publicity

How To Support An Author You Like

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Things That Cost Money:

  • Buy the author’s books.
  • Buy ALL the author’s books.
  • By the author’s related merchandise
  • Buy the author’s books and give them as gifts.
  • Buy the author’s books and donate them to libraries.
  • Support the author’s Patreon, Kofi, etc.

Reviews:

  • Review the author’s book on publishing sites
  • Review the author’s book on goodreads.
  • Blog a review on your blog/tumblr/etc.
  • Give a book review on Twitter.
  • Give a book review on Facebook.
  • Give a book review on Tumblr.

Conventions:

  • Suggest the author speak at a convention.
  • If you host a panel at a convention, ask the author to be a guest.
  • If the author can’t attend, put out flyers for their book at a convention.
  • Have a dealer or artist’s table? Carry the author’s book as well!

Promotions:

  • Put out flyers for the author at libraries, bookstores, etc.
  • Mention the author in your own newsletter.
  • If the author has a sale, let people know.
  • If the author does a promotion, ask how you can help.
  • Give the author’s stuff away as part of your own promotions (“Get this book, get a free copy of this other one”).
  • Start a promotion with the author at www.prolificworks.com

Bookstores:

  • See if a local bookstore will carry the author’s book
  • See if a local bookstore will invite the author to speak.
  • Put out flyers at these bookstores.

Book Clubs:

  • Suggest the author’s book or books for your book club.
  • Have the author speak at your book club.

Blogs:

  • Ask to cross-blog with the author.
  • Help the author blog on other pages.
  • Do a blog tour with the author.

Podcasts:

  • Suggest the author to podcasts you follow.
  • Invite the author to your own podcast.

Social Media:

  • Follow the author on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
  • Promote the author on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
  • Join the author’s newsletter to keep up on them.
  • Get OTHER people to join the author’s newsletter.
  • If the author has a LinkedIn page and “Author” as a job, give them a rec!
  • Invite the author to your slack/discord.

Art:

  • Do fanart of the author’s work if you’re into it – author’s love feedback.
  • Offer your services (at a price, of course) to the author.

Support:

  • Be a beta reader (and hey, free book)
  • Help A/B test book covers.
  • Refer artists and editors and the like to the author.
  • Refer the author’s editors and artists to other people.

Services (that you SHOULD charge for, of course, but maybe at a discount)

Offer to do cover art for a book.

  • Offer to edit.
  • Offer to translate.

Collaborate:

  • Do a multi-author work with the author (and others).
  • Refer any multi-author works, zines, etc. to an author.

Steven Savage

The Personal Is Always Important

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So Rob showed me RWBY, a CGI animated series that fuses video game and anime styles. It’s by Monty Oum, and thus has quite a pedigree. I found it enjoyable if needing fleshing out, and did enjoy the use of game stylings a great deal – there’s a very definite Suda 51 vibe that appeals to me.

But what was weird in watching this fan production by a fan favorite is that I found my reactions were odd. How was I to judge it considering its pedigree? Considering it’s audience-friendly involvements and previews? Considering it wasn’t from a big company?

It reminded me when I saw Pacific Rim, which is a giant love letter to mecha films (both military and super). I mean I knew I liked the idea of it, I like what I saw, but my reactions felt strange. On one level it was totally targeted at . . . well me. On the other I wanted to judge it as I would any film.

Then I thought about Rogue Legacy, which I noted “spoke” my language. It was also a personal experience, and one that made judging the game different because that was the very goal.

I was not judging these things based on artistic merits entirely. I was evaluating them in a series of contexts like who did them, focus on the audience. It was very personal. Oh sure there were merits I could note, but in many cases they came down to merits that existed in a personal/social context.

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Behind The Scenes And Loving It

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So at the start of June I finished editing Serdar‘s next book, Flight of the Vajra.

Now you’ve heard him talk about it here, so you may be curious. All I can say is, yes, actually, it’s really good and will be well worth your time. I won’t go into much detail as it’s A) his book, and B) I want to discuss about how it relates to your career because that’s what I do here.

I’m a big, big advocate of using hobbies in jobs as you’ve kind of guessed by the fact i’ve been at this blog for five years. One of the things we miss though is that some of our hobbyist/amateur skills are relevant, but not spectacular.

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