{"id":8576,"date":"2017-03-30T19:01:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T23:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=8576"},"modified":"2017-03-30T19:01:51","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T23:01:51","slug":"the-writers-block-so-youre-about-to-meet-an-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=8576","title":{"rendered":"The Writer&#8217;s Block: So You&#8217;re About to Meet an Author"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I do a lot of events. Conventions, fairs, craft shows . . . you never know when my smiling face is going to pop up from behind a table. (Next Saturday, you&#8217;ll find me at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newenglandsupermegafest.com\" target=\"_blank\">SuperMegaFest<\/a>\u00a0with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.robwattsonline.com\" target=\"_blank\">Rob Watts<\/a>: stop on by!) Over the years, I\u2019ve found that some fans are wonderful, and some of them are maybe not so much. Want to know the \u201cdos and don\u2019ts\u201d for meeting an author? Here they are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO<\/strong> feel free to talk about your favorite books. Writers love to read. Some of my favorite conversations have started with \u201cSo, what are you reading right now?\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T <\/strong>feel free to trash famous authors on the sole premise that they\u2019re successful. If you don\u2019t like James Patterson\u2019s writing, that\u2019s fine, and a valid opinion (though I\u2019d encourage you to read <em>Kiss the Girls<\/em>). If you don\u2019t like James Patterson because he\u2019s one of the world&#8217;s best-selling authors yet hires writing partners because he really doesn\u2019t need to work hard anymore, okay, you don\u2019t like James Patterson, the man. But please don\u2019t go off on a diatribe about how Patterson\u2019s writing sucks because he hires writing partners. Learn to hate correctly, I always say.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DO <\/strong>tell an author that you liked their book. That\u2019s always wonderful to hear. I also encourage you to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T <\/strong>tell an author that you like their boobs. That\u2019s inappropriate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DO <\/strong>feel free to ask for a signature, a hug, or a photo with your favorite author. That\u2019s quite flattering, and many of us are happy to do it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T <\/strong>go in for a hug:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>without asking;<\/li>\n<li>when you\u2019re sweating like a runner wearing a parka who just did the Boston Marathon in August while carrying\u00a0a rotting whale carcass;<\/li>\n<li>and do the reach-around to cop a feel.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DO <\/strong>ask the author what their book is about and the intended audience. If you\u2019re looking for a book for your pre-teen, I don\u2019t want to sell you a copy of <em>Ordinary Boy<\/em>. You\u2019ll be angry that the content is too old for them and inappropriate, and I\u2019ll lose a potential returning reader. But beware: there <em>are<\/em> some unscrupulous writers out there who will lie to you just to get the sale. If they\u2019re coming across as a snake-oil salesman, don\u2019t trust them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T <\/strong>tell an author what they should\u2019ve written or done with the plot\/characters instead. A lot of blood, sweat, tears, editing, and revisions happened before you read the final book. Telling us how you would\u2019ve done it instead is insulting and demoralizing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DO <\/strong>stop and chat for a few minutes . . . if there isn\u2019t a line. My favorite things to talk about are writing, editing, and reading. I have a few (okay, two) close friends that I originally met when they stopped to talk at an event.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DON\u2019T <\/strong>ask for a phone number, home address, or what our blood type is\u00a0when you meet us.\u00a0Too personal, folks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There you have it. Feel free to print out this list and carry it around with you so you\u2019ll be fully prepared for your next author encounter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=8576\" data-text=\"The Writer&#039;s Block: So You&#039;re About to Meet an Author\"  >Tweet<\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><div class=\"fb-share-button\" data-href=\"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=8576\" data-layout=\"button_count\"><\/div><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><div class=\"pinterest_button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscifisaturdaynight.com%2F%3Fp%3D8576&#038;media=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fc62e115c659dd638d7f01147d4e0d92b%3Fs%3D96%26d%3Dmm%26r%3Dpg&#038;description=The%20Writer%27s%20Block%3A%20So%20You%27re%20About%20to%20Meet%20an%20Author\" data-pin-do=\"buttonPin\" data-pin-config=\"beside\"><img src=\"\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/images\/pidgets\/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I do a lot of events. Conventions, fairs, craft shows . . . you never know when my smiling face is going to pop up from behind a table. (Next Saturday, you&#8217;ll find me at SuperMegaFest\u00a0with Rob Watts: stop on by!) Over the years, I\u2019ve found that some fans are wonderful, and some of them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=8576\" data-text=\"The Writer&#039;s Block: So You&#039;re About to Meet an Author\"  >Tweet<\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><div class=\"fb-share-button\" data-href=\"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=8576\" data-layout=\"button_count\"><\/div><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><div class=\"pinterest_button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscifisaturdaynight.com%2F%3Fp%3D8576&#038;media=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fc62e115c659dd638d7f01147d4e0d92b%3Fs%3D96%26d%3Dmm%26r%3Dpg&#038;description=The%20Writer%27s%20Block%3A%20So%20You%27re%20About%20to%20Meet%20an%20Author\" data-pin-do=\"buttonPin\" data-pin-config=\"beside\"><img src=\"\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/images\/pidgets\/pinit_fg_en_rect_gray_20.png\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":3344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[10,283,37],"tags":[732,188,933,920],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8576"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8579,"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8576\/revisions\/8579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}