Compliments to the Writer! (Part 1)

This is part 1 of a two-part series discussing complimenting authors of books that you like.

I used to think that published authors were these mysterious, god-like people who were just amazing, and, of course, they knew it.  Because they were published authors and all.  I knew that most of them weren’t rolling in the dough like Stephen King or anything (which I’m sure is what I thought when I was a kid), but I thought that they all knew how magnificent their works were.  If not, they wouldn’t have gotten published, right?

I thought that sending them a compliment to tell them how I loved their book would be rude.  I mean, I’m a nobody.  Why would these wonderful authors want their day interrupted by some nobody telling them about how they liked their book?

I’ve recently come to the realization that most authors are more like me.  With the main difference being… they’re published.  But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have similar thoughts as me.

Following a few authors on Twitter, I’ve seen that some of them have doubts about their abilities.  Many are trying to get publicity so they can sell books and make a living.  Incredibly, I noticed, a rare few have fewer Twitter followers than I do (in fact, one author that I’m publishing a review on later this month does… and I loved her book).

A couple of days ago, one author tweeted that compliments can make an author’s day, especially when they were in a writing slump.

I realized that that was the truth.  Sending a compliment to a writer can make their day.  It can even get them writing again.  I know that from personal experience.  Seeing that tweet made me realize that I need to compliment more authors.  If I like their work, I need to tell them.

A few comments this year have truly stood out to me and have made me want to write more.

Back in 2016, my husband had to go to the hospital for the night.  I had just finished reading the Legend series for the second time, and I thought to myself “wouldn’t it be nice if someone wrote a short story where Day and June actually ended up together?  I could throw something like that together this evening while dh is not here.”

That’s just not possible.  I did start the story though, and 14 chapters and 85 pages later, the story was still unfinished.  But I had to move into my new house.  I published the 14 chapters of Like Normal People, the resulting story, so other people could read it.  In the process of moving (I also was intimidated because I had to write about mountain climbing and had no clue how to do it), I forgot about the story.  For two years.

On February 3rd, I got this note:

I have just seen this now and it is amazing ughhhhh I hope u go on and update this sometime in the near future

Wow!

I had already started to write again.  I was working on Saving Adelinetta (still an unfinished project).  That nice note got me thinking about Like Normal People again.  Although it’s still unfinished, I have made progress on the story now.  All from one nice compliment.

In May, I had the idea for another Legend fanfic.  The idea just came to me one day, and I had to write Republican Phenoms.  It only took two weeks to write this little novella, and another two weeks to revise and publish it.  The only thing was, I was a little nervous about it.  I had gone beyond my comfort zone with a couple of the scenes.  The book had practically written itself; I was just writing down what the characters were doing in my head, and they did a couple of things that I might not have chosen for them.  I didn’t know how people would react to it.  Then I got a nice compliment on this story after I had published it.

It’ll be interesting to see the dynamic between June and Day since Day’s the first to get the perfect score and revelled in its benefits in contrast to how it happens in canon. Great June POV btw! 😀

He left a couple of other nice comments in my fic.  The comments were so thoughtful that it just made me happy all day.  He stopped commenting before the parts that I was nervous about though, so I was still wondering whether I completely screwed up the fic at the end (he did give me kudos on the story though).

Earlier this week, I got this comment on Republican Phenoms:

*pterodactyl screech* OHMYGOD I’M SO HAPPY SOMEONE WROTE AN AU LIKE THIS IT’S SO AMAZING I’M CRYING AAAAAAAA. June’s such a cutie, her transition from no-I-definitely-don’t-like-him to okay-so-maybe-I-was-wrong is so well done and cute, and Daniel is just – a cutie but also an asshole??? But also really sweet? Goddamn it I want to hug those two so badlyyyyy. This is so amazing thank you so much for writing it TT-TT!!!

I don’t think I’ve ever made someone so happy from a story I wrote.  How could you not be happy after someone writes a note like that to you?

So, rather than feeling like this nobody who shouldn’t dare interrupt a writer’s day by telling them how great their work was, I’ve decided that when I read a book that I love, that I need to send a quick tweet to the writer to tell them how much I liked their story.  I might still be a nobody, but if nice comments can make my day, then rather than being annoyances, nice comments might make some other author’s day as well.

In part 2, which I hope to publish next week, I’ll be talking about more popular authors with fandoms.  Is it creepy to really like an author’s work?  Do authors think you’re creepy if you dream about the characters they create?  I actually don’t know the answers, but I’ll be discussing fandoms next week.