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desperanceSo you have all these writers on your friendslist, you number them among those you follow here or there or somewhere else, and you're wondering what you can do for them in this charitable giving season, for you know - for you have been told, over and over - that the lot of a writer is not an easy one, they have a hard row to hoe in parlous times.
So here's a helpful list.
1. Buy a book! Books are available in all sorts of ways these days, as paper books or audiobooks or e-books: it's all one. Buy a book, read it, give it away. This is a time for gifts, and nothing's ever better than a book. (Why yes, I do have skin in this game - you might buy Bitter Waters, you might buy Being Small - but other books are also available. Consult your local dealer.)
2. Borrow a book! Go to the library. Readers are insidious, which is just another way to pronounce insiders, and once you join a library, you belong. You can borrow books, and better yet: you can request books, and the library will buy them for you. You can even request books that you have in fact already bought or read: f'rexample, books by writers that you friend or follow. That way another sale gets chalked up by the publisher and other people get the chance to read the book and everybody's happy. (Yup, still got skin here. Books in print, that I would love to see on library shelves, and it needn't cost you a dime. Did I mention Bitter Waters, did I mention Being Small?)
3. Review a book! Word of mouth is still and always the best way to spread news about a book you liked, and these days it's easier than ever to reach an ever-wider readership (I did myself coin the phrase "word of mouse", long since). And benefits accumulate: the more reviews a book can garner, the better chance it has of doing well. S'true. F'rexample, Amazon will automagically, algorithmically give more promotion to any book that has more than twenty customer reviews. Doesn't matter what they say, the simple number is what matters. So if you liked a book, go to Amazon and say so. (Yeah yeah, skin all over the place: I don't believe any of my books has ever achieved twenty reviews on Amazon. Some writers organise their friends to do this, or pay total strangers to do it, or you can even hire companies to orchestrate such efforts. I am not so much down with that - but if you liked Being Small, or Bitter Waters - or something else, of course, by me or someone else - it really truly never hurts to say so.)
So here's a helpful list.
1. Buy a book! Books are available in all sorts of ways these days, as paper books or audiobooks or e-books: it's all one. Buy a book, read it, give it away. This is a time for gifts, and nothing's ever better than a book. (Why yes, I do have skin in this game - you might buy Bitter Waters, you might buy Being Small - but other books are also available. Consult your local dealer.)
2. Borrow a book! Go to the library. Readers are insidious, which is just another way to pronounce insiders, and once you join a library, you belong. You can borrow books, and better yet: you can request books, and the library will buy them for you. You can even request books that you have in fact already bought or read: f'rexample, books by writers that you friend or follow. That way another sale gets chalked up by the publisher and other people get the chance to read the book and everybody's happy. (Yup, still got skin here. Books in print, that I would love to see on library shelves, and it needn't cost you a dime. Did I mention Bitter Waters, did I mention Being Small?)
3. Review a book! Word of mouth is still and always the best way to spread news about a book you liked, and these days it's easier than ever to reach an ever-wider readership (I did myself coin the phrase "word of mouse", long since). And benefits accumulate: the more reviews a book can garner, the better chance it has of doing well. S'true. F'rexample, Amazon will automagically, algorithmically give more promotion to any book that has more than twenty customer reviews. Doesn't matter what they say, the simple number is what matters. So if you liked a book, go to Amazon and say so. (Yeah yeah, skin all over the place: I don't believe any of my books has ever achieved twenty reviews on Amazon. Some writers organise their friends to do this, or pay total strangers to do it, or you can even hire companies to orchestrate such efforts. I am not so much down with that - but if you liked Being Small, or Bitter Waters - or something else, of course, by me or someone else - it really truly never hurts to say so.)