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With my book's official release days away, there's a lot to think about. It's a terrible year for books. More so for any debut that's not a novel or a political tell-all. I'm grateful for all the support so far. And, if you agree with Tillie Olsen here, please read on. 1/n
A few ways to help that will only take a few minutes of your time.
1) Share, Share, Share. If you like a book, please share the author's interviews, reviews, essays, etc. More important with writers of color and emerging/debut writers who don't get much attention at all.
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1) Share, Share, Share. If you like a book, please share the author's interviews, reviews, essays, etc. More important with writers of color and emerging/debut writers who don't get much attention at all.
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2) Attend virtual book events. The one silver lining in this annus horribilis is that we can now enjoy author events from the comfort of our homes and at no cost. Please join these whenever you can. (mine are here: https://jennybhattwriter.com/events .)
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3) Leave ratings/reviews on Amazon+Goodreads. I'm all for supporting independent bookstores. They've done more for writers than Amazon ever will. But the sad truth is that reviews+ratings at these sites please the algorithm gods. I won't lie and say they don't matter.
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4) Recommend or request books by your favorite debut/emerging writers and writers of color at your local libraries. Almost all these places have a form on their websites where you can do this. This isn't for the money but it certainly helps other people discover these books.
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5) Suggest writers for speaking opportunities at your kids’ schools, music academies, local supermarkets, bookstores, libraries, places of worship, workplaces, etc. Some writers list their speaking topics on their websites. (mine: https://jennybhattwriter.com/speaking/ )
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6) Recommend debut/emerging writers' books for your book clubs. If you're not in one, join or start one. Plenty of ways to do this online now. Some writers have free book club guides. (you can get mine here along with certain book club discounts: https://bit.ly/eoukbookclub .)
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7) Write book reviews to share on your personal blog or submit to other sites/magazines. This will take more than the aforementioned "few minutes." But, if you're so inclined, this is hugely helpful for debut/emerging writers.
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To sum up: sharing, linking, suggesting, recommending, reviewing, rating, attending -> all ways to help writers without too much effort or cost. Beyond helping individual writers, this is also how we elevate and preserve our literary traditions.
Thank you for reading.
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Thank you for reading.
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