Authors online

Letters from the fans

Many fans from all over the world admire the authors of their favourite books so much, that they want to contact them and share their appreciation. However, this is not the only reason. Some of the fans want to just express their opinions about their favourite books, ask questions or simply find out more about the ordinary life of the writers.

In the past, this was more difficult, as the only possibility was basically the ability to write a letter and then wait, if the author will have enough time or will to reply. Some writers, for example L. Frank Baum (author of the children series The Wizard of Oz) were kind enough to care about their fans, listen to their feedback and even reply to them. Baum appreciated this very much, often including an extra introduction in his books thanking children for their letters and answering their frequently asked questions.

Authors heading online

Nowadays, digital media made the communication between the authors and fans a lot easier. Probably the most preferable tool for this is Twitter, where you can find many celebrities sharing information about their lives with their fans. It enables ordinary people to write something on their profile page and then simply wait for an answer. Some of the authors not only write about their everyday life, but include some additional information about the books they written or about the ones that are just in the process of writing. How cool is that? Don’t you feel that it brings you closer to the writers and in some way connects you with them?

Examples

Well, let’s use some of the examples to illustrate how authors can communicate with their fans.

Veronica Roth, author of famous “Divergent” series:

In London! Excited to go to the UK premiere of Divergent tomorrow. See you there!
— Veronica Roth (@VeronicaRoth) March 29, 2014

George R.R. Martin, author of the "Game of Thrones" posts mainly jokes about his books on his Twitter account:

The pen is mightier than the sword pic.twitter.com/85NazaWcgv
— George RR Martin (@GeorgeRRMartin_) April 23, 2014

J.K. Rowling, author of the "Harry Potter" series:

As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year. Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 24, 2012

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