I’m very fortunate to have amazingly loyal and dedicated readers. (I’d mention them all by name, but both requested anonymity.) Whenever I come out with a new novel, these are the folks who not only buy it and actually read it, but also let me know how much they enjoyed it even if they didn’t. This is an author’s dream.
Some of my readers have gone so far as to contact me and tell me they believe I’m going to hit the big-time. A few have even asked me what they can do to help make that happen. This is an author’s sex dream.
If there’s an author you really would like to see succeed – such as one whose blog you’re currently reading – there are a number of ways you can support them. Don’t worry, when I say “support,” I’m not talking about offering them free room and board and a monthly stipend. Everyone knows that’s the job of an author’s parents or significant other.
Below are just a few of the things you can do (aside from just buying their book) to back an author whose work you feel deserves a larger readership:
Spread the word via social media. Sure, you can tell people about an author in person or via phone, text or email, but such personalized and thoughtful communication is dumb. Much more efficient and effective is to blast everybody you know or almost know all at once via an exuberant public shout-out to the author on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Give the author’s book(s) as gifts. I don’t know them, but your friends and family members are skeptical and cheap. Your online raving may draw their attention to your new favorite author and perhaps result in a handful of book sales, but many of your peeps will need you to pay them to read. Or at least pay for them to read. Maybe both. So whenever their birthday or Christmas or Hanukkah or Groundhog’s Day rolls around, give them a copy of one of my… er, I mean the author you support’s books.
Rate and review the author’s book(s) on Amazon (and other sites). This is perhaps the best way to help out an author, aside from putting them in your will. A four- or five-star rating and a rave (yet honest) review on Amazon not only compels like-minded readers to buy a book, it begets additional positive reviews, which can lead to the book being included in “Recommended for You” emails Amazon sends out to countless other like-minded readers, which, in turn leads to more sales and more reviews and more recommendations, which… okay, you get the idea. (Note: As powerful as Amazon is, don’t limit your reviews to just there; it takes little effort to copy and paste your Amazon review to other sites where voracious readers hang out, such as Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and lonelycatladies.com.)
Ask your local bookstore to carry the author’s book(s). If the author you’re eager to support is of the “indie” variety, chances are the one bookstore left standing in your town doesn’t carry their book(s). But the store very well might if you ask them to, especially if you make the clerk feel unqualified and stupid. “WHAT? How’s it possible you’ve never heard of [insert name of your author]? How’d you even GET this job – is your grandfather’s surname Barnes or Noble?” Once the clerk caves and the books arrive at the store a few days later, sit and read a copy in a high-traffic area of the store. Be sure to make lots of noises and gestures that express how enthralling and entertaining and moving the book is. Don’t be afraid to spray water out of your mouth or snot out of your nose while laughing or crying uncontrollably. To help draw even more attention to you and what you’re perusing, consider reading the book while naked.
Get a tattoo of one (or more) of the author’s book covers. There are few better ways to get lots of eyes on a book you love than to have its cover image needled into your skin – provided said image appears on a highly visible part of your body. So shoot for your arm, lower leg, neck or face, unless you dance at a strip club, work as a porn star, or are Mark Wahlberg, in which case anywhere the cover image will fit with minimal risk of infection is fine.
Commit a newsworthy crime and say the author’s novel compelled you to do it. I’ve saved the most obvious method for last. Everybody knows there’s no faster way to catapult an author to international stardom than to commit a highly visible Class-A felony and blame your actions on the author’s mesmerizing prose. As a novelist, what I wouldn’t give to have one of my two fans kidnap a movie star and scream out the title of one of my books on CNN just before getting shot by a SWAT team member. Now you know what I wish for every birthday as I blow out the candles.
What are some of the interesting ways you support the authors you like? More importantly, where are you thinking of putting a tattoo of one of my book covers?
ON HIS BEST DAYS, ZERO SLADE IS THE WORST MAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. HE HAS TO BE. IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE LOST GIRLS.