A friend of mine bought my books and when I asked her why she would do that when I would happily give her an ARC or one of my paperbacks I have laying around, she said “No, no, I want to support you.”
Of course I want sales. I want everyone in the world to have a copy of my books, but that’s only the beginning if you’re goal is to support the author. I figured most people don’t really know how to support an author without just buying the book and leaving it at that, so I thought I’d put something up to help everyone who doesn’t know.
One of the best ways to support an author is to leave a review. Go on Good Reads, Amazon, Itunes, wherever the book pops up and leave a review. It can be the same one for all sites, but plaster those words everywhere so everyone can see. Because those words will help more people decide to read the book, and that will in turn create a larger reader base for the author, and that is what we all want. More readers. Not sure how to leave a review? It’s really simple, and you don’t need to be long winded or even good at putting sentences together. I’m going to send you to Jane Henry’s post on how to write a review for the how’s because she did an awesome job, and I’m not recreating any wheels by repeating her.
Another way to support the author is on social media. If you are friends with your favorite author and they post an upcoming release, or a sale, or well anything related to their books, hit the share button, or the re-tweet button. No need to say anything if you don’t want, just push the word a little further out into cyberspace so more readers can hear the news.
Let them know you liked it. Leaving a review does this as well, but reach out to the author personally. Leave a comment on their blog, on a Facebook post, send an email, Tweet them, something to personalize the message that you liked their work. Because us authors love to write, and we want our readers to love what we write. We also will sit and stare at our work and say the most awful things about our work to ourselves, and on a day like that, when all the words seem to be the worst ones, when the hero is being a jerk, and the heroine isn’t turning out the way we want, and the happily ever after looks too far off in the distance to comprehend, words from our readers keeps us in our chairs and writing. A simple. “Hey, I read your book and loved it! Can’t wait for more.” Is like being handed a check for a million bucks- well, a million emotional bucks anyway. It refuels us when our tanks are empty, it inflates our deflated balloons.
So there you go, a few ways to support an author after buying their books Do you have other ways you support your favorite author? Let me know, I want to hear from you!