Authors! Answer Your Email!!

Dear Literary Loves,
I don't know if you've had this particular pet peeve of mine, but lately, I have been reading quite a lot of memoirs and commercial fiction and subsequently writing the authors of said books only to receive no response!  Is this not rude or what?!  I mean, honestly, if readers didn't buy your books for God's sake, then you wouldn't have a livelihood, Comprende?!!!  Here are my reasons why authors should answer their author email or fan email whatever the case may be:

1)  It's Not That Difficult!  Folks, I don't care if you have a 1,000 email backlog!  Just take ten emails a day and work your way through them.  It takes maybe thirty minutes out of your day.  If you can't carve out thirty minutes to answer email then honestly, I'm just appalled!

2)  Readers Enable You To Earn A Living For Crying Out Loud!  Show some respect and drop a line or two via the great world wide web and make someone's day.  And also ensure they think highly of you and are more likely to buy your next book!  Do I sound like a professor yet?!  Oh, that's right!  I am a teacher so I have a right to go on a rant!

3)  Wake Up!  It's Flattering!  Can you imagine that some person in this country or some other part of the world actually connected with your writing and your story?  I mean, really, that's quite a feat when you think about it.  At the minimum at least send a thank you email.

4)  Make Connections!  Honestly, if you don't answer your author email, how in the world do you expect to develop your fan base?  If you don't answer an email you might be seriously offending someone important so get with the program!  Wise up and jot a note, then hit send; it's quite simple.

5)  Add To Your LinkedIn Connections!   This is a fabulous way to build up that 1,248 connections on LinkedIn so people realize that you actually are well-connected to a wide variety of people and not just those in publishing. 

6)  Discover What Your Fan Base Would Like You To Write About!  Seriously, if you are an author and you have a Web site and a contact page people will write you and make suggestions for what they would like to see in your future writing.  It's a wealth of book material ideas just waiting to be discovered.  Better yet, you could base a character in your next book on someone you meet via your author contact page.  Who knows!  The possibilities are endless!

7)  It's Just Good PR People!  These folks are your target audience.  If you don't sincerely mean for your fan base to contact you, then do not supply your Web site information on the back of a book flap.  And don't put a contact page on your author Web site if you never intend to get back to folks that write you.  It's just bad form and taste.

8)  Create An Email Directory From Your Contact List!  Here's the beauty of having a contact page as a writer/author:  you can build a contact/email directory of folks who would like to be informed early on about your next work in progress.  These are your fans, don't disappoint them!

And For Those Authors Who I Have Written And You Never Bothered To Respond:

Guess what?  If I bought your book, read it, and took the time to write you I surely do expect a response!   I don't care if it does take you a month.  Those writers/authors who do not respond to my email should know that after a reasonable amount of time waiting for a response, I promptly place your book in a recycling bin or take it to a resale book store.  And guess what?  I don't buy any more books from you.  Comprende?!

Now Get Crackin' On That List Of Return Emails You Need To Make!
Sincerely,
Grace