Not too very long ago I was just a blissful reader, never even dreaming of one day being a published author myself. And when I’d encounter a book I loved I’d just gush about it and tell all my friends and I’d just be glowing for days about how wonderful that book was.
You know what I didn’t do? Tell the author.
Me? Email or tweet or submit a comment to the author through their website? Oh well they must be so busy and important and wouldn’t want me spamming their inbox just to say I loved their book. Surely they already know that. I bought it, didn’t I? Sometimes I’d even written a nice review.
Well let me tell you now, every time someone tells me they enjoyed my book, every single time, it gives me a little glow of happiness and is honestly more important to me than whatever royalties I might have gotten from their one purchase. I’m not sure there’d ever be any amount of positive reader feedback I could get that would make me start to see those emails or tweets as spam. That’s not spam. That’s WONDERFUL!
So email that author, tweet them with an @message, post on their Facebook author page, comment on their blog. Most don’t make it hard to contact them. I promise, they’ll be so happy you did.
Here’s where you can find me besides this blog:
Contact info: email address
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeahPetersen
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LeahPetersenAuthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/leahpetersen
This is a great post. I’m ashamed to admit that after years of enjoying print books as well as online fiction I never once gave an author any type of feedback. It wasn’t until I posted a story online myself that I realized how wonderful comments and emails are. I wish I’d read this post sooner!
One tip for online authors: Make sure it’s easy for your readers to leave comments. Especially make sure to allow anonymous comments and if possible disable the spam verifier. It’s easy to delete spam (if you get more than the occasional spam comment, ignore this part) but many readers become frustrated trying to type in the nonsense hard to read letters.
Great post!
Very true, Alice! Although I see why some people with blogger do the spam blocker things. WordPress is good at catching it.
Leah Petersen recently posted..The Prodigal’s Foole RE-RELEASE Day!
I so agree with you. Anytime someone says something nice to me about my book or posts a review, I get all giddy. It never gets old. Ever. 🙂
First of all, you’re adorable and gutsy! I’ve learned a lot from reading your posts and I appreciate that. Your fill-me-in Fridays are great for catching the posts from others that I’ve missed.
The best of luck in your continued writing!
Lorraine Castro recently posted..OPEN YOUR HEART TO LOVE ~ STAY JUICY!
Any tips on how to get published? What was your big secret that got you in the door? I am to the point of sitting outside and begging. I guess you can tell I’ve been at it a while.
Nice post and nice tips. I forget to do this as well. I think I might just go find Stephen King’s site and thank him for Duma Key. Great book.
Atothewr,
The most important thing is to perfect your writing. If you’re that good, the agents and editors will see it. Network with authors and go to cons. Meet the editors and agents face to face! You can get there, but you have to have worked through the tough part, which is accepting critique and making your writing or your ideas better. Because once you land an agent and/or book deal, you’re going to get a lot more of it.
Leah Petersen recently posted..HAPPY RELEASE DAY! Still Into You, by Roni Loren