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.

What The Hunger Games is Teaching My Children

Since the release of The Hunger Games movie, I’ve seen a lot of controversial conversations happening online. People love it. People hate it. People are disturbed by the very idea of having children see such a movie, or adults for that matter. Children forced to kill each other? No way.

Except I WANT my kids to read the books AND see the movie. I WANT them to think about the effects of war. I want them to realize that not every adult who tries to force them to do something has their best interests in mind. I want them to learn to think for themselves, believe for themselves, hope for themselves. I want my kids to figure out how to survive in the wilds of the real world—whatever that world is like when they get there.

Three of my four kids read the book before we saw the movie. And they GOT IT. Even my youngest (11) understands that it is truly not a story about kids killing kids, but of kids learning how their actions can change things. They can change themselves, their families, their communities, society, and yes, they can change the world.

What’s more, I think that as the series progresses, as they find out what happens next, they’ll see what hatred and war can do, how it can destroy people, and also how hope can give them the power to rebuild.

Granted, this is not a story for little people (as mentioned above, my youngest is almost 12). And it’s not something anyone should read or watch hoping for any kind of lightheartedness. It’s a heavy subject. It’s a heartbreaking subject. This story stabs us in the heart and twists until the very end. But it’s a beautiful story of hope, determination, and love.

In case you haven’t read my blog header, those things are important themes in my life. Themes I want my children to really get. So yes, I took them to the midnight premier. Yes, we discussed all these things, and yes, I’m quite certain they understand why this movie (and the book series) is so big and so important to me.

Because some stories are more than mere stories. They’re lessons we should all learn, even the young.

So what about you? Did you go? Would you take your tween?

Top Five Favorites

I've been thinking lately about books I love, and what makes me love them, as opposed to books I don't love and why. Because what I love about a book is probably very different than what someone else loves about it. Or maybe my favorite thing is the very thing that someone else greatly dislikes.

So I'm staring at my overloaded, double and triple-stacked bookshelves, trying to decide which volumes I think about the most often and what about the pages inside impacted me the most.

The thing is, there isn't really a word that could describe what I love about all my books. But there is a common thread I think. There must be. So let's see...

1. All my most favorite books deal with relationships of one kind or another. Most of them have some kind of romantic elements, but also I think they deal with family relationships as well.

2. The endings all leave me feeling satisfied because even if all is not happy and well, it is hopeful and I have seen character growth.

3. The descriptions read like background.

4. I love the characters and empathize with them, even if I don't agree with their choices.

5. They make me smile unexpectedly at random moments.

Okay, so there are five elements off the top of my head that all my favorite books have in common. What's on your top five list?

Book Review: "Wings" by Aprilynne Pike

By Nichole Giles

Jacket cover copy:

“Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head.

They looked almost like wings.”

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Fifteen-year-old Laurel discovers she’s a faery when she goes through the faery equivalent of puberty and sprouts a flower out of her back. On top of that, she’s just moved into a new neighborhood, is attending public school for the first time, and evil trolls are out to get her family.

During the course of the story, Laurel is torn between a human love, and a faery one—adding a strong element of romance sure to make a girl’s heart go pitter-patter.

The first time I picked up “Wings,” I was intrigued. First by the title, then the beautiful cover, and then I read the back and discovered the story is about faeries. Well, that did it. I had to buy it because I adore both flowers and faeries, and the story sounded intriguing to me. This was—of course—before I met the author, Aprilynne Pike (who, by the way is super nice and every bit as pretty as the picture on the jacket cover of her book). Before I had the chance to begin reading, Aprilynne gave me a more in-depth overview of the storyline, and as soon as I got home, I had to start reading (even though it was way, way past my bedtime).

I have to be honest. I LOVED it. It’s one of those stories you read straight through from beginning to end in one sitting. And then you want to pick it up and read it again. Then, if you’re a book-loaner (which I am not) you loan your copy to all your friends so they can love it too.

Or if you’re like me, you tell them all to go buy their own copy because you’re too picky about how books are treated.

I digress. Anyway, it’s no wonder “Wings” hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List within two weeks of being released.

So, if you aren’t one of the people who bought this book the month it was released, run—don’t walk—to pick up your copy now. This is the hot new thing. Hurry, before you fall behind the times!

Five Random Things

By Nichole Giles

1. My eleven-year-old daughter is the candy-keeper in our house. We buy her bags of candy (to replace all the candy my husband and I eat while she’s at school) and she dumps it all in a basket, then doles it out to the family whenever she thinks we need it. (Which is all the time for some of us, and her timing is usually perfect. She must be psychic or something.)

2. Our youngest dog—who by all accounts is technically still a puppy—is going through a digging phase, right in time for garden planting season. Yipee! She’s spending a lot of time locked in the kennel lately, which breaks my heart—but not enough to let her destroy my veggies.

3. I decided the other day that my new vacation goal for the future is to visit Italy, or more specifically, Rome. Well, that’s not definite. I’d really love to see Venice as well. Both seem like such romantic places, filled with rich history and incredible art.

4. It’s impossible for me to fill out forms (including Facebook quizzes) that include the question: What is your favorite book. How in the heck am I supposed to choose just one? It would be easier for me to tell what I’m currently reading, or post a picture of my overflowing bookshelf or something. I love them all, and for different reasons. The ones I don’t love don’t stay in my mind long enough to matter, and the rest have their own special space on the bookshelf in my head.

5. I drove around town with my convertible top down yesterday, even though it rained a little bit. Seriously, you don’t even really get wet if you’re going faster than fifteen miles an hour. Not that I would’ve minded if I did. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. That car was way cheaper than therapy!

Bonus:
I finally got an iPhone last month, and can I just say, I love it! It’s like a pocket computer—minus the keyboard. I mean, it has a keyboard, but there’s no way I could type an entire book on it—or could I? Hm. I may have to try that…