Authors Helping Authors

In today's guest post, regular contributor Denise Neary shares a really cool author helping author story she came across. I hope I would be willing to go out of my way for someone like Jennifer Weiner does in this story no matter how successful I became. Not everyone would. But of course, that's what makes this story so special.

I love reading Jennifer Weiner’s funny, smart, and insightful blog, A Moment of Jen and was intrigued by this comment on the site in early March:

"If I’ve got one regret about my career, it’s that I’ll never get to be a debut novelist again, never feel the excitement and the terror that goes with it being your first time out of the gate, when you’ve got no audience, no track record, nothing but hope, and a willingness to do whatever you can to get your book into readers’ hands."

Weiner urged her readers to help spike the sale of Sarah Pekkanen’s debut novel, THE OPPOSITE OF ME. And, thanks to the considerable forces that are Weiner and Pekkanen, the book was a bestseller before it was officially published.

How did that happen?

Serendipity, talent, hard-work and generosity all around.

Writers Weiner and Pekkanen share an editor, Greer Hendricks, but don’t know each other. Pekkanen was weepy when Hendricks told her that Weiner liked the advance copy THE OPPOSITE OF ME.

Pekkanen, working hard to promote her new book, created a contest, “Sarah Spike Day” on her website to encourage people to order the book on a certain day. She announced some great prizes (As an aside, when did authors turn into human public relations machines?)

Weiner heard about the contest, and upped the ante. Weiner offered to send a signed copy of one of her books to each person who pre-ordered the book on March 3. At first, Pekkanen wrongly assumed that Weiner was generously offering to give away one copy of each of her seven best-sellers. Wrong. One copy per order. Weiner gave away hundreds of her books---all to help a new writer start off on the right foot, to share her readers with another audience, and to take delight in helping a new writer succeed.

A great book started its life as a best seller. A debut author had the moment of a lifetime. And a generous experienced author had the thrill (and the significant associated postal duties) of helping make that all happen.

It is goodness with a capital G.

-- Denise Neary, Regular Contributor