Five Ways to Contact Your Favorite Author – Guest Post by John W. Howell…

Since I have been asked a number of times by readers how to contact authors, I thought it would be good to provide a little reminder information about what you can do if you enjoy a book or author’s work and you want to get to know that author better.

We all have the times when a book or series of books talk to us as if the author wrote the text for us alone. I remember reading the short stories of John Cheever many years ago. It was almost as if John had entered my life and was telling tales about me as a person. As a result, I wanted to make contact with him but had no idea how. In those days, most authors used their publisher as a shield from their readers. You could pen a note and hope it somehow got through. I did compose a letter and received back a very gracious thank you from John Cheever. I was lucky then.

Today life is a little different. Most authors welcome feedback from their readers and most make it quite easy for readers to reach them. So, let me list a few ways that you can contact a favorite author if you desire to do so.

1. Write a review of the book using your real name and e-mail address. I cannot guarantee that every author will respond to every review, but I know that I respond to reviews wth a thank you if I have a way to do so. I know many of my colleagues do as well.

2. Look in the back of the book for an e-mail address or other contact information. Many authors today place an e-mail address in their book which encourages their readers to communicate with them. Most have blogs as well, which is a good place to have a dialog.

3. Look up the publisher address and send a note to the author in care of the editor. Publishers usually pass on such correspondence to their authors.

4. If a favorite author is having a public appearance or book signing, make a point to go. You can bring a book that you have already purchased, and most authors are happy to sign. You can then make a connection with the author.

5. If you are receiving a newsletter from an author, you can correspond with the author and most are very grateful to have the e-mail dialog. If you are not getting a newsletter go to the author blog and sign up. Most have easy sign-up methods.

If you want to reach your favorite author, I hope these five suggestions are of help.

My thanks, to Chris for publishing this message.

John Howell