Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ten Ways to Support Your Fave Authors for Free

I've had a couple people come up to me and basically apologize for getting Venom or Belladonna from the library, as if maybe they're not really a fan of the books since they didn't buy them. Truth time: The only books I bought recently were those released by close author friends or those bought at signings. This year was really hard for me financially, and I also knew I was going to be moving. Even with all the books I didn't purchase, and the books I gave away while packing, half the moving boxes still stacked in my bedroom are full of books. So yeah, I simply couldn't buy more.

But I read over fifty books in 2013--most of which I got from the local library. And that's okay. In fact, that's great. If people quit going to the library we'd probably quit having libraries. And that would be terrible. If you're in a place physically or financially where you can't buy books, that doesn't mean you can't support your favorite authors.


Here are ten ways to give a little author love without spending a dime:

10. Skip the piracy and use the library. Librarians take notice when books are in high demand, and they can be powerful author allies.

9. Follow your favorite authors on Twitter and like them on Facebook. Don't feel bad if they can't reciprocate--Twitter isn't very useful if you're following 10,000 people. If the author posts something that resonates with you, share or retweet the post.

8. Request books. If your school or local library isn't carrying a book you enjoyed, ask them to order it. Again, librarians are superheroes in the publishing world.

7. Reviews, reviews, reviews. I don't care if you bought the book, checked it out of the library, or read it slowly over several visits to Barnes & Noble--honest reviews are an author's best friend. Nothing says "Hey, this must be good. It's really popular!" like seeing a new book pop up on a website with loads of reviews. Copy and paste your reviews to all the major sites--Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc.

6. Comment on the author's blog. Most blogs seem to get fifty page views for every one comment. Take the time to respond to posts that are especially meaningful to you. Yeah, it sucks to figure out some of those captchas, but authors love to know that someone is listening.

Andrea Cremer and me. Even authors like meeting authors!

5. Go see authors in person. Nothing is more horrifying than spending weeks stressing out about and preparing for a bookstore appearance only to have three people (two of whom are related to the author) show up. Don't feel like you can't attend a signing or speak to an author because you don't have money to buy the featured book. You matter to us. We want you there.

4. Sponsor a read-a-long. A read-a-long is like an online book club discussion. You invite the author to provide some questions about his or her book and recruit a group of readers who want to read and discuss the book at the same time.

3. Become a member of Goodreads. GR is chock-a-block with ways to support your fave authors. Start simple and add the author's book to your to-be-read list. Maybe vote for the book on Goodreads lists or add your favorite quotes from the book. Recommend the book to other members you think might enjoy it.

2. Tell your friends about the books you love. Tell them in person and on GR and Twitter and on your blog if you have one. Before the internet was big, there used to be a saying in customer service like "A satisfied customer tells 7 people about his experience. An unsatisfied customer tells 25." Pretty sure nowadays an unsatisfied customer tells thousands of people. But you can use the internet's power for good too! Most books don't get six-figure marketing budgets. The way they become successful is through word-of-mouth. That means you!

1. The most basic thing of all--send the author a tweet or an email. They may not be able to respond to you--some authors get thousands of messages a week--but that doesn't mean they're not reading them and appreciating them. No one ever gets tired of hearing someone say "Your book changed me/saved me/ helped me/ made me laugh my butt off." And when we're struggling with our newest project, sometimes it's your emails and tweets that motivate us to keep going.

Can you think of other ways to support authors for free? What about ways for authors to support their favorite bloggers? List them in the comments.

Happy holidays! And as always, thanks for reading :)

Seasons Greetings from Mufasa AKA "Moo."

33 comments:

  1. I DOES THESE! I DOES THESE! I DOES THESE! :D #happymakingpost

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    1. *Wonders how many authors will be able to trace their success back to Nikki Wang in a few years*

      Wang Promotions...I'm gonna invest in that company someday and get rich :D

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    2. NONE. Because every single one of them was TOTALLY AMAZING enough to do it on their own. I was just a personal fangirl. <3

      And omg. I SHOULD JUST DO THIS. Then I don't have to stress about future and can spend my life fangirling. That would be epic.

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  2. I love this. It's great to hear from an author that even a tweet or email is something you guys look forward to. Sometimes I don't think it's enough.

    COME HERE AND LET ME LOVE YOU.

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    1. <333 The most amazing thing about emails is that they inevitably show up right in time to negate some painful author thing.

      Just yesterday I got a "bad news author thing" and was like "I suck I suck I suck. I should just quit. No I should just crawl in a hole and spare the world my suckiness." (That may be a bit overdramatized, but sniffling was involved).

      And then five minutes later I got an email that said "Just wanted to let you know Venom and Belladonna are two of my favorite books ever!" And I was like "Oh, maybe I don't suck quite as bad as I thought." And then I felt better :D YOU READER PEOPLE MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!

      I want to come on the tattoo and general mayhem mission! Am I cool enough?? *pretends to be cool* :D

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  3. I support authors in all those ways! A really cool thing that the author Jennifer L Armentrout does for bloggers is that every week, a different blog is featured on her blog. It's super cool for sure! Just having the author write another book is thank you enough! *digs into endlessly tall TBR list*

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    1. Wow--that's an awesome idea that Jennifer Armentrout does :) Someday if I am even 17% as famous as her I'll do that too :D

      I try to read blog posts and comment to some of the bloggers who have supported me, but sometimes it's hard to add more "screen-time work" to a job that already involves about 10 hours a day in front of a computer.

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  4. Excellent post, P. All true and all important. Extra shouts out to #2 and #7, esp. if your fave author is just starting out. As much as authors and publishers like to think it's something they're doing themselves, readers are the ones who build audiences.

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    1. Yep. We couldn't do it without readers! In the end, it all comes back to them.

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  5. Love it! Also, love the holiday kitty. :) Great post and happy holidays, lady!

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    1. You. Are. Amazing. I am the luckiest girl EVER to end up on TeamValentines.

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  6. I loved this post and the picture of Moo at the end! In the past couple of years, I've gone overboard in buying books and want to try to spend next year catching up on so many of my unread ones. I'm glad there are so many other ways to support authors besides continuing to buy tons of books (especially because I vowed to step away from Amazon and shop at indie bookstores instead, which probably will mean being able to buy fewer books).

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    1. I am a firm believer that voices are more powerful than cash or credit cards every day of the week. Thanks for your support and thanks for supporting indies! And Moo says "MEOOOOOOOOWRGHEEEEEOW" which loosely translated means "Human, you have good taste to recognize my adorableness."

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  7. I LOVE THIS POST. You truly are the wisest Panda EVER.:)

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  8. I do all of those but have never done a read-a-long! Hmmm.

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    1. Yay! Thanks for being such a great supporter of authors! I also recommend fan art and fan fiction, but those are a bit more time-intensive :D

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  9. I love "read it slowly over several visits to Barnes & Noble" - never thought of that. I try to let my favorite authors know via Facebook.

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    1. I'll be the first to admit I did the old "slow read in B&N" back when I was in college :)

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    2. Haha, I do the same thing. Love this post :) Great suggestions for everyone.

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  10. GREAT list and I do them all!! :)

    BTW, I think I was at the same event as you with Andrea Cremer! I still have not read her book, but it is high on my list for 2014 as well as Venom!! :)

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    1. Better hurry--she writes like 4 books a year :-) It was a cold and tornadoish February event.

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  11. I love this post, and thank you so much for writing it! I never really liked reaching out to authors, because it's not like they'll respond. But thanks to this, I'll reach out a little more. Maybe they don't notice, but maybe there are some who do.

    Thank you! And have a wonderful new year. :D

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    1. You're welcome. I won't speak for all authors, but I bet most do notice and care. I used to feel a little hurt that some of my fave authors didn't respond to my tweets--then I realized they often got 20 responses to every tweet they sent. Keeping up with that would be a full-time job. But I choose to believe they read them and appreciated them.

      Happy new year to you too!

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  12. I think that my favorite piece of advice on this list is to contact authors. Before I was a blogger and even a little bit now, I'm overcome with this feeling that authors are somewhat unreachable. You guys are on an entirely different level as us. And though my experience in the blogosphere has proven to me that you really are just as nutty as we are, it can be really intimidating to shoot an e-mail to a beloved author.

    But, for the most part, I've gotta say your list is like 100% perfect. I've learned to do all these things as a blogger and I can't imagine ever stopping any of these habits, even if I stop blogging one day.

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    1. I still feel totally awkward contacting authors--maybe even more awkward than before i became one--like "oh, if I rave about their book will they feel like they have to read mine or say nice things back?"

      But when a book really rocks my world, I get over my awkwardness and tell them. Because it's always nice to hear that someone loved your book :)

      So many of you already do all of these that I may need to post an 'Advanced version' of this once I get caught up on All the Things :)

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    2. Also, Lili, what is this other level you speak of? ;) Nah, I know what you mean, but I think thanks (sometimes no thanks) to the internet, we are all closer than ever.

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  13. This post meant so much! I get most of my books from the library and I sometimes do feel bad about not being able to buy them most of the time because space problems. I have actually never been able to go to an author event, but I try to hand out recommendation of the books I love.

    I loved reading this post! It was really great hearing from an author that they appreciate you even though they don't (or can't) buy their books.

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    1. Don't ever feel bad. Sometimes I just stop and marvel at the fact there are still readers in this uber-interactive, high tech world :) Seriously, you do more than you know, and we appreciate it more than you know.

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  14. So I shared this post a while back on twitter but just wanted to stop by and comment on how awesome this is! So many great ideas here! :)

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I love your comments like I love cupcakes! Thanks so much for stopping by :-)