For any of you out there wondering how you can support your author friends, I’ll post ideas here from time to time.
In addition to buying our books and bringing friends to our readings, there are some actions you can take now. If you are on Goodreads, for example, you can find my author page (N. West Moss) and you can “follow” me. You can also search in the search bar for “Flesh and Blood by N. West Moss” and click the “want to read” button. We’re up to something like 30 people who want to read the book when it comes out in October, and supposedly early interest helps the book come up in searches of people looking for the next book to read.
Other than that, my editor and I are now busily soliciting and collecting blurbs for the book. This is one of those steps you’ve probably never thought about, but it’s a big favor to ask of a busy author. If we say no, we feel bad, and if we say yes, it means that we’re committing to read an entire book and distill our thought about it to 1 or 2 lines. You can see where an author would have to say no to this a lot, since it can take a chunk of time to read a book, and we all have so much reading we have to do anyway. So it’s a generous gift when an author says yes. I’ve reached out to one author who had to pass, but three other authors have said yes, and we have those blurbs in hand already.
Next step? Well, we’re hoping on another yes or two from some authors, and we still have some copyediting to finish up. I hope that soon I’ll be able to share that cover with you. I haven’t even seen the final version, but the mock-up was so beautiful that it made me get a little misty.
In the meantime, keep me in mind for your book clubs come fall and winter.