Thank Yous

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine

A few days ago, I was thumbing through a book of quotes and came across this one. It immediately struck me how important the quote was.

I decided to include this quote in my post today. “When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author” by Sherman Alexie. He is a poet, an author, screenwriter and filmmaker.

It occurred to me that instead of notes, we go to Amazon and do a review for the author. This, in itself, is wonderful. We need to do this for the author – it lets the author as well as people searching for books to read know this is a book worth reading. (That is, if you left a good review.) If you don’t do this, please consider starting. Remember, they work to bring these books into the world for your enjoyment.

When I read the quote above I thought with email, this should be a piece of cake. Authors have websites with contact information. So a short email telling them we enjoyed their book would be so appreciated by the author. But if I take it a step further, I could also tell them what I liked the most. It is such a small thing to do that would mean so much to the author. Most people don’t have access to an author’s snail mail address but they can send an email.

So next time you read a book that you enjoy, go to your computer, and send the author a note telling them how much you enjoyed their book. “Make their day.”