DAY 2 ARMCHAIR BEA: AUTHOR INTERACTIONS...

There are many levels of AUTHOR INTERACTION across the social media. I am going to start shallow and go deep.

My first casual AUTHOR INTERACTIONS (other than real life friends) began on Goodreads. I only joined a little over a year ago, and consider all of the author interactions it has sparked ridiculously amazing in that short of a time space. Being able to become Goodreads "friends" with your favorite authors is a stepping stone. I remember feeling giddy the first time one of them commented on a book recomendation I had given. This is also where I first started interacting with the sweetheart of all authors, A.G. Howard, but she is a bird of a different feather and I will be talking about her later on. I did, however, meet her on the Splintered books fanclub boards, which we have nicknamed the Splintered Clubhouse because A.G. actually comes there and hangs out with us. I belong to more than one Goodreads fan group and even with coaxing, via email and Facebook, we haven't been able to get the associated authors to drop by even once.

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Next up on my stalker AUTHOR INTERACTION list is Facebook. I was already on Facebook, so once I became comfortable interacting with A.G. Howard on Goodreads, I checked out her author page, and a few others. The setting is a little more intimate, and many authors who don't interact much on Goodreads are pretty chatty here. A few authors even sent me friend requests from their personal accounts after I commented regularly on their author/book pages. The author I have found most chatty on Facebook is Lauren DeStefano. These Facebook pages are where I found out how wildly popular Twitter is with authors and those who obsess about love them.

So... in my opinion, Twitter is the best place for AUTHOR INTERACTION.

Okay.

As I explained in my introduction post I am one of the older bloggers, so I resisted Twitterdom for quite awhile, but all of of my fave and fab authors (and fellow bloggers) were on there, so I caved. I wish I hadn't waited so long because I would have found out about BEA in time enough to save money to go. 

There are many layers to AUTHOR INTERACTION on Twitter. 

I get to chat with authors whom I know about through other bloggers, but haven't read their books. Bookish conversations with authors in general are a lot of fun. Then there are the authors whom you follow, but don't follow you. Usually once you have been involved in enough conversations with an author you will get a follow back, but then there are the exceptions. Some authors only follow @$s k!$s€®s, which I am not, so I never get those follows. Infact, one author will barely even acknowledge your presence, even if you are the only person on and commenting on their post, unless you are one of her minions. Being able to DM (direct message) an author after they follow back is great if you have a weird question to ask them after reading an interview, or if you feel comfortable enough to ask their advice on interacting with other authors.

Around 12 authors follow me, well, authors you might know of that is. And I calculate there are about seven I interact with who know me by name, but do not follow, and about ten random authors I regularly comment with through other bloggers.

A regular bookish day on Twitter looks like this...

But when Bethany Crandall, author of Summer on the Short Bus, and A.G. Howard writer of the Splintered trilogy arrive...

...it turns into this...

Yes, they do talk about their books, but other things as well, and sometimes it gets a little crazy!! 

Now for some reflection...

A.G. Howard was my first non real life connection to an author. She is the reason I am an accidental blogger, she is the reason I started my Twitter account, she was the second person to follow that new account. I have asked her countless questions about my blog (we both are on Blogspot.com), and I have asked her a gazillion questions about interacting with other authors. She even helped me decide on questions for my blog's first author interview.

Bloggers have seen me post this over and over; she talks to us, not at us, and talks about things other than her books. She never makes us feel dumb, awkward, annoying, or silly. We truly do love her. There was an interview posted a couple of days ago that I really felt captured her as a person. You can read it HERE.

Oh, and this is Tumblr...