a copy so you can check it out.

2.       Tell others to buy the book. –Word of mouth is the best possible advertising for any product, books included.

3.       Share your opinion. –Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari, Barnes and Noble all have places where you can rate and review your favorite books. Honest online reviews—be they good or bad—help lift your favorites to places where others can see them. It’s about exposure.

4.       Add your favorite book to Goodreads and Shelfari lists and suggest that others who have read it vote on that list. –Sounds trivial and silly, but the people who read these lists take them very seriously. They are readers who love to read and who share their opinions about what they’ve read. More exposure.

5.       Support author events and signings by attending and by telling other people you know about them. –You don’t have to buy a book at every event. Bookstores love authors who bring crowds and are more likely to invite that author back if store traffic is significantly improved during those events. (But bookstores hope to sell lots of books, so that always helps too!)

6.       Give books as gifts. Every reader helps, and every book sold matters.

7.       Pay attention to author blogs and social media accounts. For your faithful efforts, many authors give away fun things, which sometimes include books (by themselves or other authors). Yay for free stuff! (This doesn’t necessarily help the author, but it sure makes us feel good. We all need to be loved!)

8.       Nominate your favorite books for awards or other honors. For instance, my book is eligible to be nominated for a Whitney Award for 2013. (Off the top of my head. I know there are others, as well. I think.) 

9.       Share this list with other readers who want to help their favorite authors.

What do you think? Did I miss anything?

That said, here are a few links where you can find DESCENDANT if you have the inclination to do any of the above.

Amazon. Goodreads. Barnes and Noble. Current Goodreads lists.

Thanks for reading! And for commenting. And also, for spreading the love.

Holy Fangirl, Batman!

I have this thing for meeting authors. It may actually be classified as an addiction. I don’t know. You decide. Anyway, my friend Elana and I crashed the Provo Library Teen Book Festival (in UT) last Saturday with the sole intention of meeting mega-author Scott Westerfeld.

I had him sign these:

 

And this:

And this:

I was quite proud of both myself and Elana for having conversed in a dignified manner, rather than going all gushy fangirl as he was signing our books. We also took a few minutes to chat with some other local authors, like Ally Condie and Lisa Mangum.

But, you say, this isn’t a problem. It was a local book festival, right? And, hello? Rockstar Mega author! Well, yes. This is true. But I attend signings a few times a month too. For instance, a couple weeks ago, I went to this book launch.

Before that, it was this one.

And in September, a lucky stroke of timing allowed me to be at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C., where I met…

Holy fangirl, Batman!

Suzanne Collins!!!

And yes, I did my best to be dignified there too. But you know. Couldn’t help but *squee* just a little bit.

She was not able to sign that day, but did have a stamp. I had her stamp this book. (Two copies--one is mine, the other??)

As you can see, I MIGHT possibly have some fab prizes to give away. And because the holidays are coming up, and because I’m so grateful to all my readers, I'm going to be doing some really awesomesauce giveaways in the near future. If you are a fangirl/boy reader who loves swag and autographed copies of bestselling books, stay tuned and keep following. You won’t be sorry.

Who is your favorite author and to what lengths would you go to meet him or her?