There are a lot of different kinds of readers...Wait...What? A reader is a reader...right?
Um. No. And yes. A reader *hopefully* reads our books, so yes. But what authors REALLY need from a reader totally depends upon what kind of reader that person is, so no. Lemme explain.
Readers come to authors in a variety of ways: they know us IRL (in real life), family or friends of ours, word of mouth from another reader...and so on. Each kind of reader is a HUGE win for us--we WANT readers, LOTS of readers, ANY KIND of reader--really, we are not above begging.
The thing is--we kinda have expectations of readers and quite often are reluctant to spell that out, ask, specify, beg for what we need, because *Heaven Forbid* we ask the Wrong reader to do something and inadvertently release the hellspawn trolls. We are already intimidated by the sheer fact that we have released our baby to the world and we WANT you to just LOVE it as much as we do--just hitting UPLOAD takes the kind of guts most people don't have. We work hard. Long hours. Unpaid. Spend our own money for editing, an awesome cover, promo...and all we want is...
See this is where the problem is. Authors, by far, are an incredibly introverted group who don't like going "out there"--just above the gamers still living in mom and dad's basement. We don't like the limelight, but know we have no choice but to pimp ourselves 24/7, we have anxiety attacks at every not so nice word and one star review--even though we are told NOT to read them, we do suffer for our art as truly and deeply as any artist out there. Yet, even though we EXCEL at words, we really kinda suck at knowing how to ask the right question to the right people.
So, dear, lovely, we-can't-do-this-without-you READERS, this is a grouping of the kinds of readers most authors have--or would love to have--or desperately need to have--along with EXACTLY what we NEED you to do for us. And, truly, this isn't just "Julie the Author" stating this, we authors talk to each other, give ideas, support, shoulders to cry on...without fail we ALL need these kinds of reader to do these things for us.
*a caveat...I'm sure I've forgotten things, so feel free to weigh in*
Um. No. And yes. A reader *hopefully* reads our books, so yes. But what authors REALLY need from a reader totally depends upon what kind of reader that person is, so no. Lemme explain.
Readers come to authors in a variety of ways: they know us IRL (in real life), family or friends of ours, word of mouth from another reader...and so on. Each kind of reader is a HUGE win for us--we WANT readers, LOTS of readers, ANY KIND of reader--really, we are not above begging.
The thing is--we kinda have expectations of readers and quite often are reluctant to spell that out, ask, specify, beg for what we need, because *Heaven Forbid* we ask the Wrong reader to do something and inadvertently release the hellspawn trolls. We are already intimidated by the sheer fact that we have released our baby to the world and we WANT you to just LOVE it as much as we do--just hitting UPLOAD takes the kind of guts most people don't have. We work hard. Long hours. Unpaid. Spend our own money for editing, an awesome cover, promo...and all we want is...
See this is where the problem is. Authors, by far, are an incredibly introverted group who don't like going "out there"--just above the gamers still living in mom and dad's basement. We don't like the limelight, but know we have no choice but to pimp ourselves 24/7, we have anxiety attacks at every not so nice word and one star review--even though we are told NOT to read them, we do suffer for our art as truly and deeply as any artist out there. Yet, even though we EXCEL at words, we really kinda suck at knowing how to ask the right question to the right people.
So, dear, lovely, we-can't-do-this-without-you READERS, this is a grouping of the kinds of readers most authors have--or would love to have--or desperately need to have--along with EXACTLY what we NEED you to do for us. And, truly, this isn't just "Julie the Author" stating this, we authors talk to each other, give ideas, support, shoulders to cry on...without fail we ALL need these kinds of reader to do these things for us.
*a caveat...I'm sure I've forgotten things, so feel free to weigh in*