See this image above? Yeah, those are my Andrew Pyper shelves. And you know what? This photo is already outdated. I’m fast approaching 100 physical copies of Andrew’s work, and in this case – I’m blessed or fortunate that my favorite author happens to have had a significant amount of his work translated and published in foreign languages. This allows me to collect a dozen of a single release or more. I have two books in transit as I write this and only nine editions out there in the world that I haven’t found yet.
That’s great, you may say, but why are you posting this?
Well, let’s be frank – the world isn’t all that great lately. Bad news stacked on bad news. This has been a blog post I’ve been thinking about for a bit and with the culmination of more bad news and my desire to procrastinate on a pending story for an anthology invite – I figured this was the perfect time to devote a blog post to WHY WE NEED TO YELL AND SHOUT ABOUT OUR FAVORITE AUTHORS!
Let’s get straight to it.
Reason #1 – Everyone needs a cheerleader.
FACT.
Look, the reality is, once a book is released there’s nothing an author can do about the reception of that book. You can sit back and hope for great reviews to come rolling in, but it’s a struggle to not go to Goodreads or Amazon or wherever and see how the book is doing – and – inevitably, the time you break and go – you’ll discover a new 1 star review or a DNF telling you to stop pursuing your passion.
That’s where the fans come in. Rave about the book. If you read it and love it let the world know!!
Which leads into;
Reason #2 – It’ll help other readers discover their work.
I’ll admit (and you can ask my wife this) I consider Andrew to be a bonafide celebrity. Like, this is an author whose books are International Bestsellers, who has a publishing deal with a massive publishing house, who probably has the coolest ‘contact list’ on his phone. To me, Andrew is waaaaaayyy up there in my eyes and I’m not afraid to admit it. Saying that (and much to my ABSOLUTE shock – again ask the wife) some folks haven’t heard of Andrew. It happens. There’s a lot of books, a lot of authors and a lot of genres. And, depending on when the book launches, sometimes things can get missed.
Does it annoy you that I post all my Andrew stuff? Too bad is what I say. His work brings me so much joy – and it also allows others to discover his work. Literally, every single time I post any of his books, I’ll get a DM or an IG story reply that looks like this;
Or I’ll get a message asking which book they should start with! As a super fan – this makes me so happy! To have an interaction with someone about these amazing books is always a highlight. And to recommend a book to someone and see them read and enjoy it always makes me smile!
Reason #3 – FREE PROMO!
No matter how big or small of an author someone is, promoting your own work is a necessity and for 99% of us, it always feels icky. But – when someone else RAVES about your book, you can share that review, screenshot it and post it on your stories or personally thank them for taking the time to read your work. And all of that was FREE PROMO for the author. Every little bit helps – each comment, post, picture, review, like, share, IG/Tik Tok story etc etc has the potential to get a new set of eyeballs on your favorite authors work!
Some of us even go a bit more extreme and do month long celebrations of their work, create T-shirts, get ephemera made, do a year-long-monthly giveaway, interview them and make an online archive of their work… but that’s only some of us… lol!
(SEE!)
Reason #4 – Writing can feel very isolating.
It’s true. We often enter into this written world and stay in this singular world until it is done. Then you wrap it up in a pretty cover, format the interior and send it out into the real world, where you’re supposed to not be upset if someone rips it to shreds. It can be very taxing and you often feel like maybe what you’re doing won’t be liked by anybody.
And then… here comes a fan who raves about the book and gushes over it everywhere. And that right there can really lift a writer’s spirits. And that leads me to number 5…
Reason #5 – Authors are humans too!
As I alluded earlier, to me, my favorite author is a celebrity. This is someone I’ve had the fortune to get to know and develop a friendship over the last five years or so, and to this day I get giddy if I see I have a message from Andrew. But, he’s a regular guy, just like all of our fav authors are regular folks. And those regular folks have successes and failures and ups and downs and highs and lows and that’s when us fans can give them a boost.
No matter how successful you are as a writer, there are always those ‘what about me?’ moments. Look, I’m a massive cheerleader and supporter (I’ll discuss that more in a moment), but we all have those moments where someone announces a huge success and we think ‘why isn’t that me?‘ It can be and will be and we gotta work hard to achieve it. But, our fav authors also have those moments. Fans are there to continue to support them and give them a boost, even when us fans don’t realize they need them! Conversely, it can also be a bad review posted everywhere for all to see. The author takes that soul crushing hit but it’s only momentary because here comes SUPERFAN!
Reason #6 – Build people up/Support/Encourage.
Yeah, I know, lame ‘reason’ title, but I couldn’t think of anything else to describe it.
As I said at the top, the world is filled with crap and bad news. But we can make each day a little bit better for those around us. How? By building people up, supporting people and encouraging each other.
Take my Twitter profile as an example. I’ve someone approached having 5900 followers at the time of writing this (How? No clue, truly blows my mind. Also for some perspective – the town I grew up in had like 100 residents. Isn’t that insane? Now, 5900 are following me? Humbling) and not all of those followers follow the same other people. So, that gives me some reach and some scope. And that’s why I employ my build/support/encourage mentality. Somebody has a new book out? Like, retweet, comment etc. A book coming out that looks great? I pre-order those I want to read. I review. I encourage. My DM’s are open for any advice I can give.
But guess what? I employ that same strategy to both my fav author and to all the other people on my Twitter feed. And if that connects others and gets more eyeballs on peoples work – BINGO! Job done!
Reason #7 – Celebrate what brings you joy!
Look, we only have a finite amount of time on this planet and within that finite time we have even less time that we can devote to those hobbies that bring you joy. In my case – reading is one of my biggest loves. I read every night and it’s something I look forward to all day. So, remember, you’re allowed to love whatever author you want to love! If their work brings you joy and helps you get through some rough patches, celebrate it.
The great thing about Social Media, is that it has allowed us to connect in a way we couldn’t before. In the past, maybe I would’ve been able to mail a letter to Andrew and maybe he would’ve replied. Or somehow I managed to get an email in front of him and he might’ve replied and that would’ve been it – I would go about my life with that email/letter framed, sitting by his books (I actually have an email from Andrew framed FYI, lol!) on my shelves and I’d tell all my friends about how awesome his books are. But that’s changed and with Social Media, I get to share my love to the world and the world gets to discover his work. And that can be the same for you and your fav author.
Drawbacks – maybe a bit harsh to call it drawbacks, but calling it ‘negatives’ seemed even worse, ha! But, as with all Social Media, there will be some odd things that will occur when you celebrate your fav author all the time, and I figured I should at least put it out there so nobody is surprised.
People often dislike when others continuously post about something. I see it on the various platforms – for instance a friend of mine from my athlete days gets comments on his lifting videos saying ‘do you post anything else other than lifting.’ Why? He’s a competitive weight lifter. That’s what he loves and does all the time. Of course he’ll post it. My friend and fellow author Dave Jeffery gets frequent heat from his author posts when he celebrates other authors. Why? What does it take away from your life? Build people up, share and encourage and spread joy.
So, it should be no surprise, that I get a few messages a month where people suggest I kindly do obscene stuff to myself and suggest I post about other authors. For the record, I do post about others. All the time. So there. Take your obscene suggestions and obscene yourself.
One of the absolute highlights EVER was the day I got the notification on Twitter that Andrew Pyper was now following me. Like, I screenshot it and sent it to my wife and smiled for the rest of the day. It’s little things in life that can add up. So, if you see someone posting about an author all the time, don’t be annoyed, don’t be rude, because those books and that author have had an impact on that reader. As another example – I LOVE seeing my buddy George’s expanding Paul Tremblay wing. He’s been lucky enough to meet Paul a number of times and I know just how much George loves Paul’s work. Seeing that makes me smile and so very happy for my friend.
Us super fans, we’ll get teased, have memes made about our fandom, and be compared to a certain Stephen King book about a certain character. And that’s fine. I don’t mind any of that. It’s the rudeness that you’ll get that you need to block out and push aside while you continue to share your love of their work!
In closing;
Thank God, right?
Finally, I’m at the end and I’ll shut up about why you should rave about your favorite author?
Kind of.
Let’s recap – in summary – you should ALWAYS rave about books you love, share why people should read your fav author, tag them in your great posts (this will help others see them as well) and, don’t care what others think.
If you shout your love about one book, and someone buys that book, then shouts about that book and someone buys that book… well you get the idea.
The world is complicated, depressing and a tough place to exist in. Why not share some positivity and spread some joy, especially about books that make you happy!
Now, if you’ve read this far (and sorry for some rambling), I hope you’ll take some time to share why you love your fav author. Shout it on your platforms – FB, IG, Twitter, Tik Tok, wherever – share the joy and love of their work! And tell me! Tell me what I should read and why you love them!
Lastly – a meme;
And a recommendation;
My first Andrew Pyper book was The Demonologist. If you’ve not read it before, I highly recommend you give it a go;
The Andrew Pyper Archives Link;
AMAZON US LINK:
AMAZON CAN LINK:
AMAZON UK LINK: