Hey everybody! This how to is a follow up to my personal experience blog post a couple days ago. If you haven’t checked below you can find the link at the end of this post.
First you need to know a few places you can find your favorite author(s).
1. Your local bookstore
Bookstores are great places to find your favorite author because of all the books! In my personal experience, I met my favorite author at a local bookstore near me. All you have to do is go on the store website, go to events, make sure the events are for the correct store,and browse away at the events. You might not always be lucky but it’s worth a try!
2. Use http://www.findbooksignings.com (U.S. Only)
This is an amazing site that as far as I can tell is only for the United States. Sorry if you find this site great but live out of the U.S. I know a lot of my viewers and followers do so my apologies. This site is simple but helpful. It brings you to a map of the United States. All you have to do is click or double tap your state and a bunch of or in my state’s case, no search results. Sadly not very many states seem to be registered into this site but places like New York and California have many places. Once you find the search results, just look for your favorite author. If you’re lucky enough to find them, you might want to look at the bookstore location. He/she might not even be near you! Luckily you can also go and have results for only your city or a city near you.
Link: http://www.findbooksignings.com
3. Social Media!
Tons of people seem to have several social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter. So do your favorite authors! You most likely won’t find them on Vine or Instagram though but Facebook and Twitter is where they will be! All you have to do is search up the author’s name and make sure you find the real one. Then just start browsing through their page. It’s not guaranteed that you will find anything but most people tend to post their whereabouts online so maybe they do too!
4. Check online and in the newspaper
Just searching up the author’s name or the author’s name events could show you a beacon of hope. It might be helpful to put in your state if you don’t mind traveling a bit or your city and state to get more accurate and personalized results. In the newspaper (which many don’t read or even get anymore) there might be a literacy calendar that shows different book and literacy related events around your area.
5. Your Public Library!
Just like a bookstore! This could be a place an author might appear. Normally poets are more likely than normal authors but it’s still worth a try! If not then maybe another upcoming event might catch your eye!
Now that you know a few locations and resources you can use to find your author, you need to know how to act around them if you are lucky enough to meet. This is in Do and Don’t form.
1. Do be respectful of their space!
Your favorite author is a living breathing person too! They need their personal space even in public with lots of fans. Everyone gets a bit excited but nobody needs to bombard or crowd the author. That can definitely get you kicked out and you won’t even meet the person!
2. Don’t overstay your welcome!
Once you get to the front of the line after a couple to several hours, don’t overstay your welcome. This means that you probably shouldn’t start a long conversation, have a hundred things signed, or a hundred pictures taken. All the people behind you have been waiting a very long time and don’t want to have to wait any longer then they have to.
3. Do be patient in line.
If you aren’t a patient person, this probably isn’t for you. You might have to stand in line for several hours depending how many people found out and how popular the author. If you start to get impatient, just think about how exciting this experience is and how lucky you are to even be able to meet this author. I had to wait for at least an hour and a half to meet my favorite author and it was worth it!
4. Don’t cut in line
This one is pretty obvious but sometime we can get so anxious, excited, and nervous that we don’t think and before we know it, we’ve done something we can’t really undo. This can ruin other people’s experience too.
5. Do have fun and enjoy your self!
This is most likely unless you’re lucky, a once in a lifetime experience. No matter how long you have to wait, and how loud others can be, this experience will be amazing! Inviting a friend or two who share the some love of the author and their books can really speed up time and make things better. While you’re sharing gossip, jokes, or talking about just about what ever you feel like, time will go by and before you know it, it’s your turn!
I hope you can meet at least one of your favorite authors!
Thanks for reading and Stay tuned for new content!
Here’s the personal experience link: https://wordpress.com/post/94346788/77/
~Makayla the Bookworm
Source: buzzquotes.com
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